Chapter 57 The Howl of 12,000 RPM

Lin Xi slammed the ugly-looking little motor, wrapped in black tape, onto the table.

"Big Cannon, power it up."

Without a word, Wang Dapao skillfully popped in two D-cell batteries and touched the wires to the electrodes.

Lao Zheng stood with his arms crossed, a trace of mockery hanging from the corner of his mouth.

He wanted to see what kind of tricks this nouveau riche, who talked a big game, could actually pull off.

The moment the wires touched the electrodes.

There was no warm-up.

There was no expected 'clatter-clatter' of mechanical friction.

Nor was there the dull 'hum' of an ordinary motor.

"Hiss—!!!"

An incredibly sharp, high-pitched scream instantly pierced the dull air of the entire workshop.

That sound didn't seem like earthly machinery.

It was more like the roar of a jet fighter's engine during an afterburner takeoff.

Shrunk countless times and stuffed into a small box.

That frequency was extremely high and extremely stable.

So stable it made one's scalp tingle.

The small motor on the table didn't vibrate violently; it sat there like a rock.

Only that rotating shaft, its shadow a mere blur, sliced a deadly vacuum vortex into the air.

The mockery on Lao Zheng's face froze.

His pupils instantly contracted to the size of needlepoints.

As an expert who had played with motors his whole life, just hearing this sound told him what it meant.

Ultimate dynamic balance.

Terrifying rotational speed.

And that seemingly endless explosive power of the magnetic field.

"This... this is..."

Lao Zheng lunged toward the table.

He wanted to reach out and touch it, but feared the oil and dirt on his hands would ruin this divine object.

"Tachometer! Quick! The tachometer!"

Lao Zheng roared at his apprentice in the distance like a madman.

The apprentice hurriedly handed over a tachometer.

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The numbers on the LCD screen began to jump wildly.

8000...

10000...

12500!

The numbers finally stabilized at 12,500 RPM!

Dead silence.

In the entire workshop, besides that high-frequency scream, there was no other sound.

Lao Zheng stared at the number, his eyes rimmed with red.

He whipped his head around to stare at Lin Xi; his gaze was no longer looking at a nouveau riche, but at an alien.

"This isn't ferrite..."

"It's not samarium-cobalt either..."

Lao Zheng tremblingly extended a finger, pointing at the silver-gray magnetic tiles inside the motor casing.

"What is this? What material is this?!"

This magnetic energy product was more than double the best samarium-cobalt magnets he knew of!

This was a god-tier material capable of overturning the entire motor industry!

With this thing, forget shavers.

Even missile actuators, drone engines, and even silent propulsion systems for submarines—all of history would have to be rewritten!

"Click."

Lin Xi pulled the power.

The scream came to an abrupt halt.

The silence in the workshop was unnerving.

Lin Xi unhurriedly put away the motor, stuffed it back into his pocket, and looked at Factory Director Lao, who had completely lost his composure.

"Factory Director Lao, now, can we talk about the shavers?"

Lao Zheng swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing violently.

His previous arrogance and aloofness were now shattered into pieces.

Crushed into dust by that 12,500 RPM speed.

He grabbed Lin Xi's sleeve.

"Lin... President Lin! Manager Lin!"

Lao Zheng's voice was trembling. "Don't go!"

"You can't leave! These blueprints..."

"No, this material formula, you must leave it behind!"

"Even if it's for the sake of national defense..."

"Stop."

Lin Xi pulled his hand back and brushed an oil stain off his sleeve.

"Factory Director Lao, we are currently in a commercial negotiation."

"Business is business; let's not talk about sentiments."

"I'll give you the technology and the blueprints."

"I want you to clear out all the production capacity of Factory 702 to manufacture this 'red star whirlwind' for me."

"Can you do it?"

"Yes! I can shut down the whole factory if needed!"

Lao Zheng didn't hesitate for a second, his eyes shining.

"As long as you can provide this magnetic material, I'd even give you the factory director's office!"

At this point, Lao Zheng suddenly froze, and his face fell again.

"But... where did this material come from?"

"Domestic rare earth purification technology is backward. Magnets of this level definitely require extremely high-purity rare earth elements."

"The West has us under a strict blockade. This stuff... can we mass-produce it?"

Even the cleverest housewife cannot cook without rice.

Without the material, this motor would just be a one-off laboratory curiosity, unable to become a bullet fired at the Western market.

Looking at Lao Zheng's despairing gaze, Lin Xi smiled.

"Factory Director Lao, do you know what it means to 'turn stone into gold'?"

Lin Xi walked to the workshop window and pointed at the rolling barren hills outside.

"In the eyes of Westerners, that's just dirt."

"But in my eyes."

Lin Xi's voice was low and full of temptation.

"That is something more precious than gold..."

"Industrial vitamins."

He turned around, staring at Lao Zheng with burning eyes.

"I have the materials, and plenty of them."

...

A Jiefang truck rumbled as it backed into the open space of the factory's backyard.

As the truck bed tilted up, with a 'crash', it dumped a pile of black, dark-reddish silty soil.

Dust flew everywhere, making Lao Zheng, who was following behind, cough repeatedly.

"Manager Lin, is this the... treasure you were talking about?"

Lao Zheng waved away the dust in front of him, his brow furrowed into a knot.

"This is the raw material you said could create that 'god-tier motor'?"

"This stuff is piled up like mountains over at Baogang; it's all waste residue left over from iron smelting."

The truck driver jumped down, took the towel from around his neck to wipe his sweat, and looked at them like they were fools.

"If you want more, I've got tens of thousands of tons over there. As long as you pay for the transport, I'll give it to you for free."

Lin Xi stepped forward and crouched down.

He grabbed a handful of the warm 'waste soil' and rubbed it gently between his fingers.

It was coarse and gritty, with a pungent smell of sulfur.

But in Lin Xi's eyes, how was this dirt?

This was Lanthanum, Cerium, Praseodymium, and most importantly, the most magnetic element currently on Earth—

Neodymium.

[Geological Surveyor 007: Holy crap! This hurts my heart! You're just dumping it on the ground? These are rare earth concentrate tailings! The neodymium content is at least 15%!]

[Industrial Party Long Live: This is the reality of the 80s, selling rare earths only as additives, or even using them as paving stones. Cabbage prices now, gold prices in the future.]

[Scrap Collector: Streamer, stop talking and start refining! Seeing these treasures treated as trash, I've run out of my heart-saving pills.]

Lin Xi brushed the dust off his hands, stood up, and smiled at the driver.

"Master, I'll take this pile too. I'll take as much as you have from now on."

The driver looked at Lin Xi as if he were the God of Wealth, took his freight slip, and left happily.

"Factory Director Lao, find me a ball mill and a vacuum sintering furnace."

Lin Xi turned around, his gaze becoming exceptionally sharp.

"Let's begin the 'alchemy'."