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

Thursday morning, Harbin Railway Station.

Ye Bingwen stood at the entrance of the waiting room, a canvas bag slung over his shoulder. It was very cold; his breath turned into white mist. He turned up the collar of his cotton-padded coat and hunched his shoulders. The train to Shenyang departed at 6:30, a slow, green train, and would take more than six hours. Zheng Shuyun had offered to see him off, but he declined.

The platform was crowded. Ye Bingwen found a corner to stand in and took out a steamed bun from his bag to eat. The bun was steamed by Zheng Shuyun that morning and was still warm.

The train pulled into the station, and the crowd surged. Ye Bingwen, carrying his bag, squeezed onto the train and finally managed to find a window seat.

Across from him sat a middle-aged man in his forties, wearing a military overcoat and holding a newspaper. He glanced at Ye Bingwen and asked, "Young man, where are you going?"

"Shenyang. Harbin Institute of Technology. I need to take care of something."

The middle-aged man became interested. "Harbin Institute of Technology? A good school. My son didn't get in this year, so he's repeating a year."

Ye Bingwen smiled and said, "If I repeat a year, I'll definitely pass the exam next year."

The middle-aged man took out a handful of peanuts and handed them over, saying, "Eat, they're homegrown."

The train started moving. The scenery outside the window slowly receded, the buildings of Harbin gradually fading into the distance, replaced by barren fields. Ye Bingwen leaned back in his seat, closed his eyes, and thought about the 601 Institute. Zhang Guangyuan was right; they needed to adopt a humble attitude, but the core of the plan could not be compromised.

The train clattered along, and he unknowingly fell asleep.

When he opened his eyes again, the person opposite him had changed to an old woman carrying a floral cloth bundle. Ye Bingwen glanced at his watch; it was 10:30, they were almost in Shenyang.

At 11:40, the train arrived at Shenyang Station. Ye Bingwen got off the train carrying his bag; the exit was packed with people. He found a public phone and dialed the number on the invitation.

"Hello, this is the Chief Engineer's Office of Institute 601."

"I am Ye Bingwen from Harbin Institute of Technology. I am here in Shenyang for technical exchange."

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone, then the voice became warmer. "Comrade Ye Bingwen! Director Liu has instructed that the train will arrive in twenty minutes; please wait at the exit."

Ye Bingwen hung up the phone and stood waiting at the exit. Shenyang was a little warmer than Harbin, but the wind was strong.

Twenty minutes later, a green Jeep pulled up in front of him. The driver was a young man with a round face.

"Comrade Ye Bingwen? Get in the car."

Ye Bingwen picked up his bag and got into the car. The jeep was very basic, with blue canvas covers on the seats.

"You're from Harbin? How many hours have you been on the road?" the driver asked as he drove.

"More than six hours."

"Most people from Harbin Institute of Technology come to our institute by plane, why don't you?"

"I can't sit down."

The driver smiled, "It's remarkable that someone so young can come to our institute for technical exchange. I've been driving for five years and have driven many experts, but you're the first one so young."

The jeep drove for half an hour before turning onto a side road lined with high walls and barbed wire. Guards at the gate checked identification and invitations before allowing passage.

We've arrived at Institute 601.

Ye Bingwen was led to a gray office building. He pushed open the door and went inside. The corridor was quiet, with certificates of merit and banners hanging on the walls, as well as a huge side view of a fighter jet.

He found the chief engineer's office and knocked on the door.

"Come in."

Two people were sitting in the office. One was in his fifties, with gray hair, wearing black-rimmed glasses, and a smile on his face. The other was in his early forties, with a square face and thick eyebrows, and looked rather unapproachable.

"You must be Ye Bingwen?" The man with gray hair stood up and extended his hand. "I'm Director Liu. Welcome, welcome."

Ye Bingwen shook hands. Director Liu pointed to another person, "This is the director of the pneumatics department, surnamed Xu. You can just call him Lao Xu."

Old Xu nodded but did not shake hands. "I've read your proposal, but there are some parts I don't understand. I'd like to ask them in person."

"Please ask."

Director Liu pointed to the sofa, "Sit down first, have some water."

Ye Bingwen sat down on the sofa. Director Liu poured him a cup of tea, the tea so strong it was almost black.

"The expert group reviewed your proposal twice and gave it a very high overall rating, but there were disagreements on a few technical details," said Director Liu.

