At this moment, Yang Xun called, inviting him and Mr. Wang to meet at Haoyuan Restaurant.
Out of politeness, Liu Jun handed his phone to Mr. Wang, letting Mr. Wang speak with his boss first. He heard Mr. Wang decline, saying he was very tired and unwilling to attend the banquet. Taking back the phone, he told Yang Xun that his best friend’s father had passed away yesterday and he couldn’t meet tonight, suggesting they arrange dinner another day instead.
After Liu Jun hung up, Mr. Wang spoke candidly: “This is a good opportunity, why not ask your friend for two hours off to attend the banquet?”
Liu Jun asked curiously: “What opportunity?”
“You came to Shi Yiji to discuss cooperation with Yang Xun, didn’t you? Regardless, Yang Xun does have substantial financial resources.”
“No, no, I have a hobby of visiting peers in the industry. So I’m very grateful for the generous hospitality from Yang Xun and Mr. Wang, opening Shi Yiji completely to me.”
Mr. Wang was surprised, but looked at Liu Jun with a smile, reaching out to pat Liu Jun’s shoulder and back, saying: “Rare, rare. But how to persist in pursuing interests and hobbies is even rarer. When you have the chance, you should still communicate well with Yang Xun. Even for those in technical fields, one needs to learn to spend seventy percent on interpersonal relations and thirty percent on actual work.”
“Thank you for the reminder, Mr. Wang. We also emphasize communication and teamwork over there, but spending seventy percent of time and energy on interpersonal relations—wouldn’t that be too much?”
“It won’t be too much. When doing business domestically, you’ll gradually understand this. Go home now. Feel free to contact me whenever you have interesting ideas. I’ll go home and organize some projects that have market demand, but Shi Yiji is reluctant to commit to R&D for you.”
“Thank you, Mr. Wang, you’re too kind.”
“No need to thank me. Having learned this, who wouldn’t want to create something? You have the energy and your financial resources to allocate—how enviable.”
“Mr. Wang, I hope to receive your guidance when I encounter problems in the future.”
Mr. Wang nodded, but said with concern: “This path isn’t easy to walk.”
Liu Jun’s mind flashed to that one-year deadline, but facing Mr. Wang’s earnest expectations, he felt guilty. Wasn’t he also harboring a short-term mentality of hitting and running? He suddenly felt rather despicable—he was irresponsibly exploiting Mr. Wang’s hopes and passion. For a moment, his heart was filled with conflict.
Qian Hongming never expected to receive a condolence call from Fourth Miss Yang, asking him to accept his grief and move on. It turned out that Yang Li had heard in her eldest brother’s office about Liu Jun’s friend’s father passing away. She immediately thought that friend must be Qian Hongming, whose face had suddenly changed color last night, and she had helped explain to her elder brother on Liu Jun’s behalf.
Qian Hongming thought to himself that Liu Jun was popular—even he, as a friend, was benefiting from the association. When Liu Jun called shortly after, he immediately said: “Yang Li just called to console me. Did you tell her? I hadn’t realized she was such a considerate person.”
“I didn’t tell her. Their whole family is very nice. Today, Shi Yiji was almost completely open for my visit, and a very good chief engineer accompanied me throughout with explanations. I’ve never received such good treatment.”
“Their whole family values you highly.”
“It’s my honor,” Liu Jun replied as if he didn’t catch the implication in Qian Hongming’s words. “What do you need me to do tonight? Just tell me.”
“Sigh, do you know where I am? Still at the hospital. My mother, upon hearing the tragic news, was also hospitalized. Since you’re offering, quickly get out paper and pen—I have many things for you to do. My house is out of rice. Please help me buy a bag from the supermarket—it must be Thai rice, and it must be marked as originating from Thailand. Half a liter of milk must be the Guangming brand. Two kinds of leafy green vegetables. Wild sea fish, about one pound. Sigh, it would be best if you could also cook, as Jia Li recently can’t stand the smell of cooking oil…”
“No problem. Aunt Fu at my house cooks excellently—I’ll have her prepare it for Jia Li. I can also leave instructions for Aunt Fu for tomorrow’s meals: have her make two green vegetable dishes and one wild sea fish dish, preferably with some meat too, right? For breakfast, besides milk, I’ll help Jia Li buy some bread and cakes. Haha, Hongming, you’re a good husband. What about for yourself?”
“I’ll just grab something at the hospital cafeteria. Jia Li’s situation is special. Thanks for the trouble—who told you to have a car? I suggest you find an opportunity to invite the Yang siblings for dinner.”
