“Planning to start competing with me?”
Liu Jun shook his head: “I haven’t decided yet.”
Shen Huadong finally couldn’t help saying: “Give me a definite answer. Why don’t I ever see you get excited?”
“The mechanical manufacturing industry is vast, with many categories and countless products. Just because you dominate doesn’t mean nothing else can grow around you. What should I get excited about?” Liu Jun pondered for a moment and unhesitatingly proposed: “I can withdraw from production of this product series, but I have a price – you pay ten million to buy out my technology.”
“Are you crazy, or am I crazy? Ten million! My entire R&D investment didn’t even reach that amount. If it were like this from the start, I might as well not have spent a penny and just bought directly from you.”
“I heard a story in the antiques world. Someone, to ensure the uniqueness of a vase in his possession, bought all the other similar vases on the market at high prices and smashed them. In the end, he sold his unique vase for more than the total price of all the vases. I could also simply sell my technology piecemeal to other companies, making a one-time profit – anything would be better than making products more and more poorly under your shadow. You can consider the feasibility of my proposal.”
“Don’t be petulant – I’m talking seriously with you.” But as Shen Huadong spoke, he already realized that Liu Jun wasn’t being petulant but discussing matters objectively. Liu Jun had already done such a thing more than a year ago, causing Shi Yiji’s inventory to pile up and Yang Xun to lose miserably, which led to the incident of Liu Jun suffering physically. So undoubtedly, if Liu Jun maliciously sold technology nationwide at low prices this time, the nearly ten million in R&D funds he invested in Shi Yiji would be completely wasted. He might even develop the impulse to cut off one of Liu Jun’s fingers with a knife. Shen Huadong had always wanted to see Liu Jun get excited, but now he was the one getting excited instead. Looking at Liu Jun, who remained unexcited, he was furious.
Liu Jun quietly observed the changes in Shen Huadong’s expression, thinking that although Yang Xun wasn’t much older than Shen Huadong, Yang Xun was indeed far more mature than both of them. He needed until recently to appreciate Yang Xun’s capabilities. “Let me continue getting serious with you.” He pointed to the blueprints. “For this product series, I’ve already applied for patents. I just looked at the blueprints – although your new design deliberately tries to circumvent mine in many ways, it ultimately doesn’t escape the framework of my application scope. This shows you haven’t thoroughly understood my patent specifications. It also shows that so far, your technical personnel’s level isn’t sufficient to challenge my standards, haha. Dongdong, my weakness is a lack of funds, but because of this, you look down on me and try to undercut my products. Let me see whether you can succeed as a follower.”
If it were Yang Xun, he wouldn’t take Liu Jun’s words seriously at all. Yang Xun didn’t follow the rules, so naturally rules were useless to him. Coincidentally, this society also supported Yang Xun’s attitude – rules only constrained people who had some reverence for rules in their hearts, like Shen Huadong. Liu Jun’s dialogue with Yang Xun was basically like chickens talking to ducks, completely mismatched. His dialogue with Shen Huadong was back and forth, question and answer. From Shen Huadong’s speechlessness, Liu Jun saw his tremendous progress over these two years. Much of his initial displeasure diminished.
Shen Huadong was very displeased. Whether regarding girlfriends or racing, he always lost to Liu Jun by a margin. This was a major reason he actively sought to manage Shi Yiji, and also why today, when the product had just completed trials, he couldn’t wait to meet with Liu Jun. He wanted to see Liu Jun’s anger, just as Liu Jun always seemed to see his anger. But Shen Huadong was quite disappointed – Liu Jun had turned the tables on him instead. Still unwilling to give up, Shen Huadong asked: “Switching products is inevitable for you, then. What do you plan to do next?”
“I won’t tell you, lest my products barely hit the market and barely heat the market before you follow closely behind to reap the benefits. At the very least, I need a period to harvest.” Seeing Shen Huadong smile, Liu Jun added with ill intent: “But I thank you on behalf of our engineers. The many lovely gadgets they’ve developed over the past year are currently locked in my safe. Now they can see daylight.”
“Your technical team isn’t large – fewer than ten people.” Shen Huadong was shocked. “Those things locked in the safe… are they advanced?”
“The non-advanced ones were killed in the cradle – otherwise, what would I, the leader, be doing for my salary? Since you know how many people are on my technical team, do you know that starting about a month from now, our testing equipment will surpass that your Shi Yiji’s? Do you know what percentage of my monthly R&D investment is relative to output value? Do you also know how great a leader’s role can be?”
“What’s your R&D investment percentage?”
“Your Shi Yiji’s profit margin. So you see, I can’t compete with you at a low level or make mass-market goods. I can only go high-tech and high-precision. And competing with me is also unwise for you. You have large-scale and sufficient funds, but also large inventory, slow turning, and sluggish reactions – like a big ship. Me? I’m a speedboat – turning and cornering speeds all exceed yours, but my inventory is limited, stability is limited, and there are many other limitations. Most of the time, you facing me is like Tyson facing a lightweight boxing champion, your Porsche racing my GTI on a straight track. But if you compete with me in pursuit racing, you’re unwise. I was joking when I asked if you could keep up as a follower – honestly, you definitely can’t. Similarly, if you disregard my feelings and brutally launch a series of products, then you’ll suffer the same big losses Yang Xun did. Why? Because once you start production, it’s a large-scale volume, large-scale working capital, and large-scale inventory. When you encounter attacks, you can’t even stop and have to watch helplessly as losses intensify. So I don’t understand why you’re targeting me – you’re not like Yang Xun, whose vision only extends a hundred yuan ahead. Why don’t you take your main waterway while I take my small streams, both looking out for each other and remaining friends? Why this aggressive look like you want to devour me?”
Shen Huadong turned sideways and reluctantly glanced at Liu Jun for a long time before saying, “I hate you.” But before Liu Jun could proudly stick his tail up, Shen Huadong had already come to his senses and quickly tried to recover face. “Damn, you’re boring. Even if your company is small, is it necessary to grovel and admit defeat in front of me? Are you a man? Are you a young man? I curse you, and you don’t retort. What if I hit you? Would you fight back?”
Liu Jun was already angry, and hearing Shen Huadong’s provocation, he slammed the table and stood up: “Fight inside or go outside to fight?”