Chapter 53: Back Analysis
Mo Heng did not disturb Cillin; he looked like he had caught onto something. Sometimes, if one could recapture that sudden flash of brilliance, it would be greatly beneficial to one’s personal progress. Such an opportunity could only be stumbled upon by luck, but not sought for.
Of course, he hoped that it really was a flash of inspiration that Cillin was experiencing, and not another pang of hunger (T/N: Some of you may be confused by this, but in the previous chapter Cillin ate a crazy amount of food for breakfast). Mo Heng would not be able to hold himself back from flinging a cup at him otherwise.
Cillin stayed in that posture for several minutes without moving. Then, he put down the parts he was still holding in his hands, put the component that he had nearly finished assembling at a side, took out his utility knife (Literal: assembly tool knife) and began taking it apart one by one. Up until now, Cillin had only assembled but never truly taken apart any machineries before, which was why he had always felt as if something was missing from his thought process.
To achieve mastery in something, was to have a deeper comprehensive and thorough understanding of said something. Front and back, forward and reverse, assembly and disassembly; they should all be comprehended and practiced thoroughly. During this disassembly process, Cillin was able to analyse and reflect on this machine from a different perspectives. So this is what I’ve been missing all this time.
Every time Cillin glanced over an assembled machine, he would only consider how it was assembled, but not analyse how the instrument should be properly dismantled. From where should he commence his work, beginning from which part, and in what order?
Inverse deduction or induction, was just like backtracking during a hunt. This method of thinking should sit equal with logical thinking, and yet it was often neglected instead.
Divergent thinking and convergent thinking were both equally important roles.
Cillin’s dismantling movements were not slow; everywhere his knife swiped across, the parts that were solidly assembled into a wholesome form would be separated perfectly. Every angle of applied force questioned the wholeness and potential deformation of the dismantled parts, and these dismantled parts fully displayed Cillin’s capability as an analyst.
There would be more or less some marks left behind on the parts wherever the utility knife was used on, and and these marks do exist even if they might be invisible to the naked eye. Even the smallest changes would affect a part’s integrity, so during the dismantling process, Cillin had done his best to minimise the amount of times he used his knife. That was how the scene where multiple part were dismantled with a single flash of the knife came to be.
Mo Heng nodded on the inside as he watched Cillin’s actions. So it was a flash of inspiration, and not because he was hungry…
After Cillin had dismantled the nearly completed component back into parts, he then sat down on the floor and tossed a part into the air. He grabbed it, then tossed it again, then grabbed it, then tossed it again… finally, he placed the parts at the side and laid on the ground. He stared towards the ceiling.
In his head, there were many individual parts scattered at every corner. Then they began assembling themselves one by one into a whole component, before coming apart again on their own. Then they assembled again, and disassembled; assembled, and disassembled…
After thinking for a moment, Cillin climbed up and began assembling. His method was different from before. When he was assembling, he would throw a few parts into the air, and when they fell downwards and reached the spots they should be assembled into, Cillin’s hands blurred and fixed the parts tightly into their respective places.
At first glance, one would feel as if the parts were tossed into the air in succession before they fell downwards to become assembled into a complete whole. If someone was to pay closer attention, then they would notice that the parts had fallen downwards in a specific order. At the same time, Cillin had tweaked three spots during the assembly process. These were the shortcuts he had found when he was performing induction.
A series of data was displayed on the screen.
“Overall accuracy at 99.96% of theoretical value.
Overall accuracy at 99.96% of theoretical value.
Overall accuracy at 99.97% of theoretical value.
Overall accuracy at 99.96% of theoretical value.
Overall accuracy at 99.97% of theoretical value.
Overall accuracy at 99.97% of theoretical value.
Overall accuracy at 99.97% of theoretical value.
…”
Mo Heng was so excited that his old face was glowing red. Genius, Cillin was absolutely a genius. Just how long had it been since Cillin officially came in touch with mechanical assembly and received formal education? Cillin’s overall accuracy was already almost the same as his own, a veteran who had spent many years in his craft. Cillin could be ranked even in the entire GAL.
If he could improve his overall accuracy from 99.95% to 99.97% in such a short time, then how much longer would it take for him to reach 99.98%?
Cillin was completely immersed in that world, where he assembled the piles of categorised parts into components, then assembling these components into a whole unit.
Mo Heng no longer looked at the computer’s display and watched Cillin’s assembly with his full attention. This series of assembly from Cillin was absolutely fit as an excellent teaching material, but exactly how much the rest of the people could learn from it was unknown. This was something that strongly tested a person’s vision and creativity.
