173: Chapter 173: The Queue Begins

September 29th, 5:42 PM.

In the office of the old factory in Jiangcheng, the external air conditioning unit hummed away as Chen Zhi clicked her left mouse button, refreshing the online banking backend once again.

At the very top of the account details, the equipment rental expense of 32,000 yuan from the morning was still lingering.

She glanced at the phone at the corner of the desk.

Three messages with clear timestamps sat on the screen.

At 5:07, Liang Zhixia sent the PDF contract that had already been electronically signed by both parties.

At 5:21, the project party's finance department notified that the payment instruction had entered the bank's review process.

At 5:36, the receiving account verification passed.

After that, there was no more movement.

The total contract amount including tax was 7.2 million, and the first advance payment was thirty percent, which was 2.16 million.

Chen Zhi had known this number by heart for a long time, and had even filled it into the "Expected Arrival" column of the third-quarter capital schedule.

But she had not changed the status of any purchase requisition to "Available for Payment".

Until the bank receipt popped out, the money in the table was just figures on paper and could not be touched.

She temporarily switched back to the desktop and clicked open the first batch of supplier contracts arranged in order.

The validity period of the quotation for the drive components had only the last day left, and they would have to be renegotiated after tonight.

The battery pack supplier sent three reminders in the afternoon, requesting production scheduling confirmation before six o'clock, otherwise orders could not be squeezed in before the National Day holiday.

The deposit application forms for two sets of complete machine assembly tooling were pressed under the mouse pad, waiting for her to sign and go through the process.

Every single matter was more urgent than that bank receipt which failed to appear.

But without the receipt, not a single one could be moved.

5:48.

A light green account change reminder suddenly popped up in the lower right corner of the screen.

Chen Zhi quickly clicked open online banking again.

A bright green incoming entry steadily floated at the very top of the details, its font a circle bolder than the other items.

[Online Banking Cross-Bank Transfer In]

[Amount: 2,160,000.00 Yuan]

[Summary: First Batch Advance Payment for Underground Comprehensive Pipe Gallery Intelligent Inspection System]

She held the mouse and clicked to expand the details.

Payer's full name, contract number, transfer amount, fund summary, electronic receipt verification code...

Checking line by line, for every item matched, her suspended heart dropped by a fraction.

After confirming everything was correct, she downloaded the electronic receipt and filed it into the "Contract Liabilities / Pipe Gallery First Batch" directory along with the bank verification information.

The system popped up the "Project Fund Nature" option, and there were only two items in the drop-down menu.

"Engineering Cooperation Fee"

"Technical Service Revenue"

Chen Zhi clicked open the drop-down menu and closed it again, repeating this twice.

What Hengtai's 1.2 million bought was the engineering capability of Low Entropy Workshop entering the mining scene to solve problems.

The previous software revenues were exchanged for algorithm optimization and on-site personnel services.

The purchases of the first two types of revenue were mainly the time, judgment, and solutions of engineering personnel.

Today's sum was different.

It corresponded to five asset numbers about to be born, corresponding to five machines that would be organized into maintenance schedules by customers and left to work in the underground pipe gallery for a long time.

This was selling products.

She clicked open backend settings and added a new row in the project fund nature directory.

"Product Advance Payment"

After clicking save, the fund nature drop-down menu went from two items to three.

The first product advance payment was classified into the new directory.

She cropped out the account balance and sensitive information, leaving only the payer, contract number, and arrival amount, and sent the receipt image into the delivery group.

Qiu Yue's call came in within ten seconds, her voice suppressed, yet unable to hide the tremble: "Did it really arrive? Isn't it a system delay?"

"The receipt was sent to the group."

"Refresh it again, just in case?"

Chen Zhi had no choice but to press refresh once more.

That green record remained motionless, the numbers crystal clear.

"It's still there."

The sound of chair rollers rubbing against the floor came from the other end of the phone, followed by a low gasp.

Qiu Yue stood up too eagerly, her knee solidly hitting the edge of the table.

She hissed, then immediately covered the microphone and laughed in a lowered voice, the laughter leaking out from between her fingers, light yet bright.

"2.16 million."

She read the number over again, as if confirming it wasn't a dream.

"Those seven positions, I'll release all of them tonight."

