Chapter 1: Unlucky

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 meas