CIATB Chapter 103 Construction Begins! Have We Stumbled Upon a Treasure?
Chapter 103 Construction Begins! Have We Stumbled Upon a Treasure?
This piece of land in the south of the city is now a giant money-devouring beast.
Ever since the "hot spring" appeared that night, the entire construction team in Jinghai has been keeping an eye on it.
The original reed marshes were leveled, and more than a dozen heavy excavators roared day and night, their searchlights illuminating the construction site as if it were daytime.
But the project ran into a tough problem right from the start.
"Stop! Stop! Stop right now!"
Project manager Lao Wang slammed his safety helmet on the ground, sweating profusely, and yelled at the operator in the cab, "Can't you hear anything? If you keep going, this drill bit will be ruined!"
The operator, covered in dust, poked his head out: "Manager Wang, this is all granite down there, as hard as iron. Our ordinary rotary drilling rig can't even scratch it!"
Old Wang's heart bled as he looked at the alloy drill bit that had been replaced less than two hours ago, which had already become dull.
This isn't digging; this is burning money.
"How about... we use explosives?"
The technician next to him made a cautious suggestion.
"Bomb your head, my foot!"
Old Wang slapped him on the back of the head. "There's a hot spring water vein underneath!"
"If we fire a shot and break the water column, we'll all be starving!"
Just when everyone was at a loss, a young voice broke in.
"Adjust the pressure valve of the hydraulic pump to two levels, switch the drill rod to spiral feed, and control the speed at 800 revolutions per minute."
Old Wang turned his head and saw Zhang Yan squatting next to a broken-down excavator, holding a wrench and tinkering with it.
Today, Zhang Yan wasn't wearing his yellow delivery vest or his usual casual school clothes. Instead, he was wearing a drab gray overall, with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, and a dark oil stain on his face.
He doesn't look like a "gold digger" worth hundreds of millions; he looks more like a newly apprenticed auto mechanic.
"Mr. Zhang, you..."
Old Wang was a little confused. "This is heavy machinery, it's not like repairing bicycles..."
Before he could finish speaking, Zhang Yan shoved the wrench into his pocket, grabbed the ladder with one hand, and nimbly climbed up to the more than three-meter-high driver's cab.
"Stop talking nonsense and get out of the way."
Zhang Yan sat in the driver's seat and skillfully pulled the control lever.
In his mind, the [God-level Mechanical Mastery] was running at high speed.
In his eyes, this bulky steel behemoth was no longer a cold machine, but a stream of precisely meshed data.
It's crystal clear where the wear is, where the torque is insufficient, and where the hydraulic lines are clogged.
The system's "build mecha" mission only lasted seven days, and Zhang Yan spent most of the last two days at the construction site, except for attending classes.
To build mechs, one must first become familiar with hydraulic transmission and mechanical exoskeletons; these excavators all over the construction site are the best practice material.
"boom--!!!"
The engine let out a deep roar, but this sound was completely different from the previous hoarse and strained roar. It sounded strong and powerful, like a bull that had gathered all its strength.
The huge drill bit slowly descended, and the moment it touched the rock layer, it did not emit a piercing metallic shriek, but rather a rhythmic "thump-thump" sound.
Gravel flew everywhere.
The granite layer that had just caused Old Wang so much worry was now being sliced off layer by layer, like tofu meeting a hot knife.
"Holy crap..."
Old Wang's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. "This works?!"
The technician was dumbfounded: "He changed the hydraulic ratio? That doesn't make sense! How can the torque be so high?"
Zhang Yan had no time to pay attention to the astonishment below.
He precisely controlled the joystick while feeling the vibration feedback transmitted back from the robotic arm.
That feeling of control is truly addictive.
No wonder men love operating excavators.
Just then, a commotion broke out at the entrance to the construction site.
A black Rolls-Royce Phantom ignored the muddy ground and drove in aggressively, stopping directly outside the police line.
When the car door opened, what emerged first wasn't high heels, but a pair of white flat sneakers.
Immediately afterwards, Nie Qingcheng came down.
Today, instead of wearing those suffocating business suits, she changed into a smart beige trench coat, casually tied her hair in a ponytail, and wore a yellow hard hat.
