In early 1987, the chill of winter had not yet completely faded from Beijing.

The morning mist enveloped the gray walls and black tiles of the alley, and the air was filled with the smell of burning coal stoves, mixed with the aroma of fried dough sticks wafting from the breakfast stalls in the distance.

Lin Li and her group finally returned to the courtyard house, walking on the thin ice that had formed on the road.

Lin Li took out the local specialties she brought from her hometown from her spatial storage.

"Third brother, go and take these things to Aunt Wang."

"Grandma, I'm going!"

As Lin Hu spoke, he hoisted a sack even larger than himself, his face beaming with excitement.

He was going to find his friend Weiwei, and they had already made plans to go ice skating at Beihai Park during the winter vacation.

Lin Yao quickly picked up another bag of gifts he had brought back from the port city.

"I'll go deliver the gift too!"

Lin Li smiled as she looked at the two little ones' excited faces.

Go ahead! Be careful!

"Okay!"

The two little ones ran out like madmen.

"Mom, I'm thinking of going to the power company to ask about the situation later."

"Hmm~~~ This is important, you should get on it right away. Also, bring some gifts for everyone."

"I know!"

After returning to his hometown, Lin Laosan participated in several rescue operations, demonstrating outstanding professional skills.

The town leaders, fearing his talents were being wasted, recommended him to the Beijing power department.

When the Beijing power department heard that he was studying at Tsinghua University and was now an exchange student at the University of Hong Kong, they immediately showed great interest.

Another important purpose of their return to Beijing was for Lin Laosan to report to the Beijing power department.

Lin Li also wanted to properly arrange her business in Beijing this time she returned.

then.

The four family members were all busy with their own tasks.

...

...

Around 2 p.m., Lin Laosan went directly to the Beijing Municipal Power Bureau.

As soon as we arrived at the entrance of the power bureau, the old man in the gatehouse lifted the curtain and poked his head out, twirling an enamel mug halfway around in his hand.

"Comrade, where are you looking?"

"Hello sir, my name is Lin Laosan, I'm here to report to the power bureau."

He tucked the canvas bag under his arm, revealing a letter of introduction with half of its red cover sticking out inside.

"Recommended by Secretary Wang of the town."

"Lin Laosan?"

The old man squinted at his ears, which were red from the cold, then turned around and pulled out a leather notebook from the tin cabinet.

"Oh, Xiao Li from the Labor and Personnel Department called this morning and said a young man will be coming soon. Come in and register."

Lin Laosan quickly signed his name on the registration form, his handwriting neat and legible.

"Alright, let's go in. The Labor and Personnel Department is on the third floor of the building on the right."

"Okay, thank you, sir."

After thanking him, Lin Laosan went into the building.

As soon as I got to the third floor, I could hear the radiators hissing.

In an office, several workers in dark blue overalls were arguing over a blueprint, drawing circles on it with pencils, their voices coming through the half-open door.

"There must be a problem with the load calculation for this transformer. The power outage in Xicheng District yesterday was caused by this."

Lin Laosan slowed his pace and walked over.

My gaze involuntarily fell on the parameter table in the lower right corner of the drawing.

The imported simulation device in the University of Hong Kong's laboratory suddenly came to mind, and he subconsciously clenched his fingers.

While at the University of Hong Kong, he once spent 36 hours straight in the lab to measure the waveform of a short-circuit current, until the oscilloscope screen was no longer clearly visible.

"Are you Comrade Lin Laosan?"

A young man in a gray Zhongshan suit entered the office, with a plastic badge that read "Labor and Personnel Department" pinned to his chest.

"I am Li Ming, and I'm here to greet you."

"Hello, Comrade Li."

Lin Laosan stretched out his hand, his palm still calloused.

"Secretary Wang praised you terribly on the phone, saying that when you were doing emergency repairs in the town, you used just a few rolls of wire to temporarily reconnect the power lines to the fallen pole."

Xiao Li led him into an office.

“Our director specifically instructed that you first go to the Production Technology Department to familiarize yourself with the situation, as we are just in time for the first major overhaul this year, and there are some tough battles ahead.”

As I pushed open the door to the technical department, someone had just smashed an enamel mug.

Brown tea stains spread across the cement floor, and a middle-aged man wearing glasses pointed at the reports on the table and yelled.

"What's going on with this data? The line loss rate was just reported last week, how come it suddenly increased by two percentage points?"

"Section Chief Zhang, this is a statistic of new users in the urban-rural fringe area. Many individual business owners are secretly connecting to the power lines..."

A young officer blushed and tried to explain.

"Even if you answer secretly, it counts!"

Section Chief Zhang pushed his glasses up his nose and suddenly noticed Lin Laosan at the door. His tone softened.

"You must be Lin Laosan? Sit down."

He pulled a document from the drawer and pushed it over, saying, "Take a look at this first; it's the power grid operation report from last winter."

The edges of the document paper were curled, and it was covered with dense annotations.

Lin Laosan turned to the first page, his gaze lingering on the line that read, "On December 24, 1986, the Chaoyang District substation experienced a power outage due to icing."

"Section Chief Zhang, may I see last month's line inspection records?"

He suddenly spoke, his voice steady.

"Especially the data on the icing thickness of overhead power lines."

Section Chief Zhang was taken aback for a moment, then gave the clerk a wink.

When the stack of records clipped together with metal clips was placed on the table, Lin Laosan had already taken out the fountain pen he always carried with him.

He used the nib of his pen to draw a line under the line that read "Wire type LGJ-120".

"This type of wire is dangerous if the ice thickness exceeds 15 millimeters at -5 degrees Celsius and humidity above 80%. What was the ice thickness you measured during last week's snowfall?"

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