Since Yang Xun had declared from the start that there would be no drinking, no one mentioned alcohol throughout the meal. Qian Hongming clearly sensed the underlying slight in this, but could only comply—circumstances were stronger than people. Liu Jun, on the other hand, thought this was excellent—banquets without alcohol were less costly and more efficient. And indeed, this meal was surprisingly efficient. Almost within minutes of the last dish being served, Yang Xun put down his chopsticks, signed the bill, and said he was rushing to his next engagement. Qian Hongming gave Liu Jun a look, signaling him to also stop eating, and together they finished dinner and followed outside to see them off. What Qian Hongming hadn’t expected was that Yang Xun was driving an old, ordinary Santana, of even lower grade than his own Santana 2000. Looking at Yang Li, who was also saying goodbye, she too was driving an old Santana. Even more interesting was that Yang Xun had already gotten in his car, but suddenly seemed to remember something and called Liu Jun over for a chat. “I never imagined that in less than ten years, things would change so much. In the past, when you, overseas students, returned to China, you were like phoenixes, but now, looking at it, it’s nothing special. Even my family has overseas students now, and I’m planning to go abroad to have children, ha! The changes are too great.” Liu Jun was baffled by Yang Xun’s inexplicable sentiment that came out of nowhere, and Yang Xun had already driven away.
Qian Hongming walked over and said sincerely, “Consistent with my judgment at the dinner table—when doing business with Yang Xun, don’t expect win-win outcomes. This man is a money-absorbing machine, an inhuman machine. Liu Jun, if you ever have any cooperation with him in the future, you must guard against him at every step.”
Liu Jun nodded: “He won’t cooperate with me. He already ignored me at the dinner table—he’s very stingy about R&D expenses. And listening to the sound when his car started, his car is poorly maintained, which shows he completely dislikes technology, so naturally, he won’t make any emotional impulses regarding technical research investments. Another point—actually, Fourth Miss Yang was watching you, not me.”
“I noticed that today too—strange.” Qian Hongming looked at Liu Jun standing upright in the darkness. This was the first time a girl had chosen him when he and Liu Jun appeared together—extremely bizarre. “I’m planning to go home, talk with Jia Li for an hour, then go to the hospital for the night shift. What about you?”
“I’m building a laboratory these few days. Just focus on your business—I’ll take care of Jia Li for you.”
“I’ll thank you slowly later. I’m in complete chaos recently. Ah, I might as well default on the debt—you won’t mind.”
The two laughed and parted ways. Liu Jun didn’t go home but went to Qianjin Factory. Except for the testing equipment he had shipped back from Germany, Qianjin Factory had almost nothing that could be used for this R&D project. Some things he couldn’t make, like tensile testing machines—he could only contact Shi Yiji and pay to use their equipment. But some simple things that were inconvenient to borrow could be made through self-reliance. What Liu Jun was making today was a large oven—ordinary hot-rolled steel plates welded into a large box, with asbestos as the insulation layer outside and a solid layer of fire bricks inside. When Liu Jun came out for dinner, the heating elements inside this large oven were already powered on, gently drying the box body. When he returned after eating, it was perfectly dried. Next, he worked alone in the quiet night on the only precision work in this crude device: installing thermocouples and temperature control. This was one of the focal points of his experimental work—he had to ensure absolute accuracy in temperature measurement. Accuracy in the early stages would prevent misleading calculations later. His studies and work in Germany had already cultivated this habit: a consistent attitude throughout.
Liu Shitang was not just worried about his son’s work. So he secretly crept into a corner of the former foundry workshop at Qianjin Factory to spy on his son’s overtime work. His son’s dedication was beyond question—he had never seen any other family’s young master work so hard. But Liu Shitang’s heart was troubled. For instance, what his son was working on were things father and son had bought together in Shanghai. At the scene, when he pointed to a thermal resistor, his son said thermal resistors weren’t as accurate as thermocouples and didn’t have as wide a temperature range, so he rejected it. Later, Liu Shitang secretly looked at the thermocouple specifications and saw the character “platinum”—no wonder it was so expensive, it was made of platinum. Then Liu Shitang pointed to a more reasonably priced temperature controller, and his son again said no, saying the signal lag was serious. He even explained how much heat the heating elements generated per unit time, minus the heat dissipation from the box walls, how much the temperature inside the box could change during the temperature control delay time, seriously affecting test results, and so on. Liu Shitang, who loved his son, couldn’t say “no” to his son who loved technology, and could only fork out money like cutting flesh, again and again. In his lifetime, Liu Shitang had never spent money so readily.
