ABT Chapter 78: It's Just a Piece of Land, Right?

Li Fanyu exchanged glances with the four people, and the message in their eyes was clear: Go and check it out; we don't really know her!

Nodding at them, Li Fanyu walked over with large strides. As he got closer, he vaguely heard some snippets of An Ning's conversation.

"Why was my lab application rejected? Aren't I working on fulfilling the missing conditions?"

"What do you mean by 'the higher-ups'? Who are they? Give me a name, and I'll go find them!"

"My company is just a shell? The company was registered less than a week ago, and none of the business operations have even started yet, so how can it be a shell?"

...

Li Fanyu stood behind An Ning for a while and finally understood—her application to establish an automotive lab had failed.

He looked at An Ning, whose shoulders were trembling, sighed, and walked over to pat her on the shoulder.

An Ning turned around abruptly, her eyes still wet with tears. Seeing him, she pursed her lips and quickly wiped her tears away.

"Something came up at home... I was so busy on the phone that I forgot to check on you guys. When are you heading back? I'll drive you." She forced a smile as she spoke.

Li Fanyu shook his head helplessly. This woman was still trying to be strong even at this point.

"Sister Ning... I heard everything. What's the problem?"

An Ning's forced smile crumbled, and she sniffed without saying a word.

"Many nights, we've prayed..." A phone ringtone rang out. An Ning looked at the screen, bit her lip, and answered the call.

"......"

"It's you!"

"......"

"Despicable! Zhang Yong, you remember this!" An Ning shouted hysterically into the phone after hearing the voice on the other end.

Li Fanyu found it hard to reconcile this An Ning with the gentle and intellectual woman he had first met.

The call An Ning had answered earlier must have been from a department, but this one was from the mastermind behind it all, declaring their victory. Li Fanyu could completely imagine the feeling of having one's hard-earned dream kicked down from its foundation.

Seeing An Ning covering her mouth, trying hard not to cry out loud, he snatched the phone and spoke to the person on the other end, "What exactly do you want?"

The person on the other end was clearly stunned for a moment upon hearing his voice, then a nasal-heavy voice replied, "Who the hell are you? Tell An Ning that bitch that opposing me in Nanhe will lead to no good for her! If she knows what's good for her, she should contact me tonight. Maybe I'll be merciful and help her out. Otherwise, not only that damn lab, but she won't be able to find any work in the entire Beihai Province's automotive industry!"

Despite the heavy nasal tone, Li Fanyu immediately deduced who this person was based on the voice and the content—Pig Liver Face!

Li Fanyu sneered, "President Zhang, right? Don't worry, there's no need for you to trouble yourself with the lab. We have the land and the company. As for the blacklist in the entire province, I'll consider it just boasting. If you boast too much, your nose injury might get worse."

"You were there last night! That one!" Zhang Yong, who had been drunk last night, although sobering up after being injured, still didn't know Li Fanyu's specific identity.

Seeing him at a loss for words, Li Fanyu immediately snapped, "I'm the wild dad you had last night!" With that, he hung up the phone with a snap and even turned it off.

An Ning clutched his arm, unsure whether to cry or laugh for a moment; Li Fanyu's words were indeed satisfying, but they had also thoroughly offended Zhang Yong. It seemed her plan to establish an automotive lab in Nanhe was entirely ruined.

As the head of Nanhe Auto, Zhang Yong indeed had the power to make such wild claims. After all, Nanhe Auto was the only large-scale car company in the entire province. Following the recent Asia Economic Forum, Nanhe City had already put the agenda of supporting Nanhe Auto Group towards self-reliance and localization on the table.

"Sis, I remember someone saying this morning that they're quite capable and can handle things." Li Fanyu grinned cheekily, handing the phone back to her.

An Ning, who had been feeling complex emotions, blushed when she saw his silly smile and thought of the ambiguous words and actions from the morning.

She took the phone, glared at Li Fanyu, and said, "I'm trying to communicate, but you interrupted me..."

No matter how strong she tried to be, having her sore spot exposed by Li Fanyu repeatedly left her speechless.

Seeing her embarrassed, Li Fanyu stopped teasing her and instead asked, "Sis, what exactly is the lab you want to set up for?"

An Ning tidied her hair. "There are many types of automotive labs: powertrain, crash, wind resistance, KC, NVH... many kinds. I initially wanted to set up a powertrain lab."

Li Fanyu looked puzzled and didn't understand. So he asked, "What does it do exactly?"

An Ning organized her thoughts. Returning to technical matters, she became that intellectual and elegant office lady again.

She patted her cheeks, which were tight from dried tears, and said, "Simply put, it's used for testing and troubleshooting whole vehicles or parts of cars. For example, if you develop an engine, you need to test it, right? In a lab, you can use specialized instruments to simulate various natural environments to test the machine and calculate various parameters. During this process, you can also check if the engine has any abnormalities. If there are, the data from the instruments can help analyze which aspect has issues so that improvements can be made. That's roughly it."

After she finished, she sighed again, "Talking about this now is useless. The lab won't be set up anytime soon, and even my employment is in jeopardy. Looks like I'll have to go back home and live off my savings."

Li Fanyu was still digesting the information about the lab. Thinking carefully, he realized the lab was indeed a great thing!

If it was as An Ning described, it would save a lot of detours in developing engines or cars in the future.

Sometimes, the difficulty in technology isn't fixing a problem but not knowing where the problem lies, leaving you without a starting point.

It's like solving a super complex equation; even if you know the direction, you might still make various small mistakes during the solving process, leading you astray.

But if there's an experienced professor beside you, telling you when you're wrong and where the mistake is, wouldn't getting the correct answer be so easy, like having cheat codes?

Not to mention, having such a facility would definitely shorten the development process significantly.

Thinking of this, Li Fanyu tentatively asked, "Sis, is it expensive to set up this lab?"

An Ning shook her head. "The equipment isn't too expensive. When I worked at Mercedes, I dealt with foreign equipment manufacturers. A set of engine assembly testing equipment costs about ten million. Since labs are generally used for education and talent incubation, they have weak profitability. But now there's a national policy that, if the lab application is approved, you can apply for some subsidies for infrastructure construction. The only expensive thing is... just a piece of land."

Talking about land made An Ning's heart ache again. Who knew what she had gone through in the past half month for that piece of land.

At this moment, Li Fanyu's eyes were already sparkling with little stars. He grabbed An Ning's hand and patted his chest, saying, "It's just a piece of land, I have it!"

An Ning sniffed, deeply touched by his eagerness; this kid must have thought of every possible way to help me when he saw me in trouble.

She held Li Fanyu's hand back, her eyes red, and said, "Good little brother, I know you want to help me. I'll remember your kindness. But there's a difference between different types of land... The state doesn't allow farmland to be used for construction."

Li Fanyu's smile froze on his face...

Damn! Do I look that unlike a rich person?!


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