Volume One, Chapter 22: Despair

For three days and three nights, Li Guishou and his apprentices seemed welded to that old C630 lathe. On the high-speed rotating spindle, the titanium alloy rod was slowly stripped, cut, and polished. The shrill sound of friction never ceased, and the air hung heavy with the scent of metal coolant mixed with ozone.

When the first TC4 titanium alloy plate—uniform in thickness and smooth as a mirror—was finally turned, the entire workshop erupted.

Next came the rivets.

Using the remaining scrap metal, Li Guishou fashioned a forming tool more precise than an embroidery needle. On that ancient, rattling lathe, he manually fed the tool to "carve" out the special rivets with the triple-locking grooves specified in the blueprints.

When the final batch of parts passed the joint inspection by Du Yuze and Pang Qingquan, everyone collapsed, exhausted. Yet, on every face, there was the exhilaration of having survived a brush with catastrophe.

The skeleton of the "Aerial Li Kui" was finally complete.

"Old Shen! You can begin installing the avionics system!" Du Yuze shouted toward the other end of the workshop.

A middle-aged man with glasses and a refined demeanor walked over. Shen Qingyun, one of the few electronics experts in the factory, was responsible for the integration of the entire avionics suite. He pushed up his glasses and surveyed the brand-new skin and reinforcement parts, his brow furrowing slightly.

"Xiao Du, are these parts... from a reliable source?"

It wasn't that he didn't trust Workshop 207; it was that the nature of his work required a standard of rigor bordering on the obsessive. The avionics system was the brain and nervous system of the aircraft; any instability in the mechanical structure could lead to disastrous consequences.

Du Yuze patted the airframe beside him. "Old Shen, don't worry. Master Li’s craftsmanship is more precise than the finest machine tools in the factory. These parts are essentially flesh grown from our own bones."

Shen Qingyun didn't press further. He nodded. "Alright. Prepare for the ground power-on test. Everyone, clear the cockpit and equipment bays. I’m beginning the wiring."

Installing the avionics system was a task even more delicate than machining. Cables of various colors were carefully threaded through the airframe by Shen Qingyun and his two assistants, connecting to the various instruments and sensors. The entire process was so quiet that one could only hear the faint "click" of plastic cable ties.

Finally, before another dawn broke, all connections were complete.

The "Aerial Li Kui" sat silently in the center of the workshop, like a steel beast coiled and ready to spring. Its body was now filled with brand-new veins and nerves.

"Attention, everyone!" Shen Qingyun’s voice echoed through the workshop via a handheld megaphone. "Ground power-on test, thirty-second countdown! All non-essential personnel, move behind the safety line!"

The workers instinctively stepped back, forming a large circle, holding their breath. Liu Chuang clenched his fists, his palms slick with sweat. Li Guishou leaned against a pillar and silently lit a cigarette; in the swirling smoke, his expression was unreadable.

Du Yuze stood beside Shen Qingyun, his heart in his throat.

"...Three, two, one! Power on!"

Shen Qingyun slammed the main power switch.

*Hum—*

A faint electrical hum resonated. In the cockpit, dozens of LCD screens and instrument panels lit up instantly! Soft green backlighting and crisp numbers and graphics filled the cabin with the aesthetic of future technology.

"It worked!" Liu Chuang was the first to roar.

"Whoa—!"

The workshop was instantly submerged in a wave of thunderous cheers. Workers hugged each other, jumping and shouting, tears of joy streaming down their grease-stained faces.

However, before Du Yuze could even savor the moment, the situation shifted violently!

In the cockpit, the previously stable instrument needles began to swing wildly as if possessed! The data streams on the LCD screens turned into garbled text, and shrill, piercing alarm sirens wailed, stabbing into everyone’s ears like knives!

"Beep, beep, beep—!!"

"Altitude error! Attitude error! Engine overspeed!"

The cascade of synthetic voice warnings plunged the previously jubilant workshop into instant, deathly silence.

"What’s happening?!" Pang Qingquan’s face turned deathly pale.

"Cut the power! Quickly!" Shen Qingyun’s reaction was lightning-fast; he lunged forward and yanked the main switch.

The cockpit plunged back into darkness and silence, leaving only the sound of heavy, ragged breathing.

"Damn it, I knew it!" Liu Chuang slumped to the floor, as if all strength had been drained from him. "We’re just a joke..."

Despair hit harder than before.

Shen Qingyun scrambled into the cockpit, cold sweat drenching his forehead. He grabbed a multimeter and an oscilloscope, frantically beginning his checks.

"Power output is normal! 28 volts DC, ripple coefficient less than one-thousandth!"

"1553B data bus... bus signal... what in the hell is this?!" He stared at the chaotic waveforms on the oscilloscope as if he’d seen a ghost. "It’s all noise! The signal is being drowned out by something!"

"It’s interference! Strong electromagnetic interference!" one of his assistants shouted.

Shen Qingyun immediately dismissed it. "Impossible! The workshop is electromagnetically shielded, and all avionics cables are double-shielded! Where would interference come from?!"

He paced the cramped cockpit like a caged animal, muttering, "It makes no sense... the software simulation ran ten thousand times without issue... the hardware connections were double-checked three times... this isn't science..."

Du Yuze stood to the side, his mind racing.

He knew where the problem lay. This avionics system was too advanced; its data processing speed and sensitivity far exceeded the original design of this old aircraft. It was like putting a Formula 1 engine into a tractor—the chassis simply couldn't handle it.

