The equity changes at Haoyuan were naturally also observed by Shen Huadong and his son.
It seemed like the entire city was interested in Haoyuan’s equity changes, with people often using it as a topic of conversation at business dinners. Liu Jun took his engineers to the Shanghai exhibition with secret delight. Yang Li and Dong Qiyang, who had originally planned to go together, canceled their trips one after another, presumably affected by Yang Xun’s withdrawal from Haoyuan. Liu Jun’s group of five drove Liu Shitang’s car to Shanghai, stayed overnight, thoroughly explored every corner of the exhibition, and rushed back to the company overnight the next day, arriving in the early morning hours.
On the third day, he got up rather late. Liu Jun almost instinctively went to the window first to check the activity at the company’s main entrance. To his surprise, while the banners still hung scattered and disheveled at the entrance, the family members of the deceased worker who had almost religiously kept watch at the main gate according to work hours were nowhere to be seen. Although those family members had stopped making noise and no longer affected the normal entry and exit of company personnel and vehicles since Liu Shitang had ordered the vandalism, today’s absence made Liu Jun feel refreshed and inexplicably relaxed.
Liu Jun wanted to notify the administrative manager to clean up the main entrance, but the administrative manager had been called away again to attend meetings reviewing the work-related death accident. It seemed the matter was far from over. Liu Jun notified security directly, only to learn that the family members had already dispersed, starting two days ago, because the deceased’s mother, exhausted in body and spirit, had succumbed to the cold and fallen ill. Liu Jun was speechless for a long time, mainly because he didn’t know what to say. He could understand the deceased mother’s pain—just thinking about the pain in his heart when his mother died, he wanted to make a gesture. But given past precedents, he didn’t dare act rashly and could only remain silent, making himself appear well-versed in unwritten rules.
In the afternoon, Engineer Liao came to see Liu Jun. Upon entering the office, he immediately closed the door, looking mysterious and even guilty. Over these past months, Liu Jun had become familiar with several key engineers and understood that Engineer Liao was a man of few words who deliberately avoided offending people—an honest person. Liu Jun didn’t know why Engineer Liao sat across from him, hemming and hawing as if he had done something wrong.
“Engineer Liao, if it’s very inconvenient to say, why don’t you write it down? I’ll tear it up in front of you after reading it.”
Engineer Liao still hesitated with several “heh heh” sounds before saying: “I’ve always considered informing on people to be petty behavior, but… this matter might just be me being too sensitive. At the exhibition, I met an old classmate who happened to know Sun Gong. He was puzzled why Sun Gong would take a pay cut and lower benefits to work at our Tengfei. My classmate said that at Sun Gong’s previous company, the boss valued and promoted him highly, so it seemed he shouldn’t have…”
Liu Jun couldn’t help but lean forward on his desk in surprise. “What was Sun Gong’s previous company called?”
“Longsheng. Some of their products imitate ours.”
Longsheng! Liu Jun knew this company. Liu Shitang had passed him a list of industry companies that imitated their products, including Longsheng. While it was hard to say how other companies felt about the products he developed, Longsheng’s covetous intentions toward his technology were unquestionable. Could it be that Sun Gong, the excellent engineer he always thought he had been lucky to recruit, hadn’t come by coincidence?
Liu Jun never naively believed that only Shi Yiji’s Yang Xun coveted his blueprints, so he had also implemented many security measures. His security department did far more than just guard doors and prevent theft; confidentiality was their main focus. Even so, employees would still take advantage of accidents to smuggle blueprints out. But if someone thoroughly understood the blueprints and patiently worked undercover for months, drawing a salary while slowly copying blueprints out, he couldn’t think of any way the security department could prevent such behavior. Gratefully seeing off Engineer Liao, Liu Jun shut himself in his office, desperately trying to recall Sun Gong’s every action, hoping to find some clues. But after much thought, he couldn’t identify anything improper about Sun Gong, who seemed to genuinely love technology. Liu Jun broke out in a cold sweat in his office.
He went to the administrative department to check personnel files and pulled out Sun Gong’s file. In the resume section, he saw that Sun Gong had not noted any previous employment at Longsheng. This omission made it even more suspicious. Thinking of the previous confrontation with Shi Yiji over intellectual property issues, Liu Jun felt an enormous headache.
