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

The black hands of the microammeter were stuck to the zero mark, with no sign of mechanical rebound on the dial.

Da Liu took half a step back, his heel knocking over the enamel basin that held the waste.

With a loud crash, the tense atmosphere in the workshop was shattered.

Old Sun tucked the tobacco pipe into his belt and sighed.

Over the past two weeks, the energy I had built up from repairing seals to assembling cold traps has been largely drained away by this zeroing-out pointer.

Wu Hanzhang stepped forward and stared at the defective parts on the test table.

He braced his hands on the edge of the control panel, the age spots on the back of his hands appearing darker from the exertion.

"Xiao Jiang, aren't we being too conservative?"

"Fifty grams of material cannot withstand such repeated testing, batch after batch."

"Why don't we just ignore the 1.2% level and go straight to 2.0% for the next batch?"

"If this drags on, and we don't produce a single tube by the three-month deadline, we'll all be in deep trouble."

Jiang Ming pulled a pen from his breast pocket and glanced at the base covered with microscopic cracks.

"Mr. Wu, you can't skip gears."

"If the impurities cause a violent reaction when the content drops to 2.0%, not only will the substrate be ruined, but the entire vacuum chamber will also be contaminated by the splashed oxide powder."

"By then, there won't even be time to clean the stove."

Xiao Zhao pushed the record board to the center of the control panel.

"Chief Engineer Wu, look at this curve."

Xiao Zhao pointed to the attenuation chart that he had just drawn.

"This pipe wasn't broken from the beginning."

"The transmission current actually met the standard in the first three seconds after power-on."

"The subsequent precipitous drop is entirely consistent with physical peeling caused by uneven thermal expansion."

Failure is not in vain.

The attenuation curve indicates the direction of process correction in the opposite direction.

Jiang Ming followed Xiao Zhao's data to deduce further.

"0.5% rare earth content is too low to hold on a nickel substrate."

"When it gets hot after being powered on, the coating and the base have different expansion rates, so it just collapsed."

He turned to look at Old Sun.

"Master Sun, did you bring your miniature watch repair tool?"

Old Sun patted his patched trouser pocket, and his rough fingers pulled out two steel needles thinner than embroidery needles.

"I carry it with me at all times."

"Jiang, what are your instructions?"

Jiang Ming took out a piece of white paper and drew a grid pattern on it.

"We don't use chemical pickling; we use pure manual methods to scratch micron-level grid marks on the surface of the nickel-based sheet to increase the mechanical interlocking surface between the coating and the metal."

He turned to look at Wu Hanzhang and set the tone for the second set of plans.

"The formula ratio will be increased to 1.2% as originally planned."

"The low-temperature preheating time has been doubled."

"We need to let the moisture and impurities in the coating slowly evaporate, first forming a porous skeleton, and then finally activating it by heating."

At the same time, the security department on the first floor of the administration building.

The corridor outside the detention room was chilly with the chill of late autumn.

Factory Director Zhang tossed the Daqianmen cigarette box onto the table, leaned back in his chair, and scrutinized the apprentice across from him with the eyes of an old veteran.

Xiao Li sat on a long bench, his hands clasped together, his fingernails full of black dirt.

He spent the entire night in solitary confinement, his mind replaying the sinister look in Liu Shouxin's eyes before he was taken away the day before.

He knew that Liu Shouxin had a personnel and administrative network behind him.

If I take on all the responsibility myself, I won't be able to find a job as a foundry worker in Beijing.

"Director Zhang, I have something to add."

Xiao Li looked up, his throat parched.

"Liu Shouxin wasn't just about those technical parameters."

The security officer opened the notebook, the pen nib hovering over the paper.

"The day before yesterday afternoon, he brought me a few White Rabbit milk candies from his office."

"He told me that when I was looking at Engineer Jiang's notebook, I shouldn't just focus on things like rubber dimensions."

Xiao Li swallowed.

"His exact words were, 'I should focus on flipping through the back to see if there are any foreign language documents or letters, or anything containing foreign equipment drawings.'"

