At ten o'clock in the morning, Fang Bai once again arrived at Hengli Company by pedicab, walking leisurely through the company's main entrance.
He met an employee from the HR department on the way, who was very polite to him, greeting him respectfully, "Fang Bai, you're here."
"Yes, I need to see Manager Wang. Is he at the company?"
"Yes, he should be in his office right now."
"Alright, thank you."
Fang Bai smiled and replied politely.
If others were polite to him, he would also respect them, even if the politeness was only superficial.
If they were not polite to him, he would not try to curry favor with them.
Arriving at the general manager's office on the second floor, the door was open, and Fang Bai happened to see Wang Hengli sitting on a solid wood sofa, drinking tea, looking somewhat dejected.
Wang Hengli's office was about thirty square meters, furnished with all solid wood furniture and flooring. There was no computer, printer, or other equipment on the desk, only a telephone. A wooden newspaper rack was placed in the corner, filled with various newspapers and magazines.
The decorating style of that era, in Fang Bai's opinion, was far from fashionable, but for most people, it was considered a luxurious office.
Wang Hengli heard footsteps outside the door, looked up, and seeing that it was Fang Bai, he said with a wry smile, "Brother Fang, you've really caused me trouble."
"No way, I think Manager Wang looks quite well right now."
Fang Bai entered the room, closed the door behind him, and seeing a few red claw marks on Wang Hengli's face, he frowned and asked knowingly, "Oh, Manager Wang, what happened to your face?"
"I fell accidentally while walking."
Wang Hengli was speechless. He didn't believe this imp knew nothing and was deliberately teasing him.
However, he appreciated this kind of straightforward young man; they got along well.
Fang Bai first shook hands with Wang Hengli, using the Golden Finger's ring finger function to lock onto the other party and obtain information, then sat on the sofa opposite Wang Hengli.
The events that had occurred to Wang Hengli in the past 24 hours quickly played out in Fang Bai's mind: sending flowers to his wife, then, after intimacy, telling his wife about being tricked by his mistress, his wife angrily demanding all information about Zhang Qian, including her address, his wife frantically scratching his face a few times, Wang Hengli not daring to resist and only begging for mercy while covering his head…
Seeing all this, Fang Bai couldn't help but curl the corners of his mouth, revealing a smile, and inwardly clapped his hands in delight: Well done!
Wang Hengli thought Fang Bai liked shaking hands and was too enthusiastic, so he offered Fang Bai a Hongtashan cigarette.
When asking for favors, cigarettes build bridges, alcohol paves the way, and tea clears the path. With the right connections, things fall into place naturally.
Fang Bai refused, saying he couldn't smoke recently after surgery, to avoid damaging his blood vessels.
"Oh, is that so? I really didn't know."
"It's fine, most people don't know."
He rarely smoked, avoiding it if possible, only indulging when social interaction required it.
Even if he took a puff, he didn't inhale into his lungs, purely for the sake of it, which reduced the harm.
"Brother Fang, how's the investigation coming along?" Wang Hengli changed the subject, not wanting to dwell on the topic of being beaten by his wife.
His wife said she wouldn't pursue the mistress issue anymore, which was a satisfactory outcome for him.
Fang Bai shook his head and sighed, "Alas, it's regrettable, Zhang Qian ran away that very night!
Damn it, it seems she noticed something was off. Maybe someone tipped her off, and I couldn't even find the gigolo. Now there's truly nowhere to investigate.
When I went to look again this morning, I saw a few thugs with sticks smashing the door looking for someone, but they didn't find her either.
Manager Wang, you didn't send people to mess with her, did you?
Maybe it was just beating the grass to startle the snake, letting her know in advance."
The one who tipped off Zhang Qian certainly wasn't Fang Bai, but Han Li, so it had nothing to do with him.
Upon hearing this, Wang Hengli was even more convinced that Zhang Qian was secretly keeping a gigolo.
If not, why would she flee that night instead of coming to him to explain?
At the same time, he secretly cursed his wife for causing trouble. If it wasn't handled well, retaliation would be problematic, and he strongly disliked associating with thugs.
"I certainly didn't send anyone to mess with her."
