ABT Chapter 0043: Off Track

Without Aunt Fang, the atmosphere finally became less awkward. The three of them gathered around the table of dishes, with questions and answers flowing smoothly. Li Fanfu picked at his food, his thief-like eyes scanning around.

Tsk! What's wrong with Zhou Chaomo? Is he trying to change his image and head towards the direction of being the nation's son-in-law? This harmonious feeling doesn't quite match her goddess vibe.

Li Ma usually didn't watch TV or go online; playing mahjong was her main form of entertainment. So, regarding Zhou Qingyu, she only felt vaguely familiar, without thinking too much about it.

Zhou Qingyu, on her side, didn't want to spoil the atmosphere and kept quiet about her identity. Plus, it had been a long time since she had eaten home-cooked meals, so although she ate politely, she didn't stop eating.

Li Ma felt happy inside; hm, she's pretty, with a good figure and a nice appetite, clearly well-nourished. But, she's just a bit too beautiful.

So, as she picked up the food, she subtly inquired about the relationship between Zhou Qingyu and her son.

Li Fanfu felt embarrassed again and could only remain silent, continuously stuffing food into his mouth. In just over ten minutes, he finished four bowls of rice.

Zhou Qingyu observed the interaction between mother and son, refraining from laughing as she finished her food and put down her chopsticks.

She lightly kicked Li Fanfu under the table.

Sensing it, Li Fanfu wiped his mouth and said, "Mom, I'm done eating. I'll take Qingyu back; she has something to do."

Li Ma hurriedly said, "Stay a bit longer; your dad and your uncle will be back soon!"

Please stop! Li Fanfu glanced at her with resentment, then grabbed Zhou Qingyu's hand and left.

Zhou Qingyu drove the car, the wind blowing through the window lifting her black hair as she wore oversized sunglasses, a smile playing on her lips.

"Your mom is quite interesting."

Yeah, indeed! She's playing with her son to death.

Li Fanfu chuckled, "Thanks for today."

"Mm, I misjudged you before, so consider this as an apology. But honestly, going to your place felt quite nice." Zhou Qingyu adjusted her long hair, smiling.

Li Fanfu didn't delude himself into thinking she had any feelings for him; the gap between them was too vast. Zhou Qingyu seemed more like a character from a movie or idol drama, every gesture and expression exuded an ethereal and unreal quality.

But hearing her say that still made him feel happy.

Li Fanfu grinned foolishly, "If you like it, you can come often when you're free. My mom will definitely welcome you."

"Sure, let's settle on that. Your mom cooks really delicious food; if it weren't for you feeling unwell all over, I would've wanted to eat a bit more." 

Uh... okay. It's said that every girl has the potential to be a foodie, and it seems to apply to goddesses like Zhou Qingyu as well.

Li Fanfu made a resolution to learn a few cooking skills from his mom later.

Considering the lesson learned from being secretly photographed last time, Li Fanfu didn't drop her off at the hotel. They exchanged a few casual words, and Li Fanfu got off midway.

He thought that Zhou Qingyu had repaid the favor and didn't want to bother with him anymore. Little did he know, anyone familiar with Zhou Qingyu would feel extremely honored to have such a conversation with her.

Li Fanfu wandered aimlessly on the street, pondering over something that had troubled him for several days.

After returning from Germany, Xapp had been upgraded to level three. However, this time, the reward was somewhat special, so special that he couldn't figure out what use this thing had.

It was a new production-type item called "Basic X-Tech Application Workshop."

Only after entering the X-space did Li Fanfu realize that he couldn't use this thing directly. It prompted him to select a target before it could take effect.

Li Fanfu pondered over it; a workshop, of course, would need a venue. So he tried the school playground, roadside vacant lots, and even the small park behind the school, but all he got was repeated prompts from the space: infrastructure mismatch, application not possible.

This was quite frustrating; after finally unlocking it, he didn't know how to use it. The skill he got from the lottery was even more frustrating; it was a skill-type, specializing in vehicle modification at the beginner level.

After applying it to himself, he found it understandable. It allowed him to aim the skill at a vehicle, displaying various information like torque, power, gear ratio, and acceleration per hundred kilometers directly in front of him.

It sounded cool, but in reality, it was just like directly installing a game interface like Need for Speed into his mind.

But the biggest problem was that in China, modifying vehicles privately was illegal! Isn't this just a scam?

