Chapter 268: Don't let accidents become regrets

"But why call it 'Cucumber'?"

The day before the press conference, while eating lunch in the cafeteria, Yan Jian, sporting a pair of panda eyes, suddenly asked: "And why call them 'Green Bean' and 'Peanut'?"

"Huh?"

Ji Jue held his rice bowl, looking up blankly: "Aren't green beans delicious? Peanuts are great too."

As he spoke, he lowered his head, picked up a chopstick-full of smashed cucumbers from his plate, chewed, chewed, chewed, and nodded: "Yeah, today's cucumber is pretty good too."

For a split second, Yan Jian wanted to say something, but felt that whatever he said would be useless.

This dog's product naming method actually depended on what the cafeteria's cold dish was on the day production was decided... He would never be able to catch up with such a bizarre train of thought in his entire life.

"Don't you think this is too casual!"

Yan Jian sighed: "What's the next one called? Tomato? Potato? Or Banana?"

"Anything works. Besides, we can't exactly call them 'Niu Ma 1, 2, and 3', right?"

Ji Jue asked back as if it were only natural: "Everyone works just to earn a bit of money; being treated like cattle and horses every day is already hard enough, why poke at people's hearts?"

"..."

In the suddenly silent cafeteria, all the faces with dark circles couldn't help but look up, staring gloomily in this direction.

Not poking at the customers' hearts, but now you're poking at your colleagues, right?

Are the cattle and horses of the car factory not cattle and horses anymore?!

"Why is everyone suddenly not talking?"

Ji Jue looked around blankly, asking curiously: "Is it because today's work is finished?"

In an instant, the once dead-silent cafeteria erupted with noise!

Amidst the exaggerated, hollow laughter and chatter, Ji Jue nodded with satisfaction: "It's great to see everyone in such high spirits. Since you have the energy to chat, the workload must not be very saturated, right?"

"... You damn well better act like a human being!"

Yan Jian's face fell, "Sooner or later, you'll be worked to death by your employees!"

No matter who it is, after working non-stop day and night for over a month, it's hard to maintain a stable state of mind.

Although room and board were fully covered, overtime pay was double, and holidays were quadruple—the benefits were completely maxed out—but after living days of looking up at welding torches and down at lathes for too long, the 'cattle and horses' would even be assembling things on the assembly line in their dreams.

Being listless was normal; some people were already hallucinating.

It is said that some people would wake up in the middle of the night, always hearing someone crying under the floorboards.

Some people would go to the cafeteria to eat when they were starving at night, only to see a row of figures like walking corpses stumbling through the night, as if it were a procession of ghosts.

Others said that one day, while looking down at their phones and getting lost in the factory area, they saw a factory building they had never seen before. Peering through a crack in the door, they saw many disheveled workers chained up, endlessly assembling suspensions. If anyone dared to be slow or whisper, they would be whipped by a mechanical arm descending from the sky.

Such a tragic scene scared the lost person silly, and they scrambled back, not knowing how long they had run before returning. When talking about this terrifying encounter, their face was pale, swearing up and down that they weren't lying. They really had a talent for storytelling, but unfortunately, they asked for leave to return to their hometown the next day, and everyone still wanted to know how the plot developed.

The crying and wailing in the basement, the wandering ghosts and spirits in the factory area, the slave workshop in the dark, the armored off-road vehicle that would quietly transform when no one was looking, the factory manager whose eyes would glow red while scavenging for trash in the middle of the night, the strange chewing sounds frequently coming from the assistant's office...

In just a few short months, the Coast Car Factory had gathered a new "Top Ten Strange Tales."

The corporate culture could be described as flourishing!

Yan Jian, the Chief Engineer who only knew a little about the inside story, could only pretend to be indifferent every time he faced the complaints of the 'cattle and horses,' telling them it must be that the pressure was too high and they weren't adjusted, and they could go to the infirmary to get more sleeping pills.

