Chapter 1

For Zhang Yifu, during the breaks of his night shifts, coming to the high bridge next to the power plant control room to urinate into the wind and the river was a unique pleasure. Watching the long, faint line of urine fall into the river was a sense of grandeur that only he could experience.

This night, the wind was particularly strong, so strong that it could blow the long line into a bizarre curve. Under such intense deviation, the alkaline water line extending from Zhang Yifu's body gradually leaned towards the 500,000-volt high-voltage power line below the bridge...

When the unbroken line finally touched the power line, Zhang Yifu completed the most spectacular urination in human history. To put it vividly, it was like the god of thunder descending to earth, urinating a bolt of lightning into the surging river.

In his final moments, Zhang Yifu had only one thought—

Don't urinate or defecate anywhere.

Of course, he didn't have time to convey this important information.

...

"Yifu! Yifu! You can't skip class today!!"

In a daze, Zhang Yifu heard a clear and energetic voice. He slowly opened his eyes, shook his head, and propped himself up, only to see the boy in the lower bunk.

The boy looked full of vitality, with a small pompadour and a round face, fair and clean, and had the appearance of a young master. Seeing that Zhang Yifu was awake, he quickly pushed the blanket and urged, "Hurry up and change your clothes. This is the allocation guidance meeting for all undergraduate graduates. If you don't go, you'll definitely be assigned to a power plant in the middle of nowhere!"

"Is this hell...?" Zhang Yifu looked at the boy in confusion, "A hell where you have to study, attend classes, and take exams every day...?"

"Who cares if it's hell or not, we're about to graduate anyway." The boy, seeing Zhang Yifu's silly reaction, laughed, "Stop being a smartass, get dressed quickly. The leaders in charge of allocation will be there, so you need to look presentable and make a good impression."

Suddenly, Zhang Yifu's head jolted, and another person's memories began to flood in. After a dizzy spell, he said to the boy in a daze, "You're... Hao Shuai? My roommate?"

"What's wrong?" The boy looked down at his outfit and then laughed loudly, "I guess this outfit is pretty good, even you can't recognize me."

Zhang Yifu, seeing the boy's serious expression, finally calmed down. Looking around, it was clearly an eight-person dormitory in a university. He had been sleeping in the upper bunk and was woken up by a diligent classmate.

But this dormitory... was a bit different. According to common sense, there should be a computer for each person, with dirty clothes and instant noodle packaging everywhere. However, this dormitory looked very neat and simple. There were two red thermoses with peony patterns, white cups with student numbers, and aluminum lunch boxes on the long wooden table in the middle.

It felt like it was from over a decade ago.

Looking back at the boy below, although he had a handsome face, he was wearing a tacky white shirt and black trousers, with his belt pulled up high, looking very out of place and stylish.

The power plant duty officer, Zhang Yifu, graduated in 2010 and had worked for five years. The current Zhang Yifu seemed to be just a student who hadn't graduated yet. As he thought, he suddenly had a realization. Countless thoughts began to surge in his mind. Could it be that he didn't die? Could the hundreds of thousands of volts of high-voltage electricity have opened a portal to another time?

Zhang Yifu wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and asked in confusion, "Classmate, is it 2010 now?"

"2010? Are you dreaming?" Hao Shuai looked at Zhang Yifu as if he were a monster, "If it were 2010, we'd both be over forty, why would we still be in college?"

Zhang Yifu trembled and asked, suppressing his excitement and fear, "Then what year is it now?"

Hao Shuai pointed to the calendar hanging by the dormitory door.

1990.

Zhang Yifu suddenly understood.

Twenty years, everything had been pushed back twenty years! The undergraduate of 2010 had become an undergraduate of 1990!

In his previous life, Zhang Yifu had followed the trend and applied to a power engineering college, hoping for a stable and well-fed job. As expected, with his limited background, he was lost in the sea of undergraduates and, after much effort, finally got a job as a duty officer in a small power plant.

But now, it was 1990. Although undergraduates were not as rare as they were in the early stages of the reform and opening-up, they were still highly sought after, especially in the power industry, which required a lot of technical expertise.

Zhang Yifu asked excitedly, "Is this Northern Power University?"

"University? When did it become a university? We're Northern Power Institute." Hao Shuai laughed, "Most of the majors are still at the associate level, and there aren't many of us with bachelor's degrees."

"I see." Zhang Yifu calmed down and got out of bed, stepping down the ladder, "You mentioned the allocation guidance meeting? We don't have to find our own jobs, right? The organization will assign us?"

