What Qian Hongming saw was Liu Jun with disheveled hair. Dark and thin, plus the messy hair, Liu Jun could go film disaster movies. “The Shi Yiji factory area has quite a history, with a few trees that are indeed quite old, but they’re not dense enough.”

“Old enough and sufficient for nesting will do. The survival environment for wild animals gets worse year by year. Hello Miss Yang, I’m happy to see you every time – it gives me the feeling of returning to civilized society.”

Yang Li only understood at the end that these two were teasing each other. “We all say Mr. Liu is patient enough, staying alone at the testing center, arriving punctually and leaving punctually.”

“Not alone.” Liu Jun pointed to the half-open door. “There’s another one I scared inside. Miss Yang, actually with your beautiful figure, you can’t hide anything behind your back. Rather than deceiving yourself, why not take it out early and give me a surprise.”

“Bah, shameless! Who said it’s a surprise for you? I originally wanted to hide it to keep certain keen-nosed wild animals from finding it. Here you go – I guess after being back in the country for several days, you must be craving steak.” Yang Li handed Liu Jun an exquisitely packaged meal box – it was steak packed from a Taiwanese restaurant in the city.

“Miss Yang, I truly love you.” Liu Jun opened it to find two thick slabs of black pepper steak, richly aromatic. Qian Hongming said, “I’ll record the data for you, eat quickly.”

Liu Jun glanced at that door, walked over, and shared a piece with Yu Shanshan. “Share blessings, face hardships together.”

“Uh, I’m not hungry. Thank you.”

“It’s all unavoidable – why draw such clear lines? Eat up, your boss is treating.”

Liu Jun made a funny face as he left. With his long hair, that funny face was quite cartoonish. Yu Shanshan was startled, staring blankly at Liu Jun’s retreating figure for a long time.

Liu Jun went out to see Yang Li standing beside Qian Hongming, whispering, seemingly discussing the data on the records. He bit fiercely into the steak. This family caused him enough trouble – it seemed several workers in the former foundry had also been bought off, recently attempting to enter the original molding workshop to spy on testing temperatures. For this, Liu Jun and his father discussed extensively, deciding to lay a maze of confusion. His father had to occasionally purchase different steel grades to prevent Shi Yiji’s engineers from tracing suppliers and discovering their methods – that would be too easy. Such special steel materials had few suppliers, and one inquiry would reveal everything. This necessitated increasing the R&D budget again. Liu Jun harbored countless grievances against this family. With such energy and Shi Yiji’s prestige, why not settle down and genuinely improve themselves?

Liu Jun didn’t dare savor the meal slowly, eating quickly before returning to his post. But he still asked uneasily, “Hongming, did you notice any tricks?”

“Miss Yang just asked me the same question. I have no concept of these numbers, can’t draw correlation diagrams in my head.”

“Miss Yang, what you’re inquiring about are secrets – knowledge and sweat that belong to me. It’s inappropriate.”

Not only Yang Li, but even Qian Hongming was shocked by Liu Jun’s bluntness. Yu Shanshan inside also heard clearly, couldn’t help biting the steak while watching the drama outside. Yang Li first blushed deeply, but then smiled, “Ignorance is no crime. We all know early on that this data means nothing to outsiders, but humans are naturally curious creatures.”

Liu Jun shrugged, didn’t continue, but buried his head in work. “Hongming, I feel you have something to tell me.”

Yang Li immediately smiled, “Mr. Liu is issuing an eviction order. You two take your time talking, I’ll leave first.”

“Miss Yang, please wait outside for me a moment, I’ll be quick.” Qian Hongming could see Yang Li’s anger. After Yang Li left with a forced smile, he lowered his voice and said to Liu Jun, “Your father is looking for my sister…”

“Damn, I already strictly forbade him from looking for your sister.” Liu Jun immediately jumped up.

“Why are you so irritable today? I haven’t finished speaking. For instance, just now, you could have just made a veiled criticism of Yang Li – why throw out such harsh words?”

