Back to the 80s Machinery Factory

Chapter 571 I am that mermaid
Right now, for the sake of her brothers' soap, Chen Luyang sat down at the table seriously, picked up a pen and started sketching on paper.

First of all, we need a power source!
Chen Luyang solemnly wrote four large characters on the scrap paper, and then drew a square box next to it, filled with circles, arrows and wavy lines. It looked like a physics experiment diagram or a diagram of explosives.

Next, there needs to be a transmission system!
Chen Luyang drew two straight lines next to the explosive box, connecting them to a toothed circle. He then drew another line around the circle, representing a rope being wrapped around it.

Then there's the lock...

By the time Cui Shaojie came over for his usual chat, the paper was covered with a dense array of arrows, wavy lines, gears, screws, and oddly shaped small squares.

"Brother Chen, what are you drawing? The Little Mermaid?"

Cui Shaojie stood by and watched for a long time before blurting out this remark.

wipe……

The pencil in Chen Luyang's hand was almost broken.

"Seriously, how do you know it's the Little Mermaid?"

Cui Shaojie stretched out his hand and pointed to the blueprint: "Look, this circle looks like a seashell, this wavy line looks like ocean waves, these little bars look like seaweed, and these other things look like a beautiful mermaid singing!"

"Sing your sister!"

Chen Luyang held up the blueprints with both hands: "Door! Do you understand? Automatic door closing device!"

"The wavy line represents a rope, the gear represents a transmission, and the arrow indicates the direction of motion!"

Cui Shaojie: ? ? ?

"Then what is this big cube here?"

"Power unit".

"This surrounding area?"

"Drive wheel!"

"Then what is this mermaid-like thing of yours?"

"This is me."

"It's you???"

"Yes, then I have to be lying in bed to operate it, right? I am also a part of the magic tool, and an important part at that."

As Chen Luyang spoke, she deliberately emphasized the waistline, highlighting the curves and long legs.

Even though we are good socialist youths, we still have perfect waistlines!

In an instant, Cui Shaojie's expression turned as if he had swallowed a fly.

I forcefully suppressed the waves of nausea in my heart.
Cui Shaojie then pointed to a spot on the drawing and asked:

"...So, what about these two small circles surrounding a larger circle?"

Chen Luyang paused, her eyes darting around, and forced out a sentence:
"That's... well, I can't explain it to someone like you who studies literature."

"But didn't you also study literature?" Cui Shaojie asked with a doubtful look.

"Hey Chen, why are you doing this all of a sudden?"

Chen Luyang said in a serious tone, "Isn't this part of the school's dormitory invention contest? I'm going to make a small contribution to the students in our school who are sleeping on the top bunks."

Cui Shaojie suddenly realized: "You mean that event downstairs! One of my roommates is going to sign up too!"

Chen Luyang immediately asked curiously, "What's that guy in your dorm making?"

Cui Shaojie recalled: "He said it was something like an automatic wake-up call machine, something that would wake you up when the alarm goes off in the morning."

Chen Luyang immediately lost interest.

"Does this even need to be invented? Just put the whole spray bottle next to your pillow, and when the alarm clock wakes you up, spraying yourself with water is more effective than anything else."

"My designs are still the best!"

After saying that, Chen Luyang picked up her "blueprints" like a precious treasure and admired them from all sides.

Seeing the two chatting back and forth, Pan Yu, who had been lying on the bed, couldn't help but speak up.

Others might not understand the blueprints, but he could!

He had just heard Chen Luyang and Cui Shaojie talking about power boxes and transmission wheels, and he was already itching to see what was drawn on the blueprints.

Upon hearing that Pan Yu wanted to see it, Chen Luyang immediately handed over the drawings to let him see them.

The moment Pan Yu saw the blueprints, her brows furrowed instantly.

Pan Yu came from a mechanical background and was the workshop director of the No. 1 Machine Tool Factory in Pian'er City. The blueprints of the parts he had seen could be stacked up to half a person's height.

But this thing in front of him... he had never seen it before.

He squinted at it for two seconds, then moved it further away and tilted his head to examine it again.

"This...this isn't...hmm? This can't be a transmission structure."

He leaned closer and examined the wavy line that Chen Luyang called the "path of force transmission," his expression gradually becoming more complicated.

"Chen Luyang, is this a door?"

“Yes!” Chen Luyang answered confidently, “Automatic door closing device!”

Pan Yu looked up, her eyes filled with disbelief.

"Then why is there a piston on this door, and... something that looks like a cylinder?"

“That’s called a power unit!” Chen Luyang patted his chest. “You wouldn’t understand.”

