RPAGF Chapter 700 I thought it was through connections... but I didn't expect it to be a special case
Chapter 700 I thought it was through connections... but I didn't expect it to be a special case
Secretary Liu frowned as he looked at the gatekeeper, who was practically lying on the hood of the car.
"Tiejun, keep an eye on Jiangxia!"
As he spoke, the guy who could hide grenades in his crotch swiftly pulled a small "melon" from his trouser pocket and handed it to Tie Jun.
At the same time, he reached into his pocket with his right hand, and with a soft "click," he had obviously disengaged the safety on his personal weapon. Having done this, Xiao Liu deftly pushed open the driver's side door and stepped out of the car.
As soon as Secretary Liu got out of the car, she was about to ask a question when she saw the gatekeeper suddenly drop to the ground with a thud. His hands were expertly twisted behind his back, pressed tightly against his spine.
you……
Their movements... were just too swift!
Secretary Liu's eye twitched, and for a moment she didn't know what to do, so she could only quickly adjust her position and use her body to completely block the back window of the car.
"Seeing that you all have urgent business to attend to, and it's for the country... I, I'll be so bold as to give you a heads-up, please don't..." The gatekeeper, his face pressed against the cold, damp ground, called urgently towards the car, his voice muffled by his posture.
"What are you leaking information about? Do you even know what we're doing?" Xiao Liu blurted out first.
"Hey! The only people who come to our watch factory, besides those who want to pull some strings to get a watch voucher, are... here for our precision machining skills!"
"Since you two both have 'sparkling' on your wrists, it can only be a matter of craftsmanship..."
The gatekeeper spoke in such an awkward way that snowflakes from the ground smeared his mouth. As the soil began to melt with the rising temperature, mud splashed up with his movements, sticking to his mouth and dripping down his sparse beard.
Jiang Xia couldn't bear to see him in such a disheveled state, so she wanted to get out of the car and help him up.
"Don't move!" Secretary Liu didn't even turn her head, using her left hand to precisely press Jiang Xia's protruding head back into the car. "Continue! Get to the point!"
"Here's the thing... We know someone named Weng, Weng Dehai. His skills... hey! I'm not exaggerating, he's even better than those master craftsmen who were transferred away from the factory before the New Year! Much better!"
"Such a powerful figure? Why didn't Director Wang mention him? Is he still working at the factory?" Secretary Liu continued to act as Xiao Dai Mao's mouthpiece. However, she still reached out and helped the old man up.
As the old man staggered to his feet, Secretary Liu retreated two steps like a ghost, pulled his right hand out of his pocket, tucked it under his arm, and casually held the gun at his waist, pointing it at the old man in the most convenient way.
“Him! He… isn’t from the factory. Well, no, he has some connections with the factory. His ancestors made ‘things’ for the Imperial Workshop in the Qing Dynasty. A few years ago… he was sent to labor reform by the neighborhood committee.”
"Reform through labor?"
"Yes, he's sweeping the streets in a subdistrict office in the south of the city." The old gatekeeper's voice was full of regret. "But Comrade Jiang, don't let his street sweeping fool you! His hands... they're truly 'ghost hands'! They're a gift from the gods!"
"Ghost hands?"
"Yes!" The gatekeeper's eyes lit up, his expression filled with admiration. "His family's secret craft is making 'ghost ball'! Do you know what a 'ghost ball' is?"
"You know? I have quite a few here..." Jiang Xia chuckled as she pulled a metal ball from her pocket, twirled it in her hand a couple of times, and then asked Secretary Liu to hand it over to the old man.
"Sir! To be honest, our factory can now mass-produce these 'ghost ball' materials!"
The gatekeeper took the cold metal ball, and its heavy weight made him raise his eyebrows in surprise.
But when he squinted his cloudy old eyes and examined it carefully in the light, he saw that the sphere was divided into three layers, nested one inside the other, and could rotate independently, with simple mechanical patterns on its surface.
However, instead of being amazed, his face revealed a hint of undisguised disgust.
"What... what kind of junk is this?" The gatekeeper curled his lip, his tone carrying the arrogance of an "old money" man. "Only three stories! And the workmanship is a bit rough!"
"Even though it's a three-story building, I can carve one out in ten minutes! It's fully automatic!"
Hearing Jiang Xia say this, the gatekeeper looked at the metallic sphere again, and the light that had just ignited in his eyes dimmed.
But the stubborn old man immediately retorted, "Three floors in ten minutes? Humph! Kid, have you ever seen real 'ghost craftsmanship'? Have you ever seen an eighteen-story building?"
"Eighteen floors?"
"Yes! The eighteenth floor!" The gatekeeper puffed out his chest, as if he were the one standing there.
