What Kind of Move Was This?

The next day.

Fang Bai woke up early. He first reviewed the key points he had memorized the night before to reinforce them, then got up, washed up, went out to buy breakfast, and began studying.

At nine in the morning, he went out and rode around the area near his rental for quite a while before finding a machinery repair shop.

The owner was also the repairman, Chen Fumin, about forty years old. His shop had bearing removal tools.

After Fang Bai clearly described the problem, Master Chen said he would need to see the item first before knowing whether it would be easy to repair.

A few minutes later, Fang Bai brought Master Chen over. After opening the shop door, he pointed at the Morse Taper No. 5 Spindle on the floor. "Master Chen, can these bearings be removed?

"The spindle can't be damaged. I'll have plenty of this kind of work in the future. If you do a good job, I'll come straight to you."

Master Chen glanced at the spindle, brimming with confidence. "Boss, no problem. I remove and install bearings all the time. I guarantee I won't damage the spindle."

"As long as it can be repaired. Including replacing the bearings, how much will the repair cost?"

"The bearings aren't easy to remove, and installation is pretty troublesome too. I'll need to heat oil and soak the bearings. Does that include putting the spindle back in?"

Fang Bai thought about it. It would be even better if he did not have to do it himself and get filthy all over. "Do it all together."

"Then it'll probably take most of the day. Fifteen yuan."

"Fine."

Fang Bai took out another cigarette and handed it to him. Running his own shop certainly earned far more than working for someone else.

Seeing that the deal was settled, Master Chen accepted the cigarette with a smile. "Then I'll head back and get some tools. I'll heat up the oil too. It'll take a little while."

More than twenty minutes later, Master Chen returned. His tricycle carried several more tools and half a bucket of hot oil.

With nothing else to do, Fang Bai pulled over a stool and sat beside him. He did not need to lend a hand, so he watched how Master Chen changed the bearings, occasionally flipping through his english book and memorizing vocabulary.

Master Chen first soaked the new bearings in the hot oil, then took a homemade bearing puller from the tricycle.

Three pull rods were inserted into the bearing's inner race and locked in place with a 180-degree turn. One bolt on the tool connected to the spindle's threaded hole. Once the frame was secured, the next steps worked somewhat like a wine bottle opener, gradually pulling the bearing off the spindle.

About twenty minutes later, several bearings had been pulled off.

Next, after cleaning the spindle, he began replacing the bearings.

The bearings were installed onto the spindle using the hot-fitting method, based on the principle of thermal expansion and contraction.

There was no clearance between the bearings and spindle. Once the bearings were heated, their rings expanded, making them easier to fit onto the spindle.

The hot oil Master Chen had brought was for soaking the bearings. By the time he removed the old bearings, the new ones had been heated sufficiently.

The temperature could not be too high, or the insides of the bearings would deform and become unusable.

Hot-fitting the bearings was much easier than removing them. In just over ten minutes, all five bearings had been replaced.

Watching Master Chen's practiced movements and clearly organized process, Fang Bai knew he did this kind of work often.

The remaining assembly was much simpler. More than ten minutes later, the repair was finished. Fang Bai checked it with the Golden Finger, which showed the spindle bearings in green, meaning there were no longer any problems.

They powered it on and started it up. There were no issues.

"Master Chen, thanks for your hard work. I'll come find you again when there's more work."

Fang Bai pulled out two bills and gave them to him, then stuffed a pack of cigarettes into his hands as well, making him feel a little embarrassed.

Master Chen said politely, "You're too kind, Boss. As long as there's work, just give me a call."

"Sounds good. I might come looking for you again in a few days." Fang Bai had an idea, but he wanted to deal with the equipment in front of him before discussing it with Master Chen in detail.

Master Chen repaired plenty of equipment and must have dealt with many business owners. He surely had plenty of information in that area.

"Sure, sure."

"Master Chen, you know about secondhand machine tools, right? If this one had no faults, roughly what price range would it be in?"

"I know a little. I'll need to inspect it first."

Master Chen first checked the equipment's condition, then operated it briefly to get a sense of its performance.

A few minutes later, after finishing the inspection, he said, "Between ten thousand and thirteen thousand. It depends on how urgently the buyer needs it."

For the sake of that pack of cigarettes, Master Chen told the truth. Besides, he did not have the money to buy it himself.

Fang Bai nodded. "Mm, that's how it is."

"Boss, are you planning to resell it?"

"I have that idea. It depends on the sale price. If you have any connections and manage to sell it, I can give you a one-percent referral fee. This offer is only good for the next two days."