“Of course I will, but isn’t there a better way than dining? For instance, I could offer some suggestions on a product they’re currently working on—that would also be a way to show gratitude.”
“Discussing it over dinner would be more harmonious and natural, wouldn’t it?”
“Domestic dining is very wasteful—wasting time, money, and food…”
“Listen to me, this is the national condition.”
“Alright then. I feel like this has a flavor of borrowing and returning books from ‘Fortress Besieged.’ Is there anything else you need help with?”
“Nothing else. Liu Jun, thank you very much—you’ve already done more than enough.” Qian Hongming paused, and both people on either end of the phone knew what this meant. “Besides, we don’t plan to make a big affair of it. Honor parents while they’re alive; once people die, the light goes out—that’s it.”
But when Qian Hongming hung up, he let out a long sigh. Who says he didn’t want to make a grand affair? Because of poverty, he had endured countless cold looks since childhood. Now that he had modest assets, this was exactly the time to announce it to everyone. But he couldn’t act as he pleased. He understood human nature too well—people generally can’t stand seeing others succeed. If he dared not keep a low profile, who knows how much of his family’s dirty laundry would be dug up and exposed? And did he have the confidence to withstand such exposure?
After finishing his call, he returned to his mother’s bedside, quietly gazing at her gaunt face. Years ago, doctors had already informed him that his mother was simply counting down her days, and her surviving until now was already a miracle. But regardless, as long as parents had breath in them, how could their children not do their utmost? Take his sister, for example—she was truly burning herself out like a lamp running out of oil.
He also thought of how his sister had given him money last night, asking him to buy a similar brand of suit to return to Liu Jun. At that time, his sister was still wearing Liu Jun’s suit, sighing continuously, saying for the first time that she was sorry to Liu Jun, that Liu Jun definitely wouldn’t want back a suit she had worn. But Qian Hongming thought, if not for their parents’ illness and frailty, his sister had originally been a top student at school who could have attended the best university and lived with pride—why should she have to live so humbly? His sister’s heart held even less desire than his to make a grand affair of their father’s funeral. He didn’t know if his sister harbored resentment.
But as long as his mother still had breath in her, even though doctors said his mother’s living like this was worse than death, blood relations—this inexplicable bond of blood—meant Qian Hongming would exhaust all his financial and human resources to care for his ailing mother. It’s just that over the years, medical expenses had been rising almost vertically, making him feel increasingly strained. He worked desperately, strove desperately for advancement, but could barely keep up with the medical bills.
Facing the hospital bed, he sighed again.
Liu Shitang returned from his business trip, bringing back three contracts that could keep them busy for half a year. Liu Shitang was very satisfied with this. Although he could have secured these three contracts even without his son, upon returning, he attributed all the credit to his son, whether his son wanted it or not. On the day of his return, he gathered Old Huang, Old Xu, and others to assign work. Everything remained the same as before.
Liu Jun observed coldly, this time not inserting a single word. But a big question arose in his mind: his father could handle everything quite well on his own—the problems weren’t as serious as his father had worried about while lying in the hospital bed. But thinking of his father’s miserable state in the hospital, he couldn’t think further. Moreover, he questioned himself whether he was making excuses for his one-year deadline.
After his father finished his business, Liu Jun gathered a large pile of materials and caught his father to discuss his plans.
“Dad, these are materials that Chief Engineer Wang from Shi Yiji lent me…”
“You know Chief Engineer Wang from Shi Yiji?” Liu Shitang interrupted his son in surprise.
“I originally knew the sister of Yang Xun from Shi Yiji. Miss Yang is my neighbor—quite a coincidence. Through her and her elder brother’s arrangements, Chief Engineer Wang showed me around Shi Yiji. We don’t…”
“Wait, are you talking about Yang Xun?”
“Yes.”
“Yang Xun gave you such a big favor—have you expressed your gratitude?”
“I thanked him verbally, and I plan to…”
“Quickly give me the phone number—we’ll invite Yang Xun to dinner. Oh my… what a coincidence.”
Dining again! Liu Jun looked at his father’s excited face in bewilderment. “Dad, I’m trying to discuss business with you—don’t interrupt. I already told Miss Yang about treating them, after I help them solve a product quality problem, we’ll dine together. Dad, look at this diagram.”
