60s: I have a store

Chapter 580: Too Excited, Forgot the Time
The chill of the autumn night seeped into Director Hu's office through the window cracks. He rubbed his swollen temples and glanced at the mountain of documents on his desk.

Expedited orders for air fryers, applications for next month’s coal quotas, equipment maintenance budget reports…

Every document was like a heavy stone, weighing down his lungs.

The clock on the wall pointed to two o'clock in the morning. The entire factory had already fallen asleep. Only the occasional sound of a train whistle in the distance broke the suffocating silence.

Suddenly, the red dedicated telephone on the table rang shrilly, like a thunderclap in the silent night.

Director Hu suddenly jumped up from his chair, knocking over the enamelware pot beside him, and the cold tea spilled all over the document that had just been signed, leaving a large dark stain.

He picked up the receiver, but before he could speak, Li Chongguang's excited voice came over: "Director! The solar water heater...is a success! Now all the data are up to standard, including the insulation test, heat collection efficiency...all passed!"

Cheers and the hum of equipment came through the receiver. Director Hu could even hear Xiao Wang shouting at the top of his lungs, "We did it!"

The hand holding the receiver tightened unconsciously, his Adam's apple rolled up and down a few times, and he wanted to say something, but found that the sound was stuck in his throat and couldn't come out.

Director Hu did not expect that Zhou Yimin and his team actually completed the task within the specified time, and even four days ahead of schedule. He also understood the process, but he had no choice.

The moonlight outside the window shines through the blinds, casting long shadows on the ground.

Suddenly I remembered the crooked experimental device I saw when I came to inspect seven days ago, Zhou Yimin's bloodshot but determined eyes, the technicians' red eyes and greasy work clothes.

He said at that time, "Don't let me down", and now these words echo in my ears again.

"I'll be right there." He finally spoke, his voice hoarse but with unquestionable strength.

After hanging up the phone, Director Hu quickly put on his coat and rushed out the door without even tying his tie.

The voice-controlled lights in the corridor lit up one by one and went out behind him, as if lighting the way forward for this late-night journey.

The road in the factory area glowed with a cold white light under the moonlight, and Director Hu's leather shoes made rapid sounds as they stepped on the ground.

When passing by the boiler room, Lao Zhou, who was on duty, stuck his head out and said in surprise: "Director, it's so late. What are you doing..."

"Go to the research lab!" Director Hu said without stopping.

The cold wind blew in his face and poured into his open collar, but it could not blow away the heat surging in his heart.

From a distance, he saw bright light coming through the windows of the laboratory, like a beacon in the dark night.

The moment I opened the door, a heat wave rushed in with the pungent smell of solder, tea and young people's sweat.

However, Director Hu didn't care what the laboratory smelled like. As long as he could succeed, it didn't matter how smelly it was.

The scene before him made his breath stop - the technicians were leaning against the equipment or sitting on the ground, but they all had bright smiles on their faces.

Zhou Yimin stood in the middle of the laboratory table, holding a wrinkled drawing soaked with sweat in his hand. When he looked up at him, his eyes were surprisingly bright.

"Director, we did it." Zhou Yimin's voice was steady, but his excitement could not be concealed.

Director Hu looked at the haggard young man in front of him, then glanced at the tired but proud scientific research team, and suddenly felt his eyes getting hot.

He walked forward and patted Zhou Yimin's shoulder heavily. Thousands of words finally turned into one sentence: "Good, well done!"

Apart from this sentence, Director Hu couldn't think of anything else to say to express his excitement.

At this moment, the moon outside the window has hidden in the clouds at some point, but the lights in the laboratory are brighter than ever.

At three o'clock in the morning, the moonlight slanted into the laboratory, coating the newly assembled solar water heater with a layer of cold silver.

Director Hu's eyes wandered over the array of collector tubes with a metallic sheen, and his Adam's apple rolled up and down as Li Chongguang apologized awkwardly: "Director, I'm really sorry, we were too excited."

Before he finished speaking, Xiao Wang suddenly yawned loudly, which was particularly abrupt in the silent space.

Zhou Yimin's fingers unconsciously stroked the edge of the experiment notebook, and the paper was wrinkled by sweat.

He looked up at the full moon hanging outside the window and suddenly realized how ridiculous this time verification device was.

"How about we all go back and rest first?" His suggestion was interrupted by Lao Chen's suppressed cough, "I'm not leaving!"

