After this near-death experience, Shen Yurong will likely become a laughing stock for a while.

Time flies, and another two years have passed.

The name "Shuguang Technology Service Center" is no longer sufficient to meet the needs of development.

With Lu Ran's courage, Zi Xi's wisdom, and the combined impetus of the times, it has developed into a sizable Shuguang Agricultural Machinery Factory with more than 30 employees.

Lu Ran also became a well-known private entrepreneur in the county, and was often invited to attend some economic work conferences. His name would occasionally appear in local newspapers.

However, the bigger the tree, the more the wind will blow against it.

The rise of Lu Ran, a scoundrel, inevitably attracted envious people.

Some rumors began to circulate in a small circle.

First, someone anonymously submitted a report to multiple departments in the county.

Despite several rounds of investigation, these allegations were dropped due to lack of evidence.

However, the repeated inspections and inquiries, like buzzing mosquitoes, while not fatal, greatly disrupted the factory's normal operations.

It is also consuming a lot of Lu Ran's energy.

A more practical impact is that some key raw material suppliers have also begun to adopt an ambiguous attitude.

Supply was no longer timely, and prices had also increased.

This spring, the agricultural machinery factory received its largest order since its establishment: to customize a batch of key components for a new type of high-efficiency harvester for a large state-owned farm in a neighboring city.

This order is huge, almost equivalent to half a year's output value for the agricultural machinery factory, and its successful delivery will greatly enhance Shuguang's brand reputation and open up a broader market.

The entire factory worked overtime to prepare for this order, investing almost all of its working capital to purchase raw materials. The warehouse was filled with semi-finished products and parts produced for this batch of orders.

Just before the first batch of parts was about to be completed and ready for shipment, the head of the purchasing department of the other farm suddenly called in person. He hesitated for a moment, but finally said...

Due to policy adjustments and financial constraints, we have now unilaterally decided to cancel the order.

They even avoided discussing the penalty for breach of contract.

This news came as a bolt from the blue, completely stunning Lu Ran.

He pressed for details, and the other party finally vaguely revealed that someone from above had given instructions.

It implies that he offended someone he shouldn't have.

Later, Zixi made inquiries and vaguely learned that it was an old collective enterprise in the county that originally produced agricultural machinery.

Seeing that the competition was hopeless, they used their deep connections within the system to put pressure on the farm's superiors and forcefully snatched the order away.

The mountains of specialized parts piled up in the warehouse instantly turned into unsellable scrap metal.

The crisis of a broken capital chain is imminent.

Misfortunes never come singly.

At almost the same time, two of the factory's earliest and most experienced workers, who had mastered some of the core technologies, suddenly resigned.

No matter how much Lu Ran tried to persuade them to stay, or even offered a significant pay raise, the two had already made up their minds to leave.

Soon news came that they had been poached by the collective enterprise that had stolen the order, with an annual salary nearly double that of the previous one, and that the company had taken away some key technical drawings and improvement plans.

The successive heavy blows made Lu Ran feel as if he had been dragged back to the rainy night when he was a child and felt abandoned by the whole world.

The huge failure led Lu Ran to lock himself in the factory manager's office, drawing the curtains to shut out all light and sound.

When Zixi pushed open the door to deliver dinner, she was choked by the smell of smoke filling the room and started coughing.

Lu Ran slumped in the chair behind his desk, his tie askew, his hair disheveled, and his eyes filled with terrifying bloodshot veins.

A sinister aura, long unseen, emanated from his entire body.