“According to the contract terms, they have reason to terminate the contract after the three-month payment period expires due to non-payment. But they can obtain the segment research results owed from the first two payments. What I installed on the seized mainframe was roughly that content, which was also what I had repeatedly disclosed to them technically in the past. They won’t get more. They probably also know how much they can get and how much they’ve already obtained, so they’re directly taking without asking, too lazy to negotiate with me.” This was the hint given by the veteran that Cui Bingbing found for Liu Jun. “The question is, with their company employees’ morale, can they complete the final qualitative leap?”
Liang Sishen laughed beside them: “Boss, you’re being careless. A state enterprise president worked hard laying the groundwork for so many years, but when the restructuring was at the final moment, someone picked the peach. Do you think the person who picked the peach could be ordinary? At least from how easily and quickly he obtained the files from your computer this time, you should be alert. The peach-picker should have laid the groundwork early. As for his purpose, we can currently only find answers from his latest behavior.”
Liu Jun sucked in a cold breath. “That person wants to properly operate the factory? That factory’s technical strength is quite good. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have recommended it to Mr. Song initially. If their whole company changed their morale…”
Still, Liang Sishen said, “You can’t generalize either. Someone who can topple a president with years of solid foundation up and down the hierarchy should generally be someone with significant backing. But people with significant backing mostly have opportunities to exchange that backing for big money. How many are willing to settle down and do traditional industry management? So you don’t need to worry too much about them competing with you.”
Liang Sishen gave examples off the cuff, explaining to Liu Jun the various possible intentions of someone with significant backing usurping a medium-to-large state enterprise leader. She had Liu Jun match the situation according to that company’s circumstances to make reasonable responses. Just as Liu Jun was dumbfounded by those dazzling get-rich-quick schemes, Liang Sishen was taken away by her husband, leaving Liu Jun with his eyes darting around, thinking constantly.
Significant backing—not afraid of lawsuits—unscrupulous means—money… A flash of inspiration struck Liu Jun’s mind, and he suddenly thought of several professors who had signed confidentiality agreements with him. The Donghai No. 1 segment project research workload was enormous. Even if Tengfei’s engineers betrayed them, they would need to go north for several days to correctly export data to others. The few people under his nose could be controlled in terms of confidentiality work, but those professors, if they violated confidentiality agreements and the other party covered it up well, it would be completely undetectable. At that point, what good would the agreement do?
Then Tengfei would have worked for nothing and would have lost money until they bled. Liu Jun’s head instantly filled with blood. No, they wouldn’t work for nothing. They had gained methods and approaches; they could find outlets for other products. Liu Jun constantly comforted himself. But to obtain complete methods and approaches, he had to continue investing and continue researching to the end, making products. Otherwise, what use were half-finished experiences? Continue investing… but where would the money come from? The PE they had contacted earlier had withdrawn after several rounds of talks with completely incompatible philosophies. The PE’s private comment was that traditional enterprises lacked vision. Liu Jun had originally wanted to extend research time, using the factory’s continuously generated profits to fill this research bottomless pit. Now this idea seemed somewhat wishful thinking—look, a wolf had come from the north. That wolf had a contract with Donghai Group. As long as they produced a product before the end of 2007, the business would be theirs, and no matter how hard Tengfei worked, it would be useless. Moreover, if that wolf developed the product one step ahead of Tengfei and applied for patents on all related technologies one step ahead, then even if Tengfei persisted to the end, it would be useless. The experience gained couldn’t be applied to other projects, or it would be illegal.
Liu Jun suspected his brain nerves were either short-circuited or tangled into a mess. So many ideas, yet so many dead ends. The more he thought, the more annoyed he became. He called the professors one by one, explaining the stakes. Only one professor told him that the wolf had already contacted him with a very high offer, but he had refused, considering breach of contract. This professor’s words shattered Liu Jun’s last few threads of hope in human nature. They were all from the same university—that wolf couldn’t have approached only one and not the others. Since the other professors hadn’t told him, what else could that mean?
At this moment, Yang Xun’s method suddenly popped into Liu Jun’s mind—the most direct and effective method Yang Xun had once used against him. Now he couldn’t help but want to club those contract-breakers. But that would be degradation.
The next day, Liu Jun called an emergency meeting of the research center personnel. He truthfully told everyone about the current predicament facing the Donghai No. 1 segment research project: almost out of ammunition and food, while opponents suddenly emerged with abundant financial resources to poach their people; what should Tengfei do? Should they invest huge amounts to continue the project? If they continued, the Donghai project order still wouldn’t fall to Tengfei. If the opponent leveraged massive financial power to gain the upper hand, obtaining results and patents first, then Tengfei would be drawing water with a bamboo basket—all for nothing. Liu Jun laid out the problem, placing it bloody and raw before everyone. Without giving everyone a chance to catch their breath, Liu Jun first stated his position: “I don’t want to give up.”
