During Tengfei’s product renewal period, Liu Shitang could finally temporarily suspend business trips and return home to rest for a while. Thinking of his car tires repeatedly being vandalized in the residential complex, Liu Shitang decided to sacrifice a night’s sleep and crouch in the car to wait for the culprit. Liu Jun couldn’t bear to see his father sacrifice sleep on his first day back from a business trip, so he volunteered to sacrifice himself instead. The summer car interior was exceptionally stuffy. To avoid alerting the enemy, Liu Jun could only open the four car windows with finger-width cracks to ensure ventilation. But mosquitoes also snuck in with the air flow, buzzing around Liu Jun in circles, making him suffer unbearably.

Fortunately, the night wasn’t as quiet as imagined. Besides phone calls coming one after another, there were also ongoing dramas unfolding under the cover of darkness beside the car. Liu Jun could take this opportunity to think carefully about the procedures for applying for high-tech enterprise certification for Tengfei, especially how to write the self-evaluation to highlight Tengfei’s uniqueness. It should be said that based on his R&D investment, high-tech product revenue, and patent applications, his self-assessment was that he should pass the certification, at least more qualified than Shi Yiji, who was reportedly trying again for high-tech enterprise status this year. If certified, Tengfei would gain real, tangible benefits in silver and gold, closely related to tax incentives.

However, Liu Jun was somewhat undecided about one issue. Shen Huadong had confided in him that they spent five million yuan at the beginning of the year hiring university professors to assist in scientific research. This money was spent with ulterior motives – the main purpose was to target the professor as an expert. Whether the professor’s signature was on the application report, whether the professor attended the certification meeting – the effects were vastly different. Faced with the great temptation of tax incentives, Liu Jun wavered in his heart. Should he also spend money to hire a professor to create an empty signature to create a fake? Because the facts were just as Shen Huadong said – even though he had already become a senior engineer abroad with a doctoral title, domestically, he wasn’t even an assistant engineer. His name on the application report was as good as nothing, unable to carry weight. His application report needed someone with real credentials.

With great difficulty, time crawled past 1 AM. The mosquitoes circling Liu Jun had probably changed shifts several times. Liu Jun finally saw a sixty-something old man not only approach his father’s car but also walk around it with his hands behind his back. This circuit wasn’t easy – one side required passing through hedges. But the old man still struggled to complete the full circle. Liu Jun crouched quietly in the back seat, nervously watching the old man’s next move, determined to catch him red-handed. But the old man did nothing, just kept sighing and muttering to himself.

“Your car hasn’t been here for several days again. I heard you’re busy traveling to make money. Sigh, no matter how old you get, being able to make money is a good thing. I urge you never to stop. Look at me – I can’t sleep tonight, worrying about the money my grandson needs for school tomorrow. Our family has two elderly people and two middle-aged people, all unemployed. We want to work hard, but have nowhere to exert effort. We want to sell our labor, but no one wants us. We can’t even sell our flesh – the whole family is useless. Sigh, our family is so poor, yet this complex has more and more private cars. I count them every day – some have changed cars, some have moved to better places, and all are getting rich. Now the gap between people is too big. But you’re so busy, your car is among the top ten busiest in the complex. That counts as getting rich through hard work. No matter how much I complain, I can’t blame you. If there’s any movement in the future, I’ll testify for you. Sigh, I also want to be busy, but no one wants me. Sigh, wealth in deep mountains brings distant relatives, poverty in busy markets brings no visitors. I don’t even have anyone to talk to, so I can only talk to you, cars…”

Liu Jun watched in stunned silence as the old man patted the car hood and walked away to the next car. But the old man was not polite to the next car – he kicked it first, then spoke with drawn swords. Liu Jun suddenly wondered – could this old man be the one who damaged his family’s car? Out of hatred for the rich? He watched the old man ramble from car to car, with different attitudes depending on the car – some he patted the hood, some he kicked, some he spat thick phlegm on. But that was all. Until the old man turned the corner, Liu Jun never saw him pull out a steel needle.

Recalling the old man’s soliloquy, Liu Jun couldn’t help but overturn his previous speculation. Could it be that whoever punctured his father’s car tires wasn’t some enemy, but just that his father’s car was unlucky, randomly chosen by someone wanting to vent? Thinking of this, Liu Jun almost wanted to give up the stakeout and go home to sleep. But looking at his watch, the hour hand already pointed to two o’clock. Having already guarded half the night, he might as well persist to the end tonight. Liu Jun yawned and continued watching wild dogs and cats jumping around the complex, watching night returnees mysteriously walk home with steps different from daytime.

Just as Liu Jun was yawning continuously, he finally saw someone approach the car like a ghost again. Having grown accustomed to the darkness, Liu Jun could see clearly. Without suspense, who else could this be but Aunt Fu? He saw Aunt Fu casually glance into the car, then casually walk away. Her light footsteps grew more and more distant until inaudible. Liu Jun was puzzled. Had Aunt Fu discovered him? This was impossible – his father’s car had tinted windows. Or was this reconnaissance? Liu Jun’s head was completely alert, all his senses in position, carefully detecting all sounds around.

