novelden Chapter 325 Era: XCMG's Simple-minded Wife 29
Chapter 325 Era: XCMG's Simple-minded Wife 29
On the eve of the midterm exams, Ji Xiaosong was telling the children bedtime stories in her own courtyard when there was a sudden knock on the gate.
Shen Hongying, Su Xiaomei, and Zhou Yawen stood outside the door in the spring rain, holding thick notebooks in their arms.
"Intensive tutoring!" Shen Hongying was soaked in sweat but had a bright smile. "Professor Chen said that the bottom ten students will be eliminated in this exam."
Zhou Yawen had already spread out her biology notes: "Let's address the weaknesses in your wave optics first."
She tapped the charts with her fingertips, as meticulously as if she were operating a microscope.
Su Xiaomei then magically produced several lunchboxes: "These are zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) made by my grandma. Eating them will help you get a perfect score on your test!"
The three children curiously surrounded the group of older girls.
Zhigang suddenly pointed to the oil stains on Shen Hongying's work clothes: "Just like Auntie and Mom, they smell of rust."
"Because we all love working with steel."
Shen Hongying squatted down and teased him with a wrench-shaped eraser, "When you grow up, let's build machines that are even more powerful than those in the US!"
"Yay!" Zhigang clapped his hands excitedly.
*
As night deepened, the oil lamp cast the silhouettes of several young people onto the mottled wall.
As Ji Xiaosong gazed at her sisters' focused profiles, she suddenly recalled Xu Weidong's words in his letter: "Your generation is destined to shoulder the heavy responsibility of national rejuvenation."
On the day the midterm exam results were released, the physics department corridor was packed with people.
Ji Xiaosong stood on tiptoe and saw her name in third place on the red list.
The first place winner is Wang Wenyuan, and the second place winner is Li Min.
"Look at the notes section!" someone suddenly shouted.
At the bottom of the red list was a line of small print: "The average score of this year's class has reached a new high in the history of the Department of Physics. Five additional 'Chen Xingshen Scholarships' have been established."
Professor Chen, his hair now gray, stood at the end of the corridor, holding a stack of brand-new foreign language books: "These are textbooks that were just imported through special channels. I hope you..."
The old man's voice choked with emotion, "I hope you can run faster than us old bones."
Ji Xiaosong received an original English version of "Fundamentals of Materials Science," with Professor Chen's trembling inscription on the title page:
"To future materials scientists—may China's steel industry produce China's chips."
*
On the way back to the courtyard, the spring rain started to fall again.
Ji Xiaosong clutched the book tightly to her chest when she suddenly heard familiar footsteps behind her.
Shen Hongying and Zhou Yawen caught up with her, sharing a tattered umbrella. The three girls looked at each other and smiled in the rain, but no one spoke.
The newly sprouted buds of the jujube tree unfurled in the rain.
Ji Xiaosong knew that this spring, scorched by a thirst for knowledge, would eventually bear fruit in the hands of their generation.
The semester passed by in this way, filled with hard work.
The weather in July was a bit hot, and after a rain, the plane trees at Beijing University had spread out their dense green shade.
Ji Xiaosong stood downstairs in the dormitory building, staring blankly at the summer vacation notice posted on the bulletin board.
Her fingertips unconsciously rubbed the crumpled train ticket in her pocket.
Train T12 will depart for my hometown at 3 PM tomorrow.
"What are you thinking about?"
Shen Hongying suddenly patted her shoulder from behind, revealing half of a micrometer screw gauge peeking out of her military green satchel. "Are you working on that last problem in 'Electromagnetism'?"
Ji Xiaosong shook his head and took out an oil paper package from his schoolbag: "Please give this to Professor Chen. It contains silicon crystal samples from the steel mill's laboratory."
She paused for a moment, then said, "I've finished my exams. I'm going home tomorrow."
Shen Hongying's eyes immediately lit up: "Go see your family's eighth-grade worker?"
She playfully nudged Ji Xiaosong's shoulder, "No wonder I've been so distracted while doing experiments these past few days."
"Yes, I miss him. I should go back and see them."
*
Train stations are always bustling with people.
Ji Xiaosong held Nian'an in one arm and tightly gripped Zhigang and Zhitie's wrists with the other, while Ji Dan followed behind carrying two bulging suitcases.
The platform was crowded with students visiting relatives. One educated youth from the Great Northern Wilderness even brought half a sack of soybeans.
"Mommy, will the train get lost?" Zhitie asked, looking up at his mother, his little hands sweaty.
Just as Ji Xiaosong was about to answer, the sound of a steam whistle suddenly tore through the air.
As the green train pulled into the station, puffing out white smoke, Nian'an suddenly wriggled in her arms, pointing her little finger out the window: "Daddy! Daddy!"
Xu Weidong's face flashed by through the dirty glass.
He was wearing a navy blue work uniform with frayed cuffs, and he was desperately trying to squeeze towards the car door.
The moment the car door opened, the three children darted out like cannonballs.
Xu Weidong crouched down, opened his arms to catch them, and was knocked back half a step by the impact.
Ji Xiaosong stood there, watching as her husband's white hair grew a few more strands, and the scar on his left eyebrow, burned by molten steel, seemed to have deepened.
"Thin."
Xu Weidong walked up to her, his rough thumb rubbing against the dark circles under her eyes. "But your eyes are brighter now."
Ji Xiaosong buried her face in his rusty collar and took a deep breath: "How is 'Great Wall No. 4'?"
