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

Chapter 371 Invitation for Help

At 2 p.m. sharp, Yu Dawei knocked on Professor Zhang's office door.

"Come in." Professor Zhang's voice came from inside the room, along with a slight cough.

"Professor, have you been working yourself to the bone these past few days? Please don't let work harm your health." Yu Dawei stepped in and then closed the door.

"It's too hot, it's easy to get a sore throat." Professor Zhang got up and opened the window next to the table. A warm breeze blew in through the window, lifting a corner of the papers on the table.

"Go ahead, patients who don't have appointments this afternoon." Professor Zhang turned and returned to his desk. "Don't let my frequent hospital visits fool you; I'm mostly involved in academic research than medical work. Many patients are actually seen by other neurosurgeons."

Yu Dawei nodded. In fact, he already knew even if Professor Zhang didn't say it; he had heard Bo Xiao introduce Professor Zhang's life story before he came.

One of the best neurosurgeons in China, he has spent most of his life engaged in clinical practice, teaching, and research related to neurosurgery.

He studied under Mr. Zhao Yicheng, the father of neurosurgery, and can be said to be a model of surpassing his master.

Yu Dawei was able to book such a person to treat Da Feng and even perform surgery on her personally. In fact, the hundreds of thousands of yuan he spent were well worth it. Most people would probably be cold corpses in Da Feng's hands by now.

Therefore, Yu Dawei is very grateful for the professor's kindness.

"Would you like some tea?" Professor Zhang was unusually relaxed, and he wasn't even wearing a white coat, but rather a gray-brown shirt and black trousers.

“Okay, water and tea are no problem.” Yu Dawei sat on the sofa next to him, wondering why Professor Zhang had called him over.

"Don't be shy. It's understandable that your sister was a little nervous before the surgery. Now the biggest problem has been solved. She just needs to be observed for one to two months, and she should be able to be discharged soon." Professor Zhang handed a cup of jasmine tea to Yu Dawei.

"Does it really take this long?" Yu Dawei took the teacup with both hands, his eyes full of surprise.

"No, it depends on the recovery." Professor Zhang picked up his white teacup and placed it on the small tea table opposite him. "If the recovery goes well and there are no adverse reactions, he can be discharged in a month, or even half a month."

"Actually, it's not good for patients to stay in the hospital all the time. After all, the environment is like this, and they see scenes of life and death every day." Professor Zhang picked up his teacup and took a sip. "This can actually put a lot of mental pressure on patients."

"I can give you a suggestion: observe for half a month first. If there are no serious postoperative sequelae later, you can be discharged from the hospital, rent a place nearby that is not too far from the hospital, and continue to observe for a period of time."

"If any unexpected situation arises, we can transfer him to the hospital in time." Professor Zhang put down his white porcelain cup and looked at Yu Dawei.

"Hmm, that'll do." Yu Dawei nodded and took a sip of the hot jasmine tea. "By the way, Professor, why did you call me here..."

Professor Zhang smiled upon hearing this: "Isn't Dawei a car mechanic? So I'd like to ask you some questions about car repair."

"Oh." Yu Dawei finally breathed a sigh of relief. As long as it wasn't about Da Feng, it was fine. As for car repairs, this ancestor-level car repairman had never been afraid of anything.

"Just ask. I may not be good at other things, but I'm quite good at construction machinery, including mechanical repair." Yu Dawei didn't make any grand promises, but when he looked at Professor Zhang again, his eyes were full of confidence.

"That's great." Professor Zhang took a tactical sip of tea. "If this excavator were dismantled to pieces, or even missing parts, could it still be repaired? Or could it still work?"

Yu Dawei paused, his hand holding the teacup still, a thoughtful look in his eyes. This was the first time he had heard such a question.

"Actually, it's not that it can't be repaired. In fact, theoretically speaking, as long as it can be successfully assembled, it's not far from being able to work." Yu Dawei's answer remained theoretical.

He couldn't be sure of the actual situation, after all, he didn't know to what extent the so-called "shattered" pieces were actually broken.

Professor Zhang didn't speak again, but continued to sip his tea strategically, his expression thoughtful.

Yu Dawei didn't disturb them and waited silently.

“There’s another scenario: the construction vehicle is so old and dilapidated that it can’t even start. In that case, if it were repaired, how much could it be sold for?” Professor Zhang looked up and continued to ask. “Well…” Yu Dawei hesitated for a moment, then looked at Professor Zhang with a somewhat helpless smile: “Professor, this situation is actually more complicated than the first one. At the very least, we need to know the age of the construction vehicle, its production date, and the extent of damage to the parts.”

