Chapter 1

The vast and magnificent China, with its territory spanning millions of square kilometers.

At nine in the morning, on Provincial Highway 104.

Inside the Wuling Hongguang minivan, which bore the logo of "Qingyun Cutting Machinery Manufacturing Plant" and advertisements for its products, Ye Qing trembled as he hung up the seventh call, his face pale.

So far, he had contacted seven friends and classmates with whom he had a good relationship, but the amount of money he borrowed was negligible. Including his own savings and the amounts they promised, he only had 13,000 yuan.

Ye Qing would never complain: "Finally, I see what these friends are really like." On the contrary, he was filled with gratitude.

His friends and classmates were just like him, fresh interns, and none of them were rich second-generation kids.

The fact that they could answer his calls and lend him their limited savings without hesitation already moved Ye Qing deeply.

But this amount was far from enough.

A serious accident had occurred at the mechanical processing plant founded by his father today.

The Ye family lived in Zhongyun City, Jiangnan Province. Ye Jiangning had once been the workshop director at the Zhongyun Red Light Machinery Factory.

In 1998, amidst the wave of re-employment after layoffs, Ye Jiangning pulled together a few workers from the workshop and started a mechanical processing workshop, specializing in subcontracted work from the privatized Red Light Machinery Co., Ltd.

In 2009, the mechanical processing workshop was upgraded to the Qingyun Cutting Machinery Manufacturing Plant, specializing in the production of large cutting machines.

For example, large pipe cutting machines, stone cutting machines, and stainless steel plate cutting machines.

The sales of the cutting machinery manufacturing plant were still relatively good until two years ago.

But for some reason, the number of orders the factory received had been decreasing over the past two years.

With the retirement of the older generation at Red Light Machinery Co., Ltd., the factory could no longer receive subcontracted work. At its most difficult times, the Qingyun Cutting Machinery Manufacturing Plant did not receive any orders for an entire month.

Orders are the lifeblood of a factory. Without orders, the Qingyun Cutting Machinery Manufacturing Plant suffered greatly, and employee salaries were delayed for three months.

Last week, with the help of an old classmate who worked in the government, Ye Jiangning secured an order for seven stone cutting machines from the Jiangshan Stone Factory.

Zhongyun City was preparing for an inspection team to evaluate its status as a civilized and hygienic city, and planned to replace all the curbstones in the green belts along several main roads.

Faced with an order worth tens of millions, the boss of the Jiangshan Stone Factory reluctantly signed a cooperation agreement with the Qingyun Cutting Machinery Manufacturing Plant.

The order for seven stone cutting machines would not make the Qingyun Cutting Machinery Manufacturing Plant rich, but the profit would at least cover the back wages of the eight workers.

At its peak, the Qingyun Cutting Machinery Manufacturing Plant had over thirty workers, and during the busiest times, the workers could not keep up with the overtime.

Now...

All the skilled workers from the older generation had left, leaving only eight apprentices.

These eight apprentices not only had poor skills but also had big egos. If it weren't for their low wages, Ye Jiangning would have fired them long ago.

Yesterday, a stone cutting machine delivered to the Jiangshan Stone Factory began to exhibit a serious technical defect—the cutting wheel guide rail was misaligned, and none of the cut stone strips were straight.

This extremely low-level technical defect infuriated the Jiangshan Stone Factory, and the factory manager called Ye Jiangning late at night, demanding that a technician be sent to handle the issue, or the final payment for the machine would not be made.

Ye Qing was the technician. He had grown up in the machinery factory and majored in mechanical engineering in college.

During his internship, Ye Qing had been driving his Wuling Hongguang minivan around the southern province, providing after-sales service for the machinery sold by his factory.

The guide rail used to move the cutting wheel is the most precise component of the stone cutting machine, and the Qingyun Cutting Machinery Manufacturing Plant could not produce it.

Not only could Ye Qing and his team not produce it, but in the entire Jiangnan Province, there were only a handful of factories capable of manufacturing qualified guide rails.

If they couldn't produce it, they would buy it. The guide rails for the cutting machines were all ordered from the Wanyang Precision Machinery Co., Ltd.

This was a very powerful factory with a good reputation for over a decade, and it would never send defective products to customers.

Therefore, the misalignment of the guide rail could only be due to the workers' mistakes during installation, causing the guide rail to be damaged and deformed.

Ye Qing spent the entire night without sleep, replacing the guide rail and debugging the machine.

After he finished, the boss of the Jiangshan Stone Factory still had a face as stern as a judge, and he directly told Ye Qing to leave, not even bothering to prepare breakfast for him.

With an empty stomach, Ye Qing bought five baozi from a street vendor, eating them as he hurried home, planning to have a good sleep.

However...

On the way, Ye Qing received a call from Ye Jiangning. Ye Jiangning's voice was extremely anxious, saying that an accident had occurred at the factory.

This morning at 8:00, eight employees rode their electric bikes to work. After punching in, Ye Jiangning announced the day's tasks and went upstairs to catch up on sleep.

The call from the Jiangshan Stone Factory last night had kept him awake all night. After so many years of making cutting machines, how could such a low-level fault as a misaligned cutting wheel happen? If this news got out, the reputation of the Qingyun Cutting Machinery Manufacturing Plant would be ruined.

