Finally, when Liu Jun was about to be driven crazy by being confined to heal his injuries, the doctor graciously allowed Liu Jun to go out with many restrictions. The first thing Liu Jun did when going out was to visit a familiar car repair shop, wanting to install shock absorbers for his car. He would have many opportunities to visit construction sites in the future, and he didn’t dare joke around with his ribs. But looking around there, he didn’t see anything to his liking. So the repair shop owner got angry, rattled open a middle door, and dragged Liu Jun into his private treasure vault, insisting that Liu Jun admit it wasn’t that the shop lacked items, but that Liu Jun’s car wasn’t up to par. Liu Jun looked and thought, “Wow!”—a whole room full of used parts hanging from the ceiling to the walls, the air filled with an exciting mechanical atmosphere. He finally selected the equipment he liked and had the owner help install it. Seeing he was a real expert, the owner finally opened his golden mouth to tell him that these parts all came from Guangdong, where there was a specialized market for dismantling and selling imported used car parts. But Liu Jun wandered among the room full of used parts, thinking that many things didn’t necessarily have to be used on cars—when civil engineering and equipment installation required reliable parts in the future, it would be better to come here for used foreign goods, cheap and of good quality.
Because searching for quality domestic products was too tiring and difficult.
This feeling ran throughout Soaring Company’s civil engineering process. First was the bidding for civil engineering projects. The bidders came one by one to undercut their prices, each showing their unique abilities just to invite Liu Jun out for dining, drinking, singing, and entertainment. But Liu Jun had a baseline price in mind, calculated respectively by the architectural design institute and his high school classmate who worked in the field. What he hadn’t expected was that those quotes were all far below his baseline price. He couldn’t figure out how those people could deliver quality work at those prices. So he patiently talked with those project managers separately, verifying the feasibility of their quotes; talked with project technical personnel, consulting on how construction steps could comply with blueprint designs. But as they talked, once mealtime arrived, project managers would try every means to steer Liu Jun toward high-end restaurant tables, assuming an attitude that nothing could be discussed except at dining tables. Every time Liu Jun said there was no need to eat, just do his project with quality assurance, he found everyone looking at him with eyes full of pity and contempt, as if he were a monster.
Liu Jun needed to do intense psychological preparation to treat those looks as nothing. He warned himself that although dining tables could bring people closer, eating others’ food made one soft-spoken. To ensure construction quality, he must stick to his quality philosophy and maintain a certain distance from those people. Fortunately, Liu Shitang occasionally mediated, but Liu Shitang was very clear—his son was the gatekeeper, and he wouldn’t express opinions.
However, their Liu family project wasn’t big, but it had many requirements, many of which were quite advanced and were first encountered by construction teams. So even though construction teams were affected by last year’s Asian financial crisis and didn’t have much work, they all viewed the Liu family project as tasteless—too little to eat, too much to waste. Finally, through much persuasion and especially with Liu Shitang’s help, they confirmed a construction enterprise with high-standard factory building experience that also seemed relatively proper and reliable. Soaring Company broke ground.
Starting construction simultaneously was Shi Yiji’s new branch factory, twenty kilometers away. Although Soaring Company, due to Liu Shitang’s insistence, at least held a midnight ceremony with pig heads and incense candles, set off some firecrackers, invited some spirits, with all main male personnel from both Soaring and construction companies present, followed by a lively feast after the ceremony. But such liveliness couldn’t even be mentioned compared to Shi Yiji’s new branch factory groundbreaking. The groundbreaking ceremony for Shi Yiji’s new branch factory was attended by celebrities—among those who came to congratulate, the entire city’s population could name eight or nine out of ten. The groundbreaking ceremony even made the TV and newspaper briefs. Liu Jun watched the recording Qian Hongming made for him and recognized several people: the Yang siblings and the Porsche lady, Ms. Liang. He didn’t see Shi Yiji’s chief engineer Mr. Wang—he thought this was Yang Xun’s limitation. Liu Jun also harbored some competitive spirit—he was determined to do better and faster than Shi Yiji.
Liu Jun had long prepared to roll up his sleeves and be a supervisor himself. Although there was a specialized supervision company doing on-site supervision, Liu Jun fundamentally didn’t trust the supervision company’s quality consciousness. Indeed, those people always liked to say “good enough,” just like the Shi Yiji workers. If the design called for 10-centimeter rebar spacing, they’d turn a blind eye to seeing 11 centimeters. Because in their hearts, they believed construction was rough work. But Liu Jun was different—he meant what he said. Even though he knew that one row of rebar at 11-centimeter spacing and another at 9 centimeters wouldn’t affect strength, he insisted. His constant refrain was that a consistent attitude must be maintained. However, precisely because he had spoken beforehand during bidding and discussed price feasibility face-to-face, and ultimately didn’t select the lowest bidder, on-site construction supervisors had nothing to say. But they all complained because such precision would inevitably affect progress and increase intensity. But seeing Liu Jun serious enough to do strength tests on building materials, they could only swallow their frustration. But they all said among themselves that such an inflexible person couldn’t possibly run a factory—he’d lose everything.
Fortunately, Liu Shitang had already seen his son do one deal, and a very profitable one at that, otherwise he would have joined voices with the construction team. Therefore, when construction team people were worn down by Liu Jun’s complaints, they thought about rushing work when Liu Jun wasn’t around to create a fait accompli, but the Liu family had another cunning old fox, Liu Shitang, as the best substitute. In anger, the construction supervisor took a chunk of rebar and concrete, knocked down due to poor quality rework, and sent it as a New Year gift to Liu Jun, decorated with red silk and colorful ribbons—the concrete signifying obtuseness, the protruding rebar signifying short-circuited brains. This New Year, Liu Shitang had expected to receive generous gifts from the construction supervisor, but only got a concrete chunk and two rusty rebars.
