Li Jue

Biodata

Feature	Details
Name	Li Jue
Alias(es)	Old Li
Gender	Male
Affiliation	Factory 221 / Base 221
Occupation/Role	General Manager and Factory Director of Factory 221; overall project administrator and leader
Status	Deceased in the initial timeline; died on 12 February 2010 800
First Appearance	Chapter 514, Top Secret Area Not on the National Map! 514

Background and History

In the initial timeline, Li Jue was a renowned Chinese general and a leading figure in the country’s nuclear industry. His recorded posts included Director of the Ninth Bureau of the Second Ministry of Machine Building, President of the Nuclear Weapons Research Institute, and Vice Minister of the Ministry of Nuclear Industry. 800

At Factory 221, Li Jue serves as the general manager responsible for a workforce exceeding ten thousand people. He personally waits for Old Guo’s returning convoy when it is delayed, reflecting both the scale of his responsibilities and his concern for personnel under his command. 514

When Old Guo proposes placing the injured and mysterious Han Li on an observation list, Li Jue acknowledges Han Li’s exceptional aptitude but judges that it is not yet sufficient for admission into the base’s core work. He later ensures that Han Li’s injuries are monitored and that he receives adequate care. 521 539

Project Leadership

Project / Event	Role	Documented Actions
Begonia Project	Deputy leader	Became a deputy leader after the weather Doppler radar project was approved; assigned Old Guo to oversee Han Li’s recovery while the base sought to make use of his technical knowledge. 539
Weather-prediction verification	Base director	Announced that the predicted Jinyintan thunderstorm precisely matched the Meteorological Center’s forecast, recognizing the achievement as the country’s first meaningful level of precise weather prediction. 548
Zhu Xian Project	Overall person in charge	Nominally led the four-part project while Old Guo handled technical information dispatch and summary work. 564
Immortal Slaying Sword Array platform	Meeting chair and decision-maker	Convened the results meeting after the platform reached phased results with potential for practical deployment and production. 568
Light Nuclear Reaction Device Theoretical Exploration Group	Base leader	Announced the formation of the 91-member light-nuclear group under Huang Zuqiao and informed personnel that their identities and records would be erased for secrecy. 616
Tai Shang Project	Project announcer	Publicly announced the project’s name and arranged personal protection for Xu Yun by assigning Mou Fangdong as his guard. 617
Atomic-bomb test production	Production commander	Accepted the order to prepare the summary report and complete production and assembly of the actual test bomb within one month after the cold-explosion experiment succeeded. 748

Appearance

Li Jue grows a beard in an effort to look more like a learned technical leader. He previously wore thick brown-framed glasses, later replacing them with gold-rimmed glasses that cost nearly half of his previous year’s salary. 629 730

• Suffers from severe myopia; his prescription reportedly rose from 700 to 1300 degrees over two years of administrative pressure. 637
• Rarely wears a watch because he dislikes the feeling of a watchband on his wrist. 593
• His gold-rimmed glasses are explicitly associated with his desire to project the image of a “technical leader.” 730

Personality

A veteran of many battles, Li Jue is described as fiery-tempered, rugged, decisive, and unwilling to hesitate when action is necessary. 729 His military bearing remains evident in high-pressure situations; when ordered to oversee production of the test bomb, he instinctively salutes and guarantees completion of the mission. 748

Li Jue is practical about his own limitations. He does not pretend to understand highly specialized technical reports, bluntly admitting that he is “blind” when confronted with particle-analysis data. 629 At the same time, he is receptive to expertise: when Xu Yun proposes photovoltaic power generation, Li Jue openly acknowledges his lack of knowledge and requests a formal report within three days. 639

He also has a dry, teasing sense of humor. While examining particle-collision reports, he jokingly calls himself a “technically skilled leader,” then eagerly accepts Zhao Zhongyao’s simple assignment of comparing graph peaks across pages. 629

Abilities & Skills

Administrative Command

Li Jue manages Factory 221’s personnel, security, logistics, and major project coordination despite the base’s scale and secrecy requirements.

• Oversees a base with more than ten thousand employees. 514
• Chairs leadership meetings and turns project results into organizational decisions. 548 568
• Monitors food supply and serving progress across large New Year banquet sites, including a branch venue serving more than 5,500 people. 727
• Organizes reports, production deadlines, and resource allocation for the atomic-bomb program. 748

Personnel Judgment and Security

Li Jue evaluates people cautiously, especially when their backgrounds are unclear or their work could affect classified projects.

• Refuses to treat Han Li’s intelligence and goodwill alone as sufficient grounds for core-project access. 521
• Orders Old Guo to prioritize preventing Han Li’s wounds from relapsing. 539
• Assigns Mou Fangdong as Xu Yun’s personal guard after the Tai Shang Project is announced. 617
• Oversees the removal of personnel records and public traces for those working on the light-nuclear program. 616

Scientific Project Liaison

Though not a specialist researcher, Li Jue effectively supports experts by asking direct questions, allocating manpower, and identifying what requires further review.

• Requests a photovoltaic-power report after Xu Yun explains the base’s imbalance between electricity supply and consumption. 639
• Receives and coordinates technical reports for the Zhu Xian Project while Old Guo supervises detailed scientific information. 564 568
• During a particle experiment, finds an anomalous graph peak while manually comparing reports page by page; the result contributes to the discovery that hadrons and hyperons contain smaller unknown particles. 629 632
• His scientific limitation is explicit: advanced particle-physics reports exceed his ability to interpret without expert assistance. 629

Relationships

• Old Guo — Trusted technical counterpart at Factory 221. Old Guo provides Li Jue with scientific reports and recommendations, while Li Jue handles personnel decisions, project leadership, and logistical support. 521 539 568
• Xu Yun / Han Li — Initially treats Han Li as a potentially valuable but insufficiently vetted outsider; later consults him on power generation, protects him with a dedicated guard, and increasingly relies on his expertise. 521 617 639
• Lu Guangda — Fellow senior leader at Base 221. Li Jue works alongside him on major nuclear-project matters and joins Xu Yun in delivering New Year’s dinner to Lu Guangda’s overtime team. 578 728
• Zhao Zhongyao — Scientific collaborator during the tandem electrostatic accelerator experiment. Zhao Zhongyao gives Li Jue a graph-comparison task that unexpectedly leads to a significant result. 629 632
• Qian Wushi — Senior missile-development leader and fellow base authority. Li Jue works with him on major defense projects and later receives his reminder that Xu Yun is a person from the future. 559 706
• Zhou Cai — Li Jue’s assistant, who handles timekeeping, telegrams, reports, and logistical updates for the Factory Director. 593 727

Notable Quotes

“From today onwards, all traces of us will disappear from the face of the earth.”
— Announcing the secrecy requirements for the light-nuclear program 616

“Understood! Please rest assured, organization. We guarantee to complete the mission!”
— Accepting responsibility for producing the atomic-bomb test device 748

Trivia

• Li Jue graduated from Capital Huaxia University, identified as the predecessor of North China University and Yanjing Normal University. 637
• He bought gold-rimmed glasses partly to cultivate the appearance of a technical leader after publishing papers in top international journals. 730
• Although he initially could not understand the particle-analysis report, he found a crucial anomaly through a simple visual-comparison assignment and immediately asked whether it counted as earning merit. 629 632