18: Chapter 18: The Stubborn Old Man vs. a True Immortal
"Chief Engineer Wang, what do we do now?" Dr. Li leaned in close to Chief Engineer Wang Jianguo, extremely anxious.
Dr. Li was Chief Engineer Wang Jianguo's most capable deputy, a brilliant engineering PhD in his thirties, young, promising, and proud.
He had seen the incident in Donghai City with his own eyes and was thoroughly convinced of Jiang Ning's abilities; he had come to the desert with a burning drive to accomplish something big.
Little did he know that as soon as he arrived, he would be shut down by the grandmaster of his own field.
Chief Engineer Wang Jianguo watched Chief Engineer Wang Heshan's group start work in a flurry of activity, and he let out a long sigh, feeling incredibly stifled.
"What can we do? Nothing!" He replied testily. "That is Chief Engineer Wang Heshan! That is Elder Wang! Never mind me, even if our director came, they would have to respectfully call him 'Elder Wang' upon seeing him. Who would dare not listen to what he says?"
"Bu... but he is wrong!" Dr. Li said anxiously. "His old methods are completely useless in the desert! If we follow him, let alone a year, we won't be able to build The Oasis in ten years! Isn't this delaying Chief Consultant Jiang's important task?"
"Do you think I don't know he's wrong!" Chief Engineer Wang Jianguo suppressed his anger, his voice strained. "But how are you going to tell him? Are you going to tell him that our Chief Consultant can use magic? Do you believe he would call the guards to tie us up on the spot and send us to a mental hospital?"
Dr. Li was suddenly speechless.
Indeed, the hardest part of this matter was that it couldn't be explained. You couldn't just talk about immortals to someone who had dedicated their entire life to science.
"Then... are we just going to sit here and wait?" Dr. Li was unwilling to accept that.
"Wait," Chief Engineer Wang Jianguo said, looking exhausted. "Wait for Chief Consultant Jiang and Director Zhao to arrive. This matter can only be resolved if Chief Consultant Jiang comes herself. Our words carry no weight."
He knew clearly that people like Chief Engineer Wang Heshan believed their whole lives that man could conquer nature, believing in science and sweat. That pride and stubbornness were ingrained in his bones.
Wanting to make him believe there is 'immortal magic' in this world was harder than making him dig up water in the desert.
Unless... let him see it with his own eyes, let that science and experience he believes in most hit a wall in the face of reality.
Over at Chief Engineer Wang Heshan's side, he had already called everyone he brought with him into his temporary command tent to hold the first project meeting.
These people were all his old subordinates from back in the day, every one of them a renowned figure in the domestic water conservancy, geology, and construction industries.
"That's the situation," Chief Engineer Wang Heshan said, pointing to the map, his voice steady and powerful. "The higher-ups sent a group of young people who came up with some flashy new tricks and thought they could solve all the problems. This is nonsense; it's an amateur directing the professionals! Our 'Kuafu Project' must absolutely not go down this wrong path!"
"Elder Wang is right!" A geological expert immediately chimed in. "I looked at their idea for the 'Sand Stabilization Array'; it's simply a pipe dream! Wanting to turn sand into stone? Do they think they are immortals who can turn stones into gold?"
"That 'Water Diversion Array' is even more absurd!" A water conservancy expert scoffed. "The groundwater in the Taklamakan, even if it exists, is buried under several kilometers of rock layers. Want to bring it up? Unless you use a nuclear bomb to blast a hole underground! What do they rely on? Just their mouths?"
Laughter broke out in the tent.
In the eyes of these old engineers who had spent their whole lives doing practical work, the plans proposed by Jiang Ning and Chief Engineer Wang Jianguo were just a joke, like children playing house.
"Therefore," Chief Engineer Wang Heshan tapped the table to quiet everyone down, "from today on, forget about those messy 'arrays'. We will just use the methods we are most familiar and stable with!"
"Our goal is not to create some invisible, intangible oasis. The first step is to find water! As long as we find water, we can drive a nail into this place!"
