Major Heavy Industry: Starting with a Fake Marriage

He looked up and saw Zheng Yanxi standing in the doorway, holding another lunchbox. She was wearing a gray coat, her hair was ruffled by the wind, and her face had a faint blush.

"Why are you here?"

"I brought you some food. Master Huang said you didn't eat much at noon." She came in, placed the lunchbox on the table, and noticed the three sheets of paper on it. "What's written on them?"

"A solution," Jiang Cheng said. "I've finally figured out the problem that's been bothering me for days."

Zheng Yanxi looked down at the few pages of paper, which were densely covered with words and formulas that she couldn't quite understand. But she saw the light in his eyes—a light she hadn't seen in a long time.

"That's good," she said. "Let's eat."

Jiang Cheng sat down, opened the lunchbox, and found braised pork and rice specially prepared by Zheng Yanxi.

To nourish him, the meat was stewed until very tender, glistening with oil, and smelled wonderful. He picked up a piece and put it in his mouth. "Delicious," he said.

Zheng Yanxi sat opposite him, watching him eat, and the corners of her mouth curved into a smile.

"Yanxi, how's your studying going lately?"

Jiang Cheng put down his chopsticks and looked at her. The light from the table lamp shone on Zheng Yanxi's face, revealing a faint dark circle under her eyes. She was preparing for her medical licensing exam, studying late into the night every night.

"Where are you looking?"

"Internal medicine, the chapter on cardiovascular diseases." She didn't look up. "Differential diagnosis of myocardial infarction. I've memorized it three times, but I still can't remember it."

"If you can't remember it after three times, try four. If four times isn't enough, try five." He paused, "Don't stay up too late."

Zheng Yanxi looked up and glanced at him. There was a hint of surprise in that glance, but also a touch of warmth.

"You too," she said.

"Are you tired?"

"I'm not tired." She paused, "It's just that Jiang Yuan keeps waking up at night and doesn't sleep very well."

Jiang Cheng put down his chopsticks: "How about I take care of him tonight, and you get some sleep?"

"No need. You go about your business." She looked at him. "You're more tired than I am."

Jiang Cheng didn't say anything and continued eating. He knew she wouldn't let him take care of the child, just as he wouldn't let her write his proposal. They were both busy with their own things, but they both had each other in their hearts.

After finishing her meal, Zheng Yanxi packed up her lunchbox, stood up, and said, "I'm leaving. You should go home early."

"Um."

She walked to the door, then suddenly stopped and turned back: "Jiang Cheng, will your plan work?"

Jiang Cheng thought for a moment: "Yes."

"That's good." She smiled, pushed open the door, and left.

Jiang Cheng sat at the table, staring blankly at the closed door for a while. Then he picked up the three pages of paper, read them through from beginning to end, made a few corrections, and then copied them again. By the time he finished copying, it was already dark. He stood up, walked to the window, and saw that the courtyard was empty; Huang Deqing had left sometime earlier. The streetlights were on, casting a dim yellow light on the poplar trees, where leaves were still falling, one by one, slowly.

The next morning, Jiang Cheng went to the Shenyang Aero Engine Research Institute. He was going to conduct experiments to verify his new plan.

The institute's laboratory was in the suburbs, an hour's bus ride away. When he arrived, he found the engineer in charge of fatigue testing, surnamed Lin, in his early thirties, wearing glasses, and speaking softly.

"Mr. Lin, I need to conduct a set of coating adhesion tests under low-temperature conditions. The temperature is minus forty degrees Celsius, with cyclic loading, to test whether the coating will peel off."

Engineer Lin glanced at his proposal and frowned. "Local heating to relieve stress? We haven't tried that method before. Are you confident in its effectiveness?"

No. So we have to try.

Lin hesitated for a moment: "Okay, let's give it a try. But the equipment needs to be preheated, it will take two hours."

"I can wait, which will give me time to do some preliminary work and preparation."

Jiang Cheng personally operated the coating equipment, plating a layer of nickel-based alloy onto a scrapped landing gear strut. After plating, it was locally heated with an oxy-acetylene flame, the temperature controlled at 200 degrees Celsius, held at that temperature for one hour, and then slowly cooled.

Two hours passed quickly, and the experiment began.

The entire process took four hours. The repaired support was placed in a low-temperature chamber, where the temperature dropped to minus forty degrees Celsius. Then it was placed on a fatigue testing machine and subjected to load.

The testing machine hummed, the load pressing down again and again. Ten thousand times, twenty thousand times, fifty thousand times. Jiang Cheng stood beside it, staring at the instrument panel, his palms sweating. Engineer Lin recorded the data, glancing at him occasionally, but saying nothing.

Eighty thousand times, one hundred thousand times, one hundred thousand times.

The testing machine stopped. Engineer Lin came out, holding a report in his hand, his expression somewhat strange.

"How is it?" Jiang Cheng asked.

Engineer Lin handed him the report: "120,000 cycles, no cracks, no peeling. 20,000 cycles higher than the original manufacturer's standard."

Jiang Cheng took the report, his hands trembling. He read it three times, confirming that every number was correct, then looked up at Engineer Lin.

"Thank you, Mr. Lin."

Engineer Lin shook his head: "Don't thank me. Your solution is good." He paused, then continued, "Master Jiang, could your method be used on other parts?"

"Yes," Jiang Cheng said. "As long as it's a problem with the adhesion of the coating, it can be used."

Lin nodded and didn't say anything more. But the look in his eyes was different from before.

Jiang Cheng stepped out of the lab, stood at the door, and took a deep breath. The autumn air was cool, refreshing in his lungs. The sky was blue, the clouds were white, and the distant mountains rose in layers, like a traditional Chinese ink painting. He took out his notebook and wrote a line below the section "Low-Temperature Brittleness - Cause Analysis": "Solution: Local heating to relieve stress. Experimental verification: Passed."

Then he closed his laptop and walked towards the bus stop. After a few steps, he stopped and looked back at the gray laboratory building. A red flag was on the roof, fluttering in the wind.

He smiled, turned around, and continued walking.

It was already afternoon when he returned to the promotion center. Huang Deqing was teaching students coating operations in the laboratory. When he saw him come in, he stopped what he was doing.

"Did it work?"

"It's done." Jiang Cheng handed him the report.

Huang Deqing took the report, glanced at it, nodded, and handed it back to him. He didn't say anything, but the corner of his mouth curved slightly—his happiest expression.

Jiang Cheng walked into his office, sat down, and began writing a formal report. Halfway through, the phone rang. He answered it; it was Chief Engineer Zhao.

"Comrade Jiang Cheng, is there any progress on the plan?"

"Yes. We conducted a low-temperature test today, 120,000 cycles, and there were no cracks or peeling."

There was a long silence on the other end of the phone. Then Chief Engineer Zhao's voice came through, somewhat hoarse: "120,000 times? The original factory standard is 100,000 times."

"Yes. It exceeds the original factory standard by 20,000 cycles."

Another silence fell. Then Chief Engineer Zhao smiled, a soft laugh, but one that revealed genuine joy: "Comrade Jiang Cheng, you wait. I'll go to Shenyang next week to discuss this in person."

After hanging up the phone, Jiang Cheng leaned back in his chair, staring at the ceiling. Several cracks, like dried-up riverbeds, stretched from one end to the other. He stared at the cracks, his mind blank, thinking of nothing.