Chapter 1: Unlucky
Translated by me, edited by Kai.
In the massive expanse of China.
9 am. On state road 104.
Inside a commercial van belonging to [Clear Sky Mechanical Saw Factory] which also has a range of products printed on it.
Ye Qing paled as he hanged up his seventh call of the day.
So far, he has reached out to 7 different close friends of his. But the amount of money he is able to borrow paled when compared to what he needs. Including his own savings, plus their help, he only managed to gather 13,000 yuan.
Ye Qing will never complain: at least this allowed him to understand the nature of his friends. Rather he is very thankful to them. His group of friends and classmates are pretty much the same as him; recent graduates thrown into the everyday workforce. In particular, none of them are wealthy second generations.
Those who are able to answer his calls and lend out their precious savings has already moved Ye Qing.
But this much is nowhere near enough.
A major accident occurred today in the machinery factory owned by his father.
Ye Qing’s family lives in Zhongyun, Jiangnan. His father, Ye Jiangning, once was the head of a workshop owned by Red Light Machinery.
In the downturn of 98, Ye Jiangning grabbed a couple of his workers and opened up their own machinery workshop. This workshop only did outsourced work from Red Light Machinery.
In 09, the machinery workshop upgraded to Clear Sky Mechanical Saw Factory, specializing in large scale mechanical saw tools.
For example, large pipeline cutting tools, large scale concrete saws, large scale stainless steels miter saws.
The business for the saw factory was fine until two years ago.
For some unknown reason, the number of orders places had been decreasing steadily for the past two years.
Plus, with the retirement of the old generation from Red Light Machinery, the factory also lost all of their outsourced work. During this challenging period, the factory at times won’t even get any order for months. Orders are a factory’s lifeline. Barely any orders has left, the factory is on the verge of collapse. They are already 3 months behind on worker’s wages.
Last week, Ye Jiangning’s classmate who works for the state helped him secure an order of 7 concrete saws for Jiangshan masonry.
In order to face the state inspection team’s evaluation of the city’s culture and health, Zhongyun planned to reforest and replace the curb stone of the city’s main streets.
Under the pressure of the order worth more than tens of millions, the boss of Jiangshan masonry, grudgingly cooperated with Clear Sky Mechanical Saw Factory.
An order of 7 concrete saws, won’t let them make a killing, but at least it’s enough to pay off the wages they owe their workers.
At the peak of factory, they had more than 30 workers, and so many orders that the workers often had to work overtime.
But now……
The old generation who has the skills all left. Leaving behind only 8 apprentices.
Not only did the apprentices have subpar skills, they also have a crappy attitude. If it wasn’t because of their low wages, Ye Jiangning would’ve fired them ages ago.
As a matter of fact, the first saw that was delivered to Jiangshan masonry yesterday had the guide rail deviate not long after use. Causing the resulting stone to be all slanted.
This kind of rudimentary mistake completely pissed off Jiangshan masonry. Their boss made calls that very night to have Clear Sky factory fix it. Otherwise they can forget about the rest of the payments.
Ye Qing is the factory’s technician. Influenced by the factory from a very early age, he chose to graduate from university as a mechanical engineer.
Hence, during this period of internship, Ye Qing drove his commercial van everywhere to advertise the products of his family’s factory.
The saw’s guide rail, is the concrete saw’s most precise part. This needs to be so precise that Clear Sky factory can’t even make it themselves.
Don’t even mention the fact that Ye Qing and his workers can’t make it, in the whole Jiangnan province, there is only a select few who has the ability to make them.
If it can’t be made, then buy it. The guide rail for the saw is a product from Wanyang Precision Co. Ltd.
This company’s product can definitely be trusted, otherwise they wouldn’t even be in business even after so many years.
Thus the problem can only be from the factory’s workers when they installed it.
During the busy all nighter, not only did Ye Qing change the guide rails, but also tested the rest of the machine.
After everything, the boss of Jiangshan masonry is still pissed as all heck and kicked Ye Qing straight out. He didn’t even bother to prepare a simple breakfast.
The hungry Ye Qing had to settle with several buns from a shop on the way home. While eating and rushing home, he was prepared to take a nice rest when he get back.
Who knew……
Along the way, Ye Qing got an urgent call for from Ye Jiangning. Saying some accident happened in the factory.
This morning, the 8 workers punched in at 8 am. After Ye Jiangning had assigned them their day’s goal, he went back upstairs to get some rest.
Last night’s calls from Jiangshan masonry, had him pissed and up all night long. Having been in business for so many years, if a rudimentary mistake like a slanted guide rail got out, then the factory’s reputation would’ve been utterly destroyed.
Precisely because Ye Jiangning went to sleep did the serious man made accident occur.
To make mechanical tools, most of the parts need to be made out of steel plates. The parts first are roughly cut out using flame cutting tools, then milled to precise measurements.
Steel plates have different specifications, so their thickness and weight are of course different.
When one of the workers, Cao Yun, was moving the plates, the youngest worker, Pang Ruifeng, just had to learn this skill of moving things with remote controls.
