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

In the early morning, with Liu Shouxin gone, even the smell of engine oil in Workshop No. 1 felt refreshing.

Old Sun sat shirtless in front of the control panel.

He held a specially made flat-tipped screwdriver for watch repair in his hand, the tip of which traced a crisscross pattern on three nail-sized nickel-based alloy plates.

Jiang Ming threw his canvas satchel onto the chair.

He picked up a magnifying glass and looked at the base.

"Master Sun, the surface roughness of these three base pieces must be completely uniform at the same level."

Jiang Ming put down the magnifying glass.

"Even the slightest difference in the depth the blade tip presses down will interfere with the electron emission data we measure later."

Old Sun wiped the sweat from his neck with a towel.

"Jiang Gong, don't worry about it."

Old Sun changed the angle of the screwdriver.

"I used a lot of force when I carved these grooves to make sure that even the rough edges of the mesh were completely removed."

Wu Hanzhang walked over carrying an enamel teacup.

He glanced at the meager amount of cerium oxide residue in the white porcelain plate.

"The security department has taken down Liu Shouxin, that troublemaker, and the air in the workshop is much cleaner now."

Wu Hanzhang placed the teacup on the tin cabinet.

"This morning, Deputy Secretary Zhou was still wandering around outside, but I turned him away with the sign of the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense."

Jiang Ming took out a stack of draft paper filled with Russian formulas.

"Engineer Wu, these three sets of materials we have today are our last reserves."

Jiang Ming made some dots on the paper with his pen.

"The three scales you ordered yesterday—0.9, 1.1, and 1.3—are all pressed onto this tiny sample piece. Can you even tell the difference?"

Wu Hanzhang leaned closer to examine the formulas.

"Large-size tubes waste too much material."

Jiang Ming pushed the draft paper to the center of the table.

"We now have less than 20 grams of cerium oxide left, so we must compress the second round of experiments onto a sample the size of a fingernail to run the data."

Xiao Zhao ran over carrying a newly made three-part record board.

Behind his thick-rimmed glasses were bloodshot eyes from staying up all night.

"Jiang, I've drawn up the three tables for launch efficiency, thermal cycle, and vacuum rebound."

Xiao Zhao spread out the form.

"Today I won't drink water or go to the toilet; I'll be glued to these three indicators."

"We need to do more than just focus on the metrics."

Jiang Ming pointed to the ledger.

"We also need to pay attention to whether the tubes will vitrify or boil over again during the insulation stage."

Da Liu squatted down next to the old vacuum pump in the corner.

He was taking several pieces of tattered asbestos cloth and wrapping them around the outer wall of the cold trap.

"Jiang Gong, will wrapping this rag around really work?"

While tying the wire, Da Liu looked up and asked.

"It can isolate heat convection at room temperature."

Jiang Ming walked to the cold trap and checked the blind spots in the bandaging.

"Once the pumping speed is increased, the cold trap will be under too much load, so we must maintain the liquid nitrogen level inside. You don't need to do anything today, just keep a close eye on the changes in the frost layer on the pipeline."

"If I were using the old methods, this twenty grams of medicine wouldn't even be enough to fill a tooth gap."

Da Liu twisted the wire into a tight knot.

The division of labor in the workshop is like a precision machine tool that has been wound up.

Without administrative intervention and underhanded scheming, every worker's movements became ruthless.

At the same time, thousands of miles away, in the Guangzhou Port Confidential Office.

The old ceiling fan creaked overhead.

Director Wang sat behind his desk, holding a transfer request letter with a top-secret red border in his hand.

The ashtray in front of him was already piled high with cigarette butts.

A young officer in military uniform pushed open the door and walked in.

"Director, the hard sleeper train tickets to Beijing have been bought. The train is this afternoon."

The young officer placed the train ticket on the table.

"The document safe was also sealed with double lead seals to the highest standards."

Director Wang flipped the transfer request letter over and placed it face down on the table.

"Did you put all of Lao Lei's old, dead files in there?"

Director Wang stood up and picked up the military jacket hanging on the back of the chair.

"Everything is packed."

The clerk lowered his voice.

"But why would Beijing suddenly want to investigate the remaining documents from the Lightning-7 mission?"

Director Wang's hand, which was buttoning his shirt, froze in mid-air.

He recalled the young face he had seen at the port checkpoint two weeks ago.

"Regular noise interference appeared in the top-secret research project of the Third Electronics Factory."

Director Wang straightened his military cap.

"That young man who looks like Lao Lei is now working as a key worker in that factory."

The clerk swallowed hard.

"You mean, enemy agents followed the scent and went there?"

"That frequency was the last time Lao Lei used it to send a telegram before he passed away."

Director Wang picked up the black secure box on the table.

"Old Lei was blown up along with his codebook back then, and the enemy only got the fragments. Now the Northwest Base is listening for noise, which means that the lurking agents are trying to resurrect him."

