If it had been a year ago, Liu Jun would have properly reported to police the moment he saw feces splattered on the front door. But this time, he was the one who stopped his father from calling, asking whether reporting to the police would be useful. At this time, with such a small case and a private grudge, without extra bribes, probably no one would take it seriously. Instead, they would have to face the police during the big holiday and dig up old matters one by one. Reporting to the police had a negative cost-benefit ratio.
Liu Shitang thought about it and agreed. For such small matters, if they bribed extra, they might not break even, and given the management level of the residential community, they might not find the culprit anyway. So father and son swallowed this loss and worked together to clean up the entrance. But how could the foul smell throughout the stairwell be easily removed? Father and son endured countless dirty looks from neighbors going up and down the stairs with festive spirits.
While cleaning, father and son continuously discussed one question: who did it? The discussion process was a painful review of all the unpleasant events of the past year or so. Some so many people might come to vent their anger: former Qianjin Factory workers who were laid off after being transferred to Shi Yiji; Aunt Fu and her son; the family of the worker who died on the job who still hadn’t received compensation from the work injury fund after six months; the family of the employee who stole blueprints; and Yang Xun. But Liu Jun felt Yang Xun was impossible. Though he held grudges against Yang Xun, Yang Xun had taken all the advantages and in his heart had long considered this matter closed – he wouldn’t go to such lengths during Spring Festival to think up such a rogue move.
Both father and son agreed that the most likely culprits were Aunt Fu and her son, who had been extremely angry when released from custody. Seeing his father’s explosive rage, Liu Jun was even more certain it had to be Aunt Fu. Having worked in the Liu household for many years, Aunt Fu had long figured out Liu Shitang’s temperament and naturally knew best how to hit Liu Shitang’s weak spot with minimal cost.
Liu Shitang was indeed badly hurt. After cleaning up, he took out his cologne and sprayed the hallway, then instead of visiting relatives for New Year greetings or waiting for relatives to visit, he dragged his son out into the north wind. After great difficulty getting a taxi, they first rushed to a temple to burn incense, worship Buddha, and cleanse the bad luck. In Liu Shitang’s understanding, filthy objects carried foul energy, and foul energy meant bad luck – encountering bad luck when opening the door on the first day of the New Year was not a good omen.
Liu Jun was amusingly dragged by his father into the temple, but unexpectedly found extremely vigorous incense burning, with many good men and faithful women who looked distinguished, constantly exchanging New Year greetings with his father. What surprised Liu Jun even more was that those believers had burned incense several steps ahead of them and were now heading home one after another. When his father spent big money on bamboo-pole-tall incense, Liu Jun saw a group of familiar people – the four Yang siblings and a group of sisters-in-law, all in cashmere coats, quite an imposing procession. Liu Jun turned away, pretending not to see. Of course, no one from the Yang family came to greet him either. However, Liu Jun still noticed the huge prayer beads hanging from Yang Xun’s wrist. Liu Jun thought, ah, so Yang Xun also has faith.
During the holiday, Qian Hongming proudly dragged Liu Jun to see his new house bought with a mortgage. Urban land was precious, so naturally, they built high-rises. The building was already topped out, scaffolding not yet removed, but from ground level, one could already see its grandeur. Qian Hongming said smugly, “I bought the 28th floor of the tallest building among the three buildings. In the future, I can gaze at you from afar, and at night, we can flash searchlights as signals. No, you get a laser transmitter and we’ll communicate by laser.”
Liu Jun laughed, “Your building is a slab building, mine is a tower building. What faces you is Yang Li’s unit – you’ll be flirting with her in the future. Honestly, is foreign trade really this profitable?”
Qian Hongming considered for a moment before saying, “I used to always lament that we were dying in foreign trade, working ourselves to death. Since seeing your hardships this past year, I’ll never complain in front of you again. When the branch office opened last year, I had once ambitiously thought that after a year, when business stabilized, I would open a factory to specifically handle orders I received myself. Now I have no such thoughts. But hardship aside, have you calculated whether your profits from these months of operation are higher, or mine are higher?”
Liu Jun thought for a while, “My profits aren’t low, but relative to our respective initial capital, my asset output ratio isn’t high.”
“Right, I can get loans easily, you can’t. Honestly, thinking back, I still break out in a cold sweat. If our boss hadn’t held me back then, if I had resigned to go solo, where would I have found a big tree to lean against for shade, allowing me to open letters of credit so conveniently? If I had resigned to go solo then, I would have had to learn from you, accumulating capital bit by bit through hardship, not knowing when I could make it big. Looking back now, doing anything requires leaning on the big tree of the state, being the state’s beloved son – the state has the richest resources.”
“So we’re illegitimate children from concubines.” Liu Jun nodded repeatedly, “No wonder last year I couldn’t keep an employee who planned to take the civil service exam. Working in state enterprises is like the main wife managing accounts, working for private enterprises is like washing feet for concubines…”
“Stop, stop, let’s not complain during the New Year. Did your former employee pass the civil service exam?”
“He passed. That guy was bold and careful – he wouldn’t have resigned to take the test without confidence. He told me the other day that he landed a position in the Planning Committee, don’t know what connections he dug up. I quickly reflected on whether I had offended him when I managed him before – it seems like I didn’t. You see, in ‘Dream of the Red Chamber,’ would Concubine Zhao dare offend Ping’er? She wouldn’t dare.”
