Courtyard House: I Rely on Time-Space Trade to Build a Nation

On December 23, 1954, Zhao Ping'an hurriedly boarded a train from Yunnan Province. It wasn't that he didn't want to spend more time with his elder brother, but rather that he needed to go to the Great Northwest, where more important things awaited him.

On December 27, the train stopped at a small station.

There were no station signs on the platform, only rows of soldiers on guard. A young woman in military uniform approached, looking friendly.

"Minister Zhao, this is Liu Ying. The base sent me to pick you up."

Zhao Ping'an nodded and got into the jeep.

On the way, Liu Ying introduced the construction progress of the base to Zhao Ping'an, and Zhao Ping'an casually asked about living conditions at the base.

I learned that the logistical support was excellent, with dedicated bases providing everything from canned vegetables and meat to fresh meat, eggs, and dairy products.

This pleased Zhao Ping'an greatly; it seemed his previous plan had been executed very well.

Thankfully, the incident didn't escalate to the point where one of the country's top researchers complained to Fu Shuai about wanting cucumbers because he hadn't eaten vegetables for a month.

However, Zhao Ping'an felt that Liu Ying looked very familiar, so he couldn't help but take a few more glances.

The system's belated notification only arrived at this point.

[The host unexpectedly encounters Liu Ying, the female lead of "Camel Grass"]

[Hidden Quest Triggered: Liu Ying's appointment as the host's confidential secretary reduces the exchange price of system technology data by 1%]

"?" Zhao Ping'an was a little confused when he saw the system notification.

My first thought was, "Only 1%?" But then I realized, "That's still a huge sum of money."

Although the upgrade was completed in 2016 due to the updated technology,

Most of the technical information needed now can be directly exchanged using system currency.

Unlike before, it no longer requires specific technology data exchange tokens as a system reward.

But nowadays, which of the technologies required doesn't start with a budget of hundreds of millions?

The amount of gold allocated to their own gold mines each year is limited.

The system coins exchanged annually amount to tens of billions, so Liu Ying's 1% is worth tens or hundreds of millions of system coins.

That's no small sum of money.

So Zhao Ping'an simply continued the conversation, asking about Liu Ying's situation, intending to sign a transfer order to make her his secretary.

Liu Ying answered Zhao Ping'an's questions without reservation, and Zhao Ping'an quickly learned that she had studied at a university in the south and had just graduated and been assigned here in July of this year.

"I'm lucky to have encountered this so soon after arriving," Zhao Ping'an said.

Liu Ying smiled and said, "Yes."

Over the next few days, Zhao Ping'an toured the base.

Workers are making final adjustments on the launch tower.

In the final assembly workshop, technicians surrounded the rocket, inspecting every interface.

In the control room, the data on the instrument panel jumped, and the oscilloscope drew a green curve.

Everyone is busy, but busy without being chaotic.

He spoke in a very low voice and walked very quietly.

But that feeling of tension was impossible to suppress.

Zhao Pingan saw a young technician staring at the screen for two hours without moving.

Someone next to him handed him a glass of water, which he took but forgot to drink.

Elsewhere, several senior engineers were discussing something while looking at blueprints, their brows furrowed and their tone urgent.

After a few words of argument, they fell silent again and continued to stare at the blueprints.

Liu Ying was assigned to follow him, not saying much, just leading the way.

Zhao Pingan asked, "Is this how you usually are?"

Liu Ying thought for a moment: "These past few days have been special. After all... it's a big deal."

On the afternoon of December 29th, Mr. Qian arrived.

He was wearing an ordinary military uniform with his sleeves rolled up, and his face showed signs of fatigue, but his eyes were bright.

"Comrade Ping An, let's go take a look."

The two walked ahead, with Liu Ying following behind.

Mr. Qian led Zhao Ping'an from the final assembly workshop to the control room, and from the test area to the launch tower.

They walked and talked.

When he reached the base of the launch tower, Mr. Qian stopped.

He looked up at the silver-white rocket and stared at it for a while.

"Comrade Ping An, I must thank you."

Zhao Pingan was stunned for a moment.

Mr. Qian turned around and looked at him.

"Your precision machining equipment was a huge help. Without it, we couldn't have made such precise parts."

He took another step forward.

"And the materials and information you provided."

Materials for aircraft engines, smelting processes for special steels, formulations for high-temperature alloys...

These are things that, even if we figured them out on our own, it might take us eight or ten years to fully understand.

Zhao Ping'an wanted to say something, but Old Qian waved his hand, not letting him speak.

What did I have when I returned to China in 1949?

A bunch of formulas, a bunch of ideas, a bunch of data that's impossible to calculate. Nothing at all.

(To clarify, in this universe, Qian Xuesen returned to China before he could write the Introduction to the Engineering of Cultivation Techniques.)

Mr. Qian pointed to the rocket.

"Now, this is standing here."

From nuclear warheads to missiles, from missiles to satellites, we covered in a few years what others took decades to accomplish. Why?

He looked at Zhao Ping'an.

"Because of the information you provided, because of the equipment you provided, and because of the favorable conditions you created for us."

Because of the things you gave us that we originally had no idea about.

Putting aside everything else, every researcher has an ample supply of fresh vegetables, meat, eggs, and dairy products during the winter.

They even arranged for a doctor to check on my health every week—a level of care and treatment I never received in the United States.

Zhao Ping'an remained silent for a few seconds.

"Mr. Qian, it was you who did this. I only gave you a little something."

Mr. Qian shook his head.

"You gave us something? You gave us a ladder. We stood on the ladder and were able to reach places we couldn't reach before, or rather, it sped up our progress."

He paused.

"Comrade Ping An, I won't ask where these things came from. I just want to say one thing—thank you."

Zhao Ping'an looked at him without saying a word.

Beside her, Liu Ying stood a few steps away, waiting quietly, but there was a strange difference in her eyes when she looked at Zhao Ping'an.

Mr. Qian walked forward again and pointed to the rocket's engine section.

"Look at this nozzle. The high-temperature alloy data you provided solved a major problem."

In the past, when we made nozzles, they would crack when the temperature was high.

"I tried your formula over ten times, and it didn't crack even once."

He then pointed to the fairing.

"And this too. Satellites need to stay in space, where temperatures fluctuate greatly, so the materials have to be able to withstand it."

The composite materials you provided saved us at least two or three years of time.

Zhao Ping'an looked in the direction he was pointing.

The fairing was printed with the five-star red flag, which was particularly bright in the afternoon sun.

Mr. Qian added, "The engine blades are also based on your data. Otherwise, we would still be using the old methods."

He turned around and looked at Zhao Ping'an.

"Comrade Ping An, every single one of those things you had was put to use. None of them were given away for free."

Zhao Ping'an nodded.

"It's good that it's useful. It's good that it can provide assistance."

Mr. Qian suddenly smiled.

"Aren't you going to ask us if we're using your stuff well?"

Zhao Pingan smiled too.

"Didn't you just say it wasn't cracked, it wasn't broken, and it's working?"

Mr. Qian laughed heartily.

Their laughter carried far...