Director Wang walked to the door and stopped.

"That student who returned from abroad, Jiang Ming, must not be allowed to make any mistakes."

Director Wang turned to look at the young staff member.

"This is a spark that the higher-ups risked their lives to protect."

The green train made a dull thud on the tracks.

The smell of coal smoke seeped into the hard sleeper carriage through the gaps in the windows.

The paddy fields to the south outside the window are receding rapidly.

Director Wang held the secure box in his arms, his eyes fixed on the rusty sheet metal on the top of the carriage.

The situation in Beijing was more dangerous than he had anticipated.

Night fell.

The Third Electronics Factory outside Beijing was shrouded in night.

Jiang Ming locked the iron door of the single dormitory tightly.

He sat cross-legged on the hard bed, his consciousness sinking into the depths of his mind.

The bronze-colored Tongtian Record emitted a faint glow.

During the day, he didn't use his cheat code and followed the deduction route from the previous night exactly.

Now, he must thoroughly understand the amplification parameters from small samples to the entire tube.

He connected in his mind with that early pioneer of vacuum tube and radar physics.

"Senior, if the optimal proportions are measured on a sample the size of a fingernail, how do you derive the geometric progression of the magnification parameters to scale up to the full size of a military-grade tube?"

Jiang Ming got straight to the point.

The other person's voice carried their usual fiery temper.

"Don't just apply area multiples to calculate it."

The pioneer snorted coldly.

"As the tube is enlarged, the electron scattering effect at the edge increases exponentially, so it is necessary to compensate with 0.5% tungsten powder on top of the original formula ratio."

"What would happen if there were no compensation?"

Jiang Ming pressed for more information.

"Tungsten powder not only compensates for the edges, but also acts like a rivet to hold rare earth ions in the crystal lattice."

The pioneers offered the answer.

"Otherwise, if it's enlarged, the launch efficiency will be halved."

Jiang Ming picked up a pencil and wrote down the words "edge effect compensation" in the hard copy.

He replaced him with a second colleague from the same material interface physics department.

"Senior, if the differences between the three proportions within a narrow range are extremely small, how can the uniformity of the micropores be determined under a microscope?"

The young pioneer spoke extremely fast.

"Don't just look at the surface smoothness."

"Look at the angle of shadow refraction at the edge of the coating."

"If mottled dark areas appear under side lighting, it means that the internal structure has collapsed. There's no need to turn on the electricity; it's a death sentence."

Jiang Ming granted the last psychic grant to the pioneer of precision instruments and vacuum systems engineering.

"Senior, how do I eliminate the current error of the test bench itself when testing small samples?"

The clear, crisp female voice carried a professional air of rigor.

"Use twisted-pair cable to ground and shield against external interference signals."

"The base of the sample piece must be padded with a layer of pure copper foil."

"This ensures that thermodynamic and electrical conduction are synchronized, minimizing the resistance loss of the test bench itself."

The credit limit was completely exhausted three times.

Jiang Ming opened his eyes; the back of his shirt was already soaked with sweat.

Just as he was about to exit his sea of ​​consciousness, a strange phenomenon occurred.

He noticed that several fine halos appeared next to the golden name card representing Qian Xuesen on the Tongtianlu panel.

Chen Zhiyuan's gray name card also gleamed noticeably.

Even the still-unformed outlines of Wu Hanzhang and Lao Sun's names exude a warm, substantial feel at their edges.

This growing trust in reality is pushing the Tongtianlu (a historical record) to the point where commoners can be promoted to scholars.

Jiang Ming closed his notebook, firmly imprinting the derived data into his mind.

He vaguely sensed that as long as the military-grade electron tube in his hand was successfully fired, the depth of the Tongtian Record's structure would undergo a qualitative change.

The evening of the second day arrived earlier than usual.

Large swaths of leaden-gray clouds loomed on the horizon.

The testing platform in Workshop No. 1 is emitting a steady, continuous buzzing sound.

Jiang Ming stared at the pointer on the microampere, which was firmly fixed at the 290 microampere mark.

This is the sample image at a scale of 1.1%.

It has been operating at full capacity for two and a half hours straight.

Wu Hanzhang stood beside Jiang Ming, holding a teacup, barely daring to breathe.

Xiao Zhao gripped the recorder tightly, his fingers already bearing white marks from the pressure.

Just then, a screeching sound of brakes came from outside the rusty iron gate of the Third Electronics Factory.

A jeep with military license plates was parked outside the guardhouse.

The tires plowed two deep ruts into the sandy ground.

The security officer on duty quickly ran over to check the identification.

The jeep door was pushed open from the inside.

Director Wang, dressed in a dusty military uniform, jumped out of the car.

He was carrying a black, double-sealed secure box.

Before the security officer could even begin to question him, Director Wang slammed the special pass with the red star onto the hood of the car.

He looked up at the rows of red brick workshops in the factory area.

Where is Jiang Ming now?