The next day, as soon as Liu Jun arrived at work, he sought out Luo Qing, telling him to consider beginning market positioning for the East Sea No. 1 project. Through this contact with the grassroots personnel of Mr. An’s company, Liu Jun realized that even if Mr. An had great ambitions, given the mental state of his subordinates, could they possibly achieve the precision required for East Sea No. 1? He had serious doubts. While Mr. An’s people couldn’t manage it, this was precisely Tengfei’s opportunity. The market for East Sea No. 1 in China wasn’t huge, but it wasn’t small either. Even if Tengfei only carved out a small slice of the pie, they could already profit quite handsomely.
Cui Bingbing, who had traveled with him on the business trip, didn’t call until nine in the evening, asking Liu Jun to pick her up at the branch office—she had returned from Shanghai. When they met, both smiled. Cui Bingbing laughed at Liu Jun for once again sprawling in the newly delivered house, doing electrical work himself, wearing a full set of coveralls. She truly couldn’t understand why this engineering student insisted on taking time from his busy schedule to personally connect high-voltage and low-voltage wiring. Liu Jun explained to her about power requirements, maintenance needs, layout considerations, and so forth, but Cui Bingbing remained unconvinced—wouldn’t it be better to leave it to professionals? However, when Liu Jun went to do the wiring on weekends, Cui Bingbing always accompanied him to observe. In her eyes, her husband, wielding heavy-duty pliers, looked even more handsome than when he sat at the piano. She admitted to her base tastes.
Seeing that Cui Bingbing looked fine and wasn’t too tired, Liu Jun asked if she wanted to go for Cantonese late-night snacks. Cui Bingbing readily agreed. She now had the needs of two people but displayed an appetite approaching that of three, constantly complaining of hunger whenever she had a moment’s rest, spurring Liu Jun’s culinary skills to rapid improvement. After getting in the car, Liu Jun couldn’t help but laugh and said, “Let me tell you a joke. Mr. Song’s wife just gave birth to a son, right? Well, this has caused quite a stir. Many people are criticizing Mr. Song for abusing his privileges and skirting the edge of family planning policies, haha. It even reached Mr. An’s ears. Mr. An grabbed me and asked what was so special about Mrs. Song, repeatedly saying Mr. Song was quite bold.”
Cui Bingbing couldn’t understand what was so funny about this. After thinking it over, she finally understood: “You don’t understand state-owned enterprises, especially the kind Mr. Song works for. They enforce family planning very strictly. Among tens of thousands of people, if even one case goes wrong, everyone’s annual birth bonuses are forfeit—everyone keeps a close eye on each other. So when Mr. Song himself exploits policy loopholes, with his American wife giving birth to a second child, how can his subordinates not think he’s blatantly abusing his privileges?” But as Cui Bingbing said this, she suddenly realized something was off. “Oh, is everyone laughing at Mr. Song for knowing there’s so much resentment from below, yet being unable to control his young, beautiful wife’s desire for children—is he henpecked?”
“Mr. An thinks the same way, and considers himself quite perceptive. People love to observe phenomena and jump to conclusions, but do you think Mr. Song is someone who fears trouble? I’m more inclined to believe this child is exactly what Mr. Song most wanted—proof of love made manifest.”
Cui Bingbing was about to object, but suddenly thought of herself. As soon as she married, she tried every means to get pregnant, specifically asking her parents to use their connections to get Chinese medicine from traditional medicine specialists, taking it diligently for nearly a month to nourish her body. At this moment, reminded by Liu Jun’s words, she suddenly realized that Liu Jun wanted children because he loved children, but what about her? She still felt nothing toward the children running around her, and her joy at being pregnant was more because the child in her belly was proof of love made manifest—she had obtained that proof. Therefore, after becoming pregnant, her heart felt as clear and refreshing as autumn skies. In this moment, she understood the inner vulnerability of the seemingly tough Song Yunhui and also saw the inner vulnerability of her seemingly strong self. She worried that Liu Jun might see through her the same way he saw through Song Yunhui.
