Chapter Fifty-Five: Let’s Send Them Together

The third update is here. Staying up this late is no easy feat, so could everyone spare a few recommendation votes?

Zhong Jianxian stayed at the testing center, but Yang Hui left as soon as he signed his name. Today, the entire propulsion system project team had more than just the centrifugal impeller returning; all other components were coming back as well.

Back in the office, Yang Hui sat down and picked up the book he hadn’t managed to read a single page of over lunch. He continued to appear utterly engrossed, as if unable to escape the book’s allure, until the sound of approaching footsteps grew louder outside the office.

Yang Hui put his book down and looked out. As expected, Xie Lianfa had returned.

“You’re back. How did the test piece turn out?”

The main shaft Xie Lianfa was responsible for was a crucial subproject, highly important, and the situation needed to be known immediately.

But seeing Xie Lianfa’s gloomy expression, Yang Hui’s heart tightened further—had something gone wrong?

“Don’t even mention it. The folks at Liyang are really busy, running all over to find people. In the end, they only managed to make three shafts, and one was scrapped. I don’t know if the remaining two will be usable.”

Xie Lianfa spoke lightly, but inside he wasn’t relaxed at all—testing with only two shafts was far from ideal.

Those people at Liyang, honestly—last time’s incident didn’t wake them up, and now they still refuse to cooperate with the institute’s component testing. What kind of teammates are these?

“Where are the shafts? Let me take a look.”

At this, Xie Lianfa handed Yang Hui the shaft wrapped in newspaper.

Yang Hui unfolded the newspaper. Lying in the middle was a main shaft, still coated in oil and feeling greasy to the touch.

“We’re not sure if these two shafts will work. Let’s send them to the testing center. If it doesn’t work, let the director call Liyang again, and then go to the site in person. Liyang must make at least five shafts.”

Yang Hui could only endure Liyang’s attitude for now. When his own model aircraft project started earning money, things at the institute would be easier—money truly is king.

The issues between factories and institutes have been longstanding. In theory, mechanical factories should cooperate with research institutes on trial production tasks, and that’s reasonable. But the biggest problem is that factories’ cooperation is almost unpaid. Moreover, they must allocate their best workers for these tasks, which is deeply frustrating for the factories.

Another important point is the open conflict between factories and institutes. Mechanical factories have their own technical departments; they are also pursuing technological development. Here, the rivalry becomes real—colleagues are rivals.

A typical example is the 0132 Factory and 0611 Institute in Bashu. Before they merged into one company, the conflict was intense. 0132 was developing its own J-7 series aircraft, not using designs from 0611. Imagine a factory’s internal design department mastering aircraft—relations with the design institute would naturally be strained.

Their conflict erupted over a J-7 variant. 0132 wanted to proceed directly with reverse engineering, a simpler approach, allowing the factory to take the lead. Meanwhile, with the J-9 project canceled, 0611 faced a lack of work and insisted on leading a self-developed upgrade to secure projects for the institute. In the end, the institute’s director used some tricks and self-sacrifice to gain the lead, causing Old Tu from 0132 to hold a grudge against Wang Xshou from 0611.

(P.S.: This isn’t a dig at Chen Fei—just a little anecdote, so everyone can have a laugh.) Anyway, back to the main story…

Coming downstairs to the office building, Yang Hui ran into Liu Wang, who had returned already. He was quick; the casing and guide cone were relatively simple, so they came back faster.

“Team Leader Yang, I’m back. The casing and guide cone are done too—five sets in total.”

Clearly, Liu Wang wasn’t just fast in making parts; he must have been riding against the wind, his hair wild, looking more like a reckless motorcyclist.

“That’s good. Let’s go together. You still have the keys to the bike, right?”

Yang Hui wasn’t worried about Liu Wang’s casing and guide cone; these parts were simple, and Liu Wang was meticulous, so problems were unlikely. His concern now was whether the bike was still rideable.

“Haven’t returned it yet, the keys are right here. Where to?” He handed the keys to Yang Hui, busy unloading things from the sidecar.

Yang Hui quickly stopped him. “No need, I’m just heading to the testing center inside—same direction. Get in the sidecar.”

Seated on the familiar bike, Yang Hui stood and stomped hard on the starter pedal.

The bike was reliable; after a few tries, it started with a steady roar.

The others were seated, and after accelerating, the bike trundled forward. Three strong young men made the bike a bit heavy, and it was aging, having served since the institute was established.

Within the institute, going slow was safer, given the number of people around.

The bike’s roar nearly drowned out the sounds of machines from the testing center; Yang Hui’s ears were faintly ringing by the time they arrived.

Looking at the bike, Yang Hui quickly tossed the keys back to Liu Wang. He had no intention of riding it back; walking would be preferable.

“Chief Li, we’re here again.”

Chief Li was engrossed in watching the impeller test and had no time to greet Yang Hui, simply waving him over.

“Over here, just come. We’re testing the impeller’s structural strength.”

Before he finished speaking, he turned back to watch the test. At that moment, the compressed air cannon used for testing fired a solid fifty-gram ball at 30 meters per second towards the high-speed rotating impeller.

There was a loud clang, and then nothing—the impeller was broken. This was the lowest level impact test, yet the impeller couldn’t withstand it.

The shattered impeller scattered within the protective cover. Upon inspection, the cover was pitted and battered, clearly a battle-hardened veteran.

“Tsk tsk, this impeller is truly extreme—extremely simple, extremely fragile.” Chief Li’s eight words summed it up perfectly.

Yang Hui and Zhong Jianxian had anticipated this outcome and showed no surprise. Initially, they hadn’t planned on conducting collision tests; the structure was plainly weak. But with so many impellers available, they indulged themselves with a test.

“No worries, Chief Li. We expected this and deliberately gave up on it. If it can’t withstand impact, so be it—we never intended this engine for manned use. If a model aircraft breaks, it breaks.”

Yang Hui walked over, unconcerned. There was no need to take this too seriously; at worst, install a protective grille in the intake later.

“That’s true—for model aircraft, requirements aren’t so strict. Looser standards are better. If it’s too sturdy and never breaks, your follow-up sales would suffer. This is just right.”

Chief Li was quite amusing, aligning with Yang Hui’s business-minded thinking—a rare occurrence.

With the impeller failing the collision test, they moved on to further testing. Now there was time to accompany Yang Hui to see the new test pieces.

“How is it? Show me. Which component is it?” Chief Li stretched his neck, searching but finding nothing, so he asked directly.

Yang Hui pulled out the two shafts wrapped in newspaper and handed them to Chief Li.

“Liyang’s attitude this time is much improved,” Chief Li said after examining the main shaft. After the last engine assembly error, they had clearly learned to be more cautious.

“Hand over all the test pieces,” Chief Li, not wanting to make unnecessary trips, stared at Liu Wang.

Seeing the shaft issue settled, Liu Wang handed over his casing and guide cone for Chief Li to examine.

Chief Li glanced at them but didn’t linger; these parts were simple, so he focused first on the main shaft.

“With only two main shafts, will you have enough for testing?” The number of shafts was a common concern. Two shafts seemed insufficient, causing apprehension.

“No problem, we should have enough for testing. But you’ll need to make more shafts later—start thinking about how to manage that.”