Factory

The next morning, as unshakable as ever, he ran his ten kilometers. After breakfast, just past six in the morning, Ning Yifan mounted his road bike and set off, his destination the industrial park on the western side of the city.

From searching online, Ning Yifan had seen that this city had two factory buildings listed for sale, both located inside the southern industrial park. Beyond that, a trip to see them in person should yield some results as well.

The sky was just beginning to lighten, and there were still few pedestrians and vehicles on the roads.

Riding his road bike at a speed of forty kilometers per hour, Ning Yifan sped all the way, taking over twenty minutes to reach the industrial park of this small city.

The park covered a very large area. Riding his bike, Ning Yifan first checked out the two factory buildings he'd found in the online listings. Both were situated along the main road of the industrial park. One of them occupied about ten mu of land, its main gate tightly shut.

After circling the outside of the factory, Ning Yifan didn't contact the company owner looking to sell. He temporarily ruled it out. Although the wide road was convenient for transporting product parts, receiving shipments, and so on, the factory looked quite old. After buying it, Ning Yifan would have to rebuild or renovate it before he could use it—too much trouble.

Moreover, Ning Yifan needed a small office building attached where he could live. This place only had the factory and a security booth at the gate. There was no way he was going to live in a security booth or sleep on the floor in the factory. He didn't have high demands for living conditions, but he wasn't about to stoop to that level.

So Ning Yifan didn't even look back. He turned and left, heading to the next one.

The second factory was a bit newer, but it still had no place for Ning Yifan to live. He ruled it out as well.

After spending an entire morning wandering through the industrial park, Ning Yifan still hadn't found a factory that satisfied him. Besides the two listed online, there were four other factories being sold by their owners. But either the spaces were too small—Ning Yifan wasn't interested—or the facilities were too poor, and he didn't want to waste energy fixing them up.

No suitable factory had turned up in this city. It looked like he'd need to switch to a different city to live in.

Bearing the scorching summer heat, that afternoon Ning Yifan boarded a high-speed train heading to the capital city of Chuanxi Province. In that big city, he hoped to find a factory that met his standards.

Have you ever seen a Wu Yanzu or a Peng Yuyan riding a shared bike? Chen Shunjie had gotten a taste of that these past few days. A guy like that could live the ideal life just on his looks alone!

Chen Shunjie was a real estate agent in Chengdu. In this line of work, he dealt with all kinds of people every day. He wouldn't claim to have seen every type, but he was certainly well-traveled in that regard.

But over the past few days, a customer had shown up who really left him scratching his head.

And speak of the devil—here he came!

Early in the morning, just as Chen Shunjie had opened his doors, the guy showed up, riding a shared bike. He was about 185 centimeters tall, with an incredible physique. Even Chen Shunjie, a man himself, couldn't help swallowing when he saw him. Don't get the wrong idea—he wasn't into guys. It was just that the other man's body was so impressive it made him envious. The kind of build you only saw in online pictures or novel descriptions—words like "muscle chisel" popped into his head unbidden!

He wore a T-shirt, shorts, and sneakers, dressed very sporty, like the handsome school heartthrob from an idol drama playing basketball or soccer. The only thing he didn't look like was a big boss.

But the reason this guy had come to Chen Shunjie was to buy a factory, with a budget between five and ten million yuan!

A big boss riding a shared bike, in his early twenties, with a killer physique—this was a first for Chen Shunjie. If you've got the money to buy a multi-million-yuan factory, you should at least be driving a car worth a few hundred thousand, right? And how was he so young? Was he some rich second-generation? He didn't look like it either.

In short, Ning Yifan's appearance left Chen Shunjie baffled, but a customer was a customer, and he had to serve him.

Grabbing his car keys, Chen Shunjie walked over and greeted him: "Yifan, you're early again today!"

Ning Yifan parked the shared bike and said, "Brother Jie, you're early too. The company needs a new factory space ASAP, so no choice!"

Chen Shunjie nodded in understanding and said, "Let's go. The factory we're looking at today is in the Dujiangyan Industrial Park. According to your requirements, the surrounding environment is better, with places to run and exercise. The factory floor area is over three thousand square meters, ready for immediate use after takeover, and it comes with a small building."

"This factory today should satisfy you. Nearby, there's a big river diverted from Dujiangyan, with a beautiful environment. In recent years, a riverside running track over ten kilometers long was built along the riverbank. You can run all the way into the Dujiangyan city area. The factory is 4,800 square meters, with a finely decorated small building."

While introducing the factory they were going to see, Chen Shunjie started his car. Once Ning Yifan got in, they headed toward the factory's location in Dujiangyan City.

After driving for an hour on the highway, Chen Shunjie brought Ning Yifan to their destination—a second-hand factory in the industrial park not far from the highway exit.

The factory was surrounded by brick walls, tightly enclosing the entire premises. Above the walls, you could see the blue-and-white tiled exterior of the tall main building, also brick-structured—different from the light steel structure factories Ning Yifan had seen over the past couple of days.

Compared to light steel structures, Ning Yifan preferred brick buildings. Just a few minutes' drive from the highway, he could already see that the surroundings were nice, with tree-lined roads on both sides. Maybe today would yield results.

Chen Shunjie drove to the gate, where the factory owner, who had been waiting, opened the electric door.

After the car parked in the lot, Ning Yifan and Chen Shunjie got out together. The factory owner came over to greet them.

After exchanging introductions, the factory owner led them inside the premises for a detailed tour. Chen Shunjie and the owner explained some information about the factory to Ning Yifan.

The building had been constructed three years ago. It had housed a garment factory for two years, but business was poor, and the owner, getting older, didn't want to keep at it. So he was selling the factory to take the money and retire.

