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

The film canister slid down the dark green tablecloth to Jiang Ming's side.

The double serial number on the seal matched the one Fang Xudong registered. He pressed his thumb against the lid, temporarily halting his attempt to open it.

Almost simultaneously, Vasily pushed the suspension of supplies document in front of the major general, unscrewed a Parker pen, and pointed the nib toward the signature section on the last page of the consent form.

The translator moved his chair back to make room for the major general to put his pen down.

The three Soviet technical deputies also gathered up the scattered materials, leaving only the red clay dossier and the equipment list on the center of the table.

The sound of rain outside the window drowned out the footsteps in the distance inside the building, and only the soft rustling of paper being blown by the fan could be heard in the conference room.

Several senior experts looked down at their notebooks, their pens remaining motionless in their hands for a long time.

They knew that if the supply of components was interrupted, the overall assembly, servo integration and debugging and ground testing would be affected; but the restored yaw trajectory line on the whiteboard was also in front of them, and no one could afford to let the test missile take off with hidden dangers.

The major general brought the approval form closer, first looking at the list of suspended supplies, then at the technical comments column next to Qian Xuesen, his right hand, which had been resting on the armrest, slowly fell to the edge of the table.

A prudent approach means buying time by signing a conditional opinion first, and then re-verifying it once the Chinese side has provided the replacement components. However, the Soviet side has already pushed the freeze deadline to tonight, and any reservation clauses, once put on paper, could be interpreted as acceptance of the core model.

Jiang Ming stared at the blank signature space below the consent form, the fatigue from working on the computer all night pressing down on his shoulders again. He tightened his fingers, opened the lock of the film canister, and ran his hand over the edge of each film after it had been developed and numbered.

The major general took the pen, the nib hovering above the technical committee's comments section. Vasily leaned forward, and the translator flipped the signature date column to a position that was easy to fill in.

Jiang Ming closed the folder, the plastic clips hitting the metal buckle with a soft snap that echoed across the long table. Several engineers who were checking the inventory looked up at the same time.

The major general's pen remained suspended on the paper, while Qian Xuesen picked up his teacup, his gaze passing through the rising steam to the film canister that Jiang Ming had already opened.

Those films were derived from the integration results of three sets of Jiuquan wind fields. One film retained the Soviet smoothing matrix output, another restored the low Mach separation inflection point, and the last film superimposed the target range ground coordinates.

Jiang Ming had previously only intended to use them as supplementary evidence for the hand-calculated drafts, because the images must be combined with complete equations to be valid. However, Vasily used the supply of components as a bargaining chip for signing, and the time left for the Chinese side to respond to each question was reduced to before the forced adjournment.

He stood up from his seat, sandwiched several enlarged films between pieces of cardboard, walked around the chair behind Ren Xinmin, and went straight to the slide projector.

When the Soviet interpreter saw him leave his seat, he reached out to block the passageway on one side of the podium, his tone revealing his impatience at being interrupted.

"Engineer Jiang, your technical presentation is over. We will now proceed with the signing of the authorization documents. Please return to your seat."

Jiang Ming walked past him, pulled the Su Fang statistical chart out of the slot, and pressed the power switch of the projector with his other hand. The red oval landing point on the screen immediately went dark.

"Once this agreement is signed, the first test missile will be entered into the overall parameters according to the third version of the matrix. I will only take up the remaining meeting time."

Vasily slammed his hand on the table, causing the red clay dossier to slip open at one corner. He raised his voice past the interpreter and addressed the major general, demanding that the Chinese side immediately stop this behavior that bypassed the delegation's procedures.

The translator hurriedly relayed the information, mixing Russian and Chinese in his speech. The people taking notes in the front row had to stop writing, while the staff officer in charge of keeping time looked at the clock on the wall.

"Engineer Jiang has no right to unilaterally interrupt the formal presentation by the Soviet technical committee. This violates the principle of equality between the two sides and also violates the meeting agenda already confirmed by both parties!"

Two of the attendants who were guarding the Su side left the wall and tried to approach the slide projector through the aisle. Comrade Song immediately led three guards to spread out horizontally, blocking the passageway outside the second row of seats.

Comrade Song's arm was pressed against the seam of his clothes, and his tone remained restrained in accordance with the procedures of a confidential meeting, but his body guarded the aisle tightly.

"The equipment at the venue is being provided by the Chinese side, the technical materials are still under review, and no one is allowed to touch the projection table."

When the Soviet entourage tried to move forward, the guards moved the chairs to the center of the aisle, the metal legs scraping the floor and sealing off the remaining gap.

Jiang Ming had already inserted the first film into the slot and pressed the power switch again. The old light bulb lit up and flickered several times, and the lines on the screen jumped back and forth between light and dark.

He had accidentally loosened the wiring terminal while changing the film. He reached out and supported the back cover of the lamp holder, pressed the power plug back in, and pushed the loose copper plate back into the retaining spring.

The filament stabilized again, and the cooling fan resumed operation with a low whirring sound, but the focus remained on the small original image from the Soviet Union, and the enlarged lines were squeezed into a blurry black shadow.

Jiang Ming rotated the focusing lens and adjusted the film holder height so that the horizontal coordinate was level with the bottom edge of the screen, and the magnified deviation arrow on the right gradually revealed its complete outline.

At this moment, the door at the back of the conference room opened a crack, and Director Wang stood outside the door, raising only the sealed record in his hand to Comrade Song, and then nodded to Jiang Ming.

That record meant that the documents for switching the film had been taken into custody, and communication between the external support and the inside of the meeting room had been cut off. At least in this meeting room, the materials that Jiang Ming would present next could remain intact.

Comrade Song took the record, glanced at it, closed the door again, and handed the envelope to the security officer standing to the side. The whole process only took the timer to look up once.

"Two minutes remain before the scheduled mandatory recess."

After the timing officer announced the time, several experts near the main table looked at the major general, and Vasily also pushed the suspension of supply document forward a bit more.

"The technical committee has given its final opinion that it cannot review new calculation materials in two minutes, and further delays will only cause the authorization to expire automatically."

Qian Xuesen picked up his teacup, took a sip, put the bottom of the cup back on the enamel tray, and then gave the major general a look that said, "Take it easy."

The major general put down his Parker pen, leaving a small dot of ink above the signature line, but still not touching the name.

Jiang Ming placed the second film next to the first one to confirm that the two sets of coordinates were the same. Then, he placed his hands on either side of the projector and looked at Vasily towards the projected beam.

The continuous calculations and numerous trips had made his eyes dry, and the light made the edges of his vision appear white. Yet every line on the screen came from the paper tapes and integral tables that he had personally checked.

Vasily controlled the supply of components and also had the authorization documents from the Soviet technical committee, but he consistently avoided mentioning the Jiuquan meteorological profile, the original pressure measurement point, and the intermediate integral quantity.

Once the landing point is restored from abstract probability to target range coordinates, this authorization will face a problem that no engineering committee can avoid.

Jiang Ming raised his hand and turned off the conference room overhead light. The graph on the screen immediately overshadowed the gloomy light from outside the window, and the coordinate grid, wind direction markers, and terminal yaw arrows all became visible.

The left-side curve contracts along the center line under the Soviet smoothing matrix, while the right-side curve continues to bend outward after passing through the low Mach sensitive area. The thick black arrow crosses the safety boundary and points to the lower right of the map.

The first clear trajectory comparison image was projected onto the center of the screen.