Reborn in 2011, I am the chief designer of aerospace.

"Military training?" Song Xingye felt his eyes had been opened. "Has the factory fallen to this level?"

Factory Director Cheng said with a helpless expression, "The factory's debt-to-asset ratio has now exceeded 80%, and the net loss in the last fiscal year was 700 million yuan. We can't even pay the interest on the bank loans."

He pointed to the floor beneath his feet.

"And several buildings in the factory have already been seized by six courts in succession. We can't do any business, let alone production. The workers are so bored that they'll cause trouble. I might as well make them do military training every day to burn off their energy."

"My God, it's already this rotten?"

Song Xingye muttered something to himself.

It's hard to imagine that this zombie factory could survive for several more years, until my unlucky self from my previous life took over.

Immediately, he became somewhat annoyed.

What a bastard!

Knowing full well that Factory 307 was a hot potato, the leader who "promoted" himself to be the scapegoat back then was truly despicable!

Unfortunately, that appointment was a collective decision made by the leadership team, and it's impossible to verify who came up with the bad idea first.

Song Xingye looked at Cheng Long with sympathy.

The fact that this guy has been able to hold out at this factory for several years means he's got some skills.

Unfortunately, fate is fickle; even the most skillful cook can't make a meal without rice.

He offered a friendly reminder: "Are you really out of options? You should really consider that oil well drill bit I mentioned earlier. Making the workers crawl on the ground for military training isn't a long-term solution. If it gets reported to the group's disciplinary committee for inaction, you'll be in serious trouble..."

"I have no choice. I can't wait to take off my official hat and leave!"

Factory Director Cheng spread his hands and said, "Where are we going to get money now? Everyone I know is complaining about being poor, and none of them are willing to give a penny."

"Didn't Dean Lu offer any assistance? Even just acting as a guarantor to secure a loan of tens of millions from the bank for this emergency would be helpful, wouldn't it?"

Factory Director Cheng kept waving his hands, "We've already guaranteed twice, and now no bank will lend us any money. Even the small banks in Shanghai are avoiding us. Factory 307 is definitely on their blacklist!"

"What if we transfer some shares? Or issue a batch of internal bonds, convertible bonds or something like that?"

Song Xingye then enthusiastically offered another solution.

"No, I have to say, you know quite a lot, aren't you? You seem to care a lot about Factory 307? I thought you were just a technician, but you even know all the inside scoops?"

Factory Director Cheng chuckled, pushed the file folder onto the table, and picked up his teacup.

"Forget about transferring shares, even people from the Shanghai State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission came to me to discuss whether I could buy back some of the shares. They don't want to take on this hot potato!"

"As for convertible bonds, forget about them. Nobody's buying them. Even our superiors don't care. Who cares about our survival?"

Song Xingye pursed his lips and could only silently light a candle for Lao Cheng.

It seems that the path to Factory 307 is almost completely blocked.

No wonder he later promoted this clueless newbie with no background to be the acting factory manager.

It's worth noting that he jumped three ranks at the time, directly from deputy workshop director to factory director, which is extremely rare even within the system.

He was both the youngest and the fastest to fall from grace at that time.

So Song Xingye ate a poisoned pie.

Jackie Chan seemed to have completely given up, calmly waving his hand and saying:

"Alright, let's not talk about these unpleasant things anymore. Hurry up and take a look at these documents. If there are no problems, sign them and take them away."

Oh, right, there's also the matter of engraving names on the Yinghuo-1 probe. There are a few agreements that require your fingerprints, so let's get them done together. I was just planning to talk to you this morning!

Song Xingye snapped out of his thoughts, nodded, and glanced at the contents of the report in the file bag, which were exactly the same as what Li Difeng had instructed.

After confirming that nothing was missing, he signed his name in the recipient section.

Then he flipped through another stack of agreements.

This is a special perk for the first-ever "top scorer" of the Starry Sky Summer Camp: their name can be engraved onto a chip the size of a fingernail using an electron beam.

And together with all the meritorious designers, it was placed in the probe's time capsule, becoming a part of Mars.

Factory 307 won the order for this time capsule and called Song Xingye in, just to add a name to the chip.

