Tang Jin stayed in Tang Che's room for over an hour.
Tang Youyi asked her to stay for dinner at the house, and after the meal, he called her into his study to ask about some work matters.
By the time she left the Tang residence, a drizzling winter rain had begun to fall without her noticing. Raindrops landed on her pink coat, instantly soaking a patch on her shoulder.
A servant held an umbrella, escorting her out of the mansion and to her car.
"Thank you."
Tang Jin closed the car door and started driving home, but then she received a message from her superior, asking her to go to the company to revise a proposal.
Such was the life of a designer, constantly on call for the company or clients. Having been in the workforce for nearly half a year, she had grown accustomed to the grind.
At that moment, high school students were just getting out of school.
Tang Jin slowed her car a little.
The rain was pouring down, water trails on the windshield blurring the entire world. The wipers swung back and forth, struggling against the torrential downpour. The road was filled with students—some walking in groups through the rain, others being picked up by parents, a bloom of colorful umbrellas everywhere.
Yet, there was only one boy getting drenched in the rain.
He followed the crowd onto the crosswalk. He had a shaved head, yet he carried none of that sharp, imposing aura. On the contrary, his features were exceptionally gentle, like a child praised by elders for being sensible since he was little. His eyelashes, dampened by the rain, appeared strikingly dark. His school uniform jacket was completely soaked, but he held his schoolbag tightly against his chest.
Tang Jin felt a sudden pang of disorientation.
She thought of her ten-year-old self.
On a rainy day just like this, in a heavy rain just like this, she had stood at the school gate, watching other children being picked up one by one. Only she had no one coming for her. She stood there for a long time, and in the end, could only dash home through the rain because her father was gone and her mother was seriously ill.
A child without parents' protection could only run through the storm.
Tang Jin's car happened to be the first one stopped at the crosswalk. She picked up the umbrella from the passenger seat, rolled down the window, and held it out. "Hey, you there, the shaved-head classmate! Wait a moment!"
Hearing the voice, Ji Jingchuan paused his steps.
He looked up and saw a black long-handled umbrella being offered from the car window, and the hand holding it—pale, slender, with neatly trimmed nails.
His gaze shifted to the car window, half-lowered and covered in raindrops. He saw a girl with short hair tucked behind her ears, revealing a clean, elegant face. Her eyes were as tranquil as a rain-drenched lake.
"For you."
Tang Jin's voice made Ji Jingchuan freeze.
This voice, mingling with the patter of the rain, was unique.
"Beep beep beep!"
The driver behind them honked impatiently.
Tang Jin urged, "You'll catch a cold in this weather. Take it, quick. No need to thank me."
Ji Jingchuan took the umbrella.
The car window rolled up, and the car drove away.
He opened the umbrella, crossed the street, and stood for about a minute before a car pulled up in front of him. "A-Chuan, get in. How did you get so wet even with an umbrella?"
Ji Jingchuan took off his soaked jacket and replied, "This umbrella was lent to me by someone."
Ji Zhiyuan sighed. "A-Chuan, although we agreed to meet at the school gate at 6:30, that doesn't mean you can't be late. When it rains, you can wait inside the school for a bit. I can come in to get you; it's no trouble at all. Remember that, okay?"
"Understood, big brother," Ji Jingchuan answered very obediently.
Since returning to the Ji family, he had spent the least amount of time with this eldest brother. Every time they shared a meal at the table, his brother wore a stern expression.
He had asked Duoduo about it privately, and Duoduo said their eldest brother was particularly strict.
Therefore, regarding anything agreed upon with his eldest brother, he dared not show the slightest negligence.
"I'm taking you to see a few properties under your name," Ji Zhiyuan began. "Great-grandmother has arranged two more villas for you. Grandfather, seeing you like gardening, bought a flower nursery. These are all your assets. You need to know where they are, how big they are…"
Everyone in the Ji family had some assets to their name, mostly gifts from family on birthdays.
Ji Jingchuan had never celebrated a birthday within the Ji family, so the family was making up for all these things he should have had.
Meanwhile, Rong Yu was at the Fourth Research Institute.
The Eagle Eye project had progressed very smoothly in its early stages, but it had encountered problems at the phase of developing the prototype materials.
Inside the test chamber, Rong Yu's finger hovered above the control screen.
Her eyelids felt as heavy as lead, but the glaring red warning on the screen was still clear—
Material Stress Test Failed: TR-7 Component Abnormal Deformation.
"Still not working…" Wang Xiaoli murmured. "We've checked all the parameters three times. Where exactly is the problem?"
Lin Rang glanced over the system parameters again and said, "Maybe the load simulation settings are wrong. Let's run another structural strength test."
Once more, everyone in the room threw themselves into their work.
They ended up pulling several all-nighters. In total, Rong Yu had only slept four or five hours. Dark circles hung under her eyes, and she felt a bit dizzy when walking.
Lin Rang spoke up, "Everyone, take a break for a while. Don't push yourselves too hard."
Rong Yu was someone who couldn't let things go.
If she didn't find the problem, she simply couldn't sleep.
She steadied herself on the table, stood up, and walked to the material sample rack. Picking up a piece of scrap TR-7 composite material, a vague train of thought suddenly crystallized in her mind.
She inserted the sample into the electron microscope.
When the screen zoomed in to the nanoscale, her breath caught—
The material surface was covered with micro-cracks.
Each crack was less than a micron wide, but under the combined effects of vacuum, extreme temperature fluctuations, and cosmic radiation, these cracks would spread like a plague, eventually causing the support structure to fracture…
However, during previous ground tests, the TR-7 composite material hadn't shown any issues.
Rong Yu clicked on the computer to reprint all the properties of this material.
The printer's ink had long run out, so she had to go outside.
It was a little past 8 a.m., the time when regular researchers officially started their workday and came in.
Song Huai, as an inner-circle student of Professor Liu, had entered the Fourth Aerospace Institute as an intern, handling the most basic data statistical analysis work.
He had just walked into the work area.
Then he saw Rong Yu.
She was wearing wrinkled clothes, operating the printer, collecting the printed documents one by one as they came out.
Song Huai frowned.
He had invited Rong Yu to help collect data together, but she had refused.
And now, she was here doing printing work?
Was this any different from fetching tea and water?
He walked over and called out, "Rong Yu."
Rong Yu turned around upon hearing her name.
Seeing her condition, Lin Rang was startled. "How did you get so exhausted? How long have you been at this?"
"Three or four days. It's fine," Rong Yu said, about to enter the core area. She looked up and saw the stack of files in Song Huai's arms. "Are you interns still collecting data on various composite materials?"
Song Huai nodded. "It's a massive task. Would you like to join…"
Rong Yu interrupted him, "Stop that for now. There will be a new assignment shortly."
This batch of composite materials harbored significant hidden dangers. She needed to change her approach.
But Song Huai was left stunned.
His work assignments followed a chain of command: issued from the top to the minister, delegated by the minister to the team leader, and then further broken down and assigned to him by the team leader.
Rong Yu declared it wouldn't be done just like that. On whose authority was she giving that order?