Yeah, bring me a bottle while you're at it.

Since the resumption of work, his originally sparse hair had begun to wither at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Insomnia, anxiety, irritability, and anger followed one after another. There was no help for it; even the best mindset would struggle a bit when faced with the "extraordinary wisdom" of college students.

Not to mention pressure-monsters like Ji Jue who would throw a pile of requirements at you and ask if it's doable.

Even when the manpower gradually became sufficient and production entered a normal rhythm later on, it didn't improve much.

For nearly two months, he had lost at least ten to twenty pounds. Now his face was sallow, his eye circles were pitch black, as if he had made up for all the overtime he had missed over the years in one go.

There was a kind of beauty in being near death.

Especially after eating, the bottles and jars placed on the table were an eye-opener for Ji Jue.

"This is stomach medicine, this is digestive tablets, this is fish oil, this is calcium and vitamins..."

"Why take so many?"

"This is just a little? There's more. You're still young, wait until..."

Yan Jian was about to shake his head and say, "Wait until you reach my age," but suddenly realized that if his guess was correct, people like Ji Jue probably wouldn't need to rely on tonics in middle age. He sighed helplessly and said nothing more.

But when taking the medicine, his hands were always a bit shaky, his mind elsewhere.

He even spilled the water.

After putting down the cup, Yan Jian wiped his mouth and smiled self-deprecatingly: "After getting on in years, I can't do anything properly anymore."

"Something on your mind?"

"It's just... nervousness."

Yan Jian leaned against the table, looking back at the factory outside the cafeteria, the newly renovated workshops, and the workers coming and going. Under the brilliant sunshine, the roar of compacting foundations came from afar; new factory buildings were still rising from the ground.

Everything he once thought would wither away in oblivion had returned, even better than he had expected.

Every time this happened, there was always an unrealistic feeling, like a dream.

"We can build cars again, it's really great."

He let out a long breath.

The pent-up frustration and unwillingness of so many years seemed to have dissipated without a trace in these few short months. Looking at the gradually expanding factory area before him, he couldn't help but let his eyes sparkle.

Every time he thought about the cars he designed being able to return to the market, he was so excited he couldn't stop.

"I'll go to the workshop to look around and check the quality control."

He stood up, supporting his knees, and looked at Ji Jue: "What about you?"

"I'll sit for a while longer, I'll come over later."

Ji Jue answered calmly, picked up his water cup, and drank it all in one go. Soon, scorching steam rose from his body and disappeared.

Even across the table, Yan Jian could feel the hot wind blowing in his face.

It was like sitting in front of a furnace with its door wide open.

Under the light of the scorching sun outside the window, there seemed to be a faint dark red lingering in those pitch-black pupils, a violent surge, wanting to ignite everything it saw.

But in the blink of an eye, all abnormalities disappeared.

As if it were a hallucination.

"Men, you know, there are always a few days a month when we're burning up."

Ji Jue grinned and waved: "Don't take it to heart."

"I'll believe that when pigs fly."

Yan Jian rolled his eyes and turned to leave, too lazy to dwell on these trivial matters.

In the cafeteria, which had long since become silent and empty, only Ji Jue remained, lazily leaning against a chair, basking in the sun as if drifting off to sleep.

Those faint light spots, visible only to him as if they were hallucinations, fell like sparse snowflakes from the sky, gathering and merging into his body. Accompanied by his silent breathing, the essence of "Supreme Good" derived from the embers flowed silently through his body and soul, finally merging into his blood.

Just like grease being sprinkled onto charcoal, fuel being injected into an engine.

The "Firewood" fell into the furnace!

The "Blood of the Furnace," which had already been brought under control, began to operate spontaneously again.

The high temperature he was radiating at this moment was nothing more than useless waste heat, while the true change was manifesting from within Ji Jue's body, accompanied by that fine, tiny, yet continuous "Firewood."

After experiencing days of continuous infusion, a wisp of ethereal silver-white radiance actually appeared on his fingernails.

