Early the next morning.
Before the workday had even begun, Director Meng came looking for Lin Qiaozhi.
She wore her hair in a cadre style. After years of serving as the Women’s Affairs Director, even her naturally gentle, dignified features had taken on an air of authority.
As it happened, Lin Qiaozhi had been planning to see her as well.
The office was quiet, with no one else around.
Director Meng poured her a cup of water. “Sit.”
Lin Qiaozhi sat down.
Cradling the glass in both hands, she looked at Director Meng with bright, shining eyes.
Director Meng sat beside her and asked with concern, “You’ve always done well in school. Weren’t you planning to take the high school entrance exam? I never heard you mention wanting to attend our factory’s technical school.”
With Director Meng’s experience, she could naturally tell that the girl was hiding something.
There were faint dark circles beneath her eyes.
Her voice remained calm as she gently guided the conversation. “Don’t be afraid. I’ve seen every trick in the book when it comes to dealing with children, whether it’s sweet talk or intimidation. I’ve met all kinds of workers and family members in this factory. There’s no kind of person or scheme your Director Meng hasn’t seen.”
“I’m not afraid. You know me. If I’m wronged, I don’t keep it bottled up.” Lin Qiaozhi smiled before continuing, “It was my own decision.”
Director Meng could not help feeling surprised.
Lin Qiaozhi fell silent for a moment. Naturally, she couldn’t mention those dreams.
She looked around the office she had known since childhood.
Perhaps… it wasn’t entirely because of those dreams.
The office walls were covered with newspaper clippings and photographs. One was a People’s Daily article about “New China’s First Female Train Driver.” Lin Qiaozhi knew her name was Tian Guiying. After seeing a photograph of a Soviet female train driver standing proudly at the controls, she had resolved to become a train driver herself.
Hanging on the wall was also the newly issued Third Series of Renminbi, preserved beneath a sheet of glass. The banknotes featured images of working people such as a female tractor driver and a female textile worker.
She had grown up listening to stories about people like them.
She knew the story behind every person displayed on that wall.
It was Director Meng who had brought those stories into Hongqi Agricultural Machinery Factory, and into her world.
Year after year of advocacy had allowed these progressive new ideas to gradually take root throughout the vast factory grounds and send forth fresh shoots.
She had always thought that Director Meng’s slogan, “Women hold up half the sky and remake the rivers and mountains,” carried tremendous power.
Hongqi Agricultural Machinery Factory was her own “rivers and mountains.”
And Director Meng had truly transformed her own corner of the world.
“Come with me.”
Taking Director Meng’s hand, she led her into the corridor outside the office.
Looking west from the corridor, they could see the grounds of Hongqi Agricultural Machinery Factory.
Rows of tractors were parked there.
Workers streamed in from the dormitories and family housing toward the factory, preparing to start their shifts, while others who had worked the night shift were just coming out.
It was an enormous factory complex, filled with workshops handling everything from production and manufacturing to packaging and transportation, supporting countless families.
It was one of Jiangcheng’s pillar industries.
Standing in the morning breeze, Lin Qiaozhi took a deep breath and looked toward the factory.
“Director Meng, everyone in Jiangcheng knows that Hongqi Factory started out as nothing more than a small and medium-sized diesel engine plant.”
“Our factory director practically begged every favor he could to bring back a Sixth-Grade fitter from Changchun Tractor Factory, someone who had helped build the ‘Yalu River No. 1’ and the ‘Dongfanghong Model 28 Tractor.’ He brought the technology with him. Starting with mold making, he built our factory into what it is today, step by step.”
His name was Lu Feng, though everyone respectfully called him Engineer Lu.
His status was extraordinarily high. He lived in the largest house in the family housing compound and earned a Sixth-Grade worker’s wage, even higher than the factory director’s salary.
Throughout the surrounding region of Jiangcheng, anywhere reachable by train within two days lay within the reach of his reputation. Whenever a machinery factory ran into trouble, they would most likely come seeking his help.
One man had the ability to revitalize an entire city.
The fragmented scenes from her dreams seemed to intertwine with reality.
Together, they wove an even more magnificent vision of an “Eighth-Grade Worker.”
She wanted that kind of standing too. More than anything.
To be respected, highly esteemed, and have a voice.
Instead of having no one listen when she spoke reason, no one care about what she had to say, and being called a “wild girl” simply for fighting to obtain what boys were born with.
