It’s hard to imagine that a very self-centered and rebellious article by an internet author could win the Central Propaganda Department’s “Five Ones Project Award,” which is awarded every three years. My “The Great River Flows East” has become mainstream this time. When my editor told me the news at noon today, I had some difficulty accepting it at first, and I’m only now beginning to wake up from the daze.

“I… must restrain myself, restrain myself.”

Qian Hongming laughed even louder: “Lending money isn’t a scourge – it’s just an effective supplement to state-owned bank lending. Oh, are you worried about it taking up your energy for scientific research? Unlike when you used to trade futures, you don’t need to worry about this. I’ll handle the entire operation for you, and all the profits will be yours. You need to think of a way to effectively utilize your idle funds. I believe you’ll have more and more idle funds on hand.”

Liu Jun found reasons for his restraint: “I won’t have spare money. I’ll soon need to transfer some of Tengfei’s equipment to Tengda and acquire higher-precision, more capable processing equipment for Tengfei. That equipment is forged from pure silver – I’m still worried about money.”

Qian Hongming laughed again: “You underestimate yourself too much. If you properly promote your Donghai No. 1, your financing capacity will soon increase greatly. I have many ready examples here. Which company has idle funds? It’s just that some companies have stronger financing capabilities – they take low-cost loans from banks and lend them out at high interest rates, earning the spread. It’s getting something for nothing – how great is that?”

“My financing capacity has already improved, especially with the R&D center in the high-tech park. Land value assessments are rising quickly, and even after banks discount them by 30-20%, mortgage loans have increased dramatically. The other two locations in industrial zones haven’t appreciated as fast.”

Qian Hongming was practically shaking his head and laughing: “Hasn’t A’San, that banking person, enlightened you? How about this – let me reserve a spot with you first. Although my foreign trade company is affiliated with a state enterprise, the credit letter quota still isn’t enough for my use. Someday I’ll borrow your quota. I’ll pay you an agency fee.”

Liu Jun readily agreed. He had always imported equipment and raw materials, frequently asking banks to open letters of credit worth millions of yuan, though he estimated Qian Hongming wanted more than that amount. But since Qian Hongming had brought it up, he certainly wouldn’t refuse – helping friends was only right. When he mentioned this to Cui Bingbing, she also said it was feasible. Bank financing quotas would just sit idle otherwise, and idleness would affect next year’s loan quotas. Better to use them this way, as long as the usage was proper and fund security was guaranteed. When she said this, Cui Bingbing had before her the interest earned from lending three million for twenty days. She fingered the stack of bills over and over, and even she, someone well-versed in the financial world, kept shaking her head – for some people, money was too easy to make.

Liu Jun needed to exert effort not to think about taking out money to give to Qian Hongming for management. Fortunately, the Donghai No. 1 segment R&D progress was advancing rapidly. The battlefield had shifted to Tengfei’s trial manufacturing equipment, which was becoming increasingly mature and had become the company’s biggest core focus. Liu Jun’s attention was mostly focused there. Several departments were almost racing against each other to advance progress, as if they couldn’t wait to build Rome in a day. Liang Sishen also spent an afternoon every day working with everyone, sharing in the rare excitement. She now somewhat understood why Liu Jun had been completely out of ammunition and supplies, but still refused to give up, jumping into the fire pit with his eyes wide open. The passionate dedication of this group of people, who forgot to eat and sleep, always reminded her of her husband’s photos from long ago – a young and serious face, eyes excited by successful equipment operation, and large blisters accumulated at the corners of his mouth. No wonder her husband always understood Liu Jun so well – he was someone who had been through it all.

Finally, everything was ready. Liu Jun asked Liang Sishen to convey that they had invited Mr. Song to come see the equipment trial run. Liang Sishen didn’t hide anything and smiled: “I tell him the progress every day. He knows these days it can go online and has postponed his business trip, waiting for your notification.”

“I don’t know how to thank Mr. Song. Sending expensive gifts would seem to profane Mr. Song and might even cause adverse effects for him…”

“Don’t – don’t send gifts. We have enough to eat and use. He just shares common interests with you. He’s purely just because of you as a person and what you do… It’s no different from your other friends who befriend you just because of who you are. Would you send friends expensive gifts because of this?”

