Chapter 05. Offshore Wind Power

The next day in Jinshi, it was still sunny and windy.

Ke Fan sat in the office assigned to her by the control center, checking the physical measurement data of the Oasis over the past few months.

Although she was unable to complete the inspection yesterday because the machine broke down halfway, she had some ideas in her mind through the previous data records and Lao Xie's description, and she prepared to carefully review the data of other wind turbines in the same batch.

She stared at the data board on the computer screen, thinking intently, occasionally jotting down key points in the thick notebook at hand.

Clouds were coming and going outside the window and message notifications on her phone kept lighting up, but she didn't pay any attention.

Until Lao Xie knocked on her glass door outside the office.

"Ji Hang said he'll be here soon."

Ke Fan finally came back to his senses, raised his arms and stretched his muscles slightly. His shoulders felt slightly sore from being tense for a long time.

She lowered her head and picked up her phone, which had been neglected for a long time. The notifications were filled with Ji Hang's dense messages:

"Sister Xiaofan, there are still two hours!"

"Sister Xiaofan, I'm almost there!"

"Sister Xiaofan, I sent you so many WeChat messages, but you didn't reply!"

He was already in the taxi coming to the control center.

Ke Fan raised his eyes and saw blue sky and white clouds outside the window, the endless sea, and the bright sunshine shining on the sea. It was already noon.

She temporarily turned off the data dashboard software, revealing a private mailbox running in the background.

The email address's domain name is kf504415N001451E.

The coordinates of the lighthouse at White Cliffs, England.

A long time ago, she had planned to go and see the lighthouse with another person.

She marked the latest English email she received as important, then slowly closed her computer.

Ten minutes later, Ke Fan went downstairs and met Ji Hang.

He was wearing a gray sweatshirt, light-colored jeans, a Jansport black backpack, clean and refreshing short hair, and round eyes with black and moist pupils.

They look no different from college students.

He had indeed just graduated from college not long ago and was extremely smart. He was recommended by the school to be an intern at the offshore wind power research institute where Ke Fan worked.

His temperament is like that of a child, always chattering.

As soon as he entered the institute, he was assigned to Ke Fan, who was short of manpower for the project.

Ke Fan is well-known in the institute for being very methodical in his work.

She is always quiet and a little aloof in social situations.

Those extremely beautiful eyes, like a calm and deep private sea, exude an aura of "keep away from me".

However, this small flaw, which cannot even be considered a shortcoming, cannot completely overshadow the brilliance brought by her professional background and abilities.

Ke Fan was admitted to the top wind power program in Hai City with a nearly perfect undergraduate GPA. During his doctoral studies, he was recommended by his supervisor to work on scientific research projects at the wind power institute and published articles in top journals in the industry.

As soon as she graduated with her doctorate, she was hired by the Wind Power Institute with a high salary.

Despite such a brilliant resume, she doesn't often brag about it.

On the contrary, most of the time, she is modest and taciturn, and is not enthusiastic about other people's compliments or conversations.

So when the talkative Ji Hang was assigned to Ke Fan, everyone started discussing it privately, and he would be criticized by Ke Fan several times a day.

Surprisingly, they get along very well.

Ke Fan never got angry with Ji Hang, and she was rare in her tolerance and patience towards him.

Gradually, Ji Hang became more and more unrestrained, and it became common for him to act coquettishly towards Ke Fan.

"Sister Xiaofan, I still don't understand the structure of this fan. Can you explain it to me again?"

He blinked his round eyes, looking pitiful.

Outside the office, Jiang Wen and Cai Jieyu, who had just been hired as interns last year, were eavesdropping with bated breath.

They had all heard Ke Fan tell Ji Hang what he had said at least twice, and were secretly expecting Ke Fan to scold Ji Hang.

"What don't you understand? Let me take a look."

Ke Fan's cold voice came, his tone calm and gentle.

Jiang Wen and Cai Jieyu opened their eyes wide and looked at each other silently.

When they were interning last year, their leader Xing Xiao was not like this!

"You don't even know this? Watch those wind turbine videos in the on-the-job training package a few more times."

Xing Xiao answered their question with this sentence.

The two looked at each other again with sorrow in their eyes, and both read the same meaning in each other's eyes:

It turns out that men who know how to act coquettishly have the best life!

At this moment, the lucky Ji Hang was waiting obediently at the door of the oasis, waiting for Ke Fan to come down and pick him up.

He immediately spotted the tall, slender figure who had pushed open the glass door and walked out. He couldn't wait to run over and give her a bear hug: "Sister Xiaofan!"

Ke Fan smiled and patted his short, furry hair: "Did you have a smooth journey here?"

"Everything went well, don't worry!" The boy smiled and then seemed to remember something and asked, "But were you all okay yesterday?"

"It's nothing, the maintenance boat's engine just broke down." Ke Fan said calmly, changing the subject: "Come on, go in. I'll take you to say hello to Old Xie."

