And Luo Qing abandoning his civil service position to join Tengfei, Sun Gong and Liao Gong refusing high salary temptations to persist in guarding Tengfei, and Liu Jun himself—each seemingly rational adult harbored impractical dreams of technical innovation. Now that the dream was being realized, he, Liu Jun, could only do what was required of him: shoulder the responsibility with a man’s physique and take on the launching of their dream. Indeed, did he have a choice?

The group that went to the Qian house encountered a small accident. Jia Li led Qu Wei into the study to pick books and look at discs. Qu Wei saw an original disc that had only recently been published in America, and finally became suspicious. After the two confirmed with each other, they discovered they had long been acquainted on the local forum’s literature section and had been kindred spirits for a long time. What a small world. So the two hit it off immediately and huddled in the study, whispering endlessly. Getting carried away with their conversation, Qu Wei couldn’t help but ask Jia Li about Shen Huadong’s character. Jia Li didn’t understand Shen Huadong’s character—she only knew his identity. For a moment, she was in great difficulty: helping one would mean letting down the other, making it hard to satisfy both sides. Unable to handle such a situation, Jia Li ran straight out to find her husband to solve it.

Seeing Shen Huadong’s expression, Qian Hongming explained: “Jia Li isn’t good at dealing with people. She either doesn’t speak, or if she does speak, she doesn’t lie. How about I explain to Miss Qu?”

Shen Huadong, being a man who took responsibility for his actions, had to go explain to Qu Wei himself. Seeing this scene on Jia Li’s face, he realized the consequences of further concealment might be counterproductive. He just had a headache—people like Jia Li had never appeared in his world before. No matter how much he calculated, he couldn’t have calculated encountering such a situation with Jia Li. Now his entire plan was in chaos, and he could only try to sincerely make amends.

After Shen Huadong left, Qian Hongming said to Jia Li: “It’s fine. He would have been exposed sooner or later—I think earlier exposure is better.” But Qian Hongming felt extremely depressed inside. If Shen Huadong’s good fortune was ruined in his house, he couldn’t escape responsibility. And how much he wanted to curry favor with the big fish that was the Shen family. He concealed his feelings by taking out the diamond-studded watch he had removed at Liu Jun’s new house and putting it back on his wrist. When he raised his face, he already appeared nonchalant.

Jia Li wasn’t looking at her husband. She looked worriedly toward the study and said softly: “Qu Wei has written in her articles that what she can least tolerate is deception.”

Qian Hongming said nothing, patiently waiting for the first signal to emerge from the study doorway. Writing was one thing, doing was another. After all, Shen Huadong was a diamond bachelor—no one would be unmoved by his pursuit.

Qian Hongming hoped the waiting time would be as long as possible, but heaven didn’t fulfill his wishes. Soon, Qu Wei angrily walked out of the study, followed by a frowning Shen Huadong. Qian Hongming realized the result must be terrible, but he still approached and said, “I’m sorry, Miss Qu, please let us explain. None of us could have imagined that someone like Dongdong would make such a laughably old-fashioned move, but it was precisely his sincerity that made us willing to cooperate. My wife—you understand her—she wouldn’t deceive you.”

However, Qu Wei said to Jia Li: “That person’s complete and utter lies—sincerity? Where is it? May I ask how many days you spent rehearsing your lines? How high were your expectations for this performance? Is this the so-called absurd game of people with money and leisure?”

Shen Huadong frowned: “This isn’t a game. I have money but little leisure, and I wouldn’t joke about my matters. Mr. and Mrs. Qian are just passersby who happened to appear today unexpectedly. They’re Liu Jun’s friends—don’t blame them. They were just trying to help bring people together. Let’s go, I’ll drive you back to school.”

“No, wait.” Jia Li firmly interjected: “My husband probably knows Mr. Shen’s character—I don’t know it, but I trust Liu Jun. Today we just came to deliver discs, but because of instinctive trust, I was willing to temporarily guest-star as a bit player. That’s how it is.”

Qu Wei said tactfully to Jia Li: “I’m worried that money’s power is enormous enough to buy a peaceful heart.”

Qian Hongming raised his eyebrows and almost wanted to refute on Jia Li’s behalf, but Jia Li misunderstood Qu Wei’s meaning: “No, don’t worry—this depends entirely on oneself. Hongming and I met at university—we were both poor students. Now, although we have a lot of money, nothing has changed between us.”

Qu Wei was speechless, thanked them, and left first. Shen Huadong could only hurry to follow, but before leaving, he properly thanked the two from the Qian family. Qian Hongming escorted the two to the elevator and tactfully withdrew. Returning home, a question kept churning in his heart, but after thinking it over repeatedly, he didn’t voice it. He wanted to know whether Jia Li had truly made trusting Liu Jun an instinct. He even more wanted to know whether Jia Li had made trusting him an instinct.

