Zhang Yingying

Early the next morning, Zhang Yi first took Xiao Hua to the factory, then told her to go home for lunch by herself at noon. After dropping her off, he drove the small truck straight to Zhou Tai City. Today, he needed not only to pick up his patent certificates from the Patent Office, but also to buy the Titanium Alloy and specialty steel needed for bicycles at the Materials Market.

His Aerodynamic Bicycle was no ordinary bicycle or electric bike. Most parts for ordinary bicycles and electric bikes could be bought on the market. Whether it was an electric bike frame or plastic casing, manufacturers basically only needed to assemble those parts and add their own brand.

However, apart from the tires, none of the parts on Zhang Yi's Aerodynamic Bicycle could be shared with bicycles or electric bikes. For now, he could only produce those parts himself, since they could not be bought on the market. That was why he was taking the opportunity to buy some Titanium Alloy and steel needed to manufacture Aerodynamic Bicycles while in Zhou Tai City today.

Of course, that was only temporary. Once large-scale production began in the future, he would only need to place orders for most of the parts with other machinery factories.

He could only manufacture small quantities of certain parts himself. For example, the core component of the Aerodynamic Bicycle, the Air Motor, had to be produced in-house. Not only did it involve multiple patents, but its manufacturing difficulty was also beyond the capabilities of ordinary machinery factories. Some of its components were extremely difficult to produce even with high-precision machine tools.

Even after Zhang Yi's factory grew larger in the future, he would not hand those parts over to outside manufacturers. As for other components, such as the frame and steering column, although they differed greatly from those of ordinary bicycles, machinery factories like Zhu Gang's could still produce them.

Since Zhang Yi left the factory after nine in the morning, it was already eleven by the time he reached Zhou Tai City. He found somewhere to quickly eat lunch, then hurried toward the Materials Market.

Since this was only a trial production run, Zhang Yi did not buy much material—enough to make around a hundred Aerodynamic Bicycles. Although he already had the blueprints and thoroughly understood the finer details of the Aerodynamic Bicycle, it was still unsuitable for large-scale production. Besides, the machinery at the factory did not allow him to manufacture them in large quantities.

After buying the materials, Zhang Yi hurried to the Patent Office. By the time he arrived, it was already past four in the afternoon. Fortunately, he did not need to complete any procedures this time; he only needed to collect the patent certificates.

As soon as he entered the Patent Office, Zhang Yi noticed that there were not many people there. He immediately spotted Zhang Yingying sitting there bored and said, "sister Zhang! I'm here."

"Ah! Mr. Zhang, you're here. Please sit for a moment. I'll get your certificates right away." After saying that, Zhang Yingying searched beside her desk. She quickly found Zhang Yi's patent certificates and handed them to him.

"Mr. Zhang, you're incredible. You've invented so many patents at such a young age. Many of these are highly practical patents! I don't think it will be long before someone contacts you to buy your patents," Zhang Yingying said enviously.

As an employee of the Patent Office, Zhang Yingying did not know exactly how much these patents were worth. However, judging from their descriptions, she was certain that they were all extremely valuable.

Although she envied him, she had no other thoughts about it. Besides, while Zhang Yingying's family was not particularly wealthy, everyone in her family worked for the government, so they were not usually short of money.

"sister Zhang, when do you get off work?" After taking the patent certificates, Zhang Yi checked the time and saw that it was nearly five, so he asked.

"Mr. Zhang, don't call me sister Zhang anymore. When you applied for the patents before, I saw that you were a little older than me. Calling me that makes me feel very embarrassed. How about this? You can just call me Yingying." When she suggested that Zhang Yi call her Yingying, her face reddened slightly, though she hid it well enough that Zhang Yi did not notice at all.

"Alright, then I'll call you Yingying. And don't call me Mr. Zhang anymore either. You can call me Xiao Yi, brother Zhang, or just use my name," Zhang Yi replied.

"This..." Zhang Yingying found it a little difficult after hearing Zhang Yi's words. Calling him by his name directly seemed somewhat impolite, while Xiao Yi was clearly not something she could call him. It was obviously a name reserved for someone older than him or someone very close to him. After thinking for a moment, Zhang Yingying spoke again somewhat shyly, "Alright, then I'll call you brother Zhang from now on."

Afterward, Zhang Yi and Zhang Yingying chatted for a while longer. By the time it was exactly five o'clock, Zhang Yingying said to Zhang Yi, "brother Zhang, wait a moment. I'll go change clothes." With that, she stood up and walked deeper into the Patent Office.

"Alright, go ahead. I'll wait for you outside." After saying that, Zhang Yi also stood and walked out of the Patent Office.

When he arrived outside the Patent Office, Zhang Yingying came out after changing clothes only a few minutes later.

"brother Zhang, sorry to keep you waiting. Let's go!" Seeing Zhang Yi already waiting by the entrance, Zhang Yingying said somewhat embarrassedly.

"It's fine. I just came out too. Let's go!" With that, Zhang Yi led Zhang Yingying toward his small truck.

However, when Zhang Yingying saw Zhang Yi get into a battered old small truck, she seemed to have seen something very amusing and did not immediately get into the passenger seat.

Instead, she circled Zhang Yi's small truck a few times before finally sitting in the passenger seat and saying, "Wow, brother Zhang! What era is this little truck from? You should have replaced it with a new one ages ago. It's so worn-out—how can you still drive it around?"

"Yingying, I don't really have a choice. I've wanted to replace this truck for a long time. After all, it's already ten years old. But I'm not some rich person. Even if these patents of mine are valuable, they aren't money until they're sold.

Besides, my business has only just started, and this is exactly when I need money. So I won't buy one for now. It won't be too late to buy one after my factory develops. This one is just right for the moment—it can serve as transportation and haul things too." Zhang Yi answered Zhang Yingying as he started the vehicle and drove onto the road outside.