【Serial】Design Story 57 – Working Hard

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This post was last edited by colinzh on 2015-12-11 at 11:25. (57) Working hard – when busy, each day seems like an eternity, yet time passes by very quickly. Spending every day staring at the CAD window, carefully considering the route and position of each pipe, checking for any collisions between them, and imagining what the process would look like in practice, left Ye Wenhui feeling exhausted after just a few hours. Especially the cervical spine and shoulders – due to prolonged inactivity, they become stiff as if they don’t belong to one’s own body, which is very uncomfortable. Ye Wenhui doesn’t know how others manage to endure it. He thought, “Is this how design work is done?” Does one get *used to it over time? ”No one told him that, in his opinion, the others weren’t having it any easier either; maybe he should have asked the leader who was in charge at the time of starting school? He remembered again the conversation from years ago between that energetic young man and a middle-aged man: “I want to work in chemical engineering design in the future.” ” “Hehe, then you’ll be tired in the future. ” Hehe, it’s indeed tiring, but it’s a fulfilling kind of tiredness. After a day of hard work, seeing the results of one’s own efforts makes Ye Wenhui feel satisfied despite being tired; all the knowledge he has acquired over the past twenty years finally finds some practical application. With this idea in mind, Ye Wenhui no longer found the work hard; on the contrary, a strong desire arose in him: I want to become an expert in the field of chemical engineering design! It is said that many design institutes have master designers who receive special allowances from the State Council; each of them has a high-caliber team at their disposal and can access substantial resources, enabling them to get immediate responses whenever they give a command. In Ye Wenhui’s view, design is something tangible; every aspect of it is built through genuine skill. Becoming an expert in design, or even a master designer, represents the highest recognition that society and the industry can offer to designers for their abilities. This recognition is entirely real and devoid of any falsity. This honor is even higher than that of academicians; being a design master represents the highest achievement for designers. While working on the piping, Ye Wenhui daydreamed, full of passion; when he was happy with his work, he would even hum songs. “I am a wanderer who is always on the move, heading toward distant places; you are my woman among the sea of people. On these roads in foreign lands, every cold night, this longing for her hurts me like a knife.” The person working nearby heard Ye Wenhui humming while working, and looked at him as if to say, “Wow, sis, have you gone crazy?” ” Ye Wenhui’s mind was filled with thoughts about piping; he didn’t even understand what Tian Jing was saying when she spoke. He turned to her, gave her a slight smile, and asked, “What did you say?” I didn’t hear that clearly just now. ” Tian Jing was a bit at a loss for words; she glanced at Ye Wenhui and said, “It’s okay, it’s fine. Go on with what you’re doing.” ” Ye Wenhui turned around and continued working on the piping. Tian Jing thought to herself, “What a monster!” ” Only when it was time to stop working and have a meal would Ye Wenhui rub his shoulders and neck, looking at the results of his hard work throughout the day, before he could finally relax. Ye Wenhui stood up, raised his arms to the sky, and stretched lazily, his bones creaking loudly, which left Tian Jing utterly astonished. In the blink of an eye, four days have passed. Ye Wenhui has worked several nights in a row without taking any time off over the weekend; the piping work is finally reaching its conclusion. The design institute where Ye Wenhui works does not provide overtime pay; an employee’s income is tied to the projects they complete, and working overtime is to some extent a voluntary decision on the part of the employees. After all, the more projects completed, the higher the income, which serves as compensation for working overtime. For Ye Wenhui at the moment, he doesn’t really care whether there is overtime pay or not. Although he hopes to earn more money, he has no idea what amount would be considered much. After earning a salary just over a thousand for several months in a row, Ye Wenhui began to realize that a newcomer to the workplace has more potential value; at present, his actual value is still quite low. He was already quite satisfied that the company could provide him with enough money for living expenses. On Tuesday, Ye Wenhui completed the first version of the pipeline layout diagram. He spent most of the day studying Sister Meng’s process flow chart and pipeline specifications, and after being sure that there were no issues, he sent the diagram to Sister Meng. Meng Jie was surprised that the piping diagrams could be completed so quickly. Although this project wasn’t very large and the