Rebirth 08: Equipment God

Chapter 199: Hiding Your Identity
Zhai Da pushed Song Gu Fen around the Harbin Institute of Technology campus for a long time before he realized why the old woman was so familiar with the place.

When Song Gufen first retired, she served as a rehired professor at Harbin Institute of Technology for two years, but soon had to quit due to health reasons.

The two continued talking throughout the journey.

The content no longer mentions that past, but instead focuses on Zhai Da's growth.

The gardenia trees in Sanmao Community, the toilets at Maofang Middle School, the two and a half years of playing, the gradual accumulation of knowledge and the leap in academic performance, and finally the choice to visit Harbin Institute of Technology, which my grandfather was unable to visit.
For once, Zhai Da felt the care from his grandfather's generation. His great-uncle in Jishi was also of his grandfather's generation and was very enthusiastic, but he had never asked such detailed questions before.

Meanwhile, the elderly Song Gufen was increasingly impressed by Zhai Da's excellence; "Brother Li's" grandson had truly exceeded her expectations.

He originally wanted to visit his old friend's descendants, and although he was retired, he felt he could still help Zhai Da.

But after getting to know him, I found out that Zhai Da was doing very well, even living a carefree and unrestrained life!
However, he still took the initiative to speak.

“Let’s keep in touch. Now that you’re at Harbin Institute of Technology, you’re studying engineering. If you have any questions about your studies, feel free to ask me. Even though I’ve been retired for many years and have been left behind by the times, my mind is still sharp.”

He laughed heartily as he spoke: "If I really encounter a problem, I'll just ask my students. They can always solve it, whether it's a problem with their studies or their lives."

Song Gufen has a strong lineage of students, if not countless. Among them are two academicians, and neither of them has retired.

Those who are not academicians are even more influential; in the academic circles of Northeast China, they can even be called a "faction".

This is why Principal Wang Chunguo always personally greets people at the entrance, both out of respect for his seniors and to maintain relationships.

Harbin Institute of Technology has many graduates every year, but they all end up in this "faction".

Zhai Da did not refuse Song Gufen. Whether or not you have connections is another matter, but you have to have them.

Finally, the two went to the principal's office again. While saying goodbye, they drank a cup of tea to express their gratitude to Principal Wang. Song Gufen had not mentioned what he was there for because he did not want to reveal his intentions.

Now, he added that if he simply said that Zhai Da's maternal grandfather was an old friend of his, Principal Wang wouldn't ask any further questions.

Before leaving at the school's main gate, Song Gufen grabbed Zhai Da's hand: "Now that you're both studying in Harbin, you must! You must keep in touch. If you don't come looking for this old man, I'll have to come looking for you again."

He originally wanted to arrange for Zhai Da to come to his house for dinner on the weekend, but Zhai Da was indeed unavailable on the weekend.

From this day forward, Song Gufen's affection for Zhai Da stemmed not only from "Brother Li's" kindness towards him, but also from Zhai Da's exceptional qualities.

Having weathered many storms and reached this age, nothing brings more joy than witnessing outstanding younger generations—a feeling that's hard for young people to understand.

Zhai Da smiled and said, "Okay. Take care on your journey."

Grandson Song Feiyu came to carry his grandfather into the car again. The old man can walk by himself, but it is said that he has only been recovering for two days and still cannot leave his wheelchair.

Just thinking that Song Feiyu seemed to lack strength when getting off the bus, causing the old man's legs to slam against the car door, Zhai Da simply took the initiative to do the work.

He easily and steadily carried Song Gufen into the car.

The old man smiled broadly, then immediately glared at his grandson: Look at him!

Song Feiyu scratched his head. He didn't resent Zhai Da, after all, in his grandfather's eyes, even the "paralyzed" people in the neighborhood were better than him, and he was used to it.
Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

After seeing Song Gufen off, Zhai Da met up with Xiao Mutou again in the afternoon for regular classes.