Old Xu took a stack of documents out of his briefcase. "The first question is, your eddy current generator is installed at a 15-degree angle, but our calculations show that 10 degrees is optimal. Why did you choose 15 degrees?"

Ye Bingwen took the data and looked it over. "Your calculations used an incompressible flow model. But at Mach numbers above 0.8, compressibility cannot be ignored. I corrected it with compressible flow and calculated it to be fifteen degrees."

Old Xu frowned. "What correction method did you use?"

"Plant-Glaue correction".

Old Xu fell silent. He certainly knew this method, but when used on an eddy current generator, it was indeed more precise than theirs.

"Has it been verified?"

"It's been calculated. Verified using the characteristic line method, the error is within three percent."

Old Xu leaned back in his chair, his scrutinizing gaze lessening. "The second question..."

Over the next two hours, Ye Bingwen answered more than a dozen questions. He provided clear answers to each one, covering calculations, materials, and manufacturing processes. Old Xu's questions became increasingly tricky, but Ye Bingwen's responses grew increasingly composed.

Finally, Old Xu closed the documents and breathed a sigh of relief. "Director Liu, I have no further questions."

Director Liu stood up with a smile. "Okay. A small technical discussion is scheduled for tomorrow morning. Please present your proposal in its entirety. The chief engineer will also be there."

Ye Bingwen's heart tightened. "Yes, Director Liu."

That evening, Ye Bingwen was put up in the institute's guesthouse. The room was small, with a single bed, a table, and a chair.

He sat at the table, mentally reviewing what he would be saying the next day. The chief engineer was a prominent figure in the aviation industry; one couldn't afford to make a mistake when speaking to such a person.

He picked up his pen and started out an outline. There was a knock at the door.

Ye Bingwen opened the door, and there was Old Xu. He was carrying two bottles of beer and a bag of peanuts. "I couldn't sleep, so I wanted to talk to you."

Old Xu came in, placed the beer and peanuts on the table, and pulled out a chair to sit down. Ye Bingwen poured him some water, but he waved his hand, saying, "Water is no fun, I'll have beer."

Ye Bingwen smiled and used his teeth to open the bottle cap.

Old Xu took a sip and wiped his mouth. "Ye Bingwen, to be honest with you, a third of the questions you answered this afternoon were ones I hadn't even thought of myself."

Ye Bingwen remained silent.

"I admit your plan is better than ours," Old Xu said, looking at him. "But I have a question for you."

"Please speak."

"Where did you learn all this, you're a college freshman?"

The room fell silent for a few seconds. Zhang Guangyuan and Liu Deben had asked this question at Harbin Institute of Technology, and now Lao Xu was asking it too.

"I've loved taking things apart since I was little. I've taken apart the radio and sewing machine at home. Later, I found some old books in the village, some from the Soviet Union and some in English, and I studied them on my own."

"That's all?"

That's all.

Old Xu stared at him for a long time, then laughed. "Alright, I believe you. I've seen geniuses, but I've never seen one like you."

He picked up his beer bottle and clinked it against Ye Bingwen's. "The chief engineer is coming tomorrow, don't be nervous. He has a temper, but he knows what he's doing. If your proposal is good, he'll approve."

"Thank you, Director Xu."

"Don't thank me." Old Xu stood up. "I'm thanking you. Your solution solved a major problem for us. For two years, this project has been suffocating us. With your arrival, the problem is solved."

He walked to the door and glanced back. "Speak properly tomorrow. Don't embarrass our pneumatics lab."

The door closed.

Ye Bingwen sat at the table, staring at the half-empty bottle of beer. Outside the window, the night sky over Shenyang was dark, with no stars in sight. He picked up his pen and continued writing his outline.

Suddenly, a series of hurried footsteps sounded in the corridor and stopped at his door. Someone was knocking, much more urgently than Old Xu.

Ye Bingwen opened the door, and there stood the round-faced driver from that afternoon. He was pale and panting, saying, "Comrade Ye, Director Liu asked me to inform you that tomorrow's discussion meeting has been canceled."

"Cancelled? Why?"

"The chief engineer... the chief engineer wants you to see him now. In his office." The driver lowered his voice, "And the chief engineer has summoned Professor Zhang Guangyuan from Harbin; he's already on his way."