Liu Jun scratched his scalp. “Sorry, I’m upset today. My girlfriend has problems. But just now, both of those were serious issues.”

“The more serious one is still coming. Your father plans to grit his teeth and sell his precious street-front property to support your R&D. He’s looking for my sister to help find buyers.”

“What?” Liu Jun was stunned. The detailed costs of R&D flew through his mind one by one, and he calculated the figures in distress and confusion.

Qian Hongming clapped his hands, interrupting Liu Jun. “Stop thinking about it, hurry up and work. Everything here is charged by the hour.”

Liu Jun gurgled in his throat, still dazed for a while, then said, “Got it, you go back. Um, don’t forget about Jiali.”

Qian Hongming smiled. “What kind of person do you think I am? Hurry up and get to work. I’ll watch you get into the groove before leaving.”

Only after seeing Liu Jun return to normal did Qian Hongming go to greet Yu Shanshan, who had been staying out of things, and quietly leave. But as soon as Qian Hongming left, Liu Jun threw down what he was holding and walked over to Yu Shanshan. “Miss Yu, let’s call it a day.”

Yu Shanshan immediately got up to pack her things. “I thought you wouldn’t be affected by emotions.”

Liu Jun wanted to speak but stopped – he had no face to explain. Having his father secretly sell the house to fund him – what kind of situation was this? He dejectedly packed up, not hiding his dejection at all, and left. He went straight to his father’s home.

Aunt Fu opened the door. Liu Jun thanked her and entered, sitting on the coffee table directly facing his father.

“Dad, I have an idea. What I’m developing is a series, but now I’m preparing to first take out one with mature conditions to make into a finished product. This way, we can use products to sustain development through rolling funds. My only concern is quality. This kind of product requires high precision. With our equipment, our workers’ quality consciousness, and Dad your management awareness, if I continue R&D without overseeing production, I suspect precision simply can’t be achieved. What should we do?”

Liu Shitang had just been momentarily elated by the first sentence, then was immediately thrown into an embarrassing situation. “If we’re making new products, as long as you set down every move and technique, we’ll naturally follow what you say. Dad will go personally supervise on-site.”

“There’s a big problem. For samples, I can use my big oven to solve it. But for mass production, that’s impossible. Besides Shi Yiji, where is there a reliable heat treatment workshop? Also, we don’t have high-precision CNC lathes either. I did see suitable ones at Shi Yiji’s suburban branch – Japanese imports. But I don’t like dealing with Shi Yiji. Their Mr. Yang is eyeing us like a tiger, always seeming ready to strip a layer of skin off me.”

But Liu Shitang was excited again upon hearing this. “Can we produce products? As long as we can produce, production isn’t a big problem.”

“No, production is a very big problem. R&D is just the first step. The purpose of my painstaking R&D is to make high-precision products. If production isn’t tightly controlled and we can’t make them, everything will be scrapped. Didn’t you also do market research? Crude imitations can’t sell for good prices. Dad, think about it – which factory has both heat treatment and imported high-precision CNC lathes?”

“Wait, let me make a few calls to ask around. Besides Shi Yiji, there aren’t many locals. Unless it’s Donghai Group, but would that place accept external processing?” Liu Shitang suppressed his excitement and called friends everywhere to inquire. Having worked in machinery for many years, he had many friends in the industry. At least for gathering information, they were very reliable.

Liu Jun didn’t listen to his father’s rambling conversations with people. His mind was racing – since he’d decided to make a product first to help his father out of trouble, he should now redirect his focus and start thinking about the product trial production process. But he couldn’t recall some data immediately. He remembered Aunt Fu had records, so he walked to Aunt Fu’s small room and knocked, asking, “Aunt Fu, is this convenient? I’d like to ask about something.”

Aunt Fu quickly came out, “Ah Jun is being so polite. Just speak freely, speak freely.”

