Just as Liu Jun was becoming drowsy again, admiring his fifty-something father’s exceptional energy, he dimly saw a white-uniformed nurse poking her head in. He had to force his eyes open to deal with another round of injections and medicine. But when he saw who it was clearly, he couldn’t help smiling. The one peeking in was Yu Shanshan in disguise. Seeing his son’s expression suddenly turn strange, Liu Shitang alertly turned around to look. Seeing a pretty girl with big eyes, also looking peculiar, seemingly wearing a nurse’s uniform but carrying nothing in her hands, like she was just dropping by for a visit, Liu Shitang realized something. After a few pleasantries, he made an excuse to leave. From just those few sentences, Liu Shitang could deduce that the young lady had no exceptional family background. Liu Shitang didn’t like her. In his view, his son was among the elite, and young ladies worthy of his son were rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns—the girl before him wasn’t among them.
Liu Jun was very happy, though. He hadn’t expected Yu Shanshan to change her appearance to visit him. He quickly forced himself to appear strong, saying his body was fine and he’d recover after a month of rest. However, he noticed Yu Shanshan’s gaze fall precisely on his left middle finger. He asked curiously: “Has it spread everywhere? My father is still being secretive, afraid relatives knowing too much would hurt my reputation.”
“It’s spread throughout Shi Yiji—otherwise, how would I know? Can I take a look? It’s all my fault. If I hadn’t told you, you wouldn’t have gotten into trouble.”
Liu Jun hesitated before placing his left hand in front of Yu Shanshan. But he was thinking about who had spread news of his attack to Shi Yiji. He didn’t want his assault to become common knowledge—after all, being beaten by a group, having a finger severed, and ultimately having to compromise with the mastermind behind it were all extremely disgraceful things he was ashamed to mention. He strongly suspected Yang Xun had deliberately spread the news—otherwise, how could it have spread so quickly and precisely? Only Yang Xun would be so pleased to see his misery.
Thinking of this, Liu Jun felt grief and indignation, and couldn’t help but completely overturn what he’d just said. “Since yesterday, my body has been incomplete. I won’t be able to do high-intensity work in the future. Put it this way—the body’s framework has cracked, so load-bearing capacity will inevitably be severely affected.”
“That won’t happen. A classmate’s classmate said rib fractures won’t have much impact. Don’t be depressed.”
“You study engineering—imagine a fractured structural component…”
“It’s different. The human body is different. You must believe in modern medicine.”
“I’ve long chosen to be a clear-headed materialist, unwilling to be a confused idealist.”
“Stop your self-promotion. You’re throwing a tantrum at me, deliberately contradicting me. Once in the hospital, you must listen to doctors—when doctors say one, you don’t say two.”
“I don’t listen to fake nurses.”
Yu Shanshan finally giggled. “Though I’m wearing a classmate’s classmate’s colleague’s nurse uniform, I’m conveying my classmate’s classmate’s imperial edict.”
“May I ask how your classmate’s classmate evaluates this severed finger’s future?”
Yu Shanshan lowered her eyelids, silent for a long time, before stammering: “I shouldn’t have… shouldn’t have… Apologizing now is useless, but I still want to apologize to you in person, hoping I can do something for you. Does it hurt much?”
Liu Jun had been full of world-weary cynicism, but hearing Yu Shanshan finally ask so gently, his righteous anger deflated with a “poof,” and his tone returned to when Yu Shanshan first entered. “It’s nothing. The most painful time has passed—now I can only wait idly for it to heal. It doesn’t hurt anymore. And it’s not your responsibility—I should thank you properly.”
“Want to read anything? Should I bring you a radio? I’m sorry—my classmate told me suddenly, so I didn’t have time to prepare a gift.”
“Do you have books on foreign trade practice? I’d like to read a comprehensive one. I’ve already given my dad a list for other things, so no need, thanks.”
“I have one. I’ll bring it tomorrow. Want to eat anything? Candied fruit, dried fish, beef jerky, hawthorn slices, sunflower seeds, roasted peanuts…” Seeing Liu Jun keep shaking his head, she could only make a last-ditch effort, gesturing in the air as if covering something: “You wouldn’t happen to like Kong Yiji’s fennel beans, would you?” Liu Jun wanted to laugh, but his chest hurt when he did, so he had to grit his teeth and hold it in. Getting no response, Yu Shanshan said helplessly: “Fine, you don’t like any snacks. I’ll have to go all out. I can’t cook, but whatever you want to eat, just tell me—I’ll read books and cram at the last minute.”
Liu Jun smiled at this, but still needed to clarify the facts. “Yang Xun and I will have a showdown sooner or later—either I’ll trick Yang Xun with patents, or sometime in the future I’ll strike after collecting evidence. The outcome will be the same either way. But you telling me who Shi Yiji’s buyers are helped me a lot, letting me do something satisfying…”
“Quick, maybe, but painful.”
“Could you slow down your reactions by half a beat? It’s inconvenient for you to borrow clothes to see me. Call me when you have time in the future—everything else is fine here, just boring. It’s getting late, go back early. Your residential area is desolate—be careful going back. Uh, let me have my dad see you off.”
“No, no, no, I wouldn’t dare trouble uncle. My classmate is waiting for me outside…”
“Male classmates are quite willing to help out.”