Liu Shitang nodded, silently chanting “Miss Yang, Miss Yang” while contentedly looking up and down at his handsome son, beaming with joy. Yang Xun, Miss Yang, and Chief Engineer Wang—these weren’t people you could meet casually! There must be very profound reasons. Only when his son tapped him did he come back to his senses, but although his ears were listening to his son’s words, his mind was elsewhere. Boss Yang!
Liu Jun finally couldn’t stand it anymore: “Dad, are you listening?”
Liu Shitang quickly said: “Listening, listening. You want to make these high-difficulty products, right? I’ll help you inquire about the market first. Alright, let’s do it.”
Liu Jun gave his father a sideways glance: “That’s not the point. The point is this plan. Dad, look at it—roughly how much R&D funding do we need?”
Liu Shitang smiled as he took the stack of papers, but after looking more carefully, he couldn’t smile anymore. “Liu Jun, why do we need so much special steel? This type can’t be produced domestically—it’s expensive as hell. And this, this—what do we need so much for?”
“That’s exactly what I was trying to tell you, but you weren’t listening carefully. This product is a series. Chief Engineer Wang said currently all domestic use is imported, so the market won’t be small. Shi Yiji once wanted to make it, but could never satisfy both size requirements and strength—the products always failed foreign testing standards. The reason I chose this is that I happened to have worked with this type of product, so it’s somewhat opportunistic. We can determine the materials and general processing steps without having to explore from scratch like Chief Engineer Wang and his team. Plus, I know the product has a very good market abroad. But I need to obtain a series of test data. This data cannot be obtained through shortcuts—it can only be tested repeatedly, combined with mathematical analysis, to obtain tensile, compression, and torsion data for materials processed at different temperatures, analyze crystal phases, and test fatigue strength in simulated working environments. Only by mastering this series of data can we make the most suitable design.”
“Liu Jun, it’s good, no—it must be good, but the cost is also high. You… this isn’t your German company with plenty of money.”
“I’ve already considered this, so I set far fewer sampling points than we usually do. The analysis and calculation work will be done by me anyway, requiring no additional expenditure, so I’ve added quite a lot. As for expenses, I’m willing to invest all my savings from these years. But I need to sign a contract with Dad, determining future profit distribution based on our investment ratio.”
Liu Shitang was stunned by all his son’s words, but there was one key issue he could resolve very easily. “Liu Jun, you don’t need to discuss distribution with Dad. What’s mine is yours. As long as you take it, Dad will be happy—it’s the same. Tomorrow I can transfer all assets to your name.” Liu Shitang understood his son too well, knowing this kid had an incredibly good conscience, so he could be completely generous and thoroughly paternal.
But Liu Jun’s face turned from black to red—with Dad saying this, it made him seem petty-minded. Seeing this, Liu Shitang quickly explained for his son: “Of course what you said also makes sense. I know foreigners practice clear accounting even between close brothers. But we’re father and son—we’ll be father and son even if beaten to death. We have no accounts to settle.”
Liu Jun put aside his guilt and said seriously, “Dad, let me continue. Compared to Shi Yiji, we already have considerable advantages—that is, we can guarantee walking down this path. Although R&D is expensive, time-consuming, and energy-intensive, we have a way out. Having a way out means high returns. Dad, when we can make products that others can’t, that’s called a technical barrier. Barriers are guarantees of profit. We can no longer make these low-value-added products priced by raw material weight—there’s no future in that. Whenever economic conditions change, enterprises like that are always the first to perish.”
Faced with serious work, Liu Shitang also became serious. “Liu Jun, give Dad time. I need to thoroughly investigate the market for the products you mentioned. So Dad will continue his business trip tomorrow, and you will watch over the factory’s production here. You don’t need to manage much—just call Dad for everything.”
“Dad, if the market is good, although the R&D costs are high, would you support me if this investment is worthwhile?”
Liu Shitang painfully rubbed his face for a long time before saying: “Dad will support you even if it means selling everything. As long as the shell of this factory remains.”
“Dad, thank you. This will be my first time independently developing a product. I’ll do it well.”
In his excitement, Liu Jun gave his father a big hug. Liu Shitang was made to blush, but had to pretend to be calm: “What’s with thanking Dad? What thanks, haha.” But in his heart, Liu Shitang was bleeding as he calculated the costs on the plan. Roughly calculated, all his savings plus all his son’s savings combined still wouldn’t be enough. He’d have to sell some assets, even borrow money, to cover this R&D cost. But he decided to trust his son—his son’s choice must have his son’s reasons. What choice did he have? He was the father.