Liu Jun looked at it, speechless, and deleted the message. Wasn’t work important?

Liu Jun got up in frustration and went to the cafeteria window, paid for another serving of braised pork, added some rice, and wolfed it down. Even though Liu Jun was usually low-key to the extreme, he was still the center of attention in the cafeteria. The cafeteria food was always generous portions, and paying for extra meals was rarer than phoenix feathers, so Liu Jun getting up halfway through eating to add more food became the focus of everyone’s stifled laughter.

Sun Gong, who sat at the same table and usually only looked at machine conditions but couldn’t read people’s expressions, saw the bowl of braised pork swimming in thick oil and red sauce in front of Liu Jun, plus a heaping bowl of rice, and said matter-of-factly: “General Manager Liu, eating so much is very bad for the stomach. The ancients had an old saying: before thirty, people nourish their stomachs; after thirty, stomachs nourish people. It’s better to have some restraint when young.”

“Eating more to direct blood distribution to the digestive system – this is a non-pharmaceutical neural anesthesia remedy.” Liu Jun thought to himself, Sun Gong, you’re also one of the culprits.

Sun Gong had no suspicions, “That’s a good method, beneficial for afternoon naps. But if you exceed too much, stomach discomfort will still affect the nervous system.”

The administrative manager sitting across looked at the two people conversing, but didn’t speak. He knew better than anyone why Liu Jun was eating and drinking excessively. Liao Gong sat at the far end of the same long table. His reaction to Liu Jun’s binge eating was: “Although stomach walls are elastic, like the springs we’re familiar with, when expanded to a certain degree – called over-stretching – Hooke’s Law no longer applies. It’s very difficult for the stomach walls to return to normal. Binge eating causes irreversible damage. Since this is already established, if General Manager Liu tries again, it’s somewhat unwise.”

Not only was Liu Jun caught between tears and laughter, facing the large plate of braised pork over rice, beginning to call himself ridiculous, but the administrative manager beside him also laughed. Although the administrative manager wasn’t from an engineering background, he at least somewhat understood what they were talking about, thinking what a bunch of bookworm weirdos – these people were all dug out one by one from the talent market by him, simply incredible. However, at this moment, the administrative manager began to somewhat understand Liu Jun’s earnest, somewhat utopian character.

Facing a group of engineers who, after finishing eating, refused to leave their seats and seriously watched him perform stomach wall stretching exercises beyond Hooke’s Law, Liu Jun ate half and could no longer force himself to eat the remaining half. He was made fun of by a group of engineers. But from this teasing, Liu Jun heard the warmth in everyone’s hearts. This warmth gave people strength in the harsh cold weather. He called over the administrative manager and canceled the morning decision to pay only part of the year-end bonuses. He now understood clearly – he could eliminate employees for reasons like technical skills or attitude, and employees could naturally eliminate companies for reasons like income or work intensity. Elimination was mutual, and active elimination resulted in a dynamic balance, a mutually satisfactory performance within a certain period. This dynamic balance was the source of keeping employees motivated to maintain work attitudes, and wasn’t it also a spur to him, forcing him to rack his brains to increase profits and improve the cost-effectiveness of employee labor contributions?

Yes, since he had already embarked on the path of being a boss, he should have understood long ago that his shoulders now carried not just his affairs, but he needed to consider more people and more long-term matters. He no longer had the right to act emotionally or impulsively. He could only move forward, otherwise, he would first be eliminated by his employees.

Liu Jun had the administrative manager repeatedly emphasize to employees the consequences of not returning or returning late after Spring Festival, doing the groundwork in advance, and stating the ugly consequences upfront. If only half the employees who took full year-end bonuses returned after Spring Festival, then he could only accept it, showing that his Tengfei lacked attractiveness. Forced melons aren’t sweet – he understood this principle. Including Yu Shanshan.

This year-end bonus saga with its twists and turns was known only to the administrative manager, and only one administrative manager was moved by it. As a qualified administrative manager, he had a smooth personality, the ability to sail with the wind, and, of course, the skill to know and judge people. He was also a worker, and coming out to work had one pursuit: wages and benefits. So-called happy work belonged to the luxury hopes of young people without family burdens – he originally didn’t consider this. But now with Liu Jun as boss, he didn’t have to wrongly play the villain in his work, didn’t have to be the mouse in the bellows between boss and employees, didn’t have to worry about being the boss’s henchman too much and getting beaten up in dark alleys – this made the cost-effectiveness of wages and benefits quite high. Previously, he thought the boss was young and inexperienced, loose with money. From this year-end bonus matter, he could see the boss understood the big picture and big principles, with far-reaching vision. His heart settled somewhat, continuing at Tengfei had prospects.

With the administrative manager thinking this way, when he lectured employees, he naturally had the passion from his heart, and this kind of passion was most infectious.

In the evening, Liu Jun got off work early and went to the supermarket to carry two large bags of New Year goods to Yu Shanshan’s house. Knocking brought no answer, and in the night, one could see that the Yu house had no lights on. Liu Jun sat in his father’s car to wait. Soon, three members of the Yu family appeared around the corner, with Yu Shanshan in the middle, empty-handed, bouncing and jumping, clinging to this one and that one. On either side was Yu’s father carrying chickens and ducks, and Yu’s mother carrying vegetables. Coming closer, under the streetlights, one could see the doting smiles on the parents’ faces. Liu Jun vaguely understood something in his heart, but regardless of what he understood, he still carried the New Year goods out of the car to greet them.

