Siheyuan: I, Shazhu, started out as an army and became a general.

Clang! Clang!

The freight train, like a dehydrated stray dog, howled and crawled across the northwestern Gobi Desert for three days and three nights.

Inside the carriage, the stench of sweat, cigarette smoke, and an indescribable human odor made one's head ache.

Lin Wanqiu huddled in a corner, her face deathly pale, her lips cracked like the soil of the Gobi Desert.

As a proud daughter of the Soviet Union, she was used to the snow and borscht of Moscow. This huge contrast between stepping from the civilized world into the wilderness almost shook her insides out.

A military water bottle was handed to her.

"Take a sip; it has salt in it."

He Yuzhu's voice was as steady as a rock, showing no sign of fatigue from the journey.

Lin Wanqiu looked up and saw He Yuzhu sitting cross-legged as steadily as an old dog, holding the nearly worn-out "Introduction to Quantum Mechanics" in his hands (actually, he was looking at the system interface).

He stood ramrod straight, his energy was off the charts, as if he were riding in a high-ranking official's car, not a rickshaw.

"Thank you." Lin Wanqiu took the water bottle and took a small sip. The salty and astringent taste actually cleared her muddled mind a bit. "How much longer?"

"It'll be soon." He Yuzhu pointed to the endless yellow sand outside the seams of the train's metal roof. "See those few poplar trees? They've been dead for thousands of years and still stand. Doesn't it look like what we're about to do?"

Following his gaze, Lin Wanqiu saw only a suffocating expanse of withered yellow.

"He Yuzhu, are you really not afraid at all?" she couldn't help but ask. "Marshal Nie said that it's a sea of ​​death, and even birds can't fly across it."

"Scared?" He Yuzhu chuckled, revealing a set of bright white teeth. "Back in the days at Changjin Lake, when I was huddled in a snowdrift eating frozen potatoes, if someone had told me that there would be places like this where there's no war and you get to eat your fill, I would have laughed so hard I'd burst out laughing!"

Lin Wanqiu was completely stunned.

She suddenly realized that this man was completely different from all the scholars and experts she knew. Deep down, he possessed an almost primal, savage vitality.

Half an hour later, the train stopped in front of a dirt slope without even a station sign.

There were no flowers, no applause.

They were greeted only by a blanket of yellow sand and rows of gray, dilapidated mud houses in the distance that looked like they might fall apart at any moment.

This is the top-secret base codenamed "221".

The base manager, Lao Zhang, came up to greet us. His face was covered in sand and looked like old tree bark. He grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth, probably still covered in sand.

"Welcome, welcome! Comrades, this is our home!" Old Zhang pointed to the rows of dilapidated houses, his tone hearty. "Conditions are a bit tough, but let's all put up with it!"

A group of bright young people, fresh out of school, looked at this godforsaken place, and some of them couldn't hold back their emotions on the spot.

"How...how can anyone live here? The window paper is all torn!"

"Waaaaah... I want to go home... This isn't a place fit for a human being!"

The crowd began to stir, their resentment rising. Lin Wanqiu also frowned deeply; the situation here was a hundred times worse than she had imagined, to the extreme.

Just then, He Yuzhu threw his luggage on the ground with a thud, and without saying a word, strode over to the large iron pot where the food was being cooked.

The pot contained a paste whose ingredients were indistinguishable, with a layer of sand and dust floating on top.

He picked up a large spoon, scooped up a spoonful in front of everyone, and without blinking, poured it into his mouth, his Adam's apple bobbing as he swallowed.

The entire room fell silent.

"Pah." He Yu-zhu spat out a small pebble that grazed his teeth, wiped his mouth, and his eyes, sharp as knives, swept over the group of sobbing college students. His voice boomed:

"You think it's too bitter?"

"In North Korea, I'd have to risk my life to get a bite of frozen potato! This porridge has food and water in it; to me, it's like food from the gods!"

"Anyone who wants to leave, turn around right now and roll back along the tracks! Nobody's stopping you!"

"Those who stay, shut your mouths and straighten your backs!"

"What are we here for? We're here to build the atomic bomb, not for a vacation!"

"With the nation's fate hanging in the balance, being pretentious is tantamount to desertion!"

The last eight words, roared so loudly that even the sandstorm seemed to pause for a moment.

The crying students immediately stopped crying and lowered their heads in shame.

Old Zhang's eyes lit up the moment he saw He Yuzhu.

My goodness! Where did the dean find such a gem? Not only is he a technical expert, but he's also a natural-born political commissar who can keep things in check!

Lin Wanqiu looked at the man standing in the wind and sand, his figure as sharp as a spear, and her heart skipped a beat without warning.

[Ding! Entering the forbidden zone for the first time, awe-inspiring.]

[Check-in successful! Location: Base 221 (early construction phase).]

[Rewards: Survival Master (Desert Version), 10 Energy Potions (can silently improve other players' physical condition).]

He Yuzhu sneered inwardly.

This little bit of sand is nothing. The main point is authenticity.

The real tough battle is with those old Soviets we're facing next. Just wait and see how high the intensity is for you guys!

……

Three months later.

The air pressure in the base's main conference room was so low it could suffocate you.

Outside the window, snow was falling heavily, but inside the house, the heat was stifling and oppressive due to everyone's anger.

Petrov, the head of the Soviet expert group, stood on the podium like a proud rooster, waving a document in his hand.

"I'm sorry, comrades," Petrov shrugged, speaking in a condescending tone, the sneer at the corner of his mouth barely concealed. "Orders have just come from Moscow that, in accordance with the principle of technical secrecy, we must cease aid to Base 221. We will take back all the core blueprints and parameters concerning the 'implosion structure'."

"boom--!"

The audience erupted in cheers.

"How could you do this! That's not what the agreement says!"

"This is a betrayal of trust! We've poured the entire nation's efforts into this project, and you just leave like that? The whole project is ruined!"

Marshal Nie sat at the head of the table, his face so gloomy it looked like it could be squeezed dry, and the enamel teacup in his hand had been squeezed so hard that it had developed tiny cracks.

Petrov completely ignored the roars from the audience and, in front of everyone, picked up a document marked "Top Secret" and slowly took out a lighter.

"Since there are regulations against taking it away, then destroy it. That's the rule."

"call--"

Flames leaped up, greedily devouring the paper, and also the tireless efforts of countless Chinese scientists over the past few months.

"Stop! You can't do this!" Lin Wanqiu screamed, rushing forward like a madwoman to try and salvage the data, but was roughly pushed away by two tall and burly Soviet bodyguards and fell to the ground.

"Engineer Lin!" He Yuzhu rushed forward, supported the swaying Lin Wanqiu, and shielded her behind him.

As the document turned to ashes, Petrov blew on his fingers, his eyes sweeping contemptuously across the room, and said, word by word:

"Without our blueprints, without our mainframe computers, all you have are your abacuses?"

He scoffed.

"Stop dreaming. Chinese people are good at setting off firecrackers, but nuclear fission? That's God's domain."

"Even if you were given another twenty years, you still wouldn't be able to build a fart like an atomic bomb!"