"Wait for me to send the capital calculation first," Chen Zhi reminded, "costs haven't been deducted yet."

"Just let me be happy for a while, just for a while," Qiu Yue laughed.

Chen Zhi looked at the time in the lower right corner of the computer and reminded: "Supplier payments start at six, twelve minutes left."

"Twelve minutes will do!"

The phone was hung up resolutely.

Chen Zhi took the U-disk token out of the drawer and plugged it into the computer interface.

The first batch of purchase requisitions had long been reviewed, and she checked the receiving account, amount, and contract attachments item by item again before payment.

She pulled up the first tooling purchase contract, confirmed the receiving account, entered the dynamic verification code, and submitted.

At 6:05, the first deposit was transferred out.

Two sets of complete machine assembly tooling and one set of joint calibration fixtures officially entered the supplier's production scheduling sequence.

At 6:11, the second sum was transferred out.

Five sets of high-rate lithium iron phosphate battery packs, and the supplier began preparing materials.

At 6:19, the third sum was transferred out.

Drive components, joint seals, and the first batch of mission cabin sensors, the procurement status changed from "Waiting for Funds" to "Ordered".

Every time a payment was completed, the account balance jumped down a notch.

The amount of 2.16 million stayed completely intact in the account of Low Entropy Workshop for only seventeen minutes.

Chen Zhi didn't feel it was much of a pity.

Every time a sum of money was transferred away, a clear estimated arrival date would appear in the procurement system.

October 8th for tooling to arrive at the factory, October 10th for batteries to be warehoused, October 12th for mission cabin sensors delivery...

She dragged these dates one by one into the master delivery Gantt chart.

Originally on that chart, there were only five empty product numbers, like five vacant spots.

Now, batteries, drive components, seals, mission cabin sensors, and assembly tools were converging from different cities toward the old factory in Jiangcheng.

6:40 PM.

In the temporary meeting room next to the No. 3 operation and maintenance entrance of the pipe gallery, the warning line of the test area had not yet been withdrawn.

Chen Yan was checking the raw data in the fuselage recording box with the project party's data specialist. PG-01 was parked in the adjacent cleaning area, with only the upper half of the muddy water on its body washed off, and its leg joints and foot ends still wrapped in wet soil.

Until the data handover and appearance inspection were completed, it could not leave the site.

Liang Zhixia accessed the Jiangcheng meeting room using Low Entropy Workshop's own encrypted business terminal. Jiang Lin sat on her left hand side, with the test conclusion report signed and confirmed by both parties spread out in front of him.

At the other end of the screen, Chen Zhi, Qiu Yue, and Xu Man sat in a row, and on the whiteboard behind them were still pasted the seven valid scene clues screened out after the World Robot Conference.

The underground comprehensive pipe gallery had originally ranked second.

Chen Zhi got up and walked to the whiteboard, tore off the beige sticky note that read "Pipe Gallery Scene: Following Up", and replaced it with a freshly printed A6 paper, pressing it firmly with magnetic pins.

On the paper was bolded black text.

"First Batch Product Delivery: 5 Units"

Qiu Yue stared at that piece of paper, the smile at the corners of her mouth unable to be suppressed and bubbling up: "I'll just ask one thing, is the 7.2 million contract enough to fill those seven positions?"

Chen Zhi projected the capital calculation sheet onto the shared screen, the table lines clear: "Total amount including tax, materials, external processing, tooling fixtures, warranty reserves, and on-site support costs all come out of the project."

"I'm asking if it's enough."

"Seven positions, calculated based on nine months of labor costs, yes, it's enough."

Qiu Yue instantly straightened her body.

Those seven positions in the recruitment backend had been hung up for almost two months.

Two mechanical designers, three complete machine testers, one supply chain specialist, and one on-site support engineer, their status had always been "Talent Reserve".

Over the past two months, she had received quite a few resumes.

Someone who had done construction machinery testing for six years had a forty-minute phone call with her, chatting from troubleshooting to on-site environment adaptation, and even explaining clearly how long the departure handover would take.

In the end, Qiu Yue could only hold her pen and tell him that the position was not yet officially open.

That resume was still lying at the very top of her favorites.

During these times when the company was newly established, every time a new position was added, she had to run over first to ask Chen Zhi how many more months the money in the account could last.

The answer ultimately wound back to the boss's capital account.

