Chapter 16: Hobby? Reading? Besides reading? Or still reading?

This 152mm date-pit nuclear bomb project was definitely a failure, since it never appeared later on. In the mid-1980s, artillery fanatic Dr. Bu'er Boshi came to the East, promoting his 155mm cannon and, incidentally, his 155mm date-pit nuclear bomb, with a range of thirty-nine kilometers—unbelievable!

The Easterners immediately took a liking to it, spending huge sums to buy the entire technology, only to discover…… that their outdated equipment simply couldn't produce it, and they'd have to spend even more to purchase CNC machine tools and other production tech—even a tiny sliding band that failed quality would cause the barrel to burst.

Such a thing is absolutely useless!

After ten years of effort, the technology was finally mastered, but the troops disliked it, preferring ordinary shells over the date-pit nuclear bomb; in the end they merely sold a batch to Ke tuo and called it a day.

As for the range issue…… there are other solutions! Base‑bleed shells, base‑flow shells, rocket‑assisted shells, gliding shells…… the maximum range reached seventy kilometers, while the date‑pit nuclear bomb…… that useless thing, nobody uses it!

"What's the principle?" Zhao Wanli continued speaking, his eyes shining with enthusiasm.

"Well, simply put, if you add a base‑cavity structure to the tail of the warhead, it can hinder the external airflow's suction effect on the base, greatly reducing base drag. I wouldn't dare say more, but just changing this, increasing the range by ten percent is no problem."

"Just dig a pit in the base of the shell and the range increases by ten percent?" Professor Yuan expressed disbelief.

"Just try it and you'll know! For our 152mm howitzer shell, we just need to dig a 130mm‑diameter pit in the warhead tail; depth needn't be more than five to ten millimeters, and we can also streamline the exterior……"

"Alright, let's give it a try!" Zhao Wanli said.

Qin Miao glanced at the floor‑standing clock in the corner: "I'm pressed for time; this way I can still make it back to the class meeting."

The university's first class meeting!

He hadn't gone back to the dormitory, and his classmates hadn't seen him yet; he was eagerly looking forward to university life at Ha Gong Da, after all, in his previous life……

Thinking of this, Qin Miao stuffed the last bite of the meat bun into his mouth, gulped down the millet porridge with a glug‑glug sound, sat down again in front of the Z80 microcomputer, and his fingers flew over the keyboard……

Zhao Wanli's eyes widened; this level of skill inexplicably put his mind at ease. Once the vehicle was ready and the warhead prepared, he'd take it to the nearby range to give it a try!

Morning, nine o'clock, main building, classroom 4381.

"Hello everyone, I'm your homeroom teacher." Chen Dinghua smiled as he looked down at the students.

After the new three‑term cycle, there were few older youths in the class, which looked vibrant. At this moment, as he gazed at the pairs of eyes turned toward him, Chen Dinghua picked up the attendance register in his hand.

"Now I'll take roll call; when your name is called, stand up and give a brief self‑introduction so everyone can get to know you. Our class has a total of twenty‑eight students……"

"Report, teacher!" At that moment someone below raised a hand: "Our class only has twenty‑seven students; there's no one next to me……"

Chen Dinghua looked over; the speaker was a female student sitting alone at a desk.

There were fourteen desks in the class, arranged according to class size; there were only three female students, two of whom already shared a desk, leaving the remaining female to sit alone. Under everyone's gaze, no thick‑skinned boy would dare sit beside her.

"Oh, someone's late? On the first day of school, tardiness isn't a good sign, but never mind—let's still take roll. First up, Qin Miao!"

The classroom instantly exploded.

Qin Miao! Yesterday's biggest news among the new student registrations—impersonation was caught on the spot, and even two locals from the class went up and kicked him a few times for satisfaction…… but…… it's still unclear which class this Qin Miao belongs to, yet he's actually going to be our classmate!

Everyone quickly looked around to see who had stood up; the three female students also became interested, glancing left and right.

"Qin Miao, Qin Miao!"

Chen Dinghua furrowed his brows— the very first person is late? His attendance list is ordered by exam scores, and Qin Miao is the top student in the class!

"Here!" At that moment a voice came from the doorway.

Swish!

All eyes turned toward him in unison.

"Qin Miao, what's going on? How can you be late? Come up here and give everyone a self‑introduction."

"Cough cough, Teacher, I don't need to introduce myself—my fame should have spread throughout the school."

The classroom burst into laughter.

"No, everyone only knows you were impersonated and doesn't know your specifics. Please give a brief introduction—where you're from, what your hobbies are, and so on."

"Well, hello everyone, I'm Qin Miao, from the Qingshan Machinery Factory in the Capital. My hobby is reading."

Chen Dinghua coaxed: "Then what do you do after school?"

Qin Miao thought for a moment: "Go to the factory's archives to read."

"After reading in the archives, then what?"

"Go home and read."

"You really love studying, then what do you do when you're tired from studying? For example, after finishing a set of math problems and feeling dizzy and swollen‑headed, what would you do?"

"One can't study all the time; you need to integrate into the group and have some extracurricular hobbies. Chen Dinghua didn't want the class top‑scorer to be out of step with the rest of the class."

"Normally I don't get dizzy or swollen‑headed, but I definitely need to switch things up……"

Under Chen Dinghua's expectant gaze, Qin Miao continued: "I'll swap in a set of physics problems to rest my brain……"

Pfft!

Below, the female student sitting alone at a desk laughed; in her world, only reading remained—she was practically a book‑worm!

"Alright, back to your seats." Chen Dinghua gave up on salvaging the situation and said: "Now I'll call the second name—Chu Miaomiao!"

The female student who had just been laughing stood up: "Hello everyone, I'm Chu Miaomiao, from the beautiful mountain city. I have wide‑ranging interests; besides reading, I also enjoy drawing, calligraphy, and running. I'm delighted to become your classmate, and over the next four years I hope we can work hand in hand to become qualified builders and successors for the motherland."

Chen Dinghua was very pleased; this was a standard self‑introduction!

"Qin Miao, why are you just standing there? Come over and sit!" Chu Miaomiao waved at Qin Miao: "From now on, if you have any study‑related problems, I'll be sure to ask you for advice."

"Hmm, no problem."

Qin Miao felt countless envious gazes upon him, but…… he had come today just to join the fun, and he guessed that his chances of attending class here would be very slim from now on.

Qin Miao sat down, catching a whiff of snow‑cream scent from beside him, and his heart remained completely calm.

"Third, Zhao Wanli."

After each student finished their self‑introduction, it was time to hand out the books.

Chu Miaomiao took out several sheets of calendar paper, neatly wrapping book covers; seeing Qin Miao sitting there motionless, she handed him one of her sheets: "This cover paper is thin—it'll wear out in a few days if you wrap it—here, take one! By the way, what did you score on the college entrance exam?"

"Three hundred one."

"You…… how could you lie? The order of that list just now was based on college entrance exam scores—you must be above four hundred fifty!"

"The transcript I got from the school says three hundred one!" Qin Miao said: "I don't know what my real score is…… I probably won't need this calendar paper—you'd better keep it for yourself."

"Why?"

Because I have read all these teaching materials.