Liu Jun once again deeply doubted himself – what exactly was he busying himself with all this nonsense? His company required such a huge investment, but after several months of operation, he didn’t even have the criminal intention to buy a new car, and even his daily expenses were uncharacteristically restrained. Tengfei’s profits couldn’t tolerate his extravagance. Running a factory – besides selling products like pigs, did he also have to work himself into a dog? Look – Luo Qing had already submitted his resignation. Society had so many easily achievable successful trades, but none of them was his Tengfei Company. Liu Jun still suspected he had taken the wrong path.

The only thing worth rejoicing about was that after contacting Yu Shanshan, she agreed to go to the mountains with him on Sunday to pick oranges.

News of Qian Hongming buying a BMW reached Liu Shitang’s ears the next day while he was on a business trip. Liu Shitang exploded upon hearing it – what? How could someone like Qian Hongming buy a BMW before his precious son? He was still driving an old Audi. He immediately called Liu Jun: “Ah Jun, how much cash is in the account?”

“Enough to use. Five million from high-interest loans has already come in. Dad, when are you coming back? I want to renegotiate prices with you.”

“Take out one million and buy a car. Buy a good car that, when driven out, all the city’s people will stare at it.”

Liu Jun finally understood that his father had also been shocked by Qian Hongming’s BMW. No wonder Qian Hongming had headed straight for BMW without distraction once in the car market – Qian Hongming had been waiting for this effect. “It’s not necessary, Dad. As long as we get Tengfei running, we could drive tractors out and no one would laugh at us.”

“No way. You used to buy a BMW M3 when you were abroad, earning just a salary by yourself…”

“That was before. My thinking is different now.” Liu Jun calmly interrupted his father’s excitement and took the opportunity to discuss his plan to lower prices and expand markets early with his father. Using data from formal production, including cumulative costs, market scale, sales prices, and capital turnover, he built a model producing a series of data on how to achieve optimal input-output ratios within six months.

“Lower prices!? By that much?” Liu Shitang, hearing about price cuts, was like having his flesh carved away, temporarily forgetting the excitement brought by Qian Hongming’s BMW. “Didn’t you say our purpose in establishing Tengfei was to make high-value-added products? Why lower prices? Won’t the result of lowering prices be becoming a second Qianjin?”

Liu Jun took a deep breath, looking at the “Year 2000 Liu Jun Run Fast” on his desk, and said in a resolute tone: “No. Qianjin Factory’s products were like a drop of water in the ocean, while Tengfei’s products aim to occupy the vast majority of the national high-end market share and ultimately seek pricing power. The two are completely different.”

Liu Shitang’s call was very useful – he voiced the depression that Liu Jun found hard to express. By comforting his father, Liu Jun also encouraged himself. He recorded those words about ocean drops and such – later, this would be the best language for motivating employees.

But his father’s call also reminded Liu Jun that, looking back after a year and a half of returning to China, he truly felt like things and people had changed. When he first went to Germany to study, after saving up some money, his first thought was to buy a flashy used car, then spend all his savings on modifications. When he started working and earning money, he even spent everything to buy a used BMW M3, truly without blinking an eye. What had happened to him now – he’d become so modest that he wouldn’t even care about driving a tractor? If his father hadn’t mentioned it, he wouldn’t have noticed he’d changed so much.

After completing his resignation procedures, Luo Qing came to find Liu Jun carrying a large cardboard box full of electromechanical professional books.

“Manager Liu, these books were all bought for me by classmates in Shanghai – our library doesn’t have them. I’m not taking them with me. Organizing them today, I discovered that in less than a year at Tengfei, I consciously read so many books – more professional books than I read in all of university. Incredible.”

“Yet you ultimately still chose to give up.”

“Yes, after reading so many books, I realized I’d only just pushed open a door. Inside the door are predecessors’ experiences and rapidly developing latest technologies. I need to digest predecessors’ experiences and keep up with today’s rapid development before I can hold steady this technical rice bowl. It turns out that accumulated experience in technical industries doesn’t have much use – it quickly becomes obsolete…”

“No, accumulated experience in mechanical industries is very useful.”

“But Manager Liu, you can’t deny that in industrial control, materials, processing technology, and other areas, development changes daily. I see you reading original books whenever you have time, sometimes even while eating. This field is too hard. I’ve already seen that continuing in this field, effort and reward will forever be disproportionate, and when old, you’ll still be chased and mocked by rising young people. This field also relies on youth, with only the decade from thirty to forty being golden years – no different from computers.”

Liu Jun looked seriously at Luo Qing, listening to him finish. “I understand you. Thank you for specifically coming to tell me that your leaving isn’t because my company is run poorly – I feel much better.”

Luo Qing said in surprise: “Our company is already the best among similar enterprises. We all say this place is an ideal kingdom. And we all say you’re a good leader, just a bit too strict.”

“Monday morning quarterback! I’ll see you out – can’t get cars here.”

At this moment, Luo Qing had the impulse to retract his resignation, but reason prevailed. He witnessed what it meant to part on good terms – he kept both Tengfei and Liu Jun in his heart.

After getting his new car, Qian Hongming felt very happy. When friends called, he’d show up, and he’d be responsible for pick-ups and drop-offs when dispersing. Soon, classmates from elementary through high school all knew Qian Hongming had made it big, and people often called Liu Jun asking when he’d also buy one. Liu Jun uniformly replied that he was struggling to catch up.

