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

Just after nine o'clock on the morning of the third day, the phone rang in Research Lab 502.

Fang Xudong was squatting on the ground organizing the instrument parts that had been transported from the Institute of Physics when he heard the bell and reached for the microphone on the table.

I had just picked it up and hadn't even opened my mouth when Wu Hanzhang's voice came from the other end, speaking twice as fast as usual.

"Fang, you and Jiang Ming come to the factory manager's office immediately."

"What's wrong?"

"The telegram has arrived."

Fang Xudong put the microphone back, stood up, and called out to the inner room.

"Engineer Jiang, the factory manager's office, Shenyang has called back."

The sound of a chair leg scraping against the floor came from the inner room.

Jiang Ming pushed open the door and came out, his hands still covered in wet ink, clearly he had just been writing something.

The two people walked quickly across the factory area.

When I pushed open the door to the factory director's office, Director Zhang and Wu Hanzhang were already standing in front of the desk.

A telegram was spread out on the table, with a translated attachment from the Foreign Affairs Bureau next to it.

When Director Zhang saw them come in, he handed the telegram to Jiang Ming.

"See for yourself."

Jiang Ming took it, his gaze falling on the telegram.

The telegram was in Russian, so he read the original text directly without needing a translation.

The initial wording made him pause slightly.

Ivanov did not use the official format, but rather a tone closer to that of a private letter.

The first sentence reads: "To my technical colleagues at Beijing No. 3 Electronics Factory."

The gist of the text is that after receiving the technical amendment, the expert group reviewed it continuously for 48 hours and used one of the only two vacuum induction furnaces at the Shenyang plant to conduct verification smelting.

The first batch adopted a modified deoxidation delay and nitrogen backflushing process. After sampling and testing at the furnace outlet, the yield reached 87%.

The concentration of bismuth grain boundary segregation was reduced by eleven times compared to the original process.

Jiang Ming continued reading.

Ivanov wrote that the recalibration of the sulfur-oxygen-hydrogen three-phase eutectic constant in the amendment corrected a systematic deviation that he himself had used for many years.

This discovery has significant academic value.

Out of respect for the truth of the technology, he voluntarily withdrew his previous veto and suggested to the Military Industry Bureau that the originally planned allocation be increased from one ton to two tons.

The highest quality batch of imported oxygen-free copper ingots from the inventory was selected and transported to Beijing by military train.

In the last paragraph of the telegram, Ivanov wrote a sentence with an undisguised curiosity in his tone.

"Please convey to the drafter of this amendment that his familiarity with the Leningrad School's special metallurgical theory is impressive. I wonder if he ever studied or worked in Leningrad?"

Jiang Ming put the telegram back on the table without saying a word.

Fang Xudong leaned over to look at the translated document, then looked up at Jiang Ming with a more complicated expression than before.

"Jiang, Ivanov is asking you if you studied in Leningrad."

Jiang Ming had long anticipated this problem.

He put his hands in his work clothes pockets and spoke calmly.

"I've never been to Leningrad."

"When Mr. Qian was at Caltech, he discussed metallurgical thermodynamics with several visiting Soviet scholars. After returning to China, he showed me part of his notes."

Fang Xudong did not respond.

His gaze lingered on Jiang Ming's face for a few seconds before turning to Wu Hanzhang.

"Mr. Wu, how should we phrase this reply?"

Wu Hanzhang took off his glasses, wiped them, and put them back on.

"I'll handle things with the Foreign Affairs Bureau."

"Just say that the amendment is a collective achievement of the research team, and that there are many scholars who returned from studying in the United States among the technical staff. There is no need to name them specifically."

At this moment, Director Zhang spoke up, his voice filled with suppressed satisfaction.

"Two tons of oxygen-free copper, delivered by military train at an urgent rate; this is twice as much as we originally expected."

He patted the telegram on the table and turned to look at Jiang Ming.

"Jiang Ming, the materials issue is resolved. Do you have a plan for the next processing step?"

"Yes, I'll go back and discuss the details of the processing technology with Lao Sun."

Factory Director Zhang nodded, put the telegram in the drawer, and locked it.

"Okay, you guys go ahead and get busy. I'll let you know when the materials arrive."

Jiang Ming and Fang Xudong walked out of the factory director's office and along the corridor toward the confidential cubicle at the south end.

After walking a few steps, Fang Xudong suddenly slowed down.

"Jiang Gong."

Jiang Ming stopped and looked back at him.

Fang Xudong had his hands in the pockets of his cotton-padded coat. His gaze behind his round-framed glasses was calm, but his words carried weight.

"Ivanov worked on vacuum metallurgy for twenty years, using the old constants he had used for forty-eight years, and no one ever corrected them."

"You, a person who works with vacuum tubes, managed to turn over his core parameters in just one afternoon."

Jiang Ming did not avoid his gaze.

"Engineer Fang, what are you trying to say?"

Fang Xudong remained silent for a while.

"I didn't mean to say anything."

"I just feel that you are a deeper person than I initially thought."

After saying that, his tone returned to normal.

"I have already written a first draft of the fabrication plan for the anode resonant cavity."

"Go back and see if there's anything that needs to be changed."

The two continued walking side by side toward the secret compartment, neither of them mentioning Leningrad again.

3 PM, Lab 502.

Jiang Ming was spreading out the magnetron anode machining drawings on the table and marking the cutting sequence of the eight sector cavities with a pencil.

The door was pushed open from the outside, and Director Wang appeared in the doorway.

He was holding a manila envelope, sealed with the red seal of the Confidentiality and Security Department.

"Jiang Ming, are you busy?"

"Director Wang, please have a seat."

Director Wang didn't sit down. He placed the kraft paper envelope on the corner of the table and tapped it with his finger.

"The military train carrying oxygen-free copper departed from Shenyang this afternoon and will arrive at the Fengtai marshalling yard in three days."

"You guys will have to pick them up then."

"it is good."

Director Wang paused for a moment, his gaze sweeping over the blueprints spread out on the table, his voice lowering by half an octave.

"There's one more thing."

He pushed the envelope toward Jiang Ming.

"I had someone check the logistics flow records of Fengtai Freight Station for the past six months."

"Three shipments of goods labeled as 'metallurgical waste' entered the station from the Tongxian direction but were not processed through the normal warehousing procedure and were directly taken away from the side track of the platform."

Jiang Ming's pencil stopped on the drawing.

"What about the record of the person picking up the goods?"

"The signature on the delivery order is forged."

"It uses an old stamp from a local supply depot that has already been closed down."

Director Wang left the envelope on the table and turned to leave.

As he reached the door, he turned back and said something.

"You can look at it first, but don't waste your energy on this."

"Keep your magnetron under control."

After the door closed, Jiang Ming stared at the brown paper envelope for a long time, but in the end he didn't reach out to open it.

Fengtai Freight Station, Tongxian direction, metallurgical waste, forged seal.

The third channel in the rare earth iron barrel case, the one mentioned by the receptionist in the eastern suburbs, now has a physical record of the flow of goods.

But Director Wang is right, this matter shouldn't be pursued by him.

Jiang Ming placed the envelope under the drawing folder, picked up the pencil again, and added a line of machining allowance next to the cross-sectional view of the anode resonant cavity.

Three days later, two tons of oxygen-free copper will arrive in Fengtai.

When the time comes, we'll bring the copper back first.