noffsinger Chapter 814 A hoe several feet long, is that a apt metaphor?
Chapter 814 A hoe several feet long, is that a apt metaphor?
Clang!
The notebook in Jiang Xia's hand fell to the ground with a thud, its pages scattering. He jerked his head up, his face initially showing disbelief and astonishment: "It succeeded? How... how could it have happened so much earlier than I knew?!"
Immediately, this astonishment was overwhelmed by an overwhelming surge of joy. It should have been sooner! It should have been sooner!
Their wings were almost broken from flapping, but finally we heard a sound!
He jumped up from the ground with a loud "Whoa!" and hopped around like a child, shouting, "We did it! We did it! Hahaha!"
Almost simultaneously, the workshop door was flung open with a bang, and Company Commander Tang rushed in carrying a lunchbox. This usually calm and collected man was now flushed with excitement, his words tumbling out incoherently: "Xiao Jiang! Did you hear that?! It's done! Our 'firecracker' has gone off!"
Seeing Jiang Xia jumping around, he forgot about the lunchbox in his hand, threw it on the table next to him, rushed over and hugged Jiang Xia. The two grown men laughed and jumped around without any regard for their image in the workshop full of instruments and equipment, their eyes red with excitement.
In stark contrast to them was Teacher Zu Tong standing beside the electric resistance furnace. The old man's body trembled slightly upon hearing the news, but his face remained unusually calm, even somewhat solemn.
Instead of cheering like the young people, he slowly turned around, stretched out his calloused, slightly trembling hands, and solemnly, one by one, turned off the power switches of all the experimental instruments.
When the indicator light on the last piece of equipment went out, and only the echoes of cheers from the young people remained in the workshop, it seemed as if Teacher Zutong had completed some kind of solemn ceremony.
He whirled around, his previously tense face instantly blossoming into a radiant, almost oblivious, smile. Tears welled in the deep wrinkles around his eyes as he clapped his hands vigorously and shouted, "Good! Good! Good!"
"Come on! Young men! Follow me! There's something good here!" Teacher Zu Tong's voice was loud and clear, filled with barely suppressed excitement.
He led the two men quickly toward his office, and from the deepest part of the cabinet, he carefully took out several heavy oil paper packages, opening them one by one—inside were several large rolls of bright red firecrackers!
"Hehe," Teacher Zutong laughed triumphantly, like a child who had hidden away good candy and was finally able to share it. "I've been secretly saving this up since the New Year, just waiting for today! Come on, let's go out into the yard and let everyone hear our good news!"
The three men, carrying firecrackers, ran to the open space in front of the Optical Research Institute. Company Commander Tang found a bamboo pole and hung the firecrackers on it. Jiang Xia took out a match, his hands trembling, and it took him three tries to light the fuse.
Soon, deafening firecrackers exploded in the open space at the entrance of the Institute of Optics and Electronics! Red paper scraps flew in the cold air, and the smell of gunpowder filled the air. This sudden noise immediately attracted many passersby to stop and watch.
People whispered among themselves, their faces filled with curiosity and speculation.
"Why is the Institute of Optics and Electronics setting off firecrackers? And so loudly, when it's not a holiday?"
"Judging from that announcement just now, did something big explode over to the west?"
What could make them this happy?
"I don't know, I just heard someone on the loudspeaker saying there was an atomic explosion?"
"What's an atom? Is it the one they fired? It was really powerful, and it made a really loud noise!"
"Who knows! Anyway, the people at this institute are always so mysterious! Last time I met a young man who kept muttering something about Abebe and some kind of 'refracting donkey' as we walked along..."
It was rush hour, and people were coming and going: middle-aged women buying groceries, young wives holding their babies to get some fresh air, and an old man carrying a hoe.
The old man squeezed to the front, looked at Jiangxia who was jumping and skipping in the snow, and boldly shouted: "Young man! What's the occasion that's making you so happy to be setting off firecrackers?"
Upon hearing the question, Jiang Xia ran over and grabbed the old man's hand, his face crinkling with laughter: "Grandpa! It's incredibly joyous news! Just now, a huge firecracker went off in the west of our country, the really powerful kind!"
