Liu Jun consulted Chief Engineer Wang about borrowing Shi Yiji’s facilities for tensile testing, hoping Wang would help arrange it. Chief Engineer Wang was very helpful and directly approached Yang Xun for a solution. Soon, Chief Engineer Wang called Liu Jun, telling him to contact a girl named Yu Shanshan, who would be responsible for all arrangements. Liu Jun immediately raised a question: this was a testing center work, so why was someone from the import-export trade department handling the coordination? Chief Engineer Wang didn’t know either, saying it was probably because after foreign investment withdrew, the import-export department had idle staff who were conveniently assigned by Yang Xun.
Liu Jun felt something was suspicious. Regarding matters involving confidentiality, he dared not be careless and consulted his father. Liu Shitang immediately determined that the name Yu Shanshan was good material for a honey trap—state enterprises don’t have such cross-departmental assignments. Liu Jun found this amusing, saying that girls named Shanshan aren’t necessarily beautiful like flowers and jade, and those called Xiao Yu aren’t necessarily petite and delicate. But this made him more cautious, reminding himself to be vigilant everywhere.
Soon he met Yu Shanshan. Yu Shanshan was indeed good material for a honey trap. Her hair wasn’t even as long as Liu Jun’s, with sword-like eyebrows and starry eyes, yet she had a cherry-like small mouth and snow-white, delicate skin. Although she also wore khaki work clothes, her long legs and slim waist couldn’t be ignored. But good material for honey traps doesn’t necessarily utilize itself fully—when Yu Shanshan saw Liu Jun arrive, she didn’t cast out countless soft silken spider webs, but instead told Liu Jun matter-of-factly that she had contacted the testing center. Liu Jun’s side could enter the testing center during the 5 PM to 8 PM time slot; each type of testing instrument was priced by unit time according to the price list shown; Liu Jun’s side needed her present each time they entered the testing center and couldn’t enter without permission; the number of people from Liu Jun’s side entering the testing center each time couldn’t exceed three. If he agreed, please sign and seal.
Liu Jun had no objections to anything else, only the time arrangement: “Miss Yu, could we move it forward two hours or push it back two hours? This awkward timing affects both our dinners. Testing can’t be completed in just a day or two.”
A male colleague nearby said coldly, “Don’t be ungrateful. If not for Xiao Yu personally stepping forward and saying all kinds of good things for you, relying on Old Wang alone, you’d never get into the testing center until the year of the monkey and month of the horse. Thank Xiao Yu properly.”
Miss Yu’s speech wasn’t fast, even somewhat hesitant: “No need to thank me. I finally caught something to do—picking up a needle and treating it like a club. Mr. Liu, you’re half an hour early for the agreed time. Please sit here casually for a while, and I’ll take you to the testing center shortly.” After saying this, she offered a cup of Longjing tea in a blue and white porcelain cup, then went about her own business. Her attitude was neither warm nor cold, completely lacking the usual honey trap routine.
Liu Jun didn’t sit idly but went out to buy a bag of bread, returning at exactly five minutes to five. In the twenty minutes Liu Jun was gone, the import-export department staff immediately engaged in theoretical matchmaking between Liu and Yu, making Yu Shanshan’s face alternately red and white with anger. Therefore, when Liu Jun re-entered, Yu Shanshan was almost glaring coldly, standing up and saying icily, “Mr. Liu, please follow me.” After saying this, she shot out like an arrow. Liu Jun hurriedly started up but only caught up with Yu Shanshan’s pace at the stairway. Liu Jun was completely baffled.
When Yu Shanshan was handling specific procedures with the testing center staff, Liu Jun saw Chief Engineer Wang, who should have gotten off work at five, walk in. Chief Engineer Wang listened to the specific arrangements and said to Liu Jun: “This timing isn’t very convenient, but this time slot is relatively quiet with fewer disturbances, productive.”
“Yes, thank you for the arrangement, Chief Engineer Wang. It just affects Miss Yu’s schedule.”
Chief Engineer Wang looked at Yu Shanshan carefully. Shi Yiji wasn’t small—Yu Shanshan knew Chief Engineer Wang, but Chief Engineer Wang didn’t know Yu Shanshan. Seeing Yu Shanshan was a thoroughly elegant beauty, his mind produced thoughts similar to Liu Shitang’s. In his eyes, Yang Xun was someone who could do anything. But it wasn’t convenient to remind Liu Jun at this moment, so he could only say: “Is your experiment proceeding smoothly?”
“Just started. Look, I just made these samples.” Liu Jun opened his briefcase, which was densely packed with small steel specimens, each clearly numbered and arranged orderly, fixed to iron plates with thin copper wire—there were three layers of such iron plates.