Liu Jun didn’t dare delay and finally found Sun Gong in the workshop. Seeing Sun Gong personally installing a component, Liu Jun knew what it was—the sensor Sun Gong had mentioned to him, designed to detect whether people were within a safe range before powering equipment, to prevent high-frequency welding machine accidents from happening again. Could someone who worked so proactively and meticulously be someone infiltrating to steal technology? If Sun Gong harbored only short-term behavior like stealing technology, would he need to spend extra mental effort on Tengfei’s safety production? Or was Sun Gong exactly that kind of excellent spy talent?
Seeing Liu Jun frowning while watching him, Sun Gong said curiously, “I think my design is fine. Don’t you agree, Director Liu?”
Liu Jun continued frowning. He now understood Engineer Liao’s expression when he came to see him. Facing Sun Gong, who had somewhat of a technology fanatic tendency, it was really hard to voice such petty suspicions. “Sun Gong, could I interrupt you for ten minutes? Let’s go to the basketball court and talk.”
Sun Gong left immediately, dusting off his hands and walking out of the workshop with Liu Jun, his manner extraordinarily frank. Liu Jun suspected that if he were in this situation, he would feel guilty first.
During work hours, the basketball court was empty. The bright autumn sun made the court surface gleam white, yet the weather was getting colder. Liu Jun invited Sun Gong to sit by the court and said, “Sun Gong, were you previously at Longsheng?”
Only then did Sun Gong’s face show surprise. He looked up at Liu Jun for quite a while before saying, “Yes, you found out after all. This matter… cough, I’m too ashamed to mention it.”
“Sun Gong, I still hope you’ll be straight with me. Don’t be too unfair to me.”
Sun Gong hesitated for a long while. “Longsheng wanted your technology. The boss originally sent someone else, but you didn’t think much of them and didn’t hire them. It happened that my current work had reached a lull, so the boss insisted I take on the mission, saying I would be hired by you. I was very reluctant—isn’t this stealing? But if I didn’t come here, that wouldn’t work either. The boss was too determined to succeed. I originally planned to work a few days, then go back and report that there was no way to steal anything. But after working for a few days, I quite liked the research atmosphere here. Although the current salary isn’t high, you understand the business and value it, the R&D funding investment is large, and there’s hope in the work. I told the Longsheng boss frankly that I wasn’t going back. In this matter, I’m caught between a rock and a hard place, too ashamed to mention it to you, and too ashamed to go back and face the Longsheng boss. Director Liu, if you’re suspicious, feel free to fire me. Don’t worry, I have places to go—I still have some reputation in the industry. You can’t just listen to what I alone say about this kind of thing. What I, as the person involved, say can’t be taken as definitive.”
Liu Jun hadn’t expected that asking would uncover something suspicious. Engineer Liao’s suspicions weren’t wrong. So, could he trust Sun Gong based on Sun Gong’s one-sided account?
“Sun Gong, in our work, we’ve collaborated for over half a year. Our new products have been developed through the hands of you, me, and others. It can be said that our cooperation has become increasingly harmonious. Work thinking patterns can be equated with character—I trust you. After hearing this suspicion, I found it very hard to believe. I decided not to conduct any external investigations first, but to ask you directly. I hope you won’t take offense. Today, your explanation is, honestly speaking, just a one-sided account, but I believe in the relationship we’ve built over more than half a year, and your character has been demonstrated over this time. If keeping you is a gamble, I believe my chances of winning are very high. Let’s end this matter here—don’t feel any psychological burden.”
Sun Gong nodded. “This kind of thing can only be proven over time. Thank you for your trust, Director Liu. Since this matter is clarified, let me frankly mention a doubt. The Longsheng boss is very dissatisfied that I’m staying here. He feels he lost his wife and lost his soldiers too, very embarrassing. He’s thinking of ways to make it impossible for me to stay at Tengfei. Director Liu, you’d better check the source of information.”
Liu Jun felt dizzy. Informing—counter-informing. Things seemed increasingly complex, with even Engineer Liao now under suspicion. Should he continue trusting or not?
After hearing the detailed explanation, Qian Hongming also couldn’t make a judgment. If these were ordinary people, Liu Jun could find an excuse not to use them, but both Engineer Liao and Sun Gong were technical pillars of the company. Liu Jun had invested heavily in both, and both continued producing steady, long-term results. How could he act rashly against them? Liu Jun very much wanted to adopt his usual attitude toward friends, but the problem was that this matter was no small affair. Tengfei’s finances were as tight as fine piano strings, unable to withstand any more disturbances. Did he, Liu Jun, dare to easily extend trust?