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墨書 Inktalez
Jiang Tao looked at the two deliberately damaged pieces of "junk" on the ground, then glanced at Master Qian's face, which was filled with a sense of "finding fault," and the two shady-looking youths beside him. He instantly understood what was going on.
"Well, since you couldn't steal the tools, you came here to extort me directly? That old man Ma Guoqiang just won't let up!"
However, he maintained a calm demeanor, even showing a hint of appropriate difficulty as he squatted down to examine the two "accident items" closely.
The radio's casing was smashed to bits, the speaker cone was torn, and when Jiang Tao lightly scanned the circuit board with his mind, it was a pitiful sight—several crucial copper foil traces were broken, and a few capacitors and resistors were askew, clearly having suffered severe impact. This thing, let alone repair, would take half a day just to disassemble for parts.
Then he looked at the electric fan; its casing was dented in significantly, the blades were twisted beyond recognition, and the electric motor section even emitted a burnt smell, indicating that it had been damaged and subsequently burned out.
"Tsk tsk tsk," Jiang Tao stood up and shook his head. "Master Qian, your two 'nephews' really are quite 'careless.' The extent of this damage is no small matter."
Master Qian crossed his arms and sneered, "Cut the nonsense! My nephew said it just accidentally fell on the ground. Jiang Master, aren't you known for your 'miraculous skills' in treating 'difficult ailments'? This little issue shouldn't be a problem for you, right? Just give me a straightforward answer—can it be fixed or not?"
The young man with yellow hair chimed in eagerly, "Exactly! If you can't fix it, don't embarrass yourself here; just pack up and get lost!"
The Black Fat Youth even threatened directly: "If you dare say you can't fix it or do a bad job, heh heh, then you better give us an explanation!" He clenched his fists deliberately, making cracking sounds with his joints.
More and more onlookers gathered around, pointing and whispering among themselves. It was clear that this was an intentional provocation.
Jiang Tao sneered inwardly but put on a facade of difficulty and "professional" assessment. "Master Qian, we can't say it like that. This fan has a deformed casing and the motor coil is hanging loose; repairing it will require considerable labor and materials. At least… fifteen dollars as a starting point."
He paused for effect before looking at the broken radio again and sighed. "As for this radio… to be honest, with the circuit board broken and the speaker ruined, it's basically just a pile of parts now; there's hardly any value in repairing it. However, if you really want to give it a try, considering that we are somewhat 'colleagues'..."
Upon hearing that the radio was essentially beyond saving, Master Qian and the two thugs felt even more pleased; they thought Jiang Tao must be scared and ready to concede. "Unless what? Hurry up and say it!" Master Qian urged impatiently.
Jiang Tao's lips curled slightly into an almost imperceptible smile. "Unless you're willing to pay thirty dollars for 'special material fees' and 'high-difficulty technical fees,' allowing me to give it my best shot at saving it. But let me be clear: this radio is too severely damaged; I can only promise to do my best—I can't guarantee 100% success. Moreover, both items fall under 'extremely high-difficulty rescue,' so payment must be made upfront before any repairs! And regardless of whether I can fix them or not, that fifty dollars is non-refundable; consider it my labor fee, material loss fee, and mental distress fee!"
At these words, the crowd erupted in an uproar!
Fifty dollars! And payment upfront with no refunds if it couldn't be fixed! This was outright robbery! In the early 1980s, an ordinary worker earned only thirty or forty dollars a month! Fifty bucks could buy a brand new semiconductor radio!
Master Qian and the two thugs were stunned. They had expected Jiang Tao to make excuses to back out or to symbolically charge a few bucks before admitting he couldn't fix anything—then they could take advantage of that to accuse him of scamming them and smash his stall. Who would have thought Jiang Tao would demand such an outrageous sum upfront?
The young man with yellow hair couldn't help but curse: "Are you out of your mind? Fifty bucks? Why don't you go rob a bank!"
Jiang Tao shrugged his shoulders with an expression of "helplessness." "What can I say? Difficult ailments come with high risks and great challenges; naturally, that's the price. If you gentlemen aren't willing to pay that much, then forget it—I save myself the trouble." He adopted an attitude of indifference.
Looking at Jiang Tao's confident demeanor made Master Qian feel uneasy instead. Could this guy really have confidence in fixing it? Impossible! He had seen the radio smashed himself; the circuit board was in pieces—no one could fix that! He must be bluffing to scare them off with high prices! Yes! That had to be it!
With this thought in mind, Master Qian felt emboldened. He had come here today to cause trouble; if he backed down now, how could he continue operating in this area? He couldn't go back without explaining himself to Director Ma!
"Fine! Fifty it is!" Master Qian gritted his teeth and pulled out five crumpled ten-dollar bills from his pocket, slamming them down on Jiang Tao's stall. "Kid, here's your money! If you can't fix it today, not only will I make you return this money but you'll also have to kneel on the ground like a dog while I throw your stall away!"
The surrounding customers gasped in shock; they never expected things would escalate so dramatically.
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