"We'll talk about it when we get home." Xu Weidong picked up Nian'an with one arm and took the luggage bag with the other. "Old Li and the others have prepared a delicious meal."
The steel plant's staff quarters are more dilapidated than I remember.
But when Ji Xiaosong entered her own red brick bungalow, she found it bright and clean, with braised pork simmering on the stove and a rare bottle of orange soda on the table.
"It's a May Day bonus from the factory," Xu Weidong said, scratching his head. "I haven't been able to bring myself to drink it."
The three children rushed into the inner room, which was filled with toys made from scrap steel.
There's a toy car assembled from bearings, a slingshot made of spring steel wire, and even a miniature rolling mill model.
"It was made by Technician Lin," Xu Weidong said with a smile. "He said it would make the children love steel from a young age."
After dinner, once the children were asleep, Xu Weidong pulled a leather notebook from the inside pocket of his work clothes: "Look, these are the experimental data from the past two months."
The yellowed pages were densely covered with parameters, and some parts were even soaked with sweat.
Ji Xiaosong's fingertip stopped on a set of numbers circled in red: "892 megapascals?"
“I used the ‘gradient annealing’ method you mentioned,” Xu Weidong’s eyes shone like fire in a steel furnace, “but it got stuck at 900…”
Ji Xiaosong suddenly stood up and pulled an English notebook from the bottom of her suitcase: "I found a paper in the library. People in the US use rare earth elements to improve grain boundary strength..."
The two huddled together, studying the matter until late at night.
The familiar metallic aura emanating from Xu Weidong lingered around her nose, and Ji Xiaosong felt as if she had returned to the days when he taught her.
The next morning, before the steel plant's loudspeaker even came on, Xu Weidong quietly got up.
Ji Xiaosong opened her eyes and saw him awkwardly tying his tie in front of the mirror.
"Are we going to receive foreign guests?" she asked, still a little confused.
Xu Weidong's ears turned red: "Today... I'm taking you and the kids to the park."
Sunlight streamed through the thin curtains, and Ji Xiaosong noticed that her husband had changed into a brand new white shirt, with the Hero fountain pen they had bought for their wedding clipped to his pocket.
The lotus flowers in People's Park have just begun to sprout.
Zhigang and Zhitie chased dragonflies on the grass, while Nian'an sat on Xu Weidong's shoulders, her little hands holding his hair as a rein.
"The factory is sending me to Country D for an inspection," Xu Weidong suddenly said. "I'll be leaving next month."
Ji Xiaosong nearly dropped the popsicle in her hand: "How long?"
"Three months," Xu Weidong said, staring at the lake. "Mainly to learn their continuous casting technology..."
His voice trailed off, "You have to take care of the children and go to school..."
Ji Xiaosong stuffed an ice pop into his mouth: "What are you afraid of? I'm the kind of person who can get third place even while raising three kids."
Xu Weidong suddenly turned around and hugged her, not caring that the popsicles were melting stickily on their clothes: "When I come back, our 'Great Wall No. 5' will definitely break through 1000 megapascals."
From afar came Zhi Tie's cheers; he had caught a green-winged dragonfly.
Sunlight filtered through the trees, dappling the couple and casting a golden glow on their vows.
During the last week of my family visit leave, an accident suddenly occurred at the steel plant.
At two o'clock in the morning, the piercing alarm woke up the entire residential area.
Ji Xiaosong looked out the window and saw a terrifying red light rising from the direction of blast furnace No. 3.
"I'll go take a look!" Xu Weidong put on his work clothes and rushed out.
At daybreak, he returned covered in coal dust, but in his hands he held an intact crucible: "It's nothing, just a problem with the dust collector."
He slumped into his chair, "Thankfully, the data was saved..."
Ji Xiaosong wiped the ash off his face with a damp towel and suddenly noticed a hideous burn mark on her husband's right palm.
“It’s worth it.” Xu Weidong seemed to understand what she wanted to say, and held up the crucible that recorded the experimental data. “The things inside are more precious than life.”
The next day, Ji Xiaosong secretly went to the factory hospital.
She gave the sulfanilamide powder she brought from the school laboratory to the doctor on duty, and also gave each injured worker a bottle of malted milk powder, which she had exchanged for three months' worth of food coupons.
The train departed the station in the light drizzle.
Zhigang pressed his face against the car window until his father's figure became a tiny black dot.
Ji Xiaosong took out the tin lunchbox that Xu Weidong had given her from her bag. Inside were ten fruit candies neatly arranged, and the wrapper was printed with the words "Friendship between the two countries" in D language.
"Dad said he would send a letter on the 15th of every month."
Zhitie said softly, his fingers gripping the small rolling mill model tightly.
Ji Xiaosong looked out the window at the wheat fields rushing by.
Amid the vibrations of the railway tracks, she seemed to hear her husband's whispers in her ear from the previous night: "When 'Great Wall No. 5' is successful, I want to personally make you a steel ring, the kind that's harder than a diamond."
Rainwater meandered like a river on the glass.
The three children were asleep beside her, their breathing as soft as a summer breeze.
Ji Xiaosong gently opened her "Materials Science" notebook and wrote on the latest page: "Summer 1978, the influence of rare earth elements on the grain boundary strengthening of austenitic steel..."
As the train passed through the tunnel, her resolute profile was reflected in the window glass.
After this summer, she will return with sharper knowledge, and her steel warrior will bring back a new spark from the banks of the D country's river.