Zhang Yingying

The next morning, Zhang Yi first dropped Xiao Hua off at the factory, telling her to go home for lunch by herself. After dropping her off, he drove the small truck directly to Zhou Tai City. Today, Zhang Yi not only had to pick up his patent certificates from the Patent Office but also needed to go to the Materials Market to buy the titanium alloy and special steel required for the bicycle.

His Aerodynamic Bicycle was not a regular bicycle or electric bike. For regular bicycles or electric bikes, most parts could be bought on the market. Whether it was the frame or the plastic casing of an electric bike, electric bike manufacturers basically just needed to assemble these parts and put their own brand on them.

However, for Zhang Yi's Aerodynamic Bicycle, except for the tires, the other parts were not interchangeable with those of bicycles or electric bikes. Therefore, for now, he could only produce these parts himself and couldn't buy them on the market. So, he took advantage of his trip to Zhou Tai City today to buy some titanium alloy and steel needed to produce the Aerodynamic Bicycle.

Of course, this was only temporary. In the future, when mass production began, he would only need to place orders with other machinery factories for most of the parts.

He could only produce a small number of parts himself. For example, the core component of the Aerodynamic Bicycle, the Air Motor, needed to be produced by them. This was because the Air Motor involved multiple patents and the production difficulty was not something a typical machinery factory could handle. Some of the parts were extremely difficult to produce even with high-precision machine tools.

Even when Zhang Yi's factory grew larger in the future, he would not outsource the processing of these parts to other factories. As for other parts, such as the frame and steering column, although they were significantly different from those of ordinary bicycles, machinery factories like Zhu Gang's could still produce them.

Since Zhang Yi left the factory at over nine in the morning, it was already eleven o'clock by the time he arrived in Zhou Tai City. He found a place to quickly eat lunch and then hurried towards the Materials Market in Zhou Tai City.

Since this was a trial production, Zhang Yi didn't buy much material, enough to make about a hundred Aerodynamic Bicycles. Although he now had the blueprints and a thorough understanding of the detailed aspects of the Aerodynamic Bicycle, it was not suitable for large-scale production yet. Furthermore, the machinery in the factory also didn't allow for large-scale manufacturing.

After buying the materials, Zhang Yi headed towards the Patent Office. By the time he arrived at the Patent Office, it was already past four in the afternoon. Fortunately, this trip to the Patent Office didn't require any procedures; he just needed to pick up the patent certificates directly.

Walking into the Patent Office, Zhang Yi noticed there weren't many people there. Upon entering, he immediately saw Zhang Yingying sitting there looking bored. He spoke up, "Sister Zhang! I'm here."

"Ah! Mr. Zhang, you're here. Please have a seat, I'll get your certificates right away." After saying that, Zhang Yingying started searching beside her desk and quickly found Zhang Yi's patent certificates, then handed them to Zhang Yi.

"Mr. Zhang, you are truly amazing. You've invented so many patents at such a young age. You know, many of these patents are very practical! I think it won't be long before someone contacts Mr. Zhang wanting to buy his patents," Zhang Yingying said enviously.

As a staff member of the Patent Office, although Zhang Yingying didn't know exactly how much these patents were worth, based on their descriptions, she was certain they were very valuable.

However, although she was envious, she didn't have any other thoughts. Moreover, although Zhang Yingying's family wasn't very rich, everyone in her family worked for the government, so they weren't short of money for daily expenses.

"Sister Zhang, when do you get off work?" After taking the patent certificates, Zhang Yi checked the time and saw it was almost five o'clock, so he asked.

"Mr. Zhang, please don't call me Sister Zhang. When you applied for the patents before, I saw that you are a little older than me. Calling me that makes me feel very awkward. How about this! Why don't you just call me Yingying?" When she mentioned having Zhang Yi call her Yingying, Zhang Yingying's face turned slightly red, but she hid it well, so Zhang Yi didn't notice at all.

"Alright! Then I'll call you Yingying. You don't need to call me Mr. Zhang anymore either. You can call me Xiao Yi, or Brother Zhang, or my name." Zhang Yi replied.

"This..." Zhang Yingying felt a bit awkward hearing Zhang Yi's words. After all, calling Zhang Yi by his name directly seemed a bit impolite, and Xiao Yi was definitely not something she should call him; it was clearly a name for someone older than him or someone very close. After thinking for a moment, Zhang Yingying spoke again with a little embarrassment, "Alright then, I'll call you Brother Zhang from now on."

Afterward, Zhang Yi and Zhang Yingying chatted for a while longer, and it was already exactly five o'clock. So, Zhang Yingying said to Zhang Yi, "Brother Zhang, please wait a moment, I'm going to change clothes." Saying this, she stood up and walked towards the interior of the Patent Office.

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

Arriving outside the Patent Office, Zhang Yingying came out after changing clothes within a few minutes.

"Brother Zhang, sorry to keep you waiting. Let's go!" Seeing Zhang Yi already waiting at the entrance after she came out, Zhang Yingying said a little apologetically.

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

However, when Zhang Yingying saw Zhang Yi get into a dilapidated small truck, she seemed to have seen something very interesting, so she didn't immediately get into the passenger seat.

Instead, she walked around Zhang Yi's small truck a few times before getting into the passenger seat and saying to Zhang Yi, "Wow! Brother Zhang! How old is this small truck of yours? You should have replaced it with a new one a long time ago. Why is it so broken and you're still driving it out?"

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

Moreover, my business is just starting, and this is when I need money the most, so I won't buy one for now. It won't be too late to buy one when my factory develops. And this one is just right for now; it can be used as transportation and also to haul some things." Zhang Yi replied to Zhang Yingying while starting the car and driving towards the road outside.