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

The matter concerning Institute 601 was temporarily put on hold. The chief engineer abruptly called off the discussion and invited Zhang Guangyuan from Harbin. Ye Bingwen sensed something was amiss but didn't press the matter. Director Liu told him to return to the university and wait for news, so he bought a train ticket for that evening and rushed back to Harbin.

It was 3 a.m. when he got home. Zheng Shuyun left the door open for him; there was half a bowl of cold porridge and a dish of pickled vegetables on the table. An'an was fast asleep in her crib, her little fists clenched around the corner of the blanket. Ye Bingwen quietly drank his porridge and sat in a chair for a while. His mind wasn't on Institute 601, but on the brushless motor. The prototype had to be made as soon as possible; it was his strongest trump card.

The next morning, Ye Bingwen went to the library. The Russian language section was located at the far end of the first floor of the main building, and it was rarely visited. The librarian was an elderly woman who had been retired but rehired, wearing reading glasses and knitting a sweater, without even looking up.

Ye Bingwen browsed the bookshelves and found several Soviet electrical engineering journals from the 1960s. In an unassuming issue of the third volume of "Soviet Electrical Engineering" from 1965, there was an article about brushless motors; the principle of fractional-slot concentrated windings described in it matched his memories from his previous life. He borrowed the journal and returned to the laboratory.

In the days that followed, Ye Bingwen practically lived in the laboratory.

The prototype materials from the motor factory were ready, and Master Wang began winding the wires, but Ye Bingwen didn't want to wait. He wanted to assemble a prototype using scrap parts first. In the corner of the laboratory, there was a pile of scrapped motor parts. He went through them and picked out the usable iron cores, bearings, and housings. Since he couldn't buy ready-made magnets for the rotor, he found a piece of scrap aluminum-nickel-cobalt permanent magnet and ground it into a suitable shape with a grinder.

The control circuit was the most troublesome. Unable to buy Hall effect sensors, he built a simple position sensor using discrete components. The circuit board was cut with a knife, the copper foil lines were crooked, but it worked. He only had a small roll of solder wire, and the soldering iron tip was oxidized and blackened, but he still soldered every line firmly.

Chen Zhiyuan came to help every day after class. He wasn't very efficient, but he was very serious. "Bingwen, do you think this thing can really spin?"

"able."

"Have you done this before?"

"No. But it's theoretically feasible." Ye Bingwen fixed the last circuit board in place.

On the seventh night, the prototype was assembled.

Ye Bingwen installed the rotor into the stator and connected the control circuit. Chen Zhiyuan stood beside him, his palms sweaty. "Power on."

Chen Zhiyuan pressed the switch. The motor did not respond.

Ye Bingwen crouched down to check the wiring; the Hall sensor's phase was reversed. He picked up the soldering iron and resoldered three wires. He turned the power on again. The rotor trembled slightly, made a soft click, and then began to rotate slowly, gradually increasing in speed until it stabilized at a uniform rotational speed.

The laboratory was extremely quiet, with only the sound of the motor turning.

Ye Bingwen stared at the rotor, his heart pounding. "It's done." His voice was a little hoarse.

Chen Zhiyuan slammed his fist on the table. "Ye Bingwen! You're a fucking genius!"

Ye Bingwen turned off the motor and picked up a multimeter to measure various parameters. The efficiency far exceeded his expectations. He measured it three times to confirm the data was correct. Leaning back in his chair, he let out a long sigh. In his previous life, he had spent countless nights in the laboratory, days of failure, starting over, and starting over again. Now he knew that some things couldn't be rushed.

"Chen Zhiyuan, don't tell anyone about today's events." He covered the motor with a cloth.

Why?

"Let's confirm everything's okay before we talk about it," Chen Zhiyuan said and left. Ye Bingwen reconnected the motor and let it idle for an hour. The temperature, noise, and vibration were all within normal ranges. At two in the morning, he turned off the motor, lay down on the lab table, and fell asleep. In his dream, An'an was running in the snow, with Zheng Shuyun chasing after her.

