A few days later, in the office of the director of Hongxing Machinery Factory.

Amidst swirling smoke, Liu Zhenshan, his eyes bloodshot from exhaustion, was shouting hoarsely into the telephone, spittle flying everywhere.

"Old Zhou, look at my batch of No. 7 alloy! ...What? They want the entire quota of precision ball bearings that our factory has been saving for three years!"

Liu Zhenshan's eyes widened, and he gritted his teeth as he agreed.

"Fine! Fine! I accept it! ...What? It'll take at least half a month? ...Hello? Hello?"

The other party hung up the phone.

Liu Zhenshan seemed to have all his strength drained away, slumping into the creaking chair, his bloodshot eyes staring at the ceiling, only his heavy breathing echoing in the air!

A buzzing sound filled my mind, a kind of incessant, uncomfortable chatter.

Materials! And more materials!

There's a shortage of materials everywhere!

This vacancy is like a bottomless chasm, separating China from dreams and reality.

"Beep beep beep..."

There was a knock on the office door.

Liu Zhenshan rubbed his face, took a deep breath, and drank a mouthful of water from the teacup that had already cooled down to moisten his throat.

"Please come in!"

Mingzhao walked in: "Director Liu."

"Comrade Mingzhao?"

Liu Zhenshan forced himself to sit up straight. "What's wrong? Is it the blueprints or..."

"It's not a problem with the blueprints."

Mingzhao interrupted him, her tone very calm. She took a small black box from her pocket and placed it on Liu Zhenshan's desk with a soft "thump".

"This is the prototype of the communicator. Basic functional testing has been completed."

Liu Zhenshan was stunned for a moment, thinking he had misheard, and stared blankly at the black box on Luo Zuo's head.

"A...communicator? What...what is this?"

He instinctively reached out to touch it, feeling the coolness of the machine coming from his fingertips.

“A portable shortwave communication device,” Ming Zhao stated succinctly. “Based on the principle of existing walkie-talkies, its effective communication range, as initially tested, can reach fifteen kilometers. Its clarity is superior to existing landline telephones.”

"What?" Liu Zhenshan jumped up from his seat, his eyes wide open, staring intently at the unassuming black iron box on the table.

"Comrade Mingzhao? What did you say? This thing... can communicate?"

It's...it's even clearer than a current landline.

"An effective range of fifteen kilometers? You...you built this in just a few days? In just a few days? With...what was it made of?"

He was still filled with disbelief, but his mind was already uncontrollably racing with thoughts of how much profit this thing could bring to their factory if Mingzhao was telling the truth.

The shortage of No. 7 alloy material was like a mountain pressing down on him, making it hard to breathe. Meanwhile, Comrade Mingzhao quietly tinkered with a portable mobile phone.

It goes without saying that it's much more convenient than a landline. How many times have we missed so many calls because it was inconvenient to answer, or because no one was around when we called from a landline?

"right."

Mingzhao nodded firmly, his tone as calm as if he were talking about what he had for lunch. "Using the core components of old walkie-talkies stored in the warehouse, as well as high-frequency modules from discarded radios, and... some self-made components, we assembled it. The main improvements are in the high-frequency wave algorithm and the signal modulation and demodulation logic."

Liu Zhenshan couldn't understand a single word she said.

Mingzhao pointed to an inconspicuous black square, about the size of a fingernail, encapsulated in resin, on the side of the aluminum box.

"The core is the redesigned signal processing chip logic. The algorithm has been optimized, improving the communication noise ratio and anti-interference capability."

“Redesign…” Liu Zhenshan’s mouth was agape enough to swallow a whole egg.

"Calculate... algorithm chip optimization?" Liu Zhenshan felt his head buzzing. He could understand each word individually, but when put together, he felt like a newborn baby, not knowing what it meant.

He looked at the pitifully small black cube, then at Mingzhao's calm and expressionless face, and a huge sense of unreality instantly overwhelmed him.

Liu Zhenshan muttered to himself, waving his arms excitedly. The teacup was hit by his hand and moved quite a distance with a "thud," almost falling to the ground.

However, Liu Zhenshan had no time to pay attention to the teacup; instead, he stared intently at Mingzhao.

"How...how can I try this?"

He couldn't wait to test the device's functionality.

If this succeeds, if this is true, then they have done something truly groundbreaking, they are pioneers! They have made history.

You know, this doesn't exist abroad yet!

After hearing Liu Zhenshan's words, Mingzhao stepped forward, picked up the black box, pressed a button on the side, and then spoke.

"Test call. Frequency: XXXX. Caller: Mingzhao"

A few seconds later, a corresponding sound came from the black box.

"Buzz...Received...Buzz...Comrade Mingzhao...This is...Warehouse No. 3 duty room...The sound...Buzz...Very clear! Clearer than a phone call! My God..."

"Warehouse No. 3 is only about ten kilometers from here. Is that... Old Li's voice over there?"

From the other end of the black box came Old Li's excited voice: "Factory Manager? Is that you, Factory Manager? This is Old Li. This...this communicator is amazing! My God!"

Liu Zhenshan pointed to the black box—no, the communicator.

"He heard my voice? And he even recognized who I was!"

Mingzhao did not answer his question, but continued speaking into the communicator.

"Master Li, please follow what you said at the beginning and walk another five li east. You can keep talking or not."

"Okay, Comrade Mingzhao. I'm heading towards the Dongfanghe Wharf now. Destination: Wharf."

The dock is about 20 kilometers away from where they are now.

Old Li's current speaking style was also agreed upon by Mingzhao and Old Li beforehand.

"Now that we've walked one kilometer east, Old Li has finished speaking."

"Received! The call quality is clear, please continue!" Mingzhao took over the conversation.

Liu Zhenshan looked at Mingzhao with eyes that sparkled as if he had seen a treasure.

Isn't this a real treasure?

That's incredible! Absolutely incredible!

If the facts weren't right in front of him, Liu Zhenshan would have really wanted to shout, "Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"

What does it mean when the sound of Lao Li breathing through his nose while walking is heard through the communicator?

This means that the communicator was indeed being moved around by Lao Li without stopping.

If Liu Zhenshan could communicate with someone in real time via communicator wherever he went, he wouldn't have to stay in this office all these past few days.

They had already gone out to sit in front of someone else's factory.

"Amazing...amazing!"

"We've arrived at the dock. Comrade Mingzhao, can you hear the sound of the water flowing over here? That concludes Old Li's remarks!"

"Yes! Yes!" Liu Zhenshan spoke before Ming Zhao could.

Not only could you hear the water flowing, but you could even hear other people talking over there.

At this moment, Liu Zhenshan was like a pilgrim witnessing a miracle. His eyes were filled with pure, immense awe!