10: Chapter 10: The Prodigal Son Dismantles the Legendary Car? The Turbocharger Makes the Whole Village Stunned!

Early the next morning, before the roar of his father's anger could erupt, Su Che grabbed a set of wrenches and screwdrivers and headed straight for the broken-down wuling hongguang in the corner of the yard.

This wuling hongguang was his family's most important means of production.

Su Pingan relied on it to transport crates of oranges from the mountains to the town, exchanging them for stacks of small change to pay for his university tuition.

The car's paint was long since mottled, and the door still bore the dent Su Pingan had left when he backed into a utility pole last time.

Su Che walked around the car once, and without a word, he flipped open the hood.

"Creak—"

A harsh metallic screeching sound shattered the morning silence.

This noise was even more effective than the village chief's loudspeaker.

Auntie Wang from next door was the first to poke her head out. Seeing Su Che "taking a knife" to his own car, she immediately shouted at the top of her lungs.

"Oh my! Su Pingan! Come out and look! Your child has gone mad! He's going to dismantle the car and sell it as scrap metal!"

Su Pingan, who was squatting on the threshold with a bowl of rice porridge, nearly choked to death upon hearing this.

He rushed into the yard and saw his son burying his head in the engine lines, and his blood pressure instantly shot up.

"You little bastard! What kind of trouble are you causing again!"

Su Che didn't even turn his head, his hands continuing their work.

"Didn't you tell me to fix it?"

"I told you to fix it, not to dismantle it!" Su Pingan was so angry he jumped.

"How can I fix it without dismantling it?"

Su Pingan was left speechless, choked by his own words.

Remembering the harsh words he had spoken the day before, his weathered face flushed a liver-colored purple.

In the end, he could only slam his bowl onto the ground, squat under the old locust tree, and smoke his pipe in sullen silence.

Soon, the entrance to the Su Family Village courtyard was crowded with villagers watching the excitement.

Su Ergou, the village loafer, leaned against the wall and spoke in a mocking tone.

"Has Brother Che gone stupid from reading too much at university? Why not be a proper national defense student instead of coming home to play with dismantling cars?"

"What do you mean 'play with dismantling cars'? I think he's a prodigal son!"

A woman holding a child curled her lip. "Even though this car is broken, it could still be worth ten thousand yuan as a second-hand vehicle. With him taking it apart like this, it's really going to become a pile of scrap metal."

"Su Pingan, aren't you going to manage him? Are you just going to let him carry on like this?"

Su Pingan threw his cigarette butt on the ground, crushed it with his foot, and roared.

"What the hell are you all looking at! Haven't you seen someone fixing a car before? Get lost, get lost!"

The crowd shrank back from his roar, but they didn't leave; instead, they stepped back a few paces and watched even more eagerly.

Su Che turned a deaf ear to the surrounding discussion.

He spent half a day forcing the entire old engine out and throwing it onto the ground in the yard.

Then, he dove into his studio.

The [Small Turbojet Engine] blueprint, which cost 50 points to redeem, was incredibly clear in his mind, but the core material was a major problem.

The turbine blades and combustion chamber all required special alloys capable of withstanding temperatures over a thousand degrees.

You couldn't find this stuff in a scrap yard.

Just as he was feeling irritable, the door to his studio was pushed open. It was Boss Wang from the scrap yard, a dark-skinned, thin man in his fifties.

"Little Che, I heard you're looking for heat-resistant iron scraps?" Boss Wang grinned, revealing two rows of yellow teeth stained by smoke.

Su Che's heart skipped a beat, and he looked up vigilantly.

It was too coincidental.

He had just lacked materials, and they were delivered to his door?

The mysterious text message from yesterday was still fresh in his memory; Su Che didn't believe there were so many coincidences in the world.

"Uncle Wang, how did you know?"

"Heh, isn't your dad shouting all over the place today that you're dismantling the car."

Boss Wang acted as if he were presenting a treasure, pulling something rusty that looked like a large hairdryer out of a tattered sack.

"Take a look at this. A boss from the city threw it at my place, saying it was some kind of model airplane engine that was broken. I figured the iron in this thing was good and couldn't be burnt by fire, so I brought it to you."

A boss from the city?

Su Che took the so-called "model airplane engine," which felt heavy in his hand.

He glanced at Boss Wang calmly; the other man's eyes were frank, just like an ordinary farmer.

But the string in Su Che's heart tightened even further.

That force hiding in the shadows had already reached out to him! They wanted to test the limits of his technology in this way!

Fine, if you want to see, then I'll play big with you!

In his mind, the system panel popped up a notification simultaneously.

["Nickel-based superalloy" material detected, can be used for core component modification.]

Su Che suppressed the waves in his heart and put a smile on his face: "Uncle Wang! How much for this thing? I'll take it!"

"What money are you talking about!" Boss Wang waved his hand dismissively. "You helped me fix the scale last time, and I haven't thanked you yet. Take this piece of junk and play with it; consider it a gift from your uncle!"

After sending Boss Wang away, Su Che slammed the door shut, his eyes turning cold.

Without hesitation, he immediately began the real radical modification!

