Chapter 23 (1/2)
First Bit of Business
The blinding light flared in fits and starts and around 15 rasped the welded gear with his gloved left hand, and placed it on the dish of the electronic weighing scale
Huang Wei-Guo and Ning Jing athered too Four pairs of eyes rested on the welded gear, first showing curiosity, then shock and finally looking stunned
The gear Xia Lei welded was s could be seen on its surface What wasbut spot welding The gear was held together at three points - two at each end of the split and one in the middle Every spot as precisely controlled at around 08 mm; it was very accurate
This was a clever way to approach the task as three spot welds held the gear together while not increasing the weight of the gear by , not at all like it would fall apart at a touch
“Ch-check the weight” Huang Wei-Guo urged the staff hing scale in, and it displayed the gear’s total weight - 115g
He , this gear was 10g It increased by 15g”
Huang Wei-Guo required the weight to not be over two graear Xia Lei welded was 15g - it not only met his require was that he had welded three spots and every spot weld had been kept at 05g His hands were like precision instru on the surface but these nu Xia Lei’s work Wei-Guo excitedly snatched up the gear from the scale It was still quite hot but he did not seeth to try to break the welded gear but it did not h above his head, then sear was still intact and showed no sign of splitting in half
Xia Lei s me a compass hundreds of years old It can also be considered a precision instrument, so it would probably not have to withstand a lot of force when it isIf there were no other i weld but that would increase the weight significantly and that would affect the accuracy of the coave Xia Lei a hug, losing decorum in his excitement “Master Xia, your workmanshi+p is so wonderful it’s beyond words Your idea was also a good one Less added weight would reater co the secrets of this co, are you saying that the job has been handed to hed, “Of course! There is no need for further testing Welding that key was already enough toand I decided to test you for the sake of knowing if you were dependable”
Ning Jing spoke then, “Professor Huang, I’ve just thought of a better idea”
Huang Wei-Guo turned to look at Ning Jing, “What idea?”
“Doesn’t Master Xia have a workshop? He can definitely produce the same parts and we can ask him to reproduce the broken parts, and at the sainal broken parts In this ill have two options We can use the original parts and also try to use the new reproduced parts,” said Ning Jing
Xia Lei thought for a bit, then interrupted, “Doctor Ning, you hted copy parts, yes?”
Ning Jing quirked her lips in a s Wei-Guo clapped in delight “Great, let’s do that Ning Jing, I’ll let you handle this Please bring the parts needing repair to Master Xia’s workshop and have them copied after repairs as you said We can unlock the secrets of the compass with these two sets”
“You can count on ht, Master Xia, what should we pay you?” Huang Wei-Guo suddenly remembered about reht, Professor Huang,” said Xia Lei sly
“How can that do? Let’s see… The Archaeological Bureau shall pay you 50,000 after you repair the compass Will this do?”
“Yes, it will do” Xia Lei agreed quickly
50,000 looked like a big nu Wei-Guo requested this saht not even be bothered with this sum of money Most importantly, even if an elite Master welder were to do the job, he would not be able to reach the degree of perfection that Xia Lei had
The one profiting fro Wei-Guo as representative, not Xia Lei
However, Xia Lei was not greedy either Thunder Horse Workshop had yet to open for business and it had already got a 50,000-yuan-worth bit of business, and thatso he did not expect a mini-windfall like this
“There’s no tio to Master Xia’s workshop,” said Huang Wei-Guo
“Yes, of course” Ning Jing went to work i the broken parts and co’sand she walked briskly to the doorway to take the call
Xia Lei looked at Long Bing in the doorway ‘She looks like she has a hectic lifestyle What is she so busy with? Was her reco she did because it was convenient?’