"Old Geng! Quick, come and take a look at this!" Qian Xuedong shoved the ore sketch into Geng Xiangdong's hands.
Geng Xiangdong took the drawing without thinking much of it, held it up to his eyes, and examined it carefully for a long time.
"This...this thing...where did you get it from?" Geng Xiangdong looked up and asked Qian Xuedong.
Qian Xuedong pointed to Su Tang standing to the side:
"It's Comrade Xiao Su, the young man I told you about who made that heat circulation furnace."
"She came to give me a clue today, saying it's a kind of associated mineral with a special type of refractory clay, and that it can solve the problem of the refractory bricks I talked about with you the other day. Old Geng, do you recognize this stuff?"
Geng Xiangdong's gaze then fell on Su Tang.
He looked the delicate-looking, fair-skinned girl up and down, his scrutiny almost overflowing.
He did not answer Qian Xuedong, but instead asked:
"Little girl, let me ask you, do you know where this stone is?"
“Sunshine City, West Mountain,” Su Tang replied calmly.
“Xishan…” Geng Xiangdong murmured, his face drained of all color. He seemed to have remembered something extremely terrifying, and his hand holding the blueprints trembled even more violently. “Xishan…Devil’s Slope!”
"Devil's Slope?" Qian Xuedong was taken aback; the name sounded somewhat familiar to him.
“That’s right!” Geng Xiangdong’s voice suddenly rose, carrying a hint of barely suppressed excitement.
“That area, spanning ten miles, is completely barren! The local Tibetans all say that the soil there is highly poisonous; livestock get sick if they get close, and if a person goes in, they can forget about coming out unscathed! Six years ago, a surveying team from our military region went in; out of five people, only one went crazy and ran out! So that place has long been designated a military restricted area, and no one is allowed to approach it!”
At this point, Geng Xiangdong's gaze locked onto Su Tang again, and his tone became extremely stern.
"Director Qian! I don't know where this young girl heard this from, but we absolutely must not go to this place!"
The ecstasy on Qian Xuedong's face slowly cooled, and he frowned:
"Old Geng, those are all superstitions! What we lack now is refractory material, which is a major issue concerning the entire military region's winter survival!"
"A major issue? Does that mean our lives as exploration team members aren't a major issue?!"
Geng Xiangdong slammed the blueprints in his hand on the table with a "bang" and questioned him without any politeness:
"Director Qian, wake up! Are you really going to send our exploration team to their deaths in a place based on a map that this little girl just casually drew?!"
The air in the office instantly dropped to freezing point.
Qian Xuedong was speechless for a moment after being yelled at, his face turning red. He wanted to retort, but he didn't know where to begin.
Geng Xiangdong continued, "I admit, the furnace she made was exquisite and impressive! But this is geological exploration! It's something that will cost lives!"
Su Tang stood quietly to the side the whole time, watching the emotionally agitated Geng Xiangdong.
She was calm. This Engineer Geng, Yemen Qing, wasn't targeting her.
Panting heavily, Geng Xiangdong pointed outside the door and left Qian Xuedong with his last words:
“The oldest of my guys is only twenty-five, and the youngest is only twenty! Their parents entrust them to me, and I have to take them back to them whole! I would never risk their lives for such a baseless rumor.”
After saying this, Geng Xiangdong gave the two of them one last deep look before striding out of the office.
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