When Liu Jun returned to his alma mater for a few days, he discovered dramatic changes from before he went abroad. Besides the ever-changing buildings, there were earth-shaking changes in thinking and concepts. Those professors who originally refused to openly discuss filthy money now understood very well how to use their titles rather than research achievements to exchange for monetary income. Liu Jun also had ulterior motives—he grabbed a classmate who had stayed to pursue graduate studies and was about to be promoted to associate professor to filter through the department’s research achievements in recent years. He couldn’t find anything suitable for Tengfei, but he still signed a five-year joint R&D agreement with the department at a hefty price, paid annually. The key point was “joint,” not “R&D.” With his alma mater’s resounding reputation, this “joint” was worth real gold and silver when taken out.

This large sum of money pained Liu Jun like cutting flesh—calculated, it could buy land and build workshops. But as the saying goes, you can’t catch a wolf without sacrificing the child. Compared to Shen Huadong’s investment for high-tech enterprise status, his was already small potatoes compared to a big deal. At least he came from a prestigious university background, and once in university, classmates were everywhere—full of insider connections, naturally much easier to negotiate than Shen Huadong. Shen Huadong had jointly built a laboratory with a university.

Returning home, he presided over improving the trial samples returned from Eastern Sea Group. Many legendary stories describe the invention of new things as truly a head-slapping moment of inspiration, with answers striking like lightning through mediocre reality, bringing light and electricity to modern civilization. Reality, however, was both stupid and bitter, extremely boring—several groups working in division of labor, massive calculations, massive testing, massive analysis. Anyone with slightly less patience could endure three days, but absolutely couldn’t endure a week. The process could only be described with two words: tedious.

But Liu Jun was different now from before—he also had to manage the company’s daily operations and the Tengfei Company’s annual R&D achievements symposium scheduled after Spring Festival. Therefore, in the R&D center, he could only be a leader, coordinator, and decision-maker, while the specific research work gradually moved away from him.

When the product was perfectly presented, Liu Jun took it to Song Yunhui to show off his treasure. Song Yunhui looked at the product, then at Liu Jun, who carried the fatigue of just emerging from the laboratory and was eloquently introducing design improvement ideas, and surprisingly agreed in one breath to attend Tengfei’s R&D achievements symposium. Liu Jun jumped up with joy. With his former mentor, an engineering academician, and Song Yunhui, a regional authority, these two big names holding down the fort, his symposium’s level would naturally be extraordinary. Indeed, when he brought out these two people’s names and titles to invite members of the high-tech enterprise evaluation team to participate in the symposium, they honored him with their presence. This battle, with its intricate and extremely subtle interpersonal relationships, was Liu Jun’s first contact and first time sorting through. It wouldn’t kill him, but the relationships between people could make him dizzy. Such as not being able to invite B when inviting A, having to personally invite C, having to invite D before inviting E, seating arrangements having to be based on administrative levels, etc. If not for the assistance of an experienced administrative manager, Liu Jun seriously doubted he would have made a complete mess of things.

During this period, Liu Jun was almost exhausted mentally and physically, with no energy to update and upgrade products or eliminate products that had been imitated everywhere, with prices dropped to rock bottom. To maintain factory production, to give the company a normal appearance, to prevent employees from detecting the company’s difficulties so they could actively and confidently return to work after Spring Festival without anyone missing, even though product prices had fallen below the break-even line, Liu Jun still insisted on maintaining quality and quantity in production. He lost money every day of production, causing Liu Shitang’s heart to bleed. But employees didn’t know—they only knew this year’s wages and bonuses were quite good, and after the big Spring Festival break, they’d return to work on internationally leading new products. Next year will be better. Because of Liu Jun’s loss-making maintenance of morale, Liu Jun didn’t need to worry about personnel running away after the holiday this Spring Festival. The administrative manager also told him that some employees carefully inquired about company recruitment details before going home, hoping to introduce qualified relatives to work at the company. This showed that no matter how brilliant ideological work was, it couldn’t compare to the black and white numbers on wage slips for explaining problems.