"Whether you understand or not, let's put that aside for now." Pan Yu glanced down again.
"Then why did this rope wrap around the door three and a half times, then go up to the upper bunk and come back?"

"If this really happens, you'll have to turn around three and a half times before you can get out of the house."

Hey!

Chen Luyang snatched the blueprints back.

"This is a first draft, just an idea, it's not mature yet!"

"I need to improve it."

Seeing Chen Luyang's petty and narrow-minded appearance, Pan Yu swallowed back her words.

How was this senior engineer position at the machinery factory evaluated?
Unless you find a back door and go directly to the factory manager, that would be impossible.

Otherwise, someone with this level of skill would have a hard time even getting promoted to technician, let alone senior engineer!
However, based on a deep understanding of Chen Luyang.

Pan Yu resolutely swallowed those words, not daring to utter a single syllable, and effectively maintained the unity of the dormitory through her actions!
……

Although emotionally, Chen Luyang was unwilling to accept Pan Yu's opinion.

But rationally, he still rubbed the eraser back and forth on the drawing and made many changes with a pencil.

To Chen Luyang's surprise, ever since the notice of the dormitory invention activity was posted, people have been drawing, cutting and pasting drawings everywhere, from the east gate to the west playground, from the dormitory to the library.

Aside from studying, the entire school was immersed in an atmosphere of invention and creation.

The Department of Economics alone had more than 20 people sign up, creating a very strong research atmosphere!

After finishing class that day, Chen Luyang went to the External Relations Department as usual to help the department with some matters and, incidentally, to get some tea from Shen Fei.

As soon as I entered, I saw Shen Fei diligently peeling an orange and handing the peeled segments to Ma Tieli next to him.

Ma Tieli sat to the side, took the orange with a satisfied look on her face, and ate it, finding it very fresh and sweet.

Speaking of which, the relationship between Shen Fei and Ma Tieli has recently progressed by leaps and bounds!
During the previous International Women's Day activities, although Shen Fei verbally accused Ma Tieli of usurping power, he genuinely provided strong support where it was needed!
In particular, the skit performed by Ma Tieli and several girls from the Literature and Art Department was written by Shen Fei himself.

They were truly devoted to serving the audience, handing out scripts on stage and offering warmth and support off stage.

He really charmed Ma Tieli, making her heart melt.
However, although Ma Tieli is soft-hearted, Chen Luyang is hard-hearted!

Seeing that Shen Fei was about to eat the rest of the orange, Chen Luyang reached out and stuffed the half orange in his hand into her mouth without saying a word.

"Everyone who meets you has a share!"

Shen Fei immediately became furious.

"Are you robbing me? I only had six segments of this orange, and you brought five, leaving me with only one!"

Chen Luyang swallowed the orange, then rubbed her hands on her clothes and began to systematically gather information:

"Brother Shen, I see you've come up with a little invention for the dorm. Is there anything we can do about it?" Shen Fei replied without hesitation, "The General Affairs Department will take the lead, the Arts and Literature Department will handle the publicity, and the Youth League Committee will be involved."

"We're just spectators at best; we don't even need to bring our own chairs."

Ma Tieli rolled her eyes: "Don't listen to his nonsense. We need to prepare banners, bulletin boards, and loudspeakers for propaganda. We'll also need to go to the playground to maintain order."

"Besides, we're the ones who got those prizes!"

Upon hearing that this matter was related to the External Relations Department, Chen Luyang's eyes immediately lit up.

"Who are the judges? Are they hired from outside or are they judges from our own student council?" Chen Luyang asked curiously.

"The judges are the official setup," Shen Fei said, taking out another orange and peeling it as he spoke.

"The school's General Affairs Department's Equipment Section will send two experienced workers, the Department of Mechanics or Physics will send one teacher, the Student Union will send two representatives, and finally the Youth League Committee will send one cadre."

"Quite a show of force!" Chen Luyang raised an eyebrow.

"So how is the evaluation conducted?" Chen Luyang then asked.

Shen Fei said, "The evaluation process involves each department conducting a preliminary selection within the Youth League branch, and then submitting the top five to advance to the semi-finals."

"After we advance to the semi-finals, the whole school will set up booths on the playground to showcase our inventions, with explanations provided. Each invention will be displayed in front of a cardboard box, and students will be asked to vote for their 'popularity.'"

Chen Luyang was taken aback.

"Do we still need to vote?"

"That's not."

Shen Fei said earnestly, "This competition is meant to motivate students to get hands-on experience. It's not enough for the judges to say it's good; it's only good if the public says it's good."

"The main focus is on a democratic evaluation."

"That's philosophical!"

Chen Luyang gave a thumbs up, his face radiating righteous indignation.

