Chapter 55 Everyone is waiting for Manager Lin to emerge from seclusion.

July, Aerospace City.

Outside the cadre building, the Four Guardians of the Service Center watched Lin Xi's dormitory.

The curtains were drawn tight, letting only a faint, dim yellow light filter through.

"It's been three days."

Sun Erga squatted at the base of the wall, lowering his voice until it was barely louder than a mosquito's hum.

"Sister Guihua, what kind of ultimate move is Manager Lin brewing during this seclusion?"

"How should I know?"

Liu Guihua carefully set down the freshly washed teacup, terrified of making even the slightest clink.

"But I heard from the veterans at the base that before big figures do big things, they all have to 'fast'."

"The time before last, he went into seclusion and came out with 'Warm Sun', and we made over ten thousand."

"Last time he went into seclusion, he came out with 'Gentle Breeze', and we made over ten million."

Sun Erga counted on his fingers, his eyes brightening more and more as he calculated, his mouth almost watering.

"This time he's been in there for a full three days, he must be making a..."

"Atomic bomb?"

"Shh!"

Wang Dapao slapped the back of Erga's head, glaring with eyes as wide as a bull's.

"Stop talking nonsense! Watch out or the Security Department will hear you! However..."

The man, built like a black iron tower, swallowed hard, his eyes reflecting the fanatical devotion of a true believer.

"I think Manager Lin is at least going to build a TV this time! A color one!"

"A TV is nothing."

In the corner, Wang Yu, who was oiling some gears, didn't even look up.

"Manager Lin was reading books about magnetic fields before; I think he's going to build a radar."

Opinions varied in the courtyard, and rumors flew through the entire base as if they had grown wings.

Even Elder Qian at the General Command Headquarters was alerted.

Xiao Wu, the guard, came by three times a day to loiter, though he never went inside.

He would just watch from a distance and go back to report:

"Sometimes laughter comes from that room, sometimes cursing, and sometimes you can hear the sound of someone slamming the table."

After hearing this, Elder Qian merely adjusted his glasses and calmly wrote a four-word instruction: 'Strictly protect him.'

In Elder Qian's view, that wasn't madness.

That was a genius wrestling with inspiration.

...

However, inside the room just a wall away.

Lin Xi was indeed wrestling.

But he wasn't wrestling with inspiration; he was arguing with that bunch of 'cloud shareholders' in the livestream room.

The room was filled with smoke, and the floor was covered in discarded blueprints like a bombed-out trench.

Lin Xi had dark circles under his eyes and hair as messy as a bird's nest, gesturing wildly at the empty air.

"No! Absolutely not!"

Lin Xi threw a crumpled ball of paper into the corner and roared at the air.

"Who suggested building motorcycles? Kick them out!"

[King of the Sky: Streamer, why are you being a coward? The Jialing Factory is going to introduce Honda technology this year; let's just use four-cylinder engine technology from 2025 and crush those Japanese!]

[Double Kick Enthusiast: Exactly! A motorcycle engine can be modified for drones; it's a dual-use military-civilian divine tool!]

Lin Xi rubbed his throbbing temples and vented frantically in his mind:

"My dear lords, if you take too big a step, you'll tear your crotch!"

"The current Red Star is just a workshop. We don't even have five-axis linkage, and you want me to hand-craft a four-cylinder engine?"

"The tolerances would be miles off!"

"Besides, motorcycles are asset-heavy; setting up a production line costs millions."

"What I need right now is quick money! High profits! Don't you get it?"

[Iced Fat Nerd Water: Then build refrigerators! Single-door, double-door! Right now, a Japanese refrigerator in the Friendship Store sells for over two thousand, and you still need a voucher; it's definitely high profit!]

[Gree Die-hard Fan: Air conditioners work too. Change window units into split-type; it'll be a total technological crush.]

"Refrigerators and air conditioners?"

Lin Xi gave a cold laugh and drew a circle on the paper with his pen.

"What about the compressors? What about the refrigerants?"

"Right now, the country can't even manufacture decent Freon pipes properly and relies entirely on imports. Who am I going to sell an empty shell to?"

The livestream room was in an uproar.

