At this moment, the phone’s ringtone sounded extremely harsh. Liu Jun reluctantly answered, and when he heard Cui Bingbing’s voice on the phone, his head felt like ice cubes had been stuffed into it, instantly sobering up considerably.
“We agreed you’d call to report your safe arrival home, and I’ve been waiting for almost an hour. Hehe, taking a walk to digest your meal?”
“Uh… no… there’s something…”
“Hehe, sorry, sorry for interrupting your warmth and comfort. Continue, please continue. Good night.”
Liu Jun awkwardly listened to the busy tone coming from the phone. He involuntarily loosened his arms. Yu Shanshan heard the voice from the phone, her face turning iron-blue with anger. The phone conversation was crystal clear—Liu Jun still wanted to deny it? She saw Liu Jun’s rapidly cooling expression, and her heart froze with ice-cold disappointment. Yu Shanshan could no longer deceive herself.
Another entry was added to Liu Jun’s memory archive of furious gazes—a pair of tearful yet clear eyes, making this angry gaze entry even more shocking. Liu Jun involuntarily stepped back three paces, hitting the wall, confronting the furious Yu Shanshan. He was wrong—coming to Yu Shanshan’s home tonight had been completely wrong from the start. He had forgotten the conclusion he’d reached eight hundred years ago: ex-lovers can never become friends. Faced with Yu Shanshan’s anger, he spread his hands but hesitated to speak. He saw Yu Shanshan, like the Jinan traffic police that all traffic officers nationwide were learning from, stretch out her arm, pointing at him, then pointing toward the door. He knew Yu Shanshan’s unspoken subtext was: Get out!
Liu Jun originally wanted to obediently get out, but he saw large teardrops gushing from Yu Shanshan’s eyes. He thought with a heavy heart about what Yu Shanshan might do if he left like this tonight. Earlier, just seeing him shopping for groceries with A’San at the supermarket after their long separation had led her to decide to marry down to the tobacco company’s young master. After being even more enraged this time, what would she do next? He hesitated for a moment, then almost exaggeratedly raised his arm to look at his watch and dramatically exclaimed, “Ah, it’s very late, I have to go. Tomorrow, city leaders are coming to inspect my place, sorry.” Liu Jun seemed to be performing a clumsy farce. “Cough, the city leader is a woman, and women are fussy about everything. She insists on inspecting me first for her daughter, using the pretext of inspecting the company… ah, sorry.” Liu Jun made a show of suddenly realizing, quickly shut his mouth, and left. Unsurprisingly, behind him came Yu Shanshan’s angry roar: “Scoundrel! Villain!”
A scoundrel and villain would never again be able to interfere with Yu Shanshan’s emotions.
Walking on the empty street at night, Liu Jun patted his now-sober head—alcohol was indeed a harmful spirit. But he also thought that even if he hadn’t drunk tonight, even without that trace of tipsy recklessness, could he have stood by and watched Yu Shanshan destroy herself? He smiled bitterly. However, the most urgent matter now was to make a safety call to Cui Bingbing, casually telling her that she had almost ruined his relationship with his girlfriend. Cui Bingbing just laughed, repeatedly apologizing, without any intention of prying for gossip. Just like that, he resolved two issues in one night.
The next day, Liu Jun resolved another one. Director Li had originally agreed to come in the morning, but Liu Jun waited until ten o’clock when a phone call came, notifying him that Director Li had something come up and would come in the afternoon instead. He revised his schedule and continued waiting in the afternoon. Thinking he could get news at one o’clock, he was doused with cold water by the administrative manager: before National Day, government offices could only start work after their afternoon nap, around two o’clock. Then they’d assemble, then the convoy would set out—the earliest they could arrive at the company would be three in the afternoon. While the administrative manager was speaking, his eyes were smiling as he looked at Liu Jun’s arms, who, for some unknown reason, wasn’t wearing his work uniform today. On those arms were slightly curved, tiny, scattered wounds, clearly visible. All adults who saw such wounds would understand without saying a word. When Director Li arrived after three o’clock, he also stared at these wounds for quite a while, then looked thoughtfully at Liu Jun, who was first-rate in appearance, physique, and knowledge, also understanding without words. Without needing to use the secret formula Cui Bingbing had taught Liu Jun, Director Li’s visit naturally became purely business.
The world became peaceful from then on. Even Cui Bingbing called to decline his offer to come do maintenance work on Saturday, because she was going on a business trip and wouldn’t be home until evening. But on Sunday morning, Cui Bingbing was waiting energetically downstairs at home to go to Qian Hongming’s new house—that famous luxury residential complex in the city center—to pick up Jiali. Liu Jun’s arms kept fluttering under Cui Bingbing’s nose, and she exaggeratedly used sunglasses as a magnifying glass, scanning over the row of tooth marks that had already faded by seventy or eighty percent. Liu Jun felt somewhat between crying and laughing, teased by Cui Bingbing to the point where he wanted to change into long sleeves. He had originally wanted to make Cui Bingbing back off another step, but unexpectedly, she turned the tables on him. He could only divert the topic by introducing Jiali to Cui Bingbing.
Jiali wore a T-shirt she had painted herself, paired with jeans and canvas shoes, without a trace of jewelry on her body. Her hair was obviously not cut spending one or two hours in some high-end salon with careful precision, but simply tied in a ponytail—so simple and plain that she didn’t look like the mistress of some house in a luxury residential complex. Most importantly, Jiali was thin, and even wearing jeans, she appeared ethereal and otherworldly. Liu Jun jumped out to open the door for Jiali, who held onto the car door and smiled, “Hongming insisted on having my mother come manage Xiao Suihua, forcing me to go eat crabs with you alone. I’m troubling you.”
