Chapter 65: Nothing Is Impossible, Only Inconceivable

As they walked out, all the factory directors came over to congratulate Zhang Guohua.
"Your son has a boundless future ahead of him, Director Zhang."
"Elder Zhang, you finally have someone to lean on in your old age."

The two directors who had originally planned to meet with Zhang Ziqiang today were even more lavish with their praise. "So Zhang Ziqiang is your son! Truly a young man of great talent and promise."
"Your son is quite eloquent, and his thinking is exceptionally agile."

Zhang Guohua smiled somewhat stiffly, reluctant to admit that although he had originally intended to trap and embarrass Cheng Shi, Cheng Shi had indeed forcefully won him immense prestige today. After all, he knew better than anyone what Zhang Ziqiang was truly capable of.

Such a smooth and thorough proposal—how could it ever have been conceived by Zhang Ziqiang’s straightforward brain?!

It was simply that Cheng Shi wanted to win people over and elevate Zhang Ziqiang, dragging him along for the ride. Doing so brought Cheng Shi nothing but benefits and no harm.

Zhang Guohua glanced over at Zhang Ziqiang. For a fleeting moment, he felt a sudden urge to hope that Zhang Ziqiang would walk over and respectfully call him "Dad." Then, these directors would surely shower him with even more compliments.

However, Zhang Ziqiang didn't come over to greet Zhang Guohua; he left directly with Cheng Shi.

The others felt a secret wave of astonishment, though it wasn't polite to ask.

Zhang Guohua pressed his lips together in the dark: *Truly an ungrateful wolf raised with a white-eyed glare.*

Once inside the car for the return journey, Zhang Ziqiang, who had been holding it in for a long time, burst into a loud laugh and gave Cheng Shi a heavy slap on the shoulder. "Damn, Cheng Shi, you were seriously amazing back there! A whole room of experts and directors eating out of the palm of your hand. I felt so proud tagging along with you!"

Regardless of whether the leaders remembered him or not, Zhang Guohua couldn't help stealing numerous glances at him just now, and for him, that was already more than enough.

Cheng Shi yelped, "Ow, easy there, you weakling! Usually you can't even catch a single chicken, so where the hell did you get all this arm strength?"

The driver couldn't help but chuckle.

In fact, this forty-something driver was the exact same one who had picked Cheng Shi up earlier. On the way here, Cheng Shi had remained completely silent, making everyone in the car too afraid to even breathe. At the time, the driver had secretly wondered how an eighteen or nineteen-year-old kid could radiate such a terrifying aura.

Seeing Cheng Shi and Zhang Ziqiang scuffling and bantering now, he couldn't help thinking: *That's right, this is how someone of this age is supposed to be.*

Reinvigorated as if pumped full of adrenaline by Cheng Shi today, Zhang Ziqiang eagerly volunteered for all the chores upon returning, thoroughly enjoying himself.

***

Right now, as he washed the dishes, he was even humming a tune.

Cai Aiping asked Cheng Shi in a low voice, "What's wrong with him?"

Cheng Shi replied, "Nothing, just having a spasm. Pay him no mind, he's probably just too full and has nothing better to do."

Hearing the voice of Director Hu downstairs, Cheng Shi went down to take a look, and sure enough, it was him.

Director Hu said with a beaming smile, "Well now, Comrade Cheng Shi really solved a major problem for us today."

Now, whether they decided to continue using the boiler or scrap it entirely, they had a solid basis for the decision. A small factory like theirs wouldn't have to tear their hair out over this matter anymore.

Cheng Shi smiled, "I only had time to ponder it beforehand thanks to Director Hu's reminder."

Director Hu said, "I heard that Comrade Zhang Ziqiang is still crammed in with you guys. If he doesn't mind, he can move into our factory's bachelor dormitory. One room per person, with shared restrooms and the like down the hallway. The bed and wardrobe are already there—he just needs to bring his own bedding."

No matter how good Zhang Ziqiang's relationship with Cheng Shi and the others was, he was ultimately an outsider. Besides, Cheng Shi still had an unmarried sister living at home, which indeed made things inconvenient.

Cheng Shi turned around and asked Zhang Ziqiang, "What do you say? It's up to you."