There are some procedures to follow.

But as he flipped through the pages, Song Xingye stopped.

Firefly... Number 1.

Mars probe.

Back in summer camp, he had heard that the Eighth Academy had won the overall development and manufacturing work for the Mars probe, completed the testing, and was about to enter the launch process.

At the time, he wondered if this was a butterfly effect of the Tianwen-1 Mars probe, which was originally scheduled to launch this year, but was delayed until 2020 due to unforeseen circumstances.

After all, the Eighth Academy was indeed one of the key research and development units for Tianwen-1.

So Song Xingye subconsciously got confused. Besides, the Mars exploration mission was too high a level and far removed from his life as a junior PhD student, so there was no need to dig deeper.

But now, seeing Firefly No. 1, he suddenly realized.

wrong!

This Mars probe is completely different from Tianwen-1!

This is another Mars probe.

There was no butterfly effect; this was a probe that should have been launched in 2011 anyway.

Song Xingye suddenly realized that he had made a mistake.

But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't remember what happened back then.

But one thing is certain: the launch of this probe was a complete failure!

Otherwise, how could such a momentous historical event as the first exploration of Mars by the Eastern Kingdom have left no trace in the mind of him, the future chief engineer?

Seeing that Song Xingye hadn't written anything for a while, Factory Director Cheng asked curiously, "What's wrong? Why are you spacing out?"

The former, regaining his composure, quickly asked, "Director Cheng, I'd like to ask when Firefly-1 will be launched?"

"It'll be soon, I heard it's scheduled for early next month. Why are you asking? Are you already itching to send the name to Mars?"

Early next month... It's already mid-October.

That means there's less than a month left!

Song Xingye's heart sank.

Time is of the essence.

He had to find a way to intervene in the launch of Yinghuo-1, or at least try to save the probe.

It's not that he wanted to recover the losses for the group.

The Yinghuo-1 detector cost at most tens of millions of yuan, and the group is financially strong enough to afford to lose that amount.

What Song Xingye truly cared about was the special significance of Firefly 1.

It's going to Mars.

Fireflies, if you translate it, it's just "Yinghuo" (荧惑).

It is the fire star that the ancients described as "a flickering, chaotic, and confusing fire, hence the name Yinghuo".

This was the first time the people of Dongguo had launched an attack on that orange-red planet, and it was the first bold attempt by the entire nation in deep space exploration.

If the Yinghuo-1 launch fails, then the next Mars mission... will have to be postponed until Tianwen-1, nine years later.

Nine years of agonizing waiting...

For Song Xingye, who harbored ambitions of reaching for the stars and the sea, it was far too long.

So it's time to step in and at least, within our capabilities, help Dongyu Group correct its mistakes.

So he asked, "Director Cheng, do you have any information about Firefly-1? Could I take a look? Even just a glimpse would be helpful!"

Song Xingye hopes to use the "Fault Prediction Eye" to quickly find the fault point of Firefly 1.

"Why are you looking at this? Your job shouldn't involve anything related to it, right?"

Factory Director Cheng gave him a wary look. "Mars exploration is a key project for the group. The technical data on Yinghuo-1 has long been archived and kept confidential. I can't give it to you."

"Do you know where I can find relevant materials? Non-classified materials are fine too. I have a junior classmate who is writing a thesis on Mars exploration, and I'm hoping to find some learning materials."

Song Xingye tried to bargain, making up a reason on the spot.

However, Director Cheng kept his mouth shut and didn't reveal a single word, which left him somewhat helpless.

It seems that without offering some real financial incentives, we won't be able to get this old fox to open his mouth.

Then an idea struck him, and he made a suggestion: "Factory Director Cheng, would you like to... get some money for Factory 307?"

"silver?"

As soon as money was mentioned, Jackie Chan's attitude changed completely. He sat up straight instantly, his eyes practically gleaming.

"Nonsense! Of course I want to! I dream about it all the time! I'm practically broke right now, and the workers are starving."

But he immediately became alert and said, "Hey, let me make this clear first, I won't do anything against the rules! If the factory goes bankrupt, I can still go back to the institute as a technician. But if I do anything reckless, I'll be working as a sewing machine operator!"