But Division Commander Gao's words were far from mere politeness.
Over the next two days, he made it a point to visit for two to three hours without fail each day.
Time flew by in the whirlwind of busyness, and before they knew it, the weekend had arrived.
Traveling to the city was quite troublesome now, so Huo Tingzhou set off with Qian Bao before four in the morning.
Jiang Si wasn’t idle either. After breakfast, she planned to go to town with Third Uncle and Uncle Zhong.
Since her mother-in-law had come all this way, it was only proper for her, as the daughter-in-law, to show her appreciation.
But Third Uncle and Uncle Zhong disagreed.
“No need. Uncle Zhong and I can handle it. You should rest at home,” they said.
It was just grocery shopping—why would they need so many people?
Besides, the market was crowded these days. If she got bumped or hurt, what then?
Uncle Zhong added, “That’s right, Miss Jiang Si. The folks from the design institute have been coming every day lately.”
“Who knows, they might drop by again soon. Just stay home and relax.”
“We’ll be quick with the shopping and back in no time.”
Jiang Si was about to say that they probably wouldn’t come today, but before she could speak, someone knocked on the door.
When she opened it, she was surprised to see the Division Commander’s guard.
Her surprise only grew when she heard his reason for coming.
On the way, Jiang Si asked, “Did your Division Commander mention why he wanted to see me?”
The guard shook his head. The Division Commander hadn’t said, and he hadn’t dared to ask.
After a pause, he added, “Dean Gao was here earlier, but he left after a short while.”
Hearing this, Jiang Si had a rough idea of what was coming.
Sure enough, as soon as she stepped into Division Commander Yao’s office, he greeted her with a smile and waved her over. “Xiao Jiang, come take a look at this.”
He pointed to a large blueprint spread out on the table.
“This is the preliminary design for the factory building from the design institute. Dean Gao specifically asked for your input.”
“Specifically asked for me?” This was beyond Jiang Si’s expectations.
She had assumed Division Commander Yao wanted to discuss her investment in the project.
After all, she knew Dean Gao and his team had been working overtime to finalize the designs.
Division Commander Yao nodded, his expression one of pride.
“Dean Gao said you have a keen eye for architecture. Building a factory is a major undertaking, and an extra pair of eyes never hurts.”
Then, with an expectant look, he added,
“If you spot anything off or have any concerns, don’t hesitate to speak up. This is no time for politeness.”
This was a matter of life and death for the Fourth Division—there was no room for even the slightest oversight.
Put simply, they couldn’t afford another failure.
If this attempt fell through, Division Commander Yao would have no face left to show his soldiers or their families.
“I understand, Division Commander,” Jiang Si said, fully aware of the gravity of the situation.
“Good. Take your time—no rush.” Division Commander Yao stepped aside, handing her a magnifying glass.
Jiang Si took it and approached the table.
The blueprint was massive, covering most of the desk.
In addition to the master plan, there were elevation drawings, cross-sections, and detailed layouts for certain floors—over a dozen sheets in total.
Taking a deep breath, Jiang Si began examining each one carefully.
It was a standard framework design for a factory building, compliant with regulations and logically laid out.
As expected from the country’s top architectural design institute—the professionalism was evident at a glance.
“Division Commander, has the new site for the factory been finalized?” Jiang Si asked, voicing her biggest concern.
“Yes, it has.”
Division Commander Yao pulled a stack of documents from his drawer. “Here’s the hydrogeological survey report. Take a look.”
Jiang Si accepted them without another word.
Division Commander Yao left her to it, retreating to another room to give her space and time.
Nearly three hours passed.
Just as Division Commander Yao was considering whether to suggest she take a break, Jiang Si’s voice came from the inner room.
“Division Commander, I’ve finished.”
“Well? Did you find any issues?”
For some reason, Division Commander Yao had inexplicable faith in her.
Jiang Si nodded.
Since she’d identified problems, she saw no reason to hold back.
“The new site is near two reservoirs, so the water table is high.”
“The shallow soil’s load-bearing capacity might be insufficient, leading to subsidence later.”
“So the foundation needs to be dug deeper—to this point.”
She circled a spot on the blueprint. “But just digging isn’t enough. The base should be compacted with crushed stone.”
“That’s straightforward enough,” Division Commander Yao noted, urging her to continue.
Jiang Si opened the structural drawings. “With such a large span, support pillars every four meters won’t hold up against lateral typhoon forces. The roof frame could warp or collapse.”
She also proposed a solution: “Reduce the spacing to two and a half meters and add diagonal reinforcement here.”
Division Commander Yao frowned. “Two and a half meters? Won’t that drive up costs significantly?”
“It will, but there’s no alternative.”
Given the low purity of steel reinforcement in this era, they had to adopt a “heavy redundancy design” to enhance structural resilience.
Of course… that also meant higher expenses.
Jiang Si explained, “With the current design, it could withstand typhoons below Category 15, but anything stronger is uncertain.”
“As you said, we can’t afford to lose again. So this isn’t an area to cut corners.”