"A firecracker?" The old man pushed his hat open a crack and reached inside to grab at things. "How powerful can it be? Louder than a firecracker set off during Chinese New Year?"
"Much louder!" Jiang Xia squatted down, grabbing a handful of firecracker scraps. "Let me put it this way, foreigners used to always try to scare us with these powerful things. Now we have them too! Once this 'big firecracker' goes off, they'll have to think twice before trying to bully us! You can hold your head high when you go out from now on!"
"Ah, oh, I see..." The old man looked at the scraps of paper Jiang Xia picked up and pouted in dissatisfaction.
"That's it? It sounds just like the new firecrackers the cooperative just brought in?"
"If we put one of these in our field, wouldn't even the corn stubble pop into popcorn?"
Jiang Xia was stunned. "Grandpa, forget about popping into popcorn, you'd probably be popped apart too..."
But the old man still had that "don't try to fool this old man" look on his face. Jiang Xia immediately realized that his analogy was indeed too abstract for ordinary people who didn't know the inside story.
It's no wonder that people have no idea.
Everything about the "young lady" was kept extremely secret. Many people involved might not realize the truth until years later when the secrets were finally revealed.
"Hey! So that's what that precision steel pipe in my car was used for back then!"
"Hey, that membrane I developed back then was actually used on the young lady!"
The most skillful secrecy does not necessarily involve isolating people in the desert, but rather allowing each person to perform their job in their respective role, like building ordinary parts, without knowing what kind of earth-shattering "national treasure" they will eventually assemble into.
So why do people always say that our young lady is truly the people's young lady... she was truly raised on the charity of many families!
Fortunately, our silly little guy realized this and immediately changed his tune.
He slapped his thigh and pointed at the hoe the old man was carrying: "Grandpa! Let me put it another way and you'll understand! What's that hoe for? To dig the ground and weed. If a stray dog comes to our vegetable garden to steal vegetables, don't you have to hold up the hoe to chase it away?"
The old man nodded: "Of course! A hoe is a good hoe. If anyone tries to damage the crops, I'll fight them!"
“That’s right!” Jiang Xia moved closer to the old man, his tone even more earnest. “Our ‘big firecracker’ is just like your hoe, but it’s a ‘twice-long iron hoe’! Before, foreign devils would come to our door every few days with ‘short sticks’ to steal our grain and occupy our land. We didn’t have any handy tools, so we could only hold our anger in. Now that we have this ‘long hoe,’ we don’t have to wait for them to get close to us. From dozens of miles away, we can smash their ‘short sticks’ and thwart their bad intentions!”
From now on, you can grow vegetables in your own yard without worrying about anyone tearing down the wall; you won't have to worry about anyone stealing the grain grown by the villagers; and even our children won't have to worry about anyone causing trouble when they go to school or work. This 'long hoe' is right at our doorstep; whoever bullies us, we'll give them a good whack! Isn't that great?"
The old man's cloudy eyes widened instantly. He instinctively gripped the hoe handle, as if truly assessing the power of that "tens of feet long." His face first showed shock, then his wrinkles spread out like chrysanthemums, revealing his gap-toothed grin. He excitedly slammed the hoe down heavily: "Oh my! Such a big thing?! That's incredible! So reassuring! So reassuring!"
Now everyone understood.
"Hey! You should have said so earlier!" The surrounding crowd burst into laughter and chatter, instantly bringing the atmosphere to a climax.
"What are you all standing there for!" the old man exclaimed excitedly, waving his arms. "If you have any stock at home, bring it out and put it down! Let's celebrate this 'Great Sage's Hoe'!"
"Yes, yes, yes! Set off firecrackers!"
Well, the "young lady" has suddenly become the formidable "guardian hoe" in the eyes of the common people. One wonders what the true master deep in the desert would think of Jiangxia's down-to-earth analogy if he knew. He would probably be pleased that his power has been understood and accepted by his fellow villagers in this way.
However, in this world, joy and sorrow are inevitable for some. Dialectics tells us that everything has two sides. While we are celebrating with great fanfare, others are naturally feeling uneasy and uneasy.
The first to be affected was that neighbor who lived just across the river and had committed countless bloody crimes.
Gentlemen... the sky has fallen!