Liu Jun watched Dong Qiyang take a taxi and leave, remaining motionless for quite a while. He had been struck at a vital point by this expert, Dong Qiyang.
In Germany, he and his partners often had a word on their lips – “classic.” They always pursued perfection, crafting their work into classics. This had quite the flavor of the old saying, “three years without opening for business, but when you open, you eat for three years.” He hadn’t expected that everything would change flavor upon returning to China. He almost one hundred percent believed that in his bet with Dong Qiyang over one yuan, he would lose. From the experience he’d gained in his full year back in China, good money faced difficult circumstances domestically. While Dong Qiyang had seen this theory of bad money driving out good money, his father hadn’t – it seemed Dong Qiyang truly had substance.
So was he on the wrong path? Just as Dong Qiyang said, under current business conditions, could he pose any threat to Shi Yiji?
Liu Jun loved outdoor sports and travel. During his journeys, he could always see different vegetation adapting to different environments. When willow trees reached high altitudes, even if they could survive, they would never have the graceful charm of willows by West Lake. But small trees that grew prostrate on mountains, never growing large, when transplanted to flat ground might well grow into towering trees. Were his persistence and ideals experiencing acclimatization problems in China?
Even when Yang Xun had knocked him down last year and stepped on him, even when the project manager, taking his money, always had barely concealed disdain in his eyes, Liu Jun had never doubted himself from beginning to end. But this time, Dong Qiyang’s words finally let him see the essence of the domestic market. A layer of doubt quietly rose in his heart. His path – was he going astray, or was he going right?
When Liu Jun returned, the inspection team had all left to eat a celebration banquet in the city, and Liu Shitang naturally accompanied them to dinner. Liu Jun wandered alone in the heat treatment workshop and unknowingly crawled into the high-frequency shielding cage. The small space suppressed Liu Jun’s restless thoughts. He sat quietly holding his head for quite a while before hunger drove him to the cafeteria with a calm mind. He consoled himself that the overall environment hadn’t gotten better or worse, nothing had changed. Rather, Dong Qiyang’s reminder let him prepare for the future. This should be a good thing. Much better than hitting a brick wall or even accumulating countless inventory. At least it allowed him to prepare in advance.
Only when Liu Jun walked out of the shielding cage did he remember that his cell phone signal had also been blocked for such a long time. He hurriedly called Dong Qiyang to thank him for the reminder, which quite surprised Dong Qiyang.
Then the administrative manager notified him that three applicants with university degrees for technical positions were already waiting in the office. Liu Jun looked at the time – he was already fifteen minutes past the appointed time. Having developed strict punctuality habits in Germany, he felt very embarrassed and went straight to the office without going to the cafeteria.
The interview – for others, it might be very formal, but for Liu Jun, he sat casually with the three people in the office, chatting like a family conversation. With technical matters, experts could tell competence just by extending their hands. You only needed to ask what they’d done before, how they’d done it, what considerations they’d had, what principles they’d used – all the telling details would be revealed, depending on how the interviewer caught the braids and made judgments.
The result was that upon questioning, two of the experienced ones turned out to be crude copiers. What was worse, when they copied, they never explored the considerations behind each design. Instead, one who had just graduated from university less than a year ago, named Luo Qing, had his ideas when speaking. Luo Qing understood industrial control, loved playing with computers, and most valuably, Luo Qing loved asking “why.” After talking with the three for over half an hour, Liu Jun kept only Luo Qing. Liu Jun wasn’t surprised by this result. If it weren’t for Tengfei Company currently hanging the foreign investment sheep’s head, he doubted any of these three would have come to apply. He had already tasted this flavor at the Progressive Plant.
As equipment continued arriving, Liu Jun’s available manpower became increasingly stretched. But in recruitment, he still maintained high standards and strict requirements, persisting in preferring shortage to excess. Those who weren’t serious, had no patience, or were sloppy – he wanted none of them. Liu Shitang had once advised his son that some people could be trained, some could be tried on probation – you could only know if they were useful after using them, and if they didn’t work out, they could be dismissed. But Liu Jun refused. He was unwilling to have people come in and destroy the company’s culture of working steadily. People were very good at comparing and observing – often, one bad apple would spoil the whole barrel.
Even though Liu Jun had long known that professional personnel were hard to find and had long prepared to personally mentor and train a batch of new personnel, he hadn’t expected that non-professional personnel would be equally hard to find. Moreover, he hadn’t expected that men throughout society had so little contact with the most basic mechanical knowledge, or that boys just out of school didn’t even know how to hold a file, let alone distinguish the many types of precision screws. Even people from technical secondary schools, junior colleges, and vocational schools similarly lacked basic knowledge and were hard to put to practical use. But Liu Jun was currently the head of all of Tengfei. He could speak frankly and encourage everyone daily, telling them they were the best, but he couldn’t transform everyone into having three heads and six arms. He was anxious but could only keep it bottled up inside to avoid shaking morale. Now with the additional worry Dong Qiyang had given him, in just the half-day from afternoon to evening, he developed a mouth full of oral ulcers.