Liu Jun smiled sheepishly. Yes, he always told Cui Bingbing that he had foolish luck, but Cui Bingbing said no – close friends were entirely due to personal character, and friendship was a reflection of personal character.

The next day, Song Yunhui indeed graced the trial run site with his presence, accompanied by several technical backbones from Donghai Group. Liu Jun was confident, and the new equipment lived up to expectations. Under everyone’s watchful eyes, and with Donghai Group’s people repeatedly proposing new operating conditions, it produced qualified precision products. Seeing that even the harsh conditions proposed by Donghai Group couldn’t stump his baby, Liu Jun smiled so widely he couldn’t close his mouth. He started every conversation with “Haha” and patted the equipment, calling it “baby.” But no one thought his behavior was strange – not one of the Tengfei colleagues present was normal. The younger ones would occasionally twist their butts and shrug their shoulders, unable to hide their joyful expressions.

The Donghai people’s attitude was much more composed. Although they also beamed with joy, they wouldn’t dance around like the Tengfei people, because their boss was the unsmiling Song Yunhui. Liu Jun didn’t care about the occasion at this point and was “haha-ing” everywhere, though when he saw the Donghai people gathering to discuss, he still moved away with his “haha” – after all, they weren’t one family, so it wasn’t good to be too familiar.

After a while, Song Yunhui beckoned Liu Jun over: “Xiao Liu, dismantle it overnight and transport it to Donghai tomorrow – any problems?”

Liu Jun habitually let out another “haha,” though this “haha” lacked smoothness because he was greatly surprised. “Dismantling it overnight is no problem, but would it be useful at your place? The other supporting equipment hasn’t arrived yet, right?”

“The several working conditions we just had you test were from other equipment – very good. Your baby has a wide spectrum and has handled them all. We have a set of the earliest domestic equipment that we’ve been modifying over the years, hoping to keep up with current product quality requirements. If your baby can substitute in, it could have a significant impact on product quality. At the same time, it would be a field operation test for your baby. Any problems that new equipment commonly has can be discovered and improved in time, saving trouble when it’s formally matched with Donghai No. 1.”

“Haha, no problem. But Mr. Song, please give me a week and a set of specific parameters for the old equipment. We can make some targeted small modifications to better adapt to the old equipment’s operation. Because our set is designed with the most suitable parameters for Donghai No. 1 as guidance.”

A senior engineer from Donghai interjected: “Oh, there’s this consideration too?”

“Haha, this is necessary for high-precision products. We must ensure the service life of every component that affects precision through various treatments of materials. Different parameters inevitably lead to slight differences in the operating conditions of certain components, so we must strengthen certain parts according to working conditions while slightly weakening others. Don’t worry, it’s very fast – we have a powerful database as backup, haha.”

“So you mean if you specify in the manual that certain components need replacement after a certain production volume, we must follow it 100%?” Even Song Yunhui asked somewhat skeptically, though he had personally witnessed Liu Jun’s massive database in that large central computer room.

“Haha, yes. The materials used in babies are all based on multiple experimental data, not groundless claims.”

“Impressive!” The Donghai people said almost in unison, because they had only seen such situations with foreign equipment.

“Haha, not impressive. Our Donghai No. 1 definitely can’t be completely domestically produced. Many materials we use must be imported, otherwise, we can’t guarantee material quality. And the servo motors we use can only be imported. But I can only do this much.”

“Don’t worry, there will be more and more enterprises like Tengfei. Someday we’ll achieve truly complete domestic production.”

