Li Weidong's exclamation was like a pebble thrown into the calm of the machining workshop, and within a few days, ripples spread.

Liu Li clearly sensed something was wrong—her coworkers used to just glance at her when they passed by, but now many people would stop to watch her grind the drill bit, their eyes filled with all sorts of expressions: some were curious, some were like experienced workers guiding her, and some were sticky and unsettling, making people feel uneasy.

She ignored all that and still arrived at the workshop early every day, first cleaning Master Wang's workbench and arranging the tools neatly, before standing in front of the grinding machine and struggling with the drill bit. Occasionally, she would grind a decent drill bit, which would give her a sense of relief.

That noon in the cafeteria, she sat at a table with Zhang Shulan and a few others. Just as Zhang Shulan was complaining about how tiring the sand casting process was, a few sarcastic remarks suddenly came from the next table. The speaker was Sun Peng, with a middle-part hairstyle. His father was the deputy head of the logistics department, and he always carried a sense of superiority.

"I think it's just a lucky guess," Sun Peng said, shoveling rice into his mouth. His voice was just loud enough for them to hear. "How hard can it be to grind a drill bit? Getting it right once is a skill in itself. Female workers have weak hands, so all they can do are these fancy tricks."

The tall, thin guy next to him chimed in, "Exactly! When it comes to opening windows for big projects, we men are the ones who have to do it. Look at her skinny arms, she can't even turn a wrench, can she?"

Liu Li paused, her chopsticks still in her hand. Zhang Shulan blushed and was about to turn away to argue when Liu Li tugged at her sleeve under the table. "Ignore them, eat," Liu Li said softly, picking up a piece of potato and chewing slowly, as if she hadn't heard a word.

"Why should we ignore him!" Zhang Shulan said in a low voice. "Sun Peng almost had an accident while operating the milling machine last week and got a severe scolding from his master. How dare he criticize others!"

Another female worker chimed in, "Lily, don't take it to heart, they're just being sarcastic."

Liu Li shook her head—she had expected it; in this workshop where there were more men than women, trying to gain a foothold through technical skills would inevitably lead to gossip. She just hadn't expected it to start so quickly.

When she returned to the workshop in the afternoon, the atmosphere was even stranger. Several young workers who usually nodded and greeted her avoided her. Liu Li didn't say anything, and was about to pick up the drill bit when Master Wang called her back.

He held two rough cast iron blanks with pitted surfaces and handed them to Liu Li: "Put the drill bit aside for now. File these two pieces into standard cubes with six faces, two parallel faces, and adjacent faces perpendicular. The error cannot exceed five microns."

He paused, then added, "No machine tools allowed, we'll rely entirely on files and measuring tools."

Liu Li was shocked—hand-filing a high-precision cube? This is one of the most difficult tasks in a fitter's basic skills! Not only must it be filed flat, but the angle must also be correct. An error of five micrometers is finer than a hair. For an apprentice who has been in the factory for less than a month, it is simply a challenge.

She suddenly realized that her master probably knew about what happened in the cafeteria—this was both a test and a way for her to use her skills to suppress the gossip.

"Can you do it?" Master Wang looked at her, his eyes brighter than usual.

Liu Li took the blank, the cold iron pressing against her palm, but her heart calmed down: "I'll give it a try, Master."

Master Wang didn't say anything more and turned to leave. Liu Li placed the rough blank on the table, took out a height gauge and a scribe, and started by finding a reference surface. The first surface had to be filed flat, otherwise all the subsequent work would be in vain. She chose a relatively flat surface, first using a medium-toothed file for rough grinding, then switching to a fine-toothed file for fine finishing, gradually stabilizing the rhythm of the file's push and pull.

Sweat streamed down her neck, soaking her back, but she didn't bother to wipe it away; her eyes were only on the metal lump and ruler in her hands. The surrounding chatter seemed to fade into the distance, leaving only the soft scraping of the file against the steel.

Sun Peng watched from afar, then curled his lip and said, "What are you pretending to be serious about! I bet she'll never amount to anything, not even by the New Year."

But as one day, two days, three days passed, Liu Li hardly left her workbench except to eat and drink. Her movements became more and more skilled, and the gaps between the lines became smaller and smaller when she measured with a square. At first, some people came over to watch, but later, seeing how well she was filing, they all quietly retreated—those in the know understood that this job couldn't be done without real skill.

Occasionally, Master Wang would come over, pick up the cube she had half-filed, measure it with a feeler gauge, and without saying a word, simply point at the unfiled area with his finger. His silence was more effective than anything else; Liu Li knew that her master was watching, and she had to do the job well.

A few days later, the two rough blanks gradually took on the shape of cubes, with their edges becoming straighter and their surfaces becoming flatter. Those who had been gossiping before dared not spread rumors anymore when they saw her.

Liu Li didn't notice that a young man wearing glasses and a cadre uniform with four pockets was standing at the workshop entrance, and he had been watching her for a while. It was Fu Jingchen from the technical department. He had originally come to discuss the blueprints with the workshop technicians, but he had been attracted by the figure in the corner who was engrossed in filing iron.

He looked at the sketches covered in markings on Liu Li's workbench, then at the nearly completed cube, his eyes filled with surprise. He wanted to go over, but was afraid of disturbing her, so he adjusted his glasses, quietly turned around, and left.

Liu Li was oblivious to everything else. All she knew was that the cube in her hand was the foundation of her confidence in the workshop. Once she finished filing it, the gossip would lose its weight, and she could truly stand firm in this pile of steel.