“Why don’t we invite Auntie and Xiao Suihua to come along too? It rained yesterday, so the air in the countryside must be very fresh today.”
“I had the same thought as you, but in the end, Hongming convinced me, so let’s listen to him. Thank you, Liu Jun.” Only then did Jiali get in and close the car door herself.
Liu Jun knew her well, knowing that Jiali didn’t like to talk much, and with the stranger Cui Bingbing present, Jiali was even less willing to speak. “I can guess what Hongming said to you. We’ve been arguing since childhood, and I know all his tricks. I’ll verify with him later.”
Cui Bingbing looked at Jiali in the car with surprise—this was someone from a completely different world than hers, with a temperament completely unlike the merchant’s wife she had imagined. Generally, you could infer the husband from the wife, and Cui Bingbing was curious about exactly what kind of person Liu Jun’s friend was. She saw that after Liu Jun returned to the driver’s seat, he also became steadier, seriously introducing the two of them. Both had the surname Cui. Jiali’s identity was the wife of Liu Jun’s childhood friend and university classmate, while Cui Bingbing’s identity was a revolutionary comrade who had formed a friendship through work. Cui Bingbing felt that when Liu Jun introduced her identity, he had been slippery. But this slipperiness shifted Cui Bingbing and Liu Jun’s relationship from purely work-related to outside of work, yet not simply friends either. As for the subtle distinction, Cui Bingbing didn’t know if Jiali understood it—she felt more that Liu Jun was saying it for her to hear. Cui Bingbing was somewhat displeased but didn’t show it on her face.
Liu Jun said to Jiali, who was sitting in the back quietly observing his car, “Jiali, listen to the pieces I’ve collected for Xiao Suihua—all played by me. If you think they’re good, I’ll make them into files and send them to your email tomorrow.”
“Hongming said your ‘Variations on Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star’ sounds very nice. I was just thinking of bringing Xiao Suihua to your place to observe someday.”
“Ah, then I need to hurry and get my newly bought piano moved home. The old one doesn’t feel right anymore and would mislead Xiao Suihua. Are you planning to have Xiao Suihua learn piano? I can write a plan for you and help select teachers. For now, let her listen more to cultivate interest. Aren’t you teaching Xiao Suihua to paint?”
“We’re cultivating her interest right now. You see the little flower on my T-shirt sleeve? That’s painted by Xiao Suihua—so stream of consciousness.”
Cui Bingbing listened with a smile on the side, also hearing the not-so-great quality piano sound flowing from the car’s audio system. So Liu Jun could play piano. She glanced sideways at Liu Jun’s partially disabled finger, wondering if injuring a finger would affect piano playing. She had long heard about the origin of that broken finger. When the incident first happened, she had treated it as just another tale of underworld vendetta, never expecting to meet the person involved today, and that person didn’t look like someone from the underworld at all. She was very curious about the twists and turns behind that incident, but as a current “revolutionary comrade,” she hadn’t reached the level where she could pry into such private matters. However, she could hear much about Liu Jun that she didn’t know from the conversation between the other two in the car.
The car quickly reached the agreed meeting point. In a supermarket’s parking lot that usually didn’t have much traffic, quite a few vehicles had already gathered, several of them luxury cars. Cui Bingbing watched Liu Jun walk toward a tall and imposing jeep. There was already a small group of people beside the jeep, with a middle-aged man in the center who didn’t seem to belong to this kind of recreational occasion, and an elegantly refined beauty. Cui Bingbing had never been the type to follow the three obediences and four virtues—she walked shoulder to shoulder with Liu Jun into this circle of people.
“Dongdong, I’ve brought A’San for you.” Then Liu Jun turned back to Cui Bingbing and said, “At your birthday last time, you said Dongdong was creamier than cream cake, and he’s been thinking about you day and night.”
Cui Bingbing was caught off guard but calmly smiled, “I didn’t see your faces that night. If I had, I would have called you pineapple bread directly.”
Everyone started booing. Liu Jun looked sheepishly at Shen Baotian’s face, seeing that Shen Huadong was also examining his face, and everyone was looking at both their faces. Liu Jun quickly used the excuse of prepaying activity fees to walk away and find someone. Shen Huadong simply told the audience about A’San’s behavior on her birthday for their entertainment. Everyone laughed and got into their respective cars to set off. Shen Huadong couldn’t drive his flashy sports car to the countryside today, so he could only drive his BMW to lead the way, with four girls loaded in his car.
Liu Jun took a walkie-talkie that Liang Sishen handed him and got in the car. He felt that Song Yunhui might have something to say to him, and his heart was very uneasy. As soon as he got in the car, he turned on the walkie-talkie and followed the Grand Cherokee closely. Sure enough, a signal came through shortly.
“Xiao Liu, when you selected the surface materials for the components, you forgot to consider the working environment of enterprises like ours. The acidic atmospheric environment causes obvious surface corrosion. I brought photos—you can look at them later.”
“Uh, will it cause you to shut down? What’s the degree of corrosion? I’ll go look immediately.”
Currently, I’ve had surface anti-corrosion treatment done. With the anti-corrosion layer, we don’t need to worry about damage caused by surface corrosion, and it can be postponed until the major overhaul in spring. But surface anti-corrosion… shouldn’t be the standard you’re pursuing. What needs to be criticized is that you didn’