Chapter 14: Skyrocket Monkey and Ballistics

Coming out of Tie Lang Gong Fang.

Feng Yan pedals a shared bike, the evening wind brushes his face, but it cannot disperse the excitement brewing inside him.

Li Yang and Chen Guang, the two of them: one a socially anxious gadget nerd, the other a physics elementary school prodigy.

At this moment they are still in the warehouse, holding a technical debate over "who should dominate, laser‑radar point cloud or IMU pre‑integration."

The air is filled with a strange blend of technical jargon and instant‑noodle aroma.

Feng Yan also feels leisurely joy.

He feels like an old dad who, after dropping his child at an extracurricular class, has stolen half a day of leisure.

He pulls out his phone and habitually taps the vibration mode.

Big Data instantly shoves the latest video of Cannon King-Wang Hao right in front of him.

The title remains brazen:

【Challenge us if you dare! My Skyrocket Monkey today performs an S‑shaped maneuver, precisely blasting the neighbor's abandoned dog bowl (with the elder's consent)!】

Feng Yan is amused and clicks in.

In the video, Wang Hao still looks like a sunny, cheerful big boy.

Standing on an open patch, the background shows a corner of the sign of his "Vast Universe Fireworks Factory."

He holds a clearly upgraded Skyrocket Monkey, its thickness and speed rivaling a small mini‑rocket.

"Old iron brothers, watch closely! Today I'll pull off a killer move for everyone!"

Wang Hao faces the camera, smiling confidently, flashing a set of white teeth.

"Do you see that rusty dog bowl fifty meters away?"

"Today we won't let it fly straight; we'll make it turn, skirt the sapling ahead, then hit precisely!"

"Just ask yourself, is it cool or not!"

【Here again? Blogger, your Skyrocket Monkey must have become sentient!】

【It started off so crooked, how did it hit? (From the previous video's replay)】

【Is this still the Skyrocket Monkey I played as a kid? (dog head for safety)】

【Can this Skyrocket Monkey even change its trajectory now? (dog head)】

【Reported: Someone used a civilian product to demonstrate tactical‑grade maneuverability!】

【Blogger, consider converting to civilian use? (dog head)】

【Watching makes me want to buy two for self‑defense (just kidding)!】

Feng Yan watches the bullet comments, his mouth twitches; these netizens really don't mind making a big fuss over a spectacle.

He watches Wang Hao's movements closely.

He sees that Wang Hao does not point directly at the target as one would with an ordinary Skyrocket Monkey.

Instead, he angles it slightly and ignites the fuse.

"Whoosh—"

The Skyrocket Monkey, trailing a bright tail flame, rockets upward.

Its initial trajectory is indeed a bit crooked, as if drunk.

But at about twenty meters altitude, it actually begins to turn!

It follows a very smooth arc, deftly bypassing the sapling's canopy.

Then the projectile dips slightly, tracing an almost elegant parabola.

It precisely plunges into the rust‑spotted dog bowl!

"Boom!" A not‑too‑loud explosion makes the dog bowl jump, fragments scattering.

【WTF!!! It really turned?!】

【This trajectory… clearer than my life plan!】

【Newton's coffin lid can't be held down any longer!】

【@PhysicsOnlineCourseRep, come out and work! Explain the principle!】

【I suspect the blogger secretly installed a navigation chip in the Skyrocket Monkey! (serious face)】

Wang Hao faces the camera, smugly wiping a bead of sweat:

"How's that? Old iron brothers, say whether it's awesome or not!"

"This control, this precision—our family's ancestral craft, plus a dash of scientific tweaking!"

Feng Yan watches the video, his eyes growing brighter.

He pauses, rewinds, and scrutinizes the moment the Skyrocket Monkey turns and its subsequent trajectory.

"This thing…" he rubs his chin.

His mind flashes rapidly through the finite‑element analysis, fluid dynamics, and basic ballistics he studied in college.

This initial disturbance and later stability… are rather interesting.

It doesn't seem to rely purely on luck or a simple tail fin.

This exploitation of aerodynamics…

Could it be using some passive control surface?

Or perhaps they tweaked the propellant distribution, creating asymmetric thrust?

The more he thinks, the more he feels this "Cannon King" isn't simple.

This is no longer a regular fireworks enthusiast; this damn thing is a folk ballistic practitioner!

Although the carrier is a Skyrocket Monkey, the underlying control concepts and stability principles…

If slightly scaled up and formalized, its application prospects could become vast.

Feng Yan immediately clicked into Wang Hao's homepage and scrolled through all his previous videos.

He discovered that this guy wasn't just accurate; he especially liked challenging various "outrageous" targets.

For example, moving remote-control cars (sacrificing countless units) and wind chimes hung on tree branches (successfully rung).

He even once tried to use the Skyrocket Monkey in a relay to ignite distant firecracker strings (failed, but the process was extremely showy).

