Chapter 63: Garlic Lobster

After leaving the Western-style building, the group walked to the left.

It is said that the left side is also the workshop production area, and several warehouses are also here.

The buildings here are relatively inferior to the Western-style buildings. It’s hard to tell without going inside, but from the outside, the walls are covered with a layer of dust, and some places have even peeled off, revealing the steel bars and concrete inside.

At this moment, someone said, “The bullet marks are still there after so many years! I originally thought that the ivy^[1]is a common name for plants in the genus Hedera, which are climbing or trailing evergreen vines covered it, but now that the ivy has been cleared, I can see the bullet marks. Why haven’t you used cement to fill them up?”

“What are we mending? We just need to leave the bullet holes. This is called knowing shame and then being brave. We must always remember that if we fall behind, we will be beaten!” said the person walking in front. She seemed to be the deputy director of a chemical plant.

Wen Jiajia was immediately filled with awe. Looking at the “scars” on the wall, she no longer felt that it was shabby. Instead, she felt that it had a sense of historical weight.

When Wen Jiajia entered, she found the place enormous.

All walls except the load-bearing walls had been demolished to form a large, spacious room.

Some office supplies had already been brought in, and Wen Jiajia saw quite a few tables and cabinets.

Lin Yunfei whispered to her, “You know, this is the main production area. The production equipment will be delivered tomorrow. It is said that it will take up two full train cars. And this is only part of it!”

Wen Jiajia was surprised. “Is there anyone coming to install it?”

“Of course! We can’t even screw in a screw. Without the workers to install it, this equipment would just be a lump of metal taking up space,” Lin Yunfei sighed.

Wen Jiajia nodded. What Lin Yunfei said was not an exaggeration.

Most people can’t even turn a screw!

The industrial system was established in 1957. The model for learning was the Soviet Union, and even how to tighten screws was learned from them.

During the honeymoon period between the two countries in the 1950s, the Soviet Union came to teach our workers how to read blueprints and how to install parts according to the blueprints. They even taught them how to tighten screws step by step, down to the level of how many turns to tighten.

When the Soviets taught people to twist it three times, everyone learned to twist it three times. When the Soviets taught people to twist it three times and then return half a turn, everyone followed suit and twisted it three times and then returned half a turn.

So how do you tighten the screws? Many people don’t dare to tighten them, even experienced masters. After all, who knows how many turns to tighten them or whether to return them half a turn.

After looking at the factory area on the left side of the Western-style building, the group went to look at the right side.

The right side is basically the logistics area, where the canteen, warehouse, and other places are located.

Looking at the whole place, what can I say… The area is indeed small enough, not even one-tenth the size of a pharmaceutical factory.

After the tour, the group left again.

After returning to the pharmaceutical factory, Director Xue showed her the purchase report of the medical glass factory: “I got this from my friend. After reading it, you will know what the medical glass factory will mainly produce in the future. I hope it will be of some help to you.”

Wen Jiajia took it and went back to the office to open it and read it.

Needless to say, the glass melting furnace is one of the main pieces of equipment. Without it, the new factory cannot be opened.

When she looked down, she actually saw an oxygen concentrator production line. This was the first oxygen concentrator manufacturer in the province. Wen Jiajia vaguely remembered that the oxygen concentrator in the military hospital was produced in the neighboring province.

Since they are already producing oxygen generators, there is no guarantee that they will not also produce liquefied petroleum gas cylinders, propylene storage tanks, and other things in the future.

After all, the Medical Glass Factory does not only produce medical glass but also plans to produce civil glass at the same time. Anyway, it is just a matter of convenience; who would complain about having too much money?

It’s just like a military factory making air conditioners and refrigerators. Just make as much money as you can.

Of course, today’s military factories still have a Big Brother vibe to them. This kind of thing would only have happened in the 1980s and 1990s.

Continuing to look down, we can see that ampoules for injections are also produced. The production process introduced is that of one pool furnace for melting materials and four tube drawing machines. You should know that the neighboring province is still using 24-head ampoule automatic machines and one-line wire drawing machines. This is two or three steps more advanced than others.

Wen Jiajia read it three times, which was enough to show how much hope Linhe City had for this newly built medical glass factory.

“Comrade Wen, did you go to the new factory with Director Xue just now?” Li Haijun asked.

He was in the purchasing department just now and missed this matter.

Wen Jiajia nodded. “I went there at half past nine.”

What I mean is that you asked the question too late; it’s almost half past eleven now, okay?

“How is the new factory?” Li Haijun asked. He was a little annoyed and wished he would not have left.

Wen Jiajia replied, “The Grand Mansion is pretty good, and the rest of the place… is about the same as the west side of our pharmaceutical factory.”

The west side of the pharmaceutical factory is considered the old factory area. The pharmaceutical factory was not so big at the beginning but expanded gradually, so the west area is much more dilapidated than the newly built areas.

Li Haijun frowned. “It seems that going there will be a hardship.”

“…”

Wen Jiajia thinks she is a good talker, but whenever she meets Li Haijun, she is always easily choked by his words.

Everyone is so excited about the opening of the new factory. Isn’t it a bit too disappointing for you to suddenly say this?

