Emerging from Team Leader Chen's office, Liu Li felt as if she were walking on cotton, or perhaps on springs—light and airy, yet with a surge of energy that seemed to want to spring upwards. Limited authorization! It's still authorization! It's better than being outright rejected!

Instead of going straight back to her seat, she turned a corner and headed straight for a corner of the workshop. Sure enough, there stood a lonely, old C620 lathe, its paint peeling badly, and a thin layer of dust covering the lead screw and guide rails; it looked like it had indeed been idle for a long time. She walked over, reached out and touched the cold bed, but felt a warmth in her heart.

This is it! Her "experimental field"!

For the next two days, Liu Li was extremely busy. She took the slip of paper approved by Team Leader Chen, went to the warehouse to collect some scrap aluminum and steel, and rummaged through drawers to find some basic tools and an old dial indicator. It wasn't much, but she was already quite content.

The biggest challenge was still the core "prestressed fixture." There was no ready-made one; she had to design and build it herself. She hunched over the table, revising the sketches in her notebook, simplifying the structure as much as possible. She used screws instead of hydraulics whenever possible, and standard parts instead of special machining whenever possible. Everything was kept simple, all to achieve the most crucial function of "applying controllable prestress."

She drew a fairly complete picture, took a deep breath, and went to find Foreman Ma in the machine repair workshop.

Foreman Ma was a dark-skinned, thin, and wiry old man who was inspecting a milling machine with his apprentice. His hands were covered in grease. After listening to Liu Li explain her purpose and glancing at her few sketches, which were not very standardized but had a clear structural intent, he frowned.

“Comrade Liu, it’s not that I don’t support it,” Squad Leader Ma clicked his tongue, shaking his head in embarrassment, “Your thing has a clever structure, but the precision requirements are quite high. Look at these mating surfaces, the surface finish requirements are high, and this fine-tuning mechanism, the clearance must be controlled to be extremely small. Our machine repair team is okay at doing repairs, but when it comes to making these kinds of precision tooling fixtures, our equipment isn’t good enough, and our skills might not be up to par. If we mess it up for you, it will not only delay your work, but also waste materials, right?”

Liu Li had anticipated this outcome. Undeterred, she spread the blueprints out on the toolbox beside her, pointed to the key parts, and said earnestly, "Foreman Ma, I know it's difficult. You see, could we do this: for the main structural components, we can use our existing methods to process them, just ensuring their strength. As for these most critical mating surfaces and the fine-tuning screws, could I... borrow your equipment and do it myself? I used to work as a fitter in the factory for a few years; I'm skilled at scraping and grinding."

Foreman Ma paused for a moment, then looked Liu Li over again, seemingly surprised that this seemingly quiet and reserved female technician could handle fitter work. "You...do it yourself?"

"Yes!" Liu Li nodded vigorously. "If you're worried, just send a craftsman to watch over me and give me some pointers. I'll use the cheapest scraps of material, so I won't feel bad even if I ruin it. I just want to try and see if this approach works."

Having said that, Squad Leader Ma couldn't refuse outright anymore. He looked at Liu Li's stubborn eyes, then considered that Team Leader Chen had already approved the request, hesitated for a moment, and finally relented: "...Alright. There's an old bench drill and grinding machine in that corner over there, and you can also use the fitter's bench. If you need any ordinary tools, just tell my apprentice. But let's make it clear, the precision machines can't be touched; those are for production tasks."

"Oh! Thank you, Squad Leader Ma! Thank you so much!" Liu Li was overjoyed and thanked him repeatedly. She was already very satisfied with having such a place and some basic tools.

Somehow, the news quietly spread within the group. Zhou Wei and Sun Mei had somewhat strange expressions when they heard that Liu Li was actually going to the machine repair workshop to make her own fixtures. Zhou Wei shook his head and said nothing. Sun Mei, however, whispered to her close friends, "She really is... always causing trouble. I don't know what Team Leader Chen is thinking, letting her do whatever she wants."

Liu Li ignored all of that. She plunged headlong into that noisy, greasy corner of the machine repair workshop. She borrowed a vise, a file, and a scraper, and collected some scrap materials and standard parts. If there were no ready-made parts, she would draw lines, drill holes, and tap them herself; if the mating surfaces were not precise enough, she would use a scraper to scrape them bit by bit and grind them against a flat plate; if the clearance of the fine-tuning screw was too large, she would find a way to add thin copper shims to adjust it.

At first, the experienced mechanics in the repair shop watched her with curiosity, but after seeing her focused attitude and the fact that she did have some real skills, they stopped finding it strange. Occasionally, when she encountered difficulties, they would come over with a cigarette in their mouths and give her a few pointers.

Fu Jingchen came to see her during his break and saw that she was wearing borrowed old work clothes, her face was covered in oil, and she was struggling with a stuck pin. He couldn't help but laugh: "You don't look like a technician at all. You look better than the ones in our machine repair team."

Liu Li wiped her sweat and smiled, "There's no other way. With limited resources, we can only rely on ourselves."

Limited authorization forced her to unleash all her abilities and resilience. This small "experimental field" carried all her hopes.