Chapter 6

Ye Qing tapped the [Lottery] option in the middle, and the roulette wheel started spinning immediately.

"Big, big, big—" Ye Qing shouted, knowing that the bigger the prize, the more valuable it was.

So when the pointer slowly stopped at the [Rapid Metal Engraving Machine] option, Ye Qing was very pleased.

Congratulations, you have won a Rapid Metal Engraving Machine (Fine Quality). The system also offers a free upgrade to the item's level. Do you want to use it?

Ye Qing tapped "Yes."

Rapid Metal Engraving Machine (Rare Quality) attributes: Engraving speed +100%, Engraving precision +50%.

Reminder: Any item purchased from the store cannot be sold to others. Once sold, it will immediately become a common item with no attributes.

Ye Qing was familiar with metal engraving machines. They were similar to CNC milling machines in function, but the processing precision was much lower. They could only engrave items with lower hardness, such as copper, aluminum, lead, acrylic sheets, and stone. Due to power limitations, they could not engrave alloy metals.

He wondered if this lottery-winning Rapid Metal Engraving Machine could engrave steel.

Ye Qing had never seen a processing tool with attributes in his life, so he hurried to the production workshop and summoned it.

For the first time, he didn't dare to try it on steel, fearing damage to the machine. Instead, he brought a piece of stone with lower hardness from the yard.

The Rapid Metal Engraving Machine had a white body with clean lines, giving it a sci-fi feel. The processing platform was 1 meter by 1 meter, and above it was an arm that could move forward, backward, left, and right.

Placing the stone on the platform, Ye Qing searched for a long time but couldn't find the control panel. He called over Niu Er, who was operating a machine, and the guy chuckled, pulling out a board from under the engraving machine and handing it to Ye Qing.

Ye Qing was delighted to see that it was a tablet computer with a USB slot.

Fully computer-controlled, high-tech!

Turning on the machine and entering the operating system, various control functions were clear, but it lacked processing drawings.

Ye Qing didn't lack these. He had many in his USB drive, all mainstream CAD part drawings, and the system supported them.

He selected a gear drawing, uploaded it, and clicked "Start."

As soon as Ye Qing clicked "Start," the circular engraving tool of the metal engraving machine began to rotate at an extremely terrifying speed.

Ye Qing couldn't see how the engraving tool touched the stone, but he knew that the worktable looked like a sandstorm, with stone powder flying and a loud noise.

After thirty seconds, when the flying stone powder dispersed and the tool head returned to its original position, a gear shape identical to the drawing stood on the stone plate.

Perfect, absolutely perfect. If it were made of metal, it could even be used as a part directly.

Ye Qing felt like he was in a dream, rubbing his eyes three times to confirm that what he saw was real.

Rapid...

The key to the Rapid Metal Engraving Machine was its speed.

This was not the slow metal engraving machine Ye Qing understood; it was a complete monster.

Although the hardness of the stone was not as high as that of copper and aluminum, ordinary metal engraving machines were always slow, like turtles, when cutting and engraving metal.

If the same drawing were processed by an ordinary metal engraving machine, it would take at least twenty minutes, and the precision would be far inferior even with ten buckets of lubricating oil.

Ordinary engraving machines produced items with a very rough feel due to the precision error of the tool head. They needed to be polished with a polishing machine and could only be used for artistic metal engraving that didn't require precision.

The tool head of this attribute-equipped engraving machine rotated at an extremely terrifying speed, and it seemed that engraving steel would be no problem.

Why bother with cutting machine manufacturing? Opening a metal engraving factory would make him rich.

Thinking of this, Ye Qing immediately ran upstairs to post a thread to see if he could get some metal engraving jobs.

Before posting, Ye Qing checked the thread he had previously posted about selling a used CNC gantry milling machine. Several people had already replied, saying they couldn't reach the phone number in the post.

Can't reach the phone number?

At this moment, Ye Qing suddenly remembered that his SIM card had been swallowed by his phone.

No wonder no one had called. Ye Qing quickly rummaged through a drawer and pulled out an iPhone 4 with a broken screen and ran outside.

Setting Niu Yi and Niu Er to rest, Ye Qing opened the door, got into the minivan, and sped to the nearest mobile service hall to get a new SIM card.

With his ID, getting a new SIM card was quick. When Ye Qing inserted the new card into the old iPhone 4, he immediately received six missed call notifications.

Using the wireless internet at the service hall, Ye Qing resynchronized his contacts. Among the missed calls, three were from the boss of Jiangshan Stone Factory.

Jiangshan Stone Factory was now Ye Qing's only major client. He couldn't afford to offend them, so he immediately called back.

"Come over immediately; the water pump of the cutting machine is broken," the boss of Jiangshan Stone Factory, Sang Qing, said coldly.

