78: Bringing his wife and children to Harbin Institute of Technology

Chen An put down the sampling rod, looked at Sun Cheng, then at Wu Min, and said, "If we had this machine last time, the first experiment wouldn't have been so bad."

Wu Min didn't speak, but the corner of her mouth twitched slightly.

The second toughening experiment officially began early the next morning.

Sun Cheng and Wu Min stood in front of the lab bench again, with the formula sheet spread out to one side. Neither of them spoke much, but they did their work very carefully.

They weighed the phenolic resin, and the numbers on the electronic scale were accurate to one decimal place.

The fine rubber powder, at a dosage of three percent, was weighed three times by Wu Min before being poured into the material container.

"This time, we'll use that new mixer."

Sun Cheng glanced at the machine in the corner, which Liu Xiaojun had installed with a protective shield last night.

Mixing, laying, molding, pressing—each step was strictly performed according to the data on the process parameter card.

Chen An stood by, meticulously noting down details such as how the temperature should change, how much pressure to apply, and how long to maintain the temperature.

No one spoke in the laboratory; the only sounds were the hum of the hydraulic press and the occasional hissing of the resin in the mold.

When the heat preservation was finished, Sun Cheng made the mold by hand.

The sample was taken out of the mold; its surface was smooth and its color was even.

Sun Cheng measured its thickness with calipers, measuring all four corners, and the error was less than 0.1 millimeters.

He carefully wrapped the sample, clipped it to the back of his bicycle, and then rode off towards Professor Cai's laboratory.

Wu Min stood at the workshop entrance, watching Sun Cheng's back as he turned and left the factory.

Chen An walked over and offered her a cigarette, but she shook her head. Chen An didn't light the cigarette himself and tucked it behind his ear.

It was lunchtime, and the aroma of stir-fried dishes wafted over from the cafeteria, but no one touched them.

Liu Xiaojun came out of the warehouse and saw three people at the laboratory entrance, some standing and some sitting. He didn't say anything, turned around and went back into the warehouse.

At 3:07 PM, the phone rang.

Chen An was closest, so he rushed over in three steps and grabbed the receiver.

The person on Professor Cai's side was reporting the test data through the receiver. His hand holding the receiver was trembling slightly, but he didn't even realize it.

After hanging up the phone, he stood there stunned for two or three seconds.

Wu Min stared at him, her voice changing, and asked, "How much?"

Chen An turned around and shouted, his voice loud enough to be heard throughout the workshop, "The impact strength has increased by thirty-four percent! It's exceeded, exceeded the target set in the plan!"

Wu Min immediately raised her hand to cover her mouth, and her eyes instantly reddened.

Sun Cheng wasn't there at the time; he was still riding his bicycle back.

However, he held the data report in his hand, and while waiting for a car at the traffic light intersection, he looked down and read it three times.

He never told anyone about the sleepless nights he spent tossing and turning after his first failed experiment.

Master Li dragged Liu Xiaojun out of the warehouse, while Liu Xiaojun was still wiping the oil off his hands with cotton yarn.

Master Li pointed towards Chen An and his team and shouted, "It's done! The material produced by your machine exceeds the specifications!"

After listening, Liu Xiaojun was stunned for a moment, then grinned.

He stuffed the cotton yarn into his pocket and said, "I knew it would work."

Then he repeated it again, saying, "I knew it all along."

The news spread very quickly.

Professor Zhou arrived from the school around 4 p.m. that day.

He rode his bicycle there by himself, and went straight to the mixer as soon as he entered the workshop. He squatted down and looked at it from all angles for a long time.

"Is this the one?" he asked Liu Xiaojun, turning his head.

Liu Xiaojun stood to the side and nodded.

"Demonstrate it to me from the beginning."

Liu Xiaojun turned on the power and slowly increased the speed from zero to 200, 500, 800, and 1200, maintaining a steady speed throughout.

Professor Zhou stared at the tachometer, his eyes growing brighter and brighter.

He straightened up, took off his glasses, wiped them, put them back on, looked at the machine assembled from scrapped parts, and then said something.

"This approach is more practical than the equipment we have in our lab that we bought from abroad. It is more suitable for promotion among small and medium-sized enterprises in China."

He then turned to Liu Xiaojun and said, "You organize the entire process of this technical modification, and I'll take it back and write it into a teaching case."

Before Liu Xiaojun could say anything, Professor Zhou had already walked up to Ye Bingwen.

"Director Ye, I suggest you apply for a technology patent for this mixer." His tone was very serious. "You have to protect the technological achievements you've developed. When you apply for projects from the Science and Technology Commission later, patented achievements will be a very strong support."

Ye Bingwen nodded, and without any further pleasantries, simply said one word: "Okay."

After a busy week, it's Sunday.

Ye Bingwen squatted in the entryway, tying An'an's shoelaces. The little girl was wearing a light yellow coat and kept jumping around at the door.

"Dad, you promised to take me to fly a kite!"

"I said so."

On the grass in the park, An'an ran with her newly bought swallow kite in her hand, her two short legs moving quickly. Ye Bingwen supported her from behind, and when he let go, the kite wobbled and rose into the air.

An'an called out, laughing and shouting as she ran, pulling on the string. The swallow kite trembled in the sky, flying higher and higher.

Tired from running, she sat back down on the bench, a fine layer of sweat on her forehead. She leaned on Ye Bingwen's arm and looked up at him.

"Dad's factory is getting better and better."

Ye Bingwen looked down at her and asked, "How did you know?"

An'an said very seriously, "Mom says every day that Dad works very hard."

She paused for a moment, then added with certainty, "People who work hard must be very capable."

Ye Bingwen didn't say anything, but simply pulled his daughter closer to him.

On his way home in the evening, his pager went off when he reached the alley entrance. He handed An'an to Zheng Shuyun and went to the public phone booth at the street corner to return the call.

When he answered the phone, it was the voice he had been waiting for for days. The provincial science and technology commission informed him that his project application had passed the preliminary review and that he would be going to the site for a defense in two weeks.

He hung up the phone and walked back, his pace much faster than when he came.

That night, Zheng Shuyun coaxed An'an to sleep and sat down under the living room light. Ye Bingwen spread out a large amount of project materials on the table, and she helped him classify and organize them. The two of them went through the materials one by one, occasionally whispering a few words to each other.

An'an wasn't actually asleep. She slipped off the bed, shuffled over in her little slippers, and started drawing at the other end of the coffee table.

Zheng Shuyun leaned over to take a look and asked, "What's that drawing?"

An'an pointed to the square object and said, "A machine that spins."

Ye Bingwen looked down and recognized it.

That was the speed-adjustable mixer that Liu Xiaojun had modified.