ABT Chapter 0001: A Great Dream
Automotive Black Technology
Author: Foolishness QD
Li Fanfu fell asleep in class and woke up to find that familiar car brands were all gone.
There were no BMWs or Audis, no Land Rovers or Bentleys, no Porsches or Ferraris...
Even domestic cars had regressed by ten years, with the domestic market dominated by foreign capital.
Even more absurdly, there was now an Xapp on his phone, with powerful technology and tools that came with black technology, even capable of directly exchanging car production lines!
With his phone filled with black technology, Li Fanfu declared war on all the car manufacturers.
"It's not that I'm targeting anyone, but what I mean is, everyone here is rubbish!"
Fish can't live without water, flowers can't live without the sun, luxury cars can't live without beautiful women—how can life go on without showing off?
Chapter 0001: A Great Dream
It was already past the beginning of autumn, yet there was still no sign of coolness in Tiancheng City located in northern China. The warm breeze lazily lifted the curtains and drifted into the classroom, lacking vigor.
This was a small classroom at Tiancheng Industrial University, with more than ten students scattered about. Perhaps to match the sultry weather, the students were all listless.
However, this did not deter the old man at the lectern, who continued meticulously writing on the blackboard.
The old man was in his sixties, with a slight graying of hair, wearing an outdated pair of gold-rimmed glasses. He was thin, but behind the glasses, his eyes were sharp and spirited.
The chalk traveled briskly across the blackboard, producing a tree-shaped diagram with vigorous strokes. After a moment, he paused and reexamined his work, afraid of missing anything.
Shortly after, he turned around to begin his lecture, only to notice that a student sitting in the second row had already fallen asleep.
The old man frowned, raising his hand to point, "Excuse me, could you please wake up?"
The students, who were drowsy just moments ago, were startled by this stern call, suddenly becoming alert and shifting their gaze to the unlucky sleeper.
Most of the students attending this class were struggling with their credits, as it was an elective course covering an overview of China's automotive industry. Therefore, most of the students present were just here to earn credits. Falling asleep in class meant wasting more than an hour.
The students couldn't help but feel a bit gleeful, looking at the sleeper with a hint of schadenfreude.
This guy was sleeping soundly, completely unaware that he was being observed by the entire class. Perhaps feeling the embarrassment of blocking his sight, a girl next to him nudged him with her elbow.
He then raised his head, still groggy from sleep, and responded with an "uh" as he wiped away the drool, quickly standing up when he noticed the professor pointing at him.
The professor, seeing him stand up, lowered his hand and joked, "Student, had a good sleep? I don't mind if someone sleeps in my class, after all, this is an elective course. But what puzzles me is, if you wanted to sleep, why did you choose to sit in the front row?"
Laughter filled the classroom.
The professor put on a serious expression and glanced at his attendance sheet, asking, "Are you Li Fanyu?"
The guy nodded, hesitant to speak.
Seeing his embarrassed look, the professor sighed softly, "Fanyu, foolish and ignorant. Emperor Taizong described himself and the people with these eight characters in the 'Preface to the Sacred Teachings of the Great Tang'. It was meant to highlight the humility and inscrutability of Buddhism and Taoism. It seems that the person who named you had some thoughts behind it. This symbolism applies equally to our modern national automotive industry."
Seeing Li Fanyu hang his head in remorse, the professor felt a bit sorry and gestured for him to sit down.
"You fell asleep just now, perhaps you didn't hear me, so I'll repeat it for you. Just now, I mentioned that our country is the world's second-largest economy, and in recent years, it has surpassed the United States to become the world's largest industrial nation. It can be said that several generations of industrialists have climbed steadily and experienced twists and turns, to lay such a solid foundation, leaving a suitable environment for modern industry. In the modern industrial system, a total of 39 industrial categories and 191 subcategories can be distinguished. Our country is the only one in the world that has all industrial categories. Perhaps you don't think this is a big deal, but even if all the European countries are combined into one European Union, they barely manage to gather all these categories. But it is regrettable that our country's industrial system pursues largeness and comprehensiveness rather than high precision and sophistication. So even now, despite the rapid economic development, the national automotive industry still hasn't made corresponding progress. Up until now, we still haven't developed a domestically-made automobile engine."
