The minivan quickly drove out of the city and onto the road leading to the western suburbs.

Dahua Machinery Factory is a very large factory, established in the late 1950s during the era of the Third Front Movement. At the beginning, it mainly produced various military products. After the reform and opening up, military orders gradually decreased, and the factory began to shift to producing civilian products.

Like many military enterprises forced to transform, Dahua Machinery Factory was not lacking in technical strength—the key issue was that the collective system was hard to change overnight, and the burdens were too heavy.

As a large-scale machinery factory with a full regiment-level structure, including the headquarters and two branch factories, the total number of employees, their families, and dependents exceeded four thousand.

Of these, the number of people who could actually work was less than a thousand.

The rest were family members and dependents.

With such a heavy burden, once there was no state support and they had to find their own way, the difficulty of transformation was imaginable.

So, the once-thriving large military factory has now long since declined and lost its former glory.

Dahua Machinery Factory is about twenty kilometers from the city center of Ping'an, deeply hidden in the mountains.

This was also the basic idea behind the Third Front construction in the late 1950s—large military factories were generally built in remote mountain valleys. High mountains and deep ravines made them hard to find and easy to defend, which were the characteristics of these military factories.

Now that Dahua Machinery Factory has very few military orders, the level of security is naturally not very high, but the factory, built in this location, cannot be moved.

For those who have never been to Dahua Factory, it is hard to imagine that in this seemingly barren and desolate mountain valley, such a large factory is hidden, like a bustling small town.

However, it was already late at night, and most parts of Dahua Factory had closed up and gone to sleep.

The minivan police car drove in, breaking the tranquility of the factory area.

Dahua Factory covers a large area. Edward York drove the car, weaving through the mountain valley, and only after about seven or eight minutes finally stopped in front of a row of single-story houses.

In fact, this was an independent area, built along the mountain, with rows of single-story houses neatly arranged. Each house was a separate small courtyard.

Grace Bennett did not know that this was the residential area for the factory leadership of Dahua Machinery Factory, where most of the factory leaders lived.

This place had good terrain, faced the sun, and not far away a small river meandered by. The scenery was nice, and the slope of the mountain was relatively gentle. Going up along the slope, there were twenty or thirty such independent small courtyards.

Edward York drove the minivan directly into Courtyard No. 1.

His old man had been the top leader of Dahua Machinery Factory since the 1960s, serving as both Party Secretary and Factory Director. All these small courtyard houses on the hillside were built under Matthew York's leadership. He held both Party and administrative power, and was the absolute number one. After these houses were built, it was only natural to invite Director York to move into Courtyard No. 1.

Once he moved in, the other factory leaders could follow.

When these courtyard houses were first built, they were considered quite "modern," but after several decades, they had long since become outdated, appearing old, backward, and lifeless.

In fact, most of the current factory leaders no longer lived here; everyone had moved into newly built apartment buildings. The apartment buildings, designed with new ideas, had a more reasonable layout and were more convenient to use.

And they looked more upscale.

Who would still live in these old houses from the 1960s, like some country bumpkin?

Only an old stick-in-the-mud like Old York would stubbornly stay here and refuse to move.

Matthew York had high prestige in Dahua Machinery Factory because he was fair in handling affairs and honest in office. After being the top leader for so many years, he neither sought personal gain nor hoarded benefits, so most of the factory's cadres and workers respected the old man.

Of course, Old York's bad temper was also famous throughout the factory.

His nickname was "York Blackface."

When he scolded people, it was like a storm—no matter who you were, he would not spare your feelings. Even if you were a deputy director or deputy secretary, as long as you made a mistake, Old York would definitely scold you until your butt was smoking.

Edward York's bad temper probably came from his old man.

Even though the father and son were more than forty years apart in age, it didn't stop Old York from passing his explosive temper down to his son.

On the way home, Edward York had already called the house, so when the car arrived at the gate, the courtyard door was open and the lights were on in the house.

Seeing this familiar scene, Edward York felt a wave of warmth in his heart.

Clearly, he had just come home not long ago, yet a strange feeling surged in his mind, as if he hadn't been back here for a long time. Everything here felt both familiar and unfamiliar to him.

Well, it must be memories from another timeline acting up again.

Sixteen years later, his old man might have already passed away, right?

After all, he was over eighty.

The old man's health was never that great.

During that special period in history, although he didn't suffer too much persecution, he was still somewhat affected. If it hadn't been for the protection of higher-ups and Old York's own great contributions, he might not have made it through those ten years.

In fact, quite a few of Old York's comrades didn't make it through.

Separated by life and death.