The man wasn’t stupid. He clearly understood the sarcasm in Shu An’s words. Seeing how confident she looked, he no longer dared to argue with her.
After all, he’d already been scolded by Gou Deshun for the blueprint having problems. Now, a young woman who had pointed out an issue just yesterday was saying the same thing. Naturally, he had lost some of his confidence.
Still, unwilling to back down, he stubbornly raised his chin and said, “I… We did modal calculations. The data is all in the report.”
“Then bring me your calculation report,” Gou Deshun suddenly said.
The moment he said this, the man immediately became nervous and stood there without moving.
Gou Deshun shouted again, “Go get it!”
The report was quickly brought over. Gou Deshun glanced through it twice, then expressionlessly handed it to Shu An.
“Little girl, take a look. Did they calculate it correctly?”
Shu An took it and read from beginning to end. To avoid showing off only to end up embarrassing herself, she deliberately went through it twice. Finally, she found the problem and pointed to one of the pages.
“Here. He calculated the moment of inertia of the drive shaft incorrectly.”
“He used the formula for a solid shaft, but this shaft is hollow, and the wall thickness is only five millimeters. Its actual moment of inertia is nearly thirty percent smaller than the calculated value. One mistake here leads to mistakes everywhere else, so the subsequent modal analysis is completely meaningless.”
The moment she said this, the atmosphere in the office instantly became strange.
The few people standing in the corner weren’t trembling anymore. Instead, they exchanged astonished looks.
How could she possibly know this? This was something that required systematic study to determine.
Gou Deshun showed no surprise whatsoever. He simply looked at the group and sneered.
“What? Cat got your tongues? Weren’t you all very talkative just now?”
“She can spot the problem at a glance, while you couldn’t figure it out after two whole months. And you still have the nerve to talk to me about being professionally trained?”
“Master Gou, this… this can’t really be blamed on us. The formula for the moment of inertia of a hollow shaft isn’t even included in the standard handbook…”
The young technician still tried to defend himself.
“If it’s not in the handbook, you don’t know how to calculate it?”
Gou Deshun hated nothing more than people who didn’t know something yet insisted on messing around with it, and then argued when someone pointed out their mistakes.
“Then let me ask you, did you feed everything you learned in school to the dogs? I really don’t know how you were selected to study this in the first place. They say gorillas are close relatives of humans. I think if you threw two gorillas in there to study, they’d still be smarter than you.”
“Why are you still standing here? Now that someone else has pointed out all the problems, are you planning to embarrass yourselves even further by making her calculate everything for you?”
“Redo the design. I want to see the new proposal within three days. If I see another elementary mistake like this, don’t bother staying here. All of you can get out and go to the workshop to work on sand casting!”
Those people felt as though they had been granted a pardon. They immediately gathered up the blueprints and slunk out with their tails between their legs.
When they passed Shu An, the technician who was always jumping around like a jerboa paused for a moment. His lips moved as though he wanted to say something, but in the end, he said nothing. His face flushed red, and he ran out as if a ghost were chasing him.
At the doorway, Zhao Ming was utterly dumbfounded after watching his cousin verbally take on an entire group of technicians.
When had his cousin become so capable?
He was just about to say something when Gou Deshun raised his eyes and looked at him. His expression clearly said, Why are you still standing here when there’s nothing for you to do?
Zhao Ming immediately understood.
“Master Gou, An’an, I’ll be going first.”
With that, he slipped away as fast as he could.
After Zhao Ming left, only Shu An and Gou Deshun remained in the small room.
Shu An inexplicably began to feel nervous.
Gou Deshun leaned back in his chair without saying a word, simply looking at her curiously. His eyes were full of scrutiny, and Shu An felt increasingly uneasy under his gaze.
After a while, Gou Deshun finally spoke slowly.
“Little girl, what you just said about the universal joint angle has made me curious. I want to ask you something.”
Oh no.
Shu An’s heart sank.
Had she said too much?
But on the surface, she tried her best to remain calm.
“Master Gou, please ask.”
“I’m curious.”
As Gou Deshun spoke, his fingers lightly tapped against the desk.
“You’ve never worked in a factory, and you’ve never attended a technical school. So how did a young girl like you know that there would be a problem if the universal joint angle exceeded twelve degrees?”
“Forget about you. Even those so-called professionally trained technicians can’t really understand this without three to five years of practical experience. Did you just happen to find it in a book?”
The moment he said this, a layer of cold sweat instantly broke out on Shu An’s back.
Sure enough, she could fool those people by saying too much, but there was no way she could deceive an experienced veteran like Master Gou.
Her mind raced, but she kept a calm expression and forced a sweet smile.
“Master Gou, I just like reading books about automobile repair in my spare time. There are also technicians at my grandfather’s factory, so whenever I have questions, I go and ask them.”
“Besides, I have a good memory, so I naturally remembered these things. And to be honest, I’ve also secretly been drawing some design blueprints on my own.”
“Oh? Good memory? You draw blueprints yourself?”
Gou Deshun raised an eyebrow and looked at the young girl in front of him with a half-smile.
She’s quite clever.
“Then where did you find the formula for the moment of inertia of a hollow shaft? Which book did you see it in? Tell me the title. I’ll look for it myself later.”
Shu An’s smile froze on her face.
How would she know where a formula for calculating the moment of inertia of a hollow shaft could be found in books from this era?
“This… My dad found it for me at an old bookstall. The cover was already gone, so I don’t remember the title.”
“Most of what I know also came from asking the technicians at the factory. After all, Master Gou, you know that I never received any systematic training. If anything I said was wrong, please don’t hold it against me.”
As she spoke, her voice became softer and softer, as if she were embarrassed and afraid of being scolded.
Gou Deshun stared at her for two seconds.
Then he suddenly snorted with laughter and stood up from his chair.
“All right. If you say that’s how it happened, then that’s how it happened. Come on, go somewhere with me.”
“Huh? Where?”
Shu An was stunned.
“Stop asking questions. Just follow me.”
“Oh, okay.”
Shu An immediately followed him.
Gou Deshun led her through several workshops, taking one winding turn after another, until they finally arrived at a repair shed in another part of the factory.
A military truck was parked outside the repair shed. Two mechanics stood beside it, their hands covered in engine oil, both frowning helplessly at the open hood.
When they saw Gou Deshun arrive, Liu Tiezhu immediately brightened.
“Master Gou, you’re finally here! Please take a look. We really can’t figure this vehicle out.”
“All right, tell me. What’s wrong with it? Why did Factory Director Zhu have to come looking for me first thing this morning?”
“Master Gou, we’ve been repairing this truck for five days already. We really wouldn’t have bothered you otherwise. There’s something wrong with the engine. It has no power when running, it’s consuming too much fuel, and it keeps stalling from time to time.”
“We’ve cleaned the carburetor, replaced the ignition coil, and even replaced the spark plugs with new ones. We’ve tried everything we could think of, but we just can’t find the problem.”
“And today it broke down again. Xiao Zhou and I checked it over and over for half the day, but we were completely stumped. That’s why we had to ask you to come.”
Gou Deshun nodded.
Then he turned toward Shu An and raised his chin.
“Little girl, come take a look.”
The moment he said this, the two mechanics were stunned.
“Wait, Master Gou, this…”
“What are you wasting words for?” Gou Deshun said bluntly. Then he looked at Shu An.
“Little girl, can you fix it?”