Chapter 56 Only Cheng Shi Can Do This

Cai Aiping quickly waved her hands and said, "Never mind, we might dirty this young lady's car."

Lu Zaixue smiled. "It's no trouble at all. Mr. Cheng and I are old friends."

She got out of the car to help Cai Aiping put her things in the back seat, then gently assisted Cai Aiping inside and settled her comfortably. Turning to Cheng Shi, she smiled and said, "We'll wait for you over there."

Cheng Shi gave a slight nod.

Once inside the car, Cai Aiping sat stiffly, barely daring to move a muscle, terrified of damaging anything inside.

Lu Zaixue said, "You don't need to be nervous, Auntie. It's just a means of transportation."

Cai Aiping remarked, "This car must cost hundreds of thousands. I've only ever watched other people ride in cars; this is my very first time sitting in a sedan."

Lu Zaixue smiled without answering directly, only saying, "Given Mr. Cheng's capabilities, he'll have his own car in no time."

Hearing this, Cai Aiping felt an immense sense of warmth and couldn't help stealing a few extra glances at Lu Zaixue. *My goodness,* she thought, *this Miss Lu has such a sweet way of speaking, she's so pretty, has a wonderful temperament, and her family background must be quite good, too. She's easily a hundred times better than that Qian Xiaoying!*

*If only Cheng Shi could take her as his girlfriend, nothing could be better.*

Feeling the intensity of Cai Aiping's gaze, Lu Zaixue grew somewhat embarrassed and could only busy herself smoothing her hair to mask her awkwardness.

Cai Aiping asked, "Miss Lu, do you have a boyfriend?"

*We've only just met for the first time, and you're already probing into my personal life...*

Caught between laughter and tears, Lu Zaixue simply smiled and offered no reply.

Realizing she might have been too abrupt, Cai Aiping hurriedly added, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean anything by it. It's just that my Cheng Shi is also single, so..."

A blush instantly rose to Lu Zaixue's cheeks.

Fortunately, the drive lasted only a few minutes.

Arriving just a few minutes after them, Cheng Shi parked his bicycle, carried the items inside, and went to the office to brew a cup of tea for Lu Zaixue. "Is there some pressing emergency that brought you all the way here, Miss Lu?"

Lu Zaixue let out a soft sigh. "To be honest with you, Mr. Cheng, we can no longer find suitable suppliers. I initially thought the suppliers were discriminating against mainland factories and thus withholding their best merchandise. However, the supplier informed me that they have already provided us with the highest-precision parts they are capable of supplying, and that the parts previously delivered were of the exact same quality."

Cheng Shi gave a slight nod. "That is entirely possible. Your previous measuring instruments did not demand such high standards for components. Now that you are increasing precision, it is quite normal for the original suppliers to fall short of the requirements."

Lu Zaixue continued, "Mr. Cheng is an expert in the mechanical field. Therefore, I wanted to ask if you happen to know of any domestic factories capable of supplying parts that meet these specifications."

Cheng Shi shook his head. "There are no domestic factories capable of doing so at present. You will have to inquire in countries like Switzerland, England, Germany, and Japan."

Lu Zaixue gave a wry smile. "As soon as they hear that we are operating a factory in mainland China, they inflate their prices exorbitantly."

Cheng Shi pressed his lips together. This was the standard tactic foreign enterprises used to choke China's development.

With high component costs, the price of the final finished product naturally skyrocketed.

Precision measuring instruments constituted significant corporate assets, easily costing tens or hundreds of thousands.

Given identical pricing, customers would undoubtedly prefer purchasing goods from long-established factories, as the quality offered greater certainty.

These foreign suppliers artificially inflated prices precisely to prevent the Chinese from developing and producing things independently.

After all, enterprises ultimately had to turn a profit. If they foresaw that their developed products would not sell, they would stop investing in research and development entirely.

Cheng Shi said, "I could try to find a way to machine them myself. However, I only have a rather outdated CNC machine tool here, so mass-producing ultra-high-precision miniature parts will be somewhat difficult."

Biting her lip, Lu Zaixue pondered for a moment before asking, "What kind of machine tool does Mr. Cheng need? Let me see if I can get a second-hand one shipped from Hong Kong."

Cheng Shi replied, "A fifth-generation machine tool would be best. If not, a fourth-generation one would also do. I can write down the models for you. However, if it's second-hand, the original manufacturer usually programs it to lock up if its location is moved. Rewriting the drive and protection programs for machine tools of the fourth generation and beyond requires an external computer. I don't have a computer here."

Lu Zaixue smiled. "What is a computer? Consider it my gift to Mr. Cheng."

Cheng Shi asked, "Aren't you worried that I'm trying to extort you, Miss Lu?"

Lu Zaixue answered, "Since I chose to cooperate with you, I place absolute trust in you. Besides, something like this hardly qualifies as extortion. Furthermore, given Mr. Cheng's current skills, ignoring me and instead taking on more precision parts machining jobs would be far less troublesome and much more profitable."

Cheng Shi nodded slightly. "Miss Lu is truly a smart and broad-minded person. I love cooperating with people like Miss Lu the most."

Passing by the doorway, Cai Aiping happened to catch the phrases "I love... the most" and "Miss Lu." A wave of pleasant surprise washed over her: *To think that my Shi'er shares the exact same thoughts as I do!*

Yu Dadong walked in through the entrance, unloaded a large bag of stainless steel ingots from his tricycle, and set them on the floor.

Pointing at the burlap sack, Cheng Shi asked, "Two hundred yuan for this much?"

Yu Dadong nodded triumphantly. "Yep!"

Cheng Shi's face scrunched up into a knot. "Did you go around intimidating people again?"

Yu Dadong protested, "No way! The guy in charge of purchasing these today is an old buddy of mine. He practically wanted to give me the whole lot. I only picked out the good ones because I didn't want to make things difficult for him when he balances his accounts."

"Oh," Cheng Shi said.

He believed Yu Dadong on this.

After all, Yu Dadong's greatest talent was socialization.

Back when he was a construction foreman, he could sit down and share a bottle of liquor with anyone, from government officials, major corporate chairmen, and bank presidents down to the lowliest construction site handyman.

Cheng Shi, on the other hand, excelled at strategic planning and tackling technical bottlenecks, and he much preferred staying away from social banquets and networking events.

Therefore, whenever such matters arose, he always sent Yu Dadong to handle them.

Conversely, if Yu Dadong ever found himself indecisive about major issues—such as the company's direction of development—he would defer to Cheng Shi to make the final call.

Thus, the two of them served as mutual complements and assistants to one another.

Inspection revealed that those stainless steel ingots were indeed relatively uniform in shape.

Cheng Shi nodded in approval. "Not bad, not bad at all."

Yu Dadong said, "I've already arranged it with him. If I give him a heads-up in advance, he can directly help me get nicely squared ones straight from the factory."

Cheng Shi shook his head. "There's no need for that, let's avoid causing trouble for others. Moreover, doing things that way amounts to embezzling state property. It's not worth catching flak and leaving behind leverage for such petty gains. We are a legitimate enterprise aiming to grow big and strong, so every single step must strictly adhere to the law and be able to withstand any inspection."

Pondering this, Yu Dadong said, "Right, you're entirely right. Should we keep going tomorrow?"

Cheng Shi instructed, "There's no need for the next few days. You've worked hard, so start by helping me look into the machine tool situation. However, you can ask your friend if the steel mill has any other alloy steels available—tungsten alloy steel, for instance. If they do, what are the respective grades? Our future machining scope will expand to include hardware precision components, so we need to gather information on various raw materials beforehand."

"You got it," Yu Dadong replied briskly.