Liu Jun jumped out of the car purely on instinct, certain that the person waiting for the young talent to open the door must be Yu Shanshan. But when he rushed out and got a clear look at the girl emerging from the car, he came to an abrupt halt. This was Yu Shanshan? The Yu Shanshan in his memory had hair barely an inch long, while the girl before him had shoulder-length hair that gleamed even in the dim light. Yu Shanshan, in his memory, dressed casually, always in loose sleeves, wide robes, and flat shoes, extremely natural in style. But the girl before him first extended high-heeled leather boots with extremely unstable centers of gravity out of the car door, followed by the appearance of a knee-length skirt and mid-length windbreaker in the chilly spring night. Her entire figure was graceful and elegant, femininity flowing from head to toe, no longer the compelling heroic spirit of the past.

But those eyes and brows – weren’t they exactly Yu Shanshan’s? The young talent, seeing something unusual, quickly stepped sideways to block in front of Yu Shanshan. Liu Jun hurriedly identified himself, “Yu Shanshan, I’m Liu Jun.”

“Oh, you’ve finally emerged from seclusion? How rare.” Yu Shanshan was surprised, looking at Liu Jun in the night, momentarily speechless.

The young talent beside her stepped forward first, handing over his business card and expressing his pleasure to meet Liu Jun. Liu Jun also handed over his business card, glancing at Yu Shanshan first before bending down to read the young talent’s card by the car’s headlight: Shen Huadong. A flash of recognition struck Liu Jun’s mind as he looked up at Shen Huadong, surprise evident in his eyes. Liu Jun didn’t know if this counted as enemies meeting on a narrow road – the other party should be the son of Shi Yiji’s major shareholder, Shen Baotian, reportedly a talented returnee from studying abroad. But if he were Shen Baotian’s study-abroad son, he shouldn’t be driving just a Honda Accord.

The two men shook hands, each harboring their thoughts, while Yu Shanshan asked from the side, “Liu Jun, is your place finished?”

“The factory building is complete, equipment has just started installation and debugging.” Liu Jun couldn’t help but explain further, “Today I rarely came into the city and wanted to see you. I just happened to stop the car when you arrived – what a coincidence. It’s not too late yet, shall we go for a late-night snack?” Liu Jun wanted to face Yu Shanshan while speaking, but Shen Huadong always consciously and skillfully positioned himself between the two.

Yu Shanshan naturally didn’t want to be awkwardly caught between two men. She said it was late and she was tired, bid farewell to both men, and went upstairs. Her high heels made a “tap-tap” sound on the stairs, and the two men below fine-tuned their upward gazing angles following the “tap-tap” sounds. Only when Yu Shanshan finally stuck her head out the window to wave did they lower their heads to look at each other. The two men were about the same age, but Shen Huadong knew how to present himself well, exuding elegance from head to toe. Liu Jun couldn’t help but think of Yu Shanshan’s earth-shaking change in clothing and strongly suspected it was influenced by Shen Huadong. Thinking of this, Liu Jun felt quite uncomfortable. But by now his head had cooled down, and he thought to himself why he was getting excited. He said goodbye to Shen Huadong and drove away. Shen Huadong, however, remained standing below, talking on the phone with Yu Shanshan for a few moments before leaving.

Liu Jun repeatedly wanted to pick up his phone to say a few words to Yu Shanshan, but kept giving up, his left hand fighting his right hand. Feeling uncomfortable, he returned to the company to find Luo Qing and several employees playing basketball at the simple basketball hoop by the west wall of the office-dormitory building. He joined in, competing with everyone to grab the basketball and shoot. He hadn’t expected Luo Qing to move his bedding on that very day – such swift action earned Liu Jun’s good impression. Seeing that everyone enjoyed playing basketball, he proposed leveling a piece of unused land to make a basketball court, which made everyone very happy. Liu Jun seemed to be encouraging himself as he told everyone that they were all still young, they wanted to walk a different path, build an extraordinary factory, and elevate their unique lives. He encouraged everyone this way, and encouraged himself in the same manner. He framed Cui Jiali’s painting and placed it on his desk – his friends’ care and affection were his greatest encouragement.

Liu Jun had to constantly encourage himself because his classmates’ casual discussions were too discouraging. True, he had started his new company almost simultaneously with Qian Hongming, but Qian Hongming was already doing quite well while he had accomplished nothing. He had thought that seven days in the mountains meant the world had changed, but when he emerged, people had almost forgotten him. He was a proud person who found it somewhat difficult to accept the current situation, so he could only keep encouraging himself, afraid that one day his spirit might suddenly collapse.

