Chapter Fifty-Three: None Willing to Fall Behind

It was another beautiful day, a brand new morning. Yang Hui rose early, had breakfast, and made his way to the project team’s office ahead of time. Today was a day of celebration: all the subprojects of the power system were scheduled to finalize their blueprints, and the impeller scheme that Zhong Jianshe had re-optimized and selected would be sent to the foundry, with new test pieces expected to be produced within the next day or two. All of these were reasons for joy.

Xie Lianfa’s shaft and bearing support subproject had already been submitted to Yang Hui for inspection yesterday. Today, Xie was on his way to the Liyang Factory, the only place in the entire base capable of producing this bearing. Bearings may seem easy to design and process—mostly just turning work—but in reality, they are far from simple. This is especially true for bearings used in turbojets, which operate under extremely harsh conditions, enduring high speeds and high temperatures. While other parts can tolerate minor processing flaws, turbojet bearings demand absolute perfection: not a single blemish is acceptable. The working environment amplifies even the tiniest flaw, sometimes with catastrophic consequences.

These stringent requirements have driven the manufacturing of turbojet bearings to the pinnacle of technical difficulty. First, top-grade alloy materials are needed—heat-resistant and wear-resistant, but also notoriously hard to machine. The wear-resistance of the material alone rules out ordinary machine shops. Specialized tooling and faster machine tools might meet the challenge, but manufacturing a bearing is not just about achieving the right shape. The heat resistance requires precise heat treatment processes, which cannot be improvised with hardware alone but demand years of experience and substantial investment to perfect.

All this means that, within the Republic, there are only a handful of factories capable of making such bearings. At Base 011, only Liyang has the necessary expertise—a testament to their excellence.

At this moment, Liu Wang dragged his weary body into the office, placed the drawings on Yang Hui’s desk, and said weakly, “Leader, I’ve finished the final drawings. Please take a look.”

With that, he closed his heavy eyelids, his head drooping as if he could fall asleep standing up.

What was going on lately? Was staying up all night becoming a trend? Now Liu Wang had joined the ranks of the sleepless. Puzzled, Yang Hui asked, “Did you stay up all night? What happened?”

Liu Wang struggled to lift his head, barely managing to squint his eyes open. “Leader, I saw you and Zhong Jianshe both finished your projects early. I was afraid I’d fall behind, so I pulled an all-nighter like you did. Turns out it’s really hard on the body.”

What could one say to this earnest and determined Liu Wang? There had been no need to push himself so hard—he could have easily finished the remaining work in a single day without falling behind. Yet he insisted on working through the night and suffering for it. Engineers can be both endearing and exasperating in such ways.

“Well, your dedication is admirable, but try not to do this again. This was a day’s work at most; there was no need to go through the ordeal of a sleepless night. All right, I’ll allow you to sleep in the office at noon today. Go rest in that back corner—it’s quieter there.”

Hearing this was like music to Liu Wang’s ears. He shuffled off to the corner, eyes half-closed and steps unsteady. Yang Hui couldn’t help but find him rather endearing.

When Yang Hui saw Liu Wang already dozing at his desk, drooling in his sleep, he quickly turned his attention to reviewing Pan Wen’s design to spare himself the sight.

There were no major breakthroughs in Liu Wang’s design. It was conventional and straightforward, which suited the needs of a model aircraft micro turbojet. After checking the main parameters, Yang Hui set about manually verifying the calculations and checking for errors or mislabeling in the drawings. In two hours, the review was done—without a single mistake. Clearly, Liu Wang was a meticulous worker, and this was an excellent habit.

Everyone else had trickled back to the office and was busy drafting. It looked like the whole team would finish their drawings together by the afternoon. Twenty-odd days to a first draft—remarkably fast. Though revisions would follow, the first draft always took the most time. Later changes would generally be minor unless the design as a whole was fundamentally flawed—only then would a major section need to be scrapped and redone.

“Leader, here’s my design. Please check if there are any problems.” Pan Wen had finally finished his drawings before lunch and handed them over to Yang Hui for review.

As Yang Hui predicted, today was indeed a day for finalizing all the drawings. Pan Wen’s turbine and guide vane designs joined the stack on Yang Hui’s desk for review, and in the afternoon, Long Derong’s engine start system would likely be next.

Glancing at the time, Yang Hui said, “All right, it’s lunchtime. Everyone go eat. Please bring me a few steamed buns—I still have Pan Wen’s drawings to review, and I expect Long’s start system design will be ready soon. I need to hurry.”

Time was of the essence. If the reviews could be finished today, test pieces could be made tomorrow—a deadline worth meeting.

Steamed buns were always available at the base, as most people were from the north and couldn’t do without wheat-based foods. Bringing back a couple of buns was the simplest thing. However, white flour buns were out of the question; they always contained some coarse grains. The nation’s grain supplies were still tight—didn’t colleagues in Sichuan survive on nothing but buns and pickles for years? There were other reasons, no doubt, but the reality was just that.

With the office now empty except for Yang Hui, he picked up Pan Wen’s turbine design. At first glance, it looked rather ugly—a supposedly high-tech turbine designed to look squat and ungainly. That took a certain courage and skill.

But design shouldn’t be judged by appearance alone. Yang Hui set the drawings aside to examine the design methodology and specifications. What he discovered was astonishing: within that awkward form lay immense power. The summary statistics were unmistakable: calculations showed this turbine’s efficiency exceeded the engine’s design requirement by 6.4%. That might not sound like much, but it was a huge surprise. Yang Hui grabbed some scratch paper to recalculate, and after several attempts, the numbers remained the same.

It truly was an unexpected delight. The team was clearly made up of talented individuals. Between Zhong Jianshe’s centrifugal impeller and Pan Wen’s turbine, this little turbojet was about to defy expectations.

Calming his excitement, Yang Hui continued reviewing the remaining designs, finding them more and more intriguing. After finishing Pan Wen’s review, he could only think: “This man truly grasps the essence of the Republic’s industrial design.” No other words would suffice—Pan Wen was remarkable.

He quickly wolfed down his buns and pressed on with the reviews. Before he finished, Long Derong’s design for the start system arrived for inspection. All the designs were now essentially complete. He was swamped, but managed to finish reviewing the last system before five o’clock.

“All right, Long, you’re the last. The others have already gone. There’s still an hour before the end of the workday. Submit your design for institute review—if we can finish that today, we can start test production tomorrow.”

With Long Derong’s design handed back, Yang Hui’s work for the day was done. Tomorrow, he could sit in the office and wait for good news.

With everything settled, for the first time, Yang Hui left work on time. It felt strangely unfamiliar.