That existence like a reservoir quietly replenished every month's staff salaries, rent, and material fees.

Jiang Lin had never made an issue out of that money, and salaries had never been paid a day late.

But as long as the monthly labor costs were still being underpinned by his personal investment returns, Low Entropy Workshop would forever be like an expensive prototype hanging on him, not a company truly living by its products.

This time, the capital account did not appear in the sources of funds.

"The future payroll for these seven people won't come from the capital account either?" Qiu Yue's voice was a bit lighter than before.

"Independent accounting for the product line," Liang Zhixia's voice came out from the terminal, "the money earned from orders will first support the delivery team, and then feed back into subsequent R&D."

"What if there are no new orders in three months?"

"The nine-month budget has been fully reserved," Chen Zhi took over, "you have nine months to turn them into the people needed to win the next order."

Qiu Yue didn't ask anymore, clicked open her favorites, and pulled out that long-suppressed resume.

"Then I'll contact him tonight."

With a click of her mouse, the status of the seven positions simultaneously changed from reserve to immediate hiring.

The system popped up a budget confirmation box, and Chen Zhi completed the review synchronously on her own terminal. The moment the green checkmark popped out, the recruitment website's backend began automatically refreshing exposure.

"Change the requirements for the testing position a bit," Xu Man suddenly spoke up.

"Which one?"

"Move the priority for winning robot competition awards to the end," Xu Man tapped her fingertips on the desk, "add one more line, please submit a real equipment fault record handled by yourself along with the resume, you can obscure the company and equipment model, but you must write the troubleshooting process."

"Would anyone be willing to write the process of their misjudgments and taking detours into their resume?" Qiu Yue raised an eyebrow.

"Those willing to write it are worth looking at first," Xu Man's tone was very firm, "troublesome faults in industrial sites are rarely pinpointed correctly the first time. What I want to see is whether he can eliminate errors step by step after going the wrong way."

Qiu Yue deleted a line of templated clichés and typed out the new requirement.

"Please submit a real equipment fault record handled by yourself along with your resume. Desensitization is allowed, but the troubleshooting process, misjudgments, and final cause must be retained."

Pressing the publish button.

Seven positions lit up on the recruitment market at the same time.

She dug out the construction machinery test engineer's number and sent a message over.

"The position is officially open. Are you still willing to chat?"

After sending it, she turned her phone face down on the desk and continued listening to the meeting.

In less than a minute, the screen lit up.

Only two words.

"Willing."

Qiu Yue looked at the screen, her fingers tapping gently on the desktop unconsciously.

"Are you free tomorrow afternoon?" She blurted out.

"Who are you asking?" Liang Zhixia's voice carried a hint of a smile.

Qiu Yue only then realized she had said it facing the conference microphone, coughed, and said: "Asking future colleagues."

Xu Man looked up at her: "Interview first, don't hire for me in advance."

Qiu Yue smiled, turned off the microphone, and lowered her head to reply to the message.

When she looked up again, the smile at the corners of her eyes had not dissipated.

7:06 PM.

The project party sent the desensitized use permit for the test results.

Low Entropy Workshop could publicly disclose the project type and four verification results, but must not disclose the purchaser's name, city, on-site video, pipe gallery route, internal images, and structural dimensions.

"Underground Comprehensive Pipe Gallery Closed Scenario Verification"

"Total Running Distance: 5.63 km"

"Continuous Loaded Running Time: 4h17min"

"Mission Points Completed: 47 / 47"

"Manual Intervention Count: 0"

Qiu Yue published this result page with only four sets of numbers to the official account of Low Entropy Workshop, and sent it directionally to institutions that completed basic identity verification according to the business contact list registered during the World Robot Conference.

At the same time, the content received by the remaining six key scenario parties was even more. In addition to the four results, it also included complete test boundary descriptions and scenario review entry points.

There was no video on the result page.

There was no footage of PG-01 crossing puddles and drainage channels.

Even the city where the project party was located did not appear.

But those who had seen G-01 C at the World Robot Conference all knew what these four sets of numbers meant.

Therefore, industry media, engineers, and institutional accounts that had paid attention to G-01 C during the World Robot Conference quickly began forwarding this result page.

The unread number in the public business mailbox jumped accordingly.

