【Serial】The Growth Story of a Chemical Engineering Designer - 38

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This post was last edited by colinzh on 2015-6-6 23:43. (38) “Hello Sister Liu; it’s the first time I’ve seen you in the community.” ”As soon as he reached the vicinity of the pavilion, Ye Wenhui greeted Liu Shuang. “Xiaoye, you also live here? ”Upon seeing Ye Wenhui enter, Liu Shuang stepped away from a group of old ladies and spoke to him. “Yes, I’m living in the company dormitory now. ”It surprised Ye Wenhui that Liu Shuang didn’t know he lived here. The two of them talked back and forth for a while, after which Liu Shuang asked Ye Wenhui, “What have you been up to lately?” ” Seeing Liu Shuang ask this, Ye Wenhui thought to himself, “Great! This is the perfect opportunity to update Liu Shuang on the current situation.” He replied, “After sending out the drawings for the Chunhui Petrochemical gas station and those for Mingyue Chemical, I haven’t had much work to do lately; I’ve been reading books to learn more.” ” Liu Shuang said, “You’re going to take the registration exam this year, right?” Study hard and pass the exam first. ” Ye Wenhui said to Liu Shuang in a joking tone, \"Sis Liu, I’ve been reading books lately; I’ve gone through them once again. The first few days were fine, but after reading for longer periods of time, I found it hard to continue. I’m afraid that in another month I might go crazy. Is there any work you can assign me to do?\" ” “Haha…” Upon hearing this, Liu Shuang burst into laughter and then said, “There’s progress! They’re all volunteering to do the work! ” “Hehe... I can’t stay still; I work while reading, and the efficiency might even be higher than just reading by itself. ” Liu Shuang gave Ye Wenhui a careful look, nodded, and said, \"Alright, I’ll arrange something for you to do tomorrow. Recently, you all have exams, and several of you have asked me to put off working on projects until after the exams. But you, on the other hand, are the exception.\" ” Ye Wenhui said, “Haha... Actually, I also want to prepare well for the exams, but I’ve had ADHD since I was young and find it difficult to concentrate. It’s easier for me to focus when doing several things at once rather than focusing on just one thing.” ” Liu Shuang said in surprise, “This is the first time I’ve heard of something like this. That’s not ADHD at all; if it were ADHD, one would be unable to concentrate no matter what, hehe…” Both of them laughed. Liu Shuang pointed to the side and said to Ye Wenhui, “Xiao Ye, let me test you. Take a look—what is this?” ” Ye Wenhui looked in the direction Liu Shuang pointed to. There was a flower bed enclosed by a fence; in the center of the flower bed stood a tree. The flower bed seemed fairly clean, except for a white plastic bag hanging on a rose bush, swaying gently in the breeze. But seeing Liu Shuang’s teasing expression, he felt that the problem wasn’t as simple as he had thought. Ye Wenhui thought for a moment and said, “These are your fingers.” ” “Giggle…” Liu Shuang said with a smile, “You’re quite smart; your way of observing things is a bit unique. I’ll ask you again, this time more seriously. What do you think this is? ”While speaking, he still pointed with his finger at the side. Ye Wenhui was still secretly pleased with his own answer when he heard Liu Shuang asking him the same question again; he realized that things might not be as he had thought. He glanced at where Liu Shuang was pointing and said, “A plastic bag.” ” Liu Shuang said nothing. She looked at Ye Wenhui and continued to point in that direction with her finger, as if asking Ye Wenhui to answer once more. Seeing Liu Shuang’s enigmatic expression, Ye Wenhui was very confused. He couldn’t figure out what Liu Shuang meant, so he obediently answered once again: “A flower bed.” ” Liu Shuang glanced at Ye Wenhui for a moment, then asked, “Are you sure?” ” Ye Wenhui was a bit confused. When Liu Shuang asked him, he replied hesitantly, \"Are you sure?\" ” “Are you really sure? What is your answer? ” Ye Wenhui decided to go all in and replied firmly, “It’s settled – one flower bed.” ”But deep down, he was still wondering what Liu Shuang really meant What would be the right way to answer? Liu Shuang retracted his finger and said to Ye Wenhui seriously, \"Wrong answer.