"Comrade Mingzhao, the project team is being established today! What do you need? Make a list! Let's go to the lab now!"
"good."
Mingzhao nodded, picked up her old handbag, turned and walked towards the conference room door with steady steps, without the slightest hesitation, as if the storm that had just decided that she would independently lead a core project had nothing to do with her.
As she passed by Wang Ai, Wang Ai lowered her voice, her tone icy and tinged with skepticism: "I want to see how you manage to conjure a flower in three months! Don't end up embarrassing yourself and dragging the entire research institute down with you!"
Mingzhao didn't stop walking, nor did he even glance at her. He left behind only a straight back and a light, airy sentence that clearly reached everyone's ears:
"No need to change the flowers. Just solve the problem."
The door closed behind her. A stifling, deathly silence filled the conference room, broken only by heavy breathing.
Chen Songnian slowly took off his glasses, pinched the bridge of his nose wearily, and looked ashen-faced.
Wang Ai stared at the tightly closed door, her eyes so gloomy they seemed to drip water, her knuckles clenched until they turned white.
Li Weiguo said with a mournful face, "Professor Chen, Engineer Wang, we...we really listened to her, didn't we?"
Wang Ai slammed her fist on the table, making the teacups clang loudly.
"Listen? I'd like to see just how capable she is! Weiguo, go, move that oldest, most faulty oscilloscope from the warehouse to her! The parts on the list..."
"Hmph, tell her the institute doesn't have any precision resistors or that type of high-frequency transistor! Let her figure it out herself!"
Zhang Mingyuan frowned: "Wang Ai! What are you doing!"
Wang Ai raised her chin, a cold laugh tinged with desperation: "Director Zhang, didn't you let her take charge independently? Independence means having the ability to solve problems independently! Our 'cooperation' also depends on what 'things' we can cooperate with, right?" She deliberately emphasized the word "things".
---
Mingzhao stood in the laboratory assigned to her. The room was large, but empty and old, with some dusty, abandoned equipment piled up in the corner.
On a huge wooden table in the center, there was only an old oscilloscope with a mottled casing and two knobs missing, sitting all alone, like a pile of garbage waiting to be disposed of.
Li Weiguo followed in with his head down, slamming a crumpled piece of paper onto the table in a rather irritable manner.
"Here's the list you requested! The items marked with a red cross are out of stock, the warehouse manager said! Especially those high-frequency transistors and precision resistors, they're scarce even domestically, our institute has absolutely no stock! You'll have to figure it out yourself!"
After saying that, he rolled his eyes, turned around and left, slamming the door shut with a loud bang.
Mingzhao picked up the list and glanced at the names of the key components that were roughly marked with red crosses.
No? Her face remained expressionless, as if she had expected it.
She put down the list, walked to the old oscilloscope, squatted down, and opened her old canvas handbag.
There were no new parts inside, only screwdrivers, pliers, solder wire, multimeters of various sizes, and a few transistors, resistors, and capacitors of unknown model, wrapped in oil paper and salvaged from old radios and other machines.
She reached out, her slender yet steady fingers tracing the cold, rough exterior of the oscilloscope, as if caressing a familiar tool.
Then, she picked up a small screwdriver and began to disassemble the "most malfunctioning" old machine with skillful and quick movements.
Screws were unscrewed one by one, and the dusty back cover was gently removed, revealing the internal circuitry, which was also covered in dust and cobwebs, with blackened solder joints and some burnt marks on the circuit board.
A musty smell of old electronic components and dust filled the air.
Mingzhao's eyes lit up, like the most sophisticated scanner, quickly scanning the messy lines and components.
Her fingertips traced several key test points, and the multimeter probes precisely touched them. The hands of the multimeter jumped slightly.
She picked up the welding torch, turned on the power, and the torch tip quickly heated up. No new precision resistors?
Her gaze settled on an old, dusty circuit board with faded markings, where several resistors of a distinctive color were located.
Without hesitation, she precisely lowered the small soldering torch, deftly melting the solder with such speed that it almost left a blur.
She carefully disassembled several old resistors and set them aside. Then, from the oil paper package she had brought, she selected two transistors of different models but with similar parameters, as well as several resistors of different resistance values.
The laboratory was unusually quiet, with only the occasional soft hissing of the welding torch, the slight clattering of components being removed and placed, and the faint hum of the multimeter needle as Mingzhao occasionally tested the components.
Her movements were methodical and focused, as if the whole world consisted only of the pile of scrap metal in front of her and the tools in her hands.
Dust settled on her fair cheeks and forehead, but she was completely unaware.
Time passed second by second. The sunlight outside the window gradually began to slant westward.
Suddenly, a series of steady, powerful footsteps approached from afar and stopped in front of the closed laboratory door. The door was pushed open.
Howard's tall figure appeared at the door, his epaulettes straight and his hat brim pulled low, concealing the unfathomable emotions in his deep eyes.
He seemed to be there on business, but his feet unconsciously led him here.
His gaze instantly locked onto the slender figure in front of the lab table.
Mingzhao was facing away from the door, slightly hunched over, intently soldering a small circuit board that she had just reassembled and was covered with flying wires.
Her profile was stained with several black oil stains, and a few strands of hair were stuck to her forehead with sweat. The sleeves of her old work clothes were rolled up to her elbows, revealing a section of her fair forearm that was covered with solder and dust.
With her left hand firmly pressing the circuit board and her right hand holding the soldering gun, she precisely and smoothly placed the solder joints, her movements as fluid as breathing, possessing an almost cold, mechanical beauty of precision.
At her feet lay the disassembled casing and parts of the old oscilloscope, scattered in pieces.
On the lab bench, she had cleverly separated the core components of the oscilloscope, namely the cathode ray tube and the scanning circuit.
It was connected to the small board covered with flying wires that she had just soldered.
Beside her were transistors, resistors, and capacitors that she had salvaged from the junk she had brought with her.
Howard's pupils contracted almost imperceptibly.
How could the research institute provide Mingzhao with such shoddy materials? Is this how Zhang Mingyuan treats Mingzhao?
He recognized the oscilloscope; it was notorious for being a piece of junk in the institute.
And she... was actually modifying it? Using a pile of garbage?
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