At 7:12, the first official inquiry arrived.

The sender came from an underground pipe gallery operation unit in another city, expecting an initial purchase of eight units.

At 7:26, Hengtai Mining Intelligent Equipment Co., Ltd. submitted a demand freezing application for the first batch of four units.

At 7:41, the mountain power inspection project sent the working condition table for six equipment units.

After these three emails, the prompt sound of the business mailbox did not stop.

At first, Qiu Yue would still click them open one by one.

When the thirteenth email arrived, she turned off the sound.

Someone asked for product manuals.

Someone inquired about regional agency rights.

An industrial park invited Low Entropy Workshop to move in.

A university wanted to buy one unit for experiments.

And someone wrote in the body of the email that they expected to purchase twenty units, but in the attachment, there wasn't even task distance or ground conditions.

These could not be directly counted as orders.

Qiu Yue added five filter fields in the business system.

"Usage Scenario"

"Task Distance"

"Environmental Boundary"

"Expected Quantity"

"Purchase Time"

At 8:00 PM, the system completed the first round of statistics.

"New Business Inquiries: 186"

"Explicitly Proposing Pilot Procurement: 42"

"Already Given Expected Quantity: 19 / 67 Units"

"Submitted Complete Working Condition Data: 9 / 32 Units"

"Entered Tonight's Priority Review: 3 / 18 Units"

The eighteen units on the whiteboard only represented the three projects that had to be handled immediately tonight.

It no longer represented all order inquiries received by Low Entropy Workshop.

The remaining forty-nine units were still in the business review queue. Some lacked environmental parameters, some lacked budget time, some only gave quantities, and six had already submitted complete working condition data, waiting for a technical window.

Qiu Yue turned around and wrote three numbers on the whiteboard.

8.

4.

6.

Eighteen units.

She wrote another line of small characters beside it.

"Subsequent Review Queue: 49 Units"

"How long can I be happy about this number?" she asked.

Chen Zhi had already opened the attachments of the three priority projects.

"All inquiries can make you happy for a minute. Whether they can turn into contracts depends on looking at them one by one."

"Then one minute it is."

"Okay."

Qiu Yue actually turned her head and stared at the numbers on the whiteboard for a full minute.

During this minute, her mind spun rapidly.

Seven positions were not enough; mechanical design needed one more, and on-site support required at least two people.

The Jiangcheng factory could rent another half-span and allocate a few more workstations.

That test engineer who had just replied affirmatively could be placed right into this batch of delivered projects.

A minute was very short, yet she felt as though she had walked through the expansion route for the next half year.

When the minute was up, Liang Zhixia clicked open the attachment for the inquiry of eight utility tunnel robots.

The atmosphere in the conference room gradually grew heavy.

This utility tunnel was built early, and two old-fashioned maintenance doors were preserved in the middle section.

The effective width marked on the door frame drawings was eight centimeters narrower than the maximum passing profile of PG-01 in its conventional traveling posture.

The other party's modification suggestions were written on the last page of the attachment, straightforward and clear.

Narrow the chassis by ten centimeters, move the battery compartment to the side of the fuselage, add a set of external batteries, and meet a five-hour endurance.

"Can it be done?" Liang Zhixia asked.

Jiang Lin brought up the three-dimensional outline model of PG-01 and superimposed the door frame dimensions onto it.

On the screen, both sides of the fuselage were cut into by the door frame by four centimeters, and the red lines were glaring.

Chen Yan, who had just finished checking the data, walked in, took off his gloves, leaned close to the screen, and shook his head after looking at it for less than three minutes.

"Setting up a separate narrow-body platform is fine. Forcing modifications on the existing platform doesn't make much sense."

Qiu Yue put down her pen: "What's the difference?"

"If the battery is moved to the side, the center of gravity shifts, and the main wire harness routing, the fuselage stress-bearing structure, and the joint mounting surfaces on both sides all have to be changed accordingly." Chen Yan pointed to the joint seat on the model, "After the modifications, most of the existing conclusions from obstacle-crossing, anti-overturning, and slope-climbing tests cannot be reused. It's equivalent to redoing a whole set of chassis validation."

He turned off the electrical layer, leaving only the chassis skeleton and the door frame outline.

"What we get in the end is another set of chassis, not the same product."

