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

Fifteen minutes later, the jeep stopped in front of the physics institute's laboratory building.

Jiang Ming carried his tool bag up the steps, and at the end of the corridor came the sound of Da Liu's hurried footsteps.

He was still wearing his work clothes stained with machine oil, holding the disassembled compensating wire connector in his hand; Wang Shouwu stood next to the control cabinet, the protective cover on one side of the furnace tube had been removed, and several sections of wires of similar color hung down from the terminal board, with the wire ends exposed, and the number plate had been pressed over again.

Da Liu came up and handed the connector to Jiang Ming: "Engineer Jiang, the furnace is under control. The thermocouple cold junction bridge reading is more than 90 millivolts different from the standard meter. Follow the wires here, the original blue wire is connected to the positive terminal, and there is an extra section of new wire welded to the compensation terminal."

Jiang Ming took the connector, first looking at the indentation, then at the solder flow. He set the multimeter to the resistance setting, placed the probe on the cold junction lead, and moved the other probe along the terminal block point by point. Fang Xudong spread the original drawings on the worktable, pressing his finger on the compensation line number. Wang Shouwu leaned over and stared at the hands of the watch, even his breathing became soft.

After the cold junction resistance reading jumped out, Jiang Ming changed the direction of the test leads and took out a section of the same type of wire from the standard compensation box. He measured the values ​​of positive connection, reverse connection, and the outer casing to ground. The three sets of data were arranged in a row on the paper. In the reverse connection state, the temperature controller will judge the actual high temperature as low temperature, and the control cabinet will continuously increase the power. Once the quartz tube, silicon wafer and diffusion boat enter the constant temperature range, the heat load in the furnace will exceed the safety boundary.

Wang Shouwu stared at the column of numbers, his palm pressed against the edge of the table, his fingertips repeatedly rubbing the notch in the wood. He had participated in many high-temperature diffusion experiments and knew the value of a furnace of high-purity silicon. He also knew that if the furnace tube exploded, it would take away multiple batches of sample wafers and weeks of accumulated thermal history. The consequences of these few misaligned wires far exceeded those of ordinary equipment handover errors.

"Who moved this board?" Jiang Ming asked.

Three old equipment maintenance assistants stood by the wall. One of them was holding a work log, while the other two exchanged glances. The young man closest to the door spoke first: "We did a wiring cleanup yesterday afternoon. The markings might have been mixed up during the handover. The furnace has been constantly being modified, and the blueprints that everyone has haven't been completely changed."

"Will cleaning reverse the positive and negative terminals?"

The young man swallowed hard, his gaze falling on the control cabinet below. "The junction box is old, and the wire colors have changed. Anyone could run into it."

"That half of the old process card that was pressed under the solder joint, anyone could have stuffed it in there?"

Da Liu placed the piece of paper on the table, scraped off the surface oil, revealing a row of oven temperature markings and half a batch number that had been cut off. The edges of the paper had fresh cutting marks, and a layer of light yellow powder was stuck in the folded corners.

The expressions of the three assistant researchers changed each time. Sun Qiming, who was in charge of the old equipment, closed his work log and said in a tense voice, "Fix the furnace first. We can investigate the responsibility after the project is over. Arguing like this on site will only delay the project."

Jiang Ming put the multimeter back into his tool bag, turned around and pulled out a 1,000-volt high-voltage megohmmeter test lead. The lead had a thick insulating sleeve on one end and was connected to a hand crank handle on the other. He attached the clamp to the compensation terminal housing and then asked Da Liu to keep the main power supply to the control cabinet disconnected, leaving only the test circuit open.

"Jiang, we need to check the insulation level of this wire first." Da Liu looked at the terminal block, his fingers resting on the switch, his fatigue completely suppressed by vigilance. "There are also low-voltage signal wires next to the terminal block."

"So only measure from the casing to the compensation terminal, and remove the probes from the other terminals." Jiang Ming gave him his position. "Turn it to the specified voltage and record the leakage current."

Da Liu nodded and checked the clamps and meter wires one by one. Wang Shouwu raised his hand to signal the people by the wall to step back. Only the friction of the crank turning and the soft sound of the meter needle climbing remained in the laboratory. The current reading had just crossed the safe range when the insulation of the newly welded compensation wire suddenly emitted thin smoke. The smoke came out from under the joint, carrying the pungent smell of acid corrosion. A thin crack appeared in the outer sheath, revealing the blackened edge of the copper core.

Sun Qiming took half a step forward, his heel hitting the toolbox. The lid slammed shut with a thud, and the logbook in his hand slipped to the ground, the pages scattering to reveal nearly three days of repair records. Two times in the night shift handover column had been overwritten.

Jiang Mingsong loosened the megohmmeter crank, removed the wire clamp, and used tweezers to peel off the wire sheath. The insulation layer near the copper core was brittle, with light brown corrosion marks on the surface. The corrosion extended inward along the solder joint. The positive and negative polarities of the connector had been reversed, and the leakage point on the casing was hidden under the compensation terminal. When the furnace was powered on, the temperature controller reading, control power, and equipment protection would all go in the wrong direction at the same time.

