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

This opportunity didn't keep us waiting too long.

The next morning at eight o'clock, the red phone in the security office rang three times.

When the flat-headed clerk answered the call, he hadn't even sat down properly yet; half his butt was dangling off the edge of the chair. The pencil slipped off behind his ear, fell onto the table, and rolled halfway around.

"Three instructions, take notes." Director Wang's voice came through the receiver, without any pleasantries.

The clerk quickly pressed down on his pencil and wrote the date in the blank space on the back of the retrieval form.

"First, Xu Chongwen's assistant's pass usage records for the entire month of September should be transferred to my desk before noon today."

"Show all external call details."

"clear."

"Second, two plainclothes officers will be stationed in the corridor on the third floor of the material distribution center to record all non-official personnel entering and leaving the area."

"Starting today, there are no time restrictions."

"clear."

Third, Xu Chongwen himself will remain inactive for the time being.

"Keep everything as it is on his end, don't let him sense any changes."

"The same goes for his assistant; they should come and go as usual, without being watched too closely or getting noticed."

The officer read the three instructions aloud for confirmation.

Director Wang grunted an "Mm" on the other end of the line, and then the call ended.

The clerk put down the receiver and then realized that his knee, which had just bumped against the edge of the table, was a little sore.

He glanced down at it, not bothering to rub it, and pulled out a blank retrieval form from the drawer.

The "Reason for Request" field is empty.

He paused for two seconds, holding the pen, and finally wrote down four words: Routine check.

In Workshop No. 1, the arrival of the 480th hour was devoid of any sense of ceremony.

As Xiao Zhao wrote down five sets of data on the graph paper, Jiang Ming was squatting next to the No. 2 deionized water column, testing the temperature of the copper pipe wall with the back of his hand.

The pipe wall is slightly warm, the steam condenser is operating normally, and the pure water in the storage bottle is already more than half full.

"01, 284.0. 02, 284.1. 03, 281.0. 04, 283.5. 05, 283.5."

After reading the last number, Xiao Zhao put the pen cap back on.

"Exactly the same group as the one from 8 PM last night."

Jiang Ming stood up, walked to the testing table, and glanced at the instrument panel.

The five pointers were all in their proper positions, as steady as if they had been drawn on.

"What about the pulse?"

Old Sun responded from the south end: "The transformer core is a little over 36 degrees. The terminals were tightened this morning, so there's no problem."

"I measured the battery pack, and it still has some capacity left. It should last for more than 500 hours."

"Where's the water column?"

"Yesterday, Da Liu's calcium hardness titration was below 0.5 pm, which is normal."

Xiao Zhao turned to a page of the duty log and pointed it out to him; it had Da Liu's signature on it.

After signing his name in the notebook, Jiang Ming tucked the pen back into his breast pocket.

Twenty hours.

From now until around 3 PM tomorrow, as long as the five tubes do not malfunction, the 500-hour life test will be completely completed.

At noon, Director Zhang appeared at the entrance of Workshop No. 1.

He was wearing his faded old military jacket, his hands behind his back, standing inside the threshold, not going any further in.

His gaze swept across the testing table from left to right, then glanced at the thermometer and hygrometer hanging on the wall, before finally settling on Jiang Ming's face.

Jiang Ming was shoveling rice into his mouth from his enamel lunchbox when he saw Director Zhang, and his chopsticks paused for a moment.

Factory Director Zhang didn't say anything, just nodded at him, and turned to leave.

As the footsteps faded into the distance in the corridor, Old Sun muttered under his breath, "The factory manager doesn't look too good today."

Jiang Ming didn't respond to that. He finished the last few bites of rice, put down the lunchbox, and went to wash his hands.

At 3 p.m., the phone in the administration building called Workshop No. 1.

Xiao Zhao answered the phone.

After listening for a few minutes, his expression turned a little strange. He put down the receiver, walked over to Jiang Ming, and lowered his voice.

"Transferred from the administrative department."