But no matter how much Liu Jun prepared for contingencies, he couldn’t keep up with situations changing three times a day. When he contacted the loan officer at his bank about startup capital loans – someone he had previously gotten along well with – the loan officer regretfully told him that although the bank knew Tengfei was an enterprise with advanced concepts, before Tengfei could produce impressive financial statements, the bank couldn’t break through the hard requirements to grant Tengfei a loan. Liu Jun pointed out that a company next door in the industrial zone had received loans as soon as it started operations. The loan officer replied that it was a state-owned enterprise. Only then did Liu Jun realize that enterprises were different from one another – just like the deep chasms between Indian castes, private enterprises might be at the Vaishya level in banks’ eyes. He could only pester the loan officer about what kind of financial statements would meet the hard requirements, eventually having to take the discussion to the dinner table and order elephant clam before getting all the loan requirements clarified. Liu Jun was disappointed to realize that his Tengfei was still far, far away from getting bank loans. Very likely, they wouldn’t be able to get loans for half a year after starting operations. So what should he do? His startup capital was invested to the last penny according to plan. The day the factory officially started would also be the day all self-owned funds were exhausted, with future operations needing loan support. But what could they do without loans for half a year?

Tengfei would die a brand-new death!

On the way back to the company, Liu Jun began to begrudge the elephant clam he had just treated the loan officer to. He had to start being penny-wise from tomorrow.

The hard requirements for financial statements took deep root in Liu Jun’s heart. How to produce an impressive statement – Liu Jun would never think of falsifying accounts, nor could he imagine it. He returned to the company and meditated facing the project schedule chart, sitting behind closed doors for a full hour before deciding to modify the plan and change the schedule. By the end of this day, Liu Jun had developed another mouthful of oral ulcers, and he could even smell his foul breath from getting overheated.

Even after being forced to change plans and come up with countermeasures, Liu Jun’s mood remained low. He once again fell into doubt, but this time he doubted his abilities. With insufficient experience, despite his father’s assistance, could he make the best decisions? Could he operate Tengfei Company to make it truly take off?

Thinking of how his father wholeheartedly trusted the future he had described and entrusted all the family assets to his operation, thinking of how all company employees also wholeheartedly trusted the future he had described and followed him in voluntarily working overtime, studying the equipment manuals he translated daily, Liu Jun felt unusually heavy-hearted. He could only win, not lose. He simply couldn’t afford to lose. He could only bring out those motivational words he had used countless times to encourage himself, but today these tired clichés could no longer inspire him. He suddenly felt very weary, feeling these encouragements were like crude performances masquerading as inspiration, but essentially fraudulent.

However, in the workshop, employees were still waiting for him as their backbone. He couldn’t go out with a long face. If he fell apart first, Tengfei would be finished instantly. He had to pull himself together before going out.

With no other choice, Liu Jun could only raise his left hand, spreading his five fingers and placing them flat before his eyes. Dr. Bao had said he had performed the best surgery and the most subtle scar treatment, but if you looked carefully at the finger joints, you could still see that abnormal segment. Liu Jun forced himself to open his eyes wide, watching his left hand make a fist, but this ring finger could only tilt slightly – fatigue, incompetence, ugliness all revealed in this finger. This was the challenge Yang Xun had given him. If he couldn’t support Tengfei, he could only be like this finger – a coward. He seemed to see Yang Xun’s contemptuous gaze and felt the piercing pain between his fingers. He suddenly stood up, put on his safety helmet, and walked toward the workshop.

He had to keep trying to walk forward.

At the evening family dinner, Qian Hongming was shocked to see Liu Jun’s complexion. Even when Liu Jun was attacked last time, his face hadn’t looked as bad as today. He had never seen Liu Jun look so haggard in all their years of knowing each other. Liu Jun had become so thin that his cheekbones protruded, and when the light shone down, there were two shadows under his cheekbones, making his already dim complexion look even more ghastly. Even though Qian Hongming had traveled through most of China on business and often slept on train berths heading to the next destination to save expenses, his complexion wasn’t as bad as Liu Jun’s. He couldn’t even be bothered with eating and grabbed Liu Jun to ask why.

Liu Jun told his good friend that he had no interest even in steak now because the successive oral ulcers in his mouth made eating very painful. He poured out all his recent unhappiness to his friend. The two men drank and ate while talking. After a while, Cui Jiali put the child to sleep and joined them, but she couldn’t learn Qian Hongming’s ability to interject at any time, comforting, commenting, or offering suggestions. She lacked such experience, but she could feel Liu Jun’s mental turmoil and the mountain-like pressure on his shoulders. If Liu Jun lost this battle, although with his abilities he would have many places to make a living and would still do very well, what about Liu Jun’s pride?

Qian Hongming and his wife were of one mind. He constantly drew upon the powerful database in his heart to cite examples and tell Liu Jun that this was very normal, that so-and-so had also encountered similar situations that were even worse at the time, and Liu Jun was already handling things very well, and so on.

Under his good friend’s comfort and reassurance, Liu Jun’s mood recovered somewhat. After finishing dinner, he took his leave, as he still had to go to his father’s place to discuss whether his new plan was feasible. Cui Jiali gave Liu Jun a pot of green bean, lotus seed, and lily soup that she had originally stewed for Qian Hongming to drink, telling Liu Jun to cool his internal heat.

After Liu Jun left, Qian Hongming said to Cui Jiali, “Look at how sunken Liu Jun’s eyes are… I can’t bear to look at him. He’s almost exhausted himself in the year since returning to China. He’s too serious.”