Even wearing this 9.9 yuan safety helmet with free shipping, her face was still breathtakingly beautiful, completely out of place in this dusty construction site.
"President Nie!"
Old Wang quickly went to greet her and offered her a cigarette, but Nie Qingcheng waved him away.
Her gaze swept across the crowd and precisely locked onto the excavator that was in operation.
The cab door was open, and Zhang Yan was intently staring at the drill hole. Sweat streamed down his face, past the oil stain, and finally dripped from his chin.
That focused, wild, and powerful hormone could be smelled from dozens of meters away.
Nie Qingcheng felt her heart skip a beat.
She had seen Zhang Yan's elegance when playing the piano, his ruthlessness when fighting, and his strategic planning in the conference room.
But this was the first time I'd ever seen someone covered in oil, riding a steel behemoth that could split mountains and rocks.
He's fucking handsome.
Nie Qingcheng licked her slightly dry lips and walked over.
"husband."
Hearing the sound, Zhang Yan turned off the machine and poked his head out.
"Why are you here?"
He wiped his face, but ended up making the oil stain even bigger, like a cat with a smeared face.
"He's here to inspect our work."
Nie Qingcheng looked up at the man above, "While I'm at it, I'll see if my chief designer has been kidnapped by some excavator."
Zhang Yan smiled, grabbed the handrail, and jumped down, his movements as light as a leopard.
"Stay away, it's all dust."
Zhang Yan patted the dirt off his clothes and took a step back. "Don't get your clothes dirty."
Nie Qingcheng did not back down.
Instead, she took a step forward, took out a pack of wet wipes from her bag, pulled one out, and reached out to wipe the oil off his face.
The movements were gentle, and the eyes were languid.
The workers around them kept their eyes down, pretending they were radishes in the ground.
This is none other than the infamous female demon of Jinghai, "Bamboo Leaf Green"!
He's actually wiping the sweat off a man operating an excavator?
If this gets out, the gossip magazines in Jinghai will sell like hotcakes.
"Dirty".
Zhang Yan grabbed her wrist.
"I don't mind, so why are you being so dramatic?"
Nie Qingcheng glared at him, then grabbed his fingers with her other hand. "Come with me."
"Where to?"
"Let's talk about work."
Without saying a word, Nie Qingcheng pulled Zhang Yan toward a row of blue container houses at the edge of the construction site.
That was a temporary project command center, and there was nothing inside except a table and a makeshift folding bed.
"Bang!"
The metal door was closed and then locked from the inside.
In the confined space, the air instantly became viscous.
The roar of machines outside seemed to be isolated in another world, leaving only the slightly rapid breathing of the two people inside.
Nie Qingcheng pushed Zhang Yan against the wall, her peach blossom eyes shining frighteningly bright in the dim light.
"Mr. Nie, this is a construction site."
Zhang Yan leaned against the corrugated iron wall, somewhat helplessly, "The soundproofing effect is basically zero."
"Then keep your voice down."
Nie Qingcheng reached out and hooked her hand on the strap of his work pants, then pulled hard, pressing the two of them tightly together.
She stood on tiptoe, her nose brushing against Zhang Yan's carotid artery, and took a deep breath.
That smell, a mixture of engine oil, sweat, and tobacco, was more intoxicating than any expensive men's cologne.
"Zhang Yan, do you know how you were operating the excavator just now..." Nie Qingcheng's voice was a little hoarse, with a dangerous tremor, "It made me want to do something bad."
"for example?"
"for example……"
Nie Qingcheng's fingers slid down the straps and into his clothes, her fingertips slightly cool, yet the touch was fiery. "Right here, I'll strip you out of these dirty clothes."
Zhang Yan's Adam's apple bobbed.
This woman is practically a vixen who can go into heat anytime, anywhere.
"Stop fooling around, there are hundreds of people watching outside."
Zhang Yan tried to reason with them.
"They dare not look."
Nie Qingcheng forcefully silenced him with a kiss.
The kiss was full of raw energy, as if it wanted to release all the heat that had been felt outside.
The tin-roofed house was shaking.