Upon hearing this, Li Fanyu suddenly lifted his head.
He thought to himself, "Wait a minute, professor, are you kidding me?"
Isn't it the case that FAW had already reverse-engineered the Mazda I4 ten years ago and developed the ET3 series engine?
This vibe is a bit eerie. Are the professor and my classmates joking with me in all seriousness? Or am I still stuck in a dream?
He hesitantly raised his hand and said, "Um... Professor, actually, FAW developed our country's first car engine in 2009, although it was a high imitation."
The old professor was taken aback, feeling anger rising within him. He could tolerate students skipping class and sleeping in class, but academic matters couldn't tolerate any deviations.
"Student Li Fanyu, let me ask you. Which country's brand is FAW, and which company does it belong to? Pardon my ignorance, but I've never heard of it before."
Li Fanyu scratched the back of his head, looking at the disdainful gazes from his classmates, and answered, "Of course, it's a domestic brand, under the FAW Group!"
Laughter filled the classroom, and a boy mocked with a hoarse voice, "Are you still half-asleep? There's no such thing as the FAW Group in China!"
The professor's face twitched, and he raised his hand, making a quiet gesture. "Li Fanyu, maybe I should call you Teacher Li instead. I am truly impressed. You were clearly awake with your eyes open and standing up, yet you were still in a big dream and didn't wake up. If I had your skill, I wouldn't have gone gray so early. All that would remain is a green hill, but my brain would be hollowed out by the setting sun."
The whole class burst into laughter again, with a few exaggerated laughs and slaps on the thighs. They looked at Li Fanyu with mockery in their eyes.
Li Fanyu felt a bit angry. Could it be that the professor and the classmates had conspired to play a prank on me while I was sleeping?
He had seen a video before where an employee fell asleep at work. So the manager led a group of colleagues to hide and called to inform him that it was Sunday, leaving him dizzy and confused.
Li Fanyu shook his head. He had never slept in class before, but today he inexplicably fell asleep. He felt disrespectful to the professor and was sincerely apologetic. But listening to the laughter around him, he felt that this matter was not so simple.
His face turned red, and he loudly asked his classmates, "Haven't you heard of FAW, Great Wall Haval, Geely, Chang'an, Dongfeng, GAC Trumpchi?"
"Forgive us for being ignorant. We haven't heard of them. Hahaha..."
Li Fanyu was certain now that he had been fooled. He shouted at the laughing classmates, "You guys haven't heard of the domestic brands, but you've surely heard of foreign ones like Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Mazda, Hyundai, Kia, SsangYong, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, Land Rover, Ferrari, Aston Martin, and Lamborghini, right? Have you guys crossed over?"
He rattled off a series of car brands smoothly, like performing a comic monologue. This move did shut up his classmates for a while.
However, after a moment, it was followed by another round of laughter.
The professor noticed that Li Fanyu's emotions were getting a bit too excited. He raised his hand to suppress the students' commotion and said, "You remember all the Japanese and Korean car brands, but as for the others, besides Mercedes-Benz, I really don't know. As far as I know, BMW, also known as Bavarian Motor Works, was a German aircraft engine manufacturer during World War II. However, it declared bankruptcy shortly after the end of World War II. As for Audi, when I visited Germany for research last year, there was indeed a company making light-emitting diodes with this name."
Li Fanyu was dumbfounded. "Damn, did I really time-travel just by taking a nap?"
Wait a minute, though. The classroom is still the same, the professor is still the same, and these bastards are still a bunch of bastards. Could it be that they've all collectively lost their minds?
Seeing him speechless, the professor continued, "As for these pseudo car brands you mentioned, the names do sound quite nice. If you're not dreaming, and you focus on studying, if you use these names for cars in the future, they won't sound too bad."
Li Fanyu slumped back in his seat, feeling disheartened.
Looking at his classmates who were interestedly observing him, he cursed in his heart: What the hell is going on? I just took a nap, for God's sake!
Next