Luo Qing said all this with the mentality of “there’s nothing to lose by speaking up, but saying it might be pointless anyway.” Because he had given up a coveted civil service position to come to Tengfei to assist Liu Jun, precisely because he shared similar ideals with Liu Jun—technology was their religion. In his usual instructions to business personnel, he always included similar content, cultivating colleagues’ pride in Tengfei’s high-quality philosophy. But reality inevitably made people doubt—a market where bad money drives out good easily shakes one’s resolve.

After hearing this, Liu Jun said, “I’ve been considering this problem for more than a year or two. Just like Volkswagen has more than one brand, domestically alone, there are FAW-Volkswagen’s Jetta and Bora, and Shanghai Volkswagen’s Santana, Polo, Passat, etc. Different pricing naturally means vastly different quality. But in the early years, we lacked sufficient funds, and we hadn’t yet cultivated conscious personnel, so this problem couldn’t be considered. Especially having different quality platforms in the same factory area—the final result would be that learning good is difficult while learning bad is easy.”

Luo Qing couldn’t help but laugh: “I thought you’d reject it outright, even say I was corrupted. I was waiting for you to expose the devil in my heart, but instead, you’re leading me astray. So is the timing right now? I think it’s perfect—the center is now dedicated to East Sea No. 1 supporting research, with little new product development at the moment, making it convenient for us to rehash old products.”

“I was just thinking of getting your opinion. Last year, I wanted to hire a professional manager to run Tengfei, but it ultimately fell through because he demanded equity shares and pursued listing. My reason for not agreeing to anyone taking shares or even listing is that, like you, I’m constantly tempted by devils in my heart. I must be quite restrained to maintain our business philosophy until now. If equity were dispersed, there would inevitably be too many cooks, and I estimate few people would be willing to bear Tengfei’s current business philosophy—then Tengfei would be beyond my control. My current thinking is to leave Tengfei unchanged while finding another location to establish a new factory. The new factory would be a limited liability company by shares—key management personnel could take equity, and we could also attract strategic investors. This is just an idea currently—what’s your opinion?”

Luo Qing smiled and said, “I’ll speak bluntly—everyone wants equity, but everyone wants it for free. We need not only incentives but also a sense of participation. Sorry, boss, I’m being direct.”

“I understand what you mean. I see my wife working desperately to compete for bank shares—it seems equity incentives work better than bonuses. The next question is how to operate this. How to price technology transfers, who can take equity, what percentage of shares… or simply section off a workshop…”

“No, boss, once you propose building a separate factory with shares, you can’t go back.”

Liu Jun saw intense desire in Luo Qing’s eyes. He said definitively, “That’s my thinking, too.” He couldn’t help but think of Cui Bingbing fighting desperately to return to work just one month after giving birth, precisely because the bank was now determining employee equity based on positions, with all employees competing frantically based on performance. When Cui Bingbing told him about the bank’s pursuit of listing and everyone fighting for personal equity, she had meaningfully said that hanging a carrot in front of a donkey’s head worked much better than feeding the donkey a carrot and then urging it forward. Even shrewd people who could see through this kind of manipulation still showed irresistible desire when faced with equity temptation. Liu Jun had thought then about building a new factory and letting key personnel take shares to stimulate initiative. Look—today he’d barely mentioned it and already sparked Luo Qing’s undisguised passion.

But equity incentives were a completely new subject that Liu Jun didn’t understand at all. Time was of the essence—since he’d already proposed the idea, he quickly scheduled time to consult Shen Huadong. Unexpectedly, as soon as Shen Huadong heard his thoughts, he immediately stated his willingness to be a strategic investor. He was optimistic about Liu Jun’s company’s products, but had never been optimistic about Liu Jun’s business philosophy. Now that Liu Jun was willing to follow world trends and make changes, he was optimistic about the new factory. Liu Jun was truly torn between laughter and tears—so his Tengfei was so contrary to the times.

Shen Huadong gave Liu Jun two options: one was to separate the R&D center for independent accounting, while Liu Jun invested personal funds in the new factory. The other option was for Tengfei Company as a legal entity to invest in the new factory. Shen Huadong explained the pros and cons of both approaches in detail. Liu Jun listened while drawing relationship diagrams, leaving Shen Huadong dumbstruck—some people’s minds always had their thinking processes.