Back at Shenzhou Mansion that evening, he began working on another matter: he planned to handle some items up for auction.

The house is so comfortable now that it has heating. The only minor problem is walking barefoot in slippers on the underfloor heating.
The soles of my feet sweat easily.
Zhai Da took a quick sniff and decided that he should wear socks indoors from now on.

After searching on the computer for a while, I finally touched my chin with some regret.

He discovered that the three northeastern provinces had not yet launched "online judicial auctions," a service currently only available in Zhejiang and other provinces, putting them at the forefront of the times.

In other places, judicial auctions still follow the traditional model, requiring in-person meetings and formally raising bidding paddles.

Moreover, due to the complexity and participation costs of offline judicial auctions, they generally only auction items with clear market value, such as houses, cars, and gold and silver jewelry.
The situation of listing even a single stocking on an online auction platform will not occur.

This doesn't fit Zhai Da's need to "use auctions to find special items." He needs some strange and unusual things, not expensive ones.

After careful consideration, Zhai Da still felt that the path of acquiring equipment through judicial auctions should not be abandoned.

Although transporting goods from afar to Harbin will increase costs, if you bring in more and ship them all at once, the transportation costs of a few thousand yuan will still be manageable.

I'll just go to the Qianshi Intermediate People's Court, which is under the jurisdiction of Dongyang County. It's more convenient to ship the goods there, and I know a lot of people there.

Without hesitation, Zhai Da immediately went to the auction page of the Qianshi Intermediate People's Court.

"Let me see, there must be a lot of new stuff in there."

"What is this... a tomb raiding tool? Won't auctioning this thing lead to the spread of the technique? Send it here!"

"Black lace lingerie (not brand new) Holy crap, F-grade, who could possibly need this? Send it to me!"

"Chainsaw (the tool used in the crime). What the heck is this? It's from illegal logging. Forget it, this can't be a special item."

The auction at the Qianshi Intermediate People's Court underwent a complete overhaul. Apart from a few stubborn buyers who failed to sell, all the items were brand new, since it had been three months since he last bought anything.

Zhai Da was once again immersed in the joy of shopping.

In order to gather enough items for a truckload of shipments, they ordered more than 200 items in one night, three times the amount ordered last time.

He didn't pick expensive items, but rather "strange" ones; many of these items cost only three or five yuan, and in the end, the total bill was less than 5000 yuan.
Around 10 p.m., Zhai Da, who had been on a shopping spree, rubbed his eyes and couldn't help but sigh that shopping was quite tiring.
He picked up his phone and called Wu Yue.

"where?"

"You're at home, what's wrong?"

Zhai Da said he had bought another batch of auctioned items and asked Wu Yue how to conveniently ship them to Harbin. Wu Yue thought for a moment and said, "The same kind of miscellaneous items as last time? It's easier to find someone to pick them up in the new city. I can help you make a contact, but it's a long way and there's no one to accompany you. Even if you charter a car to deliver it, there will probably be a lot of damage. You should be prepared."

Zhai Da nodded and said, "It's okay, it's not expensive anyway, we can leave it at the craft brewery first."

"No thanks, I remember you had all sorts of random stuff with you last time. I'll find you a warehouse next door, since they're going to do food processing over there."

"Well, you're right."

"By the way, why do you like buying auctioned properties?"

You wouldn't understand the fun of opening blind boxes.

"Oh, right, there's one more thing. If I only have a license plate number, how can I find the car and the owner?"

Wu Yue hesitated for a moment and said, "Well, the insurance company and 122 can both check. Just say that the other party suspected that they scratched your car. In the subsequent handling, they will eventually be able to contact the car owner."

He hesitated because he had chosen the two most compliant methods.
Zhai Da was stunned for a moment, thinking to himself, "Is this even possible?"
He thought it was either stalking or finding someone within the system with flexible boundaries.

"No. How do you even know about something like this?"