Wang Hengli didn't want to dwell on this topic; it was clearly implying his wife sent people to assault someone. He changed the subject, "By the way, I also have to thank Brother Fang for the reminder. That Luo Xiang, damn him, he was truly a traitor. Last night, in the middle of the night, he went to the warehouse to steal things to resell. Luckily, I had people staking it out.
I have to say, Brother Fang, you're truly prescient."
"It's good to eliminate future troubles. Was he sent to the police station?"
"He was reported to the police and sent to the station this morning. I've lost a lot of property these past two years. According to sentencing standards, that bastard will be in prison for at least ten years." Wang Hengli slammed the tea table, his tone somewhat angry.
"Good, the longer he stays, the better, so he doesn't come out and bite you back, Manager Wang." Fang Bai's tone hardened, and he clapped his hands in delight, showing a common hatred for the enemy.
For him, it was also a good thing; he had finally gotten his revenge.
Luo Xiang's arrest wasn't really Fang Bai's fault; it was because Luo Xiang himself had dirty hands.
Just as Fang Bai disliked Wang Hengli, he wouldn't do anything illegal, but rather use other means to profit himself.
Currently, Wang Hengli was still very useful to him, and Fang Bai wanted to fleece more wool from him.
Only after fleecing the wool and then eating the lamb would Fang Bai achieve his goal.
Fang Bai and Wang Hengli chatted casually, occasionally discussing business matters, guiding Wang Hengli to think in that direction, then probing his business information to see if there was anything profitable.
"Manager Wang, your company has a lot of 2-inch carbon steel globe valve orders; business is very good."
"It's alright. These past two months, it's mainly been these OEM orders."
The orders Fang Bai searched for in Wang Hengli's information were quite large, not something that could be started with just two or three pieces of equipment.
This information included Hengli Company's product retail prices, OEM costs, and other key details.
These details weren't useful now, but that might change in the future.
Fang Bai chatted for a while, felt it was about time, and prepared to leave Hengli Company.
Just then, a middle-aged man of about forty knocked and entered, his face grim, his brows tightly furrowed, as if something urgent had happened.
He was Ma Jingsen, the factory director of Hengli Company, responsible for all production management work.
Ma Jingsen saw his boss chatting with a young man, sized him up, and realized it was the apprentice Fang Bai, which surprised him somewhat.
However, he had no mind to care about that at the moment, and with some apprehension, he said to his boss, "Boss, our radial drilling machine, even after replacing the new spindle, still can't be fixed. The spindle keeps wobbling. When drilling a 30mm hole, it actually drills out to 32mm, and it's hard to turn, so it simply can't work."
"Damn it, it's only been three or four years since we bought it new, and it's already having this problem? Can't it be fixed?" Wang Hengli, the rough man, frowned deeply and immediately cursed aloud. A new Z3040 radial drilling machine cost two to three tens of thousands when new, and he certainly wouldn't be willing to buy a new one.
Buying a new one would also take time for transportation and installation, at least one to two weeks, which would definitely affect production progress.
"It really can't be fixed. We've already repaired it three times, and we still can't solve the problem. Currently, the company only has one radial drilling machine that can be used, which severely affects production progress." Ma Jingsen emphasized again, hoping his boss would believe what he said.
The equipment not being repaired also made them very frustrated and anxious. Buying a new spindle from the original manufacturer, Shanghai Machine Tool Company, and replacing it also didn't help.
Moreover, the equipment had exceeded its one-year warranty period, and the manufacturer was unwilling to send people for maintenance, mainly due to inconvenient transportation, troublesome communication, and high maintenance costs.
Fortunately, it wasn't an imported machine tool. If it were an imported machine tool, once important spare parts were damaged, it would be very difficult to purchase imported spare parts for replacement.
Furthermore, sea shipping time was too long, which would even more severely affect production progress.
Therefore, purchasing imported equipment was basically a one-time deal.
Of course, imported machine tools were not so easily broken; using them for ten, twenty, or even thirty years was not a problem, and no major repairs were needed during that period.
Imported equipment was too expensive in those days, a rare commodity, and ordinary factories were reluctant to buy them. For example, Hengli Company did not have any imported equipment.
"I'll go down and take a look."
