The move that made Lu Yanqiu most feared wasn't slamming the table. It was taking out his notebook.
After Third Uncle finished talking about the old rules, he asked, "Who made them? Do you dare put your name to it?"
When the deputy section chief announced the technical improvement project was being halted, he asked, "It was 8:05. I haven't misremembered your instructions, have I?"
Those who'd been throwing their weight around moments earlier started nitpicking his words the next.
In 1964, an engineer transferred out of the military reclaimed his ancestral courtyard, only to face a series of tests: demands for gifts at the door, a coal cart blocking the entrance, people peering through cracks, and elders applying pressure.
Lu Yanqiu wouldn't accept any fuzzy accounting.
The Housing Management Office's red seal controlled the courtyard gate. Written notices governed work assignments. Witnesses on the scene were only to state what they had seen with their own eyes.
The Chain Reaction Conflict System added another weapon to his arsenal: dismantle a scheme to earn points, exchange points for clues, and even get advance warning of the other side's next attempt to stir up trouble.
The shovel hidden under the bed first shut Yan Bugui up.
But the real trouble wasn't all inside the courtyard.
Someone had forced him into the old archive room, hoping to stall the technical improvement plan halfway through.
But Lu Yanqiu opened the 1962 catalog: How had old work clothes been written off? Where had the scrap gone? And who had signed the papers back then?
Five-star praise! It is a rare and refreshing novel about the courtyard industry. The protagonist is not a virgin and does not feel aggrieved. He is direct and forceful when encountering problems and does not talk to a group of bad people in the courtyard. The sense of time is real, the career line is written solidly, the production and industry line is particularly enjoyable to watch, the rhythm of the slap in the face is comfortable and not procrastinating, and there is no forced intelligence. Book lovers who like interesting period novels should not miss this book. The more you read, the more you will get hooked!