“Oh, all heat-treated already.” Chief Engineer Wang was an expert—looking at the color changes of each small specimen, he knew these materials were probably of different compositions and had undergone different heat treatments. Looking at the numbering, he couldn’t help smiling—all marked with letters and numbers, revealing no steel grades or temperatures. Anyone wanting to know the essence of these small specimens would probably have to crack open Liu Jun’s head to find the comparison table. “Good. I once thought about casting such a wide net to catch small fish, but unfortunately, funding was far from sufficient. Same old saying—I envy you people who have both interest and capability.”
“Capability is quite limited. My father is very worried about serious overspending. These past few days, while managing the large furnace, I’ve been optimizing experimental procedures, deciding to take some risks and adopt elimination methods…” Liu Jun said this much when he suddenly noticed Yu Shanshan listening carefully to his words and quickly stopped.
Chief Engineer Wang also saw this, patted Liu Jun’s shoulder, and said: “Borrowing the testing center isn’t easy, and the borrowing fees aren’t low either. I won’t take up your time. You should also talk less and work more, using all the time effectively.”
After Chief Engineer Wang left, Liu Jun appreciated the indirect reminder and indeed sealed his mouth, working like a robot. However, before starting work, he silently placed the bread bag in front of Yu Shanshan, sharing fortune and misfortune. Testing work was very mechanical—sampling, testing, recording—almost requiring no thought. Liu Jun’s mind was idle and restless, really unable to resist wanting to talk to someone, when Yang Li arrived gracefully.
“Oh, Mr. Liu working hands-on?” Yang Li wore a light gray all-wool suit and high-heeled leather shoes, standing elegantly. “Need an assistant?”
“Ha, Miss Yang, thank you for personally visiting. Hehe, wouldn’t dare trouble you—in this environment, hard-soled shoes and high heels are both dangerous.”
Yang Li raised an eyebrow, getting straight to the point: “Are you afraid of leaking trade secrets? Let me introduce myself: a four-year chemical engineering student, never worked in the field after graduation. Besides remembering the names of the three major mechanics, I’ve forgotten the specifics long ago. Miss Yu, what about you?”
“No, no, no, I don’t mean that. Look, how could I let girls do this rough work?”
Yu Shanshan had already responded: “Mechanical engineering, undergraduate, four years. After graduation, I worked in the workshop for three months, then never touched a drawing board again.”
“Oh my, dear ladies, please look all you want—even if you recorded it with video cameras, it wouldn’t matter. But I advise Miss Yang never to wear hard-soled shoes and high heels into workshops and testing centers—it’s dangerous. Every word I say is loyal advice that’s hard to hear, every sentence is bitter medicine that’s good for you.”
“Mr. Liu doesn’t need to imagine enemies on all sides.” Yang Li smiled, looking at the ground beneath her feet, carefully walking closer to Liu Jun while not forgetting to tease.
“I’m not just surrounded by enemies—I’ve long been startled by every sound. You female engineering students are all raised like giant pandas. If I don’t respect you, do I still have my little life?” Liu Jun smelled a pleasant perfume coming from Yang Li’s direction and couldn’t help glancing at her. Seeing the exquisite smile on Yang Li’s face—subtle and elegant—he thought to himself that the Yang siblings were somewhat different. So he asked a sincere question: “You studied engineering for four years and just abandoned it like that—isn’t it a pity?”
“Do girls in engineering have a future? Are there many girls working as mechanical engineers in Germany? Is the working environment as dirty, chaotic, and poor as here?” Yang Li asked.
“But when you chose engineering back then, it should have been due to love for the profession, right?”
Yang Li scoffed: “When applying for university, who knew what chemical machinery was? By the time we knew, it was too late. You can’t bet your whole life on those four years, can you? It seems Mr. Liu likes machinery. Our classmates who went abroad all switched to computer science—none stayed in their original major.”
“Such a pity.” Liu Jun sighed. “My classmates are about the same.” If it had been when he just returned to China, Liu Jun would have asked why, but after a month of seeing and hearing much, no matter how many ideals one had, how could they compete with survival pressures? Take Qianjin Factory, for example—according to his father, the salary for hired engineers might not even match that of wire-cutting workers. Only engineers who brought projects received preferential treatment. But mechanical engineering isn’t an industry where you can get fat overnight. Without environmental support, how can you demand that engineers endure years of poverty? Moreover, without financial support, enduring poverty doesn’t necessarily guarantee getting a project. Speaking of it, having crude imitation projects to work on was already pretty good.
While chatting, Yang Li carefully watched Liu Jun doing dull, repetitive labor, unable to make heads or tails of it after watching for a long time. So she asked Yu Shanshan: “Xiao Yu, I’m in chemical machinery, which is inadequate. You studied mechanical engineering—can you tell what Mr. Liu is doing?”
