Chapter 6: Clearing the Clouds to Reveal the Blue Sky, Defying Fate!

On the livestream screen, the retired chief engineer's comments were scrolling rapidly.

[Micron-level passivation! You must change the tool!]

[The rough turning just now took on too much heat; the blade's microstructure has already changed!]

[Switch to a Large rake angle tool, at least 25 degrees!]

Li Jianguo glared. "Nonsense, it was cutting fast just now..."

He instinctively scraped his fingernail against the blade; indeed, it was a bit slippery.

Fluororubber has a high fluorine content and is extremely hard; this stuff is a nightmare for cutting tools.

"Fine, I'll go grind it." Li Jianguo turned and walked toward the Bench grinder.

"Master! Grind a large rake angle!" Lin Xi shouted, following behind him. "Above twenty-five degrees! It'll cut much cleaner!"

Li Jianguo paused and looked back at Lin Xi suspiciously.

"Twenty-five degrees? The tool tip will chip easily."

"It won't chip! For this last half-millimeter, the depth of cut is small!" Lin Xi's eyes were firm, without any sign of backing down.

Li Jianguo thought for a moment and finally nodded. "I'll listen to you!"

Sparks flew from the grinder.

When he returned to the machine, the workshop was so quiet that not even the sound of breathing could be heard, for fear of affecting Li Jianguo's performance.

Everyone knew that victory or defeat rested on this one attempt!

Li Jianguo closed his eyes.

He no longer looked at the dial; his fingers rested lightly on the feed handwheel.

He was using his fingertips to feel the slight vibration as the tool tip cut into the rubber.

Man and machine as one.

This was a kind of metaphysics, the soul of an Eighth-Grade Worker.

"Sha..."

With a very faint sound, a strand of rubber as thin as a cicada's wing drifted down.

Li Jianguo quickly retracted the tool and turned off the machine.

The Outside micrometer was clamped on.

"Click, click."

Everyone held their breath, their hearts nearly leaping out of their throats.

Li Jianguo leaned in to read the measurement, looking for a long time.

Then, he slowly lowered the ruler.

A smile bloomed on that grease-stained old face.

"Tolerance... 0.01 millimeters."

"It's done!"

No one knew who shouted first, but the entire workshop instantly erupted!

"Awesome! Master Li is amazing!"

Several young technicians were so excited they threw their hats toward the ceiling.

A crowd of people rushed over to hug Li Jianguo, shouting and jumping.

Lin Xi stood outside the crowd, letting out a long breath, feeling his back already soaked with sweat.

[Awesome! Master Li, please take my respect!]

[An Eighth-Grade Worker from 1980... this level of skill is simply terrifying!]

[I'm a mechanical engineer; seeing that blind-operated vibration cutting just now, I'm moved to tears...]

Lin Xi wiped his sweat, but his expression remained solemn.

He knew there was only one last step left before success.

Testing.

...

Late at night, the testing room.

That black O-ring seal had already been installed in the instrument, quietly awaiting its final judgment.

"Pressurize!" Li Jianguo's voice was a bit raspy.

At this moment, all eyes were focused not on the expensive Pressure gauge, but on the Oscilloscope next to it, which was connected to a "crude probe."

The Pressure gauge needle began to climb.

1.0...

2.0...

2.5 MPa

It reached it!

Lin Xi's heart skipped a beat.

He didn't even dare to look at that line.

A few seconds of dead silence.

On the fluorescent screen, a straight green line stretched across, as smooth as the horizon.

No noise.

No whistling.

No breath of the Grim Reaper.

"It's held..."

Deputy Chief Engineer Zhang took off his glasses and wiped his eyes hard with his sleeve,

"It actually f*cking held!"

Li Jianguo sat down on a toolbox in the corner and lit a cigarette with trembling hands.

Amidst the swirling smoke, the old man's eyes were frighteningly red.

"It's finally solved!"

"Now we just need to pay attention to heat preservation during assembly!"

...

January 23, 1980, 14:00.

The weather was perfect, with no clouds for ten thousand miles.

On the launch pad, red star no. 2 stood like a milky-white sword, pointing straight at the sky.

The Gantry had retracted, and only white steam swirled around the rocket body.

Lin Xi, wrapped in a military overcoat, stood in the Observation area 1.5 kilometers away.

"All stations attention, one-minute readiness!"

The countdown over the loudspeaker felt like a heavy hammer striking the heart.

Beside him, Li Jianguo had his hands behind his back, his fists clenched until his knuckles were white.

"Kid," the old man suddenly spoke, his voice a bit raspy,

"Do you think... it'll work?"

Having been a worker for half his life, this was the first time the old man felt so uncertain.

Lin Xi turned to look at him, his eyes clear and firm:

"It will. Something you crafted by hand—even the Heavens wouldn't dare take it."

"Five, four, three, two, one!"

"Ignition!"

Boom—!

The earth trembled.

Orange-red tail flames erupted, slamming violently into the Flame trench.

The massive roar instantly drowned out the world.

red star no. 2 rose from the dust, piercing the long-silent sky in this cold winter!

But this wasn't victory yet.

Neither Lin Xi nor the viewers in the livestream dared to relax in the slightest.

Everyone knew that the 26th second was the gate of hell.

Pass it, and everything would be fine.

Fail, and everything would be destroyed.

"Telemetry signal normal!"

"Time, 15 seconds!"

Lin Xi counted silently in his heart.

The hundred thousand viewers in the livestream held their breath simultaneously; the comments stopped completely.

At this moment, across 45 years of time and space, the heartbeats of two generations resonated at the same frequency.

24 seconds.

25 seconds.

26 seconds.

Lin Xi seemed to see two parallel universes intersecting before his eyes.

In one universe, it exploded in mid-air, a fireball swallowing the hard work of countless people.

But in this universe—

"Flight normal! Programmed turn!"

The dispatcher's voice came over the broadcast, cracking with emotion.

That rocket, carrying the nation's destiny, steadily passed through the stratosphere, pulling a perfect white trail across the blue sky as it pierced into deep space!

"It passed! It passed!"

In the livestream, comments instantly flooded the screen, completely covering the image!

[Everyone stand up! This is what it means for the clouds to part and the sun to shine!]

[I'm crying, brothers! It really was rewritten! It really didn't explode!]

[I'm overwhelmed, brothers! Even if the ground is full of wind and sand, as long as you rush up, there's always sunlight above!]

[The screenshot key is broken! This is our Crucial Sword!]

[My DNA is reacting! This scene is so beautiful!]

In reality, the Observation area erupted.

Months of suppressed pressure exploded at this moment.

Some knelt on the ground kissing the frozen earth, some hugged each other and wept, and some threw their notebooks into the sky like madmen.

Li Jianguo watched the receding white smoke, his tears finally breaking through.

He turned and slapped Lin Xi's shoulder hard, with enough force to nearly drive him into the ground.

"Good lad... good lad!"

Lin Xi rubbed his numb shoulder, looking at the horizon with a smile on his lips.

...

After the launch, the crowd gradually dispersed.

Li Jianguo strode over and grabbed Lin Xi's shoulder as if he were kidnapping him.

"Xiao Lin, don't run! Come on, let's go to my place for a drink!"

"I have a bottle of good liquor I've been hiding for years; we have to open it today!"

At this, the old man paused, his eyes becoming somewhat deep, and he lowered his voice:

"Also... there are some things we should have a proper talk about."