Mechanical Design Engineer — A Postscript to Kong Yiji

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　　Well, the last time Kong Yiji went to Wild Boss’s house, he immediately saw the machining workshop there; its exterior was in a terrible state, with the roof made up of just a few sheets of colored steel sheeting placed haphazardly there. Inside the workshop, the floor was covered with metal shavings from machining centers and lathes; the ground was covered in yellow mud, with a thin layer of red bricks scattered across it. Moreover, almost none of the machinery and equipment in the workshop had shims placed under them to stabilize them. " In Boss Ye’s shop, several second-hand machining centers are simply placed on the floor made of red bricks. The cutting fluid emitted by these machines spreads everywhere on the floor, causing the red brick surface to become soft and soggy. As a result, workers have to work wearing rain boots every day. Sometimes, when walking on that brick floor, a slight carelessness can cause the sewage hidden beneath the bricks to gush up, splashing mud all over their heads and faces. The entire workshop is covered in a layer of yellowish mud, leaving no clean spot where anyone can stand. Helplessly, Kong Yiji could only instinctively run outside the workshop, pick up a stack of red bricks, and lay them one by one from the entrance of the workshop all the way to beside the pedal of the machine tool that was to be adjusted. However, in most of the central regions located at the northern and southern extremes of our country, the foot pedals used alongside machine tools in small factories and workshops are usually made from wooden pallets intended for forklifts. These simple pallets, constructed by nailing together wooden boards and strips, are of relatively rough quality; the wood used is typically common pine or poplar. The thickness of the boards nailed together rarely exceeds 10 millimeters, and there is a gap of 30–50 millimeters between each board. When using such materials as foot pedals for machine tools, every step taken causes the boards beneath the feet to make strange creaking noises. : m5 {+ G0 s) ~7 l1 x 　　The purpose of Kong Yiji’s visit this time was to help Boss Ye adjust a newly purchased used large gantry machining center. Walking along the path made of red bricks that he himself had laid, he stepped forward one by one until he reached the machine tool’s worktable. Looking around, he saw that the vise used for holding the workpiece in Boss Ye’s house was located in the lower left rear part of the machine, near the wall; the base of the vise was completely soaked in yellow mud, and its surface was covered with a thin layer of iron filings, giving it a earthy yellow color – clearly signs of rust. K” v: w5 Q’ x 　 Kong Yiji was afraid that the iron shavings on the vise might hurt his palms, so he asked Master Ye for a pair of canvas gloves. However, after searching everywhere in the house, Master Ye could only provide him with a pair of thick yellow rubber gloves used by rural housewives for washing clothes in winter; they were very rigid, and it was impossible to bend the fingers when wearing them. With no other choice, Kong Yiji had to make do and use those gloves anyway. 7 w& j& T, H& t- r+ b 　 Kong Yiji stretched out his gloved hands and bent down to lift the machine tool workbench, which weighed around a hundred or so pounds, from the ground. Yet, barely had he moved it to a distance of less than fifty millimeters from the guard surrounding the workbench when the wooden pedal under his feet snapped with a crack. In an instant, Kong Yiji’s entire left foot sank into the broken pedal, causing him to stumble forward; he fell to the side of the machine tool, and the vise he was holding also dropped straight down, landing precisely on the top of his extended right foot. At that moment, a painful cry was heard from Kong Yiji, as he collapsed from the intense pain. ! c9 E9 V. |) U' |. z1 f- u- z6 u When the boss heard Kong Yiji’s agonized cries, he rushed over to the machine tool in an instant. Seeing Kong Yiji lying on the ground, covered in blood and unable to get up, he turned pale with fear, his eyes widening like bells. 　　