"Water pump?" Ye Qing was puzzled because the cutting machine they had sent did not have a water pump installed.

Stone cutting machines needed to spray water to cool down during operation, but the water pumps were installed by the stone factories themselves. Many factories liked to save on water costs by recycling and reusing the wastewater mixed with stone powder.

This was very damaging to the water pump, and installing a water pump meant having to warranty it. No factory wanted to do this.

Ye Qing explained that the water pump was not covered by the warranty, and Sang Qing's response was simple: if he didn't come to fix the machine, he wouldn't get the final payment.

Ye Qing had to resist the urge to throw the phone in frustration.

For the remaining six orders, Ye Qing had a hundred reasons to be unwilling, but he had to grit his teeth and make the trip.

He also called back the other unknown numbers. Two of them were likely other mechanical processing bosses who asked a lot of professional questions about the gantry milling machine.

Ye Qing reported the damage to the gantry milling machine truthfully. One said he would reduce the price by 20,000, while the other said he would add 30,000 but required Ye Qing to repair the machine.

The gantry milling machine manufacturer would take at least three days to repair it, and Ye Qing didn't have the time to wait. He agreed to the first one who wanted to reduce the price by 20,000 and scheduled a visit to the factory in the evening.

Then, he turned the car and headed to Jiangshan Stone Factory in Meihua Town.

The traffic accident on Provincial Road 104 had been cleared, and the road was smooth. Ye Qing arrived in forty minutes.

Jiangshan Stone Factory was located at the foot of Meihua Mountain, covering a vast area. They not only processed various stones but also sold landscape stones, which many residential areas ordered from them.

With such a large business, if it weren't for the introduction by the director of the city's construction planning office, Zhang, Sang Qing would never have ordered machines from Qingyun Cutting Machine Manufacturing Factory.

So when he saw Ye Qing, he didn't even bother to acknowledge him, directly sending a worker who was engraving stones to greet Ye Qing.

This worker was dressed in a thug-like manner, with a cigarette in his mouth, and he swaggered over.

As he approached, Ye Qing couldn't help but feel that this guy looked familiar.

"Damn, it's you?"

"It's you?"

The moment they met, a spark of anger ignited between them.

The worker sent by Sang Qing was none other than the thug youth whom Ye Qing had beaten up in the hospital that morning.

He seemed to be Qian Dongdong's nephew and had threatened Ye Qing before.

"Very good, the police were there this morning, so I couldn't do anything to you. Now you've come to my territory," Qian Xiaomeng sneered, waving to two companions of similar age.

They were familiar with each other; the two companions had also been at the hospital that morning, indicating they were relatives.

"I was wondering why that stone cutting machine kept having problems. It turns out it was made by your factory. What kind of garbage did you make?"

With people around, the thin Qian Xiaomeng suddenly became brave, pushing Ye Qing hard: "I've heard from my uncle that your factory is about to go bankrupt and can't even pay wages. I think your minivan looks nice. Leave it to my uncle to cover the medical expenses."

Ye Qing kicked Qian Xiaomeng to the ground.

At this moment, Ye Qing didn't care about business; he just wanted to beat him up.

As Qian Xiaomeng fell, the other two immediately ran over. They were muscular, likely due to their work in the stone factory, and had incredible strength.

Ye Qing was also strong. If they hit him, he would kick Qian Xiaomeng back, making sure he didn't lose.

"Stop, what are you doing?" Sang Qing, who was talking to someone from a distance, saw the fight and immediately became a raging lion.

"Boss, this guy just hit me. Look at my teeth..." Seeing his boss, Qian Xiaomeng perked up, ignoring the dirt on his body and pointing to his teeth: "This morning, I and San'er took leave to visit my uncle in the hospital. I didn't expect my uncle to be injured at his factory."

"Boss, you have to do something for me. This morning at the hospital, I mentioned my uncle's medical expenses, and he hit me. Now he came to the factory to fix the machine and hit me again without any reason."

The two companions also chimed in, twisting the facts. They said that Ye Qing's factory was about to go bankrupt, and now that they had received orders for several machines from their factory, he had become arrogant and even dared to hit the injured party's family.

Sang Qing nodded and said, "I understand."

Sang Qing knew what kind of people Qian Xiaomeng and his companions were, but that didn't stop him from standing up for them.

They were his subordinates, doing three-dimensional hand engraving, which required a lot of technical experience. The longer they worked, the more valuable their work became.

Sang Qing, with his large business, knew how to win people's hearts.

"Get out. You don't need to fix the water pump anymore." Sang Qing waved his hand, his large gold bracelet shining: "Cancel the remaining six machine orders. You won't get the final payment for this machine. Consider it compensation for Qian Xiaomeng's medical expenses."