With three superpowers at his fingertips, he could dominate the 1970s.

The clearing was lifted at 3 p.m. that day.

Qian Weiguo arrived as well, standing at the underground entrance, clutching an inspection form in one hand and a military water bottle under his other, his Adam's apple bobbing twice. Jiang Zhiyu had already left, leaving only the words: "The stuff is piled up on the third floor below. Sign it after you've inspected it."

signature.

Qian Weiguo had signed quite a few names in his life, but when he weighed the pen in his hand, he actually felt his palms sweating.

"Old Qian, everyone's here."

Li Tiejun walked over from the stairwell, his voice low. This confidential secretary, who had served the old leader for over a decade, had been assigned to coordinate and liaise with the management bureau after the old leader passed away.

Two people followed behind Li Tiejun.

It was Liu Xuemin and Zhao Shoucheng.

Zhao Shoucheng pushed up his glasses.

"Everyone's here, you can go now."

His voice trembled slightly. He'd been on edge these past few days. The budget for this lab project had gone over three times from its inception to groundbreaking; his hand was sore from signing off on so many projects. Even now, so much time had passed, he still couldn't quite believe what that young comrade Jiang had promised.

The four people went down to the basement level.

The iron gate slowly opened.

The lights in the room suddenly shone brightly.

Li Tiejun took a step forward and then stopped. Zhao Shoucheng subconsciously took half a step back and bumped into the iron gate. He held onto the door frame, his eyes fixed on the room.

A room full of —

No.

It's not a room full of people.

It's an entire floor.

An entire floor, filled with large, precision instruments that stretched as far as the eye could see, was neatly stacked inside. The silver-gray metal casings gleamed coldly under the lights.

Zhao Shoucheng's hand slid down the door frame little by little.

He pulled the list from his pocket and opened it with trembling hands. His fingers traced the names on the list, column by column. He stopped at the seventh line. He looked up, found the corresponding machine in the room, looked down at the list again, then looked up again, then looked down again.

"this……"

His lips moved, but he didn't say anything.

The list only lists the names of the instruments, not the quantities.

Inside the room, there were six units of the same model.

Meanwhile, models not listed on the inventory were being produced one after another.

Zhao Shoucheng sat down on the ground with a thud.

Li Tiejun wanted to help him up, but as he raised his hand, he forgot to reach down. Li Tiejun's own eyes were already red. He had followed his old leader all over the country, seen his old leader humbly beg for a piece of equipment, and seen his old leader stay up all night for a blueprint.

When the old leader passed away, he held his hand and said something:

"Tiejun, those kids of ours... we need to make sure they're useful."

Li Tiejun cried for half the night.

He never expected this day to come so soon.

He walked forward step by step until he reached the nearest instrument. He reached out and gently placed his fingertips on the cool casing, as if touching the back of a loved one's hand.

"Old Chief."

Those three words, once uttered, were impossible to suppress. Li Tiejun turned his back, his shoulders trembling slightly, unable to utter a complete sentence.

Liu Xuemin walked over, intending to pat him on the shoulder, but pulled his hand back halfway. This veteran, who had dedicated half his life to scientific research, also had tears welling up in his eyes.

Liu Xuemin said in a hoarse voice.

"Tiejun, let's go down to the second floor and take a look."

Li Tiejun didn't say anything, wiped his face, and followed.

Second floor.

Three floors.

Pushing open the iron gates on each floor revealed the same scene.

By the time they reached the third floor, Zhao Shoucheng was barely able to speak. The list in his hand was crumpled and his knuckles were white. He stopped in front of a large electron microscope system at the end of the third floor, took off his gold-rimmed glasses, and wiped them repeatedly with his sleeve.

Liu Xuemin stood next to him for a long time.

"Uphold integrity."

"Um."

"I've never seen so many good guys in my life."

"I've never seen it either."

"Didn't you say before that this lab was way over budget?"

Zhao Shoucheng gave a wry smile.

"I was being petty."

He put his glasses back on, glanced at the instrument again, and lowered his voice.

"This one, even if we searched the whole world, no one would sell it to us. I've submitted applications several times, and they've all been rejected. Seeing it here today, I feel..."

He didn't continue. Liu Xuemin didn't urge him either.

It was only then that Qian Weiguo slowly came to his senses.

He was the first of the four to enter the room, mainly because he had witnessed Jiang Zhiyu's methods before, and he was still incredibly shocked, because there were just too many...

He turned around and faced east.

That's the direction of the old leader's grave.

Qian Weiguo snapped to attention and raised his hand in a military salute.

The military salute was performed with utmost utmost respect.

This old commander, a soldier by training and barely literate, held one hand frozen to his brow, saying nothing, but tears streamed down his deeply etched face.

"Old Chief."

"I, Qian Weiguo..."

His throat felt like it was stuffed with cotton.

"I, Qian Weiguo, have done right by you in my life."

Li Tiejun stood beside him, raised his hand, and saluted.

Liu Xuemin and Zhao Shoucheng also raised their hands in salute.

Four hands, four military salutes.

The three underground levels were completely silent.

……

Forty minutes later.

The team of scientists entered the venue.

There were forty-six people in total, the oldest being seventy-six and the youngest over forty. Most of them were well-known figures abroad, but after returning to China, they plunged into this remote mountain village. They didn't talk about how tough the conditions were, and you couldn't tell if they were smiling or not.

The old man leading the group was surnamed Zhou. He had a slightly hunched back and walked with a slow, deliberate gait. He had just stepped through the iron gate to the basement level when he stopped right there at the entrance.

The old man didn't speak.

He walked in from the doorway, pausing with each step, until he reached the machine in the third row and suddenly reached out to steady it.

His knees buckled.

A middle-aged scientist following behind him reacted quickly and helped him up.

"Old Zhou!"

Old Zhou didn't speak, but simply raised his hand and pointed tremblingly at the machine.

"This one..." Old Zhou's voice trembled uncontrollably, "I touched its predecessor in Cambridge in 1955. They only let us look at it, not touch it."

He let out a sob.

"I've been waiting for it for a full twenty-one years."

The scientists then poured in.

Someone stood still in front of the machine.

Someone reached out and touched the casing, as if stroking a child's hair.

Someone crouched down, one hand supporting their knee, their shoulder twitching, while the other hand tightly covered their mouth.

An elderly woman with gray hair walked up to a spectrometer. Her glasses had slipped down to the tip of her nose, but she didn't bother to adjust them. She simply lowered her head slowly, gently resting her forehead against the cool metal casing.

She said something very softly, so softly that only those around her could hear it.

"Kids, you'll have work to do from now on."

Forty-six people.

No one spoke, no one shouted slogans, no one called for leaders; only a low, intermittent sobbing echoed throughout the basement.

Li Tiejun stood at the very back.

He took off his glasses and slowly wiped them.

It took a long time to wipe.

……

Three hours later, the acceptance was signed.

Four acceptance forms lay spread out on Qian Weiguo's office desk. Liu Xuemin signed first, Zhao Shoucheng second, and Li Tiejun third. When it was Qian Weiguo's turn, he held the pen in his hand and looked at the form for a long time.

Zhao Shoucheng couldn't help but ask a question.

"Old Qian, what are you waiting for?"

Qian Weiguo raised his head, his eyes still red, and finally signed his name with trembling hands.

After signing, he slammed the pen down, stood up, and gave another military salute to the window to the east.

"Old Chief."

"That girl really made us proud. I, Old Qian, am ashamed that you couldn't see this!"