Factory Building

The dozen-odd days passed quickly. On the twelfth day after Zhang Yi received Zhu Gang's order, Xiao Hua finally completed it, three days ahead of schedule. Given Xiao Hua's abilities, it should have been even faster, but she had spent quite a bit of time teaching Zhang Yi how to operate a lathe during this period, which was why it was only finished today. Even so, Zhang Yi was already very happy.

After completing the order, Zhang Yi immediately delivered it to Zhu Gang. However, he did not receive another order from Zhu Gang's factory this time. Zhu Gang told him that he would have to wait a few days, until Zhu Gang received new orders from Geely Group, before he could give Zhang Yi any work.

After all, Zhu Gang's factory needed to survive as well. Only when they could not keep up would they hand orders over to Zhang Yi. Under normal circumstances, they would not give him any work.

Although he had not received an order from Zhu Gang, Zhang Yi was not disappointed. He took advantage of these few free days to buy the CNC Machine.

Once he bought the machine, Zhang Yi could begin trial-producing the Aerodynamic Bicycle he had purchased from the store.

Because online shopping was so convenient now, the CNC Machine Zhang Yi ordered arrived just two days after he placed the order. Installation took another day. By the third day, Zhang Yi's workshop had two machine tools, one of them a CNC Machine.

Although the CNC Machine Zhang Yi bought was only an ordinary model, it was not cheap. It cost him a full three hundred thousand yuan. That price was somewhat high among machines of the same type, but it was worth the money. This model had relatively good value for money among ordinary CNC machines, so Zhang Yi felt that the three hundred thousand yuan had been well spent.

"Hello! This is Zhang Yi!" On the morning after the machine was installed, Zhang Yi received a call from Zhu Gang. Zhu Gang had received another new order from Geely Group, and when he took the order from Geely this time,

he had included the production capacity of Zhang Yi's factory. As a result, the order was somewhat larger than usual. The extra work consisted of precision parts, so he asked Zhang Yi to come to his factory and collect the order.

"Uncle Gang! This order is huge!" When Zhang Yi arrived at Zhu Gang's office and took the order from him, he was immediately puzzled. The order Zhu Gang had given him was enormous—of course, only for Zhang Yi's small workshop. There were a full ten thousand parts, all requiring precision machining.

Naturally, Zhu Gang's price was decent as well. The machining fee for each part was over fifty yuan, meaning the entire order was worth more than five hundred thousand yuan. For Zhang Yi, this was absolutely the largest order Seven Color Stone Mechanical Factory had received since it opened. However, the deadline was tight: it had to be completed within a month.

In the past, Xiao Hua alone could have completed it, but she would have needed to work overtime. Now that he had just bought a CNC Machine, Xiao Hua would have it much easier. The quality would not suffer, and the speed would not be slow either.

"Yes! I deliberately took on some extra work from Geely Group this time. By the way, I noticed this morning that your factory seemed to have another CNC Machine. That gives you more confidence in handling this order. Although Xiao Hua's skills are superb, having her do this kind of work would be a waste. For work machines can handle, it's naturally best to use a CNC Machine," Zhu Gang said.

"Mm! Uncle Gang, that's what I think too." Zhang Yi smiled.

Zhang Yi then transported all the raw blanks for this order back to the factory. But when he had moved them all in, he discovered that the factory was filled with component blanks everywhere, leaving not even a place to set his feet. This made Zhang Yi realize that his current factory space was simply too small. It was already crowded with two machine tools, and adding these blanks made it even worse.

At the same time, he realized that if Seven Color Stone Mechanical Factory was to develop, it had to move into a larger factory building. For future development, the new facility had to be large enough. However, the hundred-something thousand yuan Zhang Yi currently had was nowhere near enough to rent one.

Although Xian County, where Zhang Yi lived, was a relatively poor county in Zhou Tai City, that was only relative. Moreover, it was located in the mountains, where there was little arable land to begin with, so land prices were still quite high.

Of course, Zhang Yi could rent a factory building for the time being. But even renting one was not cheap. In Xian County, the annual rent for a factory building of one or two thousand square meters was around tens of thousands of yuan. Anything larger would cost even more.

And a factory building of one or two thousand square meters was far too small for Zhang Yi's future plans. He intended to rent one of at least five or six thousand square meters first, then build an even larger facility in one go once he had enough capital. It would need to cover at least several hundred mu to barely be sufficient.

Just as Zhang Yi was thinking about factory buildings, his phone rang. He looked at it and saw that the number was unfamiliar, though its area code was indeed from Zhou Tai City. After thinking it over, Zhang Yi answered it.

"Hello? Who is this?" Zhang Yi asked after picking up.

"Hello, Mr. Zhang Yi. This is the Zhou Tai City Patent Office. The patent you applied for has been approved. When do you have time to come collect it?" A somewhat familiar female voice came from the other end of the line. Combined with what she said, Zhang Yi naturally knew who it was.

"Is this Ms. Zhang from the Patent Office?" Zhang Yi realized that the caller was Zhang Yingying, and he was naturally very pleased. Moreover, the number Zhang Yingying was using did not seem to be an internal Patent Office number, which meant it was very likely her personal number.

When Zhang Yi had gone to the Patent Office last time, he had asked Zhang Yingying for her number. Unfortunately, he had not managed to get it.

"Yes, Mr. Zhang Yi. When do you have time to come collect the patent documents?" Zhang Yingying's voice came through the phone.

"Ms. Zhang, how about this? I'll come by tomorrow afternoon to collect them. Would you be free then? Your help was crucial to this patent application, so I'd like to treat you to a meal to express my gratitude." In truth, Zhang Yi was somewhat nervous when he said this, afraid Zhang Yingying would refuse. After all, he was a complete novice and had never invited a girl out for a meal before.

After hearing Zhang Yi's words, there was no response from Zhang Yingying for a long while. Just as Zhang Yi thought he was about to fail again, Zhang Yingying's voice finally sounded from the phone. "All right! I have nothing to do after work tomorrow, so I'll give you the honor. All right, Mr. Zhang, let's leave it at that. I need to get back to work."

Before Zhang Yi could say anything, Zhang Yingying hung up. Fortunately, she had not rejected his invitation like last time, and Zhang Yi let out a huge sigh of relief.