Lao Zhao's hoarse voice came from the corner. The usually taciturn fitter was repeatedly polishing the equipment bracket with sandpaper: "I have been busy for ten days. A few hours won't make a difference."

The implication is very clear: no one wants to leave and everyone wants to stay here until dawn.

Director Hu unbuttoned his collar, his tired smile showing relief: "I won't leave either."

He pulled over a folding chair and sat down next to the lab table. "I stayed in the workshop for two days and two nights during the last air fryer trial production. These few hours are nothing."

These words suddenly loosened the taut string in the air. Xiao Zhang covered his mouth and laughed out loud, with a trembling sound of surviving a disaster in his laughter.

Sleepiness came like a tide. Old Chen's head gradually dropped to his chest, his reading glasses sliding to the tip of his nose, and Xiao Wang curled up beside the tool cabinet, with paint still stained on his overalls.

Li Chongguang leaned against the filing cabinet, holding an unfinished experimental report in his hand.

Zhou Yimin looked at his colleagues who were staggering around, and finally sat down in front of the operating table. The coolness of the metal tabletop came through his shirt, making him realize that this protracted battle was finally coming to an end.

Director Hu's snoring was the first to sound, and his heavy breathing intertwined with the sound of the wind outside the window.

Immediately afterwards, snoring sounds echoed in the laboratory, sometimes deep like thunder, sometimes sharp like a whistle.

Zhou Yimin looked at the bright incandescent light above his head and forced himself to close his sore eyes, but his nerves were still torn by excitement and fatigue.

He counted the ticking of the wall clock and watched the moonlight slowly shift across the surface of the device until the sky turned pale.

When the first ray of morning light pierced through the clouds, Zhou Yimin's eyelids were almost glued together.

He forced himself to get up and gently shook his sleeping colleague: "It's dawn."

When Old Chen woke up in shock, he knocked over the beaker on the table. The crisp sound made everyone wake up instantly.

Xiao Wang jumped up, with a red mark on his forehead from the pressure of the table. Director Hu rubbed his stiff shoulders, but his eyes were fixed on the sun rising higher outside the window.

Since the sun was out, it was time to start the experiment, so everyone went outside. "Fill in the water!" Following Zhou Yimin's order, Lao Zhao quickly opened the water valve.

Everyone held their breath as they heard the sound of water hitting the tank.

The sunlight gradually covered the solar collectors, and the equipment emitted a slight hum, as if a sleeping giant was waking up.

The morning light sprinkled on the rooftop of the laboratory like broken gold. Zhou Yimin leaned over to check the last water pipe connection, his fingers turned red from the cold from the metal parts.

As he straightened up, he heard gasps from behind him - Director Hu had taken off his safety helmet at some point, his sparse white hair was messed up by the morning breeze, and his eyes were fixed on the silver and black solar water heater.

The night dew condensed on the surface of the equipment refracted tiny rays of light in the sun, and the solar collector array was like soldiers ready to go, quietly waiting for the test at dawn.

"Turn on the water!" Following Zhou Yimin's instructions, the moment Lao Zhao turned the valve, the water pipe made a low roar.

Transparent water flowed through the pipe into the water tank. As everyone watched with bated breath, the temperature control display on the surface of the device lit up with a faint blue light.

"The initial temperature is 12℃!" Xiao Wang's hand holding the notebook was shaking slightly, and the tip of the pen left a crooked mark on the paper.

Director Hu suddenly took a step forward, and the hem of his Zhongshan suit swept across the toolbox next to him.

His pupils contracted slightly as the sun rose higher, and he watched the coating on the surface of the collector tube gradually emit a dark red glow.

When the first ray of sunlight accurately covers the heat-absorbing surface, the device makes a slight "click" sound, as if a sleeping mechanical heart begins to beat.

"The temperature has risen! 1℃.2℃." Xiao Zhang's voice of counting was torn apart by the whistling wind.

Lao Chen attached the infrared thermometer to the thermal collector tube, and the numbers on the LCD screen kept jumping like a living thing.

Director Hu's Adam's apple rolled violently. He stretched out his hand to touch the equipment, but suddenly retracted it half an inch away from the metal surface - he suddenly realized that his palm was shaking uncontrollably.

After more than an hour, the numbers on the temperature control screen exceeded 40℃.

"This is impossible." Director Hu muttered to himself, his eyes widening behind his glasses.

He bent over the water tank, the steam blurring his lenses: "No need to burn coal, no need to use electricity, just relying on sunlight?"