“I only see repeated tensile tests. As for whether each data point corresponds to quenching, annealing, tempering, or even the addition of chromium, nickel, manganese, and other elements in carburized alloy steel, you’d have to ask Mr. Liu himself. Even if we photographed each crystal phase, we might not be able to determine temperature and content.”
Seeing Liu Jun smile after hearing this, Yang Li also smiled: “No wonder Mr. Liu isn’t afraid of us watching.”
Liu Jun laughed: “Chief Engineer Wang can see the way. Miss Yu has also touched the edge.”
Yu Shanshan quickly said, “Mr. Liu, you can’t harm people. With my undergraduate four years and Chief Engineer Wang’s already outdated technology, even if we had fiery eyes and could see your heat treatment methods, we couldn’t process your data. My advanced mathematics level isn’t sufficient to handle these.”
“Sorry, Miss Yu, I didn’t mean to harm you. It’s just that since returning to China, I’ve encountered mostly opposing voices. Seeing that you and Chief Engineer Wang are both professionals makes me incredibly happy.”
“Then you should protect rare species even more, not cause us trouble.”
Yang Li looked at Yu Shanshan thoughtfully. She deliberately spoke to herself: “No wonder big brother invested 500,000 yuan in this project without hearing a sound.”
“This isn’t Chief Engineer Wang’s fault, but a problem with the entire industry’s guiding philosophy. In the laboratory where I work, besides mechanical engineering PhDs, there are PhDs in mathematics, physics, chemistry, and other disciplines, including quite a few computer science PhDs. Here, look, I can’t even find an assistant. The assistants I do find are very impatient—I tell them the specified heating time, and they delay it by more than ten minutes, then brazenly say it’s nothing, more or less the same, so-so. I had to scrap a batch. Some things can’t be bought with 500,000 yuan.” Liu Jun said, pointing to his head.
Yang Li listened with partial understanding, but roughly grasped Liu Jun’s meaning and formed a preliminary concept in her mind.
Sure enough, the next day, when Liu Jun came to the testing center again, Yu Shanshan only led him in but no longer accompanied him, leaving work when her shift ended. Although Liu Jun was happy to have no disturbances, this made him even more lonely with no one to talk to. On the third day, he brought a CD player and speakers, howling and dancing alone, entertaining himself.
On the other side was Yang Xun’s office. Yang Xun and a deputy chief engineer who followed him like a shadow observed Liu Jun’s every move through secretly installed cameras, even able to see every displayed data point. But that deputy chief engineer said essentially the same thing as Yang Li. Unless they cracked open Liu Jun’s head, this kind of peripheral observation was useless. Only then did Yang Xun give up hope. However, he reported this matter like offering treasure to his patron, Song Yunhui, General Manager of Song of Donghai Group. At least this was a relatively cultured topic that could be mentioned in front of General Manager Song and receive a response. But General Manager Song hadn’t shown much interest when his wife Liang Sishen became curious about mathematical data processing. This was an interesting topic. Liang Sishen instructed Yang Xun to report developments at any time. But Yang Xun’s surveillance cameras filmed for several days the same thing—”snap” breaking, “snap” twisting, “creak creak” crushing. He didn’t know where Liu Jun got such foolish patience.
But even though Yang Xun couldn’t understand what Liu Jun was doing, he had exceptional common sense to judge Liu Jun’s behavior. He believed that without exceptional benefits and foreseeable success in front of him, could such an impetuous young man persist like an old monk in meditation during this vigorous spring, doing the same boring thing? More believably, given Liu Jun’s father, a small boss with limited revenue and this kind of personality pattern, investing money so lavishly, could there be no reason? No, there was only one reason: huge profit expectations. Because of such speculation, even though Yang Xun was busy with countless affairs, he still couldn’t resist keeping an eye on Liu Jun. Although the camera setup was completely meaningless, Yang Xun ordered it not to be removed. Whenever he had time, he would take a look to see what was happening.
Of course, what Yang Xun saw was still the same scene.
But actually, all this had become completely different in Liu Jun’s eyes. As data points were obtained one by one, the originally cold numbers had come to life in Liu Jun’s eyes. The vigorous spring outside couldn’t compare to the vigorous vitality of the data bursting forth under his hands. Organically connecting this data had become extremely challenging and extremely interesting work. Liu Jun had finally obtained a satisfactory assistant. This assistant understood nothing about machinery but had a meticulous heart. It happened when he mentioned work troubles to Aunt Fu, who came to clean—he didn’t know why he would tell Aunt Fu these things. Aunt Fu volunteered, saying she had sufficient patience. So the old and young became the best partners. Aunt Fu helped Liu Jun watch the large oven, meticulously adjusting temperature and time according to Liu Jun’s instructions, and properly preserved all records for Liu Jun.
