Liu Jun had long anticipated that Dong Qiyang’s worth would be considerable. This was precisely one of the reasons why, despite his eager desire for talent, he had hesitated to invite Dong Qiyang to join. Moreover, Dong Qiyang had deep qualifications – when Shi Yiji had invited him to join back then, they had offered him the position of general manager. So while Liu Shitang still occupied the position of chief sales officer, bringing Dong Qiyang in would be unworkable, as how could Tengfei possibly offer only a deputy general manager position with limited authority? Now that Liu Shitang himself felt overwhelmed, the opportunity to invite Dong Qiyang had arrived.

But what Liu Jun hadn’t anticipated was that Dong Qiyang would propose equity requirements, and right off the bat, a substantial amount. Liu Jun immediately gave up and surrendered. If he agreed, his financial structure would require complete restructuring; he would need to establish a dedicated finance department for the company, equip it with experienced cost accountants, and make various other similar arrangements. Deep down, Liu Jun didn’t want to abandon the company’s currently well-functioning organizational structure. However, Dong Qiyang told Liu Jun that if Tengfei wanted to grow big, equity incentives were an inevitable trend – only equity could motivate the enthusiasm of key personnel. Liu Jun countered by asking: his Tengfei wasn’t going public anyway, so what difference was there between equity incentives and bonus incentives? It was just changing the name – essentially the same wine in a different bottle.

When Dong Qiyang heard Liu Jun say he wouldn’t go public, he looked like someone seeing a soldier who didn’t want to become a general – even his best composure couldn’t contain his dumbfounded expression. For a senior executive, the ultimate purpose of wanting shares wasn’t dividends – how much could dividends be, especially in this society where bosses had all sorts of ways to cook the books and create losses? Waiting for dividends was simply too naive a dream, one that shouldn’t be held by executives. Only going public – that was practically a sure-fire profitable business. If not going public, who would be willing to get up early and work late, suffering in a manufacturing enterprise? Although Dong Qiyang didn’t agree to join Tengfei, he kindly advised Liu Jun to recognize the benefits of going public and to guide Tengfei’s development toward the direction of public listing. Otherwise, relying on a manufacturing enterprise to strive for profits one component at a time to accumulate capital – when would that ever end? It was too slow.

Liu Jun returned defeated, having no choice but to reluctantly abandon his ambition to hire Dong Qiyang. When he told his friends about it upon returning, Luo Qing jumped out and said, “I’ll do it!”

Liu Jun almost couldn’t believe his ears, staring blankly at this young man who was thirty years old by Chinese reckoning. Luo Qing was the one who had once strongly pursued the noble social status and good benefits of being a civil servant, which was why he had resolutely jumped ship from Tengfei. Now he wanted to come back? “You’re doing well, already promoted to section chief level with unlimited prospects. What are you coming out for? Stay properly embedded in the government offices – in the future, when our Tengfei needs things done, we’ll find you for everything.”

Luo Qing said, “Manager Liu, please believe in my abilities. You can let Old Manager Liu continue to be responsible for sales first, while I slowly learn. I believe sales depend on two things: first, overall strategic vision, and second, interpersonal skills. My years in government offices have been enough for a crash course in both. Besides, I haven’t let my technical skills slide. For Tengfei, having a salesperson who understands technology matches the company’s image.”

Liu Jun thought for a long while, then said: “You’re very familiar with Tengfei. You need to think this through clearly and must discuss it with your family. Tengfei certainly won’t hold you back, but you’re a promising young section chief, and the value of an official position…” Liu Jun shook his head. “Don’t let your head get overheated. I don’t want you to sacrifice too much to accommodate Tengfei. Once you leave that position, it’ll be very hard to go back.”

“Manager Liu, I only ask you one thing: am I qualified?”

“I couldn’t ask for more.”

“Manager Liu, please give me time. Sometimes in government offices, you can argue for several days and still not get one small thing done. When I come back to Tengfei and see everyone doing practical work earnestly, I’m often psychologically impacted. Then I often wonder: what exactly am I pursuing by jumping from place to place, and what counts as truly being human? I’m not saying government offices are bad, but I might not be suitable. Speaking more practically, Tengfei won’t shortchange me materially.”

Liu Jun was stirred by Luo Qing’s words, his heart burning with excitement, but he still said calmly: “I need a phone call of consent from your wife, and also from your parents.”

Liu Jun didn’t believe that Luo Qing would truly resign from his civil service section chief position to work at Tengfei. At most, it was just hot-blooded talk, and then after going home and being pulled back and forth by his wife and parents, he’d probably have dropped the idea long ago. A section chief with real power – not to mention the current salary, bonuses from high-salary clean governance policies, and comprehensive cradle-to-grave welfare benefits, just the small gifts people brought when asking for favors (not cash envelopes, but actual items) meant that Luo Qing could often bring seafood and fruits to share with Tengfei friends. Not to mention discounts everywhere he went – just the discounted housing purchases alone could save tens of thousands at once. The value was too high. If Luo Qing were his brother, he’d have to hold him down and educate him properly, not to easily give up the civil servant title.

