While waiting outside the emergency room, both his aunt and Liu Jun were pale with worry, especially Liu Jun, who was experiencing that kind of deep-seated panic for the second time in his life—the first time was when he heard about his mother jumping into the river. His hands and feet had nowhere to rest; he couldn’t stand still or sit still, only staring blankly at his aunt, listening to her almost neurotically repeat the same phrase over and over: “The factory is your father’s lifeline.” “The factory is your father’s lifeline.”…
After a while, a woman with graying hair, upright posture, but thin build came over and pulled his aunt to sit against the wall. After comforting her for quite a while, his aunt finally calmed down a bit and told Liu Jun that this was Aunt Fu, who used to be a substitute teacher in the countryside with Liu Jun’s mother. Later, when Liu Jun’s mother was transferred back to the city, Aunt Fu never made it up. She was now hired to help with night care for Liu Shitang. Even though Liu Jun’s mind was almost blank, looking at this Aunt Fu, who had a connection to his mother, still felt warm to him, especially since when Aunt Fu spoke, her articulation was clear and her voice was resonant, all matching his mother, who had also been a teacher. Aunt Fu simply said some polite words, asking him to sit down, and he obediently sat.
Fortunately, his father was pushed out fairly quickly, his eyes able to half-open, the only difference being an IV drip hanging from his hand. Liu Jun was very worried about his father’s condition and insisted on staying at the hospital, keeping a silent vigil in the dark hospital room together with Aunt Fu through the night. The night passed without major incident—Liu Shitang slept very well, even starting to snore, and still hadn’t woken up when his uncle-in-law came to take over in the early morning, his face showing a healthy flush of white tinged with red. Seeing this, Liu Jun finally felt at ease enough to leave.
What Liu Jun hadn’t expected was that when he reached the first floor, he would see Qian Hongming standing in the lobby, wrapped in a down jacket. Before Liu Jun’s muddled brain could figure out what was happening, Qian Hongming spoke first: “I checked with the nurses last night and knew you’d be keeping vigil, that you might not be able to hold out in the morning and would go home to rest. Come to my house—your place has cold pots and cold stoves, with no one even to take care of meals.”
Liu Jun didn’t know how long Qian Hongming had been waiting downstairs, but he felt very warm inside. The old habits from years ago naturally returned to him—he wasn’t polite about it, and just like before, grabbed Qian Hongming’s shoulders with both hands and shook him vigorously. Qian Hongming laughed, the same kind of hearty laugh from childhood, happy that he could help Liu Jun, happy for the return of old times. But when Liu Jun walked to the car, he suddenly said: “Hongming, could you take me to see my father’s factory? I heard the situation is very bad.”
“Sleep first, then go. You’re not in the right state right now.”
“I need to take a look before I can sleep peacefully. My father’s heart disease needs heart medicine to cure it. Don’t worry, I often stay up all night.”
Qian Hongming didn’t object further and drove Liu Jun steadily on their way. Midway, he even deliberately detoured down a small road to thoughtfully buy Liu Jun a bag of pan-fried buns. Emerging from the small road, they unexpectedly found the road ahead filled with a continuous stream of bicycles, all flowing like liquid into a large gate—the scene was truly spectacular. Liu Jun could see clearly that it was Shi Yiji, familiar to him since childhood.
“Didn’t they say that domestic state-owned enterprises aren’t doing well? Shi Yiji looks quite robust.”
“Shi Yiji hasn’t been state-owned for a long time. After you left, Shi Yiji changed hands three times. First, it was bought by a high-ranking official’s son from the province for a joint venture with Japan. Later, when that couldn’t be sustained, it was transferred to a quite influential female overseas Chinese in this city. Then, just last year, two private enterprises jointly bought out Shi Yiji completely. These two private companies were reportedly interested in Shi Yiji’s urban location…”
“Ah, there were some reports overseas too, predicting that after China implements mortgages, it might heat the real estate market. These two private companies have vision and real strength.”
Qian Hongming shook his head: “Whether the real estate market can heat up, I don’t know. Whether those two private companies have vision also depends on whether they can laugh till the end. What I admire most is that female overseas Chinese—in less than a year, she reportedly used borrowed money from abroad through transnational operations, and with this buying and selling, made more money than I could earn in a lifetime. Overseas, is finance the best industry for making quick money?”
“But Adam Smith said that finance doesn’t create value and doesn’t increase social wealth.”
Qian Hongming just smiled without arguing. This was also their usual pattern. He had been studious since childhood, single-mindedly focused, not like Liu Jun, who had wide-ranging interests and spoke with extensive references. Liu Jun had been full of strange and wonderful ideas since childhood, while Qian Hongming remained unmoved no matter how things changed around him. Although he often ran around with Liu Jun, he always kept the big decisions to himself. He only thought that since no one in the buying and selling had valued those newly added Japanese machine tools at Shi Yiji, it showed where the focus of wealth should be. “We’re here. Do you still recognize this place?”
Liu Jun was greatly surprised—was this the Qianjin Agricultural Tools Factory he had entered and exited countless times? Not only had the factory’s facade changed, with the new gate cheerfully decorated with red granite, and the factory name changed to Qianjin Machinery Factory, but the street-facing wall had become two-story storefronts, and even the road outside had changed from the old bumpy gravel road to a smooth, wide concrete dual carriageway with neat roadside trees. He stared for a long time before saying, “Only those concrete telephone poles haven’t changed.”
But when Liu Jun walked through the main gate and saw the long row of workshops, he finally breathed a sigh of relief—fortunately, the inside remained as before, even the concrete enclosures for storing wire scraps were still in their original places, with the familiar pool of oil-stained muddy water shimmering with rainbow colors in the sunlight in front of the enclosures. It was as if that row of storefronts had blocked time’s footsteps outside, so the time inside was magically frozen. But what surprised Liu Jun was that the workshop doors were tightly closed, without the bustling activity he remembered. Soon, the security guard came running with a string of keys to open the door, and Liu Jun pulled Qian Hongming along as they both entered together.