Zhang Ziqiang replied, "Alright, thank you very much, Director Hu. I'll pay you the rent."

Director Hu waved his hand. "No need, what rent? We already have very few male employees in our factory, and there are empty rooms anyway. Just go on and move in."

Yu Dadong threw an arm around Zhang Ziqiang. "Brilliant! Since you don't have to pay rent, you can just do my laundry instead."

Zhang Ziqiang shrugged off the arm draped over his shoulder. "You've got some nerve. I'm paying rent to the factory, not to you. Don't go ordering me around."

Zhang Ziqiang didn't have much luggage, so he packed up and moved over that very evening.

Cheng Juan sighed, "Ah, finally, some peace and quiet."

Cheng Shi wore a face full of apology. "Sorry, Sister, I've put you through a difficult time lately."

Cheng Juan said, "What are you talking about? Everyone hits rough patches. If a friend of mine ran into something like this, I'd let them crash here too."

Cheng Shi coaxed, "Sis, when do you have time to help me straighten out the accounts? I've been way too busy lately."

Apart from Cheng Juan, no one else was suitable for this task, nor could anyone else handle it.

Cheng Juan agreed, "Fine, I'll sort it out for you over the weekend."

Cheng Juan spent an entire day helping Cheng Shi properly organize the past month and a half of accounts, filing them neatly into folders.

***

Flipping through them, Cheng Shi sighed, "You really have to leave it to a professional." Looking back over the records, he simply lacked the patience and energy to put them in order.

Cheng Juan gave a small, knowing smile. "Tsk tsk, the whole family is truly working for you now."

Cheng Shi replied, "Of course. Once the enterprise grows big in the future, my sister will be my Chief Financial Officer."

Cheng Juan sighed, "Chief Financial Officer, my foot. Including you, Mom and Dad, Dadong, and Qiangzi, your factory has all of five people. The only ones actually doing any real work are you and Dad. Tsk tsk, I have no idea where you get all this confidence."

Cheng Shi retorted, "How bold the human mind is determines how abundant the harvest will be. If you can conceive it, you can achieve it."

In the future, there would be plenty of enterprises with just two or three people generating tens of millions in output value. Five people wasn't a small number at all anymore.

Cheng Juan conceded, "Fine, fine, fine. You're the absolute greatest."

***

Early in the morning, Zhang Ziqiang came to find Cheng Shi so they could go meet their new clients.

The morning appointment was with the municipal shipyard.

The shipyard director's surname was Tang. Upon seeing Cheng Shi and his companion, he was far more enthusiastic than he had been when receiving Zhang Ziqiang previously. "Ah, Comrade Cheng Shi actually made the special trip here. You've truly had a hard time."

Cheng Shi responded, "You are an important client of ours, so it is only natural that I come to you for service."

Director Hu—*Director Tang* poured them some tea and asked, "Comrade Cheng Shi, I wonder if you can meet the precision requirements I mentioned the other day?"

Cheng Shi replied, "The requirements mentioned by the Director probably differ somewhat from practical reality, so it's hard for me to say outright whether we can meet them."

Director Tang asked, "Oh? How so?"

Cheng Shi explained, "Marine main engines, steering gears, rollers, and other components have vastly different requirements for precision bearings. The parameters the Director gave Comrade Zhang Ziqiang the other day were a composite of bearing specifications for all these different parts, which left me rather confused."

Director Tang had indeed intentionally blended several parameters together when giving them to Cheng Shi that day. Looking somewhat embarrassed, he said, "I apologize. I hadn't dealt with Comrade Cheng Shi before, so I wanted to test your level of competence."

Cheng Shi smiled. "That's completely fine. With such critical components, a director naturally needs to thoroughly vet their suppliers. It's just that I don't know about your factory's previous suppliers..."

If their previous supplier had no issues and Director Tang saw no reason to replace them, then no amount of talking on his own part would accomplish anything.

Director Tang admitted, "I won't conceal this from you, Comrade Cheng Shi. All of our high-end products previously relied on imported bearings from abroad. Although the quality met the standards, the cost was... well. If Comrade Cheng Shi can manufacture bearings that meet our requirements, we would still prefer to switch entirely to domestic products."