Master Chen fell silent for a moment. He felt there was money to be made, and Fang Bai seemed generous with money, so he said, "All right. I'll bring some bosses over this afternoon to take a look."

"That works. My name is Fang Bai. I'll be at the shop this afternoon," Fang Bai said.

At two-thirty in the afternoon,

Master Chen really did bring a middle-aged man over to look at the equipment. After inspecting it, the man only offered ten thousand yuan. Fang Bai did not sell and said he would consider it.

At five in the afternoon, Master Chen brought another boss over, who offered eleven thousand yuan.

The price was a little below Fang Bai's target, but still acceptable. After shaking hands with the customer to probe for information, he discovered that the man's maximum acceptable price was twelve thousand. However, he wanted to inspect it further, and his down payment was only six thousand. He wanted to use it for a while and pay the remaining balance after confirming there were no problems. Fang Bai naturally would not accept that payment method.

The bosses Master Chen found all ran small workshops. Their funds were limited, and they bargained hard.

Fang Bai quoted twelve thousand yuan and required payment in full.

Time was money. Money only made more money when it was circulating. Fang Bai naturally understood that. He planned to find Wang Hengli tomorrow and see whether he had ordered new equipment yet. If not, there was still a chance.

Of course, it would also depend on how much Wang Hengli offered. If the price was too low, Fang Bai definitely would not sell it to him.

The next day, nine in the morning.

Fang Bai arrived at Hengli Company and found Wang Hengli again. After using a handshake to probe him, he sat across from him and asked directly,

"Manager Wang, you still haven't bought a new Drilling Machine, right?"

"Not yet. We have to wait another month or so. It's really a headache." Wang Hengli's chubby body sat on the sofa like a worried Maitreya Buddha.

"Have you paid the deposit yet?"

"In a couple of days."

Fang Bai clapped his hands in delight. "Ah, then I came at just the right time!

"The equipment I bought from you a couple of days ago had its main parts replaced, and it's finally repaired. It's practically as good as new.

"I was just planning to sell it to someone else when I remembered that Manager Wang's production capacity has been falling behind lately. What you need is a Drilling Machine."

"You repaired that Drilling Machine? So quickly?"

"Yes, there isn't a single problem with it now. See if you're interested, or I'll sell it to someone else."

Wang Hengli's brain did not process it right away. He had sold the equipment two days ago, and now the buyer had repaired it and wanted to sell it back to him. What kind of ridiculous move was this?

He sat up properly and looked Fang Bai over again as he smiled and drank tea. Why did it feel like he had been tricked?

Of course, put another way, it was not entirely unacceptable. New equipment would cost twenty or thirty thousand yuan, and the main issue was the wait. He had also gone to the secondhand market over the past two days, but it really was not easy to find anything suitable.

After hesitating for a moment, he said to Fang Bai, "Let's take a look first. Where's the equipment?"

"It's beside Oubei No. 1 Middle School," Fang Bai said.

"You said it was nearby a couple of days ago."

Wang Hengli suddenly remembered what Fang Bai had said two days earlier. He had asked the forklift driver to deliver the equipment and said it was not far, just nearby. Wang Hengli had assumed it was within three or four hundred meters of his company.

How the hell was two or three kilometers nearby?

At that thought, his brows furrowed.

Fang Bai knew Wang Hengli was blaming him, but he shamelessly smiled. "I wasn't wrong. It's nearby. It only takes me a little while by bicycle, not dozens of kilometers."

Hearing that, Wang Hengli rolled his eyes and looked at the ceiling, speechless.

After a brief silence, feeling rather helpless, he slapped his thigh and stood up. "Then let's go."

The two left the office. Wang Hengli went to the workshop and called Ma Jingsen and a driller over, telling them to bring several iron plates and calipers so they could test the equipment as well.

Only when Ma Jingsen and the driller saw Fang Bai did they realize the equipment they were going to test was the Drilling Machine the company had sold two days ago, and that it had supposedly been repaired.

The two of them were stunned.

But they could not say much. They put the plates in the trunk of their boss's Pusang sedan, then got into the car and set off together.

Fang Bai rode ahead to lead the way, pedaling hard.

Ma Jingsen sat in the front passenger seat. Watching Fang Bai pedal away so happily, he felt conflicted. What the hell was he playing at?

What kind of move was this?

He had bought back the equipment, repaired it, then planned to sell it back to the original owner. Ma Jingsen felt his own skin was not nearly thick enough for that.

On one hand, he hoped Fang Bai would not make much money. On the other, he hoped the equipment had truly been repaired so their production problems could be solved sooner. It had been giving him a headache lately.