CHAPTER 271: CHAPTER 269 COOPERATION PROJECT

According to Chen Xin’s original plan, the two brothers Han Ping and Han Ze also lived in the lower rooms of the refuge.

But as the elder brother, Han Ping expressed a desire to live with his brother at the entrance on the upper level, serving as gatekeepers and guards after understanding the structure of Chen Xin’s refuge in detail.

"Mr. Chen, if everyone lives underground, in the event that something happens above, it might be too late to come up. So, it’s better to have a post at the entrance to respond promptly in case of any incident."

These were Han Ping’s exact words, and after giving it some thought, Chen Xin decided to agree with his reasoning.

While allowing Han Ping and Han Ze to live as gatekeepers on the upper layer, Chen Xin also modified the observation room to add a bedroom for the two brothers.

Although there seemed to be an exclusion of the brothers from the core team, this was Han Ping’s own request, so he didn’t think of it that way, instead, he felt it was better to play his role more effectively.

After all, in Han Ping’s opinion, both he and his brother didn’t have any special skills. Here, apart from being a driver and doing odd jobs for Chen Xin, their sole contribution could only be as security and gatekeepers.

Chen Xin naturally respected Han Ping’s decision, and it was a good thing for him as well because this raised the security of the refuge quite a bit. Moreover, if someone visited, Han Ping could welcome them without Chen Xin needing to come up and open the door each time.

Consequently, meals for Han Ping and Han Ze would need to be delivered or someone would need to call them up for meals every day.

After everyone finished breakfast, they began their day’s work.

Mo Qingyan and Mo Qingxin, the two sisters, now resided with Chen Xin and hadn’t returned to their own refuge.

Now, every day, Mo Qingxin would stay in the medical room, assuming the unofficial role of the refuge’s doctor, while Mo Qingyan managed Chen Xin’s greenhouse daily, considering herself as the greenhouse manager.

Chen Xin could only accept this since they had always helped him manage the refuge, and they wished to stay, which he had no objection to.

Regarding Chen Xin’s parents, he hadn’t assigned them any tasks. However, the two elderly obviously weren’t the type to sit idle. Chen Xin’s mother would clean the refuge every day, significantly improving its cleanliness.

His father didn’t have fixed duties; sometimes, at his mother’s behest, he would help clean, assist Chen Xin with mechanical work, and occasionally aid in the greenhouse.

Now, Chen Xin needed to contact the research institutions with which they had established an internet connection to assist with the relevant projects daily.

Qin Lan couldn’t help Chen Xin much in such matters, and as a former SWAT officer, she didn’t excel in other areas. Therefore, apart from assisting Mo Qingyan in the greenhouse, her only job was to care for the hens and eggs Chen Xin brought back.

Since the hens were left to incubate the eggs naturally, and since Chen Xin could ensure the proper hatching temperature, after more than twenty days, the chicks hatched successfully, except for one egg that, due to complications, didn’t hatch.

Towards these chicks, Qin Lan was extremely maternal and gentle, meticulously caring for these little lives daily.

Afraid that her right hand was too hard and might hurt the chicks, she always used her left hand to handle them to prevent injuries.

For Qin Lan, she sensed the beauty of life through these chicks. Observing these new lives trying hard to grow dissipated the last trace of her despair and death wish.

However, this resulted in the issue of Qin Lan squatting in front of the chicks’ incubator for entire days, protecting them more than a mother hen would.

This made Chen Xin at a loss whether to laugh or cry, but seeing Qin Lan coming out of her previous shadow, he let her be.

Once the personnel from the research institutions who followed Chen Xin back confirmed the location of his refuge, they contacted the city government and connected with the department at the three towns, establishing a branch institution in the urban area quickly.

The branch’s main role was to facilitate communication between the research institutions and Chen Xin. Since the communication network wasn’t established before the communication towers were built, Chen Xin couldn’t reach the research institutions directly, requiring this branch to act as a relay.

The research institutions sent the equipment that needed upgrades and related project requirements to the branch in the city, and once received, they forwarded the supplies and requirements to Chen Xin.

Upon receiving the equipment and project requirements, Chen Xin examined the equipment according to the project needs through the system and outlined the necessary materials and resources.

The branch, upon getting Chen Xin’s requests, relayed them to the research institutions, where they mobilized Chen Xin’s required materials and resources to the city’s train station promptly.

Afterward, the branch transported the supplies to Chen Xin, and once he completed the upgrades, they took the equipment back to be loaded onto a train to the three towns.

Theoretically, upon delivering the upgraded equipment, Chen Xin’s job for that project was done, and it was up to the research institutions to reverse-engineer the upgraded equipment.

Reverse-engineering wasn’t a simple or quick task, so the research institution in the three towns responsible for communicating with Chen Xin subcontracted the task to other branches or research groups while coordinating, setting project priorities, and determining which projects were sent to Chen Xin for immediate upgrading and which were sent back for internal fulfillment.

Above the research institutions, there was also a dedicated project team responsible for coordinating communication between the research institutions, logistics, and other related departments.

Because a project involves a wide range of departments that the research institution alone couldn’t coordinate, nor should it waste its resources on inter-departmental coordination, these tasks naturally fell to the higher-level project team.

And the higher-level project team, having greater authority, could coordinate these tasks more effectively.

Since a project involves not only R&D departments but also production sectors and end-users, numerous matters need coordination and communication by the project team.

Moreover, since Chen Xin didn’t know what materials would be needed until he saw the equipment, provisioning the necessary materials on short notice was no trivial task.

Although the research institution and project team had already amassed a wide array of materials considering the future collaboration with Chen Xin, there were times when the required materials weren’t readily available, requiring them to contact specific factories for custom production for Chen Xin.

For Chen Xin, having the materials or not was just a matter of how many survival points were consumed, but since it was a national collaboration with ample resources and a capacity to meet the demands, there was no need for Chen Xin to substitute lower-grade materials for high-grade components or use ten times the survival points when upgrading.

Additionally, this wasn’t a bad outcome for the nation either.

Since the materials needed by Chen Xin were all applied to upgraded equipment, knowing the necessary materials in advance allowed the project team to confirm the materials required for production, better organizing raw materials for production, and reducing downtime from equipment design to production.

During Chen Xin’s stay at his refuge over the past half-month, more than a dozen projects were optimized and upgraded, sent back to the three towns for reverse engineering, five of which were simple projects now completed and in production.

The most crucial of these was the communications base station project, upgraded twice by Chen Xin, which reached sufficient practical value and performance, transitioning from the research institution to production, with permanent communication towers being erected in the three towns, local city, and between Chibi City and Xianning City.

Evidently, after the communications base station project became practical, the first thought of the project team was establishing contact with Chen Xin.

For Chen Xin, this was also highly anticipated, being able to resume network communication after so long, even just an internal network without civilian access was excellent news.

Moreover, every project collaboration yielded substantial rewards for Chen Xin, undoubtedly a no-loss deal for him.

Furthermore, establishing communication base stations improved the living conditions in the connected cities, ensuring a significant income of survival points awaiting Chen Xin.

He now eagerly awaited more projects rather than fearing too much work.