\" ” Upon hearing what Liu Shuang said, Ye Wenhui’s face immediately turned red. Hesitantly, he asked Liu Shuang, “President Liu, what exactly is that over there?” ” “Take your time to think about it; ask me again if you can’t figure it out. ”After that, Liu Shuang patted Ye Wenhui on the shoulder and walked away alone. Ye Wenhui stood still, letting his hair become disheveled in the air. Ye Wenhui thought for a long time but still couldn’t figure out what the correct answer was. When he returned to the dormitory that night, he told Li Mengyuan and the others the question Liu Shuang had asked him. The group discussed it for a long time, but still couldn’t come up with a definite answer. Over the years, Ye Wenhui and Shu Fen have made a phone call to each other before going to bed; it has become a habit. No matter how busy they are, they must do this, otherwise it feels like something is missing, and neither of them can sleep soundly. Before going to bed, Ye Wenhui called Shu Fen and told her about what had happened in the evening. After hearing this, Shu Fen said on the phone, \"You’re silly; there’s no right answer to this kind of thing.\" Whatever you say is what it is; you’re so stupid. I asked you to answer three times, and yet you gave three different answers – your stance is extremely unstable. ” Shu Fen’s words made Ye Wenhui see things clearly; he couldn’t help feeling ashamed of his answer today. Liu Shuang asked what \"this\" was; it seemed she wasn’t referring to anything specific. She kept asking herself whether she could stick to her own opinions. Looking back now, her answer today was truly disappointing. Thinking of this, he became a bit worried about Liu Shuang’s impression of him – had his performance today disappointed her? “What are you doing? Speak! ”After a while, since no sound came from Ye Wenhui, Shu Fen on the other end of the phone called out again. Ye Wenhui hurriedly replied, “I’m still here; I was thinking about a few things.” ” Shufen on the other end of the phone said, “Tch, do you feel like a failure? Are you upset?” The stance is too weak! If you think like this, you won’t be able to figure it out no matter how long you think about it. ” “So how should one think about it? ” “Do you still remember that couplet I saw while shopping in Taitung? It was at that shop that sells roujiamo; just like that. ” Taidong is a famous pedestrian street in Qingdao. Back when he was in the city, he and Shu Fen often went there for a stroll. Hearing Shu Fen mention couplets, Ye Wenhui immediately thought of that interesting roujiamo shop. He said, “Sheep don’t get tanned in the mountains.” ” Shu Fen said, “Pigs won’t stay warm in the pen.” ” The two said in unison, “I am who I am!” Haha…” After laughing, Shufen said on the other end of the phone, “You’re not even as good as a pig. No one can hide their true feelings; you’re not firm enough. Next time you see her, just say what’s on your mind – don’t be afraid of her. ” “Yes, sir! I just realized how amazing you are! ”After being enlightened by Shu Fen, Ye Wenhui felt extremely relieved; when he met Liu Shuang again, he knew exactly what to say. “Cut! If there’s nothing to talk about, just hang up! I’m going to bed! ”After saying that, Shufen on the other end hung up the phone. The next afternoon, Liu Shuang said in the company’s QQ group, “Ye Wenhui is coming.” ”Send Ye Wenhui to her office. Ye Wenhui had been looking forward to this for a long time; he hardly read anything throughout the morning. Upon seeing the message from Liu Shuang, he hurriedly strode into Liu Shuang’s office, full of confidence for this confrontation. Entering the office, Liu Shuang took out a piece of paper and said to Ye Wenhui, “There’s a gas filling station; you should take care of it. The contract has already been signed.” ”After saying that, he handed the piece of paper to Ye Wenhui. On that paper, it said, “Design Brief for the Third Gas Filling Station of Linyi Fengyuan Special Gases Co., Ltd.” The construction site was in Linyi. He was the designer responsible for the process engineering; Liu Meng served as the checker, while Zhu Yuewen was the reviewer. Liu Meng is also from their department; she’s a woman in her twenties, around the same age as Tang Xiaojing. She has been at the company for over a month now, and she already knows Ye Wenhui, who works in the same department. Hui Ye held the Design Assignment Document and felt a bit excited; it was another project he had never done before, and he would learn a lot this time. Ye Wenhui had been waiting for Liu Shuang to tell him about what had happened the previous day, but after handing him the task assignment, Liu Shuang simply said, \"The exams are approaching; you need to manage your time well between studying and working. Don’t neglect either one – make sure to take care of both. Alright, go back now.