The train driver in the courtyard

The next day, the sun rose as usual.

The adults got up early and started their busy day.

Some carried brooms to sweep the yard, while others carried buckets to fetch water from the public tap.

The women lit the stove in the kitchen, and smoke rose from the chimney. Soon, the air was filled with the fragrance of rice porridge and the simple taste of steamed bread.

The compound gradually woke up in the early morning, like a painting full of the sense of time and the breath of life, slowly unfolding before Li Aiguo.

Li Aiguo has a poor appetite in the morning.

After simply eating five white flour buns and drinking a bowl of cornmeal porridge, he prepared to go to the locomotive depot.

After playing sticky games with Miss Chen, he slung his canvas bag over his shoulder and pushed his bicycle out of the house.

As soon as he reached the door, he saw Nan Yi sweeping the floor with a big broom, and Li Aiguo called out to Nan Yi.

"Patriotic brother, why are you going to work so early?" Nan Yi put down the broom and ran over.

"Yes, our locomotive section has a new gadget for catching mice. I have to keep an eye on it."

As Li Aiguo spoke, he took out two rat-catching boards from his pocket and handed them over.

"This is an experiment made by the studio. You can use it."

"What is this thing for?"

Nan Yi took the mouse board and reached out to lift the oil paper covering the sticky mouse board.

Li Aiguo stopped him and explained, "There is glue on the board, which can stick to mice. If you put some steamed bread on it, the effect will be better."

When he heard that it was a toy for catching mice, Nan Yi immediately became interested.

He came from a poor family and was just trying to take advantage of the opportunity of being eliminated from the Four Odds to gain advancement.

Otherwise, I wouldn’t have thought of catching sparrows in the first place.

"Thank you so much, patriotic brother."

Nan Yi seemed to remember something.

He said "Wait a minute", and when he came out, he had a newspaper bag in his hand.

"This is the ingredient I just prepared. It is very delicious when stewing meat or cooking."

The ingredients of Nanyi Diao are considered unique in the compound, and are no worse than the thirteen spices of later generations. Adding a little bit of it when cooking will make the food fragrant.

Li Aiguo did not refuse. He put the paper package into a canvas bag, got on his bicycle and left.

When we arrived at the maintenance workshop of Qianmen Locomotive Depot, the workshop was already bustling with people.

The workers' faces were filled with fatigue, with dark circles deeply imprinted around their eye sockets, which were the marks of exhaustion and sleepiness.

His eyes were bloodshot, but his gaze was still firmly fixed on the unfinished work in his hands.

Wow, this is going to be non-stop.

Li Aiguo came to the director's office.

Director Zhang and a group of staff were putting the produced mouse-catching boards into boxes.

"Old Zhang, we can't go on like this. The workers won't be able to handle it."

Director Zhang raised his head, yawned and said, "Driver Li, don't worry, the first batch of production tasks will be completed soon."

"Two thousand in total, all completed?" Li Aiguo's eyes widened.

Director Zhang raised his head proudly and said, "Yes, except for a few technicians who were responsible for the maintenance of the locomotives last night, all the workers were pulled into production. Even the leaders in the workshop went to the front line."

Li Aiguo: "."

He really underestimated the importance of honor to Director Zhang and these workers.

Ten o'clock in the morning.

After the first batch of 2,000 mouse traps were produced, Li Aiguo and Director Zhang took the mouse traps to the logistics department.

A clear voice came from the loud speaker of Qianmen Locomotive Depot.

"Dear workers, please pay attention. Dear workers, please pay attention. Good news. In order to actively respond to the call for the elimination of the four evils, our driver Li from the Qianmen Locomotive Depot and the maintenance workshop have jointly developed and produced a batch of sticky mouse boards that can be used to catch mice.

Please come to the logistics department to collect them, the quantity is limited, first come first served."

boom!
Upon hearing the broadcast, the entire locomotive depot instantly became excited.

The workers in the locomotive section have suffered from rats for a long time. The price of mousetraps in Beijing remains high, and with the sticky mouse boards, the task of getting rid of rats is no problem.

In less than a moment, a long line formed in front of the logistics department.

Two thousand rat-catching boards were quickly distributed.

Rats these days have not seen high technology.

The mouse-catching board is more effective than the mousetrap. In less than one morning, the maintenance section harvested more than 300 mouse tails.

"If we had 20,000 rat-catching boards, our Qianmen locomotive depot would be at the top of all the other locomotive depots except the four major ones."

Section Chief Xing and a group of maintenance section leaders counted the rat tails and decided to expand production and produce another 10,000 rat trap boards.

However, the production plan soon ran into trouble.

In the maintenance workshop, the amount of phenol resin adhesive is not enough to produce so many mouse traps.

Section Chief Xing coordinated with the chemical department in the name of the Qianmen Locomotive Depot, hoping to urgently purchase a batch of phenol resin adhesives.

However, we were told that this year's production plan was already fully booked and we would not be able to provide phenol resin adhesive to the locomotive depot in the short term.

These days the chemical industry has a special status, and the title of railway big brother is not easy to use.

Director Zhang of the maintenance workshop suggested: "Section Chief, if we use up all the phenol resin adhesive in stock, we may be able to meet production needs."

"In that case, will it delay the preparation of the carriages?" asked Duanchang Xing.

Director Zhang nodded.

