Old-time musicians

Fan Ning found the working environment in Workshop 15 surprisingly good.

Not greasy, with good ventilation, adequate lighting, and no excessive noise, smoke, body odor or paint smell.

Fan Ning, who moved bricks in a chemical factory in his previous life, had a disgusting stereotype of this type of workshop, but now he couldn't find any confirmation.

It is built to be tall, wide and large, full of mechanical complexity and violence.

At a glance, I glanced at several different production section lines. Workers wearing light gray uniforms mostly worked in a sitting position, and were even exempted from certain tasks that brought heavy physical exertion.

Except that the factory building is too large and looks empty and high, it looks a bit like a classroom or conference room with rows of tables and chairs.

When the supervisor saw a group of people coming in, he urged the workers to stand up straight and speed up their movements.

Silver-bright steel bar stock, lead brass bar stock, nickel-nickel copper bar stock, glass and rubber...the raw materials are transported into the site by gear conveyor belts, and are inspected for surface condition and dimensional accuracy in turn, and processed on steam lathes.

"What is that?" Fan Ning pointed to several rooms high up in the factory.

They need to climb up the steel plate stairs in the corner of the factory building, and then walk along the suspended steel plate path along the edge of the wall to reach them.

"The offices and lounges of several workshop technical team leaders." Julius replied, "The two larger rooms at the back are the place where Mr. Eloff, the chief engineer of the workshop, is responsible for the control of some production parameters. , and sit at the main console.”

Fan Ning nodded and led everyone through the gear milling machine line, balance machine line, plywood machine line and other production process areas in a Z-shaped trajectory.

He stopped in the dial drawing area and looked at a girl in front of him with a dull complexion and a thin body, but her eyes were somewhat aura.

The girl wore a monocle and held an application tool similar to a brush in her previous life. She first dipped in silver-black paint, gently held the tip of the brush with her mouth, and then carefully lifted the gear strip and brought it to the dial in front of her. Apply the needle on it and engrave the words.

When Stanley, the factory owner, saw Fan Ning stopping to watch, he took the initiative to introduce: "We are rushing to produce the latest gold Longia New Calendar 913 commemorative watch. It has started pre-sale in July this year. Their largest The selling point is that the luminous hands and scales can be read at night without any lighting..."

Fan Ning listened to Stanley's story, his eyes narrowed, and he stared intently at the girl's movements.

In fact, before he even came here, he already had seventy-eight guesses in his mind!

During the investigation in the labor residential area, Dupont described the symptoms of the workers before their death and the glowing corpses... The first thing that made him, a man of science and engineering, think of it was not some mysterious factor, but——

Radioactive material!

Later, while walking, he recalled the timeline of his previous life on Blue Star.

Two landmark radioactive elements, polonium and radium, were discovered and purified around 1900 - the end of the Victorian era, which is similar to the background of this world.

However, the technology tree of this world is somewhat off track, and the development of the steam industry has gone too far.

Fan Ning has been to the school library several times in the past few days, and also wandered around the chemistry department library area where he used to make a living in his previous life.

He found that the achievements of modern chemistry in previous generations were basically illuminated here, but as long as the theories leading to the modern direction were not germinated or related, such as physical chemistry and electrochemistry in the modern sense, such as structural chemistry, Chromatography, and also, nuclear chemistry.

After all, this is still an old industrial world where mysticism is popular.

Fan Ning activated his spiritual sense and imagined three beams of light converging on his chest, allowing the cold pearl-colored sphere to slowly expand, wrapping everything in his field of vision.

He "saw" that the paint box, the dial, the tip of the brush, and the girl's lips all showed a kind of black and white stripes of light and shadow. The outer edges of the light and shadow were split and diffused, and the inside was replenishing, constantly churning and stirring. Iterating.

When Joan arranged the secret ritual of retrospection, one of the items placed inside the altar was a copper penny wrapped in dark material, which was similar to this light and shadow.

The phase of "Yan"?

Could it be said that the rays produced by the fission of radioactive substances exist as a "derivative" phase wave in this mysterious world?

The heterogeneous light and shadow of the phase is not unique to extraordinary items. Ordinary objects are also faintly visible, but living creatures, stars, and a small amount of minerals are relatively stronger.

The colors Fan Ning saw were not much richer than those of ordinary dead objects.