"Find your own job? Are you going to jump into the market?" Hao Shuai widened his eyes, "For you... it might seem normal, but at least work for a while first. After studying for so many years, to give up your major like this, your father will kill you!"

Hao Shuai pushed Zhang Yifu, urging, "No more talk, the meeting starts in 10 minutes. Whether you jump into the market or not, go to the guidance meeting first!"

Zhang Yifu increasingly understood that the social environment here was indeed from the 1990s. The state assigned jobs, and based on his knowledge of this era, undergraduates would definitely get good placements. Knowing that he couldn't afford to delay, he decided to go to the guidance meeting first and then deal with the shock later.

He quickly opened the wardrobe to find some decent clothes.

"Jeans... jeans... leather jacket... 'Hello, Deng Xiaoping'... 'Steering the ship in the vast sea'..." Zhang Yifu threw each piece of unreliable clothing and asked, "Don't I have any normal clothes?"

"Haha! Now you're in a hurry! The counselor has told you so many times!" Hao Shuai laughed and turned to open his own wardrobe, "Since you've seen the light, I'll lend you a set."

Zhang Yifu glanced back and quickly made a disdainful face. If these clothes were from his previous life, he would be embarrassed to donate them to disaster areas. However, Zhang Yifu had no other choice. Wearing jeans to a meeting in this era would be as out of place as a tattooed and pierced man joining a state-owned enterprise.

After a quick search, Zhang Yifu reluctantly chose a dark plaid shirt and a relatively neat pair of trousers, and grabbed a pair of Hao Shuai's leather shoes before daring to go out.

Smelling the faint soap scent on the clothes, Zhang Yifu began to feel the unique atmosphere of this era.

At this moment, the graduate dormitory building was already empty. It was said that the leaders from the department would come, so everyone had left early to secure a good seat in the lecture hall.

From this perspective, Hao Shuai was quite loyal, spending so much time with Zhang Yifu and missing a good opportunity.

On the way to the lecture hall, looking at the familiar yet slightly different campus, Zhang Yifu felt as if he were in another world, with countless thoughts swirling in his mind.

The power industry, a true giant, with annual revenue in the trillions and millions of employees under its umbrella, was where Zhang Yifu also belonged. However, as a mere duty officer in a small power plant, he was so insignificant, even less than a bug.

Under the shade of the giant, it was a comfortable place. As a pillar of the energy industry and a golden bowl, it undoubtedly attracted countless elites. As a 2010 undergraduate graduate, it was extremely difficult to stand out in the already stable social system, and finding a place to rest was already a blessing.

But now, things were different.

1990 was the beginning of the explosive development of the power industry.

More than ten years after the reform and opening-up, the entire country entered a period of rapid growth. The sharp increase in GDP and power generation always went hand in hand. Simply put, the more value the country created, the more electricity it needed. This was like the relationship between a cup and water; a large enough cup was needed to hold enough water, and a stable power supply was needed to support a strong industry.

This rapid development over 20 years was a process of national strength and grandeur.

For individuals, it was also an opportunity to achieve fame and success, to stand tall and proud.

In 1990, the national annual power generation had just exceeded 60 billion kilowatt-hours.

In 2014, the national annual power generation was expected to approach 600 billion kilowatt-hours.

The undergraduate who could only urinate into the river during night shifts was now standing at the beginning of everything, the starting point of a legend, with excitement, fear, and disbelief, and with a friend who knew nothing about the future, heading towards the place that would determine the start of his career.

Stay calm... Zhang Yifu thought.

In the large lecture hall, there were far fewer people than he had imagined. This allocation was for undergraduate graduates, and unfortunately, there were fewer than 200 undergraduate graduates in the entire school. Compared to the thousands of students admitted in his time, it was clear how precious they were. He had prepared to fight for a seat, but seeing the relaxed scene, he was stunned.

Everyone was waiting for the school leaders and officials, with serious and smiling faces. When they saw Zhang Yifu and Hao Shuai enter, they couldn't help but laugh and tease.

"Yifu, you didn't oversleep this time!"

"Why aren't you wearing jeans?"

These jokes were harmless, just normal banter among classmates. The Zhang Yifu of this world was too carefree, and he could only laugh and scratch his head, greeting his classmates and looking for a seat. At this moment, the memories of the 1990 Zhang Yifu had naturally merged, including his feelings for others and his family, all firmly etched in his consciousness and instincts.

When he walked to the third row, he suddenly froze again.

This must be the girl he had a crush on, what good taste!

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