Chapter 114 A Gift from Millions of Years Ago!

Spring City.

Lin Xi and Zhao Qiang were squeezed into the back seat of a jeep, heading toward Shandong Province No. 1 Building Materials Factory.

Dust billowed outside the car window, while in the passenger seat, Cui Yushan was talking animatedly, spittle flying, with a look of smug satisfaction on his face.

"Manager Lin, you have no idea."

"After the last meeting in the Imperial Capital, my old buddies were full of praise for you."

"They praised me for having great foresight and taking the first step."

"They even sent people to my place to learn and gain experience."

"I've been competing with them my whole life, and this time I've finally held my head high!"

"It feels so good, words can't even describe it!"

Lin Xi steadied himself and asked, "Factory Director Cui, how is the progress on the modification of existing machine tools and the production of new ones?"

"Don't you worry!"

Cui Yushan gave a grand wave of his hand.

"Eighteen brother units have set a target of five hundred thousand modifications in three years; the military pledges have been signed!"

"On my end, I've already communicated with several of our largest clients regarding the modifications."

"We'll run a pilot first to see the results."

"Once the kinks are ironed out, we'll do a full upgrade."

At this point, he paused, his tone becoming slightly more subdued.

"However, there is indeed some pressure on the production line."

"The fixed plan is already set."

"Suddenly squeezing in several hundred units requires some coordination."

"But it's not a big problem; we can overcome it."

Seemingly unwilling to show weakness in front of Lin Xi, Cui Yushan quickly changed the subject.

"You don't need to worry about the quancheng green."

"Old Li from Shandong Province No. 1 Building Materials Factory..."

"...him and I are brothers who've been through life and death together!"

"Back when his old mother fell ill and urgently needed a car..."

"...it was I who sent the factory's jeep overnight to take her."

"Never mind a few stones."

"Even if I wanted the pair of stone lions at his factory gate, he'd have to haul them onto the truck for me!"

Lin Xi nodded slightly, but his eyes remained calm.

He knew that in this transition period from a planned economy to a market economy...

...personal favors were useful, but they didn't always work.

Beside him, Zhao Qiang was still buried in that "Manual of Mechanical Properties of Granite."

He was muttering to himself.

"Shore hardness 110..."

"Elastic modulus..."

"Water absorption less than 0.13%..."

He looked up and glanced at Lin Xi.

"Manager Lin!"

"It has to be authentic quancheng green!"

"There can't be any fissures; the quality must be high!"

"As long as we get one perfect piece of material..."

"...the 'lower body' of our machine tool will be stable."

"Never mind 0.001 millimeters; it could withstand even finer precision!"

In the livestream room, the bullet comments had already started acting up.

[Zhao Qiang's state is exactly like me on the night before a graphics card launch.]

[Qiangzi's state doesn't look like he's going to buy stones; it looks like he's going to Northern Myanmar for jade gambling!]

[The person above doesn't understand. This kind of top-tier granite is more precious than emerald in the field of precision machinery!]

[This is all precious wealth left to us by our ancestors!]

...

Shandong Province No. 1 Building Materials Factory.

Above the massive iron gates hung a red banner with white characters that read "Grasp Revolution, Promote Production."

Inside the factory area, the high-pitched shrieks of cutting machines rose and fell.

The open ground was piled high with mountain-like rough blocks, and the air was thick with the pungent smell of stone dust.

"Old Cui! What wind blew you here?"

In front of the office building, a dark-skinned middle-aged man wearing a gray zhongshan suit walked out with long strides to meet them.

His palms were broad and rough, and the backs of his hands were covered in tiny scars from long-term contact with stone.

The director of the No. 1 Building Materials Factory, Li Baoguo.

"Old Li, I wouldn't visit unless I had a reason."

Cui Yushan took the other man's hand and shook it vigorously.

"Let me introduce you. This is Manager Lin from Red Star Technology, and this is Engineer Zhao, Zhao Qiang."

"We've come this time hoping to find a few pieces of good material for machine tool beds."

The smile on Li Baoguo's face visibly stiffened for a moment before he let out a hollow laugh.

"Machine tool beds? Then you'll need large blocks."

He led everyone toward the reception room, his tone carrying a hint of evasion.

"Comrade Lin, it's not that I'm not giving Old Cui face."

"Recently, the Provincial Machinery Department issued an order, booking ten large blocks for measurement platforms."

