Chapter 8

Lu Xin finished washing up and called the head of the equipment department, Liu Jianhui: "Director Liu, should I go to the hospital or the factory now?"

Liu Jianhui replied in a very cold tone: "His wife and the nurses can take care of him during the day. You go over in the evening!"

Lu Xin felt a bit disappointed. Did this mean that Li Li's seductive new wife, Liu Xinmeng, wouldn't be there in the evening? He asked, "Will I be the only one watching over him in the evening?"

"His wife will still be there. You take turns watching over him!"

Lu Xin felt secretly pleased. Even if he couldn't seduce Liu Xinmeng or make Li Li wear a green hat, spending a long night in close proximity to the seductive Liu Xinmeng and having a few words with her would be much better than always staring at the extremely detestable fatso Li Li.

"Going in the evening, do I need to go to the factory during the day?"

Liu Jianhui barked in a harsh voice: "Of course you do. It's already 8:30, you're already half an hour late, and you're still dawdling!"

Lu Xin checked the time on his phone. Damn, it really was 8:30. He had been so engrossed in practicing his metal control ability that time had flown by.

Lu Xin quickly changed into another set of factory overalls and ran briskly towards the special alloy materials factory.

When he arrived at the maintenance team's break room, Lu Xin was surprised to find that no one was there.

He looked up at the clock on the wall; it was only 8:45. Usually at this time, these maintenance workers would be in the break room drinking tea and reading newspapers. Why was no one there?

Lu Xin walked out of the break room and, after a few steps, saw Xie Fei, a production management engineer from the second workshop. He quickly asked, "Xie Fei, where is everyone from our maintenance team?"

"The vacuum arc furnace in the high-entropy alloy laboratory is broken, and they all went to fix it!" Xie Fei, a graduate of the 2013 class, was said to be a relative of a senior executive in the group. His future was already laid out: from production management engineer to workshop director, then factory manager, and finally division general manager. With a bright future ahead, Xie Fei naturally looked down on the uncertain future of Lu Xin, speaking in a very cold tone and not even glancing at Lu Xin.

Lu Xin had been accustomed to the cold and indifferent treatment from the maintenance team over the past month, so Xie Fei's attitude didn't affect his mood. What he was most concerned about was whether the vacuum arc furnace in the high-entropy alloy laboratory had broken because he had fallen into it.

He quickly walked to the high-entropy alloy laboratory and saw a large crowd gathered around the arc furnace. All six maintenance workers, except for the team leader Li Li, were there, all looking at the arc furnace with deep resentment.

The head of the equipment department, Liu Jianhui, was also there. Usually, he acted like a big shot, but now he was bowing and scraping, looking like a complete fool.

Lu Xin focused and saw several people standing in front of Liu Jianhui, all with their hands behind their backs, looking solemnly at the vacuum arc furnace.

The woman at the front was in her early thirties, of medium height, with fair skin, almond-shaped eyes, a high nose, full lips, and white teeth. Even though she was wearing the same ugly blue factory overalls as everyone else, she still looked very beautiful.

Lu Xin recognized her as Jiang Chunyu, the vice president of the alloy materials division responsible for quality and equipment.

Jiang Chunyu had a serious and cold expression, and no one dared to breathe heavily in front of her.

Standing next to her was Li Minghao, the head of the equipment department of the alloy materials division, who was tall and thin like a utility pole, and Du Haibo, the deputy factory manager in charge of equipment at the special alloy materials factory, who was short and fat like a winter melon. The two of them looked like the fat and thin monks from a Jin Yong martial arts novel.

There were also several people in white lab coats, including the head of the high-entropy alloy laboratory, Lin Tao, a professor and doctoral supervisor at the Materials Science College of Jiangnan University of Science and Technology. He was a specially appointed expert of the group, and his research on high-entropy alloys was at the forefront of the world.

The group's leadership placed great importance on his research and provided strong support. With the leadership's support, Lin Tao had the confidence to point at Liu Jianhui and scold him harshly: "My experiments were going well, but your people insisted on repairing the temperature control device. After they fixed it, my furnace malfunctioned. It's been over ten hours, and all my research and hard work are ruined. You are fully responsible!"

Yesterday afternoon, Lin Tao's four metallurgical doctoral students received a call from Li Qitai, the deputy head of the human resources department of the alloy materials division, asking them to go to the division's office building to fill out some forms.

When the four of them left, the high-entropy alloy laboratory was empty. Li Li used the pretext of repairing the temperature control device to bring Lu Xin in, intending to harm him.

However, not only did Li Li fail to harm Lu Xin, but he ended up being castrated.

After the four metallurgical doctoral students finished filling out the forms at the division's office building, they returned to the laboratory and noticed extremely abnormal data on the computer. Upon further analysis, they discovered that the vacuum arc furnace had malfunctioned.

The arc furnace uses the high temperature generated by an electric arc to smelt ores and metals. The energy is highly concentrated during gas discharge, with the arc zone temperature exceeding 3000°C. The furnace operates in a vacuum environment, capable of smelting active and refractory metals like titanium, zirconium, tungsten, molybdenum, tantalum, and niobium, specifically for special alloy composition and ratio smelting experiments.

They found that the arc furnace was not working and immediately called the head of the equipment department, Liu Jianhui.

Liu Jianhui quickly notified all the maintenance workers, except for the team leader Li Li, to come and repair it. He was going to call Lu Xin as well, but since Lu Xin had only been there for a month and could only tighten screws, he didn't call him.

The maintenance workers from the special alloy materials factory worked all night in the high-entropy alloy laboratory but couldn't find the reason for the arc furnace's malfunction. Without finding the cause, they couldn't fix it.

The four metallurgical doctoral students had to report the issue to Professor Lin Tao, who was very angry and directly reported the situation to the chairman of Sanjiang Group, Jiang Zhenhua.

Jiang Zhenhua called the general manager of the alloy materials division, Li Chengxiang, and asked him to ensure that the arc furnace was repaired as soon as possible. Since Li Chengxiang was on a business trip, he asked the vice president in charge of equipment, Jiang Chunyao, to supervise the situation on-site.

With Jiang Chunyao personally present, the head of the equipment department of the alloy materials division, Li Minghao, and the deputy factory manager in charge of equipment at the special alloy materials factory, Du Haibo, did not dare to be negligent. Both of them had climbed up from maintenance workers and had rich maintenance experience, but they also couldn't find the reason for the arc furnace's malfunction.

When Lu Xin entered the high-entropy alloy laboratory, no one turned to look at him, and no one greeted him. Everyone was frowning and staring intently at the vacuum arc furnace.

Jiang Chunyu's smooth forehead was furrowed, and she said coldly, "This furnace is worth over five million. It was just imported from the American company Consac and hasn't produced any results yet. It's broken now. I don't know how to explain this to the higher-ups!"

As soon as these cold words were spoken, the deputy factory manager of the special materials factory, the head of the equipment department, Liu Jianhui, and the maintenance workers all felt a sudden jolt. They didn't know who would bear the brunt of the blame, and whoever it was would be in trouble.