Shen Huadong didn’t get the opportunity to drive Qu Wei back. He turned and headed straight for Liu Jun’s renovation site. Rushing through the open door, he saw the supposedly fierce A’San coquettishly draped over Liu Jun, who was changing drill bits. Shen Huadong nearly choked on his saliva. Hearing the commotion, Cui Bingbing turned around and said gleefully: “It’s over—the show’s finished.”

Shen Huadong beat his chest and stamped his feet: “Liu Jun, you have to take responsibility! You didn’t help me clear the battlefield—how could you leave Mrs. Qian, that kind of…” Shen Huadong fortunately remembered that Liu Jun was on good terms with Qian Hongming and swallowed the words “idiot.” “A low emotional intelligence person.”

Cui Bingbing retorted: “If that Miss Qu had my level of high emotional intelligence, then even several more Jia Lis wouldn’t drive her away. Don’t put the cart before the horse and wrongly accuse Jia Li.”

“Qu Wei and Jia Li are the same type of person. Dongdong, I suggest you observe Hongming’s family and see if you can achieve Hongming’s tolerance,” Liu Jun said.

“Qu Wei is calm and refined—she’s not the same type as Mrs. Qian.”

Qu Wei has limited experience. Her calmness is a variable—you need to build a greenhouse to protect it. Unlike my A’San’s calmness, which is a return to simplicity after experiencing the vast mortal world, it’s an unshakeable constant. But we’re not saying Qu Wei is bad. We’re asking you to think three times. After all, you’re not the same type of people. I’m very surprised you made such a low-emotional-intelligence choice.”

Shen Huadong looked at Liu Jun gloomily: “Do you have an official spokesperson now?”

“A’San is a big woman. Big women can’t learn from big men to cherish and protect small women. But she looks at both Qu Wei and Jia Li without too much emotional coloring—she’s relatively impartial.”

“Just now… that Mrs. Qian said she has instinctive trust in you.”

“Good character—can’t help it.” Liu Jun looked completely calm.

Shen Huadong glanced sideways. He found he also quite trusted Liu Jun and believed what Liu Jun told him. But he couldn’t help saying harshly to Cui Bingbing: “You’re neither a variable nor a constant—you’re a vector.”

Liu Jun got to the bottom of it: “Mathematical vector, physics vector, or computer vector?”

Shen Huadong was so angry he laughed, finally calming down. He discussed renovation with Liu Jun and financial trends with Cui Bingbing. At dinner time, he was very unstably rejected by the supposedly stable Dandan, so he could only go home to eat with his parents. At the rare family dinner table, Shen Huadong told his father Shen Baotian that sometimes he wanted to set aside profit considerations and foolishly send Liu Jun an investment, because from what Liu Jun was doing, he repeatedly discovered that current economic development put the cart before the horse. Policy guidance favored getting bigger but was unfavorable to getting stronger. People who truly focused on getting stronger suffered greatly, with extremely unbalanced efforts and rewards.

Shen Baotian said: “Today’s social development is too rapid, too rapid. Staying in manufacturing means you can never grasp opportunities and miss countless good chances. Ten years ago, manufacturing still had opportunities. Now there’s no need to even discuss it—whoever focuses wholeheartedly on the workshop is out of touch with society.”

“But someone has to do manufacturing, and capital has to be invested.”

“People who can’t adapt to the era’s rapid development can do manufacturing. People who don’t understand effective capital operations can invest capital in manufacturing. Don’t worry unnecessarily—someone will always do it.”

Shen’s mother laughed: “Our Dongdong is worrying about the country.”

“Dad, look at us—we have two such large-tonnage manufacturing enterprises under our banner. Although we’ve had quite a few patents in recent years, we haven’t produced a single product that could truly be called high-precision and cutting-edge. If we hadn’t withdrawn our capital and attention, would the situation be different?”

“Dongdong, don’t sing high-minded tunes. You can go back to Shi Yiji, even bring capital in, but I ask you how many days you could sit still. Some things aren’t what you take for granted—they’re social inevitabilities that you and I can’t control. Little Liu’s spirit is admirable, and I like him too. I wish all my subordinates were like him, but spirit can’t put food on the table. For Little Liu, if any elder were willing to truly help him, they should give him this advice: those who understand the times are outstanding talents.”

Shen Huadong said, “Now I’m starting to worry about the country.”

But Liu Jun never worried about the country, nor did he need the country to worry about him. He methodically built Tengda. Compared to 1999, when he first operated a factory construction, the social environment had truly changed dramatically. More and more projects could be outsourced. Previously, contractors emerged with only a gang of migrant workers and a few shovels behind them. Now there were companies specializing in providing pile drivers, companies providing excavators, transportation companies providing concrete trucks, and even teams specialized in reinforcement work. Not only was the division of labor detailed, but market competition was fierce, greatly benefiting buyers. Tengda’s workshop was also contracted to a steel structure company with professional design and assembly-line construction. The construction site’s appearance could be said to change daily. The only thing that remained unchanged was probably the careless, good-enough work ethic.