Chapter 92

The wind blew that piece of scrap iron up, it spun and hit the door frame, making a light "ding" sound.

Zhao Jianguo glanced at the door outside, didn't get up, just clipped a red pen to his ear, lowered his head and continued flipping through the trainees' roster. Dong Xu stood at the blackboard, wiping off the last chalk line with a rag, He Yushui sat on the small stool in the corner stitching the edge of a file folder, and Sha Zhu squatted in front of the tool cabinet, checking each wrench jaw for looseness.

"All here?" Zhao Jianguo closed the roster and asked.

"All here." He Yushui finished sewing, bit off the thread, "Twenty-three, none missing."

"Class starts sharp at seven tomorrow evening." He stood up, brushed dust off his pants, "Anyone late will be dealt with according to the Rules Sign."

As his voice fell, Footsteps came from outside, then the sound of a wooden crate being moved. Several people turned to see Dong Xu's son carrying a canvas bag, poking his head in: "Uncle Zhao, my dad asked me to deliver a part, saying you need this drill chuck."

Zhao Jianguo took the bag and opened it to see an old-style three-jaw chuck, surface worn but structure intact. "Pretty good, just right to use."

Sha Zhu leaned in for a look: "Can this thing still be fixed?"

"Not fix." Zhao Jianguo put the bag on the table, "It's a modification."

The room fell silent for a few seconds.

"Modify?" He Yushui frowned, "You want to tinker with the tools?"

"Just teaching isn't useful." He pulled open a drawer, took out a neatly stacked sheet of paper, spread it on the table—on it was a sketch of a multi-head wrench, several rotatable sleeves connected to a central shaft, with dimensions and angles noted. "We've taught all this theory for days; it's time to produce something practical."

Dong Xu walked over, stared at the drawing for a while, then pointed at the central linkage: "If this is actually made, changing nuts wouldn't require swapping heads back and forth."

"Right." Zhao Jianguo nodded, "One set of tools can replace five wrenches, saving time and effort. I calculated in the factory: just changing tools on the assembly line wastes each person at least twenty minutes a day."

"Where did you get the drawing?" Dong Xu asked.

Zhao Jianguo smiled: "I couldn't sleep last night, the idea popped into my head."

Actually he, taking advantage of the quiet night, quietly activated the sign-in system in the workshop. That "ding" wasn't just the scrap hitting the door; it was also the system prompt. He didn't reveal it, just pushed the drawing toward the center: "Want to give it a try?"

Sha Zhu was the first to raise his hand: "Count me in! I'll grind a part!"

"You handle grinding the base." Zhao Jianguo took a pencil and circled his name, "We'll start work first thing tomorrow."

He Yushui opened her notebook: "Does this count toward points?"

"Of course it does." He said, "Participating in R&D earns one point each, a successful prototype test adds two more, and it can be recorded in the file."

"I'll sign up too!" She immediately noted it down.

Dong Xu didn't rush to state his opinion, but picked up a pencil and drew a few lines on the edge of the drawing: "Here the stress concentrates, needs thickening; the sleeve connection had best be made quick-release, otherwise if it breaks on site it's hard to replace."

"Fine, I'll follow your lead." Zhao Jianguo directly revised the design, "You'll be the Technical Chief Supervisor."

The old man finally broke into a grin: "Not bad."

The next morning, a new sign appeared at the workshop gate, crookedly written with the five large characters "Technical Innovation Trial Point", with a half‑brick underneath to keep the wind from blowing it away. Passersby shook their heads, and someone muttered, "Isn't teaching enough? Now they want to invent and create?"

Sha Zhu heard the words; as he swung the grinding wheel he shouted, "What's up? Can't we have a bit of ambition?"

By noon, the first batch of parts had been ground smooth. Zhao Jianguo led the three of them in assembling the prototype, but when they tried the third sleeve it jammed and wouldn't turn.

"Too tight." Dong Xu felt the interface, "The tolerance wasn't left enough."

"Then let's readjust." Zhao Jianguo took it apart, measured the dimensions again, and exchanged two miniature ball bearings from the system, slipping them in where they couldn't be seen from the outside, but the rotation became much smoother.