"Hunter's standard procedure, right? Give me the license plate, I'll use my cousin's car to handle it for you. Do you want a thorough check?"

"Uh, okay."

Zhai Da provided the license plate number and told Wu Yue that the other party had passed by a barbecue restaurant near the side gate of Harbin Institute of Technology last night. Wu Yue said that having an address would be more convenient, and that he could just wait for Zhai Da's message.

Zhai Da hung up the phone, still finding it amazing.

That's a true idea genius; he himself was ashamed of his own incompetence.

He had originally planned to close his laptop and take a shower to clean the oil off his face, but then Zhai Da remembered something and reopened the webpage.

I started searching for information about "Miss Qiu of Malan Blossoms" from back then.

This kind of information was already rampant on the internet in 08, though it was mostly in the form of rumors rather than actually involving secrets or lists.

Zhai Da only wanted to learn about the confidentiality rules from back then.

After a long while, Zhai Da closed his laptop and let out a long sigh of relief.

There is a lot of information:

Everyone was concentrated in a desolate, uninhabited area, with tens of thousands of troops isolating a research team of tens of thousands.

It's normal to not be able to tell your family where you are or what you're doing, not to write letters casually, and to only use fixed phrases in your letters, and to go years without any news.

Everyone uses code names and pseudonyms, and cannot tell each other their origin or organization. Those who are not in the same work group cannot communicate about their work content.

Even at the top, only one "connection" knows the situation, and this "connection" leads to "Mr. Wu Hao".

There are many other strict rules like these. It can be said that, for the past ten years and for decades to come, there has never been a project with a higher level of secrecy.

Such strictness results in a significantly reduced number of major leaks from project initiation to success.
It is "zero".

Therefore, despite strong opposition and even threats of force from the US and the Soviet Union, the country still managed to obtain this "undefeated gold card" in the "world's nations" and gain the right to sit at the table.

This incident is even somewhat related to the 800 heroes of Harbin Institute of Technology. It was because they were determined to research the mushroom bomb despite the pressure that the Soviet Union exerted full pressure, including military threats and the suspension of all technical cooperation, which led to the complete shutdown of Harbin Institute of Technology. The country then called on educated youth from all over the country to rebuild Harbin Institute of Technology.

History seems to be a circle; all seemingly unrelated events ultimately influence each other in the same space and time, together forming the "present world".

After the major mission was completed, a very small number of people continued their research, while most of the others returned to their local areas under strict secrecy, and the relevant content was, in principle, "permanently sealed."

In the decades that followed, the information was declassified several times, but the total number of people whose information was "declassified" was probably less than 1%.

Don't think that "mushroom bombs" are no longer advanced technology, as if their principles are already written in high school textbooks. That's because we live in a country that possesses mushroom bombs, and understanding the principles and being able to build them are two completely different things.

There are many countries in the world that dream of possessing mushroom bombs; they are willing to gamble with their national destiny, and they are bound to have crooked ideas.

A particular image in someone's mind might be the key that some countries have been unable to access for years.

This lifelong secrecy is also a form of protection.

From the perspective of future generations, having participated in such a great project, it is only right that they be honored and have blessings for their descendants.

But those who participated back then probably wouldn't think that way at all.

Just like netizens sitting in heated rooms can't understand those soldiers who freeze to death on the battlefield rather than retreat.

Just like a carefree teenager who dropped out of school and thought that studying was useless, they couldn't understand the rural teachers who dedicated their lives to their work in the mountains.

Sometimes, understanding is not necessary.

Simply show respect and reverence.

Zhai Da slowly closed his laptop and pondered for a long time.

I took my grandfather's "Metalworking Notes" from the bookshelf next to me.

I continued studying under the desk lamp, trying to more clearly construct a tall figure.

My maternal grandfather's wish was to remain anonymous and forge swords for the country.

Then
Let his memory remain vivid.

(End of this chapter)