A nation's industrial development begins with junior engineers.

Chapter 741 On the stage, you can't leave until the curtain falls!

"During the declassification period, personnel handling classified information shall not violate regulations regarding employment or leaving the country, and shall not disclose classified information in any way..."

Jiang Xia recited the terms fluently, a mischievous glint in his eyes. Hmph! Did he really think my photographic memory was fake?

He shook his head and countered with a question: "Ask a question! What is the content of Chapter Two? What is Article Twenty-Four?"

"Uh... Chapter Two..." Xiao Gu was a little confused by the question.

"Twenty-four... are there twenty-four?" Xiao Gu looked at his friend beside him with some confusion.

Unexpectedly, his good friends, who usually ate black bread and pickled vegetables with soybean paste together, all turned away silently, leaving him alone to face Jiang Xia's scrutinizing gaze.

"Tsk tsk, not familiar with it. Isn't Article Twenty-Four just prohibiting the discussion of related secrets in public places?" Jiang Xia kindly reminded him.

"Oh! Right, right, right! It's forbidden to discuss these secrets in public. It's forbidden to use plaintext or codes not reviewed and approved by the relevant authorities to transmit secrets. It's forbidden to..."

Comrade Xiao Gu seemed to have a sudden inspiration, and the more he recited, the smoother it became. The embarrassment on his face turned into pride.

"Hmm, that's good. However, it's still wrong... Chapter Two is actually about classified carriers and information management." Old Wang stood behind Jiang Xia and spoke slowly.

Hehe, Old Wang was quite entangled with what this "vessel" meant back then...

…………

While Jiang Xia was still teasing Xiao Gu about reciting the confidentiality rules, Yang Youning's anger was about to burst through the carriage.

The small jeep carrying Li Huaide started up and slowly drove away from the office building entrance, disappearing into the dark street.

Outside the car window, the city lights receded rapidly into the night, eventually disappearing behind. The car drove onto a side road, where everything became pitch black, with only the headlights piercing the darkness ahead.

There was silence in the car.

Just moments ago, Li Huaide had a big smile on his face and his eyes were blurry with drunkenness. Now, his eyes were as sharp as ever, and there was no trace of drunkenness on his face.

He let out a long sigh of relief, rubbed his throbbing temples, took out a small notebook from his pocket, and began to read it by the dim light of the lighter.

"How's it going? Got the list?" A deep, familiar voice came from the driver's seat.

It was Yang Youning, who should have been sulking in the guesthouse!

Li Huaide didn't even look up, a smug smile playing on his lips: "Got it! Complete! These guys probably wrote down every high-end piece of equipment in Northeast China that could be linked to it, just to pass the inspection! Saves us the trouble of checking them one by one!"

He turned to the last page and pointed with his finger. "Look, even the super-large bending machine is listed. It's said to be used to process the integral panels of the wing."

Yang Youning, focused on driving, smiled slightly upon hearing this, a rare occurrence for him: "The aircraft is still on paper, but the equipment has already been imported. It seems the relevant officials have quite the 'foresight'! Where's the equipment? Shall we take a look..."

"Of course we have to go!" A rare hint of anger appeared on Li Huaide's face: "The parameters are many times higher than the ones in our factory, and they just have the heart to leave them idle in the warehouse?"

Yang Youning turned his head sharply, his face also filled with disbelief: "You mean... this equipment... hasn't been put into use yet?! It's just gathering dust in the warehouse?"

“Yes!” Li Huaide nodded heavily.

"Taking advantage of the alcohol, I saw a maintenance logbook in someone's arms. The purchase record was from last October! Installation and debugging records... none! Usage records... blank! Maintenance records... blank!"

"Damn it! Isn't this ridiculous?! Why aren't we using these good machines to train soldiers and accumulate experience? Are we just going to wait for some idiot to fall from the sky and help them operate them?!"

Yang Youning's face instantly turned ashen, and the veins on his hands gripping the steering wheel bulged! He slammed on the gas, and the little jeep let out a low growl as it suddenly accelerated!

"Once this big thing is over, I'm going to hang them in the bunker complex of Factory 112! And have my son's 'maid' serve them!"

"Hey, hey, hey... What's all the excitement about? Turn around! Turn around and go back to the guesthouse first!" Li Huaide quickly grabbed Yang Youning's arm, afraid that he would drive the car directly into the ditch.

"Why! That machine will rust if it's left in the warehouse. Every day it's delayed means another day of loss! You may not care, but I do!"

