CSGM - Chapter 109
Chapter 109: It's That Simple
Zhuang Yuge was taken aback for a moment. She looked at her drone, then back at Chu Xi.
Her expression revealed a hint of confusion.
She had just been flying the drone for quite a while and hadn't noticed any problems.
But Zhuang Yuge still pressed, asking:
"The propeller? What's wrong with it? Do you need me to take it apart for you to see?"
As she spoke, she walked over to her makeup station and picked up the drone.
"Chu Xi! Chu Xi-"
Unfortunately, at that moment, Chu Xi heard the director's assistant outside shouting for her to get back to work.
Ah, why are breaks so short?
They're over in the blink of an eye!
Chu Xi could only say to Zhuang Yuge, "No need. I'm out of time, I have to go out again."
She shrugged helplessly. "You should check it yourself. Based on the sound, the rotation speeds of the two propeller blades don't match, and there's friction when it flies."
After saying that, she left to film again, leaving Zhuang Yuge in the dressing room to ponder for a good while.
Chu Xi at least knew she was using a two-bladed propeller, which made it sound like she understood some of the basics.
Could it be that Chu Xi also knew about drones?
Huh? But what did Chu Xi mean just now when she said she could tell by the sound?
It couldn't be possible that she identified the problem with the propeller blades just by listening, could it?
Whether this impossible thing was true or not, she would have to verify it to find out.
Driven by a spirit of inquiry, Zhuang Yuge immediately opened her toolkit and began disassembling the drone's frame again.
An hour later, a drone lay on the makeup station, its inner components "laid bare" to the air.
After pondering the propeller for a while as she waited for her cue, Zhuang Yuge went out to reshoot two scenes.
Zhou Yu was removing his makeup, having finished work for the day.
When he caught a glimpse of Zhuang Yuge returning, he casually made a comment.
"Yuge, why's your little plane taken apart again?"
Zhuang Yuge said, "Chu Xi said there was a problem with my propeller, so I'm checking it."
Zhou Yu replied, "Chu Xi said so? Is she even right? Hah, that's great. Now you have someone to mess around with drones with, huh?"
"I don't know. She hasn't explained the details to me yet."
Zhuang Yuge was actually a bit bewildered.
"So does she actually know what she's talking about or not?"
"I don't know."
Zhou Yu scoffed. "Then you shouldn't believe everything people say. You're such a naive kid. She probably knows less than you do. When it comes to drones, you're the expert."
Zhuang Yuge shook her head and returned to her seat without replying, waiting for the makeup artist to remove her makeup.
She was also done for the day.
However, she planned to wait here for Chu Xi.
A long time later, Chu Xi returned, exhausted.
"How long will it take to remove my makeup?"
she asked the makeup artist, her eyelids half-closed as she took her seat.
"About half an hour. Twenty minutes, if I'm quick," the makeup artist replied.
"I'll catch a nap then. Xiao Yuan, wake me when you're done," Chu Xi said wearily.
Jin Yuan nodded and made a sincere request to the makeup artist, "Teacher Zeng, please be as gentle as you can. Thank you."
She didn't want anything to disturb Xixi's rest.
Zhuang Yuge glanced toward Chu Xi, then turned back and silently reassembled the two propeller blades.
After several inspections, she had finally found evidence that the two blades were rubbing against each other.
The friction generated when the blades rotated at high speed was already very difficult to observe. Compounded by the fact that the friction was so slight, it was almost imperceptible.
And as for the sound, there wasn't the slightest abnormality at all.
Zhuang Yuge found it very strange. She couldn't figure out what was causing the problem.
But a pressing desire for knowledge, combined with her earlier surprise, made her determined to get a clear answer from Chu Xi today.
Finally, Chu Xi's makeup was removed, and her assistant woke her.
"Chu Xi, I have a question for you. How did you hear that there was a problem with the propeller earlier?"
Afraid of missing her chance, Zhuang Yuge asked quickly the moment Chu Xi began to stir.
Chu Xi glanced at her in the mirror. She was surprised she hadn't left yet.
"You were waiting for me?"
Zhuang Yuge replied, "Yes."
"You should have asked earlier. You could have just woken me." Chu Xi smiled at her politeness. Are all educated young people this well-mannered these days?
"It's fine. I didn't want to bother you," Zhuang Yuge said with a gentle, slightly shy smile.
Chu Xi answered her question.
"I just heard it. When the two blades rotate, they make a frictional sound."
The answer was honest, simple, direct, and completely unimaginable.
Zhuang Yuge was stunned. "…?"
"Is your hearing… really that good?"
She couldn't hear it even when she held the propeller right next to her ear, yet Chu Xi had heard it while the entire drone was in flight.
Chu Xi replied, "Yes, it is."
Her hearing was excellent now, though it was still a bit of a strain. It would be even better if she could take it to the next level.
She stood up and walked over to Zhuang Yuge, noticing a piece of scratch paper on the makeup station covered in calculation formulas.
