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

2 PM, eastern suburbs of Beijing.

The old Jiefang brand truck dispatched by the transportation department parked outside the chemical plant gate. After the engine was turned off, it sputtered a few times before finally becoming completely quiet.

Jiang Ming jumped out of the driver's seat, turned up the collar of his cotton coat to block the wind, and his shoes made a crisp cracking sound as they stepped on the frozen yellow dirt road.

Xiao Zhao came down from the other side, carrying a wooden box in his arms containing sampling bottles, measuring cylinders, glass test tubes, and a small bottle of concentrated sulfuric acid, wrapped in three layers of cotton and old newspapers.

The gatekeeper checked the pass and official letter, muttered something under his breath, and opened half of the iron gate.

The receptionist at the chemical plant was in his forties, wearing blue overalls stained with oil.

Hearing that they had come to see the slag heap, he looked as if he had heard something absurd.

"You people from the electronics factory, here to see our waste?"

Research on comprehensive utilization of industrial waste.

Jiang Ming handed over the official letter.

"We will only take samples for analysis; it will not affect your normal production."

The receptionist returned the official letter and sniffed.

"That pile of stuff is in the northwest corner of the factory area. It's been there for over four years, and the bottom is frozen solid. Did you bring shovels?"

"I brought it."

"Okay, I'll lead you there, just don't touch anything else."

The waste pile was larger than Jiang Ming had imagined.

The grayish-yellow slag was piled up more than two people high, with white frost on the surface. The cold wind blew out cracks in the surface, making it look like a barren mound of earth from a distance.

The air was thick with the smell of sulfur and rust, which made Xiao Zhao sneeze twice.

The receptionist stood ten meters away, her hands tucked into her sleeves, clearly not wanting to get closer.

"That's all. You can dig as much as you want, just fill the holes when you're done."

Jiang Ming walked half a circle around the pile of waste slag, then squatted down and poked at the bottom with a steel pick.

The tip of the shovel hit the frozen layer, making a hard, clanging sound.

He pushed it in two inches further before prying off a small piece of debris the size of a fingernail.

"It's frozen solid."

Jiang Ming stood up and looked at the crumbs in his palm.

It is grayish-white with pale yellow and iron-brown spots.

"The surface sample isn't accurate enough; we need to dig down to the unfrozen area."

Xiao Zhao had already unloaded a shovel and a steel pick from the car, taken off his cotton-padded coat and hung it on the abandoned pipe, then rolled up his sleeves and started digging.

The frozen waste was harder than bricks; shoveling it down only scraped off a thin layer of powder, and each shovel strike made my hand go numb.

The two men took turns working for more than forty minutes before they finally dug a shallow pit the size of a washbasin on the side of the slag heap.

The bottom of the pit finally revealed a layer of slag that was darker in color and slightly damp.

Jiang Ming took out the sampling bottle, used a steel pick to pry off thumb-sized pieces of slag from different locations, and divided them into four bottles.

The depth and position were marked on each bottle with a pencil.

"Let's do a preliminary qualitative test to see how it dissolves in acid."

He poured the slag from one of the bottles onto a clean sheet of iron and crushed it with the end of a steel shovel.

Xiao Zhao took out concentrated sulfuric acid and a large glass test tube from the bottom of the wooden box and set up a makeshift workstation in the sheltered spot of the abandoned pipe.

He measured five milliliters of concentrated sulfuric acid, carefully poured it into a test tube, and then used a paper trough to transfer the residue into the acid solution.

Jiang Ming took two steps back, clutching the baking soda solution in his hand, his eyes fixed on the test tube.

The moment the acid comes into contact with the slag powder, white fumes rise and the temperature rises sharply.

The frost on the outside of the test tube melted in an instant, and water droplets trickled down the glass.

"The temperature is rising too fast."

Jiang Ming had just taken half a step forward and hadn't finished speaking when he heard a crisp sound.

A crack appeared at the bottom of the test tube, and the crack widened instantly.

High-temperature concentrated sulfuric acid, mixed with slag powder, splashed out from the crack.

Jiang Ming grabbed Xiao Zhao by the back of his collar, shifted his weight to the side, and tumbled into the snow next to him.

At the same time, he unscrewed the cap of the soda bottle with his right hand and poured it onto Xiao Zhao's neck and cheeks.

As the soda water washed over his skin, Xiao Zhao belatedly let out a muffled groan.

"Don't move."

Jiang Ming pressed down on his shoulder and poured the rest of the soda water under his right ear, rinsing it three times.

There was a red mark the size of a fingernail between Xiao Zhao's right ear and jawline. The skin was slightly swollen, but there were no blisters.

"fine."

When Jiang Ming released his hand and sat up on his own, a burning pain came from the back of his right hand.

He looked down and saw three red spots the size of mung beans on the back of his hand, with the surrounding skin already turning white.

Xiao Zhao got up and saw Jiang Ming's hand; his eyes immediately welled up with tears.

"Jiang Gong, your hand."

"External injury".