"With these, I can roughly estimate the repair cost. As for selling it... if it's repaired and doesn't need refurbishment, the price will definitely be much lower than the market value. If it's refurbished, I might be able to make some money selling it."

"Of course, this is on the premise that the overall frame of the vehicle is intact. If an engineering vehicle has not been used for decades and is covered in rust, then it may not be worth repairing."

After Yu Dawei finished speaking, his gaze towards Professor Zhang changed, and as he picked up his teacup with his right hand, he began to have some doubts.

Judging from the way Professor Zhang was talking, it seemed like he was involved in engineering machinery.

Even if Professor Zhang had it, he wouldn't be surprised at all.

In the coming decades, many employees of state-owned enterprises will take on harmless side jobs, and car maintenance is one of the more lucrative ones.

After all, someone working in civil engineering at a state-owned enterprise usually deals with construction sites and spends their days eating and drinking.

He naturally had connections to help him find work on construction sites, which meant that the most difficult part of owning a car was solved. Later on, he could just get any car and make money without having to think too much.

Even if the car breaks down, it doesn't matter, because there are just as many construction vehicle repair companies as there are construction vehicles.

Don't panic if your car breaks down; you can easily find a mechanic anywhere.

Is owning a car difficult? In some people's eyes, it's just a tool waiting for you to make money.

In Yu Dawei's memory, most of the car maintenance business owners had regular jobs, such as regional managers of a certain network company, junior staff members of a certain construction bureau, urban planners, environmental regulators, and some who were seconded to their units and could go or not.

Of course, there are also people who specialize in car maintenance. For these people, the issue of finding work needs to be considered. The interpersonal relationships in China are very complex. As machinery and equipment become more abundant and competition intensifies, some good jobs are not easy to secure.

What's good is that Yu Dawei isn't worried about this at all. He understands the general trend of the future, and he has already formed a clear path in his mind for planning car maintenance.

"Dawei." Professor Zhang put down his teacup, as if he had made a decision. The teacup made a crisp clinking sound as it hit the coffee table. "Since I have something to ask of you, I won't hide it from you."

"Before the surgery, when I heard that you could repair cars, I didn't really think much of it. After all, Dafeng's condition was very serious, the surgery was very risky, and there were too many uncertainties. If I really asked you for help, I guess you wouldn't have time to spare."

“But now that the surgery was successful, and I’ll be at the hospital for the next few days, it shouldn’t be a problem for me to look after your sister.” Professor Zhang smiled, his wrinkled face showing a hint of a smile. “Besides, I really enjoy chatting with Dafeng, so you don’t need to worry about her after the surgery.”

"Professor, do you want me to fix your car?" Yu Dawei knew that Professor Zhang had asked him to do some car repair-related things, or that he was a car mechanic himself, which was easy to guess.

"Hmm." Professor Zhang nodded, then sighed heavily. "I have three sons. My eldest son is named Zhang Huaimin, and my second son is named Zhang Huaiyi. Both of them studied medicine and are now working as surgeons in hospitals. They have good families and good jobs."

"Sigh, there's only this youngest son, Zhang Huaijin. He's been a headache since he was a child. He's cunning, lazy, greedy, and slippery—he's got it all. He's a real handful." Professor Zhang's heart clenched as he spoke of his youngest son. "As for his studies, he didn't even finish high school. He was expelled from school for fighting. His mother and I can't beat him or scold him. He's like a stubborn mule."

Yu Dawei became increasingly alarmed as he listened, and cold sweat began to pour down his forehead.

There was no other reason than that when Professor Zhang said those words, he felt as if he was talking about himself, but since he had no evidence, he could only listen in silence.

“He’s already in his mid-twenties and still not married. No young girl has taken a liking to him when we go on blind dates.” Professor Zhang took a sip of water to calm his agitation. “Around the beginning of the year before last, I don’t know what got into this kid. He insisted on buying a construction vehicle, saying that he could make money by putting it on the construction site.”

"After I looked into it, I found that it's actually a pretty good business." Professor Zhang looked up and met Yu Dawei's gaze. "As you can see, there's construction going on everywhere in Kyoto right now, and it's changing every day."

“The demand for construction vehicles is increasing day by day, so I thought I'd get him a construction vehicle to maintain. It would be nice not to have to watch him idly by every day. So last year, I spent over a million yuan to buy a vehicle. In the early stages, I kept an eye on it and made some money back.”

"When the kid saw the money coming in, he seemed to think this line of work was pretty good, so he invested the money again and bought a second-hand machine."

(End of this chapter)