The next morning, Lu Yuan rode his bicycle to the commune with Lu Jiefang.
Upon arriving at the commune, one went to work at a brick and tile factory, while the other went to work at an agricultural machinery station.
As soon as Zhang Hongxi saw Lu Yuan, his eyes narrowed into slits.
"Comrade Lu, you've finally arrived! Come on, let's go to my office and sit down for a rest."
Lu Yuan greeted him with a smile, politely declining to go to the office. He wasn't there to rest, but to work, and he didn't need to take the leader's polite words seriously.
He got straight to the point, "Station Chief Zhang, let's get to work first. You can rest later after you've finished."
"Good, good, Comrade Lu is very conscientious. Alright, I'll take you to see it first."
Zhang Hongxi led him to a corner of the parking lot, where several broken tractors and a large pile of discarded parts were piled up.
"Comrade Lu, do you think you can fix these tractors?"
Lu Yuan nodded, put on gloves, and examined the area before drawing a conclusion.
"Station Chief Zhang, these tractors aren't just broken, they're probably totaled?"
Zhang Hongxi chuckled, "Last time I heard Lao Jiang say that as long as you have the parts, you can assemble tractors, so I went through a lot of trouble to get these scrapped tractors and a bunch of discarded parts over here."
Lu Yuan's lips twitched. "Station Chief Zhang, those were the parts I agreed on, not the parts that were scrapped."
"Huh? Is this not allowed?"
Zhang Hongxi was dumbfounded; all his hard work of nearly a month had been for nothing. He felt mostly disappointed.
Fortunately, Lu Yuan gave him hope again in the next second.
"It's not entirely impossible. I just checked, and two of the tractor engines are still working. We should be able to find other broken parts by scraping together what we have."
Upon hearing this, Zhang Hongxi was overjoyed. He had previously thought that he would be satisfied if he could make one tractor out of this pile of waste, but he never expected that he could make two.
"Haha, Xiao Lu, I knew I hadn't misjudged you. If you manage to make two tractors, I'll give you a 200 yuan reward."
These tractors are all medium-sized tractors, not just small hand-held tractors suitable for farming. A new one costs at least 10,000 to 20,000 yuan, and a used one is worth several thousand yuan. Even if you calculate the price of two together, they are still worth tens of thousands of yuan.
He readily gave the 200 yuan reward because he could create such great value for the agricultural technology station.
Lu Yuan's heart skipped a beat. A reward of 200 yuan?
It seems like a lot, but he doesn't lack that kind of money. If he were to be rewarded with a tractor, that would be the best outcome. It would be registered under the brigade's name, and since he was the one who provided the vehicle, it would be very convenient for him to use it whenever he wanted.
"Station Chief Zhang, can I use this 200 yuan reward to exchange for a tractor?"
Zhang Hongxi's eyelids twitched violently. 200 yuan to buy a tractor? What a dream! He might not even agree to 2,000 yuan, but he couldn't directly refuse this big shot for fear of offending him.
He awkwardly tugged at the corners of his mouth, his smile looking more like a grimace.
“Xiao Lu, it’s not that I don’t want to agree, but the affairs of the agricultural machinery station are not something I can decide on my own. The two tractors were a guarantee I made to the higher-ups when I brought back this huge pile of scrap. If one of them is suddenly missing, I won’t be able to explain it.”
Lu Yuan knew he had misunderstood, and waved his hand, saying, "That's not what I meant. I didn't want these two tractors. I was thinking that if we could get a third tractor, we could exchange it for our brigade."
Zhang Hongxi stared intently at his squinty eyes, surprised, "You can even make a third one?"
Of course he could, it just would take some effort, but he couldn't say that directly.
"I can't guarantee it. I'm just trying my best. If I can't figure it out, that's fine. If I can, I'd like to transfer it to our brigade."
Zhang Hongxi swallowed hard. Goodness, they actually managed to set up a third one.
Even though the other party said they would try their best, he could tell that if he agreed to their condition, they could produce a third tractor; if they didn't, he would have to give up.
What else could he say? He wasn't losing anything anyway.
If he could actually pull out three tractors from this pile of scrap, he'd be too busy treasuring such talent, so he'd naturally grant this small request.
"Xiao Lu, if you can really make a third tractor, it's no problem to give it to your brigade. If you can't, then you'll just have to wait for the next opportunity."
"Okay, it's settled then."
Lu Yuan was very fast. He fixed the two tractors with intact engines on the first day. Although many other parts were broken, good ones could be found from a large pile of scrap materials.
After the replacement, the tractor was able to restart.
"It should last another seven or eight years without any problem."
Lu Yuan added diesel fuel, circled around twice, and then said.
Zhang Hong was overjoyed and praised the man repeatedly. When he left, he gave him an envelope.
"This is this month's salary."
Lu Yuan felt that the thickness was wrong, so he opened it and saw that there was a total of 218 yuan, as well as cloth coupons, grain coupons, oil coupons, industrial coupons and other coupons.
Zhang Hongxi explained, "The bonus for the two tractors cannot be reduced. If your brigade wants to replace the tractors, have the brigade bring 200 yuan over, and I will replace them for them."
He added, "Your personal interests should not be harmed because of the brigade."
Lu Yuan smiled, stuffed the money into the envelope, and thanked him gratefully, "Thank you, Station Master Zhang."
With his money and tickets tucked away, he happily rode his bike out of the agricultural machinery station.
Just as he stepped out of the gate, he ran into Lu Jiefang, who had come to walk home with him. Seeing the smile on his face, he asked,
"Ah Yuan, what good news has happened?"
Lu Yuan didn't hide anything from him, "I got paid today, and I also got a 200 yuan bonus. I'm happy."
hiss--
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