Liu Jun still drove his Jetta, which he’d refined to perfection, to pick up Yu Shanshan. He was always punctual, preferring to arrive early rather than be late. When he reached Yu Shanshan’s building, he was still ten minutes early, but saw Yu Shanshan already waiting downstairs with a backpack. Today, Yu Shanshan’s style was similar to usual – a blue and white checkered cotton shirt, with an academic-style navy cotton knit vest over it, jeans, and canvas shoes below. But her hair had grown longer, making her look fresh and student-like. However, when Liu Jun opened the car door for Yu Shanshan, he distinctly smelled perfume and saw that Yu Shanshan wore light makeup. Liu Jun felt joyful.

After closing the car door, Liu Jun didn’t rush to leave, leaning on the window: “Stayed up late last night?”

“Yes, panda eyes facing each other across the window – aren’t you the same? Did you eat breakfast?”

“You can’t cook anyway. I ate at the cafeteria – meat buns, white porridge, salted duck eggs. What about you?”

“I specifically made sandwiches, hmph.” Yu Shanshan suddenly felt this conversation was too intimate and immediately shifted aside: “Aren’t we leaving?”

“You’ve lost weight.” Liu Jun dropped this comment and walked around the front to get into the driver’s seat. Before he could sit down, Yu Shanshan also threw him a line: “You’re much thinner than me, vain beauty, even men diet now.”

“I… who’s dieting? You’re the one dieting. Last time I saw you, I almost didn’t recognize you, so vain.” Liu Jun looked at Yu Shanshan rolling her eyes with a grin, still not rushing to drive, feeling a bit regretful in his heart – why hadn’t he come to find Yu Shanshan earlier? “Let’s drive properly – please fasten your seatbelt.”

Yu Shanshan had just fastened it when Liu Jun started the car and turned out. Yu Shanshan wondered: “Shouldn’t you be driving fast?”

“I’m not driving slowly, but I adjusted the suspension to be softer and switched to softer tires…”

“What’s suspension? Isn’t it called shock absorption?”

Liu Jun was stumped by the question and simply stopped the car by the roadside to show Yu Shanshan what suspension and shock absorption were. But you couldn’t see clearly from the whole car, and neither had brought paper and pen, so they finally decided to postpone Orange Mountain temporarily and go to a repair shop to understand clearly first. One entered the shop like a fish in water, the other was enthusiastically interested in cars, practically becoming sworn brothers in the shop. After touring around and walking outside, Liu Jun laughed: “I also introduced Shen Huadong to treasure hunt here.”

“Oh, let’s go quickly, definitely don’t…” Yu Shanshan didn’t finish speaking and escaped into the car first. Liu Jun greeted the boss and followed. “How do you two know each other?”

“Shen Huadong and I? After meeting downstairs at your place that time, we arranged to go out and fight, becoming acquainted through fighting.”

Yu Shanshan stared at Liu Jun with rolling eyes, observing him – the more she looked, the less she believed. “Ah, looks like you lost the fight. You lost, that’s why you had no face to come see me, hmph.”

“How do you know we fought over you? Shen Huadong and I have plenty of other reasons to fight.” Seeing Yu Shanshan blush deeply, he stopped teasing: “Shen Huadong and I didn’t fight. We got to know each other later because of our shared love of cars. Shen Huadong is a decent person – I didn’t expect someone from such a well-off family to also be decent. But I’m more excellent.”

“Don’t see it.”

“Of course, Shen Huadong’s excellence doesn’t suit your taste, so naturally you can’t see it. I’m different – I glitter with golden light in front of you.”

“Right, right, clay statue plated with copper, thinking you’re an immortal.”

The two bickered all the way. Liu Jun didn’t know how many eye-rolls he received from Yu Shanshan – if eye-rolls had temperature, half of Liu Jun’s body would have been scorched. However, when they weren’t bickering, the car was ambiguously quiet, making both feel flustered and hot-eared, so Yu Shanshan quickly found topics to make noise. Finally reaching Orange Mountain, this mountain was contracted by Liu Jun’s relatives. The relatives happened to be selling oranges, so Liu Jun just needed to greet the small worker managing the mountain forest. Therefore, Liu Jun was quite impolite, taking out two huge storage boxes from the trunk with great momentum. Before Liu Jun could organize properly, Yu Shanshan, this girl who grew up in the north, was overjoyed seeing the mountain full of golden oranges and, early on, scrambled up the mountain to pick them.

Though orange trees weren’t tall, the most beautiful fruits mostly grew in the crown. Some Liu Jun could still reach, but Yu Shanshan could only gaze in vain. After picking a dozen ordinary fruits, Yu Shanshan wasn’t satisfied and wanted to climb trees to pick more.

Seeing this rough girl eager to try, Liu Jun quickly grabbed her: “Don’t go up – don’t you see pesticide bottles hanging on the branches? It’s bad if you touch them. I’ll pick for you, you catch them below.”

“Don’t be so fussy. Each tree only has one or two pesticide bottles – I won’t touch them. Don’t grab me.” Yu Shanshan’s tone was tough, but her face was red, and with one hand firmly grasped by Liu Jun, her eyes avoided looking at Liu Jun.

Without hesitation, Liu Jun bent down and lifted Yu Shanshan: “High enough now?”

“Hey, put me down.”

“Only after you pick.”

“Picked, picked. Quick…”

Liu Jun put Yu Shanshan down but didn’t let go at all – he didn’t want to let go, tightly holding this rough girl in his arms. He didn’t know where so much affection suddenly surged from, realizing he loved Yu Shanshan very much, his heart full of dizziness. What excited him most was that after struggling a few times, Yu Shanshan actually opened her arms and embraced him back. So then, if not now to make a move, when?