Back inside, Chen Zhi and Chen Yu were already up. Chen Yu was still sulking, waiting for Chen Ke to coax her. She turned and walked past Chen Ke with heavy steps.
Chen Zhi's room was on the outside. He was sitting on the bed rubbing his eyes when he saw Chen Ke come in and immediately asked, "Brother, what did you have for breakfast this morning?"
Chen Ke put down the cup, took down the bag hanging on the wall, and put the lunchbox inside. Chen Zhi looked completely bewildered. Was his brother going to leave right away?
Chen Zhi quickly stood up. "Brother, brother, where are you going?"
"There's still some flour at home, you can cook for yourself. Don't bother cooking for me, I'll eat at the cafeteria." Chen Ke said and left, seemingly oblivious to Chen Zhi's jaw nearly dropping in astonishment.
After washing up, Chen Yu looked around and asked in a low voice, "Second brother, where's eldest brother? Why hasn't he cooked yet?"
"What a load of crap! My brother went straight to work. He said he'd eat in the cafeteria and we'd have to cook for ourselves!"
Chen Yu stared in disbelief, the panic she had managed to suppress last night resurfacing. "Big...Big brother really doesn't care about us anymore?"
"Who knows? What are you standing there for? Miss, start a fire! You're really not going to eat breakfast?"
"I don't know how to start a fire. If I don't want to eat, I don't want to eat. It won't hurt me to go hungry for a while." Maybe their older brother will stop abandoning them if he sees they can't take care of themselves.
Chen Yu thought about it and realized it was a good idea. She figured her older brother would be worried if she went to school hungry.
"I'm leaving, second brother. You can cook for yourself if you want to eat." Chen Yu said, then grabbed his schoolbag and hurried away.
Chen Zhi stood in the room, holding the pot, looking completely bewildered. Then he became furious. Chen Yu, that little girl, had pocket money given to her by her older brother, so she wouldn't go hungry even if her brother didn't cook. But he couldn't; he had no money and couldn't even go hungry.
"Damn it, so you're bullying me, huh! Humph, cooking is nothing, you think you can stump me, Master Chen!"
After a while, Chen Zhiqi picked up the noodles and put them into the pot. Then he poured in a bowl of cold water, put the lid on the pot, and squatted down in front of the stove to start a fire.
Chen Ke didn't care whether the two little ones ate or not. He took his food coupons and asked for a cornbread and a bowl of porridge at the canteen window.
"Three ounces of grain coupons."
Chen Ke gave him the food coupons and handed him the lunchbox.
As I was walking back with my lunchbox, someone suddenly bumped into me from behind.
"Oh dear, I'm so sorry, so sorry." A man in dark blue overalls and glasses quickly apologized. "Young man, did you spill your food?"
"It's okay that the lid is on and it can't spill. Are you busy? Go on." Chen Ke recalled from the original owner's memories that this person should be the director of the union.
The two had absolutely no connection, so of course the other person didn't know him.
"Oh, okay, I'm so sorry."
"fine."
A thoughtful look flashed in Chen Ke's eyes as he watched the man walk away.
Just as I stepped out of the cafeteria, the loudspeaker on the nearby tree blared: "Announcement, announcement, this afternoon at 3 PM, everyone—"
The announcement over the loudspeaker suddenly stopped halfway through.
"Oh dear, the radio is broken again."
"It was originally discarded by Steel Plant No. 1, and it was bound to have problems after being used for so long."
"I envy those big factories. They get all the good and new stuff, and they give us the broken or old stuff."
"You're being sarcastic. What are you doing comparing a textile factory to a steel factory? You're just being sarcastic."
"But what were they going to say on the radio just now? They only said half of it before it broke. It really kept us in suspense."
"Who knows? There's no technician in the factory who can fix the radio. By the time we go to the steel mill to get their technician over and get it fixed, we'll probably all be off work. Only the people on the night shift will be able to listen."
"Oh, what a pity, maybe they're just telling us to go see a movie."
A few people walked past Chen Ke, chatting as they went.
After thinking for a moment, Chen Ke turned his attention from the textile workshop and went to the broadcasting station instead.
"Master, you're going to be late for work," the system kindly reminded Chen Ke as he turned the corner.
"Even if you're going to be a cog in a machine, your master has to be the most important one. What's the point of being a cog on an assembly line?"
The system didn't quite understand the meaning of that sentence, but when Chen Ke stood at the entrance of the broadcasting station and told the chaotic propaganda staff inside that he could fix the broadcasting system, the system understood.
The owner of the house just wanted to change jobs.
"Aren't you that young comrade from earlier? You can fix the radio?" Feng Liangchen's tone was surprised but tinged with doubt, after all, the young comrade in front of him was wearing work clothes from a textile workshop.
Chen Ke held the lunchbox calmly, saying, "I learned a little from others before, and I've read a lot of books on this subject."
Upon hearing this, the system suddenly remembered the mechanical application book that its owner had flipped through yesterday, which seemed to be a wildly imaginative novel.
"You're too confident, comrade. You've only read two books and you dare to volunteer to repair such an expensive thing? You should know that even the senior machine repairmen in our factory don't dare to touch this. We have to ask a specialized technician from the No. 1 Steel Plant to repair it. Do you even know what this is? Yet you dare to shamelessly say that you can fix it."
Chen Ke glanced at the items on the table; they were simple and rudimentary. "This is the control panel, and the recorder." Chen Ke then pointed to another machine on the table, "It looks like a 50-watt amplifier."
The propaganda officer who spoke up was surprised that Chen Ke actually knew him. You see, tape recorders were rare items; ordinary families might not even have seen one, let alone buy one.
"So what if you know about airplanes? I've seen airplanes before, but do you think I can repair them?"
“I don’t know if you can fix airplanes, but I can definitely fix this.” Chen Ke said, then looked at Feng Liangchen, “Do you need me to give it a try? If not, I’ll go back to work.”
Feng Liangchen had been observing Chen Ke from the sidelines. He noticed that the young man appeared relaxed and composed, suggesting that he must have been confident before coming. Otherwise, his composure and acting skills would be too good.
Besides, if he really didn't know how, there was no need for him to risk saying he did. If he fixed it, they would at most give him a verbal compliment, but they didn't promise him any benefits.
After considering all the factors, and given the urgency of the matter to be notified, Feng Liangchen decided to let Chen Ke give it a try.
"Come on, young comrade, it's alright to take a look. If you find a problem, you can fix it. If you can't find anything, that's fine. We've already sent someone to the steel plant to get a technician."
After listening to Feng Liangchen's words, Chen Ke entered the room, placed the lunchbox on the empty table next to him, and rolled up his sleeves.
"Do you have any tools? A small screwdriver."
Feng Liangchen said to the clerk beside him, "Xiao Zhou, go get the toolbox."
Zhou Qi nodded and went to get the toolbox, but secretly grimaced, thinking that his boss was really careless, just casually letting a textile worker fix the radio.
"Young comrade, can you see what the problem is?" Feng Liangchen watched Chen Ke fiddling with this and that, and he was also unsure of what to do.
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