Cui Bingbing deliberately changed the subject. “Who would have thought Mr. Song was quite romantic, hehe. What do you think our baby will be—boy or girl? No changing your mind after you guess this time.”
“I won’t guess. I’ll love the baby whether it’s a boy or a girl. What I most want to know is what kind of mind the baby will have—science and engineering or liberal arts.”
“Come clean: aren’t you thinking that if the baby follows its mother and develops a liberal arts brain, that would be terrible?”
Liu Jun burst out laughing, but refused to admit it, insisting that he’d love his child no matter how they turned out.
After finishing their late-night meal and returning to their downtown home, it was nearly midnight. Unlike during the day when entering the main gate, when you could usually hear the rumbling of diesel generators, there were fewer power outages at night now. However, the government had turned off the neon lights in the city center to save electricity—who knew what it would be like come midsummer? After two years, the R&D center was already lush with trees, and spring nights carried floating fragrances. Liu Jun noticed one building was still brightly lit, so after putting Cui Bingbing to sleep, he went to check on the situation.
Earlier in the year, Tengfei had competed for a bid to supply core components for a product from a publicly traded company. Unexpectedly, that company, which claimed to have flexible mechanisms, used bidding as a money-making scheme, setting up countless verification checkpoints that required bidding companies to pay fees at every level, rather than sending people to conduct on-site inspections and verification of the bidding companies. Their intentions were quite malicious. Liu Jun despised that company’s arrogant attitude and angrily ordered Luo Qing to withdraw from the bidding, refusing to wade into those murky waters. Later, they learned that some companies had paid three to four hundred thousand yuan just in verification fees to obtain final bidding qualifications, only to fail in the end when a medium-sized private enterprise won the contract. Not only did they lose their upfront investment, but many people had wasted two months of effort for nothing. However, when that medium-sized enterprise that had supposedly passed all tests and was highly qualified began executing the contract and supplying the listed company, quality problems followed, leading to frequent complaints about the listed company’s products. While the listed company could afford to be shameless, its downstream enterprises refused to fulfill their contracts, alarming the big boss of the listed company, who had been focused on capital investment. Fearing that downstream enterprises would rebel and refuse payment, the boss had no choice but to order an immediate investigation into the causes and replacement of the core component suppliers.
But while the big boss made it sound easy, execution proved difficult for everyone involved. Downstream contract deadlines were pressing, especially export contract deadlines, which were absolute, making it impossible to go through the bidding process again. They had to handle this emergency urgently, finding a reliable company that could complete design, processing, material procurement, and deliver quality products in the shortest time possible. They contacted familiar companies separately, but these familiar companies retreated when faced with harsh time constraints and high penalty fees for breach of contract. They had no choice but to frantically inquire within the industry about who could handle this, with many pointing them toward the same destination—Tengfei Company.
When Luo Qing received the call and learned the whole story, he consulted with Liu Jun about whether they could complete the work in such a short time. After receiving Liu Jun’s affirmative answer, he called back within half an hour, confidently stating they could do it, but the price would be doubled, and a certain amount of deposit would be required upfront. Luo Qing told Liu Jun that this type of corporate culture had no concept of “sincerity”—when dealing with such companies, you had to treat each transaction as a one-off deal and couldn’t harbor any long-term win-win mentality. The listed company was forced to accept Luo Qing’s terms within two days, not daring to put on airs at this critical juncture, personally flying in to deliver the contract and deposit check. The signing result was that Tengfei’s technical department had only three days to design blueprints and arrange processes—an almost impossible task. However, Liu Jun had strategically arranged things before his business trip to meet Mr. An, boldly subdividing design and production into blocks. Drawing on his familiarity with processes, precise grasp of processing times, and thorough understanding of his design personnel’s capabilities, he extended the design timeline, having complex, time-consuming processing designed and manufactured first, while simpler processing could be slightly delayed. He adapted to circumstances without necessarily waiting for the complete design to be finished and verified before proceeding.
