94: From Technological Warfare to Space Empire

March is the perfect time of year for springtime.

When Lin Yu opened his sleepy eyes, the sunlight outside the window was already dazzlingly bright.

Liu Bo sat on the broken chair beside his bed, clutching a newspaper in his hand.

Seeing that Lin Yu was awake, he opened his mouth, but seemed unsure where to begin.

After struggling for a long time, he finally managed to utter only one sentence.

"Happy New Year, Brother Yu! Are you awake? Are you hungry? The cafeteria is out of food."

Lin Yu propped himself up on the bed, the back of his head still throbbing from sleeping for so long. He glanced at the newspaper in Liu Bo's hand; he had seen this newspaper many times before and recognized it at a glance.

However, he didn't ask, he just said:

"What time is it?"

"10:20, just finished the first long lecture."

Lin Yu hummed in agreement and lifted the blanket to find his shoes. Liu Bo couldn't hold back any longer and handed him the newspaper.

"Look at this, these people are writing something increasingly outrageous!"

"Who did you offend? Why are they slandering you like this?"

"I've put all your photos up."

The newspaper was folded in half, and Lin Yu glanced at the headline.

Is extracting titanium from steel slag a gimmick or a scam? It shows how despicable intellectuals can be for profit.

The accompanying photos are several blurry black and white pictures of Lin Yu assigning tasks to several workers at the factory gate.

Selling carbon dioxide and vanadium pentoxide is a lucrative business.

If the workers secretly slipped a few coins into their pockets, as long as it wasn't too excessive, Lin Yu wouldn't bother to care.

Therefore, when the workers asked him for work assignments, they were somewhat obsequious, and it just so happened that someone took a picture of them at that moment.

The accompanying text reads:

[An insider revealed that workers in the factory were forced to sign confidentiality agreements, and in order to keep their jobs, they had to curry favor with Lin Yu.]

I glanced at the beginning of the newspaper; it was some unknown tabloid.

Lin Yu chuckled, put the newspaper aside, and continued putting on his shoes.

Liu Bo panicked:

"Aren't you worried? Brother Yu!! Is this for real? How come you've become a steel mill manager after just one holiday?"

Liu Bo was full of questions.

Although he was willing to believe Lin Yu, he was not the only highly educated person to stand up and criticize Lin Yu.

Lin Yu stood up and stretched his neck, which had become stiff from sleeping.

"What's the rush?"

"Does this tabloid from some unknown newspaper have to make me anxious?"

"Don't worry, they're just a bunch of clowns."

"The factory matter is a bit complicated to explain, and it's a long story. We'll talk about it later. I'm going to the factory now."

Liu Bo stood in the dormitory, watching Lin Yu walk out the door with a complicated expression.

Opening the dormitory door, the corridor was quieter than usual.

At the start of the semester, the dormitories had been empty all winter, so the smell was quite strong, and many dormitories had their doors open for ventilation.

As he passed the next dormitory room, he heard voices coming from inside, but the voices suddenly stopped as soon as he walked past.

Lin Yu didn't turn around and walked straight downstairs.

Zhang Guoqiang was standing at the building entrance. When he saw him come down, he stepped forward, said nothing, and simply handed over the military green canvas bag in his hand.

"The factory called."

Lin Yu took the bag: "What do you mean?"

"Section Chief Sun took a taxi and said that someone threw feces on our steel slag truck last night."

"The car seats were covered in dead rats."

Zhang Guoqiang lowered his voice, keeping it only in the ears of the two people.

Lin Yu paused for a moment.

That's such an old-fashioned method; he'd only ever seen it on television.

I never expected to witness this so soon after returning to this era.

"Is anyone injured?"

"No, it's just disgusting."

Zhang Guoqiang paused.

"There's one more thing."

"You previously assigned the soldiers to handle the reagent preparation, but this morning we discovered two barrels of reagents that didn't belong to us. We sent them for testing first thing this morning, but the results aren't back yet, so we don't know what they are..."

"We've already started investigating who sent it."