But this wait was another hour. In summer, dawn comes early – by 3 AM, you could hear occasional bird calls. The sky was still dark, and wild cats and dogs rarely appeared now. The stuffy night finally produced a few wisps of wind, and the car interior could finally feel a hint of coolness. Liu Jun was thinking of giving up when rustling sounds different from the wind came from the hedges beside the car. Liu Jun listened carefully as the sound gradually approached his car. He immediately became excited, waiting as the sound came closer and closer, very near. He faintly saw a crawling figure behind the hedge. Then he saw the figure drill into the nearly meter-thick hedge, one arm holding a tool, cautiously approaching the tire. He didn’t wait any longer, directly opened the car door near the hedge, shouted: “Who?” and kicked toward the person’s arm, kicking away the tool in their grip.

The person in the landscaping jumped up and ran. Liu Jun saw that it was Aunt Fu. He leisurely picked up the tool Aunt Fu had dropped before leaping to pursue. The chase was basically without suspense. Before the first intersection appeared, Aunt Fu had been easily captured by Liu Jun. After calling the police, Liu Jun asked Aunt Fu: “Why won’t this end? You were wrong first. Eight tires aren’t cheap – wait to go to prison again.”

“My old man was killed by you people. I’m not afraid of sitting in prison until I die. You, Lius, deserve to be cut into pieces. When I get out, I’ll continue this endless fight with you.”

“Your old man… we had no contact with him.”

“My old man was sick and needed money for treatment, needed someone to accompany him to see doctors. You locked me and my son up, and my old man died a week before anyone found him. He was already rotting – so tragic. I hate you to death. As long as I have breath in the second half of my life, this won’t end with you.”

Liu Jun felt this person was unreasonable. He had endured enough of the Spring Festival door being splattered with feces and the car tires being punctured every few days. His anger was great, and now he was even more annoyed by Aunt Fu’s persistent entanglement. “You should be clear that you stole our materials first. That material I’ve now packaged and sold for several million. That is to say, you stole nearly a million yuan worth of my property. If you don’t go to prison, who should? It was you and your son’s greed that killed your old man. Blaming me and my father – do you think you can escape the guilt of your old man dying alone and miserably?”

“If not you, then who? I suffered plenty being sent down to the countryside at a young age – who should I blame? Your mother was ruthless and opportunistic, abandoning her original boyfriend to marry your city father, thus getting transferred back to the city. I remained pure but still couldn’t get transferred out of the mountain village in old age – who should I blame? I taught for decades with painstaking effort, cultivating students everywhere, but when they said to close our elementary school, they closed it. When they said dismiss us, substitute teachers, they dismissed us. I was a substitute teacher my whole life, but have no retirement pension – who should I blame? My old man’s township enterprise collapsed when they said it would, and was sold to individual bosses when they said it would. He worked his whole life – forget retirement pension, there wasn’t even anywhere to reimburse medical expenses. I had to work like an ox outside to earn money for his medicine – who should I blame? My things – you said take them and took them, not leaving even bone scraps. You people who bought state factories during restructuring are all fat with oil. What about your things? I abandoned home and family to serve your father for so many years – did your father ever give me a good look? With so many rooms in the house, you made me live in the storage room. Did you treat me as a human? How much salary did your father give me? Never would he voluntarily raise my wages – I had to beg pitifully before he’d show mercy. What is he? I was just taking back what should have belonged to me. You had no reason to put me in prison and harm my son, too. Just wait – when I get out, I’ll continue pursuing this. I’ll haunt you like a ghost. Looks like you’re no good thing either, inheriting from your rotten parents. I was kind to you for nothing…”

Liu Jun’s head couldn’t logically connect Aunt Fu’s suffering with blaming their Liu family. He watched Aunt Fu speak eloquently and endlessly, as if everything was Aunt Fu’s reasoning. He kept thinking of the earlier old man who touched cars here and spat on cars there while talking to himself. He no longer argued back, just listened silently, but didn’t let go either. He waited until the police arrived.

When discussing this with his early-rising father in the morning, Liu Jun could only suggest that his father move to a complex with strict security to avoid Aunt Fu’s persistent harassment. What gave him an even bigger headache was his parents’ marriage. He had always felt his mother’s melancholy temperament didn’t match his father’s. He only remembered that, since he could remember, his mother had always slept in a separate bedroom from his father. When he grew up, he knew this wasn’t normal. Now, hearing Aunt Fu’s accusations, he somewhat understood, but didn’t want to think deeply about it. Probably everyone had their helplessness, and his parents’ generation had even more helplessness in their lifetime. About so many things, he was so powerless.