The next morning, Ye Bingwen was awakened by a knock on the door. Zhang Guangyuan stood there, carrying a canvas bag and looking tired. "Professor Zhang? You're back from Shenyang?"

"I got back last night." Zhang Guangyuan walked into the lab, his gaze falling on the motor covered by a cloth on the table. "I heard you've been working on something these past few days. Did you finish it?"

Ye Bingwen lifted the cloth. Zhang Guangyuan bent down and examined it carefully, then reached out and turned the rotor. "Let's turn on the power and see."

Ye Bingwen pressed the switch. The motor started running smoothly.

Zhang Guangyuan stared at the motor for a long time, then took off his glasses, wiped them, and put them back on. The motor spun for one minute, two minutes, five minutes. He finally straightened up, his fingers trembling slightly, but his voice was steady. "This thing can change an industry."

Ye Bingwen remained silent.

"The chief engineer didn't tell me to tell you about your work at Institute 601." Zhang Guangyuan turned around. "The chief engineer asked me to go to Shenyang because a piece of data in your proposal didn't match the wind tunnel test data he had. He wanted to confirm whether your calculations were wrong or his experiments were wrong."

"And the result?"

"You were right after all." Zhang Guangyuan's lips curled up slightly. "The chief engineer sat in his office for half an hour, and then said, 'This student, our Institute 601 is determined to have him.'"

Ye Bingwen felt relieved.

"But..." Zhang Guangyuan changed the subject, "The chief engineer said that you won't be allowed to officially participate in the 601 Institute's projects before you graduate. You're too young. It wouldn't look good if word got out that a university freshman was involved in the development of a key national project. Besides, the confidentiality procedures wouldn't be completed."

"Then what about the plan I made before..."

"Your proposal has been adopted. Your contribution will be recorded in your file, but your name will not appear in any public documents. Is that acceptable to you?"

Ye Bingwen was silent for a few seconds. "Yes." In military projects, individuals always come after the collective.

Zhang Guangyuan patted him on the shoulder. "Okay. The chief engineer asked me to tell you to study hard and come to Institute 601 after graduation. He will personally mentor you then."

After Zhang Guangyuan left, Ye Bingwen stood alone in the laboratory, looking at the smoothly running motor. He suddenly remembered something. Which piece of data did Zhang Guangyuan refer to as "a discrepancy"? The chief engineer had wind tunnel test data, indicating that the 601 Institute's project had entered the physical prototype stage. So how did his proposal get to the chief engineer? Who gave it a push behind the scenes?

He didn't ask these questions. He wouldn't have gotten answers anyway.

But one thing he was clear about: from this day forward, he was no longer an ordinary freshman at Harbin Institute of Technology. The names of Institute 601, the motor factory, and the provincial science and technology department would appear more and more frequently in his life. He had to run faster.

Suddenly, hurried footsteps sounded outside the door. The door wasn't closed, and Chen Zhiyuan poked half his body in, his face pale. "Bingwen, you need to go to the publicity department quickly. Your wife is arguing with Section Chief Sun, and the whole building heard it."

The news of the successful prototype spread throughout the research group.

The first to know was Zheng Zhiyuan. He was a junior and Zhang Guangyuan's student. He was usually quiet, but he was the most senior member of the research group. That day, he passed by the lab and heard a buzzing sound coming from inside. He pushed open the door and saw that the motor was running.

"Did you make this?" Zheng Zhiyuan squatted down and stared at the motor for a long time.

"Um."

Zheng Zhiyuan didn't say anything else, just nodded. But Ye Bingwen noticed that his eyes had changed. Before, when Zheng Zhiyuan looked at him, his gaze always carried a kind of indifference, as if to say, "You're a freshman, I can't be bothered with you." Now that indifference was gone, replaced by a seriousness.