Cillin did not stop for the whole day, and Mo Heng just sat there and watched Cillin’s assembly. Nether of them ate lunch, nor did they have the consciousness to stop and do so.
This situation continued until Cillin assembled the final part into the machine, inspected it for a moment before pressing the ‘On’ button. The machine began switching forms continuously with smooth movements with no unexpected or suspicious noise whatsoever.
“There’s no need for examination; you completely passed.” Mo Heng said. He could not conceal the excitement in his voice, and just as he was ready to get up and examine Cillin’s work thoroughly, he realized…
“Hiss (T/N: sound of sucking breath through teeth), Aiyo, it’s completely numb!” Mo Heng said while rubbing his legs. He had stayed the same posture for far too long, and it was only now that he realized that his legs were numb, “Cillin, come over quickly and give me a hand!”
“Just give it a bit of rest, sir. Sit there for a moment.” Cillin walked over, lifted two chairs and stacked them together before placing Mo Heng’s legs slowly on them. Then he began rubbing and massaging Mo Heng’s legs.
“Sigh, I’m getting old. I’m growing senile (T/N: In this sense, he is not referring to his mental faculties but bodily functions).” Mo Heng sighed.
“From what I can see, you were pretty fierce when you were disciplining the crowd yesterday, sir. None of those mentors could even lift their heads.”
It was a coincidence that Cillin had run into the scene where Mo Heng was teaching the mentors a lesson yesterday. Forceful was the description, and it was as if Mo Heng’s entire body was emitting with the air of wang ba (shamelessness / turtle)*. Those mentors who were used to looking down on their students with proud attitudes had buried their heads so low that they could almost kiss their own pants.
Mo Heng leveled his head high, “That is what you call temperament! Born temperament!”
“Even if you still wield the air of wang ba (kingliness)** you still should not skip your meals or sleep during work, right? I heard that you would often stay inside the workshop and work for several hours straight, sir.”
“This is what you call professionalism!” Mo Heng said with a face full of awe-inspiring righteousness.
“Right, right, professionalism.”
“Heh, you little brat…” Mo Heng reached out and tugged at Cillin’s cheeks, “What’s with that incredibly disdainful look on your face?”
“How would I possibly dare, sir, but really, even machines need to be maintained, much less a human. As the pillar of the research division you should take better care of yourself, or I will be in trouble if no one covers for me.”
“Tch, you little bastard!” Mo Heng half-laughed and scolded before pulling Cillin’s cheeks once with force before waving, “Alright, my legs are fine now. I’ll have a look at the machine first.”
Mo Heng circled around Cillin’s assembled machine and examined carefully the end product before his eyes.
“Master, I want a leave. I’m exhausted today.”
“Granted! Leave, leave.” Mo Heng continued to circle around the machine with bright eyes, reaching out and fiddling with it from time to time.
“Master, I want a raise.” After he came to the research division, every time Cillin completed a task, he would receive additional income other than his fixed salary as a research assistant. Of course, Mo Heng was the one who paid for it.
“Sure. Raise, raise.” Mo Heng answered very candidly.
“I want three times the usual.”
“No problem, three times it is.”
“Also…”
“Get out and get to dinner already!”
Seeing that Mo Heng was still not yet ready to leave, Cillin booked their meals and had a robot send them over. Of course, it was on Mo Heng’s tab.
After Cillin had eaten dinner with Mo Heng inside the workshop’s rest bay and discussed about his afterthoughts on the assembly, Mo Heng had called for Cillin to sleep in the rest bay since it was already late. Up until today, his son and his grandchild were the only ones who were allowed to stay in Mo Heng’s rest bay. Cillin was the third, so one could see exactly how much Cillin amounted to in Mo Heng’s heart.
Mo Heng’s office and workshop both had rest bays specially built into them, and since Mo Heng was both ‘important and powerful’, the rest bays were fully equipped. Therefore Cillin did not turn him down and took over the rest bay in Mo Heng’s workshop for himself. He ate dinner and took a soothing bath before sleeping comfortably for two days straight.
Cillin had slept well, but he had no idea that it was chaos on the Sector Championship Platform.
*Let me paint the image: Imagine Mo Heng bearing down on the mentors while steam is gushing out of every pore of his body, choking them with his absolute smugness and authority.
**And yes, this is a Chinese word play used to insult people who doesn’t have a measure of their own worth, although in this case Cillin is just making fun at Mo Heng’s expense. Just like there’s a fine line between genius and madness, there is also a fine line between kingliness and shamelessness / turtle(?)…