“Who said it’s a boy? Boys aren’t that kind-hearted to treat me like a princess…” But Yu Shanshan immediately realized she’d been tricked. Flustered that Liu Jun had gotten the truth out of her, she looked annoyed and waved her fist around in front of Liu Jun. Liu Jun closed his eyes with a smile to dodge her fists, saying involuntarily, “Princess, please grant a goodnight kiss to help me sleep better.”
Of course, Liu Jun got nothing except the sound of footsteps growing distant and disappearing into the depths of the corridor. Liu Jun smiled again—he liked this rough-and-tumble girl full of spirit.
When Liu Shitang returned, seeing his son’s expression was nothing like when he’d left, he knew something was up. Through indirect questioning, he learned about Yu Shanshan’s family background. Though it was at least an intellectual family, the flaw was that it couldn’t help his son advance. Everyone knew that finding good in-laws was equivalent to saving a son ten years of struggle. Liu Shitang pondered whether to nip this budding romance.
But before Yu Shanshan could bring the foreign trade textbook, Qian Hongming visited the next day, bringing reference books, leisure reading, CDs, and delicious bone soup. Liu Jun had endured another night in the hospital and felt much better. He grabbed Qian Hongming to study the equipment import agency work. Qian Hongming originally didn’t want business dealings with Liu Jun to avoid getting involved with Liu Shitang, but facing his severely affected friend, he couldn’t bear to refuse. He agreed to help with all his might, using his company’s credit to help Liu Jun pay less deposit when opening letters of credit.
But no matter how much Qian Hongming explained, Liu Jun understood nothing. Helplessly, Qian Hongming had to go back to the beginning and explain letter of credit operations from scratch. Liu Jun got excited hearing that term letters of credit could be opened for 180 days.
“Hey, Hongming, let’s team up to do business without capital! You know how much this batch of equipment would sell for domestically? More than double the original price, plus shipping and tariffs. If I can flip two batches within 180 days, gross profit minus interest would still be huge profits. Am I right?”
“Right, theoretically unlimited expansion—as long as you can open letters of credit, business volume can be infinite. Two years ago, I heard a classmate in Dongguan mention this operation method, but after the crisis, he disappeared—some say he fled for his life. Term letters of credit have extremely high risks. Banks basically won’t open them—mostly, they open 90-day ones. Our company occasionally opens 120-day ones, which are basically like working capital loans requiring CEO approval. For this time, I can only open 90 days for you—my current authorization isn’t enough. Once I get the branch office running well, I plan to contact familiar banks next. I need to quickly familiarize myself with a comprehensive business. You’ll always have opportunities—you won’t just do this one deal and never expand.”
“Work hard, brother—I’ll be counting on you in the future. But I’m confident that once my company gets going and gets on track, it should be easy to get bank loans. I’ll make the company excellent.”
“That’s true—regular loans have much lower interest and are simple and convenient. But I hear private enterprises have trouble getting loans. I don’t know if banks will make exceptions for high-tech enterprises like yours in the future.”
Liu Jun said proudly: “Believe it or not, after the first business operation last time—one big transaction in and out—the bank that opened our account proactively contacted our finance department to understand our capital situation. My dad said this was unprecedented treatment. I’ve already contacted this bank loan officer. The new company’s basic account will be opened there, hoping for the future. This shows private enterprise loans aren’t difficult.”
Qian Hongming was somewhat skeptical: “Many private enterprise clients I deal with say loans are difficult. I suggest you talk about the future after getting into the actual operation of one deal—don’t believe loan officers’ ghost stories. But maybe banks are interested in your company’s good growth potential. Hard to say—you often get good cards and have always had excellent connections.”
Liu Jun said with a grin, “From now on, I’ve decided to listen 100% to your experiential wisdom. Every time I hit a wall, I discover you warned me.”
“You’ve said similar things more than once. You’ve often said similar things since childhood. I categorize them all as nonsense.”
Liu Jun could only cover his chest to stop laughing. The two chatted and laughed, easily passing two hours. After Qian Hongming left, Liu Jun opened the laptop the housekeeper had just brought and got to work. Qian Hongming, reminded by Liu Jun, specifically detoured to the bank to ask friends about the terms of letter of credit operations. Speaking of which, Qian Hongming still quite admired Liu Jun’s ability to draw inferences and exploit rigid rules. In business, he dealt mostly with private enterprises. Those private enterprise bosses often lamented to him how difficult loans were. He also knew many private enterprise bosses would rather borrow from individuals when cash-strapped, sometimes at frighteningly high interest rates. He’d heard of enterprises being dragged down by interest. Liu Jun’s passing thought ignited a seed in Qian Hongming’s heart.
That noon, Qian Hongming had lunch with his bank friend, learning about many procedural issues he hadn’t needed to deal with before, as the company’s finance department handled them. He wanted to share these insights with Liu Jun, hoping Liu Jun might unexpectedly help him find new leads. After lunch, Cui Jiali’s mother called, telling him to hurry home and drive Jiali to the maternal and child hospital—the baby was ready to be born.
Jiali labored hard until late at night. Qian Hongming finally became a father. Holding his child was an entirely new experience. Instantly, Qian Hongming was filled with paternal consciousness. He whispered to his sister beside him that he must be the most qualified father, giving his daughter a carefree childhood rich in material comforts. Qian Hongming swore in his heart that he would work twice as hard, earn money properly, and earn money desperately.