Chapter 32 Scrap Alchemy

Slap!

The chalk tapped heavily against the blackboard.

"This is no ordinary electric fan."

Lin Xi's voice echoed in the empty workshop, carrying a seductive, magical quality.

"This is called an 'Aerodynamic Laminar Flow Circulation Fan'!"

Everyone was stunned by this string of words.

"What we are going to use are NACA airfoil blades!"

"What we are going to simulate is the natural wind of a mountain forest!"

"What we are going to do is a dimensionality reduction strike!"

Although the workers below didn't quite understand, every single one of them straightened their backs, their eyes burning with fanaticism.

They simply felt that by following Manager Lin, they weren't building fans, but satellites!

"Division of labor!"

Lin Xi gave a grand wave of his hand.

"Master, you take Big Cannon and tackle the hardest part—the aluminum mold for the blades!"

"Wang Yu!"

Lin Xi handed him a separate circuit diagram, his expression solemn.

"I'm leaving the circuit system to you."

"I don't want the kind of rotary knob switch that goes 'click-clack' when you turn it."

"I want piano key switches!"

"The 1/2/3/Off kind."

"Like a piano—when you press it down, it makes a crisp 'click' with a strong rebound!"

Wang Yu took the diagram and pushed up his thick glasses.

He looked at the exquisite interlocking mechanical structure on the drawing.

A sudden burst of fire erupted in his originally dull eyes.

"This structure... is interesting."

Wang Yu muttered to himself, his fingers unconsciously gesturing in the air.

"Using spring energy storage to achieve interlocking..."

"Leave it to me!"

The tasks were distributed.

Li Jianguo tucked his tobacco pouch into his waist and walked over to that C620 lathe.

Hum—

The motor roared.

Li Jianguo's eyes were like a hawk's as his rough hands steadily gripped the handwheel.

The silver-white aerospace aluminum ingot began to rotate at high speed.

The turning tool cut in.

Screech—

Accompanied by the sharp yet melodious sound of cutting,

Silver aluminum shavings flew like snowflakes,

Shimmering with a charming metallic luster under the dim yellow lights.

During this Spring Festival of 1980,

The Red Star Service Center had no sound of firecrackers.

But the roar of these machine tools was the loudest salute belonging to the era of heavy industry.

Lin Xi stood amidst the flying aluminum shavings, watching it all with a slight upward curve of his lips.

Red Star's second hit product was being born from this cold steel.

...

On the fifth day of the first lunar month, the atmosphere of the New Year had not yet faded.

A tractor puffing black smoke rumbled into the courtyard of the Aerospace City Plastics Factory.

The trailer carried two things.

One was several bright silver aluminum blocks carefully wrapped in quilts—

Those were the results of Li Jianguo and his apprentice working until their eyes were bloodshot,

The aluminum molds they had "gnawed" out using that C620 lathe.

The other was twenty hemp sacks filled with pitch-black plastic fragments.

Lin Xi jumped down from the passenger seat, patted the dust off his clothes, and waved to the fat man coming out to meet them.

"Factory Director Wu, Happy New Year!"

"Sorry to trouble you!"

Wu Defa, the director of the Aerospace City Plastics Factory,

Was wearing a semi-new zhongshan suit with a cigarette between his fingers.

He had long heard of Lin Xi's great name—

A favorite of the General Command Headquarters, a tough character who could get special approval slips from Elder Qian.

"Oh, Manager Lin!" Wu Defa's face was piled with smiles as he shook hands warmly.

"No trouble at all, no trouble."

"Production first, New Year later."

"We must support our brother units in innovation."

"However..."

His gaze passed over Lin Xi and landed on the pile of hemp sacks.

His brow furrowed almost imperceptibly.

"You plan to use this stuff for the mold trial?"

Lin Xi turned and untied the mouth of a sack, grabbing a handful of multicolored plastic fragments.

Red, blue, green, and even half a toothbrush handle that hadn't been fully crushed.

This was crushed polypropylene (PP) material recycled from a scrap yard.

Commonly known as: trash.

Several old injection molding workers standing nearby immediately covered their noses.

Their eyes were filled with undisguised disdain.

"Isn't this just waste material from a scavenger?"

"This stuff has too many impurities; the melt index is unstable."

"Everything produced will be full of flow lines and black spots."

"Forget about making fans; it would be too ugly even for a spittoon."

The smile on Wu Defa's face was starting to falter.

He had originally thought this "top student" Lin Xi would bring some high-tech project.

Turns out he brought a truckload of trash to ruin his machines.

"Manager Lin," Wu Defa gave a dry laugh and threw his cigarette butt on the ground, crushing it.

"While our factory isn't large, we do provide supporting parts for the base."

"If this material... gets into the barrel and scratches the screw,"

"I won't be able to explain it to my superiors."

The implication was: hurry up and haul it away, don't make a fool of yourself here.

Lin Xi didn't get angry; instead, he laughed.

He threw the plastic fragments back into the bag and patted the dust off his hands.

"Factory Director Wu, I know what you're worried about."

"Don't worry, if the machine is damaged, I'll pay double."

"As for whether this material can be used..."

Lin Xi gave a mysterious smile and pulled four glass bottles from his coat.

In the livestream, the comments instantly flooded the screen.

【Chemical Madman: Here it comes! The legendary waste material aesthetics!】

【Color Master: High energy ahead! This is a formula from 2025!】

【Spectator: Waiting for the factory director to get slapped in the face; this is a magic attack!】

Lin Xi found a large, clean washbasin, looking like an alchemist performing a chemical experiment.

The first bottle: white powder.

"titanium dioxide, the king of opacity."

Lin Xi explained casually as he poured, "With this, no matter how messy the base color is, it can be covered."

The second bottle: dark blue powder.

"phthalocyanine blue, the 'cold-faced killer' among industrial colorants."

The third bottle: dark green powder.

"phthalocyanine green, to balance the tone."

The fourth bottle: talcum powder.

"To increase hardness."

Lin Xi picked up a wooden stick and stirred rapidly in the basin.

Under the coating of those four powders, the pitch-black waste material,

Gradually turned into a deep, dark grayish-green.

"What color is this?"

Wu Defa leaned in to look and shook his head repeatedly.

"It looks like pickles that have been sitting out for half a month."

Lin Xi's lips curled up.

"This is called 'Military Green'."

"It's also the base color of our Red Star products."

In this era, people were used to bright reds and greens, or monotonous grays and blacks.

This green, so deep it was almost black, looked "dirty" in their eyes.

"Alright, don't just stand there."

Lin Xi poured the mixed material into the hopper. "Start the machine!"

The person in charge of operating the machine was an old hand in his fifties, surnamed Liu.

Master Liu pressed the start button.

Hum—

The huge injection molding machine emitted a low, deep roar.

The screw began to turn, swallowing that "trash" into its belly.

Heating, melting, mixing.

Lin Xi muttered the steps, his gaze as sharp as a torch.

Two minutes later.

"Open the mold!"