When the 9/11 incident occurred, Qian Hongming was at the Tengfei factory looking for Liu Jun. He and his friends were optimistic about Shanghai housing prices and intended to buy residential properties in areas served by the subway, with everyone recommending his experienced sister Qian Hongying to lead. It’s just that he happened to have limited cash on hand and wanted to borrow 200,000 yuan from Liu Jun to adjust his position. Once he got the property certificate, he would mortgage it and quickly repay Liu Jun’s money. Just then, Liu Jun received a call from Shen Huadong, who was incoherent, mixing Chinese and English, urgently telling him to go online to read the news and consider how the event would affect the economic situation. They would meet tomorrow evening to discuss. Liu Jun quickly found his usual Yahoo News, and the images that jumped out were shocking. He turned the news page to show Qian Hongming. After Qian Hongming finished reading and looked up, he asked: “Shouldn’t you be more cautious and observe for a while first?” Seeing Qian Hongming frown, he quickly clarified his position: “200,000 is no problem, but I hope you’ll think thrice. Also, why do you need so many houses? Your second house just finished renovation and is still empty, uninhabited.”

“Shanghai houses aren’t bought for living in, but for investment. Everyone is optimistic about Shanghai housing prices. But today’s plane crash into the Twin Towers… I hope it won’t affect my export business to America. Looking at the news, America is still in chaos, can’t figure out the situation, and doesn’t know when the commentary will come out. Alright, I’ll delay for a while and see.”

“Tomorrow evening at Shen Huadong’s place, he’s inviting several friends to meet and discuss. Want to come together?”

Qian Hongming hesitated before saying, “I won’t go. I’m somewhat uncomfortable with this person, Shen Huadong. I’ll consult with a few friends in foreign trade circles, then we’ll call to exchange views.”

“That guy is quite straightforward.”

“I don’t like how self-righteous he is.”

Liu Jun couldn’t think of where Shen Huadong was self-righteous, but since Qian Hongming didn’t like him, so be it.

The next day, he had an appointment with a manager from Donghai Group’s procurement department. This meeting was ordered by Donghai Group’s boss Song Yunhui, and Song Yunhui learned about the domestication of this special valve through Liang Sishen’s communication. Through this connection, Liu Jun broke through the biggest barrier of state-owned large groups being hard to enter, getting the large group to nod and agree to trial use. Even though Tengfei provided free trials, this was already supreme grace for Tengfei. Of course, this was an opportunity he specifically sought from Liang Sishen after his father hit a wall.

What greatly surprised Liu Jun was that Song Yunhui also attended the Q&A session. Under Song Yunhui’s instruction, Donghai Group’s technical department raised increasingly tricky questions. Fortunately, Liu Jun was confident. During the Q&A, he threw out database after database, using Tengfei factory’s intensive technical testing data as a basis to tell everyone that they used the most basic, least speculative experiments combined with cutting-edge scientific theory verification to achieve the final product. Then they adopted relatively advanced industrial control technology in the special valve control, making the valve’s application and feedback performance slightly superior to foreign products in all aspects. He also didn’t hide that because precision forging machine accuracy was limited by Western embargo regulations, his product quality was somewhat affected. Currently, this impact was neutralized by process design, and the finished product’s overall performance could still match the imported parts that Donghai Group currently uses. They were now trying hard to thoroughly understand imported forging machine structures and find ways to improve forging machine precision.

After Song Yunhui gave instructions, he only listened without speaking. After Liu Jun finished the Q&A, he beckoned Liu Jun to bring his laptop and sit beside him – he wanted to see the database Liu Jun mentioned. Liu Jun went all out, requesting the computer be connected to the internet, and through password access, directly entered his company’s server database. Although Song Yunhui’s technology leaned toward operations, he knew quite a lot about equipment. He only needed to click the main directory and pull out subdirectories one by one to get a general idea. After clicking around for a while, he asked a nearby chief equipment engineer: “Do we have data records of hydrogen sulfide corrosion on different steel materials at different concentrations and temperatures?”

The chief equipment engineer shook his head: “There are materials we can look up. There are curve graphs.”

Song Yunhui opened a page and turned the laptop to the chief equipment engineer: “Look, here’s detailed data. For equipment as crucial to our Donghai, we don’t have this key set of data, but Tengfei does.”

The chief equipment engineer’s face reddened, but he wasn’t very good at operating the laptop mouse and needed a nearby engineer to help turn pages. Inevitably, he also got to the main directory and looked at the subdirectories. “How did you obtain this data?”

“We have dedicated personnel specifically testing materials to enrich the database. This dedicated person doesn’t necessarily need a high education, just needs to be serious and more serious. This way, the data he produces is convenient for our analysis, research, and utilization. But before, when we lacked manpower to subdivide job types, this kind of work was all done by me and the engineers ourselves using our rest time foolishly.”

Song Yunhui couldn’t help thinking of when he first encountered equipment. At that time, he used no fancy tricks, just the most foolish method, using spare time while others watched movies, bragged, and dated to organize, compare, and even redraw all equipment component blueprints. This gave him comprehensive equipment knowledge as a new employee, laying the foundation for his lifelong career. Looking at this database also produced through foolish hard work, he sighed: “Most of us aren’t geniuses, but there are always some people who, through extraordinary seriousness and persistence, learn a bit more today, work a bit more tomorrow. Day by day, year by year, what emerges are rich results. As a child, I memorized Mao’s Selected Works, which contained the phrase: ‘What the world fears most is the word serious.'” He patted Liu Jun’s computer: “This seriousness looks foolish but is great wisdom.”