1950s: After transmigrating into a capitalist, I relied on military industry to achieve a comeback.

In Harbin in November, the wind is as hard as a knife, stinging your face.

Lin Hongsheng tightened his slightly thin blue cotton-padded coat and skillfully pushed open the heavy, weathered iron door of Warehouse No. 1 at the Hongxing Machinery Factory. In the month since he joined the company, he had toned down the arrogance of his former wealthy merchant from southern Jiangsu and, with his excellent accounting skills and efficient handling of goods, had established himself in Warehouse No. 1, a place full of rough-and-tumble men.

"Hey Lin, good morning! The pile of bearings you sorted out yesterday was perfectly accurate; the team leader is praising you!"

"Master Lin, are we going to go back to those old accounts again? Take it easy on your eyes, those words are hard to read."

As he entered, several warehouse workers carrying sacks greeted him warmly, their tone revealing the close bond between fellow workers. Lin Hongsheng smiled and nodded in response. This down-to-earth life brought him an unprecedented sense of peace, a peace that had weighed heavily on his mind throughout his journey.

Around noon, the factory's loudspeaker crackled twice, then started playing an upbeat song.

Lin Jiaoyue appeared at the factory gate, carrying a faded floral cloth bag. Today, she wore a dark blue cotton-padded jacket, her hair was tied into two neat braids, and the tip of her nose was slightly red from the cold. Despite her simple, even deliberately rustic, attire, her fair and radiant skin and delicate, bright eyes made her stand out like a newly sprouted daffodil in the dusty, greasy factory area.

"father!"

That crisp, clear call pierced through the noisy crowd.

Lin Hongsheng was about to fetch water when he saw his daughter. His usually calm and reserved expression softened instantly, and the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes overflowed with doting affection for her: "Jiaojiao? What brings you here in this freezing weather?"

"Mom specially made scallion corn pancakes today, and also warmed two red-skinned eggs for me to bring you. I kept them in my clothes the whole way so they wouldn't get cold." Lin Jiaoyue obediently held up her cloth bag, smiled sweetly at the warehouse workers who were craning their necks and looking at her with curiosity, revealing her two little tiger teeth: "Hello, uncles! I've come to bring my dad's food. I hope I haven't disturbed your work?"

The rough-looking men who were busy moving things paused for a moment, then burst into a few hearty responses.

"Oh dear, no worries! This child is so polite!"

"Old Lin, where did you get such good fortune? Your daughter looks like she stepped out of a painting, and she's so doting on her father. It's making us old men green with envy!"

An older warehouse worker patted the dust off his hands with a simple and honest smile and chimed in, "Come in and sit down, it's windy and smoky outside. Old Lin, hurry and take the girl to get some hot water, don't let her get cold. There are a lot of rough people here, don't let the smoke bother the child."

Hearing his coworkers' praise, Lin Hongsheng felt extremely pleased, even more so than if he had closed a big deal. However, he humbly replied, "Not at all, it's just that this child is filial. Okay, everyone, get back to work. I'll take her to workshop number two to get some hot water; the furnace there is working well."

Lin Hongsheng took the cloth bag and proudly led his daughter toward the production area.

But as soon as Lin Hongsheng reached the half-closed iron door of Workshop No. 2, he sensed that something was wrong.

A burnt smell mixed with the smell of engine oil hit me, followed by a tooth-grinding metallic screech. The sound was like a dull saw tearing wildly at the top of my head.

"Sizzle—sizzle—bang!!!"

The loud impact made the concrete ground beneath our feet tremble.

"Shut down! Shut down now! It's going to explode!"

"This is a precious import from the Soviet Union, and the spare parts are still en route by sea. If it burns out, our entire workshop will be in serious trouble!"

The workshop was in complete chaos. Dozens of workers surrounded a huge, dark green machine tool in the center, stamping their feet in frustration and sweating profusely. Workshop foreman Wang Dana was sighing and groaning over the machine tool, his hands crumpled of blueprints, his voice hoarse from shouting, "Where's the technician? Where's Engineer Liu? What's going on?! The gear we just replaced is jammed again!"

A young technician named Liu, wearing glasses and covered in grease, was almost in tears: "Foreman, I've checked the drawings three times already, the assembly is absolutely fine, but something's just not right! This vibration frequency is so strange!"

