A nation's industrial development begins with junior engineers.

Jiangxia slunk away, taking advantage of the situation.

Actually, it was his senior brother from Yunnan and Guizhou who contacted him. Of course, he still managed to slip several "Yongzi" coins into his bag before leaving.

Why call me a thief? This is the spoils of war.

No matter what kind of chess game it was, he won, didn't he?

It's only right for the winner to take some of the spoils!

As for Go, boss, live a few more years, and then we'll create a program to collect all the game records. Jiang Xia is ready to have another three hundred battles with him.

Back in the underground laboratory, I answered a phone call from my senior brother from Yunnan and Guizhou.

"Xiao Jiang, I've set up the modem, but it keeps showing 'no signal found'! I've checked it twice and made sure it's connected to the right port!"

"Do you think we need to check the circuit board?"

As he spoke, Senior Brother Yungui looked at the seaweed-covered circuit board with some irritation, and a strange chill ran down his spine.

"Oh no, that can't be! My server port is open!" Little Dumb Hair looked at the interface on "Big Yellow Clone" and scratched his head in confusion after confirming that the telnet server interface was open.

He had already scanned those circuit boards and confirmed their reliability.

Furthermore, this modem wasn't the initial version; it also had a built-in small controller that could issue commands to control the telephone line, enabling simulated off-hook, dialing, redialing, and hanging-up functions. This is precisely why these circuit boards were so large…

Wait! Automatic dialing?

A sudden flash of inspiration struck Jiang Xia, and he slapped his forehead: "Damn! The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications is still using manual exchange. No matter how advanced the automatic dialing function is, where can it dial?"

Damn, after all that effort and trouble to come up with something that only existed in the 1980s, we've moved it to the present day and it still doesn't work?

Is this considered suppression by the times?

Jiang Xia, whose little ahoge (cowlick) had drooped again, called over Teacher Pei Shu and the others.

"Ahem, teachers, it seems the lab stuff isn't quite working properly yet. But no worries. Let's make an acoustic coupler!"

"Two computers making a phone call over a telephone line? You've never seen that before, have you..."

Everyone received a call for help from Senior Brother Yun Gui, and they had been wondering whether the problem was with the phone line or with the circuit board that little brat Jiang Xia had soldered.

They were so focused on troubleshooting the circuits and hardware that they didn't even consider the possibility that Jiangxia's circuit boards were too advanced.

After all, who could have imagined that an innovative achievement that was originally ahead of its time would fall into a predicament because it was too advanced?

Perhaps this is the bittersweet reality of happiness, a clumsy consequence of high-tech ideals.

……

There's not much to say about acoustic couplers.

It's not too complicated to make; it's just two rubber cups, a speaker and a microphone, along with an electronic circuit that converts audio signals to digital signals.

Disassembling two existing telephones and adding a pre-existing tape drive conversion circuit was a piece of cake for the Academy of Sciences' underground factory.

The problem is that rubber cups are difficult to make; there's a shortage of raw materials, and the small amount imported is almost entirely used to make truck wheels. To achieve rubber independence, we'll have to wait for the "Red Women's Army" (a group of women working in the rubber industry) to successfully plant the trees.

Finally, Teacher Pei came up with a solution. She collected the hair ties from the female warriors, heated them, and glued them together, which was barely usable...

After all, most hair ties these days are modified from "pulse-compression belts." The poor always find a way!

Watching the teachers bustling about, Jiang Xia put his hands in his pockets and sighed deeply.

Because the teachers disliked his terribly bad skills, they resolutely refused to let him work.

Watching the busy people, Jiang Xia's thoughts drifted off to who-knows-where again.

First, I marveled at the problem-solving spirit of today's researchers, then I lamented how long it would be before I could use the simulation control device I had painstakingly soldered...

No, when we demonstrate this to the French, we absolutely have to disassemble this controller. Otherwise, with their superior telecommunications capabilities, they'll be able to take it apart in no time.

Wouldn't that be doing the work for the enemy?

Wait, that's not right either. This thing is written in C, so even if they disassemble it, it doesn't seem to make much of a difference.

Speaking of C, shouldn't we buy it from the hosting store? We should have enough points by now...?

……

While Jiang Xia was lost in thought, the two acoustic couplers, still emitting the distinctive smell of rubber, had already been assembled.

One stayed where he was, while the other was sent to the outer section of the charcoal pit.

Once everything was in place and the call connected, Jiang Xia pressed the phone against the rubber cup of the acoustic coupler.

Next, with the crackling of the electrical signal coming from the microphone, the two large yellow computers, fifty miles apart, began transferring files.

"It's moving! It's moving!"

"Quickly take a look at the document from the Yunnan-Guizhou Bureau."

The researchers excitedly shut down the server program and reopened the document editor.

"Warmest congratulations to our researchers for another historic breakthrough!"

"Huh? When did Yunnan and Guizhou become so eloquent? Haha, is he trying to pat himself on the back?"

The researchers, seeing that the sentence in the document had been repeated three times, couldn't help but tease their friend, saying that if they had written it themselves, it would definitely have sounded better.

"Shut up!"

"Look at the signature below!"

Minister Wang of the Fourth Ministry of Machinery Industry and the Minister of the Foreign Coking Department have returned to the underground laboratory. The meticulous Minister Wang clicked the cursor, and the signature at the end of the document was displayed to everyone.

“m…”

The room fell silent.

Minister Wang of the Fourth Ministry of Machinery Industry also trembled as he looked at the Minister of the Foreign Coking Department behind him, his eyes revealing eagerness.

"Is he/she an elderly person?"

"Yes! It should be right. He did say he was coming to discuss some things today. I didn't expect him to arrive so early!" The Minister of the External Affairs Department nodded.

"Alright, I've seen what I needed to see. It's time to head back. Oh, and could you send me a message saying I'm coming back right away?"

The researchers, with tears in their eyes, immediately edited a document and sent the message over via the server's file distribution function.

Dadadada~~

The radio signal in the microphone rang again.

Less than two minutes later, another document came from the other end.

The message read only one line: "Received! The old man said to let the boss walk slowly, he hasn't finished his cigarette yet!"

"Haha, that was quick! Let's go!"

The Minister of the External Affairs Department patted Jiangxia's head and then grabbed a handful of chess pieces and stuffed them into his hand.

"You little brat, Black has 181 stones and White has 180. I'll round it up for you today. Come find me if you need more!"

Ah! Are there even any Go stones left?

Jiang Xia apologized to the old man, feeling embarrassed, and after seeing him out, quickly returned to his computer.

"Quickly! Switch the program to TELNET mode! Transferring files is still a bit slow!"

"Huh? Why did you change it? Isn't this a good opportunity to test the transmission performance?"

"Same here! Don't you want to chat with the elderly a little longer?"

"miss you!"

With her eyes shining, Teacher Pei pushed past the original researcher and began to move her hands rapidly.

"Hello, sir!"

We miss you so much!