Moreover, Wang Hao is outgoing and interacts frequently with the chat during his livestreams.

He says what he thinks, unlike Li Yang's early social anxiety, and unlike Chen Guang's slight student-like shyness.

Feng Yan decided to continue with the old "technical ice-breaking" approach.

He typed a line in the comment section of Wang Hao's latest video:

"Upstream is awesome! This trajectory control is insane!"

"Especially the turning part—did you use precession caused by initial disturbance, then combined with a slightly adjusted center of gravity and tail fin area difference?"

"To achieve a simplified version of a controllable parabola approximating the 'Qian Xuesen trajectory'? 【chin-in-hand thinking. jpg】"

He deliberately used some professional jargon, but he brought up the keyword "Qian Xuesen trajectory".

He believed that anyone who has deeply studied rocket trajectories couldn't possibly not know it.

After posting the comment, Feng Yan exited the app, mulling over his next move.

If Wang Hao replies, he can then follow up with a private message for deeper conversation.

He could even directly throw out.

The temptation of: "We have a small team here. We specialize in hardcore toys; interested in playing with something bigger together?"

Returning to his rented shack, Feng Yan soaked his feet to relieve the day's fatigue.

Meanwhile, he opened a WeChat group voice chat with Li Yang and Chen Guang.

"Old Li, Old Chen, how's your coordination going?"

Feng Yan asked into his phone, "You haven't come to blows, have you?"

Li Yang's concise voice came through the headphones:

"No. His algorithmic thinking is fine."

In the background, Chen Guang gave a slightly embarrassed explanation:

"Brother Li's mechanical structure is too stable; it gave me a new filtering idea…"

Feng Yan relaxed, seeing that these two tech geeks were of the "mutual admiration" type, communicating without barriers.

"Alright, you two keep admiring each other. I'll tell you, I've just found another genius…"

He recounted Wang Hao and the Skyrocket Monkey that can turn.

Li Yang rarely expressed interest:

"Controllable trajectory? Kind of interesting."

"If it could be miniaturized, it could be applied to our mechs' auxiliary propulsion or the rapid deployment of drone swarms…"

Chen Guang also chimed in:

"Yeah! If combined with my laser targeting, theoretically we could achieve higher-precision terminal guidance…"

Feng Yan listened as they began to let their imaginations run wild, and he couldn't help but laugh:

"Look, look! What did I just say?"

"Our team needs all kinds of outrageous geniuses gathered together to spark even more outrageous ideas!"

"You guys think about it; I'll take care of luring this 'Firecracker King' over to you!"

Over the next two days, Feng Yan handled the routine department work on one hand.

(Now Section Chief Wang looks at him with either kind or unkind eyes—no way to get upper management to pay attention, truly a dog-head self-preservation. jpg).

Meanwhile, he closely monitored Wang Hao's account activity.

His comment indeed sparked a small discussion in Wang Hao's fan group.

Some said "I don't understand but it's impressive," others joked "A god appeared in the comment section."

Some even @Wang Hao asking him to come out and explain.

Wang Hao himself actually replied!

That very night after the comment was posted, Wang Hao deliberately mentioned it during his livestream:

"Oh my god! Yesterday in the comment section there was a buddy named 'Feng Yan' with sharp eyes—he hit the nail on the head right away!"

"What 'Qian Xuesen trajectory'? We don't dare claim that; we're just messing around."

"We felt the Skyrocket Monkey flying straight was boring, so we tinkered with the shape of the mud head (note: the soil weight at the front of the Skyrocket Monkey) and the gunpowder distribution."

"We let it fly so it could slightly 'twist' on its own—didn't expect it to work okay!"

He roughly demonstrated in the livestream the tools and thought process behind his "modification" of the Skyrocket Monkey, although he explained it rather crudely.

But Feng Yan could tell.

This guy indeed had grasped some basics of aerodynamics and trajectory at the practical level.

It's a classic case of "theory lacking, skill making up for it," and he actually produced results!

After the livestream ended, Feng Yan immediately received a private message from Wang Hao:

"Buddy, you really know your stuff! What do you do? Are you also interested in this thing?"

Feng Yan looked at the message and grinned.

The fish took the bait.

He replied:

"I'd say I'm half a fellow professional; nowadays I mainly do resource integration, supporting some interesting tech exploration."

"Your 'twist' idea is fantastic; have you thought about making it more stable and controllable, even… trying a larger 'carrier'?"

After sending the message, Feng Yan put down his phone and looked out at the nightscape of Cloud River City.

Li Yang's mechanical body, Chen Guang's precise laser.

Now adding Wang Hao's "low-cost precision projection" talent……

He seemed to already be able to see the prototype of a future national team with a quirky art style and absurdly strong ability.

In these seemingly unserious "absurd" hobbies, they slowly pieced together.

"Next," Feng Yan stretched lazily, his eyes full of motivation.

"We should meet up with our Firecracker King offline for a good chat."