Liu Jun’s explanation to his father was much more straightforward. Like buying a house – if you can’t come up with a lump sum payment, then use a mortgage. The investment isn’t too damaging, changing a one-time large investment into a steady stream of five or ten-year payments. A mortgaged house with property rights can be rented out to supplement mortgage payments. By extending the timeframe for robot R&D and through organic management coordination, not only can most of the original R&D order be kept intact and the impact on current normal production arrangements reduced, but achievements from the robot development process can be continuously applied to provide feedback for the enormous funding investment in the robot R&D project. Of course, in the end, just like obtaining full property rights when a mortgage is paid off, Tengfei will own the final results of robot R&D.
Liu Jun also told his father that, to motivate intellectuals at the R&D center, besides bonuses, there needed to be a representative project that would make people’s blood boil. This mentality of technical personnel might seem incomprehensible or even impractical to some people, but he understood it because he was such a person himself. Liu Jun hoped his father would understand and tolerate the company’s slightly slowed development momentum, and tolerate the company’s profits being unable to be used for scale expansion or luxurious spending in the coming years.
Liu Shitang could only accept it, but thinking of how the Qian siblings quickly made money, quickly got rich, and quickly transformed themselves, Liu Shitang felt uncomfortable. How could his son’s glory be overshadowed by Qian Hongming? But no matter how anxious he was, it was useless – if his son wasn’t anxious, it meant Tengfei wasn’t anxious. With the company developed to this stage, this old man already had the will but lacked the power. He couldn’t even recognize all the equipment in the workshop. The machine tools he used to kick when angry now had to be carefully tended, with some requiring humidity and temperature control. But fortunately, his replacement was his son – the Yangtze River’s waves push forward the waves ahead, and this front wave could die without regret.
Relatively speaking, dialogue with Song Yunhui was effortless. Although Song Yunhui regretted that Tengfei couldn’t participate in Donghai No. 1 development, he appreciated the firm beliefs Liu Jun still possessed after rolling around in society for so many years, as well as the courage to bravely pursue those beliefs. Song Yunhui came from an engineering background and deeply knew how inappropriate technical transformation work was in China. Every industry insider could cite various reasons to avoid R&D investment, and they could understand them all. But understanding didn’t mean approval, much less respect. If previously, he and Liu Jun could be said to share similar interests, with a kind of top-down appreciation and elder-like mentorship toward Liu Jun, then from this moment on, he regarded Liu Jun as an equal.
Song Yunhui told Liu Jun, “Since I proposed the joint development of Donghai No. 1, I’ve had relevant departments continuously collect reactions from foreign equipment suppliers. From the intense reactions of foreign equipment manufacturers, including extensive probing of Donghai No. 1’s load capacity, precision, and other data, as well as various statements released through certain departments, I see even more the necessity and urgency of our work. For us, foreign equipment manufacturers’ reactions are both a spur and tremendous encouragement. Why? Because when we proposed localization ten years ago, they weren’t so anxious, indicating they thought we absolutely couldn’t do it then – they wrote us off. But now it’s hard to say. I’m collecting more reactions from all parties and preparing to convene experts to discuss Donghai No. 1’s enormous significance, hoping to obtain national funding support through this. You starting work now is a good thing – remember to report new progress promptly.”
If others heard Song Yunhui’s words, they might say: Just do your job well, why care so much about others? But Liu Jun completely understood the profound meaning behind Song Yunhui’s “tremendous encouragement.” After returning to China, he had a deeper understanding of the phrase “backwardness invites aggression.” He used to think that having money meant being able to buy desired equipment, but that wasn’t the case. First, he would encounter high-tech embargoes – often, a simple statement that “this equipment can be applied to precision weapons manufacturing” could veto his order with one vote. Second, equipment that only a few companies could make was ridiculously expensive, as if equipment suppliers had secretly signed offensive-defensive alliances against market rules, with attitudes toward Chinese buyers of not selling even for a penny less. Such arrogance. What humiliation meant didn’t require looking in a dictionary – those who had experienced it understood without instruction. Song Yunhui must also frequently hit walls, whether as a Chinese technical personnel or a Chinese enterprise manager – anyone with backbone would be holding back a bellyful of anger. So seeing the other side restless upon hearing Donghai No. 1 was starting – how could pride not rise from the heart? But of course, this also generated a must-succeed, can-not-fail determination.
Inspired by Song Yunhui’s words, Liu Jun grabbed his two classmates to talk about that distant Donghai No. 1. They stayed in a simple hotel – while it was blazing hot during the day at Devil City, nights were cool as water. Outside the window was wind howling like wolves, inside were three excited hearts. Liu Jun’s confidence in the robot R&D project became increasingly firm.
Cui Bingbing, at Liu Jun’s invitation, went to pick him up from the airport after work. During this period, while Liu Jun traveled in Xinjiang, he thought about Cui Bingbing more than when he was home. He made up his mind to patiently work on Cui Bingbing’s thinking when he returned, not to be impatient, use charm tactics when needed, be humble when necessary, and not let Cui Bingbing’s emotions become abnormal. Wasn’t Cui Bingbing worried he’d ignore her when he returned? Then he’d show her with actual actions, sticking with her from the moment he got off the plane.