But the eager attitudes of Luo Qing and Shen Huadong finally made Liu Jun ask uncomfortably, “Is the meat really that fat? But why should I be stupid enough to let others share the profits?”

“First, with your financial resources, you can’t build the new factory to a certain scale in the short term. Without scale, you can’t quickly carpet-bomb the market, making it difficult to block others’ covetousness of your technology. You must use strategic investment to rapidly expand scale. Second, rapid expansion would be difficult for you to support alone—you need capable hands working hard, or your talent development won’t keep up with expansion speed, and expansion would result in self-collapse. You can only use equity incentives to make capable hands your right and left arms. These two reasons are sufficient.”

“Yes.” Anyone who understood factory management couldn’t disagree with Shen Huadong’s reasoning. “How many people need shares, and how much?”

“You can’t give to too many people—if everyone has equity, it’s like no one has power or responsibility. This is my dad’s experience—just grab a few key positions. How much to give depends on your conscience, haha. Calculate slowly at home, but remember you need to control shares.”

Liu Jun was worried about home and hurried back after dinner, leaving the still-single Shen Huadong quite depressed. Walking to the parking lot, Liu Jun saw Shen Huadong’s newly bought Ferrari and stared wide-eyed. Shen Huadong said meaningfully, “Hurry up and expand, hurry up and find strategic investors to give you quick money—then you won’t feel bad about spending money on cars.”

“I feel like this is a very dangerous, very impetuous road of no return.”

“I can only say that in China, no one does business like you. Look how tired and hard you work.”

Liu Jun couldn’t help asking what he felt was a stupid question: “Will I eventually become so restless that I can’t manage Tengfei and R&D as consistently as before?”

“I can only say that realizing ideals requires money. For your goals, you still need to make some compromises in reality. But I understand you—I now feel I can’t go back to Shi Yiji. After stirring up big capital, I can no longer sit in a factory picking apart profits penny by penny. Using your words, it’s indeed called restlessness.”

“Dongdong, I won’t say thanks to you. I’ll go back and weigh this, then give you an answer as soon as possible.”

Shen Huadong opened his car door, looked at Liu Jun, then walked back and grabbed Liu Jun, slapping the Ferrari keys into Liu Jun’s palm. “Lately, you’ve been looking gloomy from being a dad. Change cars and indulge yourself for a few days—I really can’t stand seeing you like this. We used to chase girls and fight together, almost even did drugs together. The way you are now, you’d be completely out of place in bars. People shouldn’t get stuck in ruts—it’s not that big a deal.”

Liu Jun didn’t refuse, handing his Audi keys to Shen Huadong. “It’s not entirely from being a dad—my brain has been completely occupied by East Sea No. 1 this year. You know, I can only be the project commander, with all the intricate coordination work… I’m almost at breaking point. I’ll return the car next Monday, thanks.”

Shen Huadong couldn’t help asking, “Do you still have energy to start a new factory?”

“You’re right about equity incentives for key personnel. Only this way can I free myself a bit.”

“Sigh, poor kid. There are two pairs of sunglasses in the car, both super cool—use them until Monday too.”

Liu Jun laughed heartily. He drove Shen Huadong’s Ferrari home, handed the still-refusing-to-sleep Dandan to the nanny, and, without explanation, grabbed Cui Bingbing and headed straight for the highway entrance. The car flew through the night. Cui Bingbing, being clever, quickly understood her husband’s meaning, temporarily putting their daughter’s sleep schedule out of mind to stretch out and enjoy the pleasure of a good car.

“I was originally a romantic wanderer of the pleasure quarters…”

“You once hit me with a birthday cake, haha.”

The two reminisced and played all the way. Before they knew it, an hour had passed, and they had exited the highway into the city. In the city, Liu Jun drove slowly, opening the windows to listen to the Ferrari’s beautiful roar.

They didn’t go home but checked into a hotel room, enjoying rare time together since Dandan’s birth. Life must go on, but life requires sacrifices.