3 PM.

Tenda’s warehouse is in the suburbs of Jingzhou.

Xiao Sun exited the car with Pei Qian, while Tang Yishu followed behind somewhat timidly.

She didn’t know why the senior had brought her along, but she didn’t dare to ask.

Zhang Yuan was already waiting outside the warehouse.

The warehouse wasn’t huge. Zhang Yuan had previously reported that the total area was about 4,000 square meters, just one floor, with rent at 0.7 yuan per square meter per day.

Calculated out, the monthly rent was over 80,000 yuan.

Some large warehouses were 10,000 to 20,000 square meters, with correspondingly higher rent, but this warehouse was mainly for storing various computer components, and even now, they weren’t fully utilizing the 4,000 square meters.

Headwind Logistics was currently only solving the last-mile problem, with parcels being delivered by other courier services to Headwind stations, and then from there to customers’ homes.

So, the Headwind stations shared most of the storage functions, and Headwind Logistics didn’t currently have a particularly strong need for warehousing.

However, some goods were temporarily stored in this warehouse for various reasons.

For Zhang Yuan’s Slackin’ Internet Café and ROF assembly business, the relationship with Headwind Logistics was mutually beneficial. Headwind provided home delivery services for ROF, while ROF’s rented warehouse was available for Headwind to use. After all, they were all on the same team, and they weren’t spending their own money, so it was easy to collaborate.

Originally, warehouses throughout Jingzhou were purely money burners, a good aid to Boss Pei’s goals.

But now that ROF had turned a profit, not only could the profits offset these storage costs, but they could also be used to continue expanding. This made Pei Qian very uncomfortable.

Zhang Yuan had viewed this as an inspection visit from Boss Pei and was a bit nervous.

But Pei Qian had already said on the phone that he was just coming to take a casual look on a whim, and not to make a big deal out of it.

Zhang Yuan knew that Boss Pei was a very practical person who didn’t like his employees putting on superficial shows.

So, Zhang Yuan had just come ahead of time to direct his employees to tidy up a bit, making the warehouse look relatively neat, but hadn’t gone to great lengths for a major cleaning.

He was confident about the condition of the warehouse.

Zhang Yuan led Boss Pei’s group of three into the warehouse.

This was Pei Qian’s first visit to this warehouse, and his first impression was positive.

Neat, clean, with good lighting.

Various computer components were stacked on shelves in different zones, arranged somewhat haphazardly but still relatively neat and orderly.

After all, they were mostly components for computer assembly, with the largest items being computer cases, which didn’t take up much space.

“Boss Pei, look, these are the shelves for our various components. Since we purchase our components in bulk, there are regular deliveries by specialized vehicles.”

“After the components arrive, there are dedicated staff members responsible for moving them to the shelves.”

“After that, we have an assembly line.”

“It’s entirely manual and quite rudimentary, which must be amusing to you, Boss Pei.”

Zhang Yuan showed Pei Qian around while explaining.

It was obvious that he was quite proud of the ROF assembly business, as it was his area of expertise.

The so-called assembly line consisted of several long workbenches.

The workbenches had conveyor belts with people stationed at regular intervals. Behind these people were various components, and in front of them were the machines being assembled.

Each person was responsible for one process, and each process took roughly the same amount of time.

Some processes that took longer, like complex cable management, required two people, each working on one machine.

Each person had a button in front of them. After completing their process, they would press the button. When everyone had pressed their buttons, the conveyor belt on the workbench would automatically move one position to the right.

This way, each person only needed to continuously complete their assigned process, and if they worked quickly, they could even take a short break. Compared to having each person assemble an entire computer, the efficiency was greatly improved.

From the first step of installing the CPU on the motherboard to the final step of installing the system and powering it up, everyone was completing their work in an orderly manner.

Machines that were powered up, tested, and found to have no issues would be packed by dedicated staff, ready to be shipped to various distribution points throughout Jingzhou.

After a customer placed an order, a Headwind Logistics delivery person would pick up the product from the distribution point and deliver it to the customer’s home.

Pei Qian felt a sense of crisis.

This Zhang Yuan was something, turning a plain and simple computer assembly business into something with so many elaborate features…

“Very good.”

Pei Qian insincerely praised him, making Zhang Yuan beam with joy, and then led Tang Yishu and Xiao Sun to wander around the warehouse.

After a complete tour, nothing unusual had happened.

Pei Qian was surprised and felt a sense of disappointment.

Theoretically, warehouses would always have some safety hazards.

Such as electrical problems, fire safety issues, security problems, and so on.

As Pei Qian walked around the warehouse, he was constantly on alert for something suddenly catching fire, a power outage, or something falling from a shelf.

However, after walking around, nothing had happened!

This wasn’t scientific—no, it wasn’t mystical.

After careful observation, he found that this warehouse indeed had no safety hazards.

Because the warehouse was very spacious, the shelves were arranged with plenty of room between them.

These shelves had been purchased just a few months ago and were all very sturdy. They held digital components, so there was no possibility of them collapsing or items falling.

