284: Chapter 284 Chen Tiezhu's Continued Questioning

Sunlight slowly crept over the edges of the blueprint, and the blue light on the Spirit Rune circuits flowed gently like a lively stream.

Chen Qiaoshou remained standing in place, his fists clenched tight, palms sweaty, his knuckles white.

He stared at the blueprint, as if it would be blown away by the wind the moment he blinked.

Although Chen Tiezhu had agreed to inspect the energy conduction rails at three in the afternoon, he still stood behind the tool area shelves, seemingly unwilling to let it go.

Chen Wuwang did not move, his right hand resting on the edge of the master console, a faint shimmer flowing across the surface of his Mechanical Prosthetic Eye, as if he were reading invisible data.

He suddenly spoke, his voice not loud, yet it struck the workshop with a hum: "Since you've agreed to look, don't just stand there picking faults."

The words were directed at the empty space.

Yet, behind the shelves in the tool area, a shadow suddenly stiffened.

Chen Tiezhu had been about to walk away, but upon hearing this, his shoulders slumped, and he slowly turned around.

He strode back to the center, his boot soles thudding dully against the metal floor, each step feeling like it was stomping on one's heart.

He stopped in front of Chen Qiaoshou, a head taller than the young man, his shadow looming over and covering half of the blueprint.

"It's not that I don't trust the blueprint." He stared at Chen Qiaoshou, his eyes like quenched iron, "It's that I don't trust you!"

His voice rose abruptly.

"How many armor plates have you forged? How many cores have you smelted? You say data can save lives, then tell me—"

He raised his hand abruptly, pointing at the detection array on the blueprint: "Did you pull up the data from the last furnace explosion? If you pulled it up, can you fix it? The person has already lost half a leg, and you're going to show their mother a pile of numbers? Saying the 'System has learned'?"

Chen Qiaoshou did not retreat.

He looked up at the old craftsman, his Adam's apple bobbing once, his voice steady, unlike a newcomer's: "I pulled it up. Thirty-seven accident records, all fed into the model. That explosion happened because the diverter valve lagged by zero point four seconds, and the accumulated pressure exceeded the critical threshold. The new System will trigger a bypass within zero point one seconds; it won't even reach that point."

"A model?" Chen Tiezhu sneered, "Do you think Artifact Refining is like writing a Talismanic Incantation? Just draw a circle and it works? Let me tell you, furnace fire has a temper, Spiritual Qi has a breath; a fraction of a difference is the distance between life and death! Can the lines on your lousy paper understand the furnace's breathing?"

"I don't need it to understand." Chen Qiaoshou shook his head, "I only need it to remember the patterns. Just as you teach apprentices to listen to the furnace sounds to determine its state, it can also learn to look at data and identify risks."

"Bullshit!" Chen Tiezhu slapped the table, making the sketch board jump. "Thirty years ago, I forged my first suit of battle armor right here. Back then, we didn't have all these flashy things of yours, yet we still made the Zerg bleed rivers! And now, with one phrase 'intelligent control,' you want to trample my thirty years of hard work into the mud?"

"No one wants to trample it." Chen Qiaoshou finally took a step forward, his voice hardening, "I want to make it live longer. Your furnace shouldn't be coughing blood."

"Coughing blood?" Chen Tiezhu was stunned.

"Yes." Chen Qiaoshou pointed to the section of the guide rail at the energy hub on the blueprint, "Every time it overloads, the flame temperature exceeds the limit, and the stress cracks in the furnace wall deepen—it is coughing blood. If this continues, in three months, at most three months, it will collapse. It's not that I don't trust the craftsmanship, it's that I don't want to watch our brothers die on the test flight path again because of a preventable failure."

The air tightened instantly.

Chen Tiezhu glared at him, his lips moving, but no words came out.

He turned abruptly and strode toward the tool bench on the east side, his posture exuding stubbornness.

Chen Qiaoshou didn't wait for any signal and followed him.

He stood by the tool bench, two steps away from Chen Tiezhu, his voice lower: "I know you've guarded this furnace for seven years, like guarding a loved one. I'm not here to dismantle it; I want to make it cough less blood, spit less fire, and less... sending people to the mines to carry out corpses."

