I started with a ship full of max-level veterans, and I'm just a complete noob.

At 10 p.m., only three people remained in Workshop No. 1.

Jiang Ming put on his insulated gloves, securing the rubber edges above his wrist bones, and then tightened the cuffs.

The high-voltage measurement circuit of the 0.2 ohmmeter passes through a total of eleven nodes from the anode lead to the microammeter: six solder joints, three terminal clamps, and the pins of two DC blocking capacitors.

"Xiao Zhao, count off every ten seconds."

"clear."

Xiao Zhao sat directly in front of the micro-ammeter, his eyes fixed on the hands, his right hand holding a pencil, hovering over the notebook.

Old Sun squatted on the side of the test bench, shining the beam of his flashlight on the first solder joint of the high-voltage line.

The other four tubes of microammeters were all within his peripheral vision.

"start."

Jiang Ming pinched the base of the first weld point with his left index finger and thumb, and gently applied lateral pressure.

"284, stable."

Xiao Zhao reports the numbers.

Jiang Ming let go and moved on to the next node.

"284, stable."

The third solder joint, the fourth solder joint, and the fifth solder joint are all stable.

Old Sun moved his flashlight to the position of the first connector.

This is a brass spring clip that engages with a bare copper wire; its surface is darkened by oxidation.

Jiang Ming pressed his thumb on the bend of the spring at the base of the clip.

"284, stable."

Let go.

Next one.

The second connector is located next to the filter capacitor. Its copper spring plate is thinner and darker in color than the others.

Jiang Ming pressed down gently.

"It's safe."

Xiao Zhao's voice suddenly changed tone.

"The shaking is gone, and it's stable at 284."

Jiang Ming did not let go, maintaining the pressure of his thumb.

"Just to confirm, I'm letting go, see."

The moment his thumb left the spring plate, Xiao Zhao's pencil drew a circle on the paper.

"It's shaking again, plus or minus 0.3."

"This is it."

Old Sun held the flashlight close to the connector and shone it in from the side.

There is a very fine bright line at the bend of the spring sheet, which is a microcrack caused by metal fatigue.

"After more than 400 hours of continuous vibration, the spring sheet couldn't withstand it anymore."

Old Sun had already turned around to reach for the spare parts box.

"Any new ones?"

"I received a package from the supplies department last month."

Old Sun pulled out a brass wire clip, its spring plate gleaming.

He squeezed it twice, and it bounced back strongly.

"This one will do."

Jiang Ming looked at the high-voltage line and mentally went through the switching steps.

The anode voltage of ethylene oxide is 300 volts, the current is less than 0.3 milliamperes, and the power is extremely low.

However, if an electric arc is generated at the moment of contact, even a small one could cause irreversible thermal shock to the cathode coating.

"Old Sun, first put the new clips on in parallel and make sure they're firmly in place, then I'll loosen the old ones."

"clear."

Old Sun used insulated tweezers to hold one side of the new connector clamp and approached the bare copper wire from above the old clamp.

Jiang Ming pressed down on the old clamp with his left thumb to stabilize the contact, and held the wire with his right hand to prevent it from shaking.

"Xiao Zhao, report the number."

"284, stable."

As soon as Lao Sun inserted the tweezers, the new clamp snapped into the wire.

The spring clip snapped shut.

"284, stable."

Jiang Ming loosened the old clip with his thumb.

"284, stable."

Xiao Zhao waited another twenty seconds before adding a sentence.

"There is no shaking."

Old Sun used tweezers to remove the old clips.

The spring clip is bent and can no longer be closed properly.

He flipped the discarded part through his palm.

"Something that cost only three cents almost ruined over four hundred hours of data."

Jiang Ming took off his insulated gloves and shook his wrists a couple of times.

The whole process took less than forty seconds.

Xiao Zhao flipped back to the first few pages of the notebook and checked the shaking data from the 448th hour to the present one by one.

"There were a total of seven anomalies, all within the range of plus or minus 0.3 microamperes, spanning a period of three hours."

Jiang Ming took the pencil and marked each abnormal data point one by one: apparent vibration caused by fatigue of the clamp spring, the actual emission current did not change, verified by the standard resistance box.

It was past eleven o'clock when I finished writing the last annotation.

He handed the notebook back to Xiao Zhao.

"Sign and stamp with the date. Submit a copy to the security department for filing tomorrow morning, so that no one can use these details to cause trouble during the inspection."

Xiao Zhao nodded and put the notebook away.

Old Sun put the spare parts box back in its place and then checked the temperature of the pulse transformer's core.

"Thirty-six and a half degrees, it's cool."

Workshop No. 1 fell silent again, with only the low hum of the testing equipment and the steady pointers of the five microammeters remaining.

The data link was complete in the 451st hour.

Jiang Ming sat back down next to his toolbox, and just as he picked up his enamel mug to take a sip of cool water, the phone rang in the next office.

The only calls I received at 11 p.m. were from the security department.

He put down the enamel mug, walked over, and picked up the receiver.

"Jiang Gong."

The flat-topped clerk's voice carried a suppressed urgency.

"explain."

"Liu Shouxin confessed again."

Jiang Ming switched the receiver to his other ear and stood firmly against the wall.

"He admitted tonight that he took the note himself from the union's mailroom in the foundry. But he said he didn't know who put it there."

"Anything else?"

"There's something new."

The clerk slowed down his speech, as if he were looking at notes, reading each word carefully.

"He said the note wasn't made from recycled paper from the factory. It had a smooth surface, a light blue background, and was very thin, completely different from the paper used for official documents."

Jiang Ming remained silent, waiting for what was to come.

He said he had only seen this kind of paper in one place.

The clerk paused for a moment.

"The Materials Allocation Department. This refers to internal memo pads distributed by the ministry to various departments."

A slight rustling sound of pages turning came through the receiver, as if an clerk was taking notes.

"Director Wang has already ordered that all the registered personnel in the Materials Allocation Department have their whereabouts records for September retrieved."

Jiang Ming tightened his grip on the receiver slightly, his knuckles pressing against the cool bakelite casing.

Material Allocation Department.

The deputy director who stepped forward when Xu Chongwen was arguing over the venue.

That department that manages the flow of material allocation documents for the entire factory and even across factories.

If the grey pigeon is hiding there, it will have access not only to the exchange envelopes, but also to all the material lists, passes, and contact records with external units for entering and leaving the factory area.

"I see."

Jiang Ming's voice was very flat.

"We will notify you as soon as there are any further developments."

He hung the receiver back up and stood in the dark office for a few seconds.

The north wind howled in through the window, and something on the tin roof rattled as it was blown in.

As he turned to walk back, he passed the testing station in Workshop No. 1.

The dark red light from the five B-tubes was reflected on the glass panel of the microammeter, and the pointers steadily pointed to their respective scales.

451nd hour.

Forty-nine hours remain.

He didn't look through the parchment notes again, nor did he think about the magnetron anymore.

Before lying down on the cot, I turned the toolbox lock one more turn.

The metal box made a soft thud under the bed, which was quickly drowned out by the low hum of electricity in the workshop.

The five tubes were still glowing a dark red, and the pointers of the microammeters were steadily pressed against their respective scale lines.

The new leads from the security department and the iron box in the confidential compartment that hadn't been completely dismantled could only be discussed after dawn.

Jiang Ming slept very lightly that night.