As for the power supply and circuits, they seemed to strictly follow safety standards and regulations for safe electricity use. The power supply had circuit breakers, power switches were installed outside the warehouse, and there were regular inspections and maintenance.

In short, at this stage, it was very difficult to find any safety hazards!

After completing the tour, Pei Qian felt quite dejected.

I brought Tang sister over here, and still can’t do anything?

Zhang Yuan, Zhang Yuan, are you trying to defy the heavens?

Having walked around without accomplishing anything, Pei Qian could only return to the computer assembly area of the warehouse and sit down on a chair.

At this point, Pei Qian noticed that the production line used specially customized height-adjustable workbenches, and there were chairs behind the assembly workers.

Every so often, the workbench would raise or lower, allowing the assembly workers to stand for a while if they’d been sitting too long, or sit down if they’d been standing too long, fully considering their physical health.

Zhang Yuan proudly said, “How is it, Boss Pei? Have I met your expectations?”

Pei Qian said somewhat dejectedly: “Yes, you’re doing very well…”

He hadn’t anticipated this scenario before coming. Zhang Yuan had made everything flawless.

He came with his halo effect and still couldn’t find any flaws?

This wasn’t reasonable at all!

Tang Yishu sat to the side, instinctively feeling uncomfortable in this environment.

Someone handed over a can of cold cola and a bottle of warm green tea.

Since they were in a warehouse without the nice conditions of an internet café, Zhang Yuan had specifically prepared convenience store refrigerators and temperature-controlled heating refrigerators so that people could have something to drink when they got tired from work.

Pei Qian drank the cold cola and felt like giving up.

As the saying goes, “Man proposes, but God disposes.”

Looking at the current situation, it seemed that heaven wanted to thwart him.

If that was the case, so be it. Even if ROF assembly made money, he could find other ways to quickly spend it…

However, Pei Qian had barely taken two sips of his cola when he heard one of the workers on the production line make a surprised sound.

Pei Qian’s eyes lit up, as if hope had been rekindled.

He saw that the computer had failed to power on!

This meant that there was a problem with the computer, and it couldn’t function normally!

These assembly workers were skilled professionals, and the possibility of a technical error was minimal. So the only explanation was that a component had malfunctioned!

This worker was aware that leaders were inspecting and didn’t make a fuss. He just quietly handed the computer to the quality control worker beside him to check which component had the problem.

The next computer on the assembly line quickly arrived, and this worker continued testing. This time, he didn’t find any issues and let out a sigh of relief.

But the worker on the assembly line in front of him discovered that the newly assembled computer had a blue screen.

This worker scratched his head in confusion but didn’t make a fuss either, just handed the computer to the repair worker beside him.

Pei Qian drank his cola, pretending not to notice.

Zhang Yuan, sitting to the side, felt cold sweat about to break out.

What was going on?

Everything had been fine until Boss Pei came for an inspection, and now there were such issues!

These workers were all skilled professionals who had assembled so many computers, so there shouldn’t be any major problems with their techniques.

But with one computer unable to power on and another experiencing a blue screen, it was a hardware issue.

For instance, a faulty motherboard, CPU, hard drive, or memory… any of these could cause computer malfunctions.

These components did have a certain failure rate, but… There was no reason to encounter two consecutive failures in such a short time, was there?

Pei Qian silently finished his cola, a barely noticeable smile appearing on his face.

He stood up: “The warehouse condition is good, keep up the good work. I have other matters to attend to, so I’ll be going now.”

Zhang Yuan felt like a condemned man receiving a pardon and quickly said, “Alright, Boss Pei, you’re welcome to inspect anytime!”

…

After seeing Boss Pei off, Zhang Yuan finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Fortunately, Boss Pei didn’t seem to notice!

If problems had occurred just as Boss Pei came to inspect, and Boss Pei had noticed, it would have been inexplicable.

If he had to explain to Boss Pei that everything had been fine until he arrived, Boss Pei wouldn’t have believed it anyway!

Zhang Yuan hurried to the assembly line and asked: “What’s going on? Wasn’t everything fine before?”

The repair worker looked confused: “I don’t know either. Hardware failure…”

Zhang Yuan was speechless: “Repair it quickly. Return what can be returned, and send for repairs what can’t be returned.”

This batch of goods had just been replenished not long ago, and most were still within the seven-day no-reason return period.

Although some components didn’t support seven-day no-reason returns, they were still under warranty.

But whether it was returning and reordering or sending for repairs, it all took time.

The logistics back and forth were very time-consuming.

Zhang Yuan thought for a moment: “Let’s purchase another batch of easily damaged hardware, like power supplies, motherboards, mechanical hard drives, memory, and so on… oh right, buy more memory.”

Although memory wasn’t considered a component with a particularly high failure rate, the issue was that ROF sold high-end custom computers, and those high-end models priced at over 10,000 yuan typically had all memory slots filled.

A computer only needed one CPU, one motherboard, and one dedicated graphics card, but it could have four memory sticks, so the probability of problems was higher.

Therefore, Zhang Yuan felt it necessary to prepare in advance. Currently, memory prices aren’t high, so buying more wouldn’t hurt.