Regarding Song Yunhui’s words, Liu Jun had some reservations. Were there more and more enterprises like Tengfei? No, he didn’t think so. He remembered when his father’s factory was small, it still had a proper technical department. Although the technicians weren’t that great, they had rich experience – they drew designs themselves, made blueprints and printed them themselves, with considerable independent intellectual property. At least back then, university graduates were proud to become engineers, unlike now, though this was the result of natural selection – the smartest people all went to high-paying industries like finance. Few people aspired to be engineers, and few people could patiently start from the basics and endure several years to become engineers capable of working independently. Modern people have too many temptations. Unless someone had a passionate dedication to design and manufacturing, he hadn’t seen many smart people without such passion who could patiently work foolishly in technical positions for a year. Even though Tengfei’s R&D personnel generally had high salaries, the problem was that a smart person could get a substantial income more quickly in marketing, finance, and other fields, while becoming a qualified engineer in mechanical manufacturing required several years, so the goal of being an engineer had little appeal.

But paradoxically, every spring and summer, this society always had large numbers of university students lamenting that they couldn’t find work. On one hand were large numbers of university students who couldn’t find jobs, on the other hand was his Tengfei unable to find even a few fresh graduates willing to peacefully work as engineers. The current situation made Liu Jun very hard to believe the manufacturing industry had any bright future.

What made Liu Jun even more unbelievable was the current general human nature – rigorous people were so few and weren’t encouraged, while fraud and deception were increasingly less pursued and increasingly brazen. There was an old saying that “everyone shouts to beat a rat crossing the street,” but now people were very indifferent to such rats.

Sure enough, the graduate students interning at the R&D center quickly reported the good news of Tengfei’s successful trial manufacturing to their advisor. That evening, a professor who had once fought alongside Liu Jun at the R&D center but then took the technology north approached Liu Jun to discuss collaboration on publishing papers and applying for national science and technology invention awards. Only then did Liu Jun finally put away the “haha” he’d been laughing all day and close his mouth that had been foolishly agape all day. But after weighing things, Liu Jun agreed to cooperate with his signature. Because he couldn’t avoid convention, Tengfei, this private company, like a lonely ghost, needed national awards to support its facade, expand influence, and gain government support. And naturally, those judging the major awards were precisely those experts cooperating with him and the experts’ friends. Every circle that reached the top was just a small group of limited people holding together.

Liu Jun could only comfort himself that at least those experts had made contributions and efforts. But he sighed deeply about the experts. Sighs aside, he still actively cooperated with those formerly respected teachers and mentors to produce papers together. He hid all his inner criticism, sharing it at most with his wife.

Because of this, Tengfei’s voice soon rang out in academic circles. Experts sang the praises of Donghai No. 1’s revolutionary R&D achievements on various occasions. Song Yunhui also introduced industry top-level conferences for Liu Jun to send people to participate, and Liu Jun always invited those experts. As for honor and disgrace, those were invisible. What existed was complicity and mutual exploitation. Interestingly, the experts became the best endorsement for the Donghai No. 1 segment R&D project.

Before the 2007 Spring Festival arrived, Liu Jun hurried to attend the most and most frequent meetings of his lifetime. He believed that after spring came, he would have to attend even more meetings and give even more speeches. But by then, what was in his heart would no longer be the passion for scientific research, but purely market motivation. Standing on stage with experts would not be Liu Jun, the dedicated R&D leader, but Liu Jun, the profit-seeking entrepreneur.

Good things came one after another. The Porsche 911 Liu Jun had ordered arrived just in time before the Spring Festival. When Shen Huadong heard about it, he was eager to try racing with Liu Jun, but Liu Jun was so busy those days that he could eat two dinners in one night of socializing – where was the time for racing? Shen Huadong didn’t care and finally designed a way to trick Liu Jun into coming to the industrial zone where Shi Yiji was located. It was already nearly midnight.

Cui Bingbing had also just finished socializing and was tricked by Shen Huadong along with Liu Jun on their way home. As soon as the car entered the industrial zone where Shi Yiji was located, seeing the endless wall under streetlights that couldn’t be seen to the end in one, two, or three glances, Cui Bingbing was amazed. “I thought our Tengda was already quite large in scale, but I didn’t expect Dongdong’s boy to have an even bigger industry under his hands.”

“Dongdong’s father is an absolute people person. Every time I meet him, I feel this person is incredibly good, incredibly honest, incredibly trustworthy, and incredibly kind. Unlike Mr. Song, you can’t put the words ‘incredibly kind’ on Mr. Song. This shows that doing business starts with being a person. Damn, we still haven’t seen the main gate – this factory is too big. Looks like there’s more construction going on.”

