Who Can Tell Me How to Make This Devil's Work Ball?

Something this small, a regular electronic scale—or even a food scale designed for light weights—definitely wouldn't be able to weigh it. The reading probably wouldn't even register.

Shen Le hesitated for three seconds between "placing an order for a precision scale" and "finding a way to borrow one," before finally opening Taobao. A quick glance was enough to make him recoil: Too rich for my blood.

A domestic 0.0001g electronic analytical balance cost 630 yuan. The cheapest imported ones were at least three or four thousand. Of course, there were "daily special" shops claiming 0.01g precision for just 150 yuan, but would you dare to use that?

His fixed monthly income consisted of 1,500 yuan from the Heavenly Fragrance Restaurant—split fifty-fifty with Little Puppet—and 1,100 yuan from school tours, assuming he worked all 22 days of the month, also split fifty-fifty. With 2,600 yuan to cover his own living expenses, he had enough, but if he started splurging on equipment, that would be...

Shen Le pondered for a moment, picked up his phone, and scrolled through his contacts. After looking through the list, he ended up calling his friend, the police officer Shi Guangbing:

"Hey, are you there? Can you do me a favor?"

One has to admit, a local connection is a local connection.

Shi Guangbing made a few calls, relying on his local influence and connections to pull strings, and actually managed to borrow the right to use a precision scale for Shen Le. Soon, he called Shen Le back, telling him to bring the item that needed testing to a certain testing center:

"What? You want me to go there? Can't it be brought over?"

"You're overthinking it!" the police officer laughed and scolded on the other end of the line:

"Do you know what kind of precision a 0.0001g scale is? Can you just move it around? Never mind moving it, even the table the scale sits on is vibration-dampened, and the temperature in the weighing room has to be kept constant, otherwise, it affects the accuracy! Hurry up! That technician is my girlfriend's classmate, otherwise, I wouldn't be helping you!"

"Alright, alright..."

Shen Le agreed readily. He carefully wiped the Devil's Work Ball clean, then picked up an air duster and blew into it with all his might to clear the dust from inside the three layers of the ball, before taking it to the testing center the officer mentioned. Once there, he wasn't allowed into the testing room and could only stand on tiptoe to watch through the glass:

The technician was wearing a neat white lab coat, a work cap, and a mask that covered her face completely. She took the bag containing the Devil's Work Ball from his hand, turned back to the weighing table, zeroed the scale, and took out a...

Tweezers?

Well, as expected of a testing center that uses precision scales daily, what kind of light and tiny things do you people test every day...

The technician used the tweezers to hold the Devil's Work Ball, inserted it through the opening of the scale's glass shield, and placed it on the center of the weighing pan. The display in front of the electronic scale flickered, and a reading immediately popped up:

0.6867...

Shen Le covered his face. Very good, excellent, it really was accurate to four decimal places—truly impressive!

He thanked her profusely and, while he was at it, begged and pleaded for her to help him measure its volume. Using the water displacement method, measuring the weight of the test tube's solution before and after, the answer he got was:

Approximately 0.85 cubic centimeters.

...In other words, the wood used for this Devil's Work Ball had a density of 0.78g/cm³. Shen Le checked a common wood density table for a long time but couldn't make heads or tails of it:

Oak, walnut, maple, and even jujube wood all fell within this density range. As for the hardness of the wood, it was truly impossible to determine through manual measurement alone...

"So, what kind of wood am I supposed to use to make this?"

Shen Le gritted his teeth, feeling conflicted and troubled. In truth, he could just find any suitable wood, or even go online right now and order a ready-made Devil's Work Ball—

The price wasn't even high; a 15mm diameter mammoth ivory Devil's Work Ball on Taobao only cost 145 yuan, and a deer antler one was only 50 yuan.

However, Shen Le always felt that the more he carved, repaired, and worked on it himself, the more likely it was that the Ink Marker would develop a spirit after being repaired, becoming a... a...

Though he didn't know what the Ink Marker would become if it developed a spirit—would it turn into a carpenter?

Shen Le let out a long sigh and finally pulled out his phone to contact a senior from his graduate school days:

"Senior, I remember when you were doing your PhD, you had a project researching the materials of various ancient buildings, right?"

"Yeah, yeah," the senior was clearly exhausted by the project; as soon as Shen Le poked him, he sent back a long string of text to vent. There were several homophone typos and a bunch of misplaced punctuation, which made it obvious it was voice-to-text:

"I'm working on it right now, I'm exhausted! Running all over the country, climbing up and down to take samples, my legs have gotten thin from all the running! I also have to beg people everywhere, asking juniors and seniors in different places to help take samples and mail them back... By the way, what's up?"

"Senior, I remember your project seemed to have a partnership with the Forestry Bureau to test the DNA of various woods to see what they actually are? Can I hitch a ride? I have something here that needs testing..."

"Sure! Send it over!"

"Thanks, Senior! How much will it cost?"

"No charge! A single test isn't expensive, just a few dozen yuan; the hard part is that if a regular person goes, they might not do it for you. Just include it in the project and get it done together. There's project funding anyway..."

The senior sent an address and went silent again. Shen Le breathed a sigh of relief, took photos of the Devil's Work Ball from multiple angles, made rubbings, and cast a mold with plaster. Once the series of tasks was complete, he held his breath and carefully took a sample:

"Senior, I'm counting on you!"

In all honesty, he knew where to go for a paternity test—though he didn't actually need one. Identifying wood DNA, however, had really stumped him; thank goodness his senior was reliable!

After mailing the sample, Shen Le began researching how to actually make this Devil's Work Ball. First, he opened CNKI and searched—

Right, with "Devil's Work Ball" as the keyword, there wasn't even half a paper.

Shen Le didn't lose heart and kept trying. He opened Taobao, Bilibili, Douyin, and Xiaohongshu, searching one by one:

"Uh... this only shows the finished product, it doesn't show how to make it at all."

"This one... what about the key steps? Where are the key steps?! You sped it up dozens of times and skipped two-thirds of the crucial parts, you can't do that, master!"

"This one... sigh, what can you even see in a 15-second video?"

"This one... what is this? CNC machining, a 12-sided exquisite ball? So it can be done using CNC methods? You could at least tell me how to do it!"

Shen Le spent a full half-day immersed in searching for various materials, but in the end, he only reached a vague conclusion:

The key is positioning. On the surface of the sphere, mark the positions, drill a few circular holes, then carve inward layer by layer, and finally carve each layer individually. But how do you position it? How many holes do you drill? How deep do you carve?

The first two questions could be answered by measuring an existing Devil's Work Ball. But how deep to carve was a completely different matter...

Shen Le sighed. With no other choice, he picked up his phone and called for help again:

"Senior Sister, are you there? I have an emergency!"