Liu Shitang watched his son’s sample trial production enter countdown mode and immediately rushed out with a stopwatch to seek business. Liu Shitang hadn’t expected this business to be completely different from the past. Not only were the channels different from before – previously, he’d dealt with specialized junior staff, but now it was high-level leadership responsibility with countless checkpoints requiring layer-by-layer testing below – the procedures were so chaotic that Liu Shitang had to explore anew. Moreover, the other party’s requirements were different too. They insisted on seeing samples and demanded that their quality supervision department produce various test data for the samples. Not to mention those foreign investment procurement offices. Although Liu Shitang knew his son’s design came from countless experiments, he was still somewhat intimidated by the current situation and worried. In his eyes, his son was still a child, and children inevitably made small mistakes – he didn’t know if his son’s creation could withstand such rigorous testing.
His son finally came with hot, fresh-off-the-line samples. Ten samples, plus rust-proof packaging, filled a trunk and half the back seat. Liu Shitang was relieved to see his son had at least gotten a haircut and looked clean. Then, looking at the samples, this was truly the precision he had always admired. Though still iron lumps, in an expert’s eyes, countless wonderful designs could be seen in a single iron lump. Liu Shitang was still examining carefully with gloves when his son asked if he should wear a tie. Liu Shitang looked back to see that his son had already changed into a crisp suit, tall and handsome, quite the young man. Liu Shitang smiled, like seeing his masterpiece, and quickly said, Of course, he should wear a tie. But Liu Shitang was confused by his son’s question – when wearing a proper suit, was there ever a time not to wear a tie?
Liu Jun and his father each carried a set of samples into the company. They first entered the office of a vice president responsible for development. The VP was holding a phone, chatting with someone, and pointed to the sofa for the father and son to sit, showing no intention of stopping. Liu Jun obediently sat down, waiting for the VP to finish his call. But Liu Shitang, like presenting treasures, took several old newspapers from the magazine rack, spread them out, unwrapped the sample packaging, and placed them on the old newspapers. Liu Shitang was very satisfied to see the VP hastily end his call, walk around his desk, and crouch down for a close look.
So Liu Shitang proudly introduced, “My son, a German doctorate holder. This is my son’s latest design sample. We invested a full five million for this.”
The VP said nothing, put on gauze gloves Liu Shitang handed him, personally unwrapped and examined carefully, especially using two fingers to lift a delicate bearing shell and shake it lightly. Seeing this action from the VP, Liu Jun knew this VP was an expert – he immediately grasped the key component of the kit. “Does the strength pass?”
“Not only does strength pass, but fatigue testing is also no problem. This is our test report.”
“Printed – hehe, equipment upgraded?” The VP took the report Liu Jun handed him, but wasn’t in a hurry to read it. Instead, he first glanced at Liu Jun, then got up and walked to a bright spot to examine the report. But after looking for quite a while, the VP slowly asked, “Really invested five million?”
“Not quite there yet.” Liu Shitang was about to boast when his son took over, frustrating him greatly. He quickly gestured to Liu Jun behind the VP’s back.
“Not yet?” The VP turned back in surprise to look at Liu Jun.
“Yes. But if the entire series comes out, it’ll probably far exceed that. It’s just that Dad’s funds have been squeezed dry to the point of selling the house, so I’m putting out finished products first, using products to support R&D.”
The VP looked at the straightforward son, then at the smooth father, and couldn’t help laughing. Such an answer made it hard not to believe. The VP couldn’t help developing some goodwill toward the Liu family’s Qianjin Factory in his heart. This goodwill couldn’t be earned even if Liu Shitang groveled before the VP for a year.
So with one phone call from the VP, the Liu father and son were arranged for pilot testing to accept sample testing. Exiting and turning left into the stairwell, Liu Shitang saw no one around and grabbed his son, “Ah Jun, from now on, you answer technical questions, and Dad will answer everything else.”
Liu Jun laughed, “Dad, I know what you mean. But research shows people can’t remember all lies. If you encounter someone with ulterior motives who asks you the same questions repeatedly after some time, you’ll expose yourself. Better to tell the truth honestly without psychological burden.”
“Business is business – there’s no honesty in the business world. You must promise Dad, consider it Dad begging you.”
Liu Jun reluctantly agreed. Following his father into the pilot testing area, he watched his father quickly slip a red envelope to a supervisor during the conversation, which the other party accepted with a smile. Then, for every testing technician they encountered, his father gave a small gift, earning everyone’s affectionate “Old Liu, Little Liu” greetings, making his father feel at home in the testing center. Liu Jun watched in shock – his father was interfering with test results, and strangely, those people seemed to consider “gifts” perfectly natural.