Factory Director Zhang's hand, which was holding a cigarette, froze in mid-air.

"What else did he say?"

Xiao Li wiped the cold sweat from his face.

He said that Jiang Ming, an ordinary college graduate, must have secretly kept foreign technology that the Soviets had not kept on file.

The veteran's political instincts were instantly triggered.

Liu Shouxin's move was aimed at killing the enemy's spirit.

If it's just about taking credit, that's called internal business conflict within the factory.

However, if a key member of a major project is accused of possessing top-secret foreign technology or having an unclear source, Jiang Ming would be immediately placed under quarantine and investigation once the matter is reported to the ministry's security bureau.

Combining Lao Lei's background in Jiang Ming's file with Chen Zhiyuan's letter from the Northwest involving the Lightning-7 frequency, if Liu Shouxin were to be implicated, the entire Third Electronics Factory would be thrown into chaos.

Factory Director Zhang stubbed out his cigarette in the metal ashtray, his voice cold and harsh.

Write it all down.

"Go and check all of Liu Shouxin's outbound phone call records for the past two weeks, and make this statement a complete, irrefutable chain of evidence."

He stood up and buttoned up his Zhongshan suit.

"Anyone who dares to use national defense projects to frame others will have their job taken away."

As night fell, the poplar trees outside the workshop rustled in the wind.

Jiang Ming locked himself in his single dormitory.

He used up his only three psychic summons quotas for the day.

The failure of adhesion in the first set of processes served as a wake-up call.

Instead of asking about the specific formula figures, he focused on inquiring about the risk of powder shedding that might result from extending the low-temperature pre-firing, as well as the safety boundary of the test current at the second group's 1.2% ratio.

The different physical constraints given by the three pioneers were incorporated into a dozen or so pages of Russian drafts on his hard bed.

That was the line between life and death he drew for the second set of sample photos.

The following afternoon, Workshop No. 1.

The modified high-alumina ceramic gasket withstood the test of prolonged high temperatures.

The furnace temperature steadily passed the double pre-burning time period set by Jiang Ming, and the vacuum level of the cavity was firmly kept at -5 Pascals.

Yesterday, Lao Sun spent the entire afternoon using a microscopic scraper to carve out a dense network of intersecting lines on a nickel-based substrate.

The base now lies quietly inside the quartz boat, undergoing its final 800-degree activation.

The temperature has dropped back to a safe level.

Da Liu pulled open the lock on the furnace door.

A wave of heat surged forth.

Old Sun put on asbestos gloves, used long iron pliers to pick out the 1.2% sample, and placed it steadily in the white porcelain dish on the operating table.

This time, no one cheered, and Liu didn't even dare to breathe loudly.

The lesson learned from the first batch was too profound.

No matter how good it looks to the naked eye, it may all be for naught when it comes to the power-on stage.

"Use the microscope."

Wu Hanzhang pushed the teacup aside and gave the order directly.

Xiao Zhao picked up the sample and pushed it under the stage of the Soviet-made high-intensity light microscope.

He adjusted the focus knob and placed his eye on the eyepiece.

The only sound left in the workshop was the monotonous friction of the rotary vane pump's belt drive.

A full minute has passed.

"So what's going on? Just shut up already!"

Da Liu couldn't help but urge him on from the side.

Xiao Zhao didn't look up; his hands gripped the brass adjustment base of the microscope so tightly that his knuckles bulged out.

"Mr. Jiang, please come and see for yourself."

Xiao Zhao's voice trembled slightly.

Jiang Ming took two steps forward, bent down, and brought the goggles closer.

Under the strong light beam, the coating on the surface of the nickel-based base looked completely different.

The intricate micro-cracks from the first batch disappeared completely, and the coating perfectly meshed with the physical grid carved by Lao Sun.

What made Jiang Ming's heart race was not the adhesion at all.

On the surface of the rare earth oxides that should have been dark gray, a pale golden luster appeared that they had never seen before, even after searching through all the materials they had gone through in the past few days.