Wang Hengli waved his hand, slightly annoyed, unable to let this matter hinder making money.
Fang Bai had nothing to do either, so he followed to take a look.
A moment later, the three arrived at the first bay of the machining workshop. A radial drilling machine had already stopped working. The machine was surrounded by two to three hundred valve bodies that needed drilling, mostly 2-inch globe valves, and also 4-inch and 8-inch regular-sized gate valves.
Hengli Company also had two bench drills, but they were not suitable for drilling workpieces with larger diameters, deeper depths, and varying hole spans.
The site was a bit messy, the equipment was covered in a lot of dust and oil stains, tools were scattered, and there was no sense of 5S management at all, not even simple area demarcation lines.
Fang Bai had been working in this industry for two to three decades and had some understanding of equipment. He was also curious about what was wrong with this drilling machine.
The designed lifespan of ordinary domestic machine tools was over ten years, and they could actually be used for fifteen to twenty years without problems.
He touched the equipment in front of him with his right middle finger and silently recited a fault analysis.
Suddenly, in front of him, besides the drilling machine, there were no other objects. It was as if all objects outside the drilling machine had been hidden from view, transforming into a slightly transparent 3D mechanical structure diagram, very similar to a finite element analysis diagram.
Most of the structure was blue and green, with small parts in light yellow, and two spots in red.
The light yellow parts were where more wear occurred, while the red parts were the faulty components: the bearings on the main spindle and the locking mechanism of the column and radial arm had problems.
Fang Bai had already tested the Golden Finger's function in the hospital, using different colors to represent equipment status, which was very intuitive and only visible to him.
Silently, he turned off the Golden Finger function, and the real world returned to his sight.
The Golden Finger could not only pinpoint where equipment faults were but also analyze the causes of those faults, making it much more powerful than equipment maintenance experts.
Of course, there were limitations; it couldn't analyze non-mechanical or non-electronic equipment items.
"Fault Analysis 1: Excessive clearance between the bearing and the Morse taper No. 5 spindle, indicating looseness;
The bearings are defective and severely worn, with a concentricity error of 0.211 mm relative to the spindle. When the rotation speed exceeds 100 rpm, the wobble is too great.
Recommendation: Replace the set of 5 6008 deep groove ball bearings used for the Morse taper No. 5 spindle. The bearing specifications are as follows:
Inner Diameter (ID): 40mm
Outer Diameter (OD): 68mm
Width (W): 15mm
Required Maximum Speed: 8,000 rpm
Rated Dynamic Load: 16.8 kN
Rated Static Load: 11.5 kN…
Fault Analysis 2: Due to prolonged use of hydraulic oil, the oil pressure is low, preventing the locking mechanism from releasing.
Recommendation: Replace the hydraulic oil."
Fang Bai didn't understand some of the technical parameters, nor did he know what 6008 or Morse taper No. 5 meant.
So, even if the Golden Finger analyzed it, limited by his professional knowledge, he couldn't understand these details.
However, he generally understood what spare parts were needed, their specifications, and quantities, and that was enough.
Fang Bai would not tell Wang Hengli the cause of the fault, nor would he charge a repair service fee.
What kind of money could he make from that!
He wanted to buy this equipment!
As long as the bearings and hydraulic oil were replaced, the equipment problem would be solved.
A Z3040 drilling machine like this, which was seventy to eighty percent new, if it were fully functional, would currently be worth about 12,000 yuan in the second-hand market.
A set of 5 6008 deep groove ball bearings would cost about a few tens of yuan; hydraulic oil wouldn't cost much either.
Other costs included transportation costs, renting a place to store the equipment, and hiring someone to help him replace the parts.
Fang Bai estimated that, excluding house rental, the total cost would be about one hundred yuan, and it would take about one to two days.
If he could acquire it at a low price and then resell it, he could make a substantial profit.
In Yongjia County, where workshops lined the streets, dealing with a relatively cheap machine tool was not a problem.
Or, selling it back to Wang Hengli was also an option.
Even if it couldn't be sold, he could use it himself.
There were risks, but they were extremely low, and such opportunities to find a bargain were rare.
Now, it depended on how much he could acquire it for, and whether Wang Hengli wanted to sell it.