Meanwhile, at Tiancheng Bank, the bank president, Bao Chunlei, was pounding the table in front of Ma, the head of the credit department.

"Are you all idiots? Why didn't you properly examine the background of Baocheng Company at the beginning? What do we do now? How do we fill this hole!"

The director wiped his sweat incessantly, cursing inwardly; who could have imagined that Baosheng Company would encounter such a huge problem! Moreover, wasn't it you who signed the documents back then? Now that trouble has arisen, you're coming to me to take the blame!

However, he didn't dare to voice any of these thoughts.

When Baosheng Company originally planned to establish a used car trading center in the South City District, they borrowed a hundred million from the bank using the allocated land as collateral.

Now, the first phase of the project has been completed, with several small repair workshops already built, and the second phase is ready to start. But just at this time, Baosheng Company collapsed.

All assets were auctioned off, and after the bank recovered them, it was discovered that there was still nearly fifty million in debt left unpaid.

The constructed workshops were all made of simple steel structures. If dismantled for recycling, they would only fetch scrap metal prices.

With the real estate market in a downturn these past few years, the value of the land that Baosheng had bought at a high price had greatly depreciated.

Two auctions, two failures, leaving Bao Chunlei extremely worried.

The bank approached several real estate companies, but none were willing to take over. The reason being, the land was too remote, and the surrounding environment was not good, lacking any development value.

Bao, the bank president, lit a cigarette, stood by the window with his hands on his waist, and said to Ma, the director, without turning around, "I don't care how you do it, just get rid of that land for me and recover the fifty million. If you can't do it, then go guard the bank entrance for me!"

Ma, the director, nodded with a mournful face.

Before Li Fan was home, he received a call from his uncle.

On the phone, Dong Jianguo said that the street office had contacted him, and the arson case had been closed, with the ringleader, Zhao Baocheng, already punished. The ruins of the repair shop couldn't just be left there. There were still many spare parts inside, although most of them were probably burnt, but cleaning up could still recover some losses. Dong Jianguo was asked to handle it.

It was said that it takes one hundred days for bones and muscles to heal, and today Dong Jianguo had just gone to the hospital to change his cast. How could he have the energy to deal with these matters?

So Dong Jianguo called him...

Without hesitation, Li Fan hailed a taxi on the roadside. When he got in, he realized it was someone he knew, the master who had repaired his car body and paint for free that day.

The master also recognized him, slapped his thigh, asked for the address without turning on the meter, and drove straight to the repair shop.

When they arrived, the driver insisted on not taking any money and drove off after dropping Li Fan, who could only wave his hand in gratitude.

The fire had turned the entire repair shop into ashes. Those iron lumps couldn't withstand the heat of the flames, either deforming or melting directly into molten iron. The so-called clean-up was probably because the community saw that there were no more people around and didn't want to clean it up for them.

Li Fan stood with his hands on his waist, looking at the black ruins, feeling deeply saddened. He had a special affection for the repair shop.

He had money in his hands, and if his uncle lost this livelihood, he wouldn't do anything else. Otherwise, why not rebuild the repair shop? He pondered.

Wait a minute, wasn't there still that mysterious workshop in the space?

Li Fan entered the X space and called up the X technology application workshop, aiming at the debris. 

Beep, beep, beep...

After waiting for more than ten seconds, the space finally gave a prompt: "You have exceeded the cumulative scanning limit five times, the infrastructure cannot support it. Do you want to initiate automatic scanning to find available sites nearby?"

Oh, there's this function too? You should have said it earlier; why go through all this trouble? Li Fan confirmed.

After about a minute, the space prompted again: "An available site has been detected, do you want to view it?"

Li Fan clicked confirm in the space, but just then, he sneezed twice.

A sound like clinking glasses came from the space, with a prompt: "The site has been confirmed, upgrade the workshop within 72 hours. Congratulations on owning the first production unit that can apply X technology. In this unit, you can access X technology tools for non-users, thereby improving productivity and manufacturing processes. After the workshop is upgraded, the global ranking system for car manufacturers will be activated. Note: X technology tools cannot be used after leaving the workshop."

Li Fan was dumbfounded. After all that talk, where's my workshop?

He re-entered the interface and selected [X Technology Application Workshop].

At this sight, he felt like smashing his phone.

Behind each option, the location of the workshop was clearly displayed.

It was none other than the newly built repair workshops in the original Baosheng Company's used car trading center!


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