Liu Jun went to the hospital for a physical examination – this was a unified health checkup that Tengfei had organized for all employees. When he came out of the hospital, he couldn’t help but call Jia Li first. He had borderline high blood pressure. Someone like him, with no family history, normal physical exercise, and low overall body fat percentage, had blood pressure high enough to be borderline – one more step up and it would be genuine high blood pressure. Fortunately, Jia Li comforted him, saying this was all caused by excessive stress, and that he should pay attention to balancing work and rest, arranging time for leisure, and his blood pressure might come down. Liu Jun was half-believing, half-doubting, and detoured to his prospective father-in-law’s place to seek advice. His prospective father-in-law was naturally much more thorough, almost having Liu Jun undergo another more comprehensive examination to rule out high blood pressure caused by organic lesions before reaching conclusions similar to Jia Li’s.

During dinner, Liu Jun obediently listened to his prospective father-in-law talk about cultivating the mind and character for the entire meal time, but as soon as dinner was finished, Cui Bingbing completely overturned everything with one sentence: “If he goes one day without scolding people, that day’s defect rate is guaranteed to remain high.”

His prospective father-in-law said, “One can convince with reason; scolding people isn’t necessarily the solution.”

“Dad, it depends on the situation. On a battlefield, if someone disobeys military orders, they’d even shoot them dead with a bullet. In factories, especially workshops, being direct is most effective. Being wishy-washy is the style of your hospital and other public institutions. Even my bank doesn’t talk so nicely anymore.”

“I’m not that rough, am I? I often do ideological work, and I use balance and indirect approaches.” Liu Jun couldn’t help but think of the scene he’d witnessed before of Yang Xun scolding Shi Yiji’s management personnel until they were completely compliant. He didn’t have Yang Xun’s presence.

“You even get physical. Don’t glare at me – I’ve seen it. At that time, a maintenance worker didn’t clean properly and ignored some workshop supervisor’s orders, just walking away. You happened to pass by and used a claw-like grip to drag the maintenance worker back to redo the work. I saw that the maintenance worker complied and worked super fast. No? Don’t deny it – I saw it through the security camera.”

“Did I… really?” Liu Jun couldn’t remember in his mind. Every day, there were so many things; sometimes, there wasn’t time to think carefully. Many actions and words were subconscious reactions.

His prospective father-in-law looked worriedly at his daughter, then said to Liu Jun: “You should still change your temper, not just for your blood pressure, but also for friendly relations with colleagues and friends.”

“Dad, don’t worry. The company employees all trust him and comply with him quite well. He’s not a hooligan or ruffian, but sometimes the situation requires it. If he’s too scholarly, that won’t work either.” Seeing her father’s worried expression looking at her, she suddenly understood and quickly added: “Between the two of us, I’m the one who commits domestic violence – he doesn’t fight back when hit.”

But when Liu Jun left his prospective father-in-law’s house, he still couldn’t help asking Cui Bingbing: “Did I use a claw grip on that maintenance worker? Isn’t that very thuggish and negative? How could I do such a thing?”

“I didn’t do wrong to you. I saw it that day from the administrative manager’s office. The administrative manager also looked completely unsurprised when he saw it. After you used violence, you hurried away without staying at the scene to show off your power.”

“My God.” He had become Yang Xun. “Is my image now particularly like a rural entrepreneur?”

“More than that – more like a gangster thug. Not godfather level, of course, just a thug, a small-time leader, the kind who does physical work.”

Liu Jun rolled down the car window and turned the rearview mirror to look at himself intently, but was grabbed back by Cui Bingbing, who rolled up the window. “What are you looking at? As long as I think you’re handsome, that’s enough. If men are soft like dough, they’re doomed. I don’t like your friend Qian Hongming for exactly that reason – in Shanghai office buildings, you can grab a whole bunch of those slick, powdered-face types.”

“People like me – you can grab a whole bunch on construction sites too.”

“Not on construction sites, but having construction site temperament – that displacement, that split personality, is what’s precious.”

Back at the R&D center villa, Liu Jun took off his suit, changed into a white crew-neck T-shirt and colorful beach shorts, messed up his hair, and came out to ask Cui Bingbing: “Do I look like it?”

“You’re still missing a pair of foam slippers.” Cui Bingbing expressed her approval.

Liu Jun posed in front of the floor-length mirror, calling out to the German God, and immediately called the activity enthusiast Xiao Ke to arrange for R&D center personnel to go spring touring at Xiao Ke’s hometown over the weekend. But as soon as he finished that call, another call came in – there had been an accident in the production workshop. A thick rivet had fallen from the overhead crane and injured a worker on duty below. Cui Bingbing saw Liu Jun’s eyes bulge out as he threw down the phone, cursing the domestic crane manufacturer loudly, then made continuous calls to check on the scene handling situation, and finally went out to rush to the hospital to visit the injured worker.

Cui Bingbing followed him out with a grin, asking: “With your attitude, if the woman beside you were Sister Lin, would you scare her to death?”

“Sister Lin would have run away scared – only you remain by my side.”

“You damn rural enterprise, plague rural enterprise…” Cui Bingbing cursed angrily but didn’t dare move, because Liu Jun was backing up quickly at a speed that scared her to watch. “Drive slower on the road.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t speed. Fines are expensive.”