She turned to look at Director Meng.
“So… why can’t it be me?”
Meeting those eyes, filled with both longing and unwillingness to give up, Director Meng seemed to understand the grievance buried in the girl’s heart. Smiling, she rubbed Lin Qiaozhi’s head.
“Of course it can be our Qiaozhi.”
Lin Qiaozhi jumped with delight.
“I knew it!”
She had known Director Meng would believe her.
Happily, she handed over the completed application form.
“Then I’ll leave it in your hands.”
…
With Director Meng handling things, the application was quickly stamped and sent to the factory’s technical school.
Although there were a few minor hiccups, there was no serious resistance.
Most people probably assumed Lin Qiaozhi wouldn’t pass the entrance assessment anyway.
Most applicants were children of skilled workers, or had relatives who worked as fitters, machinists, welders, and the like. Others had pulled strings to apprentice under a master and had started learning long ago.
Many fitters also grumbled privately, “How could a girl possibly endure this kind of hardship?”
The assessment was anything but easy.
Take this year’s fitter examination, for example.
Using a specially made iron hammer, applicants had to strike a cold chisel and break a standard-sized steel rod secured in place within a limited number of blows. Break it completely.
Lin Qiaozhi received the assessment standards.
Breaking the steel rod in 5 strikes was rated Excellent.
Breaking it in 8 strikes was rated Good.
Breaking it in 12 strikes was a Pass.
If the rod remained unbroken after 12 strikes, the applicant failed, and the factory would instead recommend attending another school.
Clang. Clang. Clang.
Three heavy metallic blows rang out as the hammer struck the chisel.
Father Lin shook his aching hand, numb from the vibrations.
Setting down the chisel in his left hand, he turned to Lin Qiaozhi.
“I already tested it for you. Even with my strength, I got six or seven hits in without any result.”
“I’m guessing it takes some technique or trick too, but you don’t have anywhere to learn that.” Feeling Jiang Hongmei’s increasingly pointed stare, Father Lin had no choice but to be more direct. “How about… we choose a school that’s more suitable?”
“Father, stop making trouble.”
Lin Qiaozhi sighed helplessly.
She put away both the hammer and the chisel.
The factory’s technical school recruited students with strong high school entrance exam scores, beginning their training while they were still in their early teens. Its goal was not to produce first- or second-grade workers who relied solely on brute strength.
If that were the case, they might as well recruit sturdy grown men from society. Adults willing to work hard were certainly stronger than teenagers.
The factory’s technical school existed to train highly skilled technical workers.
The entrance exam scores measured learning ability, while the practical assessment selected those with strength, endurance, and the willingness to use their brains.
She was determined to get in.
The school had clear regulations stating that students whose technical skills met the required standard could graduate early and enter the factory.
Moreover, a year and a half later, when production expanded and the factory urgently needed workers, it recruited half of the students then enrolled, selecting the top fifty percent based on academic and practical performance.
There was opportunity, a safety net, and a clear path forward.
After much deliberation following those haunting dreams, this was the best choice she had found for herself.
Seeing that her husband had failed to persuade their daughter, Jiang Hongmei pushed him aside and stepped in herself.
She spoke earnestly. “Our factory is wonderful. It’s one of the top three factories in Jiangcheng, with great benefits, high pay, and excellent security. Who wouldn’t want to get in? I’d like to work there myself! But we have to be realistic. This just isn’t work meant for girls.”
“Wouldn’t becoming a teacher or studying nursing be nice? They’re both easier and respectable careers.”
At this moment, Jiang Hongmei genuinely felt sorry for her daughter.
But Lin Qiaozhi had no intention of arguing with her about it.
She had been looking for an opportunity to bring up the literacy classes, so she picked up the conversation.
“If you want to work at the factory too, Mother, I actually know of an opportunity.”
The unexpected remark startled Jiang Hongmei.
Instinctively, she glanced toward the doorway.
Only after seeing that no one was there did she let out a sigh of relief.
Just then, a group of little children came pattering in, their foreheads covered in sweat from playing.
“Big Sister Lin! We’re here to return the toys!”
Lin Qiaozhi collected the toys and patted one of them on the back.
“Off you go. Wash up when you get home. Look how filthy you’ve gotten.”
Most of the children were little girls. They were quite clever too. They knew that if they sent a girl to borrow toys from Lin Qiaozhi, there was a better chance she would agree.