\" ” Ye Wenhui felt a sense that he couldn’t express through words, an indescribable discomfort. He hesitated for a moment, then mustered up the courage to say to Liu Shuang, \"President Liu, I know the answer from yesterday now.\" ” Liu Shuang raised his head, looked at Ye Wenhui, and said, “You already know?” Come, sit down and tell me. ”Liu Shuang pointed at the sofa. After sitting down on the sofa, Ye Wenhui said, “The question you asked yesterday actually has no fixed answer; it was meant to see how the responder would perform.” ” “Hehe... So, what’s your answer? ” Ye Wenhui said, “Yesterday, when you stretched out your finger, there were flower beds, trees, plastic bags, leaves in the flower beds, and fences surrounding them. All these things, including your finger, could be one of the answers to the question.” But which answer is correct depends on the circumstances at the time it happened. At that time we were just chatting; there was no specific matter, and if there was anything, it was related to chemical engineering design topics. ” Liu Shuang smiled and signaled Ye Wenhui to continue. “Since there’s no specific answer, my answer simply reflects my personal temperament. If my answer is your fingers, it means that what I focus on is the origin of something, rather than the thing itself. In chemical engineering design, this translates to paying attention to things such as the background of the design project, the company undertaking the construction, the scale of investment in the project, and other factors that have little to do with technology, rather than the technical problems that need to be solved in the design. This answer suggests that I am somewhat cynical, inclined to be clever, and often self-righteous; after understanding just the surface aspects of something, I assume I understand everything. If my answer is plastic bags, it means that I focus on the details of things. In terms of chemical engineering design, this translates to paying attention to flaws in specific aspects of the design rather than the overall project as a whole. This answer indicates that I prefer to delve into details and am good at identifying imperfections in designs, but I lack the ability to grasp the overall picture of the design. As a result, I might spend a lot of time on tasks, manage to handle some details well, yet fail to identify the key aspects, which leads to delays in completing the work. If my answer is a flower bed, it means that I am relatively practical; what I see is the true nature of things. In chemical engineering design, this implies an ability to understand the overall requirements of a project, with no major omissions, but there might be oversights in the details. After completing the design, failure to pay attention to these details can lead to problems, and in severe cases, it may result in rework or even design failures. Of course, these aren’t the main aspects of the problem. The most crucial part is that it tests my mental fortitude—whether I have enough confidence to remain steadfast in my beliefs despite external interference. I did poorly on this aspect; I need to learn more and practice more in the future. ” Liu Shuang said, “Sure. Thinking about so much in just one night… Actually, I was going to test you yesterday. Only the last thing you mentioned came to mind; I hadn’t thought of all those things you mentioned earlier.” ” Ye Wenhui said, “Hehe… you performed exceptionally well.” ” Liu Shuang said, “It’s great. As designers, we should reach such a professional level, have sufficient confidence in the projects we design, and even if there are other alternatives, we must be convinced that our own approach is correct.” Choosing a design scheme isn’t about picking the right one from among the wrong options; it’s about selecting the best one from those that are correct. Well, go back and study hard – young people can be taught. ” “Thank you, President Liu. ”After that, Ye Wenhui stood up, took the new “Design Brief”, and returned to his workstation.