Judging by the calculations, she was trying to extrapolate the ideal distance between the blades at high speed based on their distance at low speed.
Chu Xi glanced at the paper. "It looks like there's no problem with this."
Zhuang Yuge looked up, astonished. "You know what I'm writing?"
Chu Xi replied, "Isn't it just the parallel distance between the blades?"
What? Is that supposed to be difficult?
Isn't this just a calculation of proportional scaling?
Isn't it obvious?
Chu Xi thought for a moment, then looked at the propeller parts again. "You didn't miscalculate the ideal data, which means it's a problem with the blade material. I'm afraid one of them is substandard. You'll have to replace it."
Oh, right. Just now, while looking, Chu Xi had also verified the calculations. There were no issues.
Of course, Chu Xi didn't know that Zhuang Yuge had used her phone for the calculations, so the answer was already precise.
Zhuang Yuge had just been thinking the same thing about the blade material.
Hearing Chu Xi say it out loud, Zhuang Yuge even felt a little excited.
"Did you major in aerospace technology too?"
"What major? No, I graduated from middle school," Chu Xi stated frankly.
Zhuang Yuge: "???!"
She asked again, "Then you must love studying drones?"
Chu Xi scratched her head. "Not really. I just learned about the basic structure and how they work last week. But I think they're pretty fun now."
Chu Xi had just had a sudden thought that this little toy might actually be interesting.
Zhuang Yuge was stunned by Chu Xi's comprehension for a long moment before she praised her slowly.
"Your ability to learn is incredible."
Chu Xi just nodded lightly.
Zhuang Yuge asked again, "Do you think there are any other problems with this drone?"
Chu Xi blinked, thinking.
Then she realized she wasn't thinking about anything at all.
She wasn't familiar with the technical aspects of drones yet. The sound of the two propeller blades rubbing was just a very obvious problem that she had happened to overhear.
To know what you know and to know what you do not know—Chu Xi was very honest on this point.
"I don't understand the technical stuff yet. How about this? Send me some instructional files on drones. I'll study them tonight and get back to you tomorrow."
"Okay! Are you in the production crew's group chat? Which one… this one at the very end? I'll add you."
Discovering that Chu Xi had an extremely high aptitude and could potentially become a fellow enthusiast, Zhuang Yuge was naturally delighted.
Playing by herself could get lonely sometimes.
"I'll send you this basic manual first. You can take a look when you get back."
Getting started with drones wasn't difficult. With Chu Xi's abilities, she could probably learn it in seven days.
There was still one thing Zhuang Yuge didn't understand. "How could you have only graduated from middle school?"
Chu Xi smiled and could only give a vague answer.
"Classes were too boring. I prefer to study on my own."
What else could she say? That her body was taken over after she finished middle school?
People would think she was crazy!
Hearing this, Jin Yuan was practically bursting with admiration for her idol.
Today was another day of discovering one of her idol's hidden talents: Xixi was self-taught! Wow!
When Chu Xi got home that night, she flipped through the files Zhuang Yuge had sent over.
The more she scrolled, the more bewildered she became. What was all this nonsense?
Did a basic manual really need to be this basic?
Brushing her teeth with one hand, she swiped through a few pages on her phone with the other. She found that too many principles that could be explained in a single sentence were accompanied by four or five superfluous pages of definitions and case studies.
This shouldn't be called the basic version, Chu Xi decided to rename it. It should be the "So Easy a Pig Could Do It" version.
A pig could probably evolve into a monkey after reading it.
But for her, the long-winded explanations were a waste of time. Even browsing the paginated document, Chu Xi still found the manual too long.
Little did she know, this was one of the textbooks for an elective course Zhuang Yuge had taken in university—material that a professor would spend two weeks covering in lectures.
Chu Xi sent a message to Zhuang Yuge: 【Send me the advanced version too.】
Zhuang Yuge: 【File.doc】
Chu Xi opened it and scrolled through. This new one, Drone Aerial Survey Technology and Application, was clearly more advanced.
She skimmed the information, reading ten lines at a glance, and found that she could understand the terminology and content even without having patiently finished the basic manual.
Chu Xi: 【Any more?】
Zhuang Yuge: 【Shocked.jpg】
【You've finished it already?】
Chu Xi: 【No, but I read very fast.】
So Zhuang Yuge sent over the ultimate manual: one on assembly, calibration, and maintenance.
Chu Xi received it successfully, then borrowed an old tablet from Ren Zhi so she could read both at once.
To be honest, it wasn't that she learned particularly fast; it was that modern books were just too verbose, as if making them several times thicker could earn more in publishing fees.
Why use long, tedious explanations for knowledge that could be understood in just a few sentences?
At first, Zhuang Yuge thought Chu Xi was just a fast reader…
At two in the morning, her phone screen lit up.
WeChat: You have 1 new message.
Chu Xi: 【Finished. Turns out it's that simple.】
Comments
Post a Comment