One person’s death is merely a fleeting piece of news for others, but for those who love him, it means everything. Listening to Qian Hongying’s heart-wrenching sobs, Liu Jun bowed his head toward his father, and both men wept in silence.

After a very long time, Liu Jun was finally able to speak to his father. “Tell her that with Hongming’s death, everything is sealed. She just needs to know nothing. Knowing more would only make certain people restless. This is what Hongming couldn’t say over the phone. Also, tell her that she must live, no matter what – only by living is there anything. Hongming’s purpose was to let those he loved live well. Tell her not to worry about life after getting out – Hongming’s good friend will be there…”

Liu Jun stood beside the collapsed and weeping Qian Hongying, saying many things to his father, even including moving the person elsewhere first before surrendering. He was also speaking for Qian Hongying to hear.

“I’ll go there right away to bring Hongming back.”

Qian Hongying suddenly raised her head and stared fixedly at Liu Jun. Liu Jun also looked at her for a while, then said firmly, “Live well. No one should commit suicide. No obstacle can be overcome. Suicide is the greatest punishment for the living.”

After saying this, Liu Jun left. He still had to put aside work – he needed to personally handle many, many things. Cui Bingbing was worried about Liu Jun’s state and insisted on accompanying him, taking leave from the bank. With almost no time to prepare luggage, she grabbed a bag of cash and jumped into Liu Jun’s car. Liu Jun’s driving became increasingly unfocused, so Cui Bingbing took over for most of the journey. They took many wrong turns but finally completed everything satisfactorily and returned.

By this time, Qian Hongying had already surrendered, while Jiali hadn’t been released yet. Even Liu Shitang felt heartbroken, pulling his son aside to ask if his past sins had harmed Qian Hongying. Liu Jun didn’t answer – a person’s life has too many causes and effects, who could know? Now it was good enough that one person was alive, even if that was Qian Hongying. Liu Shitang hired a good lawyer for Qian Hongying, using his son’s name. Liu Jun suggested including Jiali as well, but Liu Shitang bluntly said that the woman was better off staying inside – the longer she stayed, the better. If she came out, wouldn’t the creditors tear her apart? Cui Bingbing strongly supported her father-in-law this time, though her thinking differed from Liu Shitang’s. If Jiali came out, either Liu Jun would become Jiali’s handsome servant or she would become Jiali’s fat maid – why should that happen? Cui Bingbing was very satisfied to see that her husband only mentioned Jiali once but didn’t insist.

Qian Hongming’s death depressed Liu Jun for several days. When the boss was in poor spirits, employees inevitably gossiped. This was winter for the entire industrial zone. Going to and from work every day, you’d always see either companies that had closed down with groups of workers demanding wages at their gates, some directly smashing company doors and looting factories, or groups of migrant workers carrying sturdy luggage waiting at bus stops heading to the train station – summer had never been a season for returning home before. Any worker seeing such scenes could hardly avoid feeling anxious. Added to this, every Tengfei employee personally felt the recent decrease in workload, especially that company that had split from Tengfei and later surpassed it, from massive layoffs to shutting down production, with daily chaos at the company gates. Some workers who had left Tengfei came back asking if they could return to work at Tengfei; otherwise, after months without pay, their whole families would have to beg on the streets. Therefore, every Tengfei employee was already on edge. Seeing the boss’s poor complexion made them feel a crisis everywhere. In times of crisis, jobs became extraordinarily important. As a result, product quality improved significantly – pass rates surged for several consecutive days, breaking through limits Liu Jun had always thought impossible. For Liu Jun, this was an unexpected pleasant surprise.

After several days of busyness, he finally finished the work on his desk. At this time, domestic gasoline and diesel prices have finally increased. Diesel vehicles no longer had to queue overnight for fuel, suburban gas stations were no longer congested, and the company’s diesel generator finally had fuel again, though prices had risen. Industrial electricity rates also increased simultaneously. Business was already contracting with declining profits, yet costs were rising – enterprises faced even worse difficulties.