Jiang Ming pressed the back of his hand into the snow, the coolness suppressing the burning pain.

"Let's go back to the car, there's Vaseline in the first-aid kit."

The receptionist appeared out of nowhere, standing three meters away, staring at the broken test tubes and yellow stains on the ground, her face ashen.

"Someone died?"

"It's nothing, just broken glass."

Jiang Ming stood up, brushed the snow off his clothes, and spoke in a calm tone as if nothing had happened.

"Do you have any enamel mugs or tin buckets in your factory? I need a container that can hold fifty kilograms of slag."

The receptionist paused for a few seconds before running to the warehouse to retrieve two discarded tin oil drums.

Jiang Ming and Xiao Zhao filled one bucket and more than half a bucket with the excavated slag, with a total weight estimated to be around sixty kilograms.

When loading the truck, the receptionist helped push the oil drums onto the back of the truck, and then stood at the back of the truck, seemingly wanting to say something but hesitating.

"Um... next time you come, just let me know in advance, and I'll have someone roast that piece of slag over a fire to loosen it up."

"I'll come again."

Jiang Ming fastened the rear bucket baffle.

Thanks.

It was already dark when the truck drove out of the chemical plant gate.

Xiao Zhao sat in the passenger seat, a gauze pad he had taken out of the medicine box pressed against his neck, holding four sample bottles in his hands, his eyes fixed on the dark lumps inside the bottles.

"Jiang, the reaction just now showed a high rate of acid solubility, so the cerium content should be quite high."

Jiang Ming rested his right hand on the steering wheel, with three red dots on the back of his hand covered in Vaseline and wrapped with two bandages.

When shifting gears while driving, the wound will cause a slight pain.

"Let's do the quantitative analysis when we get back, don't get excited beforehand."

Workshop No. 1, 9 PM.

When Old Sun saw the bandage on Jiang Ming's hand, his expression turned even more grim than when the receptionist saw the broken test tube that afternoon.

"Who did it?"

"It was my own carelessness."

Jiang Ming unloaded the two buckets of waste residue into a corner of the workshop and patted the dust off his hands.

"The medicine has been applied, it won't affect your work."

Old Sun squatted beside the waste bin for a long time, then picked up a small pinch and crushed it between his fingertips.

"This is the treasure you were talking about? It looks no different from the furnace ash swept out of the foundry."

"Once I conjure up what's inside, you'll see the difference."

Jiang Ming walked to the blackboard and drew out the process he had thought of in the car that afternoon.

The first step is to crush and sieve the waste residue.

The second step is leaching with concentrated sulfuric acid.

The third step is to filter out the insoluble residue.

The fourth step is to add oxalic acid solution to precipitate cerium oxalate.

Step 5: Filtering and washing.

Step 6: Low-temperature calcination.

Of the six steps, the second and fourth steps require containers resistant to strong acids.

Xiao Zhao stood in front of the blackboard holding an enamel mug. When he saw the second step, he put the mug down.

"Mr. Jiang, concentrated sulfuric acid leaching requires heating to over 80 degrees Celsius and a reaction time of at least four hours."

He pointed to the container symbol on the blackboard.

"None of the iron barrels, iron basins, or iron pots in our workshop can withstand being heated with concentrated sulfuric acid for four hours."

Jiang Ming put down the chalk.

"What about the enamel-lined reactor?"

"Workshop No. 2 is in use."

Xiao Zhao shook his head.

"That's the only one in the entire factory, and the scheduling is already booked until the middle of next month."

Old Sun stood beside the waste bin, twirling his tobacco pipe twice in his palm.

"That means even a skilled cook can't cook without rice. The food has been brought back, but there's no pot to cook it."

Jiang Ming looked at the container symbols on the blackboard and threw the chalk into the trough.

Give me twenty-four hours.

He turned to Old Sun.

"Go check the scrap yard and see if there are any scrap iron drums with walls thicker than five millimeters, the thicker the better."

Old Sun tucked his tobacco pipe into his waistband.

"Yes, there are some, but even iron gets corroded through by acid, doesn't it?"

"The iron bucket is just a shell."

Jiang Ming drew a cross-sectional diagram on the blackboard, showing that the inner wall of the iron barrel was lined with a black lining.

"A layer of acid-resistant rubber sheet is lined inside, so the acid cannot come into contact with the iron wall, and the iron drum only bears the weight and temperature."

Xiao Zhao leaned closer to examine the cross-sectional diagram.

Do you have acid-resistant rubber sheets in your warehouse?

"How much fluororubber scrap is left over from the last seal modification?"

Xiao Zhao opened the ledger.

"The leftover scraps, if added up, are probably enough to cover half a square meter."

"Not enough to cover the entire barrel."

Jiang Ming marked the dimensions on the drawing.

"But if we only do the bottom and lower half, and use paraffin wax to seal the area above the liquid, it'll do."

Old Sun pulled out his pipe and clapped it twice in his palm.

"Okay, I'll go rummage through the scrap yard right now."