Liu Shitang couldn’t help but feel heartache. When he originally fought for his son to return to inherit the family business, he had budgeted one million yuan in costs, and now half had already been spent on the house and car. Since his son was determined to pursue development, he, as a father, naturally welcomed it, so he gritted his teeth and provided another 500,000 yuan. He had thought that combined with his son’s own money, this should be enough, but looking at the current situation, the R&D project was increasingly showing signs of being a bottomless pit. Liu Shitang was so worried he couldn’t sit still, so he came to secretly watch his son work. Seeing his son’s confident appearance, he felt somewhat reassured.
While Liu Shitang worried and pondered, he unknowingly revealed his whereabouts—his head was caught in the slanted light and projected in front of Liu Jun, who spotted it in surprise.
Liu Jun craned his neck and saw his father with his hands behind his back, head lowered, lost in thought. Liu Jun asked curiously: “Dad, when did you arrive?”
Liu Shitang snapped back to reality and quickly smiled: “Just arrived, happened to be passing by, came to take a look. This is… very expensive compensating lead wire? What are you connecting?”
Making insulation for the compensating lead wire. Where did you just go?”
Liu Shitang had actually come from home, but when asked, he lied: “I went to see a friend, to look at the instrument punch press he just built. Isn’t there a lot of small jewelry making now? That kind of instrument punch press sells incredibly well. My friend found a Japanese one, took it apart and spent half a year copying it exactly, succeeded. I saw the punched parts were quite good. He has more orders than he can handle.”
“Does Dad also hope I’ll do the kind of copying your friend does?”
“Uh, hehe, you people who’ve studied abroad are unwilling to copy, afraid it would damage your reputation.”
“It’s not that I’m unwilling to copy, but unwilling to make crude copies. Dad must have seen the original Japanese machine—isn’t your friend’s copy more than twice as large?”
“Uh, more than twice as large. The Japanese one can be placed on a solid wood table at home, but my friend’s copy has to be placed on a concrete floor and fixed with anchor bolts at all four corners.”
“Dad, this is the biggest problem with crude copying. They think it’s just a shaft, but the original shaft can drive the mechanism, while the crude copy’s replacement shaft gets twisted after a few turns. This involves not only material issues but also very subtle design problems. People who make crude copies generally won’t put effort into researching the why, but commonly just make the shaft thicker and longer to increase load capacity. So, adding a bit here, a bit there, the final result is that a small punch press gets copied into a behemoth. I’ve heard of such things before. My current work is precision copying, but it can’t be called copying—it’s thoroughly understanding the principles and using existing scientific knowledge and processing skills to achieve the best design currently possible.”
“But even with such crude copying, my friend lives quite well and even has export orders to Southeast Asia, with more work than he can handle daily. Why don’t we also find some similar projects and copy several types? You’d be much faster than my friend.”
“Dad, since it’s easy to copy, today your friend copies it, tomorrow my friend copies it, and eventually everyone can make it. The result is another round of hard work just to sell at cost price. We don’t necessarily have to make complete equipment sets. I’ve seen some experts who spend their entire lives researching just one type of component, with companies making only one product, yet they become world-renowned with excellent returns.”
“That’s true, you’re right. But China is so large, the market is so big, and there are so many mechanical products. As long as we copy one type per year, we’d live very well, right? Since that’s the case, why make things difficult for ourselves?”
“Dad, people must live with dignity.”
“Sigh, the old saying goes: strive for dignity, not for wealth…”
“Dad, I know your concerns. First, you’re afraid that before I research anything substantial, you’ll already be drained by me. Second, you’re afraid that after developing something, mass production won’t achieve the expected returns. Is that right? I guarantee you…”
Liu Shitang interrupted his son’s words to prevent him from making oaths and vows: “What can you guarantee me? Whatever you have, could I ask you for it? Sigh, Dad is just worrying needlessly. You work seriously. As long as you strive for dignity, Dad will always support you.”
After saying this, Liu Shitang, carrying an uneasy heart, turned around with his hands behind his back and walked away. In the silent former foundry workshop, one person’s footsteps sounded exceptionally lonely. Liu Jun stared at his father’s retreating figure and couldn’t help calling out loudly: “Dad, trust me.”