Xu Man was already calculating the cost of material divergence on her tablet, frowning: "New joint shells, new belly structures, new assembly fixtures, new calibration tooling—materials for the first batch of five units were just ordered, and now splitting off a second set means supplier quotes, quality inspection standards, and spare parts catalogs all have to diverge. During maintenance, if the customer takes the wrong part, they won't even be able to assemble it."

"The other party wants eight units." Qiu Yue emphasized her tone.

She wasn't unaware of the trouble with customization, but eight units were right in front of her.

That was three more than the newly signed first batch of orders, and the amount exceeded ten million.

A five-unit order had just pulled seven positions from reserves into recruitment.

If eight units were signed, the Jiangcheng assembly area could expand by another fold, and the product line could completely shake off its dependence on funding accounts after nine months.

In that minute just now, she had even thought through whether to add another person to the supply chain position.

"Development costs calculated separately, delivery dates pushed back." Qiu Yue spoke a bit faster, "As long as the client accepts, we can establish it as a separate project and build a separate assembly process."

"Establishing a new model is easy." Xu Man looked up at her, "The hard part is that in the future, the warehouse will need to stock two types of joints, two types of wire harnesses, and two sets of maintenance tools."

Qiu Yue didn't retort, turning her gaze to Jiang Lin.

Jiang Lin hadn't spoken the entire time; he simply spread out the three inquiry attachments side by side.

Hengtai wanted gas detection + relay deployment, mountain electric power wanted thermal infrared + partial discharge detection, and the eight utility tunnel units wanted a narrowed chassis and relocated batteries.

The task requirements were all-encompassing, but when they fell on the robots, the modifications naturally fell into two categories.

He picked up the stylus and drew a vertical line on the electronic whiteboard.

On the left were: gas modules, thermal infrared, partial discharge sensors, and mission cabin mechanical interfaces.

On the right were: chassis width, battery location, joint mounting surfaces, main power supply wire harness, and safety state machine.

"The left side can be done." Jiang Lin started, "The mission cabin and environmental kits are inherently modular designs; just swap them according to the scenario."

The pen dropped to the right and paused.

"These items cannot be separately diverged for a single project."

"Not even a single mounting hole can be moved?" Qiu Yue asked.

"Fine-tuning within the interface range is acceptable." Jiang Lin shook his head and explained, "But platform width, joint mounting geometry, main power interfaces and wire harness topology, and the safety state machine framework must be unified. Beyond this boundary, it's called establishing a new platform, and the validation process must be gone through from scratch."

"Then what about those eight units? Just let them go like this?"

"First request the complete three-dimensional dimensions of the two doors, the door leaf opening angle, door frame depth, front and rear turning space, and ground height difference. First confirm whether the conflict occurs on the rigid fuselage or on the mission cabin and leg passage envelope."

Jiang Lin said.

"If it's only the latter, we can adjust the retraction posture, entry direction, or the mission cabin outline. If even the rigid fuselage body itself cannot get through, we can only set up a separate narrow-body platform."

"And then watch the order go find someone else?"

Jiang Lin's gaze moved from the 8 units on the screen to the label for the first batch of 5 delivery units on the Jiangcheng whiteboard.

"It's possible." He said very calmly, "First make the five units for which money has already been collected."

"Over ten million, can you really bear to let it go?" Qiu Yue raised her head and asked.

"I can't bear it, which is why we must first do a passage review." Jiang Lin's tone didn't change, "If it can be resolved within the existing platform boundaries, we'll take it. If we must redo the chassis, this batch will be abandoned. Delaying five already-signed machines for eight machines that are still up in the air carries an even greater cost."

Qiu Yue lowered her head and glanced at her phone.

That test engineer had just sent a message confirming that an interview could be held at two tomorrow afternoon.

The procurement intention for the eight units was still at the inquiry stage, while the countdown for the five delivery machines had already begun ticking.

Her fingertips tapped two characters on the screen and sent them out: [ Okay. ]

Liang Zhixia deleted the customized quotation page she had prepared earlier and re-drafted the reply email.

Low Entropy Workshop accepts adaptation customization for the mission cabin module and environmental protection kit.

Chassis structure redesign is not included in this round of quotation scope for the time being; it is recommended that both parties first complete the physical passage capability review of the two maintenance doors.