When Liu Jun had some free time, he remembered Aunt Fu, whom Qian Hongming had mentioned in his final moments. After making money, Qian Hongming helped many people, mostly poor students. Every summer, he would personally drive to deliver annual tuition fees and living supplies to impoverished students. Aunt Fu was also among those receiving Qian Hongming’s help, but why had Qian Hongming specifically mentioned Aunt Fu when he had so much to say but no time? Liu Jun vaguely guessed the reason. So he chose a weekend to visit with Dandan. Cui Bingbing had work again.

The village road had improved compared to previous years. Due to the village-to-village connectivity project, what used to require high-clearance vehicles was now a dual-lane concrete road. Liu Jun could drive Cui Bingbing’s Audi TT without obstruction. But even with smooth roads, the village remained desolate on weekend days. After entering the village, all he encountered along the way were elderly people – probably only the elderly could endure the loneliness and were willing to remain in this mountain-surrounded village.

When villagers saw Liu Jun get out of his car, without asking anything they shouted loudly: “Teacher Fu, you have visitors again!”

Liu Jun was slightly surprised – how did the villagers know he was looking for Aunt Fu? Looking up, following the villagers’ directions, he saw Aunt Fu’s snow-white exterior walls and neatly arranged azure tiles – a very orderly and elegant village house, old but refined. He stared at the Fu family’s open gate, but Aunt Fu appeared from somewhere unknown, suddenly appearing before Liu Jun with a somewhat embarrassed but not cold expression. Liu Jun also looked at Aunt Fu with some embarrassment, but fortunately, Dandan in his arms generously called out “Hello, Grandma,” so he naturally said, “My daughter. Aunt Fu looks very well.”

The Aunt Fu before him still had an upright posture, but she was much more rounded overall, no longer the skeletal thin person she used to be. Correspondingly, her facial expression was much gentler, with a pleasant smile. “Your daughter she’s a bit younger than Xiao Qian’s daughter. Come, sit inside, don’t stay in the sun.”

Liu Jun had originally thought he’d need to communicate well with Aunt Fu before being able to discuss matters normally, but Aunt Fu’s attitude was beyond his expectations. “Aunt Fu’s house is very beautiful. I see almost no families here have air conditioning – don’t you need it at night?”

“Xiao Qian also mentioned installing air conditioning. A few days ago, when he stayed here, he discovered that summer nights here don’t need air conditioning – you even need to cover yourself with a blanket when sleeping. Thank you very much, you and Xiao Qian always think of me and gave me so much money to renovate the house. We’re not related – how embarrassing.”

Liu Jun thought to himself that Qian Hongming had given him half the credit, and Aunt Fu’s words also confirmed his guess – indeed, when Qian Hongming went missing recently, he had been hiding at the Fu family home. It was truly an unexpected good hiding place that even he hadn’t thought of. Probably if Jiali hadn’t suddenly returned, Qian Hongming could have continued hiding until heavy snow sealed the mountains. But Jiali knew this place, and with Jiali’s character, if interrogated for three days straight, even the remote Fu family would be revealed. Thinking of the tragically deceased Hongming, Liu Jun’s eyes reddened again.

Fortunately, Aunt Fu was single-minded and didn’t notice Liu Jun’s abnormality, having just walked into the house from bright sunlight with her eyes still adjusting to the darkness. After entering, while pouring water for the father and daughter, she continued chattering: “Sit down, I’ll pick a couple of tomatoes for you to eat. The tomatoes grown in our fields here, mixed with white sugar, Xiao Qian loved eating them. I made them for him every day.”

Liu Jun didn’t want to hear Aunt Fu joyfully mentioning Qian Hongming anymore, so he said, “Hongming just passed away recently. He left your place and then died. I came today to collect his belongings and inform Aunt Fu.”

“How could that be? Xiao Qian is such a good child. How did he die?” Aunt Fu’s tears flowed without hesitation – she was truly heartbroken.