When he flicked his finger against the steel pipe under the dining table, it emitted a clanging echo like metal colliding, distant and resonant.

The "Material Interference" that used to require painstaking effort and focused control now only required a single thought!

After the 【Blood of the Furnace】 came the 【Unextinguished Firewood】.

With the continuous production of the Coast Car Factory over the past month, "Green Beans" and "Peanuts" were distributed in all directions, and Ji Jue's creations gradually formed more and more influence in this world.

Even if the alchemical content in them was negligible, and they couldn't even be called complete works, with the increase in quantity, all shortcomings became insignificant.

Now, in the Coast Car Factory and other tricycle workshops that had been acquired and reorganized, brand-new tricycles were rolling off the assembly lines almost every moment, being loaded onto large transport trucks, sent to the wilderness and suburbs, and reaching the hands of every user through stores or partners.

Reading the original text!

It was simply like an "Ember Money-Printing Machine" running twenty-four hours a day.

Even if the denomination was so small that a dozen of them added up to mere pennies, any small unit multiplied by such a massive scale and productivity would form a terrifying qualitative leap.

After the "Wan Huazhi" speed-run of 【Blood of the Furnace】, the progress of 【Unextinguished Firewood】 also rose like a rocket, at a terrifying speed unimaginable to ordinary artisans.

In just over a month, it had already completed one-third, and it was still rising!

The top-ranked old man's tips were pouring in crazily!

Whether it was overloading, transporting construction waste, street racing in the middle of the night, illegal operations, or even smuggling or mounting weapons for gang warfare, the more changes Ji Jue's works created in this world and the greater their influence, the more generous the rewards and feedback would be!

Piling earth into mountains, gathering water into rivers.

Over time, the progress that originally required painstaking effort to grind out was now soaring, as if one had bought a membership for downloading software!

Wisps of invisible "Firewood" descended with the continuous changes, falling into Ji Jue's soul and merging into his blood.

When the "Firewood" began to be injected into the furnace, creation began once again!

Ascension, purification, extraction, integration.

The essence of the four foundations of alchemy rose from his blood, as if treating his body and soul as materials, transforming them into a creation closer to the essence of "Supreme Good" and more fitting to the "Divine Essence of Embers"!

If observed with a microscope, one would find that with the operation of the "Blood of the Furnace," a pure silver light like mercury was gradually emerging within the most basic composition of Ji Jue's internal organs, bones, nerves, lymph, muscles, and skin.

Unlike the one-step completion of the "Blood of the Furnace," in the "slow" progress of 【Unextinguished Firewood】, Ji Jue could carefully feel the operation of the "Divine Essence of Embers" and the countless subtle changes it brought about.

【Blood of the Furnace】, 【Unextinguished Firewood】, 【Heaven-Bestowed Spirit】.

Life, mind, soul.

Taking everything about oneself as material, using the mortal world as a furnace, and countless creations and changes as steps, approaching the essence of "Supreme Good" step by step—after three qualitative leaps, there would be no need for other creations; the artisan himself would become a true "Heavenly Work"!

This was the cruel test and generous gift unique to the Embers!

After endless suffering, there would be a brilliant crown.

By then, even if Ji Jue treated the Association as nothing, just like Ye Xian, no one would dare to nag.

It was just that such a future was too far away; even a "cheating player" like Ji Jue, who had pressed all the buttons from 1 to 0, couldn't say it was a sure thing.

Before this wave of turmoil subsided, he had to seize the time to finish everything he could and scrape up every bit of profit he could.

Otherwise, once the dust settled, no matter how slow the Association reacted or how long they bickered, they wouldn't allow him to continue such rampant "edge-walking."

Before that, Ji Jue decided to go full throttle.

If he was going to do it, he would do it thoroughly. Since he wanted to disrupt the market, he would just finish disrupting it first!

As for the subsequent warnings and fines, Lu Yingyue, who was gradually tightening her grip on the position of the Guardian, would naturally pay the bill...

Thus, the short break ended.

Ji Jue rolled up his sleeves and walked toward his loyal assembly line, full of motivation:

"Enter the factory and get to work!"

Fifteen hours later, accompanied by a violent shipment like diarrhea, the first self-developed and self-produced family sedan of the Coast Car Factory since the resumption of work, "Cucumber," was officially launched!

Updated on the official website along with it was a promotional video that made people's eyes go dark.

In this era full of 1080p and 4k/8k ultra-high definition, the entire model was shot with a phone of an unknown outdated model, and you could even see the pixels.

Paired with that 8-bit electronic music that made people dream of decades ago, and the rough, exaggerated, bright red and green special effect fonts typical of the past, it thoughtfully delivered a "head-on strike" to every viewer.

A festive female voice-over began to read.

【Sixteen years of craftsmanship in the making】

【Five thousand eight hundred days of non-stop exploration】

【Achieving this one-of-a-kind classic!】

In the footage, a vehicle covered in black blackout cloth came into view, and accompanied by a passionate introduction, the outrageously outdated camera work showed close-ups of parts.

Soon, it landed on a bizarre "Cucumber" logo meticulously drawn by the runner-up of the Yacheng "Draw a Turtle" competition.

Then, the scene changed. Ji Jue, dressed in a racing suit, lowered his head to put on his helmet, walked toward the camera with his head held high, lifted the blackout cloth, and then came a close-up of the car door opening.

Paired with various bizarre bright red and green special effect fonts, it began to meticulously introduce the near-non-existent, shabby configuration inside the car, almost making one shed tears of sympathy.

As the vehicle started, the Cucumber sedan gradually drove out from behind the curtain, and a mini car body like a "chopped pepper fish head" appeared before everyone's eyes.

And then, without any warning... a roar erupted from the screen!

The entire sedan took off into the air!

In the stunned sight of the audience, it flew up!

A heavy truck that had been waiting for a long time and was fully loaded with steel coils just like that, under the camera's lens, broke into the filming site, hit their filming work head-on, and then drove away!

But for some reason, the employees around the site who had been dragged in to act as background boards with stiff smiles suddenly erupted into cheers and exclamations, dancing with joy.

From the bottom of their hearts, they were overjoyed.

One could even hear the insane laughter of Yan Jian, who was slamming on the gas pedal on the truck.

As expected of Assistant Ye, the creativity is invincible!

In the long shot where plastic car fragments and parts rained down like water, the Cucumber, hit and sent flying, spun 7,600 degrees in mid-air, crashed to the ground, rolled continuously, and returned to the center of the lens once again.

The first vehicle in history to be completely scrapped in a promotional video before even leaving the factory made a shocking debut.

And right there in the twisted car frame, Ji Jue, having unbuckled his seatbelt, walked out with his head held high.

Unscathed!

Not even the helmet had a single crack.

Behind him, the employees who had been prepared long ago rushed up with fire extinguishers, and in the background, bursts of white mist and thick smoke rose.

Ji Jue took off his helmet, gave a smug smile at the camera, and finally raised his hand to make a "V" sign.

【Safe driving is everyone's responsibility】

【Don't let accidents become regrets】

As the screen gradually went black, in the voice-over, only a line of text shrouded in a seven-colored border emerged from the darkness.

——【Coast, guarding your safety at all times!】

Three hours later, as dawn was about to break, under the promotion of various parties, the keywords "Coast Car Factory" and "Cucumber" had surged to the top of the hot searches.

Five hours later, when the office workers were yawning and taking the subway and bus to work, this trailer, which cost less than 300 yuan to film excluding the car, had already exploded onto all short-video platforms under the reposting of numerous self-media, spreading throughout the entire Federation!

Just like that, after stunning who knows how many eyeballs and jaws, the Coast Car Factory fired the first shot of its return to the industry!

(End of chapter)