During this period, the most tormented was Liu Shitang. Everyone else had joy, only he didn’t—he only had the daily agony of watching money flow like water, rushing out. The money he earned daily leading so many people was far from enough to cover his son’s consumption alone. At first, he would ask his son, “Any progress?” but later, not only did his son find him annoying and give him an eye roll, but he also found himself lacking backbone in front of his son. But not asking wasn’t an option—he could agree, but the money at hand wouldn’t agree.
Finally unable to endure the torment, Liu Shitang decided to offer tactful advice. He walked into the office currently exclusively used by his son and saw his son wearing only a short-sleeved T-shirt, yet sweating profusely. He couldn’t help looking at his long sleeves, and the words he wanted to say became hard to voice. His son was working so hard—if he pressed with questions, wouldn’t that be pressuring his son? But he really couldn’t hold back. So the words that came to his lips completely changed flavor: “Liu Jun, how many days has it been since you called your girlfriend?”
Liu Jun slapped his forehead, quickly looked at his watch, calculated it was morning in Germany when his girlfriend should be up, and immediately dialed. Unexpectedly, no one answered in the morning. Liu Jun’s head finally emerged from the calculation formulas, and he was dazed for quite a while.
Liu Shitang watched with heartache, thinking foreign women were famously liberal—if his son didn’t keep watch for a few days, wouldn’t she have an affair? But seeing his son’s appearance, he couldn’t bear to say anything more, so he reluctantly said: “You haven’t even rested on Sundays recently, your hair has grown like weeds. Don’t work today—go get a haircut, find classmates and friends to play with.”
“It’s a critical moment, I can’t let go.”
“Every day is critical, critical—it’s been a month.”
“Dad, go busy yourself. Thank you.”
Liu Shitang left unsuccessfully. After thinking for a long time, he could only call Qian Hongying, asking her to tell her brother to drag Liu Jun out to play for a few days. Even if it meant carousing, it was better than having no masculine spirit at all.
But Qian Hongming had also tried to find Liu Jun—he hadn’t even thanked Liu Jun for taking care of Cui Jiali for so many days. But Liu Jun told him he was currently in seclusion.
Liu Jun later called again during his girlfriend’s work hours, but even though international long-distance sound quality was poor, he still sensitively detected that his girlfriend spoke somewhat hesitantly. But expensive long-distance fees didn’t allow him to say much—he wasn’t a spendthrift. He paid attention to his consumption bills daily and dared not add insult to injury to his father’s expenses. After thinking for a long time, he wrote a long fax and sent it to his girlfriend. Before his girlfriend could reply, he had to go to Shi Yiji. For the first time, Liu Jun felt a bit tired, weary, with unusually low spirits.
But this time, after Yu Shanshan led him to the testing center, she didn’t leave but sat nearby with a book. Liu Jun was truly depressed with no outlet, so he made conversation without anything to say.
“Miss Yu, why haven’t you gotten off work yet?”
“Orders from above to manage more strictly. Oh, has your experiment entered a critical stage?”
“Yes, sampling matches calculations, and there’s a general outline.”
“Then you can go get a haircut.”
“No, I want to grow my hair to show my determination. Don’t you want to ask what stage my progress has reached?”
Yu Shanshan moved her chair back a symbolic foot: “You’re very strange today. I’m keeping my distance from you.”
Liu Jun looked at Yu Shanshan’s uncooperative attitude with depression, pulling his long hair, hesitating a moment before saying: “There seems to be a problem with my girlfriend.”
Yu Shanshan stared at Liu Jun with her big, round eyes, this time silently retreating a full two meters. “Dangerous person, you work properly, finish quickly, and immediately fly over to see your girlfriend.”
“Don’t you have any sympathy?”
“You haven’t even cried yet—should I usurp your role? You must admit I gave you the best advice.”
“But, miss, I need sympathy now, need pity.”
“You’re too shameless—do you act like a man?”
Liu Jun glared, while Yu Shanshan, being a good fighter who doesn’t suffer immediate losses, “whooshed” and bounced to the next room, holding the door tightly shut. Liu Jun instead found it both funny and annoying—the pent-up frustration from earlier had unknowingly dissipated completely. Everyone domestically lacked focus in their work, but Yu Shanshan, before him, who should be carrying the heavy responsibility of implementing honey traps, was colder to him than anyone else. Fortunately, he didn’t care about these things—she wasn’t his girlfriend anyway.
But tonight was destined to be restless. After a while, the sound of high heels tapping the ground came from the corridor, along with another, slightly lighter footstep. Liu Jun didn’t look up, but Yu Shanshan poked her head out and saw Yang Li and a handsome man appear at the door. It turned out that Qian Hongming couldn’t reach Liu Jun and was unwilling to go to Qianjin Factory to see him, so he could only ask Yang Li to lead the way and find Shi Yiji.