"Xu Chongwen submitted an application, saying that he wanted to visit the electrophoretic deposition equipment in Workshop No. 1 under the guise of inter-ministerial academic coordination."

The reason given was that the aerodynamics center needed to evaluate the applicability of this technology to the surface coating of wind tunnel models.

Jiang Ming put the pencil in his hand on the table.

"Who was the application copied to?"

"Both the Ministry's Technology Department and Materials Department have this function."

Old Sun straightened up from the pulse transformer, his expression not looking too good.

"Coming at this time?"

Jiang Ming did not answer Lao Sun's question.

He stood there for a while, thinking, and then went to his office to make a phone call.

The person on the other end of the phone was Factory Director Zhang.

"Factory manager, have you reviewed Xu Chongwen's application?"

"I've seen it," Factory Director Zhang said calmly. "I refuted it, but not today."

"What do you mean?"

"Refuting it too quickly today makes us seem guilty."

"We'll go through the formal process to reject it tomorrow morning, using the approval number for the top-secret air defense project in Workshop No. 1 as the reason, so that he can't even get past the first hurdle."

Jiang Ming held the receiver but did not speak.

Factory Director Zhang was silent for two seconds on the other end of the line, then said something in a very soft voice, as if he were talking to himself.

"He can't get in, but he's testing whether we're on guard against him."

Jiang Ming went over the sentence in his mind.

The timing of Xu Chongwen's application was too coincidental.

The type B tube is still 20 hours away from reaching 500 km/h, while the magnetron is being reverse-engineered in a secure compartment. The security department is checking the whereabouts of his assistant.

At this very moment, he submitted a seemingly respectable application for an academic visit.

He was either unaware that his assistant had already exposed his access records and was merely conducting a routine test.

Either they've already sensed the tide is turning against them and want to use this application to create an image of "I'm aboveboard."

"Factory manager, how much do you know about what's going on with the security department?"

"I know a little," Factory Director Zhang replied briefly. "Director Wang has spoken with me about it."

"You don't need to worry about these things, just keep an eye on the pipes."

"clear."

Jiang Ming hung up the phone and returned to Workshop No. 1.

Xiao Zhao was performing the instrument calibration that afternoon. The alligator clips of the standard resistance box were clamped to both ends of the microammeter, and the meter pointer was steadily pointing to the calibrated value.

Jiang Ming stood by and watched for a while, and only after confirming that there was no drift did he write on the same page of the logbook: 482nd hour, all five tubes are in normal condition, instrument calibration is qualified.

The pen paused for a moment.

He turned to a blank page and added a line in tiny print in the corner: Application approved, known, to be rejected tomorrow morning.

After he finished writing, he closed the notebook and placed it back on top of the kraft paper notebook at the bottom of the toolbox.

Xu Chongwen's application will not be accepted.

But Jiang Ming knew in his heart that the real important thing was not the application form itself.

It was more like a probe, gently touching the door of Workshop No. 1, trying to find out if anyone inside was guarding against him.

The sky outside the window gradually darkened, and the fluorescent light flickered twice before emitting a steady white light.

The low-frequency vibrations of the testing equipment pressed against the soles of my feet, like a clock that never stops.

Old Sun rummaged through the tool cabinet and pulled out a bag of peanuts. He tore the bag open and pushed it toward Xiao Zhao.

"Eat something, we still have to keep watch tonight."

Xiao Zhao grabbed a few and stuffed them into his mouth, chewing them very slowly.

Da Liu checked the cooling water tank again at the shower line. Even though the water level was fine, he still bent down and took a look.

Jiang Ming did not take any peanuts.

He sat on the edge of the cot, leaning against the cold brick wall, his gaze fixed on the second hand of the clock on the opposite wall.

Twenty hours.

Xu Chongwen will receive the formal rejection tomorrow morning.

As for Workshop No. 1, we'll have to wait for a result tomorrow afternoon.

The second hand moved forward one tick at a time, neither speeding up because anyone was in a hurry, nor slowing down because the wind outside had changed.

With each lap, you get one minute closer to 500 hours.