Reborn in 1977, I will no longer be my brother's blood bag.

The repair area is against the wall and is not very big.

On one side is the disassembled outer casing, and on the other side is a bent copper tube.

There was a small patch of water on the ground, which felt sticky when stepped on.

She walked around the water and went to the blackboard.

It was written on the blackboard:

Twelve units were returned for repair yesterday.

I have returned to Santai today.

"Three platforms?"

Li Mingyuan read it aloud.

"How long has it been since construction started?"

An older female worker nearby placed a basket of small items on the shelf.

"One morning."

Zhao Guodong turned his head.

"Returning to three places in just one morning?"

The female worker wiped her hands on her apron.

"That's still considered a small amount."

She glanced at Lin Xiuhe and the others, then added:

"Are you from your research institute?"

Lin Xiuhe said:

"The school and the research institute are together."

The female worker responded with an "Oh".

"Those are students." Zhao Guodong picked up the toolbox and then put it down again.

Li Mingyuan was a little slow in flipping through the notebook.

Lin Xiuhe asked the female worker:

"Should these three be placed here too?"

"Put it here for now."

"When will it be dealt with?"

"Master Shao, you can look at it when you have time."

"What if Master Shao is always busy?"

The female worker pointed behind her.

"Then just pile them up."

She said it so naturally, as if it were something that should be taken for granted.

After saying that, she walked away with the empty basket.

Zhao Guodong looked at the row of repair parts on the wall and finally couldn't help himself.

"Won't this just lead to more and more piling up?"

Lin Xiuhe said:

"Um."

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's take down the twelfth unit first, find the leak, and then—"

"Found this one, where's the next one?"

Zhao Guodong got stuck.

Lin Xiuhe picked up the repair order for the twelfth unit.

"It's not that there's nowhere to leak; it's that from front to back, nobody left it."

Zhao Guodong uttered half a sentence:

"Isn't that still—"

He swallowed his words and rubbed his hand along the seam of his trousers.

"Okay, I won't take it apart yet."

Just then, a sound came from the side of the sink.

A young worker pushed a prototype onto the frame, causing the metal frame to shake.

Old Shao cursed:

"Be gentle!"

The young worker wiped away his sweat.

"Should we return this one too?"

"You're already asking after I've already posted this?"

"Is that considered welding or leak detection?"

Old Shao got angry.

"You step back first! Don't ask any more questions!"

The young worker tore off the note and casually wrote "retire".

Lin Xiuhe walked over.

"Could we not send them away yet?"

The young worker turned his head.

"What's wrong now?"

Zhao Guodong immediately walked forward.

Li Mingyuan reached out and stopped him.

Lin Xiuhe took the note.

"At which step did this machine start bubbling?"

The young workers were impatient.

"In the water."

"Who delivered it before the floodwaters came in?"

"The welding area."

"Who answered?" The young worker pointed to the sink.

"I."

"What's your name?"

"Chen San".

Lin Xiuhe handed the note back.

"Comrade Chen, could you please add a sentence after 'retreat'?"

Chen San frowned.

"What should I supplement?"

"Leak detection bubble sorting".

Chen San curled his lip.

"What's there to make up for?"

Lin Xiuhe said:

"If you don't fix it, it will arrive at the repair area this afternoon and be a blank form again."

Chen San was not convinced.

But Lao Shao was standing right next to him.

Old Shao still had a cigarette tucked behind his ear, and sweat dripped down his face.

He gestured with his chin toward Chen San.

"repair."

Chen San picked up a pencil and added four words crookedly to the back of the note.

Leak detection bubble.

After writing it down, he slapped the note onto the prototype.

"Is that enough?"

Lin Xiuhe took the note and looked at it.

"OK."

Zhao Guodong stood next to her, hesitated for a moment, and then whispered:

"Just four words, and they actually work?"

Lin Xiuhe pasted the note back.

"At least ask again in the afternoon, so we don't have to start arguing from scratch."