"The mass line should be applied to technological innovation; this is the true spirit of socialist invention!"

“No…” Shen Fei shot a sharp glare at them.
"I've never seen you so concerned about departmental matters before, why are you asking so many detailed questions about this? Did you sign up?"

For a moment, Chen Luyang hesitated.

Actually, he didn't want to say it.

After all, this thing isn't finished yet, and the blueprints aren't finalized, so it's better to keep it a secret for now and give everyone a surprise when it's finally unveiled.

But who can blame them when this topic gets so heated?!

In addition, Shen Fei's searchlight-like eyes were fixed on him.
After holding it in for a long time, Chen Luyang finally couldn't help but puff out her chest and proudly slap the table.

"Yes! I signed up!"

"Hey Chen, what are you up to?" Ma Tieli asked curiously, intrigued.

Chen Luyang paused deliberately for a few seconds, then said in a ceremonial tone:

"My invention this time is an automatic door closing marvel!"

Chen Luyang emphasized the word "divine artifact".

He had originally thought that after hearing about his invention, Shen Fei and Ma Tieli would look at him with admiration, envy, and respect.

But after listening, Ma Tieli immediately lost interest:
"I thought you were going to develop some kind of automatic translation or automatic writing tool, but all you did was shut down automatically..."

Chen Luyang was instantly stung by Ma Tieli's disdainful gaze and tone.

"My research addresses the pain points of people's lives!"

Do you know how many students in upper bunks suffer from the pain of opening and closing doors?

"I'm about to usher in a new era of human dormitory civilization!"

Before he could finish speaking, Shen Fei casually retorted with a single sentence.

"What new era? Just say you're too lazy."

"Opening and closing the door is just a matter of a bunk bed, and you're talking about some kind of magical device..."

Upon hearing this, Chen Luyang immediately became displeased.

Anyone can say he's lazy, but not Shen Fei!

Shen Fei is so lazy he's practically shitting himself!
Moreover……

"Those great inventions were all born out of laziness!"

Chen Luyang counted on her fingers, giving examples one by one.

"Washing machines are used because people are too lazy to wash clothes, and light bulbs are used because people are too lazy to light candles!"

"Laziness is the primary driving force behind world progress!"

Seeing Chen Luyang arguing with wide eyes, Shen Fei slowly spoke.

Let me put it this way,"

He took a sip of hot tea.

"This thing comes out every year!"

“Last year, three dorm rooms installed ‘automatic door closing’, the year before that someone installed ‘pulling wires and heavy hammers’, and before that, someone installed ‘stepping on the door rope’, and none of them won an award.”

“Every single one of them, break the door, snap the lock, and smash their toes.”

"Really?" Chen Luyang's eyes widened.

"Do you think you're the only one in our school who slacks off?" Shen Fei rolled his eyes at Chen Luyang.

"This is listed as a 'high-risk project'!"

"Last time, that guy's door was too springy. The judge had just walked to the front when the door slammed shut by itself, leaving a mark on his trouser leg."

Ma Tieli chimed in enthusiastically, "Yes, yes, yes!"

"I remember the radio station even announced his name that year: Li Yongchao, a student from the Physics Department, bravely explored the path of closed-door automation; the experiment failed, but his spirit is commendable!"

Chen Luyang's face turned pale.

"...Our school has this history?"

Shen Fei looked at him intently and patted him on the shoulder:

"Our school has a very long history."

"Take my advice, change your research direction."

"Anything is fine, just don't make a door."

"This road to the gate is truly strewn with the corpses of our predecessors."

Chen Luyang's right eyelid twitched almost imperceptibly.

The sacrifices of our predecessors were undoubtedly heroic, but the plans for starting the project must also be firmly upheld!
Once the thesis proposal is finalized, making last-minute changes is a major taboo!

Besides, we've already drawn up the blueprints; we've taken the first step in this long journey, so how can we turn back halfway?

Take a deep breath,

Chen Luyang's gaze gradually deepened, as if he were enveloped by a "scientific mission".

"...Their failures only highlight the extraordinary significance of my success this time."

Shen Fei glanced at Chen Luyang in surprise, and clicked his tongue.
"Xiao Chen, are you making an invention or writing a biography of a martyr?"

"However, as your older brother, I still want to advise you. If you really want to win an award, you should choose another one."

Shen Fei leaned back in his chair and slowly began to speak:
"Think about it, this automatic door closing thing isn't some scientific inspiration, it's just that you're too lazy to get out of bed."

"What will you say when the judges ask you about your 'design intention'?"

"You really dare to say I don't want to get up and close the door?"

(End of this chapter)