In 1992, a small village owner became the richest man in the village by owning a car.

Chapter 139 Yu Dawei's Plan to Sell His Broken Car as Scrap Metal

Yu Dawei and Qi Dadu returned to Luhe Town, but instead of going back to Yujiatun, they went to Brother Duan's scrap metal recycling station.

He made two preparations: after putting the road roller in the scrap yard, if it was found to be worthless after disassembly, Yu Dawei would sell it as scrap metal.

This way, I can save time and effort and make a lot of money, while Brother Duan can also make a small profit by taking advantage of the situation.

However, when Yu Dawei arrived at Duan Dahai's scrap metal recycling station, the door, covered in yellowed rust, was locked with a golden padlock.

Yu Dawei could clearly see the significant changes that had taken place in the courtyard through the upper half of the iron railing above the gate.

The various piles of scrap metal that used to be on the west side are now all gone, leaving only scrap iron sheets, iron pipes, iron frames, and so on piled up at the base of the west wall.

Near the corner of the north wall of the house, there were some old beer bottles, commonly known as "big green bottles," and some old clothes that were almost torn into rags.

On the east side of the wall, my own excavator was sitting there quietly, untouched for a while, with a thin layer of dust visible on the window.

"Why is the door locked in broad daylight? Where is everyone?" Qi Dadu followed Yu Dawei over, his small eyes glancing at the courtyard before he frowned slightly.

"I don't know. It's not just that the person is gone, but it seems like a lot of things are missing too, while the scrap metal is still there." Yu Dawei also frowned slightly, wondering what this guy had been busy with.

Could it be that the scrap metal recycling station is closing down? Are they planning to take over the flour mill? But the timing doesn't seem quite right.

"Dawei? Where have you been all this time? If you don't come back soon, I'm going to come looking for you in the village." Just then, a man's voice rang out behind the two of them.

"Brother Duan? What's going on with your yard? So many things are missing." Yu Dawei turned around and saw Duan Dahai driving up in a small tricycle, followed by Boss Liang's beat-up pickup truck.

"Hey! I told you this kid would find work anywhere, Lao Duan, see if I was right." Boss Liang shouted from his pickup truck with the window rolled down, as if he had earned a great honor.

Duan Dahai smirked at Boss Liang in the pickup truck, then turned and smiled at Yu Dawei and Qi Dadu: "Let's go inside first, we'll talk once we're inside."

"You brought back another road roller? Is it for someone else to repair or for your own?" Duan Dahai took out the key, inserted it into the lock, and turned it to the right. With a "snap," the top of the three-ring lock instantly popped open.

“Now, it’s mine,” Yu Dawei said.

"My God, I'm shocked! Isn't car ownership supposed to be this profitable? How come you've already bought three cars in less than a year?" Boss Liang followed into the yard, his thick hands quickly covering his heart.

"To be honest, I was shocked myself," Yu Dawei said with a wry smile.

I thought it was going to be a car repair business to make money, but I ended up making money off a car and even earning back the repair costs.

Whether or not to repair it remains to be seen.

"Let's get the car into the yard first, so the tow truck driver won't get impatient." Duan Dahai noticed that the tow truck driver hadn't come down yet, so he must be waiting to leave. He proactively reminded Dawei, "Now that the yard is empty, you can put it wherever you want, haha."

"Alright!" Yu Dawei grinned, then directed the tow truck driver to back the flatbed truck into the yard.

It was lifted onto the truck by a crane, and now we have to repeat that process. After all, it's a scrapped vehicle, and it's quite difficult to expect it to get off the ground and walk a few steps on its own.

Fortunately, there is a rental market outside, where you can find both small and large cranes. A 20-ton crane is more than enough.

The crane first lifted the iron frame and placed it on the north side of the small house, next to the south side of the wheeled excavator. Then it lifted the two steel wheels off the trailer and placed them under the north wall near the door.

After everything was settled, Yu Dawei paid the crane operator. Perhaps considering that everyone was sitting next to each other, the crane operator asked for a favor of forty yuan.

Seeing that the matter was settled, Qi Dadu said goodbye to Yu Dawei and prepared to leave.

Yu Dawei specially went to the convenience store to buy two packs of cigarettes for Qi Dadu to smoke on the way.

Qi, with his large belly, accepted the package with a smile. Before leaving, he tossed two boxes to the tractor driver, and the two of them left the yard one after the other.

Yu Dawei stood at the door, feeling a pang of sadness at parting. Qi Dadu had always been very good to him, especially taking good care of him during this trip. This was partly due to his third uncle's instructions, but he could also feel the care from his friend. And then there were the people around his third uncle; although they spoke bluntly, often uttering profanities and sometimes spouting lewd jokes, it couldn't be denied that they were all genuine people.

Speak your mind. If you have the ability, they will truly respect you and listen to what you say.