But what he said was not wrong. Anyway, after Wen Jiajia visited the cafeteria, she wondered whether she should bring her own lunch in the future, because the cafeteria was so simple, even the floor was made of dirt, not cement like in a pharmaceutical factory.

Wen Jiajia avoided the topic and asked him, “Have you decided to go too?”

Li Haijun nodded. “I’ve applied for it.”

Wen Jiajia smiled and said, “That’s great. We have worked together for more than a year. It will always be easier when we work together in the future.”

Li Haijun pushed up his glasses and said, “If you have any problems in the future, just come to me directly.”

Wen Jiajia covered her head and lowered her head to read the purchase order again.

Evening.

When they got home, Wei Dai had already washed the crayfish. Looking at the basin full of crayfish, Wen Jiajia asked, “When did you come back? You even had to pull the shrimp threads out.”

Wei Dai replied, “I’m half an hour ahead of you, and I haven’t finished pulling them all yet. There’s still half a bucket of crayfish in the bucket.”

Wen Jiajia leaned over to take a look and said happily, “So many! It seems we can still eat more tomorrow.”

She put down her backpack, rolled up her sleeves, and moved the pot of processed crayfish to the kitchen. “I’ll start frying now.”

I can’t make spicy food; I can only make garlic food.

Five-spice or thirteen-spice flavors would be fine, but spices are so expensive and difficult to match nowadays, so it would be better to have garlic-flavored ones. And she thinks crayfish with garlic flavor tastes better.

Wen Jiajia picked up two garlic heads from the corner of the kitchen, broke off the cloves, smashed them with a knife, and then chopped them into minced garlic.

Crayfish alone is not enough; there must be side dishes. After thinking about it, she decided to use cucumber and cauliflower as side dishes.

Decades later, crayfish in restaurants, both large and small, are mostly served with these two side dishes, which shows that these ingredients naturally go well together.

This is the season when these green vegetables mature. Cucumbers are readily available at home, while cauliflowers have to be picked from the vegetable fields.

Wei Dai shook off the water droplets on his hands and said, “I’ll go. I’ll pick whatever vegetables we need to eat tomorrow.”

Wen Jiajia said, “Pick two tomatoes! Oh, and two more watermelons. I always feel that the weather is stuffy. If there is heavy rain, I am afraid that the ripe watermelons will explode in the rain.”

Wei Dai replied, “Not really, it’s not that easy to explode.”

“Hey, just go if I tell you to!”

There were not many watermelon seedlings planted in the vegetable garden. Wen Jiajia took care of them like she was taking care of her ancestors and grew a little over ten watermelons. Even with such a small number of watermelons, she still had to prevent people from stealing them.

Fortunately, Wen Jiajia asked Xiaopang to help watch over the vegetables, as Xiaopang’s window faced her vegetable garden. The two sisters even contributed their basketballs and lent them to Xiaopang and his friends who lived in the staff building.

She had worked so hard for so long and had managed to avoid being robbed. She would be furious if the watermelons were damaged by rain.

After Wei Dai left, Wen Jiajia started to make a fire.

Water was boiling in the pot, and Wen Jiajia was kneading dough at the same time.

How can you eat crayfish with rice? It doesn’t go well together. Of course, it has to be eaten with noodles.

It’s best to have it with instant noodles.

It doesn’t matter if there are no instant noodles. Freshly made ramen is also good. In Wen Jiajia’s opinion, it is better than rice anyway.

Four people in the family all love noodles. Wen Jiajia scooped three cans of flour, paused, and then scooped another can.

The dough was kneaded and then pulled. After it was pulled, Wei Dai came back with four melons on his back.

“Why did you pick so many?” Wen Jiajia asked hurriedly, leaning her head out of the window.

Wei Dai replied, “I feel these four are ripe after knocking them. Do you want to open one and eat it?”

Wen Jiajia was speechless. “We are about to eat; why are you still eating melon? How can you eat after eating melon?”

Of course, it’s okay to eat just one slice, but watermelon… when you cut it open, the flesh is so bright red and tempting, how can you bear to eat just one slice?

“Put it in the water tank first, and eat the watermelon after dinner,” Wen Jiajia said. “It doesn’t matter if you can’t finish it. Share half with Teacher Shen’s family. Put the rest on the floor in the bedroom. Don’t leave them outside. Chun’er and Xuanxuan will cut them and eat them themselves!”

Wen Jiajia frowned when she heard this. “Why haven’t they come back yet?”

Wei Dai, while holding the melon, said, “They’re skipping rope with others in the family building.”

Wen Jiajia felt relieved when she heard this.

After making the noodles, she started frying the crayfish.

She fried the garlic first, put half of the garlic into the pan, and when the garlic turned golden brown, poured the crayfish in. Wen Jiajia quickly stir-fried it with an iron spatula.

When it was almost done, she added the remaining half of the minced garlic, added the seasoning, and then poured boiling water into the pot to cook.

It would be better to add beer, but there was no beer at home, which made Wen Jiajia feel very regretful.

She said, “I’ll go to the department store tomorrow to see if there’s any beer for sale. This dish has to be eaten with beer.”