Reluctantly, they shuffled toward the door, looking back every few steps as they chattered.
“Big Sister’s toys are so much fun.”
“We’ll come borrow them again next time.”
“The kids in the family housing compound are all so jealous of us.”
None of them wanted to go home.
Lin Qiaozhi was rather fond of them. It was because they kept coming to borrow toys that, during those nightmares some time ago, she suddenly realized she really had made quite a lot of toys as a child.
She had been the leader of the neighborhood children ever since she was little. Strong, fearless, and exceptionally good at any game involving physical skill, whether it was throwing beanbags, playing marbles, ankle-bone games, cockfighting, or slingshot competitions.
And she never grew tired of them, constantly inventing new ways to play.
She loved playing, and she was especially good at it. Whatever new toy another child had, as long as she had seen it once, she could go home and figure out how to make one herself.
The slingshots she made were remarkably accurate.
The tin whistles she crafted were polished smooth on both sides with sandpaper until they gleamed brilliantly in the sunlight, looking especially impressive.
She had even made a chain gun! It was a toy gun that used match heads for ammunition, with a body made from a bicycle chain and wire. Pulling the trigger released the tension of a rubber band, driving a firing pin into the match head, which exploded with a loud bang and a burst of air, sending the matchstick shooting out with a whoosh.
It was the only match gun in the entire factory.
The toy gun every child dreamed of owning had sparked countless arguments, tears, and tantrums.
She delighted in the joy of creating.
Even now, she still kept an entire large box full of those toys.
Jiang Hongmei quietly walked to the door and nervously looked outside. Only after confirming that all the children had left did she relax.
She closed the door, finally putting her mind at ease.
Then she hurried over, grabbed Lin Qiaozhi by the hand, and pulled her into the inner room, shooing Lin Jiandong out to stay with his father.
The Lin family had only two rooms.
The outer room was where her parents slept, and it also held furniture such as cabinets and wardrobes.
The inner room was where the siblings slept, with an iron-framed bed on each side and a curtain strung between them. A desk stood against the wall.
Lin Qiaozhi slept in the bed farther inside. At this moment, the mother and daughter were sitting on the edge of it.
Jiang Hongmei looked tense as she gripped Lin Qiaozhi’s arm. “Qiaozhi.”
A mother knew her child. Qiaozhi was never the type to joke around or tease people casually. She took things seriously.
Lin Qiaozhi explained simply, “Go to the literacy class and be the best one there, especially when people come to inspect the class.”
In her dream, toward the end of this round of literacy classes, a policy happened to come into effect. Officials visited the state-owned enterprises across Jiangcheng to inspect how well their literacy programs were being carried out. Someone from the Chengdong Instrument Factory had performed exceptionally well, received praise, and was held up as a model.
As a result, they were given a temporary worker position.
Although it was only a temporary job, as long as they didn’t make any major mistakes, becoming a permanent employee was practically guaranteed.
Otherwise, imagine the official looking back later after praising such a model worker, only to discover they had been dismissed?
The officials had also visited the Hongqi Agricultural Machinery Factory, but perhaps because production was too busy, or because the people in that session of the literacy class were preoccupied with odd jobs, or perhaps because they simply hadn’t applied themselves, no one had stood out.
The opportunity was wasted just like that. When people found out afterward, no one knew how many beat their chests in regret.
For quite a long time afterward, literacy classes and basic reading classes like these became highly sought after, and the related programs progressed extremely smoothly.
“Literacy class?” Jiang Hongmei lowered her voice. “Where did you hear that?”
There had been so many rounds of literacy classes, yet she’d never heard of anyone getting a job simply because they performed well.
“A friend told me,” Lin Qiaozhi replied casually. “But I can’t tell you who.”
Jiang Hongmei smacked her on the thigh in annoyance. “So your friends are closer to you than your own mother.” Still, she knew her daughter was different from other children.
She didn’t have many friends, but every one of them was as close as could be.
Just among the few who had rushed to stand up for others when they were little, any one of them could have been the one who passed along the news.
There was simply no way to guess where the information had come from.
After sending her mother away, Lin Qiaozhi calculated the schedule of the literacy class, rubbed her ear, and let out a long breath.
That night, she finally entered the dream she had been trying so hard to recall before falling asleep.
“Hello, let me introduce myself…”
Expressionless, she walked straight past the two people in the middle of a blind date and sprinted toward the machinery factory that was said to have an Eighth-Grade Fitter.