"Boss Little Zhang! Thank you for your help this time. If it hadn't been for you, my factory would have been in deep trouble. Not only would we have had to pay breach-of-contract penalties for failing to complete the order, but we might also have ended up on Geely Group's blacklist. We'd never get another order from Geely Group again.
"So, Boss Little Zhang, to thank you for your help, dinner's on me tonight," Zhu Gang said happily.
"No, Boss Zhu. I have something to do tonight, so I won't trouble you," Zhang Yi said after giving it some thought.
After all, he had already promised Xiao Hua that he would treat her to a big meal that evening, so he still declined Boss Zhu's invitation.
"Boss Little Zhang, don't be in such a hurry to refuse. You won't be the only one I'm inviting today. There will also be some county leaders, such as the Office Director of our Development Zone, the County Bureau Chief, and most importantly, our county's Deputy County Magistrate.
"I can tell that, unlike your father, you definitely won't be content with merely running a small machining workshop. After all, an Advanced Technician like Master Xiao Hua isn't someone just anyone can hire. Even my factory doesn't have one.
"If you truly want to make your family's factory bigger and stronger, you should get to know some of the county leaders. That will greatly benefit your factory's future development," Zhu Gang said.
After thinking it over, Zhang Yi ultimately accepted Zhu Gang's invitation. Just as Zhu Gang had said, if his factory was to grow, dealing with county government personnel in the future would be inevitable. So he said, "All right!"
"That's more like it! Bring Master Xiao Hua along later too! She's the hero of this job, so you have to bring her," Zhu Gang said.
Over the past few days, Zhu Gang had gone to Zhang Yi's factory every day to check on the processing progress of that batch of parts. After all, it concerned his factory's future. And during those days, he had come to deeply admire Xiao Hua's skills.
As the owner of a mechanical factory, Zhu Gang knew very well how rare a master like Xiao Hua was. Although he did not know her technician grade, he believed it was definitely no lower than Level Seven—perhaps even Level Eight.
So whenever he visited, he was full of admiration for Xiao Hua. He had even tried several times to poach her from Zhang Yi, because a master like her was simply too rare.
However, every time he saw Xiao Hua and Zhang Yi chatting and laughing together, with Xiao Hua repeatedly taking Zhang Yi's arm as if no one else were around, Zhu Gang knew there had to be something unusual between them. He gave up on the idea of poaching Xiao Hua.
He knew that, judging by the way the two of them were, he had no chance of succeeding. He might even offend both Xiao Hua and Zhang Yi.
At the same time, his favorable impression of Zhang Yi had grown considerably over the past few days. Perhaps in his view, Zhang Yi's own machining skills were not very good—one could even say they were terrible, inferior to an apprentice in his own factory.
But being able to recruit a master like Xiao Hua and make her willingly stay in such a small workshop was an extraordinary ability in itself. That was why he thought highly of Zhang Yi, and he also had high hopes for Zhang Yi's Seven Color Stone Mechanical Factory.
"Th-this..." Zhang Yi had wanted to refuse. After all, bringing someone along to dine with leaders would be quite rude. But before he could decline, Zhu Gang interrupted him.
"All right, stop stammering. It's settled."
"Then... all right! Since that's the case, I won't stand on ceremony. I'll head back and get ready first!" With that, Zhang Yi prepared to leave.
After getting into his small truck, Zhang Yi first checked the money on his phone. Adding together the processing fees from the previous two jobs, he had earned 280,000 yuan in just one short week. Including the money he had saved from working before, he now had around 350,000 yuan on hand.
So Zhang Yi began considering whether he should buy a CNC Machine. Although 350,000 yuan was already a considerable sum for a mechanical workshop like his family's—
—it was still not quite enough if he truly wanted to buy a CNC Machine. Good imported CNC Machines started at over a million yuan, while even domestic CNC Machines with slightly better performance cost several hundred thousand yuan.
Therefore, his money would only be enough for an ordinary domestic CNC Machine. But even a relatively ordinary domestic CNC Machine cost two or three hundred thousand yuan, which was still somewhat of a burden for him. After all, he only had around 350,000 yuan, and aside from buying a CNC Machine, the factory also needed working capital.
Just as Zhang Yi was considering whether to add more machine equipment to the factory, someone knocked on his car door. He turned around and discovered that it was Zhu Gang.
He rolled down the small truck's window and asked, "Boss Zhu, what is it?"
"Boss Zhang, this is the vehicle you drive? It's about time you replaced it," Zhu Gang said.
"Boss Zhu, I want to replace it too. But you know, something happened to my father some time ago, and the family spent quite a bit of money. On top of that, I want to add some equipment to my workshop now, so I can only make do with it for the time being," Zhang Yi said.
Zhang Yi actually knew that it was time to replace this vehicle. The small truck was already seven or eight years old, and it was usually used to haul all kinds of machine parts. It often had to travel to construction sites and mines, so its exterior was in quite a shabby state. But compared to replacing the truck, the factory needed production equipment more. Without production equipment, the factory could not grow stronger.
"What? You've finally decided to replace that old machine tool of yours? I urged your father to replace that old lathe years ago. Even if he didn't want to switch to a CNC Machine, he should at least have bought a new machine tool. But your father was rather stubborn. He said he was used to that machine tool. I really don't know what he was thinking. If he had replaced that old machine tool earlier, then with his skills, your family's factory would have taken off long ago. It wouldn't be like this now," Zhu Gang said with some emotion.
Just then, a burst of honking sounded behind Zhang Yi. He turned around and saw a large truck parked behind him. He then turned back to Zhu Gang and said, "Boss Zhu, I'll be going first. See you tonight!"
With that, Zhang Yi drove out through the gates of Zhu Gang's factory and headed toward his family's machining workshop.
When he returned to his workshop, Zhang Yi found that Xiao Hua had already changed clothes and was sitting in his boss's chair, reading the books he had bought last time. He did not disturb her and instead headed upstairs, intending to change into a fresh set of clothes first.
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