Boss Ye stared with his mouth wide open at Kong Yiji, who lay on the ground unconscious, with his jaws clenched and his face pale. At that moment, the air in the entire workshop seemed to have frozen; it was so quiet that even the sound of a sewing needle falling could be heard. * L$ f4 L/ r; }8 j ~ The boss was instantly terrified and stood there like a statue next to the machine tool, staring dumbly at Kong Yiji who lay motionless on the ground for five or six minutes, before suddenly waking up as if from a nightmare. (z” r9 O$ C5 k) So, Boss Ye immediately picked up the phone in his hand and quickly dialed 120. In no time, an emergency ambulance arrived at top speed and stopped at the entrance of the workshop. Four or five people in white coats got out of the ambulance, quickly brought out a stretcher, and lifted Kong Yiji, who was lying unconscious on the ground, onto it. Boss Ye followed the ambulance to the hospital. According to the doctors’ diagnosis, Kong Yiji had a comminuted fracture in the bones of his right foot, and surgery was needed to insert steel pins and plates to stabilize it. 2 y/ K, b0 p& q: q& v+ w& y * ]$ O, M4 q3 w+ N* D4 D1 ^3 ^ Injuries to bones and muscles require at least three to four months of recovery time before they can fully heal; therefore, Kong Yiji, who suffered severe injuries, needed to be hospitalized for an extended period. Yet at that time, Kong Yiji was so poor that he had no money at all. With no other choice, the owner of the clinic had to cover the 30,000 yuan worth of medical expenses on his behalf. As a result, Kong Yiji was quickly admitted to the hospital and underwent successful surgery to repair his right foot. 4 Q: L; Q5 V% Y- A, j’ C1 d 8 N$ W/ z) d) {: U; V& s* Y 　　After that, Kong Yiji, who had lost his right leg, was forced to make a living by using the broken wheelchair given to him by his fellow patients in the orthopedic ward upon his discharge, along with a simple crutch made from an aspen stick. Enduring the pain caused by his injuries, he worked hard drawing diagrams and adjusting machinery for others in order to earn as much money as possible to support himself. Later on, as the machinery industry in his country declined, Kong Yiji had even fewer opportunities to work. - k! p4 B1 k) c9 p$ w. ?) o 6 A, x3 A- p, T) _ And soon after that, the worn-out wheelchair that Kong Yiji used for daily transportation also broke down. The main reason for the failure was that the chain that drove the wheels broke and fell off the sprockets. In addition, the seal at the connection between the wheel and its axle became damaged, causing the steel balls inside it to fall out. Unable to afford the parts needed for repairs at that time, Kong Yiji no longer had a way to move around, and as a result, he appeared in public much less often in the days that followed. * U! M- B, n2 U9 }" l ) p; w, m( h. o: R However, for days on end he has remained locked in his room, sitting in front of an old notebook and playing single-player offline games like \"Bug Connect.\" Apart from the physical pain and the sense of loneliness that accompany him, not a soul comes to visit him throughout the day; it seems as though everyone in Luzhen has completely forgotten this down-and-out top student from a 211 university. 　　Whenever it rained, the old wound on Kong Yiji’s right leg would cause a sharp pain that was unbearable; he couldn’t enjoy his food, and at night he would toss and turn, unable to fall asleep ； Furthermore, he later lost the job of drawing that he relied on for a living; with no source of income, Kong Yiji had no choice but to tighten his belt and endure hard times. + Thereafter, Kong Yiji could only eat salty dried radishes with not a trace of oil at all, along with a tiny amount of corn porridge that was so thin it couldn’t get any thinner – porridge that required three puffs to stir it and three sucks to drink it. He struggled to make ends meet, sometimes having a meal and sometimes not, so Kong Yiji was always starving, his eyes blurred, and he felt constantly anxious. But in his heart, he still couldn’t forget those nineteen revised drawings he owed to Xianheng Mould Parts Manufacturing Factory. . ~: p" t3 R! `% p& N5 a7 G+ d 　　But after thinking it over, Kong Yiji realized that it was the XP operating system installed on his laptop; the startup files were missing, which in turn caused the startup files for Proe and UG also to become damaged to varying degrees. As a result, neither Proe nor UG could be launched. / Kong Yiji spent his days in a house without internet or broadband. Downloading anything in such conditions, and using a blank 8G USB drive to create a bootable drive for operating systems like Da Bai Cai or Lao Mao Tao, let alone reinstalling the operating system on his own laptop, must have been an impossible task. He