Chapter 2: Fabrication
Everyone in the conference room had just been focused on the front, watching Qin Jianshe and Hu Chuanlai speak.
Now, with a sudden voice ringing out from behind, all heads turned. Their eyes landed on a young man sitting at the very back.
Seeing that it was Li Tang, Liu Kaisheng's fury flared instantly. He glared at Li Tang and barked, "Shut your mouth!"
Even he hadn't spoken in this kind of setting—what was this kid thinking, trying to show off?
But Qin Jianshe showed no anger when he saw Li Tang. Instead, he smiled slightly and turned to glance at Li Zaiqiang, his eyes seeming to say: "Old classmate, look at the troublemaker you've sent my way."
Li Zaiqiang leaned back in his chair, arms folded across his chest. He looked at his son but didn't say anything—he wanted to see just what nonsense this boy was about to say.
Twenty years old and still in his rebellious phase!
Hu Chuanlai wasn't paying attention to the silent exchange between Qin Jianshe and Li Zaiqiang. He lifted the lid off his teacup again, blew lightly, took a sip, then looked up with a faint smile, "This young man seems to disagree with my assessment. I quite enjoy discussing things with people who have opinions. Speak freely—what do you have to say?"
"He's just a freshly graduated college student. What does he know about practical geological work?" Liu Kaisheng couldn't help but cringe with embarrassment.
After all, Hu Chuanlai was an expert from the Coalfield Geological Bureau, a senior engineer with the rank of a research-level scholar in geology. How could a fresh-out-of-school rookie possibly exchange any meaningful ideas with someone like that?
Li Tang, meanwhile, had his head down, flipping through a thick exploration report. He paid no mind to the unusual stares cast his way.
"I think he looks quite serious," Hu Chuanlai noted. He could tell this young man really had something to say. "Go on—don't overthink it. Don't be afraid of making mistakes. Young people should speak up with courage."
Li Tang lifted his head and met everyone's eyes, including his father's stern expression. His face remained calm. "There are some things I think we should talk about."
He pressed both hands onto the table, with a report laid out in front of him. Looking around the room, his demeanor was calm and composed—he had the bearing of someone delivering a leadership speech.
"Go ahead, be bold," said Hu Chuanlai, still holding his teacup.
Li Tang ignored the glances and raised eyebrows around him. He spoke slowly and clearly, "My opinion is completely opposite to that of Expert Hu and the rest of you. I believe the Qianshan coal exploration project is very poorly done."
An extremely audacious statement!
He had just directly contradicted the consensus reached by everyone in the room!
The conference room immediately erupted into murmurs and gasps. Everyone looked at each other with various expressions.
That one sentence had landed like a heavy stone, stirring up waves of disbelief.
Some people even started laughing, thinking Li Tang was just being absurd again.
Li Zaiqiang sat up straight and was about to explode, but Qin Jianshe quickly reached out and pressed down on his shoulder, whispering, "Calm down. I agree with Hu—let's hear what the kid has to say."
"Oh?" Hu Chuanlai was also surprised. This young man certainly had a unique perspective. "Do you have any evidence to support your claim?"
Li Tang spread out several geological maps on the table.
Seeing that he was actually presenting something, people gathered around out of curiosity. They wanted to see what he had supposedly discovered.
"This is a borehole columnar section."
"The person who drew this was meticulous. The drawing is clean and well-organized—nothing appears off."
At this time, computer-generated geological maps were still uncommon, so most work was done by hand.
This columnar section had been drawn first in pencil on graph paper, then traced over with ink.
Many people had already seen this specific diagram before and hadn't noticed anything wrong with it.
Their eyes followed Li Tang's finger as it moved across the paper, curious about what revelation he was going to deliver.
"The main coal seam is in the Niutitang Formation."
Li Tang pointed at the section representing the coal seam, then slid his finger upward. "The Niutitang Formation is divided into upper, middle, and lower parts. At the bottom is siliceous rock. When we see siliceous rock, we know we've hit the boundary of the stratum."
So far, what he said sounded fine.
This was basic knowledge in geological exploration.
To professionals, it was elementary—but for laypeople, it was completely foreign.
Not bad at all!
Clearly, his four years of university hadn't gone to waste—he could read columnar diagrams and identify different lithologies at a glance.
Someone sharp-eyed noticed a problem: "That siliceous rock appears in the upper layer—it doesn't make sense."
"In folded regions, stratum inversion isn't unusual," someone else offered.
Li Tang didn't rush. He opened another columnar diagram that also showed stratum inversion.
Then he unfolded a cross-section map. "These two borehole columns I found are on the same exploration line. Now look at the cross-section map along that line—see how stable the dip angle is? Where's the folding supposed to have occurred?"
"Also—!"
He flipped open a photo album and laid out a geological logging map for trench exploration. "Compare these field photos with the logging maps—there's a clear mismatch. The photos show seven coal layers, but every single logging map consistently shows seventeen or eighteen layers!"
Now that he pointed it out, the discrepancies between different sets of data became obvious.
Among hundreds of diagrams, such inconsistencies were hard to spot unless they were compared directly.
Each individual drawing looked neat and professional, and people had praised the cartographers for their precision and effort.
Liu Kaisheng, as the department head who'd been pushing for the Qianshan project, had practically lived with this documentation. He knew it like the back of his hand.
"I also noticed that the trench logging maps didn't match the site photos. I consulted the exploration team about it," he said.
"What was their explanation?"
"They said it was due to the lithology of the Niutitang Formation—mostly shale and carbonaceous mudstone, which are very fragile. In trenches or shallow pits, these layers collapse easily. After excavation, if it rains the next day, the layers fall apart and it becomes difficult to identify the number or thickness of coal seams."
That explanation sounded plausible.
"Then how did they explain the clear errors in the borehole diagrams?" Li Tang asked with a faint smirk.
Liu Kaisheng didn't expect to be questioned so directly on a technical issue.
He thought for a moment before replying, "During drilling, the core samples are extracted and placed in core boxes according to depth. That process is prone to mistakes. The drill workers are usually local laborers with little training, so core misplacement happens."
"Did the exploration team give you that answer?" Li Tang's smirk grew more evident.
"Mistakes like that are common in drilling!" Liu Kaisheng replied irritably. "Whatever the explanation, I believe these are unavoidable small errors. The best we can do is minimize them."
"Heh."
Li Tang sat down.
When it came to technical issues, Qin Jianshe was used to trusting experts. He turned to Hu Chuanlai and asked, "Mr. Hu, do you think Li Tang has a point?"
Hu Chuanlai leaned over and studied the documents and the errors Li Tang had pointed out.
To his surprise, the young man was absolutely correct.
But with his decades of geological experience, he knew that every part of a survey and mapping process involved human effort. Small issues were inevitable.
As long as the work followed regulations, experts reviewing the project would simply flag minor mistakes for correction.
Since review time was limited, it was impossible to catch every minor flaw.
Just as Liu Kaisheng had said—small deviations were unavoidable, and as long as they didn't affect the overall outcome, no one would fuss over them.
But...
Hu Chuanlai stared at the borehole diagrams, unable to let go of a nagging thought. "He makes a good point! If the coal seam data is wrong, the impact would be huge!"
He suddenly felt grateful for Li Tang's bold remarks. If not for him, those issues might have gone unnoticed.
Liu Kaisheng remained silent.
Hu Chuanlai looked up, his cloudy eyes locking onto Li Tang. "Young man, earlier you said this project was 'very poorly done.' If all you've found are a few errors, I'd call them insignificant."
Everyone turned to look at Li Tang again.
He felt no pressure at all and responded firmly, "This project is pure fabrication."
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