Bloody Romance: I, the big troublemaker, Zhong Yuemin!

"Judging from your tone... has Luo Yun gotten into some trouble again? Or... is she doing something... inappropriate?"

Zhong Yuemin did not answer directly, but only said:

"It's nothing. People walk their own paths and have to bear the consequences. They're all adults, so they should take responsibility for themselves. Just don't get too close to people and don't get involved in her affairs. That's the right thing to do."

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The engineers sent by Meichuan Machinery put on quite a show. Once inside the repair workshop, they closed the door and drew the curtains, keeping all the repair personnel outside. Not a single one was allowed to enter, let alone learn from them, or even take a look. The secrecy was extremely tight.

However, as the saying goes, "the devil may be one foot tall, but the righteous are ten feet tall."

Zhong Yuemin had anticipated that the Japanese would pull this stunt. After the production line malfunctioned and before the Japanese personnel arrived, he had already arranged for people to dismantle the problematic machine parts and secretly transfer them to another separate, seemingly ordinary repair workshop.

This workshop had already been secretly modified, with hidden observation holes in the walls and a dimly lit, soundproofed "dark room" next door.

At that moment, in the darkroom, Qian Zhimin, Cao Gang, Zhao Dayong, and several other key technical personnel were crouching low, taking turns peering through the observation hole, intently watching the every move of the Japanese engineers in the adjacent workshop through a high-powered telescope.

The group didn't dare to breathe, their expressions tense and focused. Anyone who didn't know better would think they were conducting some kind of secret intelligence work, monitoring enemy agents.

More than an hour later, several Japanese engineers packed up their tools and left, and the machine was reassembled, indicating that it was fixed.

Qian Zhimin and the others rubbed their sore eyes and quietly withdrew from the dark room, quickly heading to the factory director's office.

"Yuemin, Yuemin! It's all done over there!" Cao Gang said in a low voice as soon as he entered the room, his face showing excitement and a hint of resentment.

"Please sit down."

Zhong Yuemin was reading a newspaper. When he saw them come in, he put down what he was holding and pointed to the chair next to him.

After everyone sat down, Cao Gang couldn't help but start complaining:

"Yuemin, those little devils are so damn cunning! We took turns looking through the binoculars for ages, and it seems... it seems they just replaced a few limit switches, adjusted some parameters, and then the machine could run again. For such a small job, they dare to ask for tens of thousands of yuan in repair fees?! Do they really think we're idiots?!"

"Old Cao, we're quite far apart, with glass separating us and poor lighting,"

Qian Zhimin was relatively calm.

"There might be other small, critical components that need replacing that we didn't see clearly."

"Even if it were available, it wouldn't cost that much!" Cao Gang said.

Zhao Dayong chimed in from the side, his tone equally displeased.

"Isn't this what Yuemin said before? They have the technology in their hands, and the machines, equipment, and core components all belong to them."

Even if we know which part is broken, we don't have spare parts. Not only can we not manufacture them, we can't even buy them. The pricing power is completely in their hands!

They say the part is worth 10,000, so we have to pay 10,000! They say it's worth 100,000, and we still have to grit our teeth and accept it! We even have to put on a smiling face and thank them for coming to repair it promptly. It's so frustrating!

The group of people talked amongst themselves, getting angrier and angrier as they spoke.

"Alright, everyone take a break, have some water, and catch your breath."

Zhong Yuemin remained calm, as if he had expected this. He stood up, picked up the thermos on the table, and personally refilled the teacups in front of the three of them with hot water. Then he sat back down in his chair and began to speak:

"I never expected that we could independently repair these imported equipment in the future just by secretly observing them this time. That's unrealistic and impractical."

"It's always good if you can read and remember more. I'll say it again: our country's industrial foundation is weak, and compared to smaller countries in precision machinery and automatic control, we lag behind in every aspect. The technological gap is there, a generational difference, and it's not just a small one. There's nothing we can do but accept it for now."

Qian Zhimin picked up his teacup, took a sip, his eyes darted around, and leaned closer to Zhong Yuemin, a mischievous smile on his face. He said in a slightly gossipy tone:

"By the way, Yuemin, since this 'learning by doing' method is not very effective, could we... try a different approach? Use your best tricks?"

Zhong Yuemin raised an eyebrow: "What's my best move?"

"Catch the old lady!"

Qian Zhimin slapped his thigh, a knowing smile on his face.

"Back when we were sent to the countryside in northern Shaanxi, didn't Widow Li, Qinling who sang, and several other female educated youths in the team all have a thing for you? You have a 'glorious tradition' in this regard!"

He lowered his voice and continued:

"Besides, at the welcome banquet last night, Miss Meichuan personally brought you a wine glass and we chatted for quite a while. Which of the other men around wasn't envious?"

I bet he's been 'captured' by your charm. If you're really that capable, put in the effort and win over that Japanese girl. Then, you won't have to worry about the technology anymore! Maybe she'll even give our factory the machines for free, and you'll get the beauty in your arms—a win-win situation! Hehe…”

Zhong Yuemin was so angry at this absurd and terrible idea that he laughed and scolded:

"I have no charm whatsoever. You're overthinking it. Let me tell you, don't let her being a woman fool you. At such a young age, she's become the vice president of Meichuan Machinery, managing such a large amount of technology and business. She's no ordinary person. Her mind is deeper than all of yours combined. You'd better give up on these crooked thoughts!"

He straightened his expression and put away his smile:

"You guys should do this... while these Japanese engineers are still at the factory, try to make as much contact with them as possible, invite them to meals, build good relationships, and see if you can get any useful technical details out of them, even just a little bit of experience in equipment maintenance and common fault diagnosis."

"Yuemin, we've already tried it, but it didn't work!"

Cao Gang had a bitter face.

"Those Japanese engineers are as tight-lipped as clams. Apart from necessary work-related communication, they don't say a word. If you ask too many questions, they'll give you bureaucratic answers about 'company regulations' and 'technical confidentiality'... Bullshit! They're just keeping their distance from us!"

You probably don't even know, but the broken parts they just replaced were hidden very well. If we hadn't been secretly observing, we wouldn't have known what they replaced; we would have been completely in the dark.

And another thing, their repair logbook, written in Japanese, is locked up. They've gone to such lengths, even with that little notebook, to get these guys to talk is incredibly difficult.