Volume One: Setting Sail

Chapter One: A Technical School Student Arrives at the Small Factory

1985, Pingyuan County, Beixi City, Anhe Province.

It was a summer noon, the sun scorching the earth with its blazing heat, and cicadas were competing to chirp on the paulownia trees. The narrow main street of Pingyuan County was crowded with small stalls selling all kinds of cheap industrial and agricultural products. Outside the doors of the street shops were colorful, crudely printed posters of celebrities, and from a four-speaker boombox, Su Rui was hoarsely belting out:

"No sky, no earth!

No earth, no home!

No home, no you!

No you, no me..."

Outside the bus station, a tall, handsome young man with delicate features stood under a large camphor tree. He carried a rolled-up bedding on his shoulder, a military-green satchel slung across his chest, and beside him was a large canvas bag filled with daily necessities and a few books. He looked at the unfamiliar scene before him, a wry, helpless smile on his face.

The young man's name was Henry Carter, and in his satchel was a job assignment certificate, which read:

Henry Carter, male, born in 1967, native of Jiangshan County, Anhe Province, 1985 graduate of the Foundry major at Anhe Province Agricultural Mechanization School, passed all courses, permitted to graduate, now assigned to work at Qingfeng Agricultural Machinery Factory, Pingyuan County, Anhe Province...

The assignment certificate was standard; a technical school graduate being assigned to a county agricultural machinery factory was nothing unusual. But no one knew that something extraordinary had already happened to this ordinary technical school student—a soul from the 21st century had traveled through time and now occupied the original owner's body.

Before the time travel, Henry Carter was a young postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Materials Research, National Academy of Sciences, in the early 21st century, famously known as a "prodigy" throughout the entire academy system. The institute was full of experts and outstanding talents, each with their own specialty—some focused on polymers, some on inorganic non-metals, some on superconductors, some on material properties. Only Henry Carter could truly be called a polymath. No one knew where he got his boundless energy; in just a few years at the mobile station, he published dozens of SCI papers, each in a different field. Every paper sparked a major academic debate in its respective field, and the number of citations made his peers green with envy.

Such a talent, if he had stayed in the lab and produced results steadily, after a few years he could easily have become a Changjiang Scholar or an Outstanding Young Scholar. But Henry Carter was a restless soul, both in academia and in life. During one holiday, he joined a group of hiking friends he barely knew to climb an unconquered snow mountain, only to be caught in an avalanche—the whole group perished...

Perhaps the heavens could not bear to let such a genius disappear so easily, so Henry Carter's soul traveled through time and space to the mid-1980s, reborn in the body of a freshly graduated technical school student.

Well, at least I got to keep my life...

Now in the form of a technical school student, Henry Carter let out a long sigh, trying to comfort himself. Compared to his previous life, he was much younger this time around—perhaps a benefit of time travel. Also, it was said that the air in the 1980s was fresher than in later years; maybe he should enjoy this beautiful life without PM2.5?

Thinking of this, Henry Carter took a deep breath, but before he could hold it for even a second, he exhaled it all out.

What is that smell! Sulfur dioxide from the coking plant, pesticide from the pesticide factory, ammonia from the fertilizer plant, acetylene from the calcium carbide plant... Who the heck said there was no pollution in this era!

Henry Carter spat twice, picked up his canvas bag, and walked forward, asking passersby as he went, "Excuse me, how do I get to Qingfeng Agricultural Machinery Factory..."

"Go straight ahead along this road, after you pass the county high school, walk another 800 meters, then turn left at the entrance of the pesticide factory, go another 300 meters, and the place with the big red iron gate is Qingfeng Factory." A bespectacled intellectual by the roadside explained in detail.

"Thank you very much," Henry Carter replied, and continued on his way.

After walking a dozen more steps, hurried footsteps caught up from behind. Henry Carter turned to look—it was the same helpful intellectual who had just given him directions.

"Young man, wait, wait!"

"What is it?" Henry Carter stopped, puzzled.

The intellectual ran up to Henry Carter, panting heavily, and finally said, "Young man, I just realized I made a mistake. After you pass the county high school, you need to walk 900 meters to reach the pesticide factory. If you only walk 800 meters and turn left, you'll end up in a fish pond."