Zhao Guodong rested his hand on the toolbox.

This time, he didn't open the box.

Old Shao witnessed this scene.

He didn't praise it.

He simply took the cigarette from behind his ear and rubbed it between his fingers.

"Is that all you're going to see today?"

Lin Xiuhe said:

"Let's look at it today."

"Want to watch for a whole day?"

"I stared at it for ages."

Old Shao asked:

"What about this afternoon?"

"Go back to school for classes, and tidy up in the evening."

Old Shao scoffed.

"A student is a student."

"I still have to go to class."

Zhao Guodong was about to move when he stopped himself.

Li Mingyuan quickly clamped the notebook together, afraid that the toolbox would fall on his feet.

Lin Xiuhe did not dodge those words.

"Yes."

"We still have classes."

She folded the repair order for the twelfth unit and handed it to Lao Shao.

"So I can't keep you waiting here."

Old Shao took it.

There was still a small mark left by her pencil tip pressed against the edge of the paper.

He took a look.

"It can talk."

"Whether it can be done or not, we'll see."

Zhao Guodong was stung by the words "look again".

"Master Shao, we can do it."

Old Shao slapped the repair slip onto his chest.

"No rush."

Come back tomorrow.

Zhao Guodong accepted the order.

"tomorrow?"

Old Shao pointed to the repair area.

"Today's identification is for yesterday's twelfth station."

"Tomorrow, we'll identify these three TVs from today."

He raised his chin at Lin Xiuhe.

"Manager Lin."

"Don't just focus on one unit."

"If you're going to identify them, then identify this whole bunch."

Lin Xiuhe took the repair order from Zhao Guodong.

The oil stains on the paper smeared onto the back of her hand.

She folded the sheet and tucked it into her textbook.

"OK."

"We'll come again tomorrow."

On the way back to school, Zhao Guodong carried his toolbox the whole way.

The box has not been opened.

The more he thought about it, the more frustrated he became.

He jumped out of the car as soon as it arrived at the school gate.

"I didn't touch a single screw today."

Li Mingyuan got off the bus.

"It didn't cause any trouble."

Zhao Guodong glared at him.

"Are you praising me?"

"I guess so."

What does "let's see" mean?

Li Mingyuan hugged the notebook tightly.

"If you want to hear something nice, I can go back and think about it."

Zhao Guodong was so angry he laughed.

Lin Xiuhe walked towards the teaching building with her schoolbag on her back.

There are classes in the afternoon, and also evening self-study sessions.

Inside her schoolbag, the repair slip for the twelfth unit pressed hard against her back through her textbook.

As they reached the classroom door, Li Mingyuan handed her his notes from the morning's automatic control class.

"You missed two pages this morning."

Lin Xiuhe accepted it.

The writing on the paper was neat.

She tucked the notes into the book.

Zhao Guodong leaned against the door frame.

"That machine at the factory, are you really not going to dismantle it tomorrow?"

Lin Xiuhe stopped at the door.

The classroom was already half full. There were still chalk marks on the blackboard from the morning that hadn't been wiped clean.

She said, "I'll catch up on my lessons first."

Zhao Guodong almost thought he had misheard.

"what?"

Lin Xiuhe put the book on the table.

"If you can't calculate, don't talk about changing it."

Zhao Guodong stood at the door for a while, carrying his toolbox.

Finally, he placed the toolbox next to the podium.

"OK."

"I'll listen too."

Li Mingyuan opened his notebook and casually pulled the stool next to him a little further away. Zhao Guodong sat down, and the stool leg scraped against the floor with a sound.

The students in the front row turned around to look at him.

Zhao Guodong shoved the toolbox to his feet.

"What are you looking at?"

"Never seen any students returning from the factory?"

A few laughs rippled through the classroom. Lin Xiuhe smiled too.

She opened her textbook.

The repair order for the twelfth unit was tucked inside the book.

The column above is still empty.

Tomorrow, she'll have to catch up with it.