“Yes, he was a very good person.” Finally, someone said Qian Hongming was a good person – Liu Jun felt very comforted. “He felt unwell recently and came to Aunt Fu’s place to recuperate, but unfortunately, he couldn’t escape fate after returning. But he spent peaceful and harmonious final days here. I’m here to thank Aunt Fu on Hongming’s behalf for your genuine hospitality. I won’t go into details – it’s very sad.”

Aunt Fu cried for a long time. “Sigh, I saw his complexion wasn’t good, and his appetite was poor. I cooked good food every day and forced him to eat. I didn’t know his health was bad – if I had known, I would have forced him to see a doctor…”

While speaking and crying, Aunt Fu went into the inner room and brought out a cardboard box, placing it on the table in front of Liu Jun. “No wonder he packed so well when leaving – he knew too clearly in his heart. Sigh, this child was the smartest child I’ve ever seen, and also the best-tempered child. He was so good to everyone, speaking and acting in ways that made people feel comfortable. At such a young age, he understood all the principles of being human more clearly than I do. How could such a good person not live long?”

“He was my best friend.”

“You should learn from him in the future – be more considerate of others, don’t act superior.”

Aunt Fu assumed the posture of Teacher Fu, using Qian Hongming as an example to thoroughly educate Liu Jun. Liu Jun nodded submissively and humbly accepted.

Liu Jun and Dandan ate lunch before leaving the Fu family home. Teacher Fu saw them out, still educating Liu Jun by his car that he should learn from Xiao Qian’s steadiness in being human – when Xiao Qian bought cars, he bought sturdy, reliable ones, not these flashy but useless types. Liu Jun continued to humbly accept. At this time, whoever could speak well of Qian Hongming, he would love to hear it, no matter how they said it, even if they used him as a negative example.

After the car wound out of the mountains, Liu Jun couldn’t wait to get out with the cardboard box, taking out his Swiss Army knife to unseal it, searching for Qian Hongming’s final message to him. He didn’t find one, but saw an almost brand-new netbook – he thought this must be it. After returning home, while Dandan napped, he charged the netbook and impatiently opened it to check. It was indeed a newly bought machine with no antivirus software or word processing software installed – besides the Windows operating system, it was almost bare, except for internet access and online writing capabilities. Liu Jun found Qian Hongming’s browsing history – indeed, besides news websites, there were links to that forum. Besides this, Qian Hongming had left no written words. Liu Jun felt very disappointed, but after thinking for a while, he understood. With Qian Hongming’s meticulous personality, he absolutely couldn’t tolerate causing complications at the last moment due to unclean handling – he wanted to control all possibilities within his achievable range. After all, Aunt Fu was uninformed, and being uninformed could lead to well-intentioned accidents.

Besides the netbook, the box also contained Qian Hongming’s expensive clothes, shoes, and bags that he had changed out of. Liu Jun sealed these items back in the box, planning to give them to Qian Hongying later. And Qian Hongming, as a person, also became sealed in history. History has always only interested a limited number of people in opening it.

Liu Jun received another call from Shen Huadong – this had almost become a routine call, always starting with “Has your production capacity stopped declining?” Liu Jun said, “Compared to those that have closed down, being able to maintain operations is always good. I think the capacity elimination that Guangdong has been calling for is being achieved in this roundabout way.”

“I have no problem persisting, but with increasingly low production rates, I can’t hold on anymore – I have to start layoffs.”

“I suggest not considering layoffs unless necessary. If you can hold on, layoffs are the worst strategy. I believe Tengfei became Tengfei not just because of that land, those factory buildings, and equipment, but also the matching software – a group of well-trained employees. If I lay off workers, I’m throwing away training fees for nothing.”

“The problem is, have you seen the news? Oh, right, you’ve been distracted lately. The US subprime crisis is spreading, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are in danger, and IndyMac Bank has collapsed – that means the crisis is currently developing uncontrollably in depth. They say this is the second wave of the crisis, and this second wave might be bigger and fiercer. Looking at this situation, can you guarantee the US economy will stabilize within one or two years? I see it getting increasingly difficult. Our current difficulties are mostly imported, so I don’t see improvement within one or two years either. Therefore, I must lay off workers and cut expenses by every means possible. Our group has ten thousand employees – letting me support them for one or two years would kill me.”