The entire factory was a three-story structure, each floor eight meters high, with an internal area of 1,600 square meters per floor, totaling 4,800 square meters of floor space. It sat on eleven mu of land. All the certificates and facilities needed to run a factory—industrial electricity, environmental standards, fire safety requirements—were fully in place.

The original garment production equipment inside had already been sold off by the owner, and the entire factory had been cleaned out. If Ning Yifan needed it, he could move his equipment in and start production immediately.

The factory was relatively new and spacious, meeting Ning Yifan's requirements. Additionally, it was only a few hundred meters from a large river. Running upstream along that river for seven or eight kilometers would take you to the famous local scenic spot, Dujiangyan. The infrastructure along the riverbank was very well-developed.

Furthermore, behind the main factory building stood a three-story, finely decorated small building where Ning Yifan could rest and live.

This three-story building was built entirely as a residence, complete with furniture and appliances. The first floor had a living room and meeting room, while the second and third floors were where the previous owner had lived. Before this, the factory owner had stayed here himself.

After spending two hours carefully inspecting the entire factory, Ning Yifan finally spoke: "Not bad, I'm pretty satisfied with it."

Over the past few days, he had looked at dozens of factories. This one was the most satisfying. The infrastructure was complete, requiring no extra effort to modify. He just needed to move the equipment from his rental place over, and he was good to go.

And with over four thousand square meters of space, it would serve him well for a long time.

"Young man, you've got good taste. I can tell you're going to make big money in the future!" Hearing Ning Yifan's interest, the owner was delighted and kept praising him.

Changing the subject, Ning Yifan smiled and said, "It's just the price—is there any room for negotiation?"

Hearing that Ning Yifan was satisfied, Chen Shunjie quickly chimed in: "The price, well, it's always negotiable!"

Having looked at dozens of factories over the past few days, Ning Yifan had a decent grasp of the general price range. This place was quite far from the main urban area of Chengdu—practically the suburbs—and also a few kilometers from Dujiangyan's city center, so the property wasn't too expensive.

After some back-and-forth discussion among the three, Ning Yifan ended up buying the factory for 6.8 million yuan.

The transfer of the factory's ownership, along with various environmental and fire safety permits, was handled by the real estate agent. Including the agency fees, transfer fees, the cost of setting up a one-gigabit enterprise network, and other miscellaneous expenses and services, Ning Yifan spent a total of 7 million yuan.

All these services were taken care of by the agent. Having finally secured the factory after days of hard work, Ning Yifan hurried back to his rental place to prepare for the move.

Over the past few days, with Zhou Yuanlei's malicious smear campaign gone from the internet, and his apology video circulating, people online had come to realize just how impressive the Phantom Projector really was. More and more buyers wanted to purchase the product, but none could get their hands on it.

Although consumers had learned through the automatic reply system Ning Yifan set up that the reason was the Shenma Technology Company factory relocation and the product production line was being upgraded, there were still many people asking every day exactly when stock would be available!

The sooner he moved into the new factory, the sooner he could start making more money.

In this era, money makes the world go round, and moving house was a breeze in the face of cash.

The professional moving company took only half a day to haul out all the equipment parts Ning Yifan needed, along with some of his personal belongings, from the rental apartment.

Then a housekeeping company cleaned the place spotless, restoring it to its pre-rental condition—even cleaner and tidier than before.

Everything was done in just half a day. After all his things were packed up, Ning Yifan took out his phone and dialed the landlord's number.

"Hello, is this Boss Liu? I'm Ning Yifan, the tenant renting your apartment."

The other party thought for a moment, then said with a smile, "Ah, the one from Zijing Garden Community, right? I remember."

"That's right. I wanted to let you know something. Due to a work transfer, I won't be renting the place anymore. There's still half a year left on the rent, but since I didn't give you three months' notice as per the contract that I wouldn't renew, I'll forfeit the remaining rent."

"Alright, I understand."

"Also, I had the housekeeping company clean the place for you today. If you have time, could you come by? I'll give you the keys. Or I can come to you and hand them over."

"Got it. Wait for me a moment. I'm not far from there. I'll be right over."

The call ended. After waiting about ten minutes, the landlord drove up to the community.

He went into the apartment with Ning Yifan to take a look, then accepted the keys and said, "Furniture and appliances are all fine. The room is spotless too. Tenants as trustworthy as you are rare these days."

"It's only right. Mutual trust."

"Alright, I wish you a happy life ahead and a bright future!"

"Good health."

The landlord took the keys and left. Ning Yifan turned back to look at the apartment he'd rented ever since graduating and coming to this city for work, then turned and went downstairs.

He remembered when he first moved in, coming home from the company every day, cooking for himself—boiled fish, hotpot, grilled meat. The taste wasn't great, but making his own food and eating it was still pretty nice. Watching movies and anime, playing games, carefree and free to do whatever he wanted. A few months ago, in this very room, he'd prepared his gear for a solo cycling trip along the Sichuan-Tibet Highway, using the money he'd earned from work after graduation to set off on the journey.

He was used to living alone, enjoying the solitude.

That breakfast stall next to the school would never see Ning Yifan's figure at six in the morning again. He hoped the hardworking owner would have better days ahead.

Riding in the moving company's truck, after more than three hours on the road, Ning Yifan arrived at the factory he'd bought.

The movers placed his personal belongings in the three-story building, while the Phantom Projector parts and the Fully Automatic Production Robotic Arm were carried into the factory and stacked on the second floor, in the corner Ning Yifan had designated.

And with that, the entire moving process was over. A new life was about to begin.