Liu Jun estimated the lights in the small building meant Sun Gong was leading the team in overtime work, so it was certainly necessary to go over and provide good support. But he didn’t expect to enter and find Luo Qing listlessly sprawled at his computer, making spreadsheets, with a large cake on the table beside him, already cut and half-eaten. As soon as Luo Qing saw Liu Jun, he gave him a look and silently pulled Liu Jun outside, explaining that, as the instigator of this situation, he was there to appease Sun Gong’s anger, bringing cake and also his presence to share the hardship. Liu Jun insisted that Luo Qing go home, while he would go in to see Sun Gong, check progress, and boost morale. He explained to Sun Gong that he sent Luo Qing home because Luo had a child under one year old at home, and it wouldn’t be fair to Mrs. Luo if he came home too late.
Although Sun Gong felt bad about having the boss stay with them, Liu Jun still accompanied them until 2 AM when this section of design was completed, then insisted on personally driving the exhausted Sun Gong and two other engineers who didn’t live in the dormitories back home. Liu Jun knew this job was severely taxing Sun Gong’s mechanical team at the R&D center. Normally, this workload would already be an almost impossible task, not to mention it was forcibly inserted into the already intense development of East Sea No. 1. Human brains aren’t computers—they need several days just to switch gears. But Sun Gong persevered and fought this hard battle. This was partly related to Liu Jun’s business expertise and bold decision-making in subdividing the design into blocks. Beyond bonuses, how could Liu Jun not show appreciation through his actions?
Sun Gong felt very guilty throughout the ride, repeatedly saying that Mr. Liu also had a pregnant wife at home and really shouldn’t be staying up so late, neglecting his family. Indeed, when Liu Jun returned to sleep, he woke up Cui Bingbing. Cui Bingbing roughly opened one eye to look at him and frowned. Sleeping while hugging a big ball on her belly was already difficult enough—falling asleep wasn’t easy, and being woken up in the middle was very troublesome. Liu Jun quickly began gently massaging and soothing her despite his drowsiness. Soon, he somehow fell asleep, leaving Cui Bingbing to count sheep alone. She counted for quite a while before falling back asleep, and she still had to work tomorrow. The branch office had just started up in this city, facing not only countless challenges as a branch but also countless personal challenges for her. The targets handed down by the head office were hard requirements—if she couldn’t meet them, next year would bring stagnation or regression. Truthfully, this year wasn’t a good time for Cui Bingbing to be pregnant, and she was still worrying about how to handle the three-month maternity leave.
But the next morning at seven o’clock, awakened by her husband, who was equally exhausted and bearing obvious dark circles under his eyes, after demanding a kiss, Cui Bingbing immediately became spirited, as lively as if what hung on her belly wasn’t a fetus but just some extra weight from being too fat. Liu Jun drove his wife to work, then headed straight to the industrial zone factory, personally overseeing the workshop’s conversion of the fresh blueprints from the early morning hours into processes and scheduling them into production. Double the asking price wasn’t easy money to earn—if things went wrong, it could mean double the compensation and damage to their hard-earned reputation.
Luo Qing arrived at work a bit later. When he thought to check production progress in the workshop, he already saw Liu Jun’s figure in a corner of the workshop. Luo Qing immediately felt relieved and turned to handle other matters. He had assumed the boss would definitely sleep very late last night and surely wouldn’t be able to get up this morning, leaving him no choice but to cross boundaries and leverage personal relationships to coordinate with workshop management to improve progress as much as possible. He understood the urgency of this business deal better than anyone and feared others might not understand and cause delays. Fortunately, there was a model worker even more dedicated than himself. He had witnessed Liu Jun’s iron-fisted management in the workshop—calling it fully militarized management wouldn’t be excessive—so he no longer needed to worry about progress.
After a busy morning, it was only during lunch that he had a chance to sit with Liu Jun and talk. He asked about something that had been circling in his mind for two months.