There is no choice but to admit that controlling things using a remote is actually really fun. This piece of steel machinery weighing several tons and spanning the whole factory only requires a race car like remote control to move.
Piloting this is like operation a real train, but with even more power. No matter who sees it will find it very addicting.
Pang Ruifeng wanted to try this out a long time ago, but couldn’t find the chance no matter what. Now that Ye Jiangning went to sleep and isn’t overlooking them, it gave him the perfect chance. Having bugged Cao Yun non-stop, he finally got the controls.
Having taken over the controls, Pang Ruifeng, under Cao Yun’s guidance, moves a steel plate over to the flame cutting area.
When the cutting and welding of the plates by workers were done, Pang Ruifeng volunteered to move the resulting machine. When Cao Yun found no mistakes in his movements, he also didn’t say anything.
Who knew when Pang Ruifeng moved the wielded machine over the CNC gantry mill and is lowering the suspension hook, he forgot to hit the brakes. As a result the 1.5 ton concrete saw bed smashed into the CNC mill.
The CNC gantry mill is the largest machine in the factory. This kind of leviathan specialized in processing large scale metal parts and is 13 meters long, 3 meters tall, and weighs 17 tons.
The unfinished machine bed smashed the upper structure of the CNC mill to smithereens. The 4 meter plus long workbench also suffered major damages.
This smash alone would cost tens of thousands to fix. But this isn’t the reason why Ye Jiangning is in despair.
The CNC mill’s upper structure include a computer operated arm system.
This arm system can be operated to move both left and right to help the workers control the mill from different angles. The arm is made out of normal stainless steel, but at the time there was two workers, Lu Xiaozhen and Qian Dongdong, waiting beside the mill. Preparing to process the machine bed when it finally came down.
In the end, the broken arm system and some broken parts of the transfer system, smashed into the two; who didn’t have the time to dodge.
Thankfully the machine bed smashed into the CNC mill and not on top of the two. Otherwise there would’ve been no need for them to visit the surgery room.
This is a serious man made accident caused by the misconduct of workers.
When Ye Jiangning ran down, with the help of the other workers, brought the bloody Lu Xiaozhen and Qian Dongdong to the hospital. In the rush they ran 8 red lights and broke several other laws.
While in the waiting room, Pang Ruifeng’s face is paler than a piece of paper, stuck with the story that a problem with the controls is the cause of the accident and not him. Cao Yun, on the other hand, expressed his views on this accident with a fierce kick and several bitch slaps for Pang Ruifeng.
There is no point now in chasing after Pang Ruifeng as the cause of the accident. This is because this accident occurred to Lu Xiaozhen and Qian Dongdong while on the job. So of course the boss, Ye Jiangning, had to cover everything.
Lu Xiaozhen broke his third and fourth rib in his left chest, while his right shoulder is crushed. Qian Dongdong broke his skull, suffered from internal hemorrhage, and had large lacerations on his back.
Due to poor benefits, Clear Sky Mechanical Factory already owed the workers 3 months worth of wages.
The end payment from Jiangshan masonry for the concrete cutting tool is still missing. Couple of minutes ago Ye Qing called, but was rejected by their boss saying that he needs a week of testing and if there is no problem, then he’ll transfer the rest.
Facing the current situation in the factory, Ye Qing is also close to despair.
The down payment from Jiangshan masonry, all went towards the materials for the order. Because they have this order in hand, the workers were also willing to delay their payments. In any case, Ye Jiangning also agreed to pay them 1000 extra as compensation after the order.
The factory only has a couple thousand yuan as liquid assets. Apart from the immovable assets, they had almost no savings left. Due to the poor business in the past few years, the profits they made back then were all used to cover the factory’s expenses.
Ye Qing can only pray. Hopefully Lu Xiaozhen and Qian Dongdong aren’t suffering from major problems.
Jiangshan masonry is situated near Meihua town. Due to a collision on the outskirts of Zhongyun, Ye Qing is stuck in a traffic jam.
After backing up a bit, Ye Qing parked the car on the shoulder of the road.
Loosening his seatbelt, Ye Qing turned on the car’s music system and listened to songs by the famous star Xu Ninggong.
The currently famous star Xu Ninggong, is also from Zhongyun. She was in the same class as Ye Qing during all of elementary school. The Xu Ninggong back then, already started to display her unmatched artistic abilities.
When Ye Qing was in fourth grades, he even wrote her a love confession back then……
Of course her rejection was obvious. During middle school Xu Ninggong moved to Beijing, so they lost contact. Now there isn’t any chance, she’s a nationwide superstar, well known throughout all of Asia; they are in two different worlds
Just when Ye Qing was deciding whether to continue calling his friends to borrow more money; he got a call from his mom, Xu Lan.
In the call, Xu Lan was sobbing the whole time. She told Ye Qing that while Ye Jiangning was waiting outside of the surgery room during Lu Xiaozhen and Qian Dongdong’s surgery, their family and relatives showed up and gave him a beating.
