First Hiring

After inspecting the machine tool, Zhang Yi found nothing wrong with it. He took out a piece of raw material about the same size as the spindle Zhang Zhuo had brought over, placed it on the machine, switched on the power, and began machining it.

However, Zhang Yi had clearly overestimated his current skills. Having gone so long without operating a machine tool, he was extremely rusty. He even felt that he was worse than when he had first started learning to use one, his movements utterly awkward.

Still, he gritted his teeth and continued. But this was clearly not something he could accomplish through sheer stubbornness. Right at the start of the process, he broke several turning tools in succession.

After he finally stopped breaking tools, he ruined several pieces of raw material in a row. It left him deeply discouraged. A few years ago, machining such a simple spindle would have been no challenge at all for him.

But now, even with such a simple spindle, he made countless mistakes, broke several turning tools, and even ruined several pieces of raw material.

If this continued, he would never finish machining the spindle before tomorrow morning. Even if he worked overtime through the night until dawn, he would only waste materials and still fail to make it.

After ruining another piece of raw material, Zhang Yi returned to the office in dejection. He sat blankly in the office chair, his mind utterly empty.

He had ruined so many pieces of raw material over one simple spindle. The blow was simply too great. This was only the most basic kind of part machining, yet he could not even manage it now, much less produce more complicated components.

If things really went on like this, forget keeping his family's machinery factory afloat—he might not even be able to afford food, much less expand the factory.

"Do I really need to hire a master machinist?" Zhang Yi quickly dismissed the thought. Leaving aside whether he could find a satisfactory lathe operator in this tiny county town, the wages alone would be no small expense.

An operator for a conventional lathe was not the same as a CNC machine operator, especially one with solid skills. Their wages were naturally far beyond those of CNC machine operators.

Even an ordinary conventional-lathe operator with average skills generally started at six thousand a month. As for those with genuine expertise, they would cost at least ten thousand a month.

His family's little workshop simply could not afford the wages of a truly skilled veteran machinist.

Zhang Yi could hire an old master temporarily and wait until he got his own skills back, but that was hardly reliable either. To begin with, there were very few veteran machinists in this tiny county town who could proficiently operate old-style lathes.

And even if there were, no one would take a job for just one or two months. Besides, even if he regained his skills, he would only be at an ordinary level. He was nowhere near as skilled as his father, Zhang Ming, and could only machine simple parts. It was completely unrealistic.

As Zhang Yi pondered these matters, he absentmindedly opened the Scholar Hiring System in his mind.

Then Zhang Yi suddenly came to his senses. He could hire one of the scholars in the Scholar Hiring System! Although the scholars he could currently hire were only the lowest-ranking ones in the system, and their average monthly salary would start at over ten thousand in this world's currency, he had one hundred Scholar Coins on hand!

That meant those one hundred Scholar Coins could hire a scholar to work for him for an entire year.

Thinking of this, he began agonizing over whom to hire. After considering it again and again, Zhang Yi ultimately decided to hire a Dwarf first. He only had one hundred Scholar Coins. If he hired a Red Alert Trainee Engineer, he would have nothing left, whereas hiring a Dwarf Race Elementary Mechanical Scholar would leave him with forty Scholar Coins for emergencies.

Having made up his mind, Zhang Yi immediately took action. He first searched the system for elementary Dwarf scholars.

He discovered that the elementary Dwarf scholars did not all cost the same. Among all the elementary Dwarf scholars he could hire from the system, prices ranged from fifty Scholar Coins per year to one hundred Scholar Coins per year.

At the same time, he noticed something strange: every Dwarf scholar in the system was female. He had not found a single male Dwarf scholar, which puzzled him.

Had the Dwarves really become so female-dominated that the males did not even qualify to enter the system? Zhang Yi thought.

He had originally planned to hire a male Dwarf, but now he was clearly disappointed.

Since there were no male Dwarf scholars in the system, he could only hire a female one. Every one of these female Dwarf scholars had a porcelain-doll face; in Zhang Yi's eyes, they were practically legal lolis. The sight of one operating a machine tool would be somewhat... strange, but there was nothing to be done if he wanted to save Scholar Coins.

In the end, Zhang Yi chose Xiao Hua, the first one he had seen in the system, as his first hire. Among all the hireable Dwarves, Xiao Hua's price was neither the lowest nor the highest.

Zhang Yi was somewhat worried about choosing the cheapest option. After all, he did not truly understand the system yet, so he rationally chose Xiao Hua, who cost sixty Scholar Coins per year.

As Zhang Yi confirmed his choice, a prompt appeared in his mind.

"Transmit immediately to the employer's location?"

After Zhang Yi selected yes, a burst of intense light flashed before him. Then a girl around 1.4 meters tall appeared in front of him, with delicate features and two little braids in her hair.

"This!" Before him stood a beautiful little girl with a curvy figure and exquisite features, holding a massive iron hammer completely out of proportion to her body. The sight was immensely striking.

Zhang Yi simply could not connect the little girl before him with a machine operator. He had intended to speak, but suddenly found himself unable to say anything.

"Are you Zhang Yi, my employer? My name is Xiao Hua!" The little girl tilted her head, studying Zhang Yi as she spoke.

Her voice was incredibly crisp and pleasant to listen to. Hearing her words, Zhang Yi replied instinctively, "Yes! I'm your employer. But can you really operate a machine tool?"

"You may be my employer, but remember this: do not doubt the Dwarves' talent, do not doubt the Dwarves' skills, and certainly do not doubt the system's integrity. Whether I can operate a machine tool or not, the facts will speak for themselves. Just give me a machine tool, and you'll know whether I can use one." Xiao Hua was clearly a little angry, but even angry, she looked utterly adorable to Zhang Yi.

Only then did Zhang Yi truly come back to himself. He hurriedly said, "Um, Xiao Hua! I wasn't questioning your skills. It's just that when I saw what you looked like, I really found it hard to believe you were a Mechanical Engineering scholar."

At that moment, Zhang Yi could clearly sense that Xiao Hua had become even angrier, so he hurriedly added, "That's not what I meant."

"You don't need to explain. I understand what you mean. The one outside should be the machine tool of your civilization, right?" As she spoke, Xiao Hua opened the office door and walked toward the machine tool.