At this moment, his face was filled with shock and ecstasy. His wrinkles seemed to be filled with exclamation marks. The corners of his mouth lifted uncontrollably, revealing his teeth that were yellowed by years of smoking.

As 62℃ scalding hot water gushed out from the shower head and wisps of white mist rose in the cold morning breeze, Director Hu stood frozen in place, as if bound by a spell.

He opened his mouth but could not utter a word. The muscles on his face twitched uncontrollably, and his originally serious and rigid expression was distorted into an incredible shape.

This man, who had worked in the steel mill for more than 30 years and had seen molten iron flowing in blast furnaces and ten thousand tons of equipment roaring, seemed to have all his strength drained away at this moment. He staggered and held onto the guardrail beside him. The metal railing creaked under his trembling hands.

"Is this really possible?" His voice was broken and hoarse with a strong nasal tone, and his eyes behind the glasses were bloodshot but surprisingly bright, as if burning with two clusters of crazy flames.

He suddenly rushed towards the water outlet, totally ignoring the fact that the scalding hot water soaked his cuffs. His rough palms stirred the water repeatedly, and water droplets dripped through his fingers, making small splashes on the ground.

"No coal! No electricity!" He suddenly burst into a neurotic laugh, mixed with sobs, which scared away the sparrows perched in the corner of the rooftop.

Director Hu turned around abruptly, grabbed Zhou Yimin's shoulders and shook him hard, and the second button of his Zhongshan suit flew off during the violent movement.

"Do you know what this means?" His nose was almost touching the other person's face, and the hot air he exhaled sprayed on Zhou Yimin's face.

"Every winter the country is overwhelmed with coal allocation, and how many elderly people and children get sick because they are reluctant to boil water! This thing, this thing can save lives!" As he spoke, the eyes of this man in his fifties became red, and turbid tears slid down his wrinkles and dripped onto his work clothes covered with oil stains.

He suddenly broke away from the crowd, stumbled to the equipment, and touched the surface of the collector tube as if it were precious porcelain.

When his fingertips felt the warmth of the metal, he trembled again and took two steps back, hitting the back of his head heavily against the wall.

At this time, Director Hu had completely lost his former dignity.

He squatted on the ground, drawing circles on the wet concrete floor with his fingers, muttering to himself.

Director Hu paced hurriedly on the rooftop, stepping on the glass of a thermometer that had fallen down at some point and breaking it: "This is not the factory's credit, this is a gift to the people of the whole country!"

After he finished speaking, he left. Everyone was a little dumbfounded, but no one said much.

Director Hu quickly ran back to the office and prepared to call his superiors. This matter was no longer something he could decide.

The palm of the hand holding the receiver was full of sweat, and the plastic microphone was slightly deformed.

The silence on the other end of the phone weighed on his chest like a huge rock, until his superior's slightly hoarse question broke the silence: "What did you say? A water heater that doesn't use coal or electricity?"

He could hear the other person's rapid breathing, and it was obvious that the news was too shocking.

"It's absolutely true!" Director Hu loosened his tie at his collar, his work shirt already soaked with cold sweat. "Boss, this is not a small matter. I suggest you come and see it in person!"

Before he finished speaking, a voice came from the receiver: "Wait, I'll be there now!"

There was a roar, followed by the dull thud of a phone falling to the ground.

The wind from the factory gate blew coal dust onto Director Hu's face, but he was unaware of it, his eyes fixed on the intersection in the distance.

Every time the watch hand ticked, his heart beat faster.

Driver Xiao Wang's hands were shaking as he gripped the steering wheel. In the rearview mirror, his boss kept urging him to "go faster" every two minutes.

The originally spacious asphalt road seemed particularly long at this moment, and the news broadcast on the car radio was drowned out by the anxious knocking sounds. When the car turned into the factory area in an almost drifting posture, the time displayed on the dashboard was frozen at 28 minutes - a full 16 minutes shorter than usual.

As the black car rushed towards him through the morning mist, he rushed forward in two steps, his leather shoes making a harsh sound on the asphalt road.

The car window rolled down, and the leader leaned out. His usually neatly combed hair was a little messy: "Lead the way!"

Director Hu didn't say much and immediately started leading the way.

Moreover, he had already informed Zhou Yimin and others in advance to drain the hot water they had just boiled. The leader must have wanted to conduct a test, so the steps had to be started over again.

Led by Director Hu who was jogging all the way, the leaders soon arrived at the research laboratory.

(End of this chapter)