“Do you have any way to help him, help him find people, or find money… Oh, right, he said his biggest worries are two things: one is the market, the other is startup capital.”

“Tell me, can I help with these two things? I can help him as an export agent and do it so he doesn’t have to worry about anything, but for everything else, I’m completely out of my depth.”

“Hongming, you’re the most capable. Think about which other friends might be able to help.”

“If it were other kinds of help, perhaps I could ask friends, but money and markets – these are things everyone wants to grasp in their own hands. Who would be willing to lend a helping hand?”

But although Qian Hongming rejected Cui Jiali’s suggestion, he couldn’t stop himself from sliding toward the minefield. Yes, it was a minefield, a danger zone walking the edge of legality. But the more dangerous the place, the more likely it was that gold mines were located there. Ever since that time when he explained the ins and outs of letters of credit in import trade to Liu Jun, Liu Jun’s spontaneous comment had reminded him. Since then, whenever he had the opportunity, or rather, deliberately created opportunities, to consult financial professionals, whenever he had time, he would secretly perfect all the operational steps in his mind. He was infatuated with all his ideas, but he didn’t dare take even one step. Because it was a minefield, one that could explode if the bank seriously investigated. Ever since he had opened the conception and governing meridians of the operational procedures, he had been nervously reminding himself not to think about the gold mine in that minefield – it was gambling with life, and what use was gold if you lost your life?

But tonight Liu Jun’s expression made his heart ache. He wanted to help Liu Jun even more than Cui Jiali did, but what could he actually help with? Cui Jiali was right – only market and money.

Qian Hongming’s heart wavered violently as he unconsciously walked into his daughter’s room. Little daughter lay under the small floral quilt, her face rosy and carefree. Before their daughter was born, they didn’t know the child’s gender and couldn’t agree on names, big or small. They felt their child was so unique that she had to have the most distinctive and beautiful name. It wasn’t until the child was born – a daughter – that on the first day, she was wrapped in a small piece of floral cotton cloth. Surrounded by small flowers, their daughter looked good no matter how you looked at her. Cui Jiali suddenly suggested calling her Xiao Suihua (Little Scattered Flowers). So their home began to fill with small floral fabrics. If any clothing bought before Xiao Suihua’s birth was solid-colored, Cui Jiali would pick up a brush and carefully paint small flowers with acrylic paint. Qian Hongming had intended to use his daughter to stop his sliding steps, but her rosy face kept reminding him of Liu Jun’s gaunt, thin face. He couldn’t erase the image of Liu Jun’s protruding cheekbones from before his eyes.

Qian Hongming left Xiao Suihua’s room and stood alone on the balcony in a daze for a long time before finally making up his mind. He had to help Liu Jun.

Liu Jun, meanwhile, came to his father’s house on this night, caressed by spring breezes. His father wasn’t home, but with just one phone call, his father rushed back urgently. Liu Jun told his father about his new plan: he was prepared to install one piece of equipment and start up one piece of equipment, never letting equipment sit idle for even a minute, even if it meant doing contract processing. He wanted his father to come out of retirement again to look for processing work that the new equipment could complete. He drew a chart for his father showing what equipment could process what, what precision could be achieved, approximate processing costs, and when it could be operational. He wanted his father to look for business according to the chart – no matter how difficult, they could take it on; if design was needed, they could handle that too. As long as there was business, the only requirement was that prices couldn’t be affordable for everyone.

Liu Shitang listened to his son’s plan while looking at his son’s complexion. After his son finished speaking, he flipped the plan face down and pressed it with his palm. “Ah Jun, you can’t drive yourself to death. You’ll die of exhaustion.”

“Dad, don’t worry. I won’t die of exhaustion. I’m young and healthy. One good sleep will solve all problems. But I would die of shame.”

Liu Shitang said nothing, got up to find a mirror, and handed it to his son. “Look at your face. Don’t force yourself. Dad has long known your money wouldn’t be enough. I’ve thought it through – we still have three houses, all unmortgaged. I can also borrow some money on my old face. As long as the interest is a bit higher, I’ve already been talking with friends. People think up solutions – no problem can be solved. But Dad only has one son. You have to take good care of yourself for me.”

“Dad… you already knew?”

“You think your dad is just a vegetarian? But Dad can’t always keep up with your thinking, so I can only let you develop on your own. Ah Jun, be obedient. Don’t worry – as long as you get Tengfei operational, as long as we have this Tengfei shell, there will be roads ahead.” Liu Shitang, thinking his son needed to clear his internal heat, immediately called out to the new nanny to think of some heat-clearing foods and quickly pressure-cook something.

Liu Jun said, “Hongming already gave me a pot of green bean, lotus seed, and lily soup, enough for two days. We’ll talk about the third day later.”

Liu Shitang’s eyes narrowed slightly, and he stopped responding. But as soon as his son left home to return to the company, he flipped over the plan his son had just described to him. He agonized in his heart over whether to follow his son’s plan.