"No problem? No problem with it being like this? Didn't you always brag that besides Engineer Zhang and Engineer Li, you were the one who knew the most about these foreign gadgets?!"

Wang Dana slapped his thigh in anger, pointing towards the gate and cursing, "Of all times, it has to come at this crucial moment! Engineer Zhang and Engineer Li have both gone to the city for a technical seminar, saying they won't be back for three days! All the factory's technical backbone has been evacuated, leaving only you, a half-baked expert, to guard the place. And now you're telling me you don't understand?"

"Director, three days... this machine can't possibly last three days!" Engineer Liu's legs went weak as he looked at the machine tool that was shaking so badly it looked like it was about to fall apart. "If it keeps grinding like this, the spindle will burn out, and even a miracle worker couldn't fix it!"

"Nonsense! Where am I supposed to conjure up a Zhang Gong for you right now?" Wang Dana was so anxious he was spinning around in circles, watching the priceless machine groan and groan. "If this gets destroyed in our hands, we'll both have to go to security and explain ourselves!"

The ear-piercing friction sound rose another notch, making one's heart pound with fear, as if the high-speed rotating main shaft was about to fly out and crack someone's head open at any moment.

Lin Hongsheng was startled and instinctively stepped aside to shield his daughter, using his broad back to block the chaos. He pulled Lin Jiaoyue back, his voice filled with anxiety: "Jiaojiao, this machine is acting up, it's too dangerous. Let's get away from it, don't let it hurt you."

Just then, the overwhelmed Engineer Liu turned around and saw Lin Hongsheng standing at the door with a young girl. His anger flared instantly, and he vented it on Lin: "Hey! Who's that? Old Lin from the warehouse? What are you doing bringing your family in at a time like this! Can't you see it's chaotic here? Get out of here, get out of here, don't make things worse!"

Lin Hongsheng wasn't annoyed; he smiled apologetically and prepared to leave.

But when he tried to pull it, he found that he couldn't move it.

Lin Jiaoyue did not move.

Her once clear, innocent, and smiling eyes contracted slightly the moment she heard the strange noise, and her expression changed abruptly.

The naivety and innocence of a sixteen-year-old girl receded like the tide, replaced by a chilling calm and sharpness.

The surrounding noise of people, broadcasts, and the director's roars gradually faded from her ears, leaving only the enormous machine in front of her.

Her gaze seemed to transform into an X-ray, piercing through the thick, cold, dark green cast iron casing and locking onto the gearbox deep inside the machine tool.

In her mind, countless data streams began to flood the screen, and a complex three-dimensional mechanical structure was rapidly rotating, disassembling, and reassembling.

"The spindle speed is 3000 revolutions per minute, and the resonant frequency deviation is 15 Hz..."

"The sound is wrong. It's not the squeaking of worn gears, nor is it the dry grinding sound of insufficient lubrication."

She silently recited it to herself, her brows furrowing slightly.

While everyone was focused on the gears, she detected the extremely faint source of discordant vibration hidden beneath the massive noise—the bearing housing of the third shaft inside the gearbox, which had experienced a tiny displacement of less than 0.02 millimeters during high-speed operation. This minute deviation, amplified infinitely at a speed of three thousand revolutions per minute, created a fatal resonance.

"Father," Lin Jiaoyue suddenly spoke.

The sound was not loud, and it was so cold that it had no warmth at all, but in the noisy workshop, it sounded exceptionally clear and firm, carrying an authority that could not be ignored.

She gently broke free from her father's hand, raised her slender, white finger, and pointed at the Soviet machine tool that everyone regarded as a god, but which was now acting like a mad dog.

"The machine isn't broken; we don't need to replace any parts."

Engineer Liu, who was about to kick the father and daughter out, was stunned, as was Director Wang Dana, who was about to pull the power switch.

Lin Jiaoyue turned her head slightly, her eyes showing no fear, only absolute control and indifference over the mechanical structure. She said calmly:

"It's just that the 'bone' was set incorrectly."

The workshop fell silent the moment those words were spoken.

Lin Hongsheng looked at his daughter in disbelief. Although the little hand he was holding was still warm, the person in front of him was so unfamiliar that it made him feel uneasy.

Looking at the group of helpless technicians with faces full of doubt and shock, Lin Jiaoyue straightened her back slightly and tugged at the corners of her mouth.

At this moment, the long-dormant top engineer, "Engineer Lin," was completely awakened in the cold winter workshop of 1950.