However, some people are destined to be just passersby in one's life. Yu Dawei withdrew his gaze and closed the courtyard gate.

Duan Dahai, Boss Liang, and Yu Dawei entered the house one after another.

Yu Dawei finally managed to find the time to ask the question about the courtyard.

It was during this time that Dahai slowly explained: "Last year, didn't I tell you that there was a site in the south of Luhe Town that was being sold cheaply? Later, I heard that they were building a road, so they raised the price. But then they must have run into some financial problems, because they started lowering the price again last month. And then it plummeted in the middle of this month. I thought I'd buy it at the bottom. Anyway, the price is still quite reasonable."

“I had my eye on his yard from the start. His location is close to all the villages below, so more garbage collectors from those villages will come to me. Plus, it’s connected to the next town, so it’s definitely going to be profitable.” Duan Dahai pointed to the outside of the yard. “I’m collecting more and more recyclables now, and although this yard isn’t small, it will eventually become too small to hold everything.”

"So I've been thinking of doing business with you." Duan Dahai looked at Yu Dawei and smiled. "I want to rent this yard to you. You can use it to park your car in the winter and repair it in the summer. I can waive the rent. My only request is that I want to put some scrap steel in this yard, and you'll have to keep an eye on it for me."

Yu Dawei was increasingly shocked as he listened, and when he heard that there was no rent, he quickly waved his hand and refused: "No, no, I can rent the yard, but the rent must be paid. Brother Duan, if you do this, we can't be brothers anymore."

"You little rascal, I still need this yard. I'm just borrowing a little more space. Don't be so polite with your brother Duan." Duan Dahai tried to find an excuse, and his expression became more serious.

After watching the drama unfold for a while, Boss Liang finally couldn't help but speak up and say, "I think you two shouldn't be so polite with each other. Xiao Yu has some savings now, and your older brother made a fortune recently, but we still need to stick to the rules. If you ask me, how about a 50% discount on the normal rent for a friend's price, um... five hundred a year?"

“I think it’s a good idea!” Before Duan Dahai could speak, Yu Dawei cut him off, “Brother, if you don’t want the five hundred yuan, I’m not renting this place no matter what.”

"You two, sigh, alright then." Duan Dahai sighed. "I'll give you a key to the front door in a bit. I was thinking of going to the village to find you and give you the key a couple of days ago when we were moving."

As Yu Dawei took the metal key from Duan Dahai, he suddenly felt a sense of unreality, even more unreal than when he suddenly found out that the road roller was for him.

I had considered renting a courtyard in town before, but then I realized that my own courtyard could fit everything, so I hesitated and didn't think about it further.

However, having a large courtyard in a town has more advantages than in a village. First, it won't attract too much attention. Otherwise, if you park your car in your own yard, people will definitely come to see it every day.

Secondly, it's much easier to maintain your excavator and road roller in town, as buying parts is much more convenient due to the town's convenient transportation and the ease of finding tow trucks and cranes.

Renting a courtyard by the sea was the best choice for me. The rental market is located to the east of the courtyard gate, where idle cranes and tow trucks park.

Yu Dawei had no reason to refuse.

Most importantly, his passion for car repair started to rekindle.

With this yard, he could hang a sign at the gate and set up a special machinery repair shop. (Author's note: Special machinery repair refers to various equipment such as road rollers, excavators, loaders, and stabilized work platforms.)
When I'm busy, I close the shop; when I'm free, I repair cars. The rental market outside the shop is a natural pool of potential customers.

The more he thought about it, the more feasible it seemed. He shared his idea with his two older brothers, and both Boss Liang and Duan Dahai agreed. They even helped Yu Dawei analyze the current market situation and the approximate price of car repairs in the town.

And so, Yu Dawei began to plan to open a repair shop.

Next was the road roller in the yard. Yu Dawei led the two men into the yard. They didn't have any tools, but he could still see the engine and other parts inside by opening the hood.

Rusting was just the beginning; the motors on the outer sides of the front and rear steel wheels were completely shattered, and the vibrating wheel assembly was also broken. The engine was probably a Deutz, but the adjacent fan blades were broken in half.

This is still before it's been disassembled. Who knows what's inside the various system components? I really can't imagine.

"Let's sell it." Yu Dawei was truly exhausted looking at this thing, and turned to Duan Dahai, "How much can this thing sell for?"

“This truck, judging by its size, must weigh at least seventeen tons. At the current price of 68 cents a pound of iron, it would definitely be worth over 20,000 yuan.” Duan Dahai patted the behemoth and then said with some regret, “To be honest, if I sold this truck for scrap metal, I could definitely make some money too, but are you sure you don’t want to repair it? It’s not easy to get such a big truck.”

Upon hearing this, Yu Dawei looked at the road roller and was once again caught in a dilemma. If he really had to repair it, he would have to spend a lot of the money he had painstakingly saved.

(End of this chapter)