Chapter 58: Bite me
Translated by me, edited by drpetro.
“Who are you, and what you here for?” A man wearing a very expensive looking suit walked out. Guarded looks could clearly be seen from his eyes.
“You’re the owner?”
“I am the humble Liu Wenhu, the owner of this factory.” Liu Wenhu tried to size up Ye Qing as he introduced himself.
“You’re really quick on your hands Mr. Liu. We just released our new scooter model and you’ve already got one here to study.”
Ye Qing got right to the point: “Those scooters are made by my factory, yet if Mr. Liu here wants to copy it, then I’m not against it, but can you at least make some changes so that they don’t look exactly the same?”
The actual owner’s already here?
Liu Wenhu and the technicians in the room were all stunned. This was the first time they’ve ever seen the actual maker come looking for trouble.
Normally when they imitate other scooters, the most they would get was some lawsuit from some random lawyer. Then, after some changes to the design, they would continue to sell them.
Of course, those changes were all very minute. It wasn’t like the large scooter makers would have the time to keep pestering them.
After all, there’s just too many imitators in the country. It was to the point where if one gets shut down, then three more pop up. So now the untold rule in the imitation market was that as long as the outer appearance wasn’t exactly the same, then most major producers were disinclined to investigate.
Except the scooter in front of them was completely different. Its outer appearance and structure was designed to the point of perfection. Any changes would only ruin its perfection.
But these Typhoons were only made by a small local factory. Although the new batch of goods had their own manuals and 3C approval, they still hadn’t applied for the case’s patent and the product’s patent.
Perhaps they had already applied for the patents, but patents needed to pass a strict investigation by the nation’s patent office, and that required a long ass wait before getting a reply.
Without a case patent, imitating it wasn’t illegal at all.
“Sorry sorry.” Liu Wenhu very quickly thought of an answer, and replied with full smiles: “These scooters are just too advanced. As someone in the same industry, we have an obligation to research and learn from the best.”
“As a reassurance, we’ll definitely stop imitating the aluminum ones.:
Liu Wenhu made everything sound so reassuring, it was as if he had the equipment and skills to make the casings and carvings.
“Then what about the old models?” Ye Qing was already pissed. This guy’s bullshit attitude was just too much to take. It’s to the point where Ye Qing wants to go ahead and beat the shit out of him.
“Of course we’ll keep making the old version, I mean, don’t you guys already have a newer model?”
Liu Wenhu was calm and collected, and acted as if he was teaching youngsters: “In business, you really have much to learn. Just look at that perfection like casing and structure, but without any relevant patents, aren’t you just asking for the competitors to imitate it?”
“Look, I’m one not doing anything illegal, and two I’m not making anything fake, so what did I do wrong?”
“And what I have is the Stormy brand, a completely different brand name from yours.”
Liu Wenhu was laughing happily, as he had a great grasp of the situation.
Just before the technicians did a thorough inspection of the scooter, and came to the conclusion that the manufacturing cost of these aluminum casings was just too damn high. Because it was shaped from a liquid state, it requires workers to hand polish it.
The technicians estimated that a worker at most could only polish out a single set of casings a day. And the cost for these vivid lifelike carvings was going to be even more expensive.
Liu Wenhu’s doesn’t own any engraving machines, but he sent the pictures of the carvings to some of his friends in the metal processing field.
The reply was, to want to carve on such precise, vivid, lifelike images, he must get his hands on a super specialized, highly precise CNC mill.
Moreover, to get the carving to such a detailed level, only imported CNC millings might be able to do it.
After compiling all the conclusions, Liu Wenhu finally understood. Those aluminum casings, not mentioning their ridiculous production costs, they were not even able to be mass produced.
Then what was there for Liu Wenhu to worry about. The time when these scooters thoroughly hit the market and that small time factory becomes a leader in the industry, or have the patent issued, was still too far in the future. He might as well as use this time to earn all the dirty money he could.
There is no such things as fair or foul in business. As long as there was a way to earn money, what problem was there.
Owen’s Electric Scooter Manufacturing gets tons of lawsuits annually, but weren’t they still in business?
Paying attention to this and that, then what business was there for him to do, might as well as go back to farming.
Liu Wenhu’s attitude had Ye Qing completely pissed off.
Why were there so many asshole businessmen in the world?
“I’ll ask one last time and think carefully before you answer.” Ye Qing icly said: “Are you going to change those scooters’ casings?”
“One it’s not illegal, and two it’s fake, so where’s the need to change?” Liu Wenhu openly laughed: “Buddy, come back when you actually got the patents, then I’ll make some slight changes.”
Liu Wenhu’s technicians all gathered. Although they were only here to research, but 7 or 8 people together still created a lot of confidence.
“In that case, good bye. I’m not gonna ask this question again.” Ye Qing nodded towards the group of people in the room.
“Take care!” Liu Wenhu happily waved.
Threats?
Liu Wenhu wasn’t afraid at all. What he had was a loophole in the law, what they were competing with here was wisdom. What can Ye Qing do?
Ye Qing left while constraining his volcano like anger. After getting back in the van, he whispered a set of instructions that he needed the master artisan to perform.
Hulk One and Hulk Two could do great work, but it was just too hard to communicate with them. They were just like complete muscle heads.