If the standard platform cannot meet the requirements, the project party can evaluate adjusting operation routes or local facility modifications, or wait for the narrow-body platform to be officially established as a project.

The email was sent.

In the business system, the inquiry for eight units was still retained, and its status changed from [Pending Quotation] to the yellow [Passage Capability Review in Progress / Quotation Suspended].

Qiu Yue picked up the board eraser, wiped off the 18 on the whiteboard, and rewrote it into two groups.

[ Priority Advancement: 10 units ]

[ Among them: 4 units for Hengtai Mine, 6 units for Mountain Electric Power ]

[ Passage Review: 8 units ]

[ Subsequent Review Queue: 49 units ]

Nine-fifteen in the evening.

Jiangcheng Assembly Area.

Xu Man held a steel tape measure and, starting from the edge of the original final assembly position, measured out a 1.5-meter-wide transfer aisle along the concrete floor.

Two engineering personnel were moving the heavy terrain test board by the wall, with an old caster stuck at the bottom; the two of them lifted it three times before turning it over.

"Place it against the east wall, don't crush the electrical box underneath." Xu Man shouted without raising her head.

The emptied concrete floor was swept twice, the floating dust was cleaned away, and the yellow warning tape was pasted down along the scale of the tape measure, forming a straight line that circled out a square area.

The second one.

The third one.

The fourth one.

Added to the original final assembly position, there were neither more nor fewer, exactly five.

Many unerasable marks were left on the old final assembly position.

Tape was torn off and pasted again, and the color of the concrete floor varied in shade.

At the edge of the workbench was a dent knocked out by the battery box, and next to the socket against the wall, the date of G-01 C's first power-on was written with a paint pen, the handwriting already worn to a pale shade.

Over the past half year or more, assembly, machine dismantling, fault reproduction, and precision calibration were all squeezed into this single area.

When someone needed to dismantle a joint, another person had to move the test rack to the corner.

When someone needed to run a terrain test, the workbench had to be temporarily cleared out.

Only after PG-01 was hauled to the north for testing was this area completely emptied for the first time.

Now, beside it were four more open spaces of the same size.

Xu Man squatted down and pasted the printed temporary number cards one by one onto the front end of each workstation.

[ PG - P01 ]

[ PG - P02 ]

[ PG - P03 ]

[ PG - P04 ]

[ PG - P05 ]

Qiu Yue stood outside the transfer aisle, holding up her phone, filming the five workstations for Liang Zhixia, who was still at the northern project site.

Chen Zhi hugged the newly organized purchase order and walked from the office into the assembly area.

"When the 2.16 million arrived in the account, it could still fill an entire screen." Qiu Yue said facing the video, "Now look, all that's left are a few rolls of yellow tape."

"The tape also needs to be entered into storage for bookkeeping." Chen Zhi said, "Xu Man, remember to make up for the requisition form."

Xu Man looked up and glanced at the camera: "Are you guys done chatting? When you're done, someone come over and move the number of PG-P01 inward by five centimeters."

The engineering personnel nearby lowered their heads to compare: "Any further inward, and the worker operating area will become narrow."

"The base of the lifting tooling is two centimeters wider than the drawing outline, leave another three centimeters of margin." Xu Man said, "When things are delivered, we can't have people walking up to it and stubbing their toes first."

The number card was peeled off, moved inward by five centimeters, and pressed down firmly again.

Liang Zhixia asked in the video: "After all four new workstations are put into use, when will the monthly capacity be changed to four units?"

Xu Man put away the tape measure, snapping the buckle shut with a click.

"After the first delivery machine completes final assembly, finishes consistency testing, and all torque records and calibration processes are solidified, then we'll change it."

"Even if the workstations and people are all here, we still won't change it?"

"We won't change it."

"What about target capacity?"

"The target can be written as four units." Xu Man raised her finger and pointed to the production Kanban board on the wall, "Current capacity is still one unit. Before assembly tolerances, torque standards, and calibration processes are run through, what's extra is just four open spaces, not capacity."

Liang Zhixia filled in [Target Monthly Capacity: 4 units] in the expansion schedule, while [Current Monthly Capacity] remained as [1 unit].

Three minutes past ten in the evening.

Chen Zhi received a new quotation from the machining supplier.

