In the 90s, you could acquire max-level skills every 14 days.

Liu Decai's face twitched.

"It's impossible to get a refund. The car has already been disassembled, and the labor costs are there—"

"When you were disassembling it, who told you to use the wrong type of bolt?" Zhang Yong's voice was calm.

"Using old tiles as new parts is fraud. Getting your 500 yuan deposit back is a profit for you. But if the higher-ups really investigate the origins of those parts in your warehouse, do you even want to keep this business?"

The courtyard was quiet for five seconds.

Liu Decai gritted his teeth, turned around and walked to the tin table, took out an envelope from the drawer, counted out five hundred yuan and slapped it on the table.

"Take it."

Zhang Yong did not reach out to take it.

"There's one more thing."

Liu Decai's body stiffened for a moment.

"Is the engine oil you use in your factory also sourced from Boss Zhou?"

Liu Decai's face turned from white to red again.

Zhang Yongquan saw it all.

"Boss Zhou ran away a few days ago, you know that, right?" Zhang Yong's voice was unhurried.

"You know better than anyone how many truck fleets he's ruined with his fake oil. When you bought it from him, did you not know it was fake oil, or did you know and still buy it anyway?"

Liu Decai's Adam's apple bobbed up and down.

"I...I had no idea he was selling fake oil."

"Have you referred any clients to him?"

Liu Decai remained silent.

"How many of the freight truck fleets in Tongxian County did you connect with?"

Sweat began to bead on Liu Decai's forehead.

Zhang Yong walked to the table, put the five hundred yuan into his pocket, and turned to hand it to Wei Shuyun.

Zhang Yong turned around and looked at Liu Decai.

"Tell me about Boss Zhou's supply channels."

"I--"

"If you speak up, this matter will end with you. If you don't, as the victimized car fleets report the cases one by one, the police will trace the leads back to you, and you, the intermediary, won't be able to escape."

Dogs barked at the gate of the courtyard, and the sound of trucks rolling over the road came from the distance.

Liu Decai stood there, wiping his fingers on the seam of his trousers again and again.

After a dozen seconds, Liu Decai finally spoke.

"Boss Zhou's goods... are not local."

"Where did it come in from?"

"Baoding." Liu Decai's voice was hoarse. "There's a guy surnamed Ma in Baoding who specializes in recycling and reprocessing waste oil. A barrel costs a little over two yuan, the factory price is five yuan, and he sells it for twelve yuan in Tongzhou."

"Before Boss Zhou left, he told me that the guy surnamed Ma had more than one production line and was also shipping goods to the south."

"I really don't know anything else! I've only introduced it a few times!"

Zhang Yong remembered this information.

Baoding, surname Ma.

Zhang Yong glanced at Wei Shuyun. Wei Shuyun was also listening; the tears in her eyes had disappeared, and her expression had become very serious.

"Let's go first, there's no rush this time," Zhang Yong said to Wei Shuyun.

Zhang Yong turned around and patted Zhang Defa on the shoulder.

"Dad, let's go back first. The problems with No. 2 and No. 3 aren't serious, I'll come back to fix them another day. Let's drive No. 1 away today."

Zhang Defa nodded, picked up his tool bag, and walked towards the motorcycle.

As Zhang Defa reached the courtyard gate, he stopped and glanced back at Liu Decai.

"Boss Liu."

"In the future, when doing business, don't just think about cheating people. Tongxian is a small place; if someone cheats someone else, that business won't last."

"After all, you're not the only company that can fix cars."

Liu Decai kept his head down and didn't reply.

……

Zhang Yong started the truck, and Wei Shuyun sat in the passenger seat with her bag in her arms.

Zhang Yong drove his truck out of the Lida Auto Repair Shop yard, with Zhang Defa following behind on his motorcycle.

After the group left, Liu Decai's cursing echoed from the repair shop: "Liu Sanqiang! Look at him! And look at yourself! Skipping school, skipping school! You broke my screws, I'll beat you up!"

The wind from outside the car window blew in, dispelling the smell of engine oil on my body.

Wei Shuyun sat in the passenger seat, watching Zhang Yong's hands on the steering wheel.

"Zhang Yong".

"Um?"

"When did you become so amazing?"

Zhang Yong glanced at the panel at the edge of his field of vision.

[Auto Repair Lv.2: Progress 71% (AFK)]

Zhang Yong smiled.

"I just learned it at the cotton mill."

Wei Shuyun didn't ask any more questions. The girl hugged the canvas bag to her chest; inside were the five hundred yuan and her father's medical records.

Outside the car window, the fields of Tongxian receded into the distance, with the direction of Beijing visible in the distance.

Two words were swirling in Zhang Yong's mind.

Baoding.

Boss Zhou has run away, but the people above him are still around. This fake oil operation is much longer than Zhang Yong had imagined.

The numbers on the panel are still changing.

[Auto Repair Lv.2: Progress 71%...72%...]

There are 720 hours in a day.

In ten days, I will be able to become a master auto mechanic.

But before that—we need to investigate the source of this fake oil.

……

When I returned to Jinsong Community, the sun had already set.

Zhang Defa parked his motorcycle downstairs, put on the kickstand, and started talking non-stop.

"That girl is really something! She's fair-skinned and speaks clearly; she's obviously from a wealthy family. In our cotton mill, she'd definitely be the factory beauty!"

Zhang Yong, carrying his tool bag, didn't respond.

"Don't think your dad's being nosy," Zhang Defa said in a low voice as he followed her upstairs. "That girl came running to your building late at night; if she needed something, you'd be the first person she thought of. What does that say?"

"That means her dad's car broke down."

"you--"

Zhang Defa choked.

As soon as I went upstairs and opened the door, the aroma of food wafted out.

Li Guilan had set the table. An enamel basin held egg drop soup, with chopped scallions swirling in the noodles.

On the side dish were slices of Chinese sausage, the steamed sausage glistening with oil.

There was still quite a bit of pork left over from the last time Wei Dabiao sent. Li Guilan cured it with Sichuan peppercorn salt and made a large basin of sausages, which she hung on a bamboo pole on the balcony. The weather has been good these past few days, and the sausages have dried very well.

Zhang Defa sat down, picked up his enamel mug, took a big gulp of cool boiled water, cleared his throat, and spoke.

"Old woman! Your son was really something today!"

Zhang Defa recounted the whole story of repairing cars in Tongxian County, embellishing the details.

First, she said she could fix the engine in ten minutes, then she talked about how the repair shop owner was speechless after being rebuked, and finally she mentioned that the Wei family's daughter's eyes were red.

When he got excited, Zhang Defa slapped his hand on the table.

"That girl is so stylish! And full of energy! If she were in our factory—"

Li Guilan, without changing her expression, broke off a piece of cornbread and stuffed it directly into Zhang Defa's mouth.

"If you keep nagging, I won't give you any more food!"

"Ugh—"

"The girl's father is still in the hospital, why are you making a fuss about this?"

Zhang Defa chuckled twice with a steamed bun in his mouth, then fell silent.

Zhang Yong picked up two slices of sausage and chewed them.

The savory meat flavor spreads in your mouth, while the numbing sensation of Sichuan peppercorns rises from the tip of your tongue.

Really fragrant.

The mass-produced sausages we eat in 2026 are nothing compared to this meat sausage.

The family of three finished their meal quietly.

We finished the egg drop soup too.

Just as she was about to clear the dishes, Li Guilan took out a brown paper envelope and a parcel box from the cupboard.

"I almost forgot. It was delivered by the post office this afternoon; your grandma sent it from Linyi."

"Your uncle said he has something to ask you about at home."

……