But the project proceeded smoothly with quality assurance and on schedule.
When spring’s breath gradually arrived, equipment entered the site, and factory building construction was completed and accepted. Although the supervision company’s pre-acceptance went smoothly, the project manager still harbored anxiety about the government department’s acceptance. Liu Jun wasn’t worried about not passing—he didn’t believe anyone was more serious than him. He was currently more troubled by personnel recruitment issues. He had at least found a very good administrative manager. This administrative manager, in his thirties, drove a used Xiali car Liu Jun bought for him, single-handedly running between government offices and the new company for countless approvals while also running to talent markets to recruit suitable operators. But recruitment was very problematic. The key was that Liu Jun required too much, even for the most basic operators; Liu Jun required finding the most serious people. Liu Jun’s recruitment requirements for the administrative manager were: first, have at least a technical secondary school education; second, have a serious attitude. Whether they had a technical foundation wasn’t something he emphasized much.
The project manager saw Liu Jun looking absent-minded at the acceptance site, not fulfilling an owner’s responsibilities by accompanying him as the contractor to properly receive acceptance personnel. He couldn’t help pulling Liu Jun aside for a private word. “Boss Liu, we’re at the final step—don’t drop the ball at the crucial moment. Didn’t you sleep well last night?”
“Didn’t you say my two factory buildings here are good enough to apply for the Luban Award? What’s there to worry about?”
“No matter how problem-free you are, you still need to properly attend to these masters.”
Liu Jun smiled: “I’m Party A. You never attended to me—you even threw concrete blocks at me. I’m learning from you not to attend to the masters. Didn’t I tell you from the beginning that for my project, you only need to worry about quality and progress—you don’t need to worry about anything else. Tell me, adding everything up, do your other projects require less worry than my side? At least I didn’t make you worry about money, right? You didn’t even need to assign on-site managers. You had it easy enough.”
“But these are government officials—you can’t offend government people. Look, even your Shanghai architects don’t dare neglect them.”
But Liu Jun remembered to ask seriously: “My project is finished today. Let me ask you again—do you ultimately approve of my model? To put it another way, if I have new projects starting up next, would you still be willing to work on them?”
The project manager was stunned, staring at Liu Jun and thinking for quite a while before saying: “Let me answer the second question first—of course I’d do it. Only fools don’t make money when it’s available. But the first one… though I worry less about your project, I also earn less, just some hard work fees. You should know that muddy water is where fish can be caught.”
“After treating you well all this time—ungrateful wolf.” Liu Jun cursed with a smile.
The project manager wasn’t to be outdone: “Your model is unique. Fortunately, your project isn’t big. If I worked on your projects for another six months, I’d be so degraded when I leave that I couldn’t work for other clients. But working with you these months has cured my drinking problem.” But the project manager hesitated, then added bluntly: “This time you’re Party A, and seeing that you don’t shortchange me a penny in project payments, I’ll give you some leeway. Your model…” The project manager glanced at Liu Jun’s severed left finger. “Luckily, I have a good temper, and your father mediated well.”
Liu Jun, the most hated person, highlighted his finger, so he counterattacked rudely: “My father always thinks he’s losing money, thinking I pay too readily. But as you said, you only earn through hard work, showing all my payments have returns. And you think you didn’t make money because you’re not yet adapted to this model. If you are completely relaxed, you could simultaneously work on more than just one or two projects. You wouldn’t earn less than what you get from cutting corners. Moreover, nobody’s a fool—who’s willing to pay unclear payments? Are accounts receivable from your other projects so easy to collect? Subtracting defaulted project payments and huge interest, how much do you ultimately get? You must admit people’s understanding has blind spots.”
“I don’t admit it. There aren’t many bosses who can manage in a place like you. Many bosses are willingly paying unclear payments, thinking they’ve already pressed to the lowest price. You should be clear—there’s a term called internal-external collusion.”
Liu Jun shook his head repeatedly but had to admit in his heart that this was true. “Watch—there will be more and more bosses like me.”
The project manager agreed this time: “Right, I’ve already encountered several second-generation bosses—insightful, ambitious, willing to work hard, awesome. Though they all spend money lavishly, they all spend it right. They’re also good people.”
“I thought since you’re from Tongji, you’re a rare project manager who can deliver technical expertise—you should relatively approve of my model.”
“I started from nothing. Currently, for me, money is more important than ideals.”
Hearing this, Liu Jun couldn’t help thinking of Qian Hongming. Wasn’t Qian Hongming the same?
The project manager still dragged Liu Jun without explanation to catch up with the main group, reminding Liu Jun all the way to maintain smiles and humility. Though Liu Jun reluctantly complied, he was still somewhat absent-minded. He was annoyed by such time-wasting—this kind of acceptance originally didn’t need his participation, but because the visitors were masters, the person in charge had to be on call for close service.
When entering the heat treatment workshop, the administrative manager called, saying someone surnamed Dong had taken a taxi over, specifically asking to see Liu Jun. Soon after, Liu Shitang brought in a business card, telling Liu Jun to withdraw and receive from Mr. Dong. Liu Jun looked at the business card—half English, half Chinese, with the name Dong Qiyang. Liu Shitang whispered in his ear that Dong Qiyang was exactly Shi Yiji’s new general manager. Coming alone by taxi rather than driving must have a reason. Liu Jun was surprised, left his father to deal with the masters, and went to see Dong Qiyang.