"This is called premature corrosion of the external insulation." Jiang Ming placed the stripped wire sheath on a piece of white paper. "When wiring, the polarity is reversed, leaving a leakage point below the connector. When the furnace temperature rises, the signal will be deflected first, and the protection will come later. Whether the quartz tube can be saved depends on luck."

He pushed half an old process card in front of Sun Qiming. The same preheating scale on the paper overlapped with tonight's plan. His tone was very tight: "Cable cleaning cannot explain corrosion, and chaotic handover cannot explain the direction of solder joints. This is a deliberate sabotage against a major classified project. First, seal off the site, then investigate who connected the wires, who repaired the solder joints, and who altered the logs."

Sun Qiming opened his mouth, sweat trickling down his temples. He wanted to attribute the problem to the chaotic management of the old equipment, and to bring up the project pressure and personnel transfers, but the smoke from the control cabinet was still lingering on the table, and the corrosion marks on the paper were clearly visible. Any attempt to shift the blame would fall on him first.

Footsteps sounded at the laboratory door. Huang Kun arrived with the security team from the Institute of Physics. After entering, he first looked at the control cabinet, then at the wire sheath, old process cards, and maintenance logs on the table. Lin Lanying followed behind him, holding the diffusion sample record she had just finished organizing. When she saw the blackened copper core, the fatigue on her face was replaced by alertness, and she immediately hugged the record folder tightly.

"Take the person and the journal with you," Huang Kun said.

Security personnel came forward and took away three work logs. When Sun Qiming's arms were restrained, he was still explaining that he was only responsible for the maintenance of the old furnace. Two other assistant researchers stood next to him, their lips moved a few times, but they eventually looked away from the control cabinet and no one said anything more.

Huang Kun walked to Jiang Ming's side, reached out and picked up the piece of corroded wire. He withdrew his hand after his fingertip touched the crack. His face turned ashen. He first thought of the embarrassment of the equipment handover going out of control. Then he thought that the No. 3 furnace and the diffusion furnace had entered the joint research phase. If the institute followed its old habit of pushing the responsibility onto the handover form, someone else would use the excuse of being familiar with the equipment to get close to the core area in the next furnace.

"Starting today, the No. 3 furnace and diffusion furnace will be operated according to the 502 confidentiality standards." Jiang Ming took out the newly drafted security and operation guidelines, slammed the document on the worktable, and said, "The designated list only includes five people: Jiang Ming, Wang Shouwu, Huang Kun, Lin Lanying, and Da Liu. Maintenance assistants may only enter with the accompaniment of the security department. All wiring, parameter changes, and component replacements must be double-checked. Logs must be sealed on the same day. Any unauthorized access to core equipment will be treated as a leak of classified information."

Wang Shouwu read the guidelines from beginning to end, his finger pausing on the line about double-person review. He thought of the five silicon tubes with frequencies exceeding 300 megahertz that night, and also of the fifteen test pieces that were scrapped due to deep junction dispersion. The material route had just crossed the threshold when the furnace exposed human-caused risks. He picked up his pen and signed his name on the first line.

"I'll sign," he said. "The prototypes and data from our joint research project can no longer be entrusted to the old ways of guarding them."

Huang Kun took the pen and wrote his name next to Wang Shouwu's signature. Lin Lanying then wrote her name. Da Liu rolled up the cuffs of his work clothes, picked up the wire cutters, and completely cut the contaminated compensation wire from the terminal block. Fang Xudong put the old wire, solder, and log number into bags and sealed them tightly one by one.

Half an hour later, the new compensation wires were crimped, the positive and negative terminals of the bridge were checked three times, the thermocouple compensation box and the standard meter were checked in parallel, the recording paper outside the furnace door started moving again, the preheating curve climbed along the reference slope, after the variable gain network was connected, the pointer was cleaned at each stage transition point, and only small and regular correction marks were left on the paper tape.

Da Liu stood by the control cabinet, his hand still on the switch. He waited until the first temperature zone passed before writing the recording time into the form. Wang Shouwu locked the qualified silicon tube device box into the cabinet, while Huang Kun led the security personnel out of the laboratory. Soon, the sounds of sealing the room and taking inventory of the personnel could be heard outside the door.

Less than ten minutes after the storm subsided, the liaison officer from the Fifth Academy's overall team ran into the laboratory building, his forehead covered in sweat, clutching half a page of a newly translated rough report in his hand. He took a few breaths after seeing Jiang Ming and handed the paper over.

"Engineer Jiang, there's an urgent dispatch from the West City compound. The time calculation for the large machine in Jiuquan has been completed, and Chief Engineer Ren wants you to get on the truck immediately."

Jiang Ming took the preliminary report. The horizontal divergence error rate circled in red pen came into view. There was also an urgent note on the right, requesting a halt to the freezing process of the Soviet parameter package. He folded the paper, stuffed it into the document bag, and fastened the tool bag.

The physics institute's preheating curve continued to advance along the baseline, while another review by the Fifth Academy was already waiting in the west of the city. Jiang Ming walked out of the experimental building, his footsteps pressing down on the dust on the steps, and the rough report in his hand was clenched so tightly that a clear crease appeared.