Chapter 115 The Stone King

The chat in the livestream was scrolling rapidly.

【Holy crap! This stone... it looks so imposing!】

【Is this the legendary "Stone King"? It feels even more lustrous than that so-called Hetian jade!】

【A top-grade piece of quancheng green! This color and luster—it's definitely a mutation of gabbro!】

【Streamer, hurry up and test it! Don't dawdle!】

The stone looked to be about eight tons in weight.

Lin Xi stepped forward, applied oil, and pressed the probe against it.

A straight line, smooth as a mirror, appeared on the oscilloscope.

【Bottom wave is 82! No clutter after amplifying the green wave. The internal structure is dense and uniform, with no hidden cracks!】

【The calculation is out! Density is 3.07! That's even higher than the extreme limit of normal quancheng green! A top-tier specimen!】

【This is exactly the density needed for a machine tool base. It'll have excellent vibration absorption. It's perfect!】

【This stone has been sleeping underground for at least five hundred million years! Its internal stress has been released more completely than in a vacuum!】

【The Stone King! Streamer, buy it! You must buy it!】

Lin Xi turned his head and said, "Factory Director Li, we want this one!"

Li Baoguo seemed a bit surprised, then sighed with a bitter smile.

"An expert... truly an expert."

He pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, took one out, but didn't light it.

"But you can't take these three pieces."

Li Baoguo pointed to those three stones.

"These are reserved for the key laboratory of the Provincial Machinery Department."

"They said they need them to build some kind of coordinate measuring machine."

"Although the official red-letter document hasn't arrived yet, the word has already been passed down."

"If I sold them to you privately, I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to keep my position."

Cui Yushan grew anxious: "Old Li! Given our friendship..."

"Old Cui, friendship is one thing, but principles are principles."

Li Baoguo spread his hands helplessly. "I'm in a difficult position too."

The atmosphere suddenly turned tense.

This was the reality of 1981.

It wasn't a matter of having money to buy things; plans and quotas formed an invisible wall.

Lin Xi straightened his collar and took a step forward.

He didn't plead, nor did he use the name of the Seventh Ministry of Machine Building Industry to pressure others.

He simply opened the black briefcase he was carrying.

"Click."

The sound of the latch popping open was exceptionally crisp in the quiet yard.

Lin Xi turned the briefcase around to face Li Baoguo.

There were no documents inside.

Just stacks of neatly bundled "Great Unity bills" emitting the fresh scent of ink.

"Factory Director Li."

Lin Xi's voice was not loud, but it carried an unquestionable power.

"I know you're in a difficult spot."

"But when it comes to national industrial development, we can't wait for red-letter documents."

"We only need one large piece."

"Furthermore, our CNC machine tool project..."

"...is a 'trump card' meant to directly counter Western technological blockades, and it cannot be delayed for a single day."

Slap!

Lin Xi reached out, took a stack of money from the case, and patted it gently onto the stone nearest to him.

"The market price for top-grade quancheng green raw material is eight thousand per ton."

"I'll pay twelve thousand."

Li Baoguo's Adam's apple bobbed violently.

"There are eight tons of material here, which comes to ninety-six thousand."

Slap!

Lin Xi took out another stack and slapped it down heavily.

"I'll round it up to one hundred thousand!"

"Cash, paid on the spot."

"No need to go through tedious bank transfer procedures."

"Whether this money is booked as a 'technical service fee' or a 'scrap processing fee'..."

"...you're the expert, Factory Director Li, you know better than I do."

Li Baoguo's breathing became rapid.

One hundred thousand yuan!

These days, what is the monthly salary of an average worker?

If this one hundred thousand in cash were off-plan income and stayed in the factory...

How many leaking staff dormitories could it repair?

How many struggling workers could it provide subsidies for?

How much ancient, worn-out cutting equipment could it replace?

He looked into Lin Xi's terrifyingly calm eyes.

Then he looked at the briefcase full of cash.

This was a multiple-choice question.

On one side was the vague, verbal request from the Provincial Department.

On the other, a massive sum that could tangibly improve the lives of everyone in the factory.

Plus the "righteous cause" of supporting a key national project.

In the livestream, the chat was going crazy.

【This is what you call General Manager Lin: I don't want to hear excuses, I only want to hear the price!】

【Having money really can let you do whatever you want.jpg】

【The key is that he found a good reason: supporting national construction + generating revenue for the factory. Unless Factory Director Li's brain is broken, he wouldn't refuse!】

Factory Director Cui also chimed in from the side:

"Old Li, a micron-level CNC machine tool is a matter of national importance."

"I'll talk to the Provincial Machinery Department."

"I'll say I borrowed it, and I'll compensate them with other materials later."

There was a full three seconds of silence.

Li Baoguo suddenly threw his cigarette on the ground and crushed it fiercely with his foot.

"Screw the Provincial Department's reservation!"

He said loudly,

"If the country needs it, then it's its destiny!"

"Sell it!"

"If anything happens, I'll take the fall!"

Cui Yushan let out a long sigh of relief and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.

This Lin Xi... he was too fierce.

He was basically smashing people with money!

But why... did it look so satisfying?

"Refreshing!"

Lin Xi smiled, closed the briefcase, and handed it over,

"Pleasure doing business with you."

Li Baoguo took the heavy briefcase, his hands trembling slightly.

When he looked at Lin Xi again, there was a bit more awe in his eyes.

This young man was not simple.

"Manager Lin, since you are so straightforward, I can't drop the ball either."

Li Baoguo returned the favor and pointed to the stones, saying,

"This thing is too hard; ordinary machine shops won't be able to handle it at all."

"Since you're making a machine tool base, you definitely need high-precision grinding."

"I have a junior fellow apprentice who is a workshop director at the Qingdao Machine Tool Factory."

"They have a few old-school 'stone masons' still alive in their factory."

"That's a craft passed down from building imperial tombs in the old society, specifically for dealing with hard stones like this."

"If you spend some time, the grinding precision can reach the micron level."

"If you trust me, I'll pull some strings for you!"

Lin Xi's eyes lit up.

This was an unexpected delight!

The hardest part of a granite base is the plane grinding and the machining of the guide rail grooves; I didn't expect to solve it here.

"I won't bother a second master with the same task."

"I'll cover all the processing fees, and I'll pay the masters the highest standard allowances!"

"Please, Factory Director Li, once it's all processed, send it to us!" Lin Xi said without hesitation.

...

The sun was setting.

A huge crane roared, slowly lifting the eight-ton black "Stone King".

It hung in mid-air, emitting a cold and hard glow under the setting sun.

It was not just a stone.

It was the backbone of China's first independently developed high-precision CNC machine tool.

Zhao Qiang stood below, looking up.

He watched it intently, as if looking at his lover.

Lin Xi stood beside him, lit a cigarette, and took a deep breath.

He knew the foundation had been laid.

Next, it was time to forge an industrial miracle for this country upon this stubborn stone.