Major Heavy Industry: Starting with a Fake Marriage

Chapter 127 Steadfast

Jiang Cheng stared at the report, his hands trembling slightly. Not from nervousness, but because he knew what that number meant.

"Chief Engineer Chen, this proves that the direction of automation is correct."

"Yes. But we can't relax yet. The real test is on the actual blades. Whether the automated equipment can produce qualified actual blades depends on the results. Actual blades have more air film pores, more complex curved surfaces, and thinner walls. If any part of the process goes wrong, all our previous efforts could be wasted. I've already asked Chief Engineer Zhao to send over five more actual blades, which will arrive next Wednesday."

Jiang Cheng nodded.

That evening, Jiang Cheng returned to the guesthouse and called Zheng Yanxi.

The phone rang for a long time before it was answered.

"Yanxi, it's me."

"The results are out."

Jiang Cheng gripped the receiver, his heart pounding. He could feel his pulse throbbing at his fingertips. Someone in the hallway was making a phone call, speaking loudly in a dialect he couldn't understand.

"How many points?"

"Chinese 82, Math 76, English 68, Medical Comprehensive 89. Total score 315."

Is that enough?

"That's enough. Last year's cutoff score was 290. I exceeded it by more than 20 points."

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone. Then she cried. Not a loud, unrestrained cry, but a suppressed sob, a cry she didn't want anyone to hear. Jiang Cheng heard her breathing, deep and shallow, deep and shallow.

It was as if someone was trying hard to hold back something, but couldn't. Her breathing was nasal and heavy.

"Yanxi, you passed the exam."

"Yes." Her voice trembled. "I passed the exam."

Jiang Cheng held the microphone, wanting to say something, but his throat felt like it was blocked by something.

He heard her crying on the other end of the phone, while he stood on his end, like a statue.

Someone walked by in the corridor, their footsteps very light, like a cat's patter on the floor. The footsteps faded, and the corridor fell silent again.

"Where's Jiang Yuan?" Jiang Cheng changed the subject after his initial joy.

"He's asleep. He learned a new word today."

"What word?"

"I like him." Her voice was still trembling, but there was a smile in it. "He pointed at me and said 'I like Mommy,' and he said it several times. After he said it, he smiled, and when he smiled, he showed two little teeth. It was so cute that my heart almost melted."

Jiang Cheng smiled.

After hanging up the phone, he stood in the corridor, looking at the moon outside the window. The moon in Beijing was still hazy, but he felt it was brighter than usual today.

Moonlight filtered through the thin, gauze-like clouds, illuminating the corridor floor with a white glow.

He stood there for a while until the motion-activated lights in the corridor went out before he turned around.

He went back to his room. Huang Deqing was already asleep, breathing heavily with soft snoring. The snoring wasn't loud, but it was deep, like the distant tolling of a bell.

He lay down, facing the ceiling, gazing at the dim, yellowish light. The crack in the ceiling was still there, stretching from one end to the other, like a dried-up river. His eyes followed the crack, from one end to the other and back again.

He closed his eyes, his mind filled with thoughts of Zheng Yanxi getting into medical school, Jiang Yuan saying "I like Mom," and the equipment modification. The three things were intertwined, like three ropes twisted into one. He turned over, pulled the blanket up, and covered his shoulders.

Tomorrow, as soon as he wakes up, there will be endless things to do.

The actual blades needed to be installed, the process needed to be re-verified, and the data needed to be re-collected. Every step had to be flawless, and each blade was worth two thousand yuan. But Jiang Cheng felt a sense of peace he had never experienced before, not because he was particularly skilled, but because he knew he wasn't fighting alone.

Moonlight streamed in through the gaps in the curtains, forming a thin white line that fell onto the floor and moved slowly.

The morning the real leaves were delivered, it rained in Beijing. It wasn't a torrential downpour, but a fine, dense autumn rain that pattered on the locust leaves in the research institute's courtyard, making a rustling sound, like someone shaking a bamboo tube half-filled with beans in the distance.

Jiang Cheng stood at the laboratory entrance, watching the person delivering the leaves unload a white styrofoam box from the bread cart. The box was wrapped with several layers of tape and the corners were protected with foam corner protectors, showing that the person who packed it was very careful.

"Five pieces, all qualified. Chief Engineer Zhao asked me to tell you that these are the five best pieces selected from their workshop. Each piece has undergone non-destructive testing and there are no casting defects." The deliveryman was a young technician wearing round-framed glasses, with raindrops on the lenses, which he didn't wipe away.

Jiang Cheng signed the delivery receipt and carried the box into the laboratory. Opening the lid, he saw five blades neatly embedded in foam grooves, silvery-white, gleaming coldly under the light. He picked one up and examined it against the light; the pores on the blade were neatly arranged like a honeycomb, each pore clean, without any casting wax residue. He ran his finger along the edge of the blade; it was thin, less than two millimeters thick, and he could feel the warmth of his finger passing through the metal.

"This is the final step." Chief Engineer Chen stood behind him, holding a notebook, his voice softer than usual. "We've made dozens of mock-ups, hundreds of test pieces, and adjusted the parameters countless times. This time, with the real blades, if it works, it works; if not, we'll start all over again."

Jiang Cheng put the leaf back in the styrofoam box and turned to look at her. Chief Engineer Chen was wearing a dark blue coat today, and her hair was combed neatly than usual. Perhaps knowing that she would be using real leaves today, she had specially used a hair clip to tuck her sideburns behind her ears.

"Chief Engineer Chen, do you think it can be done?"

"I don't know," she paused, "but I hope it will happen."

The words weren't spoken harshly, but Jiang Cheng sensed their weight. She never used the word "hope." She only used "data," "results," "qualified," or "unqualified." The fact that she said "hope" today meant she wasn't entirely sure herself. Her fingers tapped lightly twice on the cover of her notebook—a habitual gesture when she was nervous, one Jiang Cheng had observed for a long time before noticing.

Xiao Ma peeked out from behind the control cabinet, a screwdriver in his hand, a thread stuck to his hair. His glasses had slipped down to the tip of his nose, which he pushed up with his elbow. "Master Jiang, the control system is finally debugged. The response time of the feedback loop has been reduced from fifty milliseconds to twenty milliseconds, which should be sufficient."

"Should?" Jiang Cheng looked at him.

Xiao Ma paused for a moment, then smiled, crawled out from behind the control cabinet, and dusted off his hands. "It's not 'should,' it's 'definitely.' I measured it thirty times, and each time it was exactly twenty milliseconds, with a margin of error of no more than one millisecond. The data is on the computer; you can see it. I've recorded the time, temperature, and humidity of each test. If you want to see the original records, I can print them out."

Jiang Cheng walked over and looked at the data on the screen. Thirty sets of data were arranged in a row, and the numbers fluctuated between 19.8 and 20.2, which was indeed stable. He patted Xiao Ma on the shoulder. Xiao Ma's shoulders were narrow, and the bones felt hard against his hand, but patting them gave a sense of security.