The flight was delayed. Cui Bingbing ate some expensive and unpalatable snacks at the airport, taking deep breaths from time to time to suppress her restless heart. But heaven was playing tricks – the more nervous she became, the later the announced arrival time got pushed back. When Liu Jun finally appeared at the exit, Cui Bingbing found herself nearly suffocating. After ten days apart, Liu Jun was tanned like charcoal and had lost some weight, but he was in high spirits, carrying a camera bag like a big boy under thirty. Watching Liu Jun wait for his luggage, Cui Bingbing repeatedly recited in her mind the lines she’d summarized these past days: she loved Liu Jun, but she loved herself more. She discovered that loving Liu Jun was making her increasingly lose herself, becoming unrecognizable, crazy, without self-respect, no longer A’San at all. Therefore, she decided to let go of her love for Liu Jun and find herself again.
But when she fell into Liu Jun’s embrace and truly felt the love and desire, joy, and longing transmitted through that embrace, she wavered again. How could she give up this person? She absolutely wouldn’t give up – instead, she should learn to persist in being herself in the face of love. So she swallowed all her prepared lines and happily followed Liu Jun down to the parking lot. The brief separation was better than a new marriage – after another round of tossing, one was willing to yield and the other was willing to yield too, so everything was easy to communicate in bed, and the agreement was roughly decided. Since the agreement was settled, the wedding date could also be added to the agenda.
Cui Bingbing’s only insistence was that income belonged to each person individually, though she no longer insisted that Liu Jun support the family entirely. Liu Jun thought the agreement could be signed this way and everyone would be at peace, but when the time came for him to give Cui Bingbing gifts, that couldn’t be counted as violating the agreement.
Liu Jun quickly devoted his energy to subdividing the robot project components, detailed budgeting, and implementation plan formulation. His and Cui Bingbing’s wedding was instead handled by Liu Shitang, who had nothing else to do. Liu Shitang loved gimmicks, excitement, and face – if the city’s currently best hotel wasn’t owned by Yang Xun, he would have booked the wedding banquet at the best hotel. Now he had to reluctantly settle for second best, but he was willing to spend money. He worked hard on food, drinks, and wine, studying the menu back and forth several times before deciding. Liu Shitang was most satisfied with the prenuptial agreement his son signed. Only then did he discover that the more capable women were in their careers, the more naive they were, not caring about meeting gifts, betrothal gifts, jewelry, and such, not demanding villa renovations, being easy to talk to about almost everything. Even the wedding dress and new soft furnishings for the villa were bought with Cui Bingbing’s own money, and she seemed never to mention it in front of Liu Jun. Liu Shitang observed coldly, thinking this was subsidizing them – any other woman would have swallowed this anger long ago.
Since they were already family, Liu Shitang wasn’t one to lose the forest for the trees. He secretly reminded his son not to take too much advantage of the girl and had his son find opportunities to transfer some money to his daughter-in-law’s account for convenient use.
Cui Bingbing was very beautiful on the wedding day, but when her father led her and handed her over to Liu Jun, she couldn’t help whispering to Liu Jun: “Damn, not like A’San again.” So Cui Bingbing acted as if nothing had happened, remaining calm and composed, while Liu Jun burst out laughing and continued for a long time.
Song Yunhui was very considerate, attending the wedding with his wife Liang Sishen. When Liu Jun came over to toast, he smiled and openly said: “Come find me right after your honeymoon – I’ll give you a big gift.”
Liu Jun looked at Liang Sishen, who was also smiling mysteriously beside him, and curiously asked: “Can you reveal a thing or two?”
“Rest assured and take your honeymoon. Come find me after it’s over – no being late or leaving early.”
Liu Jun instinctively thought of Song Yunhui’s Donghai No. 1 project and his robot project, and his eyes couldn’t help but show more delight. Shen Baotian, sitting next to Song Yunhui, added icing on the cake: “Mr. Song always supports the younger generation so much.”
Qian Hongming also came, bringing Jiali and Xiao Suihua, sitting with Liu Jun’s other high school classmates, filling exactly two tables. Qian Hongming was quite moved. When he and Jiali married, they were still at the starting stage of their careers, money was so tight, and extra money had to go into their parents’ medicine bottles. Therefore, they didn’t hold a wedding ceremony – just eating at one table with his colleagues the first night after getting their marriage certificate, and one table with Jiali’s colleagues the second night, which counted as announcing their marriage. After the wedding ended and they said goodbye to Liu Jun, Qian Hongming said to Jiali: “Let’s have another wedding ceremony – it looks very interesting. Xiao Suihua could be the flower girl.”
“If you want excitement, go find excitement with a beautiful actress – I won’t accompany you in this nonsense.”
Qian Hongming laughed upon hearing this: “What about wedding photos then? To commemorate our tenth wedding anniversary. Yes, I’ll go inquire tomorrow – you’re not allowed to refuse this.”
Jiali smiled with pursed lips and stopped refusing. As night fell, Xiao Suihua was tired, lying drowsily in her mother’s arms, listening to her parents talk. She had lived comfortably from childhood – her father held up the sky for her, her mother arranged everything for her. She loved her parents, and her life was carefree and worry-free. She only hated the piano. She didn’t know why her good father always became serious when she didn’t want to play piano. She felt that such a big piano was so oppressive.