But Fan Ning felt an extremely dangerous aura, which was a strong warning from the depths of spirituality!

Dupont and Monroe didn't seem to feel anything strange, which made Fan Ning unsure whether his sense of danger was due to studying "candles" or because he knew the existence of radioactive materials.

Although Fan Ning could not know what kind of radioactive material it was, he judged that if the three of them stayed a few meters away for a short while, the risk would be acceptable. Of course, they should not stay for a long time.

Because the female worker used such an extreme method of lip contact, and it took about three months to die, the risk should be between Class III and Class IV radioactive sources - after all, with the current technology in this world, it should not be refined. Produce high-purity radioactive element salts.

The thin labor girl was looked at by her boss, the police and several gentlemen. Her movements slowed down, she showed an unconfident and defensive smile, and at the same time she tried to stand up.

"Girl, good evening." Fan Ning gave her a gentle look and motioned for her to continue sitting. "Excuse me, how long have you been working here?"

"It turned one month ago a few days ago, sir." The girl smiled a little restrainedly.

"Have you been feeling uncomfortable lately?"

The girl thought for a while and replied: "I have some pain in the joints of my hands and feet. It happens every year when the weather is cold."

"How are the working hours here? Do you feel tired?" Fan Ning continued to ask.

Julius, who was standing aside, explained at this time: "The company implements the imperial standard 12-hour work system, with two shifts rotating at 6 o'clock and 18 o'clock. However, this workshop is special. Previously, only 8 o'clock to 20 o'clock were scheduled. One shift, because the new model has not been launched for a long time, and the production capacity is not yet full..."

"I'm asking about her." Fan Ning interrupted.

Julius smiled coquettishly.

"Girl, go ahead and tell the truth, it doesn't matter." Fan Ning said with a gentle smile.

"It's the same as what the boss said, sir." The labor girl glanced at Fan Ning a few more times, "But the production tasks have increased recently, and we work overtime until twelve o'clock every day..."

She lowered her head and added softly: "It's natural to be more tired when you are tired, but the company also paid extra wages corresponding to the extra working hours."

Julius looked at Fan Ning and smiled calmly.

It's not as if he's hiding something... Fan Ning's spiritual sense has always shrouded these two people.

"Look at the production record ledger." Fan Ning said.

"...Huh?" Julius was a little surprised, probably because she didn't expect Fan Ning to find out these details.

As a senior manager, she would not pay too much attention to this, and secondly, she could not understand what Fan Ning was thinking.

"Just show it to Mr. Fan Ning." Factory owner Stanley said at this time, "The production line leader will have detailed records and ask them to bring the ledger."

A minute later, Fan Ning began to look through the ledger in his hand.

The watch workshop has started production and debugging in July this year. In mid-August, it entered a stable "from 8 a.m. to 8 a.m." production rhythm. From the second half of November, the production time changed to 8 a.m. to 24 p.m.

It matches what the labor girl and Julius said.

"Is there any problem? Mr. Fanning." Julius asked.

"Why was the shutdown time the day before yesterday advanced by nearly two hours?" Fan Ning asked, closing his account.

Stanley, the factory owner, frowned and rolled his eyes. Even Dupont and Monroe, who were standing next to him, had stunned expressions. They seemed to think the question was too tricky and weird, and they couldn't figure out what Fan Ning's intentions were.

Julius seemed to want to explain, but was interrupted by Fan Ning: "Let him speak."

Everyone looked at the production line leader who was wearing neat gray work clothes and white gloves with a confused expression.

"Sir, we did ask everyone to leave work early that day." The team leader swallowed his saliva and replied, "It was a temporary arrangement made by Chief Engineer Mr. Eloff. Without his coordination, we cannot guarantee the precise operation of the entire production line."

Fan Ning laughed: "Dupont, Monroe, let's go visit Mr. Eloff."

The two of them immediately heard the implication in his words.

If Fan Ning is only 50% sure that he can doubt it through the information at the party, the time of the shutdown clock, and today's investigation results...

Then, coupled with the fact that the revelation of the clock was confirmed at this moment, he was almost 100% sure——

Mr. Erov, the chief engineer of the clock workshop, is the "experience officer" of the underground party!

"Click, click..."

Under the eyes of everyone, Fan Ning smiled softly, and then pulled the hammer of the revolver!