“Wrong, Ping’er is like me, people in government offices… those are all masters, lords!” Qian Hongming only discussed such topics in front of Liu Jun, but he quickly changed the subject – not deliberately, but from habitual caution that had become involuntary. He chatted with Liu Jun about his daughter Xiao Suihua, going on endlessly. But seeing Liu Jun still looking up uncomfortably to find where his house was located, he couldn’t help but become smug again, “This is called the pinnacle of the city. I originally wanted to buy the top floor, but everyone says top floors leak, and supposedly, the water pump motors above high-rise top floors are also very noisy, so I had to settle for second best. The 28th floor wasn’t easy to buy – I still had to use connections through my sister to get it. Not hiding it from you, the day I signed the purchase contract, I took Jiali and Xiao Suihua to Shanghai to stay on the 28th floor of a hotel for a day. Although Shanghai has many skyscrapers, being on the 28th floor still felt great, even our Xiao Suihua loved it. Only Jiali was afraid of facing the floor-to-ceiling windows, saying during typhoon weather, who would dare go near floor-to-ceiling windows – if you fell, forget dying from the fall, probably every cell would be shattered. Haha.”
Liu Jun watched Qian Hongming’s self-satisfaction and hearty laughter, laughing along. But even in the happiest moments, whenever he thought of roll call on the first day back to work after Spring Festival, his heart would involuntarily skip a beat and his eyes would involuntarily lose focus. He knew Qian Hongming had no similar worries – at his company, people fought tooth and nail just to find connections to get in.
In anxious waiting, time flew to the seventh day of the new year. Liu Jun couldn’t stay home and went to the company to play with the two Rottweilers, but his heart was entirely focused on the front gate. Every time he saw an employee returning with bags large and small, he would loudly greet them in welcome, mentally noting the count, but one nerve grew increasingly tense. In the evening, he saw the administrative manager’s Xiali car hurrying over. When they met, both understood without words – the administrative manager was also worried about tomorrow’s attendance and had come to check the dormitories first. Having someone who shared his urgency and concerns, Liu Jun was very moved, genuinely feeling his efforts had been rewarded. He didn’t ask for much.
The next morning, Liu Jun stood by the time clock to welcome everyone back for the first day of work in the new year as their boss. The administrative manager also came to work early, standing behind Liu Jun. Both had smiles on their faces but were tense inside.
According to time clock rules, to reduce confusion, employees found their attendance cards from the card box, punched in, then threw the cards beside the time clock, with security handling the later organization of putting attendance cards back in the box. Therefore, Liu Jun didn’t need to count heads – he just had to occasionally glance at the card box to see how many cards remained, meaning how many people hadn’t reported for duty. The administrative manager was experienced and, seeing the boss’s facial muscles abnormally rigid, even twitching, while facing the card box, quickly pulled the boss to face the opposite direction, backs to the card box, to avoid excessive stimulation and impropriety in front of employees. Liu Jun went with the flow, not daring to look back.
Finally, the eight o’clock bell rang. The administrative manager coughed lightly and said softly, “General Manager Liu, don’t turn around first, guess how many didn’t come.”
“From your relaxed tone, it should be less than five.”
The administrative manager was about to speak when another employee came rushing in with bags and bundles, saw the time was past eight o’clock, and stamped his feet repeatedly. But that employee encountered the most benevolent and kind faces from the boss and the administrative manager. Because seeing that employee enter, the administrative manager announced a string of numbers, “Before the holiday, twelve people requested leave until the tenth, seven people requested leave until the ninth – logically, nineteen people should be absent today. But subtracting this employee who just arrived, only thirteen cards remain unpunched, meaning six people returned from leave early. Those who didn’t request leave before the holiday – all present!”
“Holy shit.” Liu Jun swore rapidly, still feeling unsatisfied, added another “Holy shit.” Only then did he turn to look at the card box, seeing the sparse thirteen cards, and loudly said, “What does this mean? Ah, what does this mean?”
“Although I know flattery brings happiness,” the administrative manager said elegantly, “I’m getting old and am too embarrassed to say certain things out loud.”
Liu Jun laughed heartily and beat his chest, “I’m satisfied, my efforts have been recognized. I love you all!”
The administrative manager quickly stepped aside to avoid being publicly embraced by Liu Jun.
Similarly, the loan also had an auspicious start. Liu Jun personally went to the bank to handle procedures after the holiday. It went so smoothly, it seemed like a dream – he got his first loan. Although afterward he treated them to another meal and the loan officer stuffed him an envelope with over 6,000 yuan in receipts for reimbursement, Liu Jun already felt this was unexpectedly smooth. Liu Shitang couldn’t believe loans could be this simple. So Liu Shitang also very progressively began saying that eliminating monopolies was good, and competition between banks was good. Otherwise, where would enterprises like theirs have opportunities for loans?
Getting the loan, Liu Jun made an immediate decision: reduce prices!
Price reduction was a panacea in fully competitive markets. Since starting his career, Liu Shitang experienced for the first time the wonderful feeling of customers proactively calling him. The full return of employees, smooth bank loans, and strong market response filled Liu Shitang with somewhat even blind confidence in his son.