But where exactly was the failure point?

[System Alert: Unknown high-frequency parasitic oscillation detected. Source: Airframe structure.]

Du Yuze’s heart sank. Parasitic oscillation?

He instantly realized a possibility. The new avionics system required an absolutely "clean" electrical ground. They had installed brand-new equipment onto an airframe patched together with old materials and handmade parts. The potential difference at the microscopic level between different batches and compositions of metal could, under high-frequency circuits, form a tiny oscillation source. This oscillation was amplified by the avionics system, eventually causing the entire system to crash!

"Old Shen," Du Yuze spoke up. "The problem likely isn't in the wiring; it’s in the grounding."

Shen Qingyun didn't look up, his tone irritable. "I’ve checked the grounding! All ground resistances are zero! I measured it with a milliohm meter! Don't make things worse!"

His pride as an electronics expert made it impossible for him to accept instruction from a mechanical engineer.

"It’s not a DC resistance issue," Du Yuze insisted. "It’s high-frequency impedance. There’s likely a poor contact point between a structural component and the main fuselage beam."

"Poor contact?" Shen Qingyun scoffed. "Hundreds of rivets, thousands of screws—you're telling me to find which one has poor contact? You want to find it for me?"

It was an impossible problem. To use instruments to check every square millimeter would take far too long.

Time was of the essence; Du Yuze did not hesitate.

[System, redeem "Precision Circuit Fault Locator"!]

[Confirm redemption of "Precision Circuit Fault Locator (Single-use)"? Cost: 80 points.]

[Confirm!]

Du Yuze felt a pang of heartache. This was nearly all his savings. But he had no choice.

He turned and rushed into the adjacent tool room, sifting through a pile of scrap under everyone's watchful eyes. He found a broken multimeter probe, salvaged a light-emitting diode from a scrapped radio, and grabbed two wires.

With his back to the crowd, he pretended to tinker. In reality, a high-tech virtual interface, visible only to him, appeared on his retina.

A few seconds later, he walked out holding a tool that looked incredibly crude, even comical. It was just a probe with a diode and two wires taped to the end.

When Shen Qingyun saw what he was holding, he was so angry he almost laughed. "Du Yuze! What time do you think this is? You’re playing with toys? Do you think this is fixing a radio?!"

"Let me try." Du Yuze’s tone left no room for argument.

He walked to the cockpit, connected the two wires to the positive and negative terminals of the avionics system’s power supply, and then, holding the strange probe, began to move slowly along the newly installed avionics mounting bracket.

Everyone held their breath, watching his bizarre ritual.

Liu Chuang whispered to the person next to him, "Has Engineer Du lost his mind? Can a broken lightbulb find a fault?"

Li Guishou spat out his cigarette butt, his eyes locked on Du Yuze’s hands. He didn't understand circuits, but he understood people. Du Yuze’s focus right now was no joke.

Du Yuze’s probe slid slowly across the metal bracket. On his retina, a red dot flickered as he moved.

[Distance to fault source: 15.3 cm...]

[9.7 cm...]

[4.2 cm...]

[Warning! High-frequency oscillation source locked!]

Just as the tip of the probe touched a rivet connecting the bracket to the main fuselage beam, the diode taped to his probe suddenly flared with a blinding red light!

"Right here." Du Yuze pressed the tip of the probe firmly onto the rivet.

Shen Qingyun was stunned. He instinctively grabbed his multimeter and measured the ground resistance at that point.

"Zero ohms... perfect continuity, impossible..."

"Use a grinder to clear the paint and oxidation around this rivet, then add a grounding braid directly to the main load-bearing beam." Du Yuze didn't explain; he issued the order directly.

Shen Qingyun’s mind was in chaos, but seeing Du Yuze’s unwavering confidence, he found himself shouting to his assistants, "Do as he says! Quickly!"

A young worker immediately brought over an angle grinder.

*Zzzzt—!*

Blinding sparks flew. The paint and oxide layer around the rivet were instantly ground away, revealing the gleaming raw metal. A copper grounding braid was quickly secured in place.

"Done!"

"Do it again! Power on!" Du Yuze shouted.

Shen Qingyun swallowed hard. Once again, his hand hovered over the main switch. This time, it felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. He glanced at Du Yuze, then slammed it shut!

*Hum—*

Inside the cockpit, all the screens lit up once more.

Silence.

Absolute silence.

All instrument needles held steady at zero, and the data streams on the screens were clear and stable. A line of green system self-test information appeared: [AVIONICS SYSTEM CHECK: OK.]

Three seconds later.

"Whoa—!!!"

A cheer, ten times louder than before, nearly blew the roof off the workshop! Workers rushed forward like madmen, surrounding Du Yuze and Shen Qingyun and tossing them into the air!

Li Guishou stood outside the crowd, watching Du Yuze being tossed, then looked down at his own calloused hands. He pulled a rivet he had turned himself from his pocket, weighed it in his hand, and grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellowed teeth.

Shen Qingyun was pushed to the side by the crowd. He stared blankly at the ground-down airframe, then at the crude tool—a probe and a lightbulb—lying on the floor.

He picked up the "tool," turning it over and over in his hands, his mind blank.

Impossible.

It didn't conform to any electronics principle he knew.

It was, quite simply... sorcery.