"No, although eliminating the four idiots is important, it cannot delay our normal work. We can't put the cart before the horse." Section Chief Xing immediately rejected Director Zhang's proposal.

A deputy section chief proposed a new idea: "Is there any material that can replace phenol resin adhesive?"

Everyone's eyes turned to Li Aiguo.

The pressure came to Li Aiguo again.

In fact, Li Aiguo has also been thinking about this issue.

Mouse stickers are disposable consumables and are consumed in large quantities.

In later times, phenol resin adhesives were worthless, but in this era they were valuable chemical products. This meant that mouse stickers made of phenol resin adhesives could not be widely promoted.

If a tool like a sticky mouse board cannot be popularized due to cost and technical issues, it will become meaningless.

The best way is to find a material that can replace phenol resin adhesive as glue.

However, the glue used to make mouse boards has very high requirements for stickiness, and ordinary materials cannot meet the requirements.

Li Aiguo also experimented with tung oil.

Although this stuff is very sticky, the mouse can still escape after sacrificing some fur.

Sudden.

A bright light flashed across Li Aiguo’s mind.

The ink that the uncle used to catch mice seemed to be quite sticky.

If the ink, tung oil and vegetable oil are mixed together in a certain proportion, the viscosity may be able to meet the requirements.

Li Aiguo remembered that someone did this in later generations and the effect seemed to be quite good.

"Section Chief, do we have any ink in the locomotive section?"

"Ink? There should be a lot of it in the education room. Do you want to use ink to replace phenol resin adhesive?" Director Xing Duan asked in surprise.

"Ink alone is definitely not enough, tung oil and vegetable oil are also needed."

Li Aiguo expressed his thoughts.

Director Xing Duan's eyes lit up.

Although experiments are still needed to determine whether these materials are suitable as boards for catching mice.

However, there is no shortage of ink and tung oil in the country.

"How about this? I'll approve a research grant of 100 yuan for you. You can ask the Railway Research Institute for a few days off to study this matter."

Director Xing Duan also realized at this time that if the mouse stickers could be promoted on a large scale, the situation of eliminating the four evils in the country would be greatly improved.

Upon hearing this, Director Zhang scratched his head in frustration.

How did Li Aiguo get the research funds without even asking for anything?
As he was thinking, Li Aiguo patted him on the shoulder and said, "Old Zhang, let's go and get the money."

"Ah? I have a share too!"

When Director Zhang saw Li Aiguo nod, the workshop director who was a veteran technician almost jumped up.

He didn't want the research funds.

But as a technician, it is a bit embarrassing to work hard all your life and never get any scientific research funding.

The two men came to the logistics department. After Li Aiguo handed over the note, he took the hundred yuan from Section Chief Zhang.

Director Zhang saw that Section Chief Zhang had filed the note and made a request.

"Lao Zhang, can you write me a note?"

Section Chief Zhang was confused by Director Zhang's request.

He kindly told Director Zhang that the note he wrote as the section chief had no effect at all.

Director Zhang still insisted on his idea.

"Don't worry about it. Just write the note."

There was no other choice, Section Chief Zhang could only make a copy for Director Zhang according to Section Chief Xing’s note, and write on it that the note was a “sample”.

Director Zhang got the note and ran all the way.

He ran to the office of Engineer Chen in the maintenance workshop and slapped the note on the table.

"Lao Chen, I'm also working on a big project! A big project worth a hundred dollars."

Li Aiguo looked at his smug look and shook his head helplessly.

It seems that even though Director Zhang became the workshop director, he still considers himself a technician in his heart.

After Director Zhang became a senior technician in charge of a project worth 100 yuan, he became more motivated.

It only took half a day to collect seven or eight materials, including tung oil, ink, and sanitary oil.

Li Aiguo and a few others started working in the workshop.

Mixing materials for experiments is a hassle.

In one morning, we experimented with more than fifty ratios, but the viscosity of the finished products did not meet the requirements.

However, Li Aiguo was not in a hurry. After all, he had the third eye and knew very well that this method was feasible.

All it takes is a little time.

Just when Li Aiguo was busy preparing a new type of glue.

Siheyuan Nan Yijia.

Nan Yi squatted in front of the mousetrap, tilted his head and fell into silence.

In order to catch the mouse, Nan Yi put a piece of meat as bait.

The mouse trap was left in the house for a whole morning, but not a single mouse was caught.

Instead, I caught seven or eight flies.

"This thing was developed by Brother Aiguo, so it should be very useful."

Liang Ladi saw Nan Yi was puzzled and reminded him with a smile: "Is it possible that there are no mice in our house anymore?"

As soon as he heard this, Nan Yi realized that he was confused.

A while ago, Nan Yi used the waste that he had saved at home for half a year to exchange for two mousetraps from Wang Da Kui, and caught a total of seven or eight mice.

In addition, other families in the compound also installed mousetraps.

There are mousetraps everywhere, beside the pond, in the corners of the walls, and under the big trees. The mice won't be able to steal food, and even if they walk in the aisles, their legs will be broken by the traps.

Under such circumstances, no rats have been seen in the compound for some time.

"Oh, I thought I could win the advanced position by sticking the mouse board, but now it seems there is no hope."

Liang Ladi stretched out her finger and tapped Nan Yi's forehead: "Are you stupid? This thing can not only catch mice, but also flies. Fifty flies are equal to one mouse. As long as you catch more flies, you can also compete for the first place."

(End of this chapter)