After the evening meeting, she sent tiered inquiries to all three partner factories, divided into three tiers: five sets, ten sets, and twenty sets.

The email was written very clearly.

The currently confirmed quantity was only five sets; ten sets and twenty sets were only used for price estimation.

Before drawings were frozen, quality terms were confirmed, and official deposits arrived, suppliers were not allowed to prepare materials and process in advance.

Even so, the supplier replied to the email within an hour.

Under the twenty-set tier, the single-piece processing fee for the irregular joint shell decreased by 17% compared to the prototype stage.

The factory clearly stated that after receiving the frozen drawings and production scheduling deposit, they could coordinate a short-term processing window specifically for Low Entropy Workshop and prioritize production scheduling.

At the end of the email, there was another sentence, forming a separate paragraph.

[Manager Chen, when freezing the drawings, please try to inform us of the expected quantity for the next batch. The aluminum procurement plans corresponding to ten sets and twenty sets are different; we need to prepare materials and lock in prices in advance.]

Chen Zhi read this sentence twice.

Last month, when she called this factory to inquire about prices for the first time, the first sentence the other party asked was also: how many?

At that time, she said, one set.

The other end of the phone was quiet for several seconds, and then quoted conditions of full prepayment and a 28-day delivery period.

She took the quote and ran to three alternatives, but in the end, she came back.

Only this company's five-axis equipment and inspection capabilities could meet the geometric tolerance requirements of the joint shell.

The second time she called, the salesperson was in a meeting and only replied with a message, asking her to send the drawings and payment voucher to the email.

The third time they contacted, the other party finally relented, saying they could squeeze out a night shift slot, on the condition that the drawings must be frozen that day and any modifications midway would require requeuing.

When that joint shell was delivered to Jiangcheng, the outer wooden packaging box was several times larger than the part itself.

Chen Zhi personally unpacked and checked the inventory list, while Xu Man guarded the side holding a vernier caliper.

The two opened the anti-rust bag, and the first thing they did was to gauge every dimension, fearing that the tolerances of the rushed parts would be out of tolerance.

In order to insert a set of prototype parts into the schedule, Chen Zhi had supplemented business licenses, usage descriptions, confidentiality agreements, and full payment vouchers.

Only when every single item was complete would the other party be willing to squeeze out a tiny window for them within the gaps of bulk orders.

At that time, what Low Entropy Workshop wanted was a qualified part.

What the supplier wanted was simply a small order with no rework and complete procedures.

Now, five units were already signed, and expected procurement quantities were given for another sixty-seven units.

Even though Low Entropy Workshop actively suspended the quotation for eight of them, the supplier was still inquiring late at night whether the next batch would go with ten sets or twenty sets.

Chen Zhi picked up the office phone and dialed.

The other party answered quickly, their voice carrying a bit of unexpected enthusiasm: "Manager Chen, have you seen the quote?"

"Seen it."

"For that twenty-set tier, if it can be finalized earlier, we can negotiate a batch price with the aluminum supplier again, and it can be lowered a bit."

Chen Zhi stood up and looked toward the assembly area across the office's glass wall.

The five newly marked workstations were lined up along the load-bearing columns. Xu Man was still checking the tooling positioning dimensions next to the first workstation, and the yellow tape shone conspicuously under the industrial mining lamp.

"The currently confirmed quantity is only five sets." Chen Zhi said, "Reserve the production scheduling window for me based on five sets first. After the drawings are frozen, I'll place the official order."

"Alright, then I'll hold the window for you first. When there's news about the next batch, remember to tell me in advance so I can arrange a higher-ranking schedule tier for you."

The phone hung up.

Chen Zhi printed out the quotation, walked to the assembly area, and clipped it onto the engineering document board at the entrance.

On the left side of the document board was a photocopy of the afternoon's bank receipt.

[ Product Advance Payment: 2,160,000.00 yuan ]

On the right was the newly printed tiered quotation for the joint shell, with conspicuous percentages.

At the very bottom, five numbered cards were pasted on the empty concrete floor, neatly arranged along the long axis of the factory building.

Last month, when Chen Zhi called to discuss cooperation, she first had to explain who Low Entropy Workshop was, why they only made one set, and whether there would be orders in the future.

Tonight, the supplier began to take the initiative to ask her how many she was preparing to get for the next batch.