But when their car reached Shi Yiji’s main gate, they saw Shen Huadong’s flashy car parked right in front of the gate – the bright red Ferrari like a fire in the cold wind. Shen Huadong jumped out with a walkie-talkie, smiling as he grabbed Liu Jun’s car door: “A’San, sorry to trouble you to get out and watch the battle. I’ve prepared a warm down jacket for you. I’m going to race Liu Jun for a few laps. You’re not allowed to leave – I’ve cleared the whole area, with our security guards at all intersections. We’ll circle Shi Yiji’s outer wall three times to see who’s faster. Liu Jun, want me to take you on a route reconnaissance first?”

Cui Bingbing couldn’t help sighing: “Young Master Shen, what a grand gesture. You two play.” She willingly got out of the car, then looked at the endless Shi Yiji wall, thinking how many security guards would be needed around here.

“Three laps isn’t enough – I’ve been waiting for this day.” Liu Jun’s eyes shone brightly, adrenaline surging with passion. “Keep going until the fuel tank burns dry!”

Cui Bingbing stood aside with arms akimbo, watching the battle. Even after years of being close to vermilion, she remained unstained. She couldn’t see what was wonderful about two cars chasing each other – she just watched her husband in the car window, approaching from far and near. What she loved most was Liu Jun’s youthful and frivolous attitude. During this period, after the Donghai No. 1 segment R&D ended, Liu Jun had finally returned to normal, sunny and passionate every day – she didn’t know how much she enjoyed it. So when the cars finally circled until the fuel gauges hit bottom and screeched to a stop beside her, Cui Bingbing’s first thought was to rush over and give her sweat-soaked husband, who had just opened the car door, a passionate kiss. Shen Huadong, who caught up from behind, saw this and yelled loudly, taking out his phone to snap photos. The couple didn’t care – after kissing, they made faces at Shen Huadong.

While Shen Huadong’s colleagues carried gas cans to refuel both cars, the three chatted in the cold wind. Liu Jun asked Shen Huadong if they were building more workshops inside the wall and what they were for. Shen Huadong couldn’t answer either, only vaguely knowing that after the new technology transfer, production capacity couldn’t keep up, the market was hotter than expected, so they had to invest huge amounts to build two more workshops.

Liu Jun was puzzled: “My Tengda is also preparing to expand workshops – no choice, we can’t handle all the orders. But sometimes I really feel it’s mysterious. Current demand is so large, the year-over-year multiplication is too astonishing. I keep wondering exactly which corner of the world is generating such huge demand, and whether such demand might suddenly disappear someday, leaving our expanded production capacity to slowly wither. Should we be thinking about taking a more correct path?”

Shen Huadong said, “I have this worry too, honestly. Every day, I go online to first check foreign news, like the Wall Street Journal. Foreign countries have had much discussion about our GDP in recent years. At first, many held the view that GDP was fake, but now this view is becoming less common internationally. No choice, everyone can feel the vitality of China’s market these years, it’s too hot. Foreign countries compare it to a broken car running fast, saying our economic structure is very imperfect, but we’re being pulled to run quickly by crazily growing GDP – they wonder if this broken old car will fall apart. But what can we enterprises do even if we worry? Current demand is expanding rapidly. Regardless of whether this expansion is a bubble, we must catch up and expand ourselves to firmly occupy our original market share. Otherwise, what can we do? With so many factories nationwide, if I worry about the bubble bursting and don’t expand, other enterprises will take the opportunity to expand and seize my market. We business people can lose everything else, but we can’t lose market share, right? Even if the bubble bursts, if the original market has already been seized by others, I, who conservatively didn’t expand, also can’t reclaim the market after the bubble bursts – what’s lost is hard to regain. We enterprises can only passively cater and actively expand, closely following the big environment. Don’t think too much – thinking too much will scare you to death. Listen to me, I studied economics, and I’ve read about precedents in this area. We enterprises can only do that. The correct path should be grasped by the government, but I see…” Shen Huadong looked around at his colleagues and shut his mouth.