24: Chapter 24: The Old Man Admits Defeat
Before dawn, the desert was so cold it felt like it could peel a layer of skin off you.
Chief Engineer Wang Heshan's massive drill, which had been roaring for nearly ten days, finally went silent in the middle of the night.
It wasn't because they had struck water; it was because the last drill bit had been destroyed. After drilling to 3,200 meters, they hit a piece of granite that was freakishly hard, and it shattered.
It was completely hopeless.
Chief Engineer Wang Heshan hadn't closed his eyes all night.
He didn't stay in his tent; he dragged a chair out himself and sat at the base of that drilling rig, which looked like an iron tombstone, from dusk until dawn.
A layer of frost had settled on his graying hair, and he looked twenty years older all of a sudden.
Those eyes, which used to shine terrifyingly bright at the groundbreaking ceremonies of various national projects, were now nothing but dead ash.
He couldn't understand it. How could this happen?
He had spent his whole life calculating, his whole life dedicated to science, and all the evidence pointed to there being water beneath this spot. How could there be none?
Was it possible that everything he had believed in his entire life really didn't work in this "Sea of Death"?
The horizon turned pale, and people in the camp crawled out of their tents one by one. No one made a sound; the entire camp was filled with a deathly silence.
Everyone looked at the old man beneath the drill, and they couldn't describe the feeling in their hearts. They pitied him and felt sorry for him, but more than that, there was a sense of confusion, as if their backbone had collapsed.
This group were all top-tier experts in the domestic engineering field, soldiers brought up by Chief Engineer Wang Heshan himself. Like him, they believed science could overcome everything. But now, their tools had broken.
Chief Engineer Sun Hai and a few old colleagues lingered for a long time before finally biting the bullet and approaching him.
"Chief Engineer Wang…" Chief Engineer Sun Hai's throat was dry as smoke. "It's dawn, and the wind is strong. You… should go back to the tent and rest."
Chief Engineer Wang Heshan didn't move, nor did he look at them. He just stared at the faint white light on the horizon, his voice as soft as if he were sleep-talking. "I've lost."
These three words struck Chief Engineer Sun Hai and the others, making their chests feel tight. In their memory, Chief Engineer Wang Heshan's voice was like thunder; he was always the Commander-in-Chief charging forward. They had never seen him so dispirited, so resigned to his fate.
"Chief Engineer Wang, one failure doesn't mean anything. If this place doesn't work, we can try another spot and re-survey!" an expert urged him.
"Re-survey?" Chief Engineer Wang Heshan gave a self-deprecating laugh. "With what? Drill every single spot circled on the map? Who can tell me where the next point is? Who dares to beat their chest and guarantee that the next point will have water?"
No one dared to answer. This time, it wasn't just the loss of hundreds of millions in equipment; what was even more lethal was that it had completely drained the spirit of the entire team. With the best equipment and theories failing, what else was there to believe in?
"In my life, from the Qinghai-Tibet Railway to the Three Gorges Dam, and then to the South-to-North Water Diversion Project…" Chief Engineer Wang Heshan slowly stood up, his body swaying slightly. "I thought that in this world, there wasn't anything we Chinese engineers couldn't accomplish."
He turned around and looked at these old brothers who had followed him for decades, his face full of bitterness. "Now I know I was wrong. We aren't gods. In front of the heavens, we… are just a bunch of fools holding hammers and rulers."
After saying this, he took a step forward. He didn't return to his tent, but headed straight for the camp entrance.
"Chief Engineer Wang, where are you going?" Chief Engineer Sun Hai hurried to catch up.
"Back to the capital." Chief Engineer Wang Heshan didn't even look back. "To apologize to the leadership. I, Wang Heshan, lost the bet, so I have to admit it. Regarding this 'Kuafu Project', I don't have the ability, and from now on, I am withdrawing."
His silhouette was stretched long in the morning light, looking both lonely and bleak.
The news that Chief Engineer Wang Heshan's side had completely collapsed soon reached Jiang Ning's camp, thirty kilometers away.
Chief Engineer Wang Jianguo and his dozen or so subordinates were stunned when they heard the news. They gathered around the campfire, looking at each other, and for a long time, no one spoke.
"Chief… Chief Engineer Wang… is he really leaving?" a young engineer asked, stuttering, his face full of disbelief. That was Chief Engineer Wang Heshan! A figure from the textbooks! The god in the hearts of everyone in their line of work! How could a god be defeated? How could he admit defeat?
"He lost… he really lost…" Chief Engineer Wang Jianguo muttered to himself, his heart filled with mixed emotions. On one hand, he felt bad for Chief Engineer Wang Heshan, after all, that was the person he had always respected and wanted to catch up to. But on the other hand, a thought emerged in his heart that he didn't even dare to admit to himself.
Chief Engineer Wang Heshan used scientific methods and failed. Does that mean… Jiang Ning's "unscientific" method might actually be right?
As soon as this thought appeared, he was startled by it himself.
"Chief Engineer Wang, then… what do we do now?" Dr. Li leaned in, his face showing a mix of shock and worry, but his eyes hid a hint of excitement.
Chief Engineer Wang Heshan had lost! Faster and more thoroughly than he had imagined! Now, everyone's eyes would have to turn to Jiang Ning's side. The bomb he had planted was about to go off!
"I… I'll go find the Chief Consultant." Chief Engineer Wang Jianguo steadied himself and stood up. He felt that Jiang Ning must be told about this.
With Chief Engineer Wang Heshan gone, the burden of the entire "Kuafu Project" would fall entirely on Jiang Ning.
He walked through the camp to the completed cement foundation covered in strange, talisman-like symbols. Jiang Ning was standing on the circular platform in the very center of the foundation, head lowered, wondering what she was pondering.
"Chief Consultant." Chief Engineer Wang Jianguo walked up and called out cautiously.
"Hmm?" Jiang Ning looked up.
"Over at the main camp… Chief Engineer Wang Heshan and his team, they failed." Chief Engineer Wang Jianguo struggled to finish his sentence. "The drill has stopped, and Chief Engineer Wang… he plans to return to the capital today."
"Oh." Jiang Ning only replied with one word. There was no expression on her face—no curiosity, no happiness; she was as calm as if she were hearing about someone else's affairs.
"Oh?" Chief Engineer Wang Jianguo was stunned. "Just… just 'oh'?"
"What else?" Jiang Ning retorted. "This was bound to happen sooner or later. Using the wrong method in the wrong place, no matter how much effort is spent, it's impossible to get the right result."
Chief Engineer Wang Jianguo was choked up by her words. He looked at the excessively young girl in front of him, and for the first time, he felt a kind of… fear from the bottom of his heart.
It was an instinctive fear in the face of something you couldn't understand, couldn't figure out, and that was completely beyond your cognition. It seemed like she had known from the very beginning that Chief Engineer Wang Heshan would lose. It seemed like… she could really see through the secrets beneath this land.
"Then… then what about us…" Chief Engineer Wang Jianguo felt his voice trembling.
Jiang Ning didn't answer him but turned around and pointed to the massive foundation beneath their feet. "Our 'Skylight' is finished."
Her voice wasn't loud, yet it made everyone in the camp hear it clearly. "Notify everyone—all personnel, prepare to activate the 'Water Diversion Array'."