“Aunt Fu, could I borrow the notebook you record daily? I know you bring it home every day.”

“Good, good.” Aunt Fu hurried back inside, but quickly came out with an embarrassed expression, spreading her hands, “I just happened not to bring it today. Look at my memory.”

“That’s fine then. Sorry to disturb Aunt Fu’s rest. You’ve been working hard these days – sleep early.”

“Uh, good, good. You should also rest early – you’ve gotten much thinner these past few days compared to when you first returned.”

Liu Jun returned to the living room and patiently waited for his father to finish calling. “Seems like there aren’t many suitable ones?”

“There are some, but they’re all large-scale enterprises. If we can’t guarantee volume, they won’t bother with us.” Seeing his son’s confused expression, Liu Shitang explained, “Domestic big factories are all similar – generally 80% of production capacity goes to large, long-term orders at cost, leaving 20% for high-profit small orders for profit. If our orders are too small, changing processes and molds takes time they can’t afford – it eats up all the profit. Especially those big companies dislike small orders even more. But we certainly can’t have large orders at the start, so it’s unlikely we can give those companies work – or rather, we can’t afford their prices. The most suitable would probably still be giving it to Shi Yiji. Shi Yiji has been somewhat damaged these past few years, so they’ll do anything profitable.”

Liu Jun thought to himself that domestic conditions had their characteristics. After thinking about the processes for a while, he said, “But if we give our products to Shi Yiji to make, including having them do the heat treatment process, given the character the Yang siblings have shown these past few days, they’ll copy the product tomorrow. Is there any way to control my intellectual property?”

“Ah, didn’t you say before that it couldn’t be imitated?”

“If I give them samples and they need to do the heat treatment, what secrecy do we have left? But at most, they can only counterfeit one product. But can we sign a contract with Shi Yiji, confirming that we provide technology, design, and quality inspection, they provide production, and we split profits reasonably?”

“How much would one of those high-precision lathes you mentioned cost?”

“One unit wouldn’t be enough. Dad, we definitely can’t afford it with our current money – we can only give it to others for processing.”

“Contracts are useless, Ah Jun. This is a very important lesson you must remember. We can’t afford CNC lathes, but can’t we do heat treatment ourselves? Key processes must be held in our own hands.”

“How can contracts be useless? If they don’t act according to the contract, we can sue in court.”

“When there’s no trouble, don’t go to court. When there is trouble, also don’t go to court – solve everything yourself. You’ll understand later. I’m asking you, what about us doing heat treatment ourselves?”

“Dad, think about whether this is layman’s talk. How long does a piece of iron need to be heated when put in? For mass production, to coordinate with one lathe, you’d need that much heat treatment space. If you can’t afford lathes, you certainly can’t build a heat treatment workshop.”

“Then what’s the point of doing anything? Whatever we make today will be copied tomorrow – I can bet you on that.”

“Dad, it’s not the Stone Age. No matter how shameless Shi Yiji is, they still have to follow contracts.”

“When they see stacks of thick money, who cares about your contract? Besides, Yang Xun comes from a street vendor background – he’s not someone who follows rules. If I were in his position, I wouldn’t follow rules either.”

Liu Jun was repeatedly stunned by his father’s words, finding it incredible and thinking his father might be exaggerating. “But Dad, do you have any other solutions?”

Liu Shitang thought for a long time. “I’ll think of ways tomorrow – either borrowing money or asking others to lend us heat treatment facilities. Tell me what conditions the heat treatment workshop must meet.”

“If it’s this hard to guard against, won’t those two families collude with each other?”

“We’ll try to find a small-scale one. If modifications are needed, we’ll do them ourselves. During production, we’ll send our people to control it.”

“Our people? If it’s this hard to guard against, besides you and me, how much money would it take to buy off our people?”