"I have already applied to the higher-ups to bring in the country's most advanced deep-layer geological radar and drilling rigs. I don't believe that if we turn this land upside down, we won't be able to find a drop of water!"
Chief Engineer Wang Heshan was full of confidence. This confidence was earned from completing one major project after another, the absolute certainty that only top engineers possess.
A staff officer in charge of communications rushed in.
"Report, Chief Engineer Wang! Encrypted communication from the General Bureau!"
Chief Engineer Wang Heshan took the communicator, and inside was Director Zhao Lixin's slightly anxious voice.
"Elder Wang, hello, I am Director Zhao Lixin of The Ninth Bureau. Regarding the command authority of the 'Kuafu Project', I would like to explain to you..."
"No need to explain." Chief Engineer Wang Heshan interrupted him without any courtesy. "Comrade Zhao Lixin, I know your Ninth Bureau is special, but this is an engineering site! Doing engineering must follow engineering rules! I don't care what background that young girl named Jiang Ning has, but on my construction site, a twenty-year-old yellow-haired girl has no right to point fingers at me!"
"I don't care if she is some Chief Designer or Chief Consultant. Here, I, Wang Heshan, am the Chief Engineer! I must be responsible for this project! If you don't agree, let your bureau chief, or even someone higher up, come and talk to me in person!"
After speaking, he hung up the communication directly.
The people in the tent, seeing Elder Wang so tough, all looked impressed.
"As expected of Elder Wang, he really has guts!"
"That's right! It should be like this! We cannot let those young people dabbling in metaphysics ruin the country's key project!"
Chief Engineer Wang Heshan waved his hand, not taking this matter to heart at all.
"A yellow-haired girl trying to take shortcuts with some new materials wants to come and direct a national project? She's a hundred years too early!"
In his eyes, this was just a dispute between amateurs and professionals. And he, as the authority among professionals, was sure to win.
Two days later, Jiang Ning and Director Zhao Lixin arrived by private plane at the front-line command post, where yellow sand filled the sky.
Just after getting off the plane, Director Zhao Lixin felt that the atmosphere was wrong.
The entire camp was clearly divided into two groups.
One group was the old experts led by Chief Engineer Wang Heshan, who were busily directing the exploration team, driving off-road vehicles deep into the desert.
The other group was Chief Engineer Wang Jianguo and his people, all of them listless and dejected, staying in their own tent area, having nothing to do, left out in the cold.
As soon as Chief Engineer Wang Jianguo saw Director Zhao Lixin and Jiang Ning, he immediately went up to greet them, finally having waited for his saviors.
"Director Zhao! Chief Consultant! You've finally arrived!" He said with a bitter face, "Something big has happened!"
After listening to Chief Engineer Wang Jianguo's account, Director Zhao Lixin's expression was also quite ugly.
The thing he worried about most had happened after all.
Two "Chief Engineers Wang", representing two completely different paths, had clashed in this desert.
"Chief Consultant Jiang, what do you think..." Director Zhao Lixin looked at Jiang Ning, unable to make up his mind.
Jiang Ning's expression remained the same, unchanged.
She didn't look at the two groups of people, but instead looked up into the distance, at that sea of sand dyed golden-red by the sun.
She could feel that hidden beneath the sea of sand was a very violent force.
That force made the spiritual energy in her body start to excite.
"Let him do whatever he wants to do." Jiang Ning withdrew her gaze and spoke indifferently.
"Ah?" Director Zhao Lixin and Chief Engineer Wang Jianguo were both stunned.
Just let him mess around like this?
"Let him go explore, let him go drill." Jiang Ning's lips curled slightly. "We don't need to argue with him. When he has tried all of his so-called 'scientific' methods, and when he hits a wall, he will naturally understand who is right."
"Before that," she looked at Chief Engineer Wang Jianguo, "your people shouldn't just stand idle either. Bring your equipment and come with me."
"Go... go where?" Chief Engineer Wang Jianguo didn't understand.
Jiang Ning pointed to a direction deep in the desert, exactly the opposite of the direction of Chief Engineer Wang Heshan's exploration team.
"We are not looking for water."
"We are going to build our 'Water Diversion Array'."