Chapter 79: Virus?

Ye Haibin’s student muttered, “By the time we’re done fixing it, there’ll be no need for you to step in.”

Du Qiu smiled and said, “That would be a happy outcome for everyone, wouldn’t it?”

Ning Yuzhe, seeing that Du Qiu had no objections, immediately nodded and said, “Then we’ll have to trouble Dr. Ye.”

Just as Ye Haibin was about to walk over, Du Qiu suddenly asked, “Dr. Ye, how long will you need to fix this equipment?”

Ye Haibin faltered in his step, then proudly said, “Not too long, roughly more than half an hour, but definitely not more than an hour.”

His words were lively, quickly upgrading from half an hour to an hour.

Vice President Zhao stepped forward and asked, “Dr. Ye, do you need a hand?”

“No need, my students will suffice.”

Ye Haibin, with his student, began operating on the equipment.

Ye Haibin didn’t start the repairs immediately but first conducted a quick check of the part where the fault occurred. After reconfirming his diagnosis, he then began to get the system running in debug mode.

Chief Engineer Tang, standing by, explained to Ning Yuzhe, “Dr. Ye has studied Haas Machining Centers in the United States. He’s very familiar with both the software and the hardware.

Otherwise, I wouldn’t have asked for his help. Also, the Machine Tool Research Institute is a state-grade organization, so keeping secrets is not a problem, right?”

Ning Shuangshuang suddenly said, “It’s not for you to guarantee whether confidentiality will be an issue. We’ll investigate thoroughly.”

The Chief Engineer Tang was surprised. He knew that Ning Shuangshuang came from the security department and seemed to be a leader.

He chuckled awkwardly, “Yes, indeed, that is within your work scope.”

Meanwhile, Du Qiu had started chatting with Vice President Zhao. Vice President Zhao Yicheng was well-versed in the precision machine tool industry and had a technical background. He was currently the Deputy Director of Technology at Feiyu Technology.

He had previously had a heated argument with Chief Engineer Tang due to technical issues involving the deployment of an unmanned production line. Since then, the two had held a grudge against each other.

“This production line was crafted under Chief Engineer Tang’s leadership. I can understand his protective instincts, but it’s nonsense to not correct what’s obviously amiss,” said Vice President Zhao.

Some distance from Chairman Ning, Chief Engineer Tang, and the others, Zhao Yicheng deliberately lowered his voice, so there was no worry about being overheard by Chief Engineer Tang.

Du Qiu could tell that this had become a bone of contention for Zhao Yicheng; otherwise, he wouldn’t have discussed it with someone he was meeting for the first time.

Of course, the main reason was that Du Qiu was a technologist who understood the subject. After Zhao Yicheng brought up the points of contention from their previous dispute, it was clear that Du Qiu sided with him.

As a result, Zhao Yicheng found himself unwittingly relating the whole story of the past.

Through his chat with Zhao Yicheng, Du Qiu found that Zhao was very knowledgeable in the high-end machining center field, and he had a wide-ranging network of contacts in the country’s machine tool industry.

This made Du Qiu value Zhao Yicheng highly. If he could entice such a talent to join his own company, the promotion of the Heavenly System could be greatly accelerated.

Alas, Zhao Yicheng was currently the Deputy Director of Technology at Feiyu Technology, a public enterprise. It seemed unlikely that he would switch to Du Qiu’s smaller company.

Time had flown by, and an hour had passed.

Ye Haibin had not yet completed the equipment repair and was now restarting the machine with sweat pouring down his face.

Ning Yuzhe looked at his watch but did not urge aloud.

Seeing this, Chief Engineer Tang internally criticized, “Old Ye was too honest. He should’ve stated a longer time earlier. Why constrain himself so tightly?”

After some thought, he approached Ye Haibin and whispered, “How’s it looking?”

Ye Haibin looked up with a smile, “After the restart, there shouldn’t be any problems.”

“Good. As expected of a Doctor who’s studied abroad,” Chief Engineer Tang replied, delighted, and returned to Ning Yuzhe’s side, saying, “Chairman Ning, Dr. Ye has fixed the equipment. It’s restarting now, and it should be usable afterwards.”

Ning Yuzhe nodded and said, “Good, if the equipment is fixed today, we shouldn’t face any delays in the schedule.”

“The restart was successful. No problems now!”

As Ye Haibin saw the normal codes flashing on the controller screen, a great weight lifted from his heart, and he couldn’t help but shout.

Ning Yuzhe’s face showed a smile as he stepped forward and said, “Dr. Ye, truly magnificent talent! Thank you for your hard work, this time…”

Before he could finish, the machining center suddenly emitted a warning sound, and a red light started flashing.

Zhao Yicheng, who had just come over, shut down the machine immediately.

“How could this be? It was already fixed!” Ye Haibin’s face turned pale as he looked at the machining center as if it was an unruly beast.

Ning Yuzhe’s expression became serious as he asked, “Yicheng, what’s going on?”

Zhao Yicheng replied with a bitter smile, “It’s the same problem; it has recurred.”

Ye Haibin looked completely deflated, an experience he had never encountered while using Haas machines in the United States.

Chief Engineer Tang murmured, “What are we to do? If this delays any further and we miss the deadline for delivering parts, it will be a serious problem.”

“Chairman Ning, let me give it a try,” Du Qiu’s voice suddenly cut through, reminding everyone that he and Ye Haibin had arranged to take turns attempting the repairs.

Chief Engineer Tang, somewhat impatiently, said, “Dr. Ye has failed. With you being so young, please don’t add to the confusion.”

“Du Qiu, come here!” Ning Yuzhe’s voice was very firm. It was his own recruit after all, and he was not to be taken lightly.

Even though he was unsure whether Du Qiu could indeed fix the device, since Du Qiu had said he could earlier, he had to be given the chance.

After all, this young man was the one who single-handedly created top-tier numerical control software.

Such talent was exceedingly rare in the country.

Du Qiu nodded and approached the control panel for the machining center.

But instead of starting the machine straight away, he disconnected the equipment from the production line network.

“Huh? If the network connection is disconnected, the machine won’t be able to work in conjunction with the production line,” said Chief Engineer Tang, puzzled by the move.

Zhao Yicheng stared blankly, murmuring to himself, “Could it really be a problem with the production line’s automatic control system?

But how could that affect the internal machining program processes of the machining center?”

Du Qiu worked quickly. After disconnecting the network, he rapidly debugged the machining center’s program code, removed the errors, and reset many of the statuses.

He then turned to Zhao Yicheng, “Vice President Zhao, do you have a laptop? I need one to connect to the production line’s server.”

“Oh, sure, just a moment,” Zhao Yicheng replied, quickly fetching a laptop and a network cable.

Du Qiu took them and pulled out a USB drive from his pocket, plugging it into the computer and booting from it.

The computer soon ran in a debugging environment, and Du Qiu connected it to the production line network with the cable.

His hands flew across the keyboard, typing a string of commands, injecting a program into the production line’s server.

It wasn’t long before a series of red text alerts appeared on the screen.

“Exactly as I suspected!”

Du Qiu turned to Ning Yuzhe, “Chairman Ning, take a look at this!”

Ning Yuzhe, curious, walked over and after reading the lines of red text, was quite shocked.

“Is this a computer virus?”