Chapter 26: Acting a Little Cocky

Niu Dameng and Zhang Yifu both cursed silently in their hearts. They thought Niu Xiaozhuang was too hasty. It was only his second day; how could he do something so showy? Qiu Ling’s face darkened a few shades. To him, every word from Niu Xiaozhuang was instructed by the Factory Director. This way, it seemed they were planning to rapidly elevate Zhang Yifu.

“Yifu still needs to get more familiar. If you have technical problems, you can go to Section Chief Qiu.” Niu Dameng was, after all, the leader. He understood how to weigh things and reacted quickly. He smiled toward Qiu Ling, “Young people are inevitably a bit hasty. Qiu Ling, you keep things under control.”

“Yes…” Qiu Ling’s expression finally softened a little. His position was still secure.

Niu Xiaozhuang couldn’t say anything more and sat down sulkily.

For the remaining time, Niu Dameng gave a summary speech. He mostly praised the sense of ownership shown by Niu Xiaozhuang and Zhang Yifu, treating the plant’s matters as their own and using off-duty time to race against the clock to solve problems. At the same time, he also expressed great approval for this kind of mobilizing collective wisdom. Whether a workshop worker or a lowly office clerk, if they had an idea, they could bring it up.

Amid enthusiastic applause, the meeting soon ended. Niu Xiaozhuang started running around everywhere, contacting people from all sides to work on this matter. Typically, for equipment maintenance or replacement at a power plant, operations would be temporarily stopped. They would need to report to the higher-level Electric Power Management Bureau to arrange power supply allocation. But such a small project that didn’t involve stopping operations wouldn’t be so troublesome. If they ensured it was completely safe, they could proceed on their own.

After receiving numerous praises, Zhang Yifu also returned to his Archives Room happily. In this situation, even if Qiu Ling wanted to find fault, he couldn’t.

Just as he was preparing to continue studying other software, Li Weifeng somewhat awkwardly pushed the door open. Upon asking, Zhang Yifu learned this coworker wanted to follow him and learn computer knowledge. For many seemingly idle young people in work units, it wasn’t that they lacked ambition; they just didn’t know how to advance. Key resources were all controlled by the old-timers; they couldn’t get involved. Now, Li Weifeng had seen Zhang Yifu’s capabilities and the power of the computer. Since he had nothing to do during the day anyway, why not learn from him?

“Master! Just teach me! When we play table tennis, I promise to tell you everything I know! If needed, I can lose a few games to you in front of Wang Xiaohua!”

Under Li Weifeng’s persistent begging, Zhang Yifu finally reluctantly agreed, but with one condition: they had to wait until Niu Xiaozhuang had time, so they could be taught together. He couldn’t stand giving the same lecture twice. Li Weifeng naturally agreed; opportunities to get along well with the Factory Director’s Son weren’t many.

While they were chatting, the door was pushed open. Qiu Ling stuck his head in. Seeing the clean and tidy Archives Room, he was first startled, then coughed and said in a deep voice, “Move the computer to the Administrative Office. The comrades in our section will study and use it together.”

Sure enough, this guy couldn’t feel comfortable without doing something.

Although Zhang Yifu clearly knew this guy was looking for trouble, this arrangement was hard to argue against. The computer belonged to the whole section; it shouldn’t be monopolized by Zhang Yifu.

“In that case, I’ll move to the Administrative Office too,” Zhang Yifu immediately followed up.

“You’ve understood all these diagrams?” Qiu Ling walked into the Archives Room, looked at the rows of cabinets storing data and blueprints, and snorted heavily. “Young Zhang, you heard the Factory Director’s words just now. Right now, getting familiar with the power plant is your top priority. Before you’ve figured it out, it’s best to stay here and study more.”

“I understand them all. I’ve memorized them all.”

Qiu Ling was waiting for Zhang Yifu to wrangle and argue, but unexpectedly, this guy gave a direct affirmative answer.

Although the Archives Room wasn’t big, the cabinets were filled with materials. Power plant design was an enormous project with countless blueprints and details. Even a national-level engineer who designed this power plant couldn’t possibly remember every key point, let alone Zhang Yifu?

“You’ve memorized them all? Such a big claim?” Qiu Ling raised his eyebrows, thinking he had finally caught this kid’s weakness. “Young Zhang, I didn’t mean for you to memorize them all; just fully understand them is enough. Saying this, you’re somewhat looking down on the power plant. If I randomly pull out a stack of materials, are you confident you can answer the data on them?”

“Go ahead,” Zhang Yifu was extremely confident. Of course he was confident. He didn’t have a photographic memory, but the 21st-century database in his mind contained all information related to electricity, from nuclear reactors down to residential electric meters. The design blueprints of the old Jibei Power Plant were naturally included. When he was drawing last night, he deliberately looked at the paper, just so Niu Xiaozhuang wouldn’t become suspicious.

How could Qiu Ling know about such a thing? He only thought Zhang Yifu was talking big. In this world, no one could possibly memorize such a massive amount of information. Even if someone had the ability, they wouldn’t do it—that would just be crazy!

During the standoff, Niu Xiaozhuang passed by the door. Seeing Qiu Ling was there, he hurriedly stepped forward. “Section Chief Qiu, regarding this document for the pipeline modification, could you please approve it?”

“Hmm.” Qiu Ling took the document, pulled a pen from Zhang Yifu’s desk, and signed his name without even looking. Facing Niu Xiaozhuang, he immediately put on a smiling face. “Xiaozhuang, go ahead boldly. If you need anything, just come to me.”

“Thank you, Section Chief Qiu.” Although Niu Xiaozhuang was simple, he wasn’t stupid. He already felt the tension in the room now. Worried that Qiu Ling was making things difficult for Zhang Yifu because of what happened earlier, he chimed in, “It’s rare for Section Chief Qiu to come to the Archives Room to provide guidance. Yifu, you should cherish this opportunity.”

“Heh, it’s nothing much,” Qiu Ling quickly laughed. “I just came to see how familiar Young Zhang is with the power plant. If he had questions, I could answer them. I didn’t expect him to claim he has completely memorized everything.”

“What do you mean ‘completely memorized’?” Niu Xiaozhuang looked at Zhang Yifu in shock. “Yifu, you can’t say such things carelessly. Power plant design isn’t like textbooks. Many parameters are specific to the plant. You can only memorize them by rote.”

“Brother Niu, I have no choice. If I don’t memorize everything, the Section Chief won’t let me leave this room. The computer will be moved away. If I don’t leave this room, I won’t have a computer to use,” Zhang Yifu shrugged and answered helplessly.

Upon hearing this, Qiu Ling couldn’t help feeling a bit awkward. He was also aware of Zhang Yifu’s relationship with Niu Xiaozhuang and didn’t want to go too far, so he resorted to formalities. “Yifu, I understand your strengths. There’s absolutely no intention to keep you from using the computer, nor to have you stay forever in the Archives Room. But first, you need to become familiar with and understand our plant, complete the most basic tasks. You’re saying you’ve completely memorized everything after just one day; this puts me in a difficult position too.”

“No need to be in a difficult position. The task is complete; I really have memorized it,” Zhang Yifu raised his arm, urging, “Ask away.”

Hearing this, Niu Xiaozhuang also swallowed and tentatively said, “Yifu, don’t talk nonsense. This material… even memorizing by rote would take a year or so.”

“I saw the Jibei Power Plant materials back in school. It’s no problem.”