After non-stop handling big and small matters, New Year’s Eve arrived. This New Year’s Eve was again just father and son spending it coldly together. Liu Jun was exhausted mentally and physically, too lazy to cook. The two of them called Auntie’s family to book a table for New Year’s Eve dinner at a restaurant. Unexpectedly, restaurants during Spring Festival were equally lively—the restaurant they went to was full, and without reservations, entry was declined. After eating, father and son parked their car at a hotel parking lot with lingering fear, walked home slowly while tipsy against the northwest wind, watching fireworks occasionally stolen into the sky.

Looking at his thin son beside him, Liu Shitang was unusually emotional. “This whole past year was particularly hard. But in this past year, we earned more money than all I’d earned before combined. Moreover, no matter how hard it was, we, father and son, consulted with each other. Even when we couldn’t reach conclusions, we could still share the hardships. I worked particularly steadily this past year. Ah Jun, you were right to come back.”

“Dad, I’m no longer a fish that’s been hooked, but cooked and served on the table—impossible to jump around anymore. Can you now tell me the truth—were you sick or fake sick the year before last?” Seeing his father remain silent, Liu Jun added, “If you were sick, I’ll take you to see a friend’s father during this Spring Festival holiday—he’s a famous cardiovascular specialist.”

Liu Shitang wanted to avoid answering, but his son wouldn’t fall for his tricks and kept pressing this question. He could only sheepishly admit, “I used this last resort to trick you into coming the year before last.”

“I knew it, I knew it! You made my girlfriend fly away with someone else, you made me grow so many gray hairs, you made me suffer and worry myself to death with vulgarity, you’re making me furious! I won’t spend the holiday with you tomorrow—I’m flying to Hong Kong to have fun.”

“Going with your girlfriend? Let Dad see her…” Liu Shitang could only accompany him with a full smile.

“No girlfriend—where’s the time to date? I wear clothes from three years ago every day. Even the least materialistic girl wouldn’t want me. Tomorrow I’m going with Dongdong and a few others—already signed up early. What about you, Dad? Do you have plans to remarry?”

“Too busy these two years, no mind for it. Wait until your new product’s market stabilizes. As long as the new product can be made for a few more years, once I open up the market, I can throw it to others to run. We’ll talk about it then.”

“Don’t think I don’t know about your nightly revelries—what are you pretending?”

“Brat, am I you? Show some respect when you speak.”

“I don’t care about others, but I have one requirement—don’t let Qian Hongying through the door.”

“Qian Hongying? She’s doing very well now, she’s a strong woman. Don’t be too calculating about how people live their lives. What’s so good about an old man like me? Now, if you put me in front of her, she might not even look at me. Don’t you know?”

“I don’t want to know. Looks like the siblings have had their fortunes turn.”

“That boy Qian Hongming keeps one eye looking ahead and one eye watching you, comparing himself to you every day. This kind of person shouldn’t be deeply befriended—too unfathomable.”

“Hongming is quite good—cultured enough, brotherly enough.”

“Qian Hongming is quite good? Let me tell you, he has a mistress outside, very beautiful, who hasn’t even graduated from university yet. He bought her a car and rented her an apartment, keeping her. What, you didn’t know? Don’t glare at me like I would slander that boy Qian Hongming. If you don’t believe it, when school starts, I’ll go with you to catch them.”

“Good Lord, I thought I was the one surrounded by romantic encounters, being chased by girls causing chaos everywhere. Turns out Qian Hongming is the one who silently takes action. No wonder, no wonder…” He had always felt Qian Hongming was incredibly busy—how could running foreign trade be busier than running his small factory? Now he finally understood. Thinking of Jiali as an outsider girl with almost zero social circle locally, who could only rely on him, Qian Hongming’s buddy, even to go out and play, he felt deep sorrow for Jiali and was very, very angry with Qian Hongming. Logically, having experienced the bitterness of his sister being someone’s mistress, Qian Hongming should detest that ugly set of affairs. How could he, just after becoming successful, head straight for that ugly behavior? And Qian Hongming had also kept it from him. “Dad, did Qian Hongying tell you this? Your relationship is pretty good.”

“Qian Hongying, those siblings, hehe, they know how to behave! Don’t worry about how I know. You’re simple-minded—I have to keep an eye on your surroundings for you. You should play more with people like Shen Huadong—least likely to suffer losses.”

Liu Jun ignored him, lost in confused thoughts, shocked speechless by the matter of Qian Hongming keeping a mistress.