Yu Shanshan rolled her eyes at him. Yu’s father and mother, upon hearing Liu Jun’s name, were immediately familiar, their four eyes scanning Liu Jun like searchlights, but also very politely greeting, “Oh, you’re Little Liu! So busy yet you still made time to visit us. Thank you for being so thoughtful yesterday, having your friend pick us up at the train station – otherwise, with so much stuff, we really wouldn’t have known how to get out of the station. Come up and sit, have you eaten?”

Liu Jun thought to himself, could Shen Huadong have been so honest last night, only using his banner as Liu Jun’s friend? While being modest verbally, he watched Yu Shanshan’s expression, of course, not a good one. Yu’s parents also saw their daughter rolling her eyes, but neither said anything, both maintaining very humble attitudes.

Liu Jun went upstairs to put down his gifts, then excused himself, saying he had an important social engagement waiting for him. He declined the dinner invitation from the very nice Yu parents, saw the huge surprise on Yu Shanshan’s face, steeled his heart, and left. He decided to say goodbye to the spoiled and self-centered Yu Shanshan. Of course, with his rich breakup experience, he would never drag things out.

Liu Jun personally drove Sun Gong and others to Shanghai to catch trains, then picked up his father from the still-new-looking Pudong Airport. Father and son spent the New Year at Liu Shitang’s house. Liu Shitang was already very satisfied – his son was right before his eyes, what more could he ask for? But Liu Jun was very unaccustomed to the empty house with only two people, even though the housekeeper had taken leave to go home. Fortunately, Liu Jun could cook, at least ensuring his father, who couldn’t tell grains apart, had enough to eat. But Liu Shitang was getting on in years and was very tired from long-term business travel. At the dinner table, he still spoke boldly about staying up all night with his son, but after a few drinks, red-faced and propping up his head, he started snoring at the table.

Liu Jun then sat alone in the living room watching TV, flipping through channels countless times. Bored, he took out his laptop to go online. He encountered Shen Huadong on a forum, possibly equally bored and browsing posts. He knew Shen Huadong was bored because he had dug up very old topics. Before Liu Jun could reach for the phone, Shen Huadong had already called Liu Jun’s mobile.

“Waited an hour, finally saw a ghost shadow online with me. What, not accompanying your future mother-in-law?”

“Don’t mention it. Thanks for helping last time. Finished New Year’s Eve dinner? What did you eat?”

“Haha, didn’t curry favor in time, got dumped? Good, satisfying, deserved it. I never bless people who compete with me, haha.”

Liu Jun was depressed and changed the subject, “Just ordered a car, direct import. My first New Year wish is for my car to arrive early.”

“Ah, what car? I just ordered one too, a New Year gift from my dad – a trident, hehe, Poseidon’s trident. How about when the cars arrive, we race? Let the forum folks see who’s more awesome!”

“Can’t race with you. Mine’s a Golf GTI – no match for a Maserati on straights or curves, can only compete with you on who’s more agile in the city.”

“Is it tight funds, or learning from our fathers’ generation of so-called low-key revolutionaries, not flaunting wealth?”

“Funds are tight, of course, but fortunately, the bank has notified me to handle loan procedures after the holiday. So my second New Year wish is that funds won’t be so tight next year.”

“Hehe, congratulations on breaking your loan virginity. What’s wrong? Getting a loan is good news, but why so low? Did you fall out with Yu Shanshan?”

“Said, not to mention that. I’m very worried about one thing – very worried that only half the employees will return to work after Spring Festival. My contracts are all lined up behind, and if I temporarily go to the talent exchange to pull people, they might not be usable. Very worried, no confidence.”

“Very normal. Every year, we have to mentally prepare for losing half our basic workforce. Especially out-of-town employees – sometimes I really can’t understand what they’re thinking. With such great survival pressure, our companies are very stable; they just need to work well for stable returns, but they refuse to leave and return on time. When Spring Festival comes, they’re like salmon returning to spawn, dropping work and leaving as if it’s a major heavenly mandate. They stay home until spring blooms before returning, preferring to beg us pitifully to take them back then.”

Liu Jun became even more worried from Shen Huadong’s words. He refused to be petty and withhold employees’ year-end bonuses, but don’t let him end up being a sucker. When loans are approved after Spring Festival, he’ll need to work hard and fast – if no one comes to work, what will he do? All his orders will incur penalty fees. Most importantly, he felt sorry for those workers he’d painstakingly trained. Even if new people could be found, and all were prestigious university graduates, they might not be immediately capable – his company’s requirements were too high.

Liu Jun spent New Year’s Eve feeling anxious about gains and losses. Early in the morning, before getting up, he heard his father cursing outside. Lying in bed, he shouted, “Dad, it’s New Year, relax.”

“Relax about what? Someone threw a bag of feces at our door in the middle of the night, deliberately bringing bad luck and seeking trouble.”

Liu Jun rolled out of bed and rushed to the door to look. Someone had used one of those red and white striped plastic bags from the market to hold feces, thrown sometime last night at their door, now a stinking mess. Liu Jun quickly retreated to get dressed under the covers, “Dad, you don’t know how to clean it up, leave it, I’ll do it.”

“Who did it? A Jun, who do you think did it? Don’t worry about it, doing such things during the New Year is unlucky, I’ll find someone to clean it up.”

Liu Jun stopped his father, “Dad don’t worry about it, quickly go see if the car is okay. If someone could reach our door, they could definitely reach our car too.”

Hearing this, Liu Shitang quickly stepped over the feces puddle and went downstairs to check his car. Sure enough, all four tires were flat, with one tire having a bright steel needle stuck in it. Liu Shitang silently examined everything carefully – all four tires had horizontal punctures that couldn’t be repaired, requiring expensive new tire replacements. It looked like the work of an expert, aimed at making him spend money. He returned and stopped his son from cleaning the door, calling 110 to report to the police.