"The good material left in the warehouse... there really isn't much."

"As for the fissure-free, top-tier quancheng green you're looking for..."

"...that's something you can only hope for but not seek out."

The smile on Cui Yushan's face froze.

He had just been bragging to high heaven in the car.

If he failed now, where would he put his old face?

"Old Li, don't play games with me."

Cui Yushan's face darkened.

"The Machinery Department is family, but am I not your brother?"

"Just tell me if you have it or not!"

"Well, I have some, but..." Li Baoguo stammered.

"The quality might be a bit inferior..."

"Let's take a look," Lin Xi said succinctly.

Li Baoguo was choked up for a second.

Giving in for the sake of Cui Yushan's face, he reluctantly waved his hand.

"Fine, I'll take you to the West Material Yard to have a look."

...

The West Material Yard was filled with dusty gray stone materials.

Li Baoguo pointed to a few pieces of stone that looked relatively smooth on the surface.

"These are the only ones left. Why don't you take your pick?"

Lin Xi didn't respond. He walked straight over and opened the canvas bag he was carrying.

A silver-gray instrument was revealed—

A domestically produced CTS-15 Ultrasonic Flaw Detector.

The palm-sized oscilloscope screen glowed with a faint green light.

The probe was connected by a thick wire, looking like a short, stubby pen.

Lin Xi thought to himself, "Is everyone ready?"

The bullet comments in the livestream room were exceptionally quiet at this moment, with only a few replies:

[Data group in position!]

[Image processing group in position!]

[Stone expert group in position!]

Subsequently, Lin Xi approached a piece of quancheng green.

He opened a bottle of machine oil and used a cotton swab to apply a thin layer to the stone surface—

This was the couplant, which allowed the ultrasonic waves to penetrate better.

He pressed the probe steadily onto the center of the stone.

A green line instantly popped up on the oscilloscope.

The bullet comments instantly flooded the screen:

[This one's no good! After the green wave is amplified and processed, there are clearly cluttered small peaks. This stone has fissures!]

[Take it away, take it away! The wave speed is only 4335 m/s, and the density is pathetically low. This is just ordinary granite; what is it doing pretending to be quancheng green?]

[This one is even more ridiculous; the bottom echo has completely attenuated. There's definitely a Grand Canyon inside!]

Lin Xi checked the stones one by one.

He casually voiced the judgments of the netizens.

"This one is no good; it has internal through-cracks, the water absorption rate is too high, and the sound is divergent."

"This one won't do either; this is Granodiorite, not pure Gabbro."

"The hardness is insufficient, and the thermal expansion coefficient is too high."

Lin Xi was like an emotionless judge.

He tested as he walked.

In just ten short minutes.

He rejected all dozen or so pieces of "good material" laid out in the yard.

Li Baoguo's face was now as black as the bottom of a pot.

Cui Yushan also felt a bit embarrassed and tugged at Lin Xi's sleeve.

"Manager Lin, isn't this a bit too harsh?"

"Isn't 'good enough' okay?"

Lin Xi shook his head.

"What we want to build is a micron-level CNC machine tool."

"It's an industrial mother machine capable of processing with a precision of one-thousandth of a millimeter."

"Any slight crack will turn into a disaster under high-speed vibration."

Just as he finished speaking, Lin Xi's footsteps paused.

He stood at the deepest part of the material yard, his eyes fixed on a massive object covered by a canvas.

The canvas was covered in dust, clearly not having been moved for a long time.

"Factory Director Li."

Lin Xi pointed. "What's under that?"

Li Baoguo's eyes flickered for a moment.

"That's... that's old material quarried a few years ago."

"Because it was too big and difficult to transport, it's just been sitting there."

"I want to see it," Lin Xi said firmly.

"This..."

Li Baoguo was somewhat hesitant, but he couldn't resist Cui Yushan chiming in from the side.

"Old Li, looking at it won't cost you anything! Hurry up!" Cui Yushan urged impatiently.

Only then did a few workers walk over reluctantly and pull off the canvas.

"Hoo—"

The moment the canvas fell, everyone subconsciously held their breath.

There were three massive black stones, as large as sarcophagi.

Under the afterglow of the setting sun, they presented an ink-black color so deep it seemed capable of swallowing light.

That heavy, cold, and solemn sense of pressure...

...even made one feel a gaze coming from geological ages!