Chapter 164 Qian Lao's Personal Disciple

"Yes!" Lin Xi stood at attention and gave a military salute.

Before leaving, Old Qian suddenly called him back.

"Little Lin."

Lin Xi stopped and turned around.

The old man straightened his collar, stood up from his chair, his gaze gentle and solemn.

"In the past, to block the ministries from poaching you, Old Zhang told the outside world that you were my student."

"That was an expedient measure."

Old Qian paused, a hint of a smile appearing at the corners of his mouth:

"But from today on, it is true."

"In the future, if anyone asks, you can tell them—"

"You are my student."

Lin Xi was shaken to his core, his nose instantly stinging.

Even having been reborn, even with the System in hand.

At this moment, he still felt small yet lucky.

This was recognition from the sharpest mind of this era.

The livestream chat was scrolling rapidly:

【Witnessing history!!】

【Old Qian's student! With this gold content, who in the entire Aerospace City system dares to object?!】

【The Streamer has finally upgraded from an outer disciple to a personal disciple!】

【Congratulations to the Streamer for obtaining the max-level "amulet"!】

【This is the real backer! From now on, he can walk sideways in the circle!】

"Also."

Old Qian pointed to the book "Introduction to Interstellar Navigation",

"I will be at the base for the next week."

"If you have any thoughts on the book, come find me anytime."

"I'll set aside an hour for you every day."

The door was gently closed.

In the corridor, the cold wind was biting, but Lin Xi felt burning hot all over.

One hour every day.

Private lessons from the "Father of Aerospace".

He touched the notebook in his bag, then touched the yellowed book.

He looked up at the window, the night sky of the Northwest was filled with bright stars.

"Dawn..."

Lin Xi whispered softly.

"In this life, I will definitely send you up."

...

For the entire following week.

Lin Xi felt like he had been thrown into a high-pressure centrifuge.

Even his soul felt like it had been stripped of three layers of skin.

Old Qian's private lessons were not the warm, cozy scenes of a "kind elder passing on knowledge" that Lin Xi had imagined.

Instead, it was a comprehensive, no-dead-angle intellectual bullying.

One hour every day, without fail.

Inside the office, Old Qian didn't ask about formulas or look at blueprints.

He only discussed logic and strategy.

"If we want to increase the precision of the Red Star machine tools by another order of magnitude."

"We have already reached the limit in terms of pure physical vibration suppression."

"Which mathematical model are you planning to start with for the next step?"

"The thermal decay curve of rare-earth motors distorts in a vacuum environment."

"If used as the power source for a space station robotic arm, is your redundancy design based on probability theory or extreme value theory?"

"The weak points of an industrial system are often not at the highest point, but at the most inconspicuous material connection points."

"In your current supply chain, where is that 'Achilles' heel'?"

Three questions left Lin Xi sweating profusely.

This wasn't testing technical skills.

This was clearly testing a Chief Engineer's macroscopic control over the entire industrial system!

The livestream chat in Lin Xi's mind was in total despair, the intensity comparable to the night before the college entrance exam.

To help the Streamer survive this "daily exam".

The science and engineering masters, PhDs, and even professors who usually lurked in the chat were all flushed out.

They frantically flipped through literature, arguing intensely in the chat.

【Help! I'm just a food delivery guy, why am I here calculating the edge of chaos in nonlinear dynamics?!】

【Stop arguing, the guy above! That probability model was calculated wrong just now. Old Qian's gaze is too sharp; even through the screen, I want to stand at attention!】

【Brothers, hold on! This is Old Qian's class! Every session is one less; is this teaching the Streamer? This is testing the combined IQ of our entire livestream chat!】

【Too hardcore, I feel like my CPU is going to burn...】

Until the last lesson ended.

Lin Xi, with two huge dark circles under his eyes.

Handed in a handwritten paper on "Deduction of the Red Star Industrial Ecosystem Closed Loop for the Next Decade".

Old Qian read it for a full ten minutes.

During these ten minutes, Lin Xi didn't dare to breathe.

He felt even more nervous than facing a deal worth tens of billions.

Finally, the old man closed the notebook, his gaze falling on Lin Xi's haggard but still bright face.

"Not bad."

Old Qian's voice was very soft:

"Before, I thought you were a good seedling who understood technology, had a quick brain, and many ideas."

"But now..."

The old man paused, a rare, gratified smile appearing at the corners of his mouth:

"You are starting to look like a scientist."

"A scientist isn't just someone who knows how to calculate."

"But someone who, on a barren wasteland with extremely scarce resources, can calculate an optimal path to the future out of thin air."

Boom!

The livestream chat instantly boiled over.

【Gold content maxed out!!】

【This evaluation is practically a nomination for a lifetime achievement award!】

【Tears in my eyes; to be recognized by Old Qian as 'looking like a scientist', this life is worth it!】

...

New Year's Eve.

The cold wind howled on the winter night in the Northwest.

But in Li Jianguo's small house of less than forty square meters, it was as warm as a steamer.

A round table was packed full.

Li Jianguo, He Zhenhua, Jiang Jun, Zhao Qiang...

And Klaus, wearing a big cotton-padded jacket, who could now skillfully pick up peanuts with chopsticks.

The table was full of hearty dishes: braised pork, soy-braised pork knuckle, oil-splashed spicy noodles, and two bottles of Xifeng liquor that Lin Xi had specially procured.

"Come! This cup, let's toast to our Red Star!"

Li Jianguo's face was flushed red from drinking, holding up his glass, his voice surprisingly loud:

"This year, we didn't work in vain!"

"Us rough guys can also build the best machine tools in the world, and soon we'll be able to live in apartment buildings! So satisfying!"

"Satisfying!" Everyone shouted in unison, the sound of clinking glasses crisp and pleasant.

Klaus was not to be outdone, shouting in a weird dialect mixed with Qin opera and German:

"For sweet and sour pork! Cheers!"

Everyone didn't talk about work, only chatted about daily life.

Chatting about whose kid got a perfect score, whose tobacco leaves were stronger, and about the good days to come next year.

In this bustling atmosphere filled with the scent of life, Lin Xi felt an unprecedented sense of stability.

This was this era.

No smartphones, no short videos, yet the distance between people was so close, and hearts were so tightly connected.

The midnight bell was about to ring.

He raised his glass and whispered in his mind:

"Happy New Year, family."

In an instant, the livestream chat flooded like a broken dam.

【Happy New Year! Streamer!】

【Happy New Year! Take care of yourself in that era!】

【Happy New Year!】

Although fireworks were banned in Aerospace City.

But in Lin Xi's eyes, these warm comments were the most brilliant fireworks in the world.