“Moving the R&D center out wasn’t really about the workshop needing expansion and making room for the workshop, as originally stated, was it? After buying the neighboring factory, we still haven’t filled it up.”
“Correct.” Liu Jun didn’t treat Luo Qing as an outsider. “Guess what the real reason was.”
“The workshop and center represent two extremely different management styles. Putting them together would create a psychological imbalance in the workshop, and to put it bluntly, would corrupt workshop discipline. First, why should center people earn so much more? Second, why can center people arrive late and leave early, not bound by work hours? Third, the boss heavily favors the center and is extremely biased, treating the workshop like a stepchild. But to balance both sides, you’d have to compromise the intellectuals in the center. So it’s better to move them out—out of sight, out-of-mind.”
Liu Jun smiled after hearing this. “You’re the first person to tell me this reason, and you’re right—this was my biggest consideration. Managing people means managing hearts, and managing hearts starts with getting people’s mindsets straightened out. But this kind of reason isn’t very convenient to discuss, so let’s keep it between us. There are also other reasons, relating to urban residence permits, commuting convenience, natural work environment, and such. Though they seem trivial, they’re also very important.”
Luo Qing paused his chopsticks to think for a moment, then nodded in understanding. “When you’re not doing it yourself, you don’t know—I thought it was to make room for the workshop and felt sorry for the center. Management is quite a discipline.”
“Learning while fighting, fighting while learning. Good thing we’re young and can handle the falls.”
“Very interesting. Now those old hands in the workshop who’ve worked at other companies all treat the center crew like gods, saying they’re so fast and make so few mistakes—truly remarkable. Distance creates beauty, hehe. If they were together every day, at most they’d say ‘of course they’re fast when they’re well-fed and well-treated—they should be.’ Only you, boss, with the battle lines drawn out, running between both sides—nobody knows how heavy your workload is. For year-end model worker selection, I’ll vote for you.”
During the lunch break, Luo Qing seized the opportunity to discuss many macro-level product positioning ideas with Liu Jun, debating their feasibility. Luo Qing had a somewhat shameless attitude in front of Liu Jun—he had learned technology right under Liu Jun’s nose, getting bugs in his designs caught one by one by Liu Jun. It was like having known Liu Jun since his naked days, so he had fewer inhibitions. At worst, he’d just get more bugs caught if he said something wrong—he’d long since lost face.
But actually, much of what Luo Qing thought about were things Liu Jun couldn’t think of due to his mental limitations. With ideas, it’s often the case that an outsider’s hint makes everything clear, but without that hint, you’ll never understand. As soon as Luo Qing spoke, Liu Jun’s mind opened up brilliantly. Connecting the problems he’d encountered at work before and after, it was indeed a good solution. The two squatted in the cafeteria, talking for quite a while and confirming another new plan. Walking out of the cafeteria, Luo Qing felt particularly accomplished and therefore especially happy.
That evening, when picking up Cui Bingbing from work, she brought Liu Jun unexpected news. Yang Xun had recently taken out substantial loans and gone to Shanxi to speculate in coal mines. They also heard that city leaders from the coal mine location had come to inspect their city over the past few days, with Yang Xun providing full support and accompanying them throughout. He even squeezed himself into the meeting between the two cities’ leaders and appeared on the city TV station’s evening news.
“Coal mines? Does this have any upstream or downstream relationship with his existing industries?”
“Do you need upstream or downstream relationships? It’s purely financial operations, interpersonal relationship operations—whether it’s coal mines, copper mines, iron mines, or aluminum mines makes no difference. Didn’t they say closing small coal mines led to coal power shortages, which is why we often have power outages? But can small coal mines be shut down just like that? Every time a policy is introduced, it’s just another market reshuffle. You have to admit, Yang Xun has an agile mind and can seize opportunities. I heard coal prices are skyrocketing now.”
It took Liu Jun’s brain quite a while to catch up. He had to admit he was greatly inferior to Yang Xun in this regard.