This bunch of hardcore netizens from 2025—some wanted to build tank engines, some wanted to make chip lithography machines (albeit hand-crafted versions), and some even suggested starting Bitcoin (even though there wasn't even an internet).

This was the pain of 'information overload'.

When you know all the future trends but are limited by the current industrial foundation.

This feeling was like a eunuch visiting a brothel—

The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

"Stop!"

Lin Xi slammed the table hard, and the bullet chat in the livestream room paused for a moment.

"What are our principles?"

Lin Xi held up three fingers, his eyes as sharp as a hawk's.

"First: small volume, high added value, and easy to transport."

"Second: high technical barriers, ideally sharing technology with existing aerospace tech to allow for technological feedback."

"Third, and most importantly—"

Lin Xi walked to the world map hanging on the wall and jabbed his finger hard at the section of Europe where Germany and Netherlands were located.

"I want to find something that is monopolized by foreigners, has profits comparable to drug trafficking, but which our people cannot manufacture."

"I want to slap their faces until they're swollen and suck their profits dry."

The livestream room went silent for three seconds.

Immediately after, a golden bullet chat message drifted slowly across the screen.

It was from the big brother, [Long Five Screw - Retired Version].

[Little Lin, have you ever heard of... the electric shaver?]

Lin Xi froze.

Electric shaver?

That inconspicuous little thing used every morning?

[Long Live the Industrialists: Holy crap! That's a checkmate! For current electric shavers, the high-end ones are only German Braun and Netherlands's Philips.]

[Ingredient List Party: The Braun Sixtant 800, reciprocating type—its vibration is as loud as a walking tractor, and it sells for as much as 80 dollars!]

[History Rep: And the foil technology at this time is a huge trap. The domestic 'Double Arrow' brand foils break after two uses; shaving is like torture, leaving your face covered in blood.]

Lin Xi's eyes lit up.

Brighter and brighter.

How was this just a shaver?

This was clearly a touchstone for micro-motors and precision machining technology!

"Reciprocating types vibrate too much, and rotary types don't shave cleanly."

Lin Xi's brain worked at high speed.

"If we introduce the maglev motor concept from 2025..."

He quickly sketched a diagram on the paper.

"Motor."

Lin Xi wrote down the word and then drew a heavy question mark next to it.

"Current micro-motors have low speeds and low torque; they're toys."

"What I want is a violent beast with over 8,000 RPM."

[Strong Magnet Expert: Use rare earth permanent magnets! neodymium iron boron hasn't come out yet (1983), but Samarium-Cobalt magnets (SmCo) are already in military use! This stuff is currently being sold abroad at dirt-cheap prices; Streamer, hurry up and intercept it!]

Rare earth!

These two words were like a bolt of lightning, piercing through Lin Xi's mind.

In this era, China's rare earths were treated like dirt.

They were exported as cheap fillers, only for foreigners to extract rare elements from them.

They'd be made into high-tech missile guidance heads, which would then be used to threaten us.

If he used the excuse of making shavers to hoard rare earth magnetic materials on a large scale...

Not only could he create a motor that would crush Braun, but he could also stockpile technology for future missile servo motors!

"Motor solved."

Lin Xi's hand trembled slightly, the pen nib making a harsh scratching sound on the paper.

"Next is the foil."

[Materials Master: Electroformed nickel mesh! Don't use stamped ones; those are too low-end. Use electrochemical deposition; the precision can be controlled at the micron level, thinner than paper and tougher than steel!]

Electrochemical deposition.

This was the core process for satellite skins and precision filters!

A perfect closed loop was formed.

On the surface, this was just a man's grooming project.

In reality, it was a technological crush using micro-servo motors and aerospace-grade precision machining!

"Braun? Philips?"

Lin Xi looked at the 3D structural diagram gradually taking shape on the paper, a cruel arc curling at the corner of his mouth.

"Its name..."

At the very top of the blueprint, Lin Xi wrote four bold, cursive characters.

It was no longer 'Warm Sun', nor was it 'Gentle Breeze'.

This was a blade.

A blade to cut through the Western technological monopoly.

[Red Star · Whirlwind].