His mind was already in turmoil, but John West still maintained a calm expression. He stood up and congratulated Manager Foster, saying, “Congratulations! Mr. Foster, we can begin negotiations on the technology transfer for that engine.”

Such negotiations are not a matter of a day or two. Accompanied personally by John West, Manager Foster left Suzuki and immediately began preparing to assemble his own negotiation team to start the talks.

After seeing Manager Foster off, John West immediately convened a meeting to study the machining process of those two crankshafts and the recording of Manager Foster’s words. Of course, the focus was on deducing the current state of high-precision CNC machine tools in China from this information.

“If it’s not a hundred thousand, don’t tell the little devils a single word.” After returning to the hotel, Manager Foster directly instructed his secretary.

The capable female secretary nodded, but rolled her eyes inwardly. The total machining fee was only fifty thousand, and now a single piece of information was to be sold for a hundred thousand—truly a shrewd businessman.

However, Manager Foster’s next sentence made the secretary beam with joy.

“Whatever you can get, it’ll all count as your travel allowance for this trip. The company won’t provide any extra.” Manager Foster said casually, “Have some fun.”

The company’s travel allowance was nothing compared to this; a hundred thousand would be several or even a dozen times more. The secretary had already decided that once she got the money, she’d go from Shizuoka to Tokyo to buy that bag and those cosmetics she’d been eyeing for a long time.

Henry Grant still had no idea that he was about to receive a huge sum of money. He was living a carefree and pleasant campus life, enjoying the wonderful fifth year with his roommates.

Even his closest roommates hadn’t noticed that Henry Grant’s glasses were different from before the holiday. Now he was wearing the same frames, but the lenses were plain glass with no prescription at all.

William Clark and Henry Grant were best friends. He was quite impressed that the chubby guy had managed to lose over twenty pounds during a month-long break.

However, William Clark was a special sports recruit, a setter on the school volleyball team, and was more or less a half-expert in fitness and exercise. He hadn’t had a chance to mention it in the past few days, but now that Henry Grant was back early, he took the opportunity to advise him not to lose weight too quickly to avoid harming his health.

Of course, the chubby guy took the advice readily. Under normal circumstances, rapid weight loss isn’t a good idea, so he had already made a plan to lose about four or five pounds a month.

Even with nanorobots, Henry Grant firmly believed that his body was his own and shouldn’t be recklessly overdrawn. Amid laughter and chatter, the night passed quickly.

Early the next morning, Henry Grant got up as usual, had breakfast, and headed straight to the school-run factory’s fitter workshop.

He was already halfway through his graduation project sample. The task assigned by Old Clark yesterday had delayed him, so today he came back to finish the remaining parts.

Speaking of which, the tools in Old Clark’s workshop were truly top-notch. Just thinking about them made Henry Grant itch to get started, and today he planned to use these tools. The only slight disappointment was that the material was just ordinary steel, not the superior titanium alloy.

Arriving at the workshop, Henry Grant went straight to Old Clark’s workspace. Although Old Clark’s workshop was locked and the key was with Old Clark, for a chubby guy who could visually measure to a precision of 1 micron and was a master of fitting, was an ordinary padlock key really a problem?

Obviously not. He could easily file a matching key from a piece of iron in less than ten minutes. Seeing him swagger in and open the door with his self-made key, no one bothered him—after all, Old Clark had already agreed to let him use the workshop, and many people knew about it.

After admiring each tool, Henry Grant began his work. The hydraulic cylinder and piston he had turned on the 1933 lathe were perfectly usable and needed little adjustment; now he just had to finish the remaining parts.

He had barely started when Old Clark came in again, rolling two Baoding balls in his hand.

Old Clark wasn’t the least bit surprised that Henry Grant could get in without a key. For a genius who could machine to a 5-micron precision without measuring tools, thinking a simple lock could keep him out after letting him in once with the key was a joke.

Henry Grant greeted him respectfully. Only that morning had he learned of Old Clark’s identity and his status in the factory. Besides, at his age, having devoted his life to the country, he was worthy of Henry Grant’s respect.

“Fatty, what do you think of that crankshaft from yesterday?” Old Clark sat down on the only chair in the workshop and asked Henry Grant with a smile.

“Just an ordinary four-cylinder engine crankshaft.” Henry Grant stood at the workbench, gesturing with the saw as he casually replied, “But the designer is trash. If I were his boss, I’d fire him on the spot.”

“Oh? Why’s that?” Old Clark was intrigued, his smile widening as he asked Henry Grant.

“For an engine crankshaft, requiring coaxiality within 5 microns is normal. High requirements for roundness and cylindricity are also normal.” Henry Grant kept working, eyes fixed on the piece, as he answered, “But if you require all the other ordinary dimensions to be within 5 microns too, isn’t that just making trouble for people?”