The sign for the Technical Center Preparatory Group was hung at the entrance of the largest office on the east side of the first floor of the factory's office building. The location was specially approved by the factory director, who said it was to show the factory's emphasis on this work. Liu Li took the key and opened the door. The empty room still smelled of fresh paint. Sunlight streamed in through the large windows, casting bright spots of light on the floor.

Standing in the center of the room, she felt somewhat dazed. Just over a year ago, she was a newcomer, her palms sweating as she mustered the courage to speak at group meetings. Now, she was in charge of establishing a new organization that would determine the technological future of the entire factory. The change was so rapid that even she felt it was somewhat unreal.

The preparatory work was incredibly complex. Determining the organizational structure, selecting personnel, formulating rules and regulations, applying for start-up funding, and planning the key tasks for the first year… each step presented a completely new challenge. The chief engineer entrusted Liu Li, the deputy team leader in charge, with the overall direction and all the specific, trivial, and difficult tasks.

She's no longer the team leader who only needs to focus on one technical problem. Now, she has to learn to read reports, write various requests and reports, and coordinate and deal with various departments and workshops. To get a few promising young technicians transferred to the center, she has to talk herself hoarse with the personnel department; to ensure that the meager start-up funds are used effectively, she has to explain the purpose of each budget item to the finance department again and again.

Sometimes, working late into the night, facing a table piled high with draft regulations and personnel lists, she would feel exhausted and lost. This was completely different from the feeling she was used to when working with blueprints and machine tools. There was no exhilarating feeling of cutting through metal and sending shavings flying; instead, there were endless meetings, paperwork, and complex interpersonal coordination.

But whenever she felt confused, she would go to the window and look at the workshop still lit up in the night. The familiar roar of the machines could be faintly heard, reminding her of Master Wang's words, Master Zhao's subtly changed look when she successfully installed the "dynamic balancing device" on the old C620, and the smiles on the workers' faces when they received more bonuses because of the reduced scrap rate.

She knows that everything she is doing now, building this "furnace," is to make those changes happen more often and faster, and to make the lights in that workshop burn brighter and longer.

She took a deep breath, returned to her desk, and continued to sort through the tedious clauses. She began to consciously apply the systems thinking she had learned in the department's project team, managing the preparatory work as a project, breaking down tasks, clarifying milestones, and assigning responsibilities. She proactively sought advice from experienced section chiefs to learn how to handle cross-departmental affairs. She even began to bite the bullet and study some management books.

Gradually, those seemingly chaotic matters began to form a clear framework in her mind. The rules and regulations she drafted were no longer just on paper, but fully considered the actual situation and operability of the factory; when striving for resources and coordinating relationships, she was also better able to grasp the key points and argue her case logically.

The framework of the technology center was gradually built up thanks to her and her colleagues in the preparatory team. The first annual plan also began to take shape, which included arrangements for the in-depth application of "online dynamic balancing" technology, a plan to tackle the process problems commonly reported by several workshops, and for the first time, a soft science project on "tracking the development of international precision machining technology".

Standing in her new position, Liu Li reflects on her journey from ministerial projects to factory promotion, and now to the establishment of the center. She clearly feels that she is no longer just an executor of technology or a follower of trends. She has begun to learn how to guide the direction of technology, how to organize the power of innovation, and how to build a stage for more "trendsetters".

The tide of the times still roars, but she no longer merely listens passively. She tries to understand the direction of this tide, and even begins to yearn to one day become one of those who propel the tide forward and make it resonate even louder.

This experience of "riding the wave" is filled with fatigue, pressure, and confusion, but more than anything, it's a thrilling excitement and anticipation of taking control of one's own destiny and participating in the creation of the future. She knows she is standing at a brand new starting point, about to sail into deeper and wider waters.