Because Ye Jiangning went upstairs to sleep, a very serious human error accident occurred.

To make the machine, large components are cut from steel plates using a flame cutting machine and then milled on a milling machine.

Steel plates come in different specifications, with varying thicknesses and weights.

Worker Cao Yun was using a crane to move a steel plate when the youngest worker, Pang Ruifeng, insisted on practicing with the crane's remote control, saying he wanted to learn a new skill.

It must be admitted that the crane was really fun to operate. This massive machine, spanning twenty meters and weighing several tons, could be easily controlled with a remote control similar to a toy car.

When it was activated, it rumbled like a train and was incredibly powerful, making anyone who saw it want to try it out.

Pang Ruifeng had long wanted to operate the crane, but he never got the chance. When Ye Jiangning went upstairs to sleep, Pang Ruifeng saw an opportunity. After much persuasion, he finally got the remote control from Cao Yun.

Pang Ruifeng successfully moved a steel plate to the flame cutting area under Cao Yun's direction.

When the steel plate was cut and the workers were about to move the welded machine base to the CNC milling machine for milling, Pang Ruifeng volunteered to operate the crane. Cao Yun, seeing that he had done well before, did not object.

However, when Pang Ruifeng moved the cut components to the CNC gantry mill and was lowering the crane hook to adjust the position, he forgot to stop it. As a result, the 1.5-ton stone cutting machine base fell heavily onto the CNC gantry mill.

The CNC gantry mill was the largest machine in the factory, a giant capable of processing large metal components, measuring dozens of meters long, three meters high, and weighing seventeen tons.

The unprocessed machine base shattered the gantry mill's crossbeam lifting system and severely damaged the four-meter-long worktable.

The repair costs would be in the tens of thousands, but this was not the reason for Ye Jiangning's despair.

Above the CNC gantry mill was a computer operation arm, similar to a street lamp.

The computer operation arm could move left and right, allowing workers to control the gantry mill from different angles. The arm was supported by ordinary stainless steel pipes. At the time, two other workers, Lu Xiaozhen and Qian Dongdong, were standing on either side of the gantry mill, preparing to adjust the machine base's position for processing.

However, the broken operation arm and the damaged crossbeam lifting system fell and struck the two workers, who were unable to avoid them.

Fortunately, the machine base was blocked by the gantry mill and did not directly hit the two workers; otherwise, they would not have been lying on the operating table in the hospital.

This was a serious workplace accident caused by a worker's operational error.

When Ye Jiangning hurriedly ran down from upstairs, he and the other workers carried the bloodied Lu Xiaozhen and Qian Dongdong to a truck, running through eight red lights and a truck禁区 (truck no-entry zone) to the city hospital.

Inside the truck, Pang Ruifeng, whose face was paler than paper, insisted that he had released the descent button, and the accident was caused by the remote control malfunctioning.

Worker Cao Yun expressed his opinion with a kick and several slaps.

Now, it was meaningless to question whether Pang Ruifeng had made an operational error. Lu Xiaozhen and Qian Dongdong were injured during work hours, and all expenses and compensation would be the responsibility of the boss, Ye Jiangning.

Lu Xiaozhen had fractures in her third and fourth left ribs and a comminuted fracture in her right shoulder blade. Qian Dongdong had a skull fracture, possible intracranial bleeding, and extensive lacerations on his back.

Due to poor performance, the Qingyun Cutting Machinery Manufacturing Plant had already delayed paying the workers for three months.

The stone cutting machine sent to the Jiangshan Stone Factory had not yet received the final payment. A few minutes ago, Ye Qing had called the factory, but the manager firmly said they would need to test the machine for another week before paying the final amount.

Ye Qing, who was well aware of the factory's situation, felt a sense of despair.

The deposit from the Jiangshan Stone Factory had been used to purchase production materials. With the order in hand, the workers were willing to wait another month, as Ye Jiangning had promised to give each worker an additional 1,000 yuan as compensation after the order was completed.

The factory had only a few thousand yuan in working capital, and the family had no savings, as all the money earned in recent years had been used to support the factory.

Ye Qing could only pray that nothing serious happened to Lu Xiaozhen and Qian Dongdong.

The Jiangshan Stone Factory was located in Meihua Town. As he approached the city, a traffic accident caused a long line of cars to be stuck in front of him.

Ye Qing backed the minivan a short distance and parked it by the roadside.

He relaxed his seat and turned on the car's MP3 player, listening quietly to the songs of the famous star Xu Ninggong.

Xu Ninggong, a national star, was from Zhongyun. She and Ye Qing were classmates from first to sixth grade, and even back then, Xu Ninggong had shown unparalleled artistic talent.

When Ye Qing was in the fourth grade, he had even written her a love letter...

Of course, the result was very disappointing. In junior high school, Xu Ninggong transferred to Shangjing, and Ye Qing lost contact with her. Now, she was a national star with a certain level of fame in South Asia, and they were from two different worlds.

Just as Ye Qing was considering whether to continue borrowing money from friends, his mother, Xu Lan, called.

Xu Lan's voice was tearful. She told Ye Qing that Ye Jiangning was waiting outside the operating room for Lu Xiaozhen and Qian Dongdong's surgery when he was attacked by the families of the two injured workers.