Siheyuan (traditional courtyard house): Starting with the Korean War, returning home to take charge

The final assembly workshop has been bustling with activity for the past two weeks.

When He Yuzhu came out of the workshop, it was already completely dark. He stood at the door taking off his safety helmet, and beads of sweat dripped from the brim, leaving deep marks the size of fingernails on the ground. Inside, the clanging and banging of welding was still going on, the arc of the welding flashing and illuminating the windows.

Ma Yuejin followed behind, clutching a notebook in his hand. His face was streaked with black and white, and sweat mixed with rust had etched deep lines down his cheeks.

"Dean, the suspension system is installed. We'll test the pressure tomorrow."

He Yuzhu nodded.

"Where's the motivation?"

Ma Yuejin opened his notebook and ran his thumb along the bottom of the page: "The day after tomorrow. The engine has been hoisted in, but the piping isn't finished yet."

He Yuzhu looked up at the light shining from the workshop: "Have them work overtime; we must test it the day after tomorrow."

Ma Yuejin was taken aback: "The day after tomorrow? Those kids haven't been home for three days."

He Yuzhu turned her gaze back to him and said, "I haven't been home for three days either."

Ma Yuejin opened his mouth, but didn't say anything.

He Yuzhu turned around and walked inside again.

"Dean, where are you going?"

"Take a look at that batch of steel."

The steel was piled up neatly under a shed at the east end of the workshop, covered with tarpaulin. He Yuzhu lifted the tarpaulin, picked up a steel ingot, and held it up to the light to examine it. The surface was smooth, with a distinctive bluish-gray luster from rolling, and it was quite shiny.

He put this one down and picked up the one next to it.

The feel is different.

The surface of this thing is dark, and when you rub your fingertips against it, it feels rough and sticky.

He squatted down, turned the steel ingot over, and looked at the markings on the bottom. The furnace number, batch number, and the steel mill's red stamp were the same as the batch he wanted.

But the feel of the material doesn't lie.

He stood up and touched each of the remaining sticks. Five were shiny, and three were dark.

Ma Yuejin jogged over: "Dean, what's wrong?"

He Yuzhu handed over the tarnished steel ingot: "Send it for testing, check the composition."

Ma Yuejin took it, his expression changing: "This... is substandard?"

He Yuzhu did not respond.

The test results were delivered to the office at 8:03 a.m. the following morning.

Ma Yuejin rushed in, clutching the paper, his face pale: "Dean, the chromium content is half of what it should be. If this stuff is welded on, the weld will crack after less than two hundred kilometers."

He Yuzhu took the test report, his gaze lingering on one line of numbers: "How much is it in total?"

"This batch brought in twenty sticks." Ma Yuejin opened his notebook. "I checked them yesterday, and five of them were tarnished. The rest... need to be inspected."

He Yuzhu stood up: "Inspect every single one, don't miss a single one."

The full test results came out at 2:40 PM.

Of the twenty steel ingots, seven were substandard. They lacked sufficient chromium and manganese, resulting in significantly lower hardness and even worse toughness.

He Yuzhu stood in front of the pile of steel ingots, looking at the seven that had been picked out, his face expressionless.

Ma Yuejin whispered to the director, "Dean, this batch of goods is from Ansteel. We've been cooperating with them for several years, and this is the first time something like this has happened."

He Yuzhu remained silent.

Old Lu came in from outside, walked straight to his side, and lowered his voice: "Commander, I've investigated."

He Yuzhu turned his head to look at him.

"The goods were switched at the train station." Old Lu lowered his voice even further. "Our people investigated and said that a truck parked nearby that night, unloaded the goods, and then reloaded them. The timing matches up."

He Yuzhu pressed his hand on the tarnished steel ingot: "Have you found the person?"

Old Lu nodded: "There was a dispatcher at the train station, surnamed Wei. He confessed that someone paid him to do this job."

He Yuzhu stared at him.

"Who?"

Old Lu was silent for two seconds: "People from the Northern Industrial Research Institute."

When Wei was arrested, he was drinking at home.

Old Lu led his men in, and the enamel mug in his hand clattered to the ground, spilling wine all over his pants. He had just stood up to run away when Zhao Tiezhu slammed him against the wall.