That evening, Liu Jun didn’t stay in the workshop to work overtime. Instead, after assigning learning plans to the young foundational workers, he drove into the city to relax. Since this year, Qian Hongming’s new company has been very busy after opening, flying around like an airborne person every day. Today, he was also away on business. But Qian Hongming had instructed Liu Jun that if he had time, he should go to his house and carry some heavy items like rice and oil upstairs, as there were only Cui Jiali and the nanny at home, and heavy work was a bit much for them. Liu Jun did as asked, buying quite a lot at the supermarket and making two trips to carry everything up to Qian Hongming’s apartment.
Cui Jiali freed up her hands to find the gift she was giving Liu Jun for his first anniversary back in China. When Cui Jiali mentioned the first anniversary, Liu Jun was quite dazed for a moment – he’d been back for a whole year? A year should be very long, so why did he feel like he hadn’t accomplished much? He couldn’t help but touch his left hand with his right. Who said a year wasn’t long? Not only had two ribs been broken, but his fingers were no longer complete. So much had happened this year.
Cui Jiali’s gift to Liu Jun was a watercolor painting about a foot square. In the lower right corner, cursive script read “Liu Jun Run Fast in the Millennium Year.” A chubby, pink little worm with a tuft of round hair on its head looked quite smug, standing on a mountaintop in the pose of holding the Little Red Book toward the Big Dipper, except the book pressed to its chest was written in childish characters as “Metal Cutting Handbook.” Liu Jun laughed heartily. Although Cui Jiali had drawn him as a worm – and a cute cartoon worm at that – the fat worm’s eyes and brows vaguely resembled him. Liu Jun loved it very much, and loved even more that Cui Jiali was so thoughtful. With her husband constantly away on business, she was raising a child alone, yet still gave him a personally painted picture.
Cui Jiali wasn’t very good at conversation. After a few words with Liu Jun, they entered a conversational dead end. Despite Liu Jun’s arsenal of skills for charming girls, he was at his wits’ end when faced with the taciturn Cui Jiali. After praising the child a few more times, Liu Jun had to take his leave, not even having the nerve to mention that he hadn’t eaten lunch or dinner. Fortunately, when he arranged to meet classmates, they all came when called. Some had thrown down their chopsticks mid-meal to come over, others had already eaten. Everyone sat at the table looking leisurely, only Liu Jun eating ravenously from the moment the cold dishes arrived.
Although his classmates had close relationships, the first and second gatherings could still manage to be family-friendly affairs. After several times, it became birds of a feather flocking together. Liu Jun’s closest friends were fewer than five classmates at the current table, plus Qian Hongming. These few were used to Liu Jun’s finger injury, and they would ask how it was doing. The meetings had no theme – just holding wine glasses and chatting about everything under the sun, from alumni newsletters to big and small city affairs. When Liu Jun finally stuffed himself full, everyone noticed his mood was low.
Liu Jun didn’t hide anything, telling everyone about his confusion. He was somewhat uncertain now, not knowing which direction to take. Unfortunately, not one of his classmates was in manufacturing – they were either in government agencies, banks, or foreign trade. Listening to Liu Jun’s confusion, what they discussed most was still how manufacturing enterprises were too hard, made money slowly, and were an industry with very low cost-effectiveness. They happened to use Qian Hongming as a comparison. Both had started at the end of last year, but Qian Hongming’s company was already generating profits and taxes with good momentum and very transparent prospects, while Liu Jun’s company was still in the phase of spending money heavily without seeing returns.
Liu Jun felt very discouraged. He summarized one point: never mind anything else, just take recruitment. The masses’ eyes were sharp, and the masses would vote with their feet for the two companies with those sharp eyes. Qian Hongming’s company had just opened, and within a week of posting recruitment announcements, they had found all the people they needed, each one certified and able to produce work immediately upon starting. Unlike Liu Jun, who couldn’t recruit people or experienced hands, and still had to work during the day and teach foundational workers at night. It was truly heartbreaking work with unimaginably low cost-effectiveness.
Talking to friends was different from talking to his father. Liu Jun worried about his father’s blood pressure tolerance and worried about making him anxious, so he often reported good news but not bad news. No matter how bitter or tired he was, he always wore a cheerful smile in front of his father. With classmates, it was different – if he had pent-up frustrations, he could just say them. What was there to fear? His classmates also happened to give him new perspectives. After the meal, the pressure in his heart lightened, though his oral ulcers ached faintly from the food’s irritation.
Carrying his friends’ care and affection, Liu Jun, who had finally managed to come out and relax, still harbored wicked intentions. He went to Yu Shanshan’s residential community – he wanted to see Yu Shanshan. After leaving the hospital last year, both had been busy and hadn’t seen each other again, only occasionally making phone calls at night. But Yu Shanshan’s family didn’t have a landline installed, and mobile phone reception charges were also expensive, so often just a few words were enough to say hello before they couldn’t get into the mood.
But by unlucky coincidence, just as Liu Jun drove to the bottom of Yu Shanshan’s building and was about to call her mobile phone, he saw a car slowly approaching. Even though the community street lights were dim, Liu Jun still recognized this car as a Guangzhou Honda Accord, currently the hottest hit in the car market. As soon as the car stopped, he saw a young talent hurriedly jump out and circle to open the door for Yu Shanshan. Liu Jun’s neck tightened as he watched, and he immediately jumped out of his car like a fighting cock.