thought about using crutches to slowly make his way outside, to someone else’s house in order to use their wireless signal, but the WIFI passwords set by those households were made up of Arabic numbers and letters, passwords that were so complex that even a universal password decoder couldn’t crack them. So Kong Yiji had no choice but to give up on that idea as well. Yet whenever he thought of those nineteen revised drawings he owed back then, he would forget the pain, the hunger, the humiliation... One day, Xiao Chao, the older boy living next door, returned from working outside and spent 1,200 dollars to install broadband service in his own home. When Xiao Chao learned that Kong Yiji was living in extreme hardship, he kindly gave him his home’s broadband password for free, hoping that Kong Yiji could use his wireless WIFI to repair his computer whose system files were damaged, so as to be able to connect to the internet and draw pictures to earn money and support himself. + @) j- a- m/ `9 z8 c 　　Yet at this very moment, Kong Yiji’s mind once again turned to those nineteen blueprints owed to Xianheng Mould Parts Manufacturing Factory. I had to hurry and create a startup disk using Chinese cabbage. So he reached out with his trembling hands, which were as thin as withered bamboo sticks, and kept searching through the pockets of his robe, underwear, and pants for the 8GB Kingston USB drive he had purchased earlier, as well as the card reader and two 8GB SD memory cards. But no matter how carefully Kong Yiji searched every corner of the pockets, he simply couldn’t find them! # p; n0 S5 h4 X+ G4 c) A 　　Kong Yiji would always lose his USB drives and memory cards while working. Every time he went outside to print drawings, those devices would end up lost wherever he left them, and over time his pockets would be completely empty. In the end, not even a trace of those memory cards or USB drives could be found. . D2 }1 z% W’ S% Q* M/ R# ? 3 a7 `! Kong Yiji raised his head to the sky and let out a deep sigh; as a result, his glasses, which were meant to correct his severe nearsightedness, fell to the concrete floor of his home with a clatter. The lens of his left eye shattered into several pieces instantly. Kong Yiji quickly bent down and tried hard to pick up his broken glasses, putting them back on his nose once more. * L# {; Y! V% y2 E5 o$ h Kong Yiji wore single-eyed glasses for nearsightedness; facing the screen of his laptop on the table, he simply closed his left eye, which had no lens, just as carpenters used to do. Through the intact lens, he stared intently with his right eye, clouded by age, at Baidu Tieba... Hey, now I’ve got it! - {7 z4 t( c/ e, } Kong Yiji thought once again about resuming his old occupation – designing custom machinery. He wanted to turn the 3D drawings he had created for those machines into 3D animations and post them on Baidu forums, so that business owners would come to him on their own. Yet as soon as he thought about designing custom machinery, he remembered how his previous drawings were copied by others, who used them to produce numerous pieces of equipment and sold them; he even tried to take legal action, but he couldn’t win against them. As a result, his body involuntarily started to tremble. / H* ^ `* M+ Z/ f1 ]$ r* o 　　Kong Yiji, who was starving, suddenly remembered that Xiao Chao’s parents often carried a speaker of moderate size to the square at the east end of the village, where they organized the older people in the village to dance there. Haha, since the music used for those dance sessions was also downloaded from the Internet, then the device used to play music in that speaker must be a card reader with an SD card inserted into it. Why not borrow that as well? 0 f% l, ?: K) |9 k4 c 　　Next, Kong Yiji boldly kept asking Xiao Chao to go home and bring back the card reader and SD card that his parents used for dancing, so that he could use them with the USB port of his laptop to create a boot disk for Windows, thereby reinstalling the operating system on his laptop and getting it back to normal operation as soon as possible. $ g’ b7 j, ~’ Y4 } $ F’ w8 f4 q2 ^7 D( X. a7 y+ D& f 　　With no other choice, Xiao Chao had to go home, secretly remove the card reader from the speaker as well as the memory card containing the songs for square dance performances, and then hand them over to Kong Yiji. When Kong Yiji took a look, he saw that it was an 8G memory card. He then plugged both the card reader and the memory card into the USB port of his