However, the master artisans were different. Not only did they have high intelligence, knew how to encourage and flatter, but they could also perform any complex instructions given by Ye Qing.
Having heard all of Ye Qing’s instructions, the master artisan Qiao One nodded, saying ‘no problem’.
Having explained everything, Ye Qing then commanded Hulk One and Hulk Two to only listen to Qiao One’s instruction.
Several minutes later, the van left Owen’s Scooter Manufacturing Inc., and found a parking spot several blocks away. Then 10 minutes later, Qiao One opened the van doors, and exited with the extremely ripped Hulk One and Hulk Two.
The super eye-catchy group slowly walked towards the gates of Owen’s scooters.
The two gate guards were both old fellows. Seeing the terrifying builds of Hulk One and Hulk Two, they were almost scared to the point of looking for desks to hide under.
The owner just contacted them to be on the lookout for suspicious activities these days, yet who would’ve thought that it would come this quick.
What suspicious people, the two of them are more like demons from hell.
The guards thought of notifying the owner, except before they had the chance to make the call, they actually put it back.
Because the one in charge, looking like some sickly dwarf, used a very surprised look to look at the hiring notice.
“Yo, you guys hiring?” Qiao One’s surprised looks had hints of wretchedness hidden in it: “This is absolutely great, me and my two nephews just arrived at Zhongyun to look for work, yet who knew you were hiring.”
“Ye…… yeah……” The guards were dumbstruck, these guys were actually here looking for work.
“We’re looking for welders and lathe workers. Can you guys…… do it……”
“We’re proficient in lathing, milling, planing, polishing, drilling, and welding. Although my two nephews have some special mental problems, and can’t even speak.”
“But if they were put to work. Not that I’m boasting, but all those migrant workers from our village, don’t even deserve to be shoe carriers in front of these two.”
“Hehe……” Even if the two guards had the most outrageous courage, they still weren’t brave enough to pop open this lie.
Whether they were a donkey or a horse, it would be quite clear when tested. One of the guards made up his mind and personally led them to the factory workshop.
Hearing that there were some people looking for work, Lie Wenhu also personally came over.
His factory was only made up of 60 some people, so stuff like hiring could only be done by him.
When he saw the massively framed Hulk One and Hulk Two, Liu Wenhu also had quite the scare, thinking they were some hooligans called over by that young man.
However after careful examination, he found that apart from the steel tower like bodies of theirs, their heads really did have some problems.
Their eyes kept on wandering around, just like those with ADHD. It was just that unless the old man commanded, then that was only when they would actually focus and agree with ‘enen’s.
Everyone else, no matter if it was talking or yelling, they just didn’t give a damn.
It was quite easy to tell that the two of them were brothers, and how could these stupid idiots be here to make trouble?
And because of their stupidity, originally Liu Wenhu didn’t want to, but after hearing the out of this world boasting from Qiao One, while harboring suspicion, he had the two them do some simple lathing and welding.
Yet who would’ve thought that this trial would pop open everyone’s eyes.
They only saw them having received their uncle’s command, and suddenly change outrageously. Before long, one was beside a welding machine and the other was beside a lathe.
Connecting on a piece of welding wire took less than 3 seconds.
A 100 plus pound piece of metal, just like a chicken, was easily grabbed off the ground by Hulk One, and then welded together with just one straight weld.
Zii……
The whole weld didn’t have any stops in between, just like an automated welder, the two pieces of metal were perfectly welded together.
As for Hulk Two, he was even more ridiculous.
A worker who was just working on a piece of a component, having heard that someone was coming over to try it out, immediately abandoned it and handed it over to Hulk Two.
Hulk Two, having confirmed the required measurements with the worker, just like someone with a calculator, had swiftly and decisively rearranged the cutter to the correct position. That step was completed so quick that if someone blinked then they would have missed it.
The piece being lathed was a piece of steel ring. Normally the workers only dare to operate the lathe at most a speed of 40 RPM, yet Hulk Two cranked it all the way up to 60 RPM right off the start.
And the most freighting thing was, the blade actually didn’t get stuck at 60 RPM, rather the component quickly began to take shape under his steady control.
The lathed off piece of metal was even more astounding. It just continued to grow longer and longer, without a hint of breaking.
There were lots of extremely experienced metal workers around. Yet even within their decades of experience, they had still never seen something as outrageous as this.
The lather workers that were normally forever ranting and boasting, having seen the two muscle heads in front of them, suddenly all felt dizzy and some even fainted.
After the initial giant shock, was a giant excitement. Liu Wenhu just couldn’t contain it anymore, it was like he had just found a piece of diamond on the ground lying there in the middle of the street.
Originally Liu Wenhu didn’t believe the saying from the internet that Edison couldn’t take care of himself, and that Newton was a complete psycho.
And that people with mental problems, are all superior than others in a particular field.
Now Liu Wenhu finally believed it. Although these two had some mental problems, but their metal handling abilities were freaking better than those 8th rank fitters.
“You three from now on get 4000 a week, start immediately and I’ll even include the food and residence fees.”
Qiao One, with a very pleased look, very obediently handed over 3 different identity cards.
Workers all require the recording of their identities. Seeing their identity, now all doubts disappeared from Liu Wenhu’s mind.
The address listed on these 3’s identity cards all pointed to some poverty ridden villages in the middle of nowhere, and their looks also fittingly meet the expectations.