The Santana was parked on the side of the road. Lin Yu opened the car door and sat in the passenger seat. His face was completely blackened.

The methods used to deal with the workers were merely disgusting.

But the fact that he was handling chemicals really made him extremely angry.

A large part of the modern industrial system is built on various chemical industries.

Although in later generations there was a saying that the four major fields of biology, chemistry, environmental science and materials science were "sinkholes".

But if you are a PhD student in chemical engineering, you have nowhere to go.

Your local community might even assign you a sinecure job to support you.

Even if you become depressed while pursuing your doctorate, your supervisor won't dare to continue to hold you back from getting a degree.

To him, Walmart was a self-made arsenal, a place where he trained qualified PhDs in organic chemistry.

Organic chemistry is unlike inorganic chemistry.

Hazardous inorganic chemicals require large quantities to be handled, making them inaccessible to ordinary people. Organic chemicals…

Fortunately, he had been careful and had the soldiers secretly prepare the chemicals to enrich the rare metals in the steel slag. If he had left it to the workers, things would have been completely ruined.

"Let's hurry, let's go check out the factory!"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Guoqiang nodded repeatedly, started the car, and hurriedly drove towards Fangshan.

The snow along the road has melted away. Recently, this road has been driven back and forth by heavy trucks many times, and it has been riddled with potholes.

On the way, Lin Yu suddenly asked.

"What did Commander Hou say?"

"The commander wants you to focus on exchanging technology with Sergei and the others. The seven-day academic discussion really won't be possible without you leading it. The other professors can only learn from the Soviet Union, but they still need you to explain things to them. He's sent someone to investigate things at the factory."

Zhang Guoqiang gripped the steering wheel and responded.

"But those people were very clean, and not many people in Fangshan saw the scene, so the source couldn't be found for a while."

They remained silent for the rest of the journey.

Lin Yu was puzzled. Who exactly was targeting him?

The only thing he's made enemies with recently is that someone asked him for his technology to process steel slag, and he didn't give it to them.

But the problem is that those companies are all state-owned enterprises and steel conglomerates.

How Lin Yu became the factory manager might be a secret from ordinary people, but they must have some information about it.

His position as the director of the Red Star Steel Plant No. 2 was a reward personally ordered by the highest level.

Who in the system would dare to cross him?

As the car turned onto the bumpy dirt road, a crowd of people could be seen gathering at the factory gate in the distance.

Lin Yu pushed open the car door and got out. A cold wind rushed into his collar, and he squinted.

Among the crowd, Sun Qingnian, the production section chief, was the first to spot him. He jogged over to greet him, his dark face looking particularly grim today.

"Factory manager, you've finally arrived."

He didn't say anything else, he just stepped aside to let Lin Yu see where he had come from...

There were three piles of dark, murky things on the open ground at the factory gate.

It's not steel slag.

It was construction waste, rotten vegetable leaves, and two empty paint buckets, with paint dripping down the ground in several thin, viscous streams.

The former factory director, Liu Jianguo, had not yet taken office. He was standing next to the three piles of garbage, talking to several people in gray-blue uniforms.

He rarely wore his Zhongshan suit; he wore an old cotton-padded jacket instead.

Facing those people, he wore a slightly ingratiating expression.

Those men weren't laughing; they were holding notebooks and peering into the factory area.

Lin Yu strode over.

"Director Lin!"

Liu Jianguo quickly introduced himself.

"This is Section Chief Zhou from the FS District Environmental Protection Bureau, and these two are..."

"Hello, I am factory manager Lin Yu."

Lin Yu directly extended his hand, interrupting Liu Jianguo's introduction.

He knew that Liu Jianguo was kindly reminding him of where these people came from.

But he wanted these people to introduce themselves!

He refused to believe that these women's mothers were cheap imitations. How dare they come looking for trouble with him?

If you dare to use chemicals on him, don't blame him for retaliating.

Once he finds out who's behind this, he'll completely shut down the entire supply chain, from upstream to downstream!

Using underhanded means to acquire technology? Then don't blame him for using technology to teach these people what it means to have science and technology as the primary productive force.