piping system wasn’t particularly complex, there were still hundreds of pipes involved, which is already a considerable number for a newcomer. These past few days, Sister Meng has also noticed Ye Wenhui’s work attitude. As the project leader, she is pleased that the team members are able to work with such high efficiency. However, as a designer herself, encountering such a capable newcomer has made her feel a sense of crisis, along with feelings of jealousy, without even realizing it herself. After receiving the drawings, Sister Meng was so surprised that she even exclaimed out loud. She praised Ye Wenhui repeatedly, saying, “Xiao Ye has been working very diligently every day these past few days; we’ve all seen that. I didn’t expect you to finish the piping work so quickly. If it were up to me, I probably wouldn’t be able to do it that fast. That’s great – you have a bright future ahead of you, hehe…” Hearing Sister Meng’s compliments, Ye Wenhui felt a bit proud of himself, though his face still turned red. He then said to Sister Meng, “It’s really thanks to Sister Meng’s help. I just imitated the drawings you provided; there must still be many mistakes in them. I hope Sister Meng can take a look at them for me.” ” Sister Meng nodded and said, “Okay, I’ll take some time to look at it. In the meantime, you should start preparing the list of pipe sections. Since you’ve already created the table of pipe grades and the pipe layout diagrams, I’m sure you have an idea of what pipe materials should be used. Hurry up with this task; the amount of work involved in determining the pipe materials is quite significant as well.” ” “Okay, thank you, Sister Meng. I’ll start counting right away. If there are any things I don’t understand, I’ll have to ask you for help. ” “Giggle... Please don’t be polite; we’re all colleagues, after all, let’s learn together! By the way, I need to tell you something: the owner of this project is getting anxious. In the next few days, they might send someone over to urge us to speed things up. Don’t slack off; it will be a tough period, so try to finish as soon as possible and hand in the work early. ” “Okay, Sister Meng, I understand. ”Ye Wenhui had originally planned to finish it earlier, so he didn’t pay much attention to Sister Meng’s urging. But then, what’s with the owner pressing for it? He doesn’t quite understand. On Thursday, after another two days of hard work, less than half of the pipe section table had been completed. Only then did Ye Wenhui begin to understand what Sister Meng meant – compiling the pipe section table was no less time-consuming than handling the piping tasks; it required counting and measuring each item one by one, which was essentially doing all the piping work over again. In addition, the pipe materials must be entered into the pipe table in a specified format; the specifications and materials of the pipes, their length, as well as the types and quantities of flanges, gaskets, and fasteners, along with the specifications, models, and quantities of fittings and valves, all need to be accurately recorded one by one. Although I have designed gas stations and thus gained some experience in creating pipe section tables, the pipelines in gas stations are quite simple. Ye Wenhui could use the previous pipe section tables as a template, with hardly any need for modifications; for this project, I had to fill in the information entirely on my own. While filling out the form, Ye Wenhui didn’t have many options; he had to fill in the information one by one while doing mental calculations. Sometimes he would fill in one item only to forget about another. At first, it took him more than half a day to complete less than 10 tubes, and it took over an hour just to handle the first tube. Fortunately, after two days of hard work, Ye Wenhui gradually figured out the pattern for filling out the forms, and his speed improved significantly. Sister Meng sent Ye Wenhui the suggestions for modifying the drawings; she adjusted the positions of several pipes, added more drain and vent points in several locations, and also provided Ye Wenhui with recommendations regarding pipe supports. Upon seeing these suggestions for changes, Ye Wenhui felt dizzy. If there is anything more frustrating than drawing, it is modifying drawings. Thus, Ye Wenhui also became aware of his own shortcomings. By imitating the drawing process, although there were no major issues overall, he lacked careful consideration in the details, which led to some mistakes – something that was inevitable. Helplessly, Ye Wenhui had no choice but to be patient and make the necessary revisions according to Sister Meng’s suggestions. As for the pipe section table, there were also changes that needed to be made one by one. ““Hello, Engineer Meng… gugu…” While Ye Wenhui was busy editing the images, he suddenly heard a woman’s voice. Looking up, he saw a tall woman walking past him in a hurry, heading straight toward Sister Meng’s work station. A faint fragrance remained in the air, making one feel pleasant and leaving a lasting impression.