“Of course I trust you.” Liu Shitang didn’t look back and left. Walking outside, his mind was in complete chaos as he breathed the cold air. Next door was the large workshop working day and night, with machines roaring in the night. Liu Shitang listened for a while but didn’t go in, leaving dejectedly.
Liu Jun felt an unprecedented heaviness in his heart. In the past, when submitting proposals at the company, he also had to consider economic benefits. Often, a proposal would be revised repeatedly until perfect before implementation. When he had become a minor supervisor, he thought the responsibility was already very heavy. But this time, not only did he have early awareness that he was using his family’s limited RMB, but today his father had reminded him once again. He increasingly felt the weight of the burden on his shoulders. For a moment, many thoughts and considerations came rushing into his mind in confusion. When his mind was chaotic, he could no longer quietly install the thermocouple in his hands.
However, Liu Jun heard footsteps at the door. He glanced and saw Old Huang, who had been treating him with indifference these past few days. He called out “Uncle Huang” and forced himself to concentrate on the work at hand, not letting Old Huang see anything amiss.
Old Huang came over with pursed lips. He couldn’t quite understand what Liu Jun was doing, but still spoke with cold sarcasm: “Does the crown prince need to work with his own hands? This kind of rough work—just say the word and leave it all to us.”
Liu Jun told himself to stay calm. Without looking up, he barely concealed his displeasure and replied neither humbly nor arrogantly: “I’ve left all the shell processing to the workshop. Only the temperature control part uses microchip-based industrial control components—I should be the only one in the entire factory who knows how to handle this. No need to trouble Uncle Huang.” As he spoke, he warned himself: focus, focus, focus!
“Those who’ve studied are indeed different—the words you speak are incomprehensible to us rough folks.” As Old Huang spoke, his eyes stared unblinkingly at the operations in Liu Jun’s hands, hoping to see the shortcomings of this intellectual’s operations so he could strike back and see if Liu Jun would still dare to say his operations were non-standard. Just then, Liu Jun used wire strippers to expose a section of copper wire, preparing to secure the compensating lead wire by wrapping it with copper wire. This small operation was most basic, so before Liu Jun could complete it, Old Huang was already silently reciting the most detailed steps in his mind, checking whether Liu Jun was doing it correctly. He saw Liu Jun working very meticulously, almost unnecessarily precise—that attitude was just as unnecessary as Liu Jun’s requirement that he not throw metal scraps around. But Old Huang was patient. There was a turn ahead waiting for Liu Jun—let’s see if this crown prince’s seemingly steady rhythm could still maintain accuracy. Sure enough, he saw Liu Jun pause when wrapping reached this point, and Old Huang smiled contemptuously behind Liu Jun.
But Old Huang was quickly disappointed. He saw Liu Jun take out a Swiss Army knife, use the flat fork to position the copper wire, tie a dead knot at the contact point, then press the dead knot tightly on top of the convex surface. Old Huang’s brain didn’t need to work—he immediately understood the clever use of this dead knot: positioning. What frustrated Old Huang was that he hadn’t thought of this step beforehand, yet this step, as it appeared now, was the best way to handle the situation methodically. He stared hard for a while at the obvious hair whorl on top of the crown prince’s head, then turned and walked away without a word.
Liu Jun heard the footsteps and said: “Take care, Uncle Huang.”
“Hmm, watch your fingers.”
Liu Jun was surprised and looked up at Old Huang. The back of Old Huang walking toward the door was somewhat similar in style to his father’s just now—both with hands behind their backs, heads lowered, as if their hearts were full of torment. Liu Jun didn’t understand why Old Huang had suddenly dropped his arrogant attitude. He thought for a while but couldn’t figure out which of his words had somehow pleased the difficult Old Huang. Not knowing and unable to figure it out, he tossed it aside and continued with his work.
Old Huang’s interruption had calmed his mood considerably. After discarding distracting thoughts, the work at hand accelerated. Before twelve o’clock, he had completed installation and debugging of the large oven. The results were satisfactory.
Checking the progress chart posted in his father’s office, his current work was completed one day ahead of schedule. This good start filled Liu Jun with confidence.
The next task was how to dispel his father’s doubts with steady, solid results. He couldn’t allow his collaborators to proceed with doubts.