"OK."

Old Xie had just been confirming the details of the afternoon's voyage with his colleagues in charge of dispatching the ship. He also came out at this moment and happily introduced himself to Ji Hang. Then he said to Ke Fan:

"Xiao Ke, the boat for the afternoon has been arranged. We can set off after lunch."

Ke Fan nodded: "Okay, thank you for your hard work. Let's go early and come back early this afternoon."

It was Ji Hang’s first business trip, and everything he saw was new and interesting.

Ke Fan took him on a tour of the control room, explaining how to use some of the equipment. She checked her watch and saw that lunch was still a dozen minutes away, so she decided to return to the office to finish her morning work and let him wander around on his own.

Ji Hang followed her back to the office like a little follower: "Is there anything I can help you with, Sister Xiaofan?"

Ke Fan pursed his lips and smiled, and said with a rare hint of sarcasm: "Why are you so active today?"

The reason why I arranged for Ji Hang to come on this business trip was more to let him see the actual situation of the wind farm, lend me a hand, and run some data. I didn't want to assign him too much work.

Ji Hang curled his lips, his innocent round eyes revealing grievance: "I am usually very diligent, okay."

"Yes, yes, you are the most diligent." Ke Fan patted his short hair with a smile in his eyes.

*

The golden sunlight shines on the water, making the ripples sparkle as if covered with a layer of fine gold foil.

A small boat was moving on the blue sea, its bow breaking through the water and sailing on the boundless ocean.

The weather was good and everything went smoothly today. Before we knew it, we were almost at the wind farm and small white spots began to appear on the edge where the sea and sky merged.

It was here yesterday too that their boat broke down on the way.

Ke Fan was stunned, as if she saw the man walking towards her step by step under the setting sun yesterday.

She was slightly distracted until her thoughts were interrupted by Ji Hang's excited shout in her ear.

"Wow, this is the first time I've seen a wind turbine in the sea so close!"

“It’s so big!”

As the ship approached, the huge white monster gradually appeared in front of us, and people seemed so small.

The blades passed over the head slowly and powerfully, and the sound of the air tearing made the soul feel numb and shuddered. This was a technological giant created by human beings themselves.

Ji Hang took out his cell phone and pressed the shutter button frequently from different angles.

Ke Fan shook his head with amusement, and couldn't help but recall that he was the same when he first saw the wind turbine.

Especially when she realized that she would become the designer and builder of this huge giant in the future, at that moment, an unprecedented surge of emotion surged in her heart.

The boat stopped under the wind turbine and everyone boarded it one after another.

Ke Fan directed everyone in an orderly manner.

After all the inspections were completed, it was already dark.

After an afternoon of non-stop installation and testing, everyone was exhausted. On the way back, even the talkative Ji Hang seemed listless, and the boat was silent for a while.

Ke Fan was also very tired and closed his eyes in deep thought.

Suddenly I remembered that I saw several unread WeChat messages when I was out at sea, and I still haven’t had time to reply.

I took out my phone and found that the number of unread red dots on WeChat had accumulated to 17, all from the same dialog box.

There were only two people who would bombard her like this. One was drowsy next to her, and the other was Cao Xinyu.

Cao Xinyu was Ke Fan's roommate in college, but they were not studying the same major.

Ke Fan was the only female student in her year of marine engineering, so she was left alone when dormitories were assigned. Cao Xinyu, a clinical student, was also left alone because the department was moving from its main campus to a new one, and the new and old dormitories didn't match up, so she was added in.

So we were assigned to the same dormitory and became roommates for four years.

The two of them had different majors and vastly different interests. In college, Ke Fan spent almost all his time in the library, poring over his professional textbooks. Cao Xinyu also spent her time, but browsing the comics and novels section on the ground floor.

As a veteran fan of the two-dimensional world and heavy romance novels, she always has a lot of wonderful ideas in her little head.

14:37 "Will we meet again today?"

15:04 "Will we meet again today?"

15:46 "Why don't you reply to me? Did you really meet him again?"

...

Before going to bed last night, Ke Fan told her a little about what happened during the day. Unexpectedly, this ignited her raging gossip heart.

Ke Fan held his forehead and turned off his phone.

Let’s talk about it when we get back.

She turned slightly to a more comfortable angle, closed her eyes and prepared to take a nap.

The moment her forehead touched the seat, the cold feeling reminded her of when she leaned her head against the window yesterday.

The sky outside the window was also filled with red clouds like it is now.

She covered her uncomfortable stomach and felt dizzy, but she could feel someone's eyes seemed to be watching her.

An intense gaze that cannot be ignored follows.

Then she lost consciousness.

Old Xie said that he was the one who "carried" her to the lounge.

She bit her lip slightly.

The memory of hugging is so old.

What does it feel like?

Sadly, I don’t remember anything at all.