“The man we’re talking about, Weng Dehai! The last ball he made for the nobles in the palace was… eighteen layers! It was made with the finest ivory! The smallest core was only the size of a soybean!” He excitedly gestured with his thumb and forefinger to show the tiny size.
"Do you know what's carved on that core? It's a miniature version of the Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea! Tieguai Li's gourd, Lü Dongbin's sword, He Xiangu's lotus flower... Every detail, from eyebrows to clothing, is vividly depicted! Each layer can rotate on its own without any discrepancy or interference! Even distinguished guests who want to appreciate it have to use a peephole to examine it closely!"
"Hey! You can spend the whole afternoon just looking around. It was so comfortable back then, we didn't even have to serve you..." At this point, the gatekeeper immediately shut up, hunching over while glancing upwards with his eyes slightly.
However, the gatekeeper didn't notice that his sparse beard was slipping down due to the mud and water.
However, the oblivious Jiang Xia didn't notice any of this; he was already shocked by what the old man in front of him was saying.
An eighteen-layered, exquisitely crafted ball! The Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea are carved on an ivory core the size of a soybean!
Jiang Xia knew all too well what this meant!
He first saw the five-layer wooden carving sphere from the lumber mill manager. The ingenious spatial design and the terrifyingly stable micro-manipulation had already amazed him.
The original three-axis machining center at Hongxing Machinery Factory could only be built to a maximum height of three stories.
The so-called "3.5-axis machining center" that he modified later could only barely produce relatively simple six-layer metal spheres, even with all his efforts and at the expense of efficiency. And it was limited to geometric hollowing. Want to do fine carving on the surface of the sphere? That was wishful thinking!
Eighteen floors!
This is no longer technology, this is art!
What was that saying again?
Is art complete at this moment?
In comparison, the precision requirements of the gears in a pipette are probably just a "trinket" in the face of a "master craftsman" like Master Lu!
Hmm, no, it's ivory...
Tsk tsk, ivory has a density of only 1.9 g/cm3, what density do I need for gears? Even brass has a density of 8.7 g/cm3, not to mention alloy steel... Forget it, I can't count on it.
“Ivory is a soft organic material with low density and easy processing. But what I need are high-precision metal gears… The material density, hardness, and processing methods are worlds apart…” Jiang Xia shook his head slightly. The exquisite craftsmanship of ivory carving may not be directly transformed into the miraculous skills of metal cutting.
The security guard was incredibly astute; his ability to read people was maxed out. He caught a fleeting moment of hesitation in Jiang Xia's eyes through the crack in the car window, and immediately stepped forward, then tried to lie down again.
"Crack..."
A sharp crack made the old man stagger a few steps. He instinctively grabbed his waist with one hand and braced himself against the hood of the jeep with the other. Ignoring the gun barrel that Secretary Liu had raised, he muttered a self-deprecating remark.
"After kneeling for so long, I really can't lift my back anymore..."
Then, the old gatekeeper, panting heavily, stared intently at the windshield with his cloudy old eyes, looking through it at Jiang Xia inside:
“Engineer Jiang! Engineer Jiang! We know what you’re thinking! You think ivory is soft and easy to carve, while steel is hard and difficult to work with, right?” He spoke very quickly, afraid of being interrupted. “But when a craftsman reaches the level of ‘ghost hands,’ whether the material is ivory, wood, gold, silver, copper, or iron… those are all external things! The ‘strength’ in his hands, the ‘ruler’ in his eyes, and the ‘scale’ in his heart are no longer bound by inanimate objects! Trust us! What he lacks is an opportunity! An opportunity to use his hands to do something honorable for the court and the country!”
"Let me tell you the truth, I'm not afraid you'll overthink it! That Weng Dehai... he, he's actually Director Wang Zhenhua's mentor! He's the real expert we invited to oversee when our factory was built! Most of Director Wang's skills came from him!"
If it weren't for... if it weren't for that incident a few years ago... he would be the true pillar of this factory! It's not that Director Wang doesn't want to mention him, it's that he dares not! He's afraid of implicating him, and he's also afraid... afraid of bringing trouble upon his master!
The gatekeeper's voice choked with emotion: "Please, Mr. Jiang! You are a very capable person. You can even turn around a large factory like a steel rolling mill and make this spinning metal ball... Please have mercy and think of a way to get him out of that street sweeper's shack!"
His hands... shouldn't be wasted! Let him make that 'little thing' for you, he'll definitely do it! I, your humble servant, guarantee it with my old life! If he can't do it well, you can kick me out of the 'Hongen Temple'!"
The cold wind swept through the empty factory area, blowing his faded work clothes. This humble yet stubborn figure risked everything to save his old friend's craft and dignity.