First Hiring

After Zhang Yi inspected the machine tool, he didn't find any problems with it. So, he took out a piece of raw material about the same size as the spindle Zhang Zhuo had brought, placed it on the machine tool, turned on the power, and began processing.

However, it was clear that Zhang Yi had overestimated his current skill. Having not operated a machine tool for so long, his technique was very rusty. Zhang Yi even felt that it was worse than when he first started using a machine tool, his movements were very clumsy.

But he still gritted his teeth and continued processing. However, it was obvious that this wasn't something he could accomplish just by gritting his teeth. During the processing, he broke several turning tools right from the start.

After finally managing not to break turning tools, he ended up ruining several pieces of raw material in a row, which made him very disheartened. After all, simple spindle processing like this would not have been difficult for him a few years ago.

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

If this continued, he wouldn't be able to process this spindle before tomorrow morning. Even working overtime until dawn would only waste material and wouldn't result in a finished product.

After Zhang Yi ruined another piece of raw material, he dejectedly returned to the office, sitting blankly in the office chair, his mind empty.

Now, even a very simple spindle had caused him to ruin so many pieces of raw material. This was too much of a blow to him. One must know that this was just the simplest part processing, and he couldn't even process it now, let alone other complex parts.

If things really continued like this, not to mention keeping his family's machinery factory afloat, even eating might become a problem, let alone developing and expanding the factory.

Could it be that I really have to hire a master craftsman? This thought was quickly dismissed by Zhang Yi. First of all, in this small county town, it was questionable whether Zhang Yi could find a lathe master he was satisfied with. Just the wages alone would be a considerable expense.

One must know that lathe operators for ordinary machine tools are not the same as those for CNC machine tools, especially skilled lathe operators. Therefore, their salaries are not comparable to those of CNC machine tool operators.

For lathe operators who can operate ordinary machine tools, even those with average skills generally start at six thousand yuan, not to mention those with excellent skills, who start at at least ten thousand yuan a month.

With their family's small workshop, they simply couldn't afford the wages of a highly skilled master craftsman.

Although Zhang Yi could hire a master craftsman temporarily until he got his skills back, this was also very unreliable. Firstly, there weren't many master craftsmen in this small county town who were proficient in using old-fashioned lathes.

Secondly, even if there were, no one would work for just one or two months. Moreover, even if he could regain his skills, it would only be at an ordinary level, far from the skill of his father, Zhang Ming, before. He would only be able to process some simple parts, which was simply not realistic.

While Zhang Yi was thinking about these things, he unconsciously opened the Scholar Hiring System in his mind.

Just then, Zhang Yi suddenly came back to his senses. He could hire these scholars from the Scholar Hiring System! Although the scholars he could hire now were only the lowest level in the system, and their average monthly salary, if converted to the money of this world, would also start at over ten thousand yuan, he currently had one hundred Scholar Coins!

In other words, these one hundred Scholar Coins could hire a scholar to work for him for a year.

Thinking of this, he started to hesitate about who he should hire. After much thought, Zhang Yi finally decided to hire a Dwarf first. Because he currently only had one hundred Scholar Coins, if he hired a Red Alert Trainee Engineer, all his Scholar Coins would be gone. If he hired a Dwarf Race Elementary Mechanical Scholar, he would still have 40 Scholar Coins left, which could be used in case of an emergency.

Since he had made up his mind, Zhang Yi immediately took action. He first searched for Dwarf Race Elementary Scholars in the system.

He found that the price of Dwarf Race Elementary Scholars was not the same for everyone. Among all the Dwarf Elementary Scholars he could hire in the system, the price ranged from 50 Scholar Coins per year to one hundred Scholar Coins per year.

At the same time, he also discovered a very strange thing, that is, all the Dwarf Race scholars in the system were female. He did not find the existence of male Dwarf Race scholars, which made him feel puzzled.

Could it be that the Dwarf Race is really so matriarchal that even the males don't have the qualifications 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 female Dwarf Race scholars. Although these female Dwarf Race scholars all had porcelain doll faces, which in Zhang Yi's opinion were legal lolis, if they were operating machine tools, the scene would be a bit... awkward. But to save Scholar Coins, there was nothing he could do.

In the end, Zhang Yi chose Xiao Hua, the first one he saw in the system before, as his first hire. Although Xiao Hua's hiring price was not the cheapest among the many hireable Dwarves, it was not the highest either.

If he chose to hire the cheapest one, Zhang Yi was still a bit worried, after all, he really didn't know much about the system. So he rationally chose Xiao Hua, who cost 60 Scholar Coins per year.

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

"Teleport to the employer's location immediately?"

After Zhang Yi clicked yes, a strong light flashed in front of him, and then a girl about 1.4 meters tall with delicate features and two small braids on her head appeared in front of him.

"