Chapter 90: Collecting Stamps for the "Future Master" - All Characters are SSR!

The night was as dark as ink.

The incandescent lamp in Lin Xi's dormitory was as bright as a torch.

He leaned half his body over the desk.

The large white paper spread out before him was covered in dense ink marks.

Red Star Technology Laboratory had been established; everything was ready, except for the "beasts of burden"...

No, that's not right—it was only missing top-tier talent.

On the livestream screen that only he could see,

bullet comments were scrolling frantically like a waterfall.

It was a talent audition that crossed time and space.

【Streamer, listen to me! Liu Xiaodong! You must get Liu Xiaodong! Although this guy is only 15 right now and still playing in the dirt at the University of Science and Technology of China's Junior Class, he's a future Turing Award winner!】

【Upstairs, stop joking. For a hard battle like CNC machine tools, you need a practical person. I recommend Zhao Qiang! He's from the Red Flag Machine Tool Plant. His unique skills, tsk tsk tsk...】

【Don't forget Jiang Jun! He's the god of surveying and mapping instruments! I heard he's having a run of bad luck right now, something happened at home...】

While watching the bullet comments, Lin Xi quickly recorded notes on the paper.

This feeling was like playing "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" with a full-map hack.

Those "Divine Generals" who were still sleeping in thatched huts or selling meat in bustling markets—

at this moment, they were all exposed nakedly in his field of vision.

Golden SSR lights flickered above their heads.

"Liu Xiaodong... currently at USTC, a freshman."

Lin Xi muttered to himself, his pen pausing for a moment.

"Zhao Qiang, a third-grade worker at the Red Flag Plant..."

"Jiang Jun, a long-haul truck driver?"

Seeing the word "driver," Lin Xi's brow furrowed slightly.

But it soon smoothed out following the explanation in the bullet comments, and he drew a heavy circle around the name.

For three full hours, over a hundred names were listed.

If this list were to be leaked forty years later, it would be enough to make those old academicians at the Chinese Academy of Sciences slap their thighs in regret—

Was this just a list?

This was clearly half the landscape of China's industrial world!

"Stamp collection complete."

Lin Xi blew on the wet ink, a "shrewd businessman" smile appearing at the corner of his mouth.

...

The next morning, Northwest Base General Command Headquarters.

Zhang Zhengguo had just brewed a cup of Gao Sui tea, and the tea dregs were still swirling on the water's surface.

Lin Xi pushed open the door and entered with that document tucked under his arm.

"Director Zhang, regarding the personnel staffing for the Red Star Laboratory, I have a proposal."

Hearing this, Zhang Zhengguo's old face broke into a wide grin.

Red Star now had money and authority, but it lacked people.

This matter had also been worrying him.

"I knew you kid had plenty of tricks up your sleeve!"

Zhang Zhengguo cheerfully pointed to the chair opposite him.

"Have you set your sights on a big shot from some research institute?"

"From the Seventh Ministry? Or the Fifth Ministry?"

"Don't worry, even if this old man has to throw away all his dignity, I'll get them for you!"

"They're not all from within the system."

Lin Xi gently placed the list on the table. "There are also some... idle personnel from society."

"Idle personnel?"

Zhang Zhengguo was stunned and took a sip of tea.

"As long as they have the skills, their background isn't an issue. We don't practice class-status prejudice..."

Then, his gaze fell on the first page of the list.

Two seconds later.

Pfft—!

A mouthful of scalding tea turned into a mist and sprayed out.

If he hadn't turned his head in time, the list would have been soaked.

Ignoring his mouth, Zhang Zhengguo stared with wide eyes, his fingers trembling.

"Lin Xi! You..."

"Is this a recruitment brochure or a joke?"

"Liu Xiaodong, 15 years old, a freshman student?"

"He's still wet behind the ears and you want him to work on machine tools?"

"Zhao Qiang, a third-grade fitter at the Red Flag Plant?"

"File note: Clumsy, frequently damages workpieces?"

"What do you want with a scrap-metal-making machine?"

"And this one is the most ridiculous!"

Zhang Zhengguo pointed at a line in the middle, his voice rising an octave.

"Jiang Jun, self-employed, long-haul truck driver!?"

"We are a laboratory!"

"Not a driving school! And not a nursery!"

Zhang Zhengguo slapped the table with a thunderous bang.

His posture made it seem as if Lin Xi was trying to turn the laboratory into a wet market.

In the livestream, the netizens were laughing their heads off.

【Hahaha, Director Zhang's mental state has collapsed!】

【Normal, who would have thought that the guy driving the big truck is actually the father of laser interferometry?】

【This play, this play is Director Zhang on the first floor while the Streamer is in the stratosphere.】

Facing Zhang Zhengguo's roar,

Lin Xi remained as steady as Mount Tai and even poured a cup of water for the old man.

"Director Zhang, don't be so quick to lash out."

Lin Xi's finger tapped lightly on the name "Liu Xiaodong," his gaze becoming sharp.

"This 15-year-old child."

"Last month, on scrap paper in the library, he used assembly language to write the prototype of an operating system kernel."

"What?"

Lin Xi's finger moved down, landing on the name of the "useless fitter," Zhao Qiang.

"Zhao Qiang is indeed clumsy, and his lathe skills are a total mess."

"But that's because his hands can't keep up with his brain!"

"The blueprints for a set of 'flexible fixtures' he designed were thrown away as scrap by the Red Flag Plant."

"But I've seen them. That design can significantly improve the precision of parts processing."

"He is a born designer, not an operator."

Lin Xi stared into Zhang Zhengguo's eyes.

"What we need are not hands that can turn screws, but brains that can design souls."

Zhang Zhengguo's breathing calmed down slightly.

But his brow remained furrowed as he pointed to the third name.

"Then... what about that driver?"

"This is just too nonsensical!"

At the mention of Jiang Jun, Lin Xi's eyes dimmed.

This was the sorrow of an era and a microcosm of the times.

"Jiang Jun, formerly of the Spring City Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Director of the Laser Measurement Laboratory, and one of the country's earliest top experts in laser measurement research."

Lin Xi's voice was low, but it struck Zhang Zhengguo's heart like a heavy hammer.

"A year ago, his daughter was diagnosed with leukemia and needed imported medicine to stay alive."

"One injection costs 1,000 yuan. His unit couldn't reimburse it, and his salary was only a few dozen yuan."

"To save his daughter's life, he resigned to do long-haul transport."

"Because a single 500 to 800-kilometer trip can earn him two hundred yuan."

The office instantly fell silent.

Only the wall clock made a "tick-tock, tick-tock" sound.

Zhang Zhengguo opened his mouth.

His original anger vanished instantly, replaced by a deep sense of helplessness.

It felt as if a ball of water-soaked cotton was stuffed in his throat, making him feel stifled.

In this era where building atomic bombs was less profitable than selling tea eggs,

how many heroes had their backs bent by a single penny?

How many geniuses had their wings broken for the sake of basic necessities?

"Director Zhang."

Lin Xi looked out at the desolate Gobi Desert.

His voice wasn't loud, yet it was deafening.

"Having someone who does cutting-edge scientific research drive a truck is a disgrace to our industrial world and a loss to the country."

"I'm fishing him back not just to save his daughter's life,"

"but even more so to save our own industrial backbone!"