"Oh wow, it works now!" Sha Zhu tried turning it a few rounds, delighted enough to slap his thigh.

At three in the afternoon they conducted a mock test: they fitted five sets of nuts of different specifications onto a discarded water pipe, changing them one set at a time with the traditional tools, which took eighteen minutes; with the new wrench they finished in seven minutes and four seconds, and when the last nut was tightened, the several onlookers cheered in unison.

The news reached the Steel Rolling Factory workshop that same day.

On the third morning, Zhao Jianguo had just opened the door when he door when he saw Dong Xu walking in carrying a lunch box, his face a little excited: "I told the group leader about this, and he told me to submit an improvement proposal. I've already copied a set of the test data and signed both our names."

"Okay." Zhao Jianguo nodded, "Remember to write clearly the applicable scenarios, and don't make it sound too mystical."

"Don't worry, I'll just say it applies to maintenance work involving frequent replacement of standard parts, and I'll attach a photo."

A couple of days later, a conveyor belt in the factory suddenly jammed; a few veteran workers gathered and fiddled with it for half an hour to no avail. Zhao Jianguo, Sha Zhu, and He Yushui rushed over, pulled out the new wrench, and in a few quick moves removed the guard plate, found the problem in five minutes, replaced the part and reset it, and the machine started up again.

The workers all around stared, dumbfounded.

"Where did you buy this tool?" someone asked.

"We made it ourselves." Sha Zhu chuckled, "Want to learn? The tuition is a pack of cigarettes."

That evening, two technicians from the neighboring Red Star Machinery Factory came, saying they had heard that the Siheyuan had produced a "universal wrench" and had come specially to see it. Zhao Jianguo held nothing back, demonstrating the operation on the spot and letting them try it themselves.

"Really saves effort." one of them remarked, "It's handier than what our factory issues."

"Not only does it save effort." He Yushui flipped open her notebook, "It also reduces mistaken operation, because you don't have to keep changing tools, so your hands stay steady."

As the two were about to leave, they asked whether they could have a few sets made in bulk. Zhao Jianguo thought for a moment and said, "Sure, but we have to follow our rules—whoever wants to use them must first come and study the safety regulations for three days."

The news spread farther and farther. On the evening of the fifth day, Old Li from the Street Office passed by the workshop and saw a bicycle parked at the gate, with another factory's badge hanging from the handlebars.

He knocked on the doorframe: "Jianguo, everyone outside says you've become a 'technical highland'—isn't that going a bit too far?"

"However." Zhao Jianguo, still drawing his second sketch without looking up, "We just want ordinary people to be able to play with technology."

Old Li chuckled, turned and left. Not long after, Yanbugui shuffled in leaning on a cane, stood at the doorway for a while, staring at the "Technical Innovation Trial Point" sign back and forth, then finally bent over to straighten the corner that the wind had blown askew, and walked away silently.

Two days later, the training center subordinate to the Municipal Machinery Bureau sent a notice saying it planned to hold a grassroots technical reform exchange meeting and invited the "relevant persons in charge" to attend. The letter had no signature, no seal, and looked like an internal draft circulating informally.

Zhao Jianguo finished reading it, pressed it under the toolbox, and said nothing.

At half past six in the evening, the workshop lights were on as usual. Dong Xu brought a stack of white paper and began copying the technical specification document, writing each stroke with great care. Sha Zhu sat in the corner practicing drawing part diagrams; although his lines were crooked, he insisted on marking the dimensions on every sheet. After He Yushui finished organizing the month's points records, she opened a new notebook and wrote her first suggestion: "Set up a monthly innovation award to encourage more people to take part in improvements."

Zhao Jianguo sat on the stool, holding the sketch he had just finished—this time a maintenance toolbox with layered trays, each compartment detachable independently, suitable for different vehicle models and equipment types. He stared at the drawing for a moment, picked up a red pen, and wrote a small line at the bottom: "Modular design, easy to promote."

Footsteps came from outside the door, followed by a light knock.

"Who?" Sha Zhu got up to open the door.

At the doorway stood a young person in blue work clothes, gripping an old screwdriver, eyes a little nervous: "Excuse me… is this the place where you teach how to make tools?"