Li Huaide quickly reached out and pressed his hand on his arm, while his other hand reached for the cigarette pack, shaking it for a long time without managing to get a single cigarette out. The wind slipped in through the crack in the car window, making the cigarette pack rattle.

"What's your hurry!"

Li Huaide finally pulled out a cigarette, bent down and lit it under the dashboard. After taking a puff, he shoved it into Yang Youning's mouth without a word, trying to calm him down.

“We’re here to investigate the industrial relocation, not to be lone heroes! The warehouse is near the border, and the Russian watchtower is only two miles away. If we sneak over there in the middle of the night, what if we’re mistaken for spies and they open fire? Even if they don’t fire, what if they say we ‘crossed the border for investigation’? How will that be accounted for?”

"Don't forget, our son reminded us of this during the meeting!"

Yang Youning's chest was still heaving, but he eased off the accelerator, and the car slowed down. The headlights swept across a rusty barbed wire fence by the roadside, the barbs on top gleaming coldly in the moonlight.

"We can't just watch good machines rot away!" Yang Youning said in a muffled voice, his anger subsiding somewhat, but still tinged with resentment.

"Have you forgotten about that huge bending machine in the factory? We begged and pleaded but couldn't fix it. If it weren't for my own kid popping up, I..."

Li Huaide twitched his lips: "Let's not talk about this, we can still be good friends."

Li Huaide took the cigarette back from Yang Erlengzi's mouth, took a puff, and the cigarette butt glowed and flickered in the night.

“I didn’t say I wouldn’t care, but we have to follow the rules. We need to bring them along to check the machine in front of us, record the conversation, and keep a record so they can’t deny it. If we sneak off tonight, and they accuse us of ‘trespassing’ and ‘tampering with evidence,’ will our records still be useful?”

He stubbed out his cigarette in his hand, the sparks flying but quickly going out: "We're an inspection team now, not the hotheads who fought over resources at the steel mill back then. Everything has to be done openly and honestly, so people are convinced. That's what makes it a real business."

Yang Youning fell silent. The wheels rolled over a pebble, causing the car to lurch. Occasionally, searchlights flashed in the distance, heading towards the border…

After a long while, he asked in a low voice, "Where did you learn all this? You didn't seem this smart before..."

Li Huaide laughed, leaned back in his chair, and said with a touch of nostalgia, "I learned it from Wang Huzi. Last year on the frontier, I watched him mediate a land dispute between herders and a factory. The herders were ready to fight with shovels, and the factory's soldiers were also holding guns. Wang Huzi stood in the middle and insisted that both sides lay out their reasons clearly. With one sentence, 'An unfair mediation is worse than no mediation at all,' he convinced both sides."

He also said that we do things not to show off, but to have peace of mind. Only when the accounts on the surface are clear can the shady dealings on the side be exposed. This "fairness, impartiality, and transparency" may sound abstract, but it is actually the strongest shield.

Yang Youning didn't say anything, but slowly turned the steering wheel. The jeep turned around on the icy road and the headlights were aimed back at the road it had come from.

The wind seemed to have died down a bit, but the beams of the searchlights in the distance were still blinding, reminding the two how close they were to the border. Yang Erlengzi suddenly sighed, "You went to the frontier and learned a lot. I haven't fought well in my life, nor have I rolled steel well. I don't think I've done anything else. Shouldn't I go out and gain some experience too?"

"You?" Li Huaide chuckled. "If I sent you to the frontier to deal with the herdsmen, you'd probably start arguing with them before you could even finish three sentences."

"Get lost!" Yang Youning said with a laugh, but the lividity on his face had faded, and his grip on the steering wheel loosened a bit. "Tomorrow, finish the auditing act first, then take them to the warehouse—let them see for themselves how the good machines they brought in are getting moldy in the warehouse!"

The jeep's headlights gradually disappeared into the night, the border behind it swallowed by darkness, with only the occasional flash of searchlights like warning lights hanging overhead.

Unbeknownst to the two who had gone far away, in a warehouse, a middle-aged man with a middle-part hairstyle was trembling and cursing.

"Why is there still no sign of anyone! The familiar Russians are about to be rotated out..."

"Call the higher-ups and ask. Didn't they say they could tell the investigators were singing 'Errenzhuan' (a type of folk opera)? Did they deliberately leak the machine information? But no one's showing up!"

"It's freezing!"