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

Chapter 4 Each Holds Their Own Account

Yu Dawei drove the four-wheeled vehicle to the scrap metal recycling station. Various kinds of garbage were piled up in the corner of the yard. The recycling station was very large and spacious. Apart from a red brick building and garbage, there was nothing else around.

The large truck was parked in the middle of the yard. Two men got out of the truck. The one in the lead, wearing a black leather jacket, was somewhat obese and had a cigarette in his mouth. He walked shakily toward the recycling station owner.

The recycling station owner, dressed in a tattered cotton-padded coat and trousers, seemed surprised by the man's attire. "You're wearing this in minus thirty or forty degrees Celsius? Aren't you afraid of freezing to death?"

"Come on in, let's talk inside." The boss hurriedly ushered the two into the house, glancing up at Yu Dawei and the four-wheeled vehicle. "You come in too."

In the eyes of the recycling station owner, Yu Dawei probably had something on his truck that he was going to sell, and talking outside in the dead of winter would make his ears freeze off.

Yu Dawei didn't hesitate either. He turned off the engine, jumped out of the car, and quickly followed the three into the house.

The small brick house was not big. The windows were covered with a plastic sheet, which served both as a windbreak and a source of warmth. Below the windows was a traditional Northeast-style heated kang bed, on which satchels for storing tobacco and an old quilt.

Yu Dawei saw that inside the room, two sections of stove pipes were hanging straight into the chimney, and there was a small stove on the ground, about the height of his calf. There were also two chairs and several small stools next to it.

The man in the leather jacket seemed to be frozen solid. He quickly ran to the stove, placed his hands about fifty centimeters away from it, and sat down.

"Warm up quickly, it's getting colder every day." The recycling station owner picked up the stove hook in the corner, took down the grate on the stove, and put the kettle next to it on.

"What a load of bull! I can't believe a damn thing! I bought it for 400 yuan!" The fat man in the leather jacket hurriedly unzipped it, shaking out the cold air inside.

"Old Duan, you saw that old, beat-up car outside too. They're just going to sell it for scrap." The man in the leather jacket rubbed his hands together. "Damn it, it got stuck at the construction site. The whole car was covered in cement. I was on a business trip in the south, and by the time I got back, the cement had completely dried up! That driver is no good either. He didn't even bother to help clean it up. It's completely ruined now."

Yu Dawei sat not far from the group, warming his hands by the fire, recalling the excavator he had seen earlier. It must have been a Hitachi UH03, a true antique.

It was the first hydraulic excavator developed independently by the island nation, probably in the late 1960s or early 1970s.

Before his rebirth, Yu Dawei had repaired Hitachi's old, dilapidated car. The only problem with it was that it was prone to leaking hydraulic oil, and he helped that boss replace a set of hydraulic oil pipes.

"Brother Wang, it's not that I don't want to take it, it's just that your truck can't be weighed. And if you remove all that cement, you know how difficult it is to work on all the edges and corners of the machine in this freezing winter." The recycling station owner, called Lao Duan, looked extremely troubled, practically as if he had written "I won't take it" on his face.

Over the years, Boss Duan had collected a lot of scrap metal and discarded parts from Brother Wang, and he was grateful to him, which is why he didn't speak so rudely.

If it were a complete stranger, Lao Duan would have already launched into a full-blown verbal attack.

Did this excavator jump into a cement pool for a bath?! What the hell?! It's practically covered in cement, and it's still licking its own boots, as if it thinks it can just sit here and sell me scrap metal?
Although Boss Duan had a smile on his face, he was cursing those two bastards to the core in his heart.

The man next to the leather jacket didn't say a word. He was just a tow truck driver, but he still looked down on the man next to him.

I heard from a fellow villager at the construction site that this bastard, in order to save a few cents, made the excavator operator pay a deposit and then pay half a month's rent upfront, with the remaining amount settled at the end of the year.

Now that the year is almost over, the boss is making all sorts of excuses to postpone it.

The excavator operator seemed to realize that the other party didn't want to pay, so in a fit of anger, he drove his truck into the cement pool and then pretended to be clueless. The man surnamed Wang was helpless; the excavator not only begged and pleaded but also offered to forgo the remaining money. Since there was no labor contract between them, the man surnamed Wang had to swallow his bitterness alone.

"Old Duan, I won't make things difficult for you. Just give me a price for it as scrap metal. Anyway, it's a broken excavator that's been used seven or eight times. I won't care how much it costs." Wang Shuo probably understood that with the excavator in its current state, it would be good if anyone could even buy it.

Although he didn't know much about excavators, the cab, engine, pump, and distributor were all covered in cement. The engine was probably full of mush, so repairs were definitely out of the question.

Anyway, this old car was given to him as collateral because someone owed him money. He's already made back the debt over the years, so he won't lose money no matter how he sells it.

“Sigh, this old, beat-up truck, the cab roof is gone, how much can I give you?” Before the other party could speak, Boss Duan added, “Really, you definitely can’t sell it for the normal price of scrap metal, because nobody has the time to deal with this old, broken cement. Others sell iron for six cents, your one cent is already too much.”

"What should we do? I get annoyed just looking at this broken car." Wang Shuo probably knew that the car was basically a total waste. It was an old car to begin with, the metal was rusted, and now it was covered with a layer of cement, making it worse than scrap metal.

He doesn't really care about anything right now. If someone wants it, he'll sell it for whatever money they offer. Anyway, he's a big, wealthy family, so he doesn't need the money. It's just that he finds it disgusting.

"Ugh"

Mr. Duan sighed. He really didn't want to take the broken car, but due to social etiquette, he couldn't refuse the person in person.

If only a sucker would come along and take this old, beat-up excavator right now.

“Name your price, and if your car isn’t good enough, sell it to me.” Yu Dawei finally spoke up at this moment. He moved a small stool closer to the group of people. “My old man graduated from a technical school. He’s been a bit too old to work these past few years, but he’s not willing to admit he’s getting old. It’s good to take this car back so he can practice his car repair skills.”

Wang Shuo's eyes lit up, but then dimmed again.

This kid has been quietly staying in the house for so long, he's heard everything he should and shouldn't have heard, so there's no way he'll get a good price now.

"Young man, you're clearly a very filial son." Old Duan gave him a thumbs up, feeling genuinely pleased that the old, broken-down car wouldn't die in his hands anymore.

No matter how much money you spend on this broken car, it's all for nothing.

"Alright, I see you're a grown man, a man of your word, so I'll sell it to you cheaply, how about five thousand?" Wang Shuo sized up Yu Dawei, who looked to be in his twenties. He could easily fool such a novice.

"Let me tell you, this car may be a bit old and still have cement stuck to it. But if you're patient enough, you can chip away the cement bit by bit, buy some spare parts, and put it back together—it can still be used! It definitely will!"

Yu Dawei didn't respond, but just stared at the man in the leather jacket with his thick eyebrows and big eyes, revealing a simple and honest smile.

He really didn't know how badly the oil was leaking from the boom, or that the oil pipes were covered in cement.

An excavator is composed of parts such as the boom, arm, bucket, engine, pump, distributor, steering gear, etc.

Oil pipes are like blood vessels in the human body, and this excavator is like having two-thirds of its blood vessels necrotic.

It’s terrible!
(End of this chapter)