Mechanical Processing Workshop

Chapter 2: Returning Home

Half a month later, Zhang Yi's father, Zhang Ming, was finally discharged from the hospital. However, according to the doctor, his father's leg would require a considerable amount of time to recover. Furthermore, due to the car accident, Zhang Yi's father's future life would be somewhat affected. While normal walking wouldn't be a major issue, he wouldn't be able to do heavy labor.

"Mom, I'm going to check on the shop. It's been closed for so long, it's time to reopen. With Dad like this, I'm not planning on going out to work anymore. So, I want to run our own shop," Zhang Yi said to his mother the morning after he returned, after they had finished eating.

Zhang Yi's father originally worked at a machinery factory in Xian County. Later, the machinery factory where his father worked went bankrupt, so he opened his own mechanical processing factory. However, this machinery factory should more accurately be called a processing shop or a mechanical processing workshop. It was just that when Zhang Yi's father registered it, he registered it as a processing factory.

Zhang Yi's family's mechanical processing factory had an area of about one hundred square meters. There was only one machine tool in the entire factory, and this machine tool was a product from the 1970s or 1980s. This was something that was given to his father as payment for back wages after the machinery factory where his father originally worked went bankrupt.

Zhang Yi's family's factory usually did various scattered processing jobs, such as helping the auto repair shop across the street process some urgently needed car parts, or processing some mechanical parts.

Of course, processing workshops like this generally couldn't get larger orders; they only handled private processing jobs. However, fortunately, there weren't many places in the entire Xian County that undertook private processing, so Zhang Yi's family's processing factory managed to survive tenaciously.

After all, with the popularization of various agricultural machinery, they weren't unable to survive. However, due to limitations in technology and funding, it was absolutely impossible for their machinery factory to develop into a giant in the machinery industry.

Therefore, Zhang Yi's factory also had no workers. Previously, all orders were completed by Zhang Yi's father, Zhang Ming, himself, and they didn't earn much money throughout the year.

Soon, Zhang Yi arrived at his family's mechanical processing workshop. Just like before, their mechanical processing workshop hadn't changed at all.

Zhang Yi walked to the entrance, opened the large door, and entered the workshop. The first impression the hundred-plus square meter workshop gave him was that it was old. The various pieces of equipment in the workshop were quite old. The only machine tool inside was older than Zhang Yi himself. Fortunately, the precision of this machine tool was still quite considerable, and coupled with his father's skills, it could still process some relatively precise parts.

Of course, this machine tool wasn't the only processing equipment here. In addition to this machine tool, there was also a small drill press and some cutting and grinding equipment.

However, compared to that old machine tool, these pieces of equipment were much newer, with most of them being products from recent years.

After all, compared to machine tools that cost tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands, these pieces of equipment were quite cheap, costing only a few hundred or a thousand yuan.

The second impression was that it was messy. There were various unprocessed raw materials everywhere, or scrapped parts. The floor was dirty, and there were oil drums scattered everywhere.

In reality, Zhang Yi's family's workshop wasn't too old; it was just that things were placed haphazardly, and coupled with the old age of the machine tools and other equipment, it made the workshop look very dilapidated. One should know that their workshop was built less than fifteen years ago on their own homestead.

After entering, Zhang Yi frowned, then picked up a broom from the side and began cleaning the workshop. After all, it had been closed for so long, and the entire workshop was covered in dust. Moreover, this dust was mixed with oil and other substances, making everything look black and feeling particularly dirty.

Just as Zhang Yi was tidying up the workshop, someone walked in from outside.

Seeing Zhang Yi sweeping the workshop, he immediately spoke, "Xiao Yi! When did you come back? I heard your dad had an accident. Is he doing okay now?"

"Uncle Zhang! Thank you for your concern. My dad is fine. He's already been discharged from the hospital and is recuperating at home. Uncle Zhang, is there something you need?" Zhang Yi was very familiar with this person. His name was Zhang Zhuo, and he was the boss of the auto repair shop across the street, as well as one of Zhang Yi's family's major customers.

However, when Zhang Zhuo heard that Zhang Yi's father was recuperating, his expression clearly changed. It seemed there was something urgent.

"Uncle Zhang! Is there something that needs processing? If there are any parts that need processing, just give them to me. You know my skills.

Although I haven't reached my dad's level yet, general parts won't be a problem for me," Zhang Yi knew from Zhang Zhuo's expression that there must be some urgently needed parts that needed processing, so he spoke.

After hearing Zhang Yi's words, Zhang Zhuo thought for a moment and said, "Okay! I'll go get the sample. Bring it over and see if you can do it!" It was clear that he wasn't very confident in Zhang Yi's skills.

Although he also knew that Zhang Yi had some skills in this area, he didn't think Zhang Yi's skills would be that good. However, the customer was very urgent right now, so he had no choice but to let Zhang Yi try first.

After speaking, Zhang Zhuo hurried back to get the sample.

Soon, Zhang Zhuo returned with the sample of the part he needed to process. The part he needed this time was a main shaft.

Zhang Yi carefully examined it. This should be the main shaft of an agricultural harvester, but at this time, this main shaft was broken into two sections and needed to be reprocessed.

After all, although Zhang Zhuo's repair shop also repaired agricultural vehicles and agricultural machinery, they generally didn't stock anything other than some common mechanical parts.

Furthermore, Zhang Yi's family's machinery factory was right next door, so there was no need to stock things like this. If needed, they could just have Zhang Yi's father turn one out directly.

He took a look and found that processing such a spindle was not difficult. He felt that with his own skills, he should be able to process it. So he said, "Uncle Zhang, I can process this spindle, but you'll need to come back tomorrow to pick it up." As he spoke, Zhang Yi pointed to the dust and other things in the factory. Such a place was clearly not suitable for immediate processing.

"Alright! Little Yi, Uncle Zhang trusts you. I'll come over tomorrow morning to pick it up." After saying that, he walked out. At the same time, the worried look on his face didn't ease much. It was clear that he still didn't fully trust Zhang Yi's skills.

In reality, at this moment, let alone Zhang Zhuo, even Zhang Yi himself wasn't confident. After all, he hadn't touched a machine tool for so long, and his skills must have become rusty. But there was nothing he could do; given the current situation, he could only bite the bullet and go for it.

Zhang Yi didn't start processing the spindle right away. Instead, he continued cleaning the workshop. Just as he was about to move a piece of angle iron on the ground to the side, he didn't realize there was a burr in the middle of the angle iron. And at that moment, he wasn't wearing gloves, so his finger was immediately cut.

However, Zhang Yi didn't care about this. After all, in this line of work, bumps and scrapes were normal occurrences. Since he was a child, he had experienced countless such incidents in his family's machinery factory.

So he shook his hand and didn't pay attention, continuing to clean and tidy up the workshop. Moreover, the wound wasn't big at all; it was nothing to him.

However, he didn't notice that when he shook his hand, a few drops of blood splattered onto the bracelet on his wrist and were absorbed by an item on his bracelet that looked like a small copper coin.