But everyone could see Liu Jun’s hollow eyes. Everyone was silent, with nothing to say. The facts were before them. The opponent was a behemoth that had already mastered two-thirds of the progress and poached their people. Besides giving up, should they stubbornly persist to the end, seeking their destruction? The Donghai No. 1 segment project had been ongoing for nearly two years. During those two years, the project was everyone’s only constant companion at work. Emotionally, who wanted to give up? But rationally, wouldn’t not giving up be seeking destruction? Could they compete with the behemoth that had poached their people?
“We still have one path—beat our opponents to it.” Liu Jun added another sentence, but his eyes didn’t look at anyone. Instead, he unconsciously turned his head toward the lush green flourishing outside the window. No money, several key external supporters poached—how easy was it to beat opponents to it? He had no confidence at all.
After a long silence, team backbone Engineer Tan slowly stood up, dropped the words “I give up,” lowered his head, and rushed out the door. But he was caught by Engineer Sun at the door. Engineer Sun asked Liu Jun, “Can we negotiate cooperation with the new president there?”
Luo Qing refuted from outside the door: “The new president couldn’t have failed to consider cooperation. He must have comprehensively analyzed the cost of cooperation versus the cost of their continued independent research. And they must see victory within reach. The comprehensive analysis result is that they don’t need us. But Liu Jun, I can try. Even if it’s a treaty under siege, we must strive for the best conditions. What I want to know is, how much of our results can poaching take away?”
“Enough for them to have sufficient reason to decide not to consider cooperating with us.” Liu Jun had no temper.
Luo Qing was speechless. Then what was there to negotiate?
Still Engineer Tan—the excited Engineer Tan who had been pulled back by Engineer Sun—suddenly turned to face Liu Jun and asked: “Don’t we have any advantages at all? At least everyone here is familiar with this project from top to bottom, while they have to familiarize themselves from scratch. That’s our advantage.”
Liu Jun calmly added, “I also thought that they lack the authority to blend and coordinate those technical personnel’s progress, to organically schedule those technical personnel’s work. Here, I’m doing all these things.” But Liu Jun’s gaze and voice remained hollow because he believed massive financial power could compensate for many, many things.
“So we still have a chance.” Engineer Tan stared eagerly at Liu Jun, hoping the boss would give a resounding answer.
But Liu Jun said wearily, “So I don’t want to give up. I’ll find a way to get money.”
The emergency meeting ended listlessly, and everyone who walked out had lost their spirit. Luo Qing chased Liu Jun to a private place and said bluntly, “Liu Jun, your meeting today was a serious mistake. If you had said nothing, you might have pieced things together and surpassed your opponents in research progress. But now that you’ve said this, people’s hearts are scattered, and the team is even harder to lead.”
“I know. But you don’t know that my original intention today was to encourage everyone to burn bridges and fight with their backs to the wall, to inspire that kind of tragic sentiment… I can’t do it. I can’t control myself anymore. I first can’t control my own emotions. What urgent matter do you have that made you especially rush to the center?”
“Liu Jun, I suggest you drop everything and take a three-day vacation.”
“Let’s handle your urgent matter first. Don’t worry about me, speak.”
“Need money.” Luo Qing sat Liu Jun down and explained in detail why they needed to go through back channels for this bidding.
While listening, Liu Jun began feeling for his credit cards. He knew this project. When dealing with that type of company, it seemed against natural law not to use slush fund money for back channels. But everyone knew that even personal withdrawals now had a fifty-thousand-yuan limit. Liu Jun could only first call to make an appointment with the bank counter. After Liu Jun finished his call, Luo Qing asked curiously: “Why are you taking three hundred thousand? I estimate that the company can be dealt with for about one hundred thousand. After all, our product’s competitiveness and pricing currently lack domestic opponents.”
“You take an extra fifty thousand, act according to circumstances, and make sure to sign the contract. I need this big contract to negotiate acceptances with the bank again. The other one hundred fifty thousand I have my use for.”
Luo Qing immediately understood where Liu Jun planned to use that other one hundred fifty thousand, but he still refused the extra fifty thousand. He went to the bank with Liu Jun, took one hundred thousand, and left. Save where you can—such a big company could save tens of thousands just by sweeping corners. From originally considering social and political benefits most when working as a civil servant, to now only seeing economic benefits, Luo Qing discovered that these two positions he had experienced had qualitative differences. But he believed he had become more human.
With Luo Qing’s successful contract signing, five days later, Liu Jun also successfully obtained a newly opened bank acceptance bill, which was a loan. Though only for three months, after three months, they could open another. He exceptionally didn’t take the acceptance to Tengfei’s finance department but waved the acceptance and came to the research center first, gathering everyone to see the ten million. He forcefully slapped the stack of acceptances, like small fans, onto the table with just two words: “Start work!”
Everyone swept away the gloom of nearly a month and cheered as they went to start work. Liu Jun accepted the offer from Tengfei. Only he knew that he was becoming increasingly corrupt, increasingly actively and aggressively corrupt.