Using that model airplane engine as the core, he used various metal pipes, bearings, and gears scavenged from the scrap yard to piece together, weld, and modify it step by step according to the system blueprints.

For the combustion chamber, he spliced together the bottoms of several high-pressure gas cylinders.

For the fuel pump, he modified the pressurization pump from an agricultural sprayer.

For the control circuit, he stripped it directly from the motherboard of an old television.

The whole process was like a madman using a pile of trash to build a precise piece of art.

Su Hao helped out on the side, his eyes dazzled. He couldn't understand at all how these pieces of junk turned into strange-looking parts in his brother's hands.

He worked from noon until dusk, the setting sun dyeing the courtyard a golden yellow.

A brand-new "engine," full of violent aesthetics, was finally formed.

It no longer looked like a traditional engine, but rather more like a rugged rocket thruster.

Su Che didn't rush to install it, but instead dragged a pitch-black iron bucket out of the studio, which contained a "special fuel" he had mixed using diesel, alcohol, and a certain additive he had redeemed from the system for 20 points.

He filled the tank and connected the battery.

"Little Hao, stand back."

Su Che put on his goggles, held his breath, and pressed the start button.

"Hum—"

After a low hum of electricity, the turbine at the rear of the engine began to rotate slowly.

Immediately following that, a blue flame shot out from the nozzle with a "whoosh"!

"Whoosh! Hum! Boom!!!"

Within a few seconds, the sound transformed from the whine of an electric drill into the terrifying roar of a fighter jet taking off!

A scorching heatwave, mixed with deafening noise, instantly swept through the entire yard!

The clothes on the laundry pole were blown into a chaotic dance, and the empty paint buckets in the corner were sent rolling and clattering!

The old hen that had been foraging in the yard was startled and jumped three feet high, flying wildly around the courtyard!

"Holy crap!"

Even Su Che was startled by the commotion and quickly cut off the power.

The roar of the engine gradually subsided, but at the gate of the courtyard, the few villagers who had gathered to watch were all frozen in place like they had been hit by a paralysis spell, their mouths wide open, faces full of shock.

The sunflower seeds in Su Ergou's hand fell all over the ground.

The cigarette Su Pingan had just lit fell straight out of his mouth.

"This... what the hell is this? A tractor?" a villager asked, stammering.

"Does a tractor make that kind of noise? This damn thing is going to blow the roof off the house!"

Su Che ignored everyone's shock and began stuffing this "monster" into the engine compartment of the wuling hongguang.

After more hammering and tinkering, the modification was initially completed by nightfall.

From the outside, this wuling hongguang looked no different than before, except for a black, bowl-thick exhaust pipe added to the rear of the car.

"Brother, is it done?" Su Hao came over, his face flushed with excitement.

"We'll know after we test it."

Su Che sat in the driver's seat and touched the somewhat worn steering wheel.

He turned the key.

There was no familiar "putt-putt-putt" sound, only a slight "humming" sound.

At the entrance of the courtyard, the other villagers heard the noise and gathered around, each craning their necks, wanting to see if this wuling hongguang "with a tractor engine" could actually move.

Su Che shifted into first gear and gently stepped on the accelerator.

The car shot forward with a "whoosh," almost throwing him off balance.

He quickly steadied himself and drove the car to the widest concrete road at the entrance of the village.

He rolled down the window and grinned at his nervous father and the curious villagers outside.

"Stand firm!"

After saying that, he slammed his foot on the accelerator all the way to the floor!

"BOOM—!!!!"

That wasn't the roar of an engine; it was a dull sonic boom capable of tearing the air apart!

A blue tail flame erupted from the nozzle at the rear of the car, stretching two meters long!

The massive body of the wuling hongguang seemed to be kicked hard by an invisible giant foot, transforming into a silver lightning bolt, tearing across the ground and speeding away!

The gravel kicked up by the wheels hit the trees on the side of the road like bullets, making a crackling sound!

The terrifying sound wave, like a tsunami, swept through the entire village entrance!

Several villagers who were standing close were knocked onto their butts by the blast of air!

Everyone covered their ears, staring in stunned silence at the silver phantom that had disappeared into the distance, their heads buzzing.

That... that damn thing... was a wuling hongguang?

...

A dozen kilometers away, inside a black off-road vehicle.

A piercing alarm suddenly rang through the entire cabin!

"Captain!!"

The technician in charge of sonar and thermal monitoring jumped up from his chair, pointing at the screen with excitement.

"Target area... direction of Su Family Village... detected high-decibel sonic boom and instantaneous strong heat source!"

Captain Li Jun rushed to the screen in one stride.

On the screen, a red energy curve was skyrocketing violently, the peak shocking to behold!

"Analyze the energy characteristics!" Captain Li Jun roared in a low voice.

"Analyzing... comparing with the database..." The technician's fingers tapped on the keyboard, leaving afterimages. "Comparison complete..."

He looked up at Captain Li Jun, a gurgling sound coming from his throat.

"Captain... the energy model, thermal radiation spectrum, and sonic boom frequency of this signal... are similar to the solid fuel booster of our military's 'Eagle Strike' series cruise missile..."

"Eighty-nine percent!"