Her certainty stemmed from knowing that in four years, Qiongzhou Island would face the strongest typhoon since the founding of the nation.
It was after that disaster that redundancy design became standard in construction.
After a long silence, Division Commander Yao finally gritted his teeth and agreed. “Anything else?”
“Yes.”
Jiang Si pointed to another sheet. “The ‘tie bars’ between walls and roof frames should be spaced one and a half meters apart, with 36mm diameter steel.”
“Also, the mortar ratio here needs adjustment…”
“Then there’s the roof pitch…”
“Finally, the shear walls and load-bearing walls…”
She spoke nonstop for over ten minutes.
To Division Commander Yao, it might as well have been Greek.
All he understood was that Comrade Jiang’s suggestions invariably meant spending more money.
“Comrade Jiang, with these changes, how much would the construction cost per factory increase?”
“That depends on steel prices—it’s the biggest expense.”
Division Commander Yao checked the budget. “Previously, we used 20mm steel bars at about 500 yuan per ton. For 36mm, it’s around 650 per ton.”
Jiang Si did a quick calculation. It wasn’t too bad.
A 2,000-square-meter factory required roughly 60 tons of steel.
So each factory would cost an extra 10,000 yuan.
Division Commander Yao’s eyebrow twitched at the figure.
An additional 10,000 yuan per factory just for steel…
For eight factories, that meant 80,000.
In addition to other miscellaneous expenses, the projected costs would exceed the budget by at least a hundred thousand yuan.
Division Commander Yao sighed, "Jiang Si, to be honest with you, the division's accounts are running low on funds."
"If we proceed with these specifications, we'll need at least another 500,000 yuan."
Since things had come to this point, Division Commander Yao saw no reason to hold back.
During the last round of share subscriptions, they had managed to raise 200,000 yuan.
But with so many factory buildings collapsing this time, he doubted they could gather more than 100,000 yuan.
As for the remaining 400,000 yuan...
That would be far from easy to secure.
Yet, there was no better alternative at the moment. Division Commander Yao let out another sigh.
"Jiang Si, I’ll first discuss your proposal with Dean Gao and the others."
"I’ll update you once there’s any progress."
Jiang Si nodded in agreement.
What she didn’t expect was that Division Commander Yao’s update would come so quickly.
She hadn’t even reached the residential compound yet when the division commander’s guard came running after her, panting heavily.
"Comrade Jiang… Comrade Jiang… my apologies…"
And just like that, Jiang Si turned back.
This time, Dean Gao, Political Commissar Li, and the Division Chief of Staff were all present.
In front of them, Jiang Si repeated her earlier explanation.
After listening, everyone turned to Dean Gao—this was beyond their expertise, and they could only defer to the specialist.
"Dean Gao, what do you think of Comrade Jiang Si’s proposal?"
Without hesitation, Dean Gao nodded in approval.
Though his expression remained composed, those familiar with him knew better.
The dean was probably exhilarated beyond words at this moment.
But then again, this young woman not only identified the problem but also proposed a solution in such a short time.
Most importantly, every point she raised hit the mark.
No wonder the dean held her in such high regard!
Once the plan was finalized, Dean Gao and his team didn’t linger—they needed to rush back and revise the blueprints.
After they left, Division Commander Yao looked at Jiang Si with some embarrassment.
"Young lady, you’ve worked hard today."
He was genuinely worried.
If Huo Tingzhou found out he’d made his wife run around twice in one morning, he’d surely give him an earful!
Jiang Si didn’t deny the effort. "It’s my duty, Division Commander."
Thinking it was troublesome to make another trip to the division headquarters, she casually asked,
"By the way, Division Commander, is the share subscription contract we discussed earlier ready?"
If it was, she could sign it today.
Hearing this, Division Commander Yao paused.
The contract had been prepared long ago, but Huo Tingzhou had insisted back then that the share subscription would only be finalized after his wife reviewed the factory design blueprints.
Now, however, the blueprints were still being revised.
Jiang Si didn’t see it as a big deal.
She had already reviewed the blueprints that morning, and Dean Gao had just given his approval.
At his pace, the revised blueprints would be ready by tomorrow afternoon at the latest.
Whether she signed now or later made little difference.
Division Commander Yao didn’t press further—after all, they were truly strapped for cash.
Pulling the contract from his drawer, he asked, "How many shares are you planning to subscribe to this time?"
Without hesitation, Jiang Si replied, "200,000 yuan."
"What?" Division Commander Yao stared at her in disbelief.
Political Commissar Li and the Division Chief of Staff were so shocked they nearly stumbled over their words.
"H-how much?"
Their exaggerated reactions almost threw Jiang Si off.
"Didn’t Huo Tingzhou mention this?"
Division Commander Yao thought to himself, Mention it? Not a chance!
That day, he had only laid out the conditions without saying a word about the amount.
He had assumed it would be no more than 5,000 or 10,000 yuan at most.
Who knew Comrade Jiang would drop such a bombshell?
Just as he was rejoicing inwardly, Jiang Si suddenly frowned and added, "But—"