Liu Shitang punched the sofa armrest, staying silent. Indeed, when profits reach a certain level, some people would even risk their lives in drug trafficking – what about buying off a few people? Seeing this, Liu Jun said, “Dad, let’s immediately apply for patents at the same time. Contracts plus patents – double insurance.”

“Contracts are useless, so are patents useful? Equally useless.”

“We must believe in the law.”

Liu Shitang simply couldn’t listen to his son’s words. Having worked for so many years, didn’t he know what contracts and patents amounted to? They controlled good people, not bad ones. But his mental abacus clicked back and forth – building his heat treatment workshop with current funds, even selling all the street-front property and his own house, wouldn’t be enough. It probably wouldn’t even cover basic civil construction and electrical equipment. And renting from others, modifying – a bad investment could result in data being sold, with equally high costs. The risks were similar to giving work to Shi Yiji. He thought and thought, couldn’t come up with a solution for the moment, so he told his son to go rest first while he quietly thought of the best approach alone.

Liu Jun saw it was still early, so he first went to the factory, planning to get materials and start considering the design outline for the first product. Since he was at Qianjin Factory, naturally, he couldn’t let the big oven in heat preservation mode sit idle. After a busy session, Liu Jun had just sat on what was now his designated anvil when he suddenly thought of Aunt Fu’s notebook. But looking around, there was nothing that looked like a notebook. Liu Jun’s mind went “boom” – blank for a while. He immediately called his father and asked Aunt Fu to take the call.

Aunt Fu kept saying she remembered putting it in her bag, and if it wasn’t in the bag, it must have been left in the workshop. But if it wasn’t in the workshop either… Aunt Fu cried when Liu Jun questioned her. Liu Jun didn’t have the heart to ask further. After hanging up, he carefully searched everywhere again, his messy, long hair almost becoming a broom. Before he could finish searching completely, his father called again.

“Ah Jun, I’ve asked around and searched here too – nothing. Is it serious?”

“I’ll check my work notes to see if that data is sensitive. In any case, losing it is not good.” He cradled the phone with his neck, hurriedly flipping through records. Since he had done all this work himself, he naturally understood it at a glance. “Dad, fortunately, it’s not good news, but it’s not terrible either. The data from this period jumps around a lot – organizing it wouldn’t be easy. Forget it.”

“Are you suspicious?”

“No evidence. Besides, Aunt Fu has worked at our house for years and has been fine in all other respects – we should trust her. Dad, promise me it’s okay.”

Liu Shitang reluctantly agreed, indeed taking no measures against the tearful Aunt Fu. But he found her unpleasant to look at and huffed back to his room to sleep.

Liu Jun carefully reviewed his work notes and thought it over. He could only sigh and put the matter aside. Only then did he remember he didn’t know if he’d replied to his girlfriend’s fax. He hurried back to the office and saw his girlfriend’s long reply. Finally, on this day, there was some sunshine on his head. Liu Jun was overjoyed.

What also made Liu Jun happy was that the next day at work, Aunt Fu gave him the notebook originally thought was lost.

Although the notebook was recovered, Liu Jun didn’t dare to be careless. That same day he prepared for both possibilities, going to the Industrial and Commercial Bureau to inquire about patent applications. Though the people at the bureau answered one question for every three asked, he still managed to get materials and found a patent agency recognized by the bureau to handle patent application representation.

Liu Shitang watched his son working happily, feeling no confidence at all, but having no other options. His son’s drawing and design work had already begun. He saw his son using software called CAD to draw on that clunky computer, completely unlike the design drawings he was familiar with. His son’s abilities made Liu Shitang very proud, so he would stand behind his son watching whenever he had time, not even knowing what he was looking at. However, with the drawing knowledge remaining in his head, he knew these drawings could be understood just like the usual ones.

After his son’s drawings were completed, Liu Shitang immediately took them to have them drawn and blueprinted. Nowadays such work was done by specialists, unlike the past when factories had to employ draftsmen and maintain blueprint rooms reeking of ammonia.