laptop, copying all the songs on the memory card to the laptop’s hard drive as backup files. After that, he deleted all the songs from the memory card. Finally, he double-clicked on the Da Bai Cai startup disk file that had been downloaded to the computer’s hard drive, and quickly converted the memory card into a Da Bai Cai startup disk. Next, he copied the Windows XP Gost system files that he had downloaded from the Internet to the root directory of the Da Bai Cai file. + a) X8 v. \5 I3 d1 m/ ] Kong Yiji immediately disconnected from the network, restarted his computer’s operating system, and set it to boot from a USB drive. Once the system started up, he used the Da Bai Cai system, selected the older model option, deleted drive C, and reinstalled the XP operating system. One and a half hours later, Kong Yiji finally managed to install the XP system. After that, he searched for the Proe and UG5.0 installation files that had been saved on drive E, one by one. In total, it took him most of the day to successfully restore all the functions of the 3D design software on his laptop. " @: @After installing all the software, Kong Yiji plugged the card reader back into the laptop’s USB port. He formatted the memory card in FAT32 format, and then copied the square-dance songs that he had previously saved back onto the card. Yet no matter what Kong Yiji tried, the folder name on the memory card remained “Da Bai Cai Pan”. This did not affect the normal playback of the songs on the card, so Kong Yiji silently handed the memory card to Xiao Chao. - That night, Kong Yiji had a wonderful dream: in it, the equipment he had designed actually received a large order online. Foreigners were impressed by his custom-designed equipment and immediately decided to order one thousand sets of it. After that, through nearly half a year of recovery and rest, Kong Yiji’s injured leg had almost fully healed. Thereafter, Kong Yiji left that town of Lu, which caused him so much distress, and headed north, going straight to a region in the central part of his country to continue working as a mechanical designer. 　　And just over two years later, Kong Yiji, who was already at an age when success should have come his way, indeed saw his fortunes soar. The custom-designed equipment he created managed to gain a foothold in the market, and the worn-out suit he wore was replaced with a brand-name suit; his old, damaged shoes were swapped for brand-new ones from Old Man Head. He even acquired his own BMW, with a dedicated driver taking him to and from work every day. Thanks to this turn of fortune, Kong Yiji transformed completely from a poor mechanical design engineer into a well-known big boss in the industry. $ o8 a/ i& S6 |) V' G5 y $ n/ |) n! m& V/ D6 y 　　As customer orders kept increasing, the economic profits of Kong Yiji’s factory rose rapidly, like a snowball. By then he owned more than 10,000 square meters of standard manufacturing facilities as well as hundreds of machinery pieces for production. Kong Yiji became the chairman and owner in charge of technology at the factory, with over a hundred employees working under him. Later, he entered into a marriage with a foreigner and quickly earned over 20 million yuan, which caused his former employer—the Luzhen Xianheng Mold Parts Manufacturing Factory—to incur losses of over 20 million yuan. The hundreds of employees there lost their jobs, forcing the owner of Xianheng Mold Parts Manufacturing Factory to close down the business ahead of schedule. 4 J9 `1 ^) W) l- g# e& The manager of the mold parts manufacturing factory that used to mock and make fun of Kong Yiji has also lost his job, as has the plant’s production technical supervisor; they have all returned to Gaolaozhuang to live off their savings. After that, having lost my job at Xianheng Mould Parts Factory, I headed north in search of work. During one of these searches, I ran into Kong Yiji once again by chance. Ignoring our past differences, he hired me first and allowed me to continue doing the same job at his factory. Later, with Kong Yiji’s generous support, I was able to enter a university and study mechanical design and mechanical manufacturing in a systematic manner. o; c: G. u. i5 i5 A8 u l% w Family bonds, friendships, and love are all far inferior to financial interests. Kong Yiji’s wife, who had been remarried many years earlier, also decided to come and join him, along with their adult son. Ha ha ha! Now that Kong Yiji has become a wealthy boss, it’s great to have money at his disposal!