"Don't move!"

With his face pressed against the wall, Wei, the dispatcher, kept shouting, "I don't know anything! I don't know anything!"

Old Lu walked to the table and threw the stack of photos on it.

The photo shows him unloading goods at the train station, with someone standing next to him carrying a canvas box.

"Who is this person?"

Wei, the dispatcher, turned his head and glanced at the camera, his face turning deathly pale: "I...I don't know him..."

Old Lu stared at him: "Don't you know him? You'd give him money if you didn't know him?"

Wei, the dispatcher, remained silent.

Zhao Tiezhu pressed him into a chair, and Lao Lu pulled over another chair and sat down opposite him.

"Speak. Who gave you permission to do it? How much did you get paid?"

Wei, the dispatcher, kept his head down and spoke after a long while: "It was someone from the Northern Industrial Research Institute. A man surnamed Zhou, an engineer. He gave me five hundred yuan and asked me to replace those steel ingots."

Old Lu narrowed his eyes: "What about the steel ingots that were replaced?"

Dispatcher Wei pointed out the window: "Sold. Sold to the scrap collector."

He Yuzhu stood in the workshop, listening to Lao Lu finish speaking.

"The man surnamed Zhou is named Zhou Guodong, an engineer at the North China Industrial Research Institute." Old Lu paused for a moment, "He said it was Chief Engineer Liu's idea to cause problems with our prototype."

He Yuzhu didn't say anything.

Listening from the side, Ma Yuejin's face turned bright red: "Dean, this is fucking outrageous! We're building tanks, and they're sabotaging us?"

He Yuzhu glanced at him, his gaze flat: "Have you arrested them?"

Old Lu nodded: "He's been arrested. Zhou Guodong was apprehended last night and has confessed everything. We're still investigating Chief Engineer Liu."

He Yuzhu thought for a moment: "Let's keep a close watch on the person first. Once we've gathered all the evidence, we'll settle the score together."

Old Lu responded and turned to leave.

Ma Yuejin was still standing there, his chest heaving, holding his breath: "Dean, are we just going to let it go like this?"

He Yuzhu shook his head. He turned his head, looked at the pile of scrap steel ingots that had been picked out, and then looked up at the half-finished tank in the distance. The turret hadn't been installed yet, the engine was exposed, and the pipes were sticking out haphazardly.

"We'll settle the score sooner or later." His voice wasn't loud, "but you understand that tanks don't wait for anyone. The sooner we get them out there, the fewer of our men will die on the battlefield. That's the biggest benefit."

Ma Yuejin paused for a moment, his lips moved, but he didn't say anything.

He Yuzhu turned his gaze back to the present: "When will the new goods arrive?"

Ma Yuejin opened the notebook and pressed his thumb on a line of text: "Tomorrow afternoon. I arranged it urgently, it's coming from Baotou."

He Yuzhu nodded: "Keep going, don't delay the progress."

Ma Yuejin stood there for two seconds, then closed his notebook: "Okay."

That evening, He Yuzhu stood alone in the workshop.

The unfinished tank lay there quietly, the turret not yet installed, the engine exposed, and the pipes a jumbled mess. He reached out and touched the armor plate; it was cool, and a thin layer of dust clung to his fingertips.

Old Lu came in from the door and walked to his side: "Commander, Chief Engineer Liu's investigation has been completed. It was he who instructed them, and the evidence is conclusive."

He Yuzhu hummed in agreement.

"Commander Chen knows," Old Lu said. "He told us not to get involved, he'll handle it."

He Yuzhu didn't say anything.

Old Lu stood there for a while, then turned and left.

The workshop fell silent. Somewhere behind him, in a corner, a cooling fan, forgotten to be turned off, still hummed idly, its sound particularly lonely in the empty factory. The air was thick with the smells of welding fumes and the metallic tang of machine oil; he'd been there for three days and couldn't smell them anymore.

The voice in my head rang.

[Side Quest: Tank Soul Progress Update - 70%]

Current points: 45,380,000

He didn't look at the number. His hand was still resting on the armor plating; it was cold.

I'm seventy now. There are still thirty to go before I reach one hundred. These thirty will be harder than the previous seventy combined.

The moon is very bright outside the window.