“Isn’t it said that the textile industry is preparing to increase export tax rebates? I believe our electromechanical industry will also increase rebates. As bloated enterprises gradually exit and business gradually concentrates on surviving enterprises, even if bank loans aren’t temporarily loosened, we manufacturers will gradually have better days if we persist. I feel the current universal business decline is due to the industry’s helplessness and subsequent wait-and-see attitude toward the approaching crisis. There will be inventory clearing actions in the future. After this phase, normal demand will be reflected in business volume – it can’t last one or two years. My current mindset is to treat the situation as a reshuffling.”

“Brother, don’t be naive. I can responsibly tell you that many enterprises closing down are voluntary. Many local bosses operate conservatively – they have money but no debt, so they’re not panicked. Facing a crisis, their approach is to voluntarily close down and minimize expenses – this is active hibernation. As soon as the economy shows slight improvement, they can immediately hire people and start up machines. You simply can’t eliminate this kind of enterprise capacity – they never intended to exit…”

“This depends on the industry. While China has no shortage of people, what China lacks most is skilled technicians. I have all the latter here. If I lay off these technicians trained from scratch, where would I find them later?”

“Mm, my situation differs slightly from yours. The industry my father started can lay off more than half, Shi Yiji can lay off one-third, with retained personnel temporarily used at lower levels. I must consider layoffs. Conveniently, this gives me an excuse to send home old ministers who can’t keep up with the times.”

“Dongdong, don’t hurt people’s hearts.”

Hearts are a very luxurious existence. I’ve never seen them – I only see exchanges of interests. Liu Jun, that’s just an excuse, don’t take it seriously. Don’t think they speak sweetly to your face – if one day you don’t pay their wages, see if you can still speak confidently in front of them.”

The two often had such situations where neither could convince the other, so Liu Jun changed the subject: “How’s Chen Qimei doing?”

“Big women are too troublesome, really too troublesome. She’s always been cold to me – I’ve become everyone’s laughing stock.”

“I support you in persisting to the end. With Hongming’s situation, if the wife had been A’San or Chen Qimei, things might have had a completely different outcome.”

“But the problem is this kind of woman only discusses national affairs, family matters, and world events with you – just won’t talk romance. I can only sit with her in bright, public environments discussing current situations. Tell me, am I finding a girlfriend or recruiting?”

“Stupid! She’s already accepting your solo invitations, yet you’re still pretending to be refined. Hurry up and find every opportunity to break through – be shameless, be a rogue, whatever works. The more like A’San or Chen Qimei they are, the more they respond to that approach. Just believe one thing – they’ll never really get angry at you. They’re mentally mature and quite tolerant toward people they approve of. Oh, I just thought of something – how is my EQ so high in romance, but I forgot about winning hearts at the company? I’ll start winning hearts tomorrow at work.”

“Haha, right! You can develop your no-layoffs theory – best to be so moving with tears that people treat you as their reborn father. I’ll also do something to win your hearts. I see everyone’s been in low spirits lately. If I win over Chen Qimei, I’ll organize an activity – block off a newly completed but undelivered road and get everyone out for a drive.”

“Didn’t you say your family’s been financially tight lately, selling equity? Do you still have this leisure? But I support you.”

“I’m not just without leisure – think about it, my biggest profits now come from real estate. With Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in such trouble in the US, I don’t feel good watching. I think our country should learn from this – real estate adjustments must continue. Then won’t all my future profits face winter? Just thinking about it is disheartening. But I must maintain an optimistic attitude – with optimism, actions become positive. Alright, I won’t chat more with men – I’m going to find women.”

Liu Jun couldn’t help laughing heartily. This Shen Huadong was a meticulous and intelligent person, yet his whole being was carefree, radiating happiness from top to bottom. That’s how one should be human.

row983 or tuzhijie student, please quickly check your Taobao internal messages. The courier that arrived Sunday can’t find the recipient, your phone is off, the courier is anxious and wants to return the package.