When they were arranged to eat lunch in the cafeteria, Liu Jun anxiously said to his father when no one was around, “Dad, you don’t need to bribe. Our samples will pass, and from what their VP said earlier, our product performance exceeds his original specifications. Why do this? Your actions make the resulting data lack persuasiveness.”
“If Dad wasn’t tight on funds, I really should let you bang your head bloody a few times to learn some lessons. Do you think I’m doing this just for a few data points to pass? First, I need to jump the queue – otherwise, they’d never voluntarily test our samples until the year of the monkey, wearing you down, exhausting you to death. Second, I need them to be objective and fair, not lazily fill in random numbers based on common sense rather than running the machines.”
Liu Jun was astonished, “That can’t be. Even if there are one or two bad apples, surely not everyone is greedy.”
“One greedy person is enough to corrupt an entire department. People develop psychological imbalances. Stop talking – the VP is coming.”
The VP also came to eat in the cafeteria. Seeing the Liu father and son, he specifically made a detour to greet them. “Is this Little Liu’s first time at our company?”
“Yes.” Liu Jun wanted to stand to speak but was kindly pressed down by the VP. “Your company has great scale. And from your company’s adoption of our products, your company’s strength goes beyond just scale – it’s capability.”
Liu Shitang thought to himself, the kid is indeed good at flattering clients while promoting his products. The VP indeed smiled, “If you’re not too tired after work tonight, I’ll send someone to show you around and help me see what else can be improved. You can go home and use your father’s money to do good R&D for me.”
“I won’t be tired – I love touring factories.”
The VP smiled at Liu Shitang, “Old Liu, you can step aside for your successor.”
After the VP left, Liu Jun said proudly, “See, Dad, as long as you have capability, you don’t need crooked methods.”
Liu Shitang sneered, “What do you understand? He plans to talk with me privately tonight, afraid you’d be confused if present, so he found a high-sounding excuse to send you away. Capability is capability, connections are connections – both are indispensable.”
Liu Jun was dumbfounded, hardly daring to believe his father’s words. But in his heart, he unconsciously believed most of it.
In the afternoon, testing was quickly completed under everyone’s active initiative. Liu Jun watched each piece of data emerge with the responsible parties solemnly signing and sealing, feeling extremely ironic. And of course, all these investments were ultimately included in Qianjin Factory’s quotation.
In the evening, Liu Jun was led by a staff member assigned by the VP to tour the factory. What he hadn’t expected was that in such a large state-owned factory, the core equipment was also all imported from abroad. As for domestic new equipment, in the guide’s words, quality was worse than pre-reform products, either cutting corners or blindly copying and piecing together. In short, everything he saw and heard that day left Liu Jun somewhat at a loss, completely lacking the joy of having samples recognized and potentially securing huge orders. He tried to find logical reasons, but couldn’t – he couldn’t figure any of this out.
When Liu Shitang returned with alcohol on his breath, beaming with joy to find his son, he saw his son had taken off his suit and was with a group of worker-technicians, calibrating a machining center. Liu Shitang observed that in pure technical work, his son was like a fish in water, skillful and competent, highly respected by everyone present, mixing seamlessly with everyone who called his son “Engineer Liu.” Liu Shitang didn’t disturb his son but stood with arms crossed, watching his son work excitedly – this had been his son’s pleasure since childhood. Only this foolish child worked so actively on unpaid tasks, with no economic consciousness whatsoever.
Only when cheers finally erupted from the crowd did Liu Shitang approach and pull his son away. But his son was invited by everyone for a late-night snack. Liu Shitang became his son’s follower, listening as his son naturally talked about his factory, his products, and his R&D during the meal, effortlessly earning recognition and support from the technical personnel. He silently smiled, thinking his son also had his methods.
Later, the father and son took their first order and readily provided deposit, then carried their products to negotiate export procurement. Before Liu Jun could mention Mr. Wang’s suggestion, Liu Shitang had already figured it out – the first batch of products must be done in volume, earning back R&D costs and full profits before copycat imitators succeeded. Of course, with samples in hand and his well-educated son fluently and confidently answering technical questions on-site, Liu Shitang felt like he had wings.
Upon return, the question of who would manufacture was put on the agenda. Although domestic trade had some deposits and foreign trade had letters of credit for loans, after various deductions, it was sufficient for production, but still inadequate for acquiring new equipment. Liu Jun never imagined that the same machine tools sold at such high prices domestically – it was highway robbery. Higher precision machine tools faced even greater technical barriers, unable to enter China. This meant some products in his vision would have to be aborted due to a lack of high-precision mother machines to process high-precision products. In this industry, there was no such thing as human will conquering nature. Precision was achieved step by step by improving the mother machine’s performance with existing science and technology.
For the country, being backward meant being jointly price-gouged with no recourse. For the Liu father and son, being backward meant having to hand over processing to Shi Yiji, having to let Shi Yiji share high profits, and having to expose all technical data to Shi Yiji.