Mold, 1998

At 24, as layoffs swept Shenyang, Li Henian, a mold-making apprentice, was let go by the factory.

He didn't go into business or trade stocks. Clutching the chunk of copper his master had left him, a 1958 Harbin No. 1 Factory vernier caliper, and a notebook of machining processes, he turned the garage beneath his building into Li's Mold Shop.

Over the next ten years, a senior female apprentice urged him on, a businesswoman pursued him, a female apprentice from Harbin Institute of Technology sought him out, and a purchasing agent from a major automaker tested him. Four women crossed paths with him, then each went her own way.

In 2010, he headed south to Shenzhen. With a 1952 shaper, he turned a craft from the north into a model of precision for all Asia.

From Shenyang to Shenzhen, across 12 degrees of latitude and 25 years, he straightened the line one cut at a time.

This novel and its characters are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to actual persons or events is purely coincidental. Do not imitate.