I don't know if it was because of the road roller passing by outside, or because of the people inside.
Zhang Yan was also a little aroused by her teasing.
He'd been working himself to the bone these past few days on that stupid mech mission, and he definitely needed to relax.
But he still held onto his last line of defense.
"We can only kiss for a short while."
Zhang Yan pressed down on her mischievous little hands that had started to undo his belt, and said in a deep voice, "We still have work to do later. Only I can handle that rock formation."
"I don't."
Nie Qingcheng bit his lower lip. "I need to check if your drill bit is as hard as the one outside."
"Nie Qingcheng!"
"Call me wife."
……
Twenty minutes later.
The container door opened.
Zhang Yan came out first, his face clean of oil, but his lips were a little red and swollen. The straps of his work pants were also fastened again, though a little crooked.
He took a deep breath to calm his agitated blood, then strode towards the excavator.
If he doesn't leave soon, he's afraid a real "construction site drama" will unfold in the temporary housing.
Nie Qingcheng followed slowly behind.
She touched up her lipstick, retied her hair, and had a satisfied blush on her face. Her queenly aura was now tinged with a touch of languidness from being pampered.
"Old Wang!"
Zhang Yan jumped into the driver's seat and shouted, "Have someone bring the dump truck over; we need to get ready to excavate!"
"Okay!"
Although Lao Wang noticed that Zhang Yan's lips were a little swollen, he wouldn't dare ask even if he had ten times the courage. He quickly told the workers to get to work.
The roar resumed.
The modified drill bit pounced like a hungry tiger, digging downwards with frenzied speed.
five meters.
ten meters.
Fifteen meters.
According to the blueprints, as long as this layer of granite is drilled through, the drainage outlet of the underground river can be connected.
Zhang Yan stared intently at the instrument panel, sensing the changes in resistance transmitted through the drill rod.
Sudden.
"when--!!!"
A sharp, even metallic, impact sound shot through the drill pipe and into the cab, making Zhang Yan's wrist go numb.
It's not a stone.
It's not a rock stratum either.
The sound was like a drill bit hitting some kind of high-strength alloy plate.
"stop!"
Zhang Yan suddenly pulled the brake lever.
The immense inertia caused the excavator to lurch violently, almost causing it to lift its tail.
"What's wrong?"
Nie Qingcheng, who was standing outside the safety line, felt a pang of anxiety upon seeing the commotion and ran over despite the mud.
Zhang Yan didn't say anything, jumped out of the car, grabbed a shovel, and jumped into the deep pit that had just been dug.
"Don't get down!"
Zhang Yan shouted up.
The bottom of the pit is about three meters deep, and it is full of gravel and mud.
Zhang Yan carefully cleared away the rubble at the bottom with a shovel.
As the soil was cleared away, a dark object was revealed.
That's not a natural mineral.
It was a metal box about half a meter long and wide, its surface covered with a thick layer of rust and grime, but where the drill bit had struck, a dark, gleaming light was visible.
Such violent drilling only left a white spot on it, and not even much of the paint was scratched off.
Zhang Yan squatted down and reached out to touch the box.
It was icy cold.
The system notification sounded abruptly the moment the finger touched the screen.
【Ding! 】
[High-energy reactive object detected!]
[Discovered Mohist mechanical artifact: Xuanwu Armor (fragment).]
[Mission Hint: This is one of the "mecha" materials you are looking for.]
Zhang Yan's pupils suddenly contracted.
He vigorously wiped one corner of the box with his sleeve.
Beneath that thick layer of rust, two ancient seal script characters could be vaguely seen, identical to the characters in the previous Thousand Machine Box.
—Non-aggression.
"Zhang Yan, what's next?"
Nie Qingcheng's voice came from the pit entrance, filled with anxiety, "Are you alright?"
Zhang Yan raised his head, looking at the square sky above him and Nie Qingcheng's worried face.
He grinned, revealing a set of bright white teeth.
"Honey, it seems like we've... struck gold."
"The kind that's more valuable than a hot spring."
Nie Qingcheng looked puzzled.
Zhang Yan didn't explain, but he was very excited.
……