Chen Tiezhu stood with his back to him, holding a wrench, his knuckles white, the veins on the back of his hand throbbing.

"Get out!" He growled, his voice sounding like it was squeezed from the depths of his throat. "Get out right now! If I nod, I'm personally handing over the path my wife didn't finish to a pile of metal boxes that can do math! She was killed by those 'precise calculations' back then! Spiritual Qi backlash, furnace explosion, we couldn't even piece her body together! And you're telling me data can save lives? Who can you save? Huh?!"

He turned back abruptly, his eyes red, his finger pointing directly at Chen Qiaoshou's nose: "How many days have you been here? Do you know how many brothers' names are buried beneath this workshop? Do you know how many families are waiting for their children to come home to eat every time we ignite the furnace? You don't understand anything! Yet you dare to hold a piece of scrap paper and say you want to hand my furnace over to your cold, heartless algorithms?"

Chen Qiaoshou did not dodge.

He stood in place, facing the anger, his voice becoming even deeper: "I don't understand your past. But I know that if we continue to rely on people watching the furnace and guessing risks based on experience, tomorrow there will be another seventeen-year-old child lying in the mine, with mech fragments piercing their chest, their mouth filled with machine oil."

He paused, enunciating each word: "I don't want to wait for that kind of data to teach the System what 'pain' is."

Chen Tiezhu shuddered.

He opened his mouth as if to curse, but his throat seemed blocked by something, and he only let out a heavy, ragged breath.

Just then, footsteps sounded.

Chen Wuwang walked over and stood between the two.

He didn't look at the blueprint, nor at anyone, but raised his right hand and tapped the master console three times: "Pa, pa, pa."

The rhythm was slow, but precise.

It was exactly the same rhythm as when Chen Tiezhu had been hiding behind the pillar last night, unconsciously tapping his fingers against the support.

Chen Tiezhu looked up abruptly, glaring at him.

Chen Wuwang looked at him, his tone calm: "Back then, you said I was crazy for developing that automatic inspection machine, but what was the result? How many lives did that metal contraption save? When the mine tunnel collapsed last month, who gave a warning ten minutes in advance? During the cold snap last winter, who automatically adjusted the energy supply and saved three production lines? You curse with your mouth saying 'machines don't understand the heat,' but when working late at night, who relies on that thing to remind you to drink hot water?"

He paused, his voice lowering: "You don't disbelieve in technology. You're afraid. Afraid that the thing you've guarded for thirty years will wake up one day and become a burden."

Chen Tiezhu's expression changed.

His lips trembled, and he slammed the wrench in his hand hard into the toolbox— "Clang!!!"

The loud noise made the light tubes overhead shake.

He gritted his teeth, the veins on his neck bulging, staring at Chen Qiaoshou, yet it was as if he were looking through him at something much further away.

"Fine!" He roared, his voice hoarse, "We'll try! But I'm watching! How every wire is connected, how every array is carved—I'll be watching! If something goes wrong—"

He swept his gaze across both of them, finally pinning it on Chen Qiaoshou's face, "Neither of you will walk out of this door alive!"

Having said this, he turned and walked away, his boots stomping heavily on the floor, his figure disappearing behind the shelves.

The workshop was terrifyingly quiet.

The sunlight still lay on the blueprint, and the blue data streams flowed silently.

Chen Qiaoshou stood in place, sweat on his forehead, his breathing still a bit ragged, but his eyes were steady.

He knew he had passed this hurdle.

At least, he hadn't been kicked out on the spot.

Chen Wuwang didn't speak, his right hand gently stroking his Mechanical Prosthetic Eye, his brows slightly furrowed, as if calculating how to balance these two stubborn tempers in the next step.

In the distance, the sound of the toolbox being pulled open came, a clattering sound, followed by the dull thud of a wrench being placed on the table.

Chen Tiezhu hadn't left.

He was still here.

He just wasn't looking at them anymore.

Chen Qiaoshou looked down at his hands, slowly unclenched his fists, and then slowly clenched them again.

Three in the afternoon.

He had to be ready.