"Someone's here to block the door?"
Wang Yu found it a bit strange, had he offended anyone recently?
"Let's go and see."
The group quickly arrived at the factory gate, only to find a large crowd already blocking it.
Their clothing was simple, appearing to be ordinary farmers, but their faces were contorted with anger, as if they were here to demand an explanation.
"What's going on?"
As Wang Yu stepped forward to inquire, he was immediately surrounded.
"So, you're the factory director, right? We pooled our money to buy the car, how did it end up like this?"
Before Wang Yu could ask anything, the men started talking all at once.
"What happened?" Wang Yu looked over and saw a vehicle parked not far away. It looked like their new model farm vehicle.
"What else could happen?"
The leader was a middle-aged man in his forties, his face etched with a look of hardship.
"I finally managed to pool money to buy one of your cars, but after only a few days of use, it broke down!"
The middle-aged man angrily pointed at the farm vehicle behind him. Another farm vehicle was tied to it with a rope, clearly having been towed there.
"Oh? What kind of breakdown?" Wang Yu moved closer to inspect.
"The main beam broke!" the man said indignantly.
The main beam is the common term for the chassis, a crucial part of a car, especially a truck, that supports the cargo box and connects to the tires and axles. It's like a person's spine.
One can imagine that if a person's spine breaks, they would be immediately disabled.
"My fellow villagers bought one of your new farm vehicles, and they said it worked well and even made a lot of money. I was persuaded by him to buy one too. But to my surprise, after only a few days of use and not carrying much cargo, the main beam just snapped!"
While Wang Yu was inspecting, the middle-aged man shouted angrily, "This car cost me a lot of borrowed money! Your car factory must give us an explanation!"
"That's right, give us an explanation!"
The surrounding crowd buzzed in agreement, all appearing righteous and indignant.
A vehicle costs tens of thousands of yuan! Back then, people had to borrow money from everywhere to afford one.
They had been eagerly looking forward to using the car to earn money, support their families, and repay their debts. But who would have thought such a problem would arise so soon after they started using it!
Anyone in this situation would fly into a rage. It could be considered that this man was already very restrained for not coming forward to hit Wang Yu.
"Don't rush, old brother." Wang Yu first calmed the middle-aged man, then scanned the vehicle, and immediately understood the situation.
This was merely a product similar to theirs, but the actual trademark belonged to the agricultural machinery factory!
Well, he had to admit that the agricultural machinery factory's ability to copy was impressive, down to every screw being identical to their product, only the trademark differed.
Other aspects were like a cloned high-imitation product.
If only they had changed some minor design elements!
However, this issue of the chassis breaking could now be explained clearly. The hidden loophole Wang Yu had left in his original design drawings had indeed not been discovered by the people at the agricultural machinery factory!
"You say that so easily, how can we calm down?" The middle-aged man was furious, and the men around him also moved closer.
"You must give us an explanation!"
...
"Don't panic, everyone." Wang Yu appeased the crowd, "If I'm not mistaken, the two cars you bought weren't at the same time, right?"
"That's right." The middle-aged man nodded, and a short man beside him also chimed in.
"I bought mine from your factory's sales staff in front of our agricultural machinery market. They said any problems could be brought to your factory. Later, my brother saw how well I was using it and bought one directly from the agricultural machinery market."
The short man spoke, appearing very angry and agitated, "You can't do this to us! Selling us cars with quality issues. We've had mechanics in the city look at it. If the main beam breaks, it's ruined. Even if it's welded, it will break again later! If this car were to break while driving, it could be fatal! We didn't buy these cars just to look at them!"
The short man blurted out a string of words. By the time Wang Yu finally got a chance to speak, he had finished.
"I say, my good sirs, please calm down a bit and listen to me first."
Wang Yu pointed at the two vehicles, "Take a closer look. This first one is our product, but the second one is not."
"This... there's no difference, is there?" Several people came closer to examine them carefully. "Hey, young man, you can't bully us just because we're uneducated and don't know many characters!"
Uneducated and don't know many characters?
Well, Wang Yu finally understood.
At that time, farm transport vehicles, strictly speaking, were not considered automobiles, so they didn't require complicated car licenses.
As long as you had a tractor license, you could drive them. Therefore, it was normal for these farmers, with their low educational attainment, who could only write their names, to have such a perception.
It was precisely for this reason that they failed to distinguish between Jiangyang Automobile Factory and Jiangyang Agricultural Machinery Factory.
"Gentlemen, I am not deceiving you! Look..." Wang Yu pointed at the two vehicles in front of him.
"This is our car's trademark. Do you see that it's different?"
As he spoke, Feng Daochun, who was nearby, with great foresight, drove several cars from the production line.
"Look, these are produced by our factory. Do you see that the trademarks are the same? But this one car is completely different?"
Wang Yu pointed to their own car and, at the same time, gave Feng Daochun a meaningful glance.
"Hmm, it seems to be the case?"
The simple and honest men suddenly couldn't stay angry. It seemed to be true? Only this car had a different trademark.
"So, you gentlemen have bought a counterfeit product!" Wang Yu explained. "My good sir, did you have any problems using our car?"
Wang Yu asked the shorter man. Hearing Wang Yu's question, he subconsciously nodded, "Indeed, there were no problems. Then... we were really fooled?"
"This is a copycat product from another factory in our county. The blame lies with them. If you gentlemen want to find them, I can arrange for someone to take you there."
Wang Yu said again, which greatly pleased them.
"Really? Then we must thank you, young man!"
"It's nothing, just a small favor."
Wang Yu smiled, then said to Feng Daochun, "Section Chief Feng, I'll take these gentlemen to the location of the agricultural machinery factory. Hmm, you notify Brother Hu and the others. Make sure to take good care of these gentlemen and don't let them suffer any losses."
"Understood, Little Factory Director! I understand!"
Upon hearing Wang Yu's emphasized words "don't let them suffer any losses," Feng Daochun immediately understood and nodded repeatedly.
Wang Yu led the group and quickly arrived at the entrance of Jiangyang Agricultural Machinery Factory.
As soon as they reached the gate of the agricultural machinery factory and saw the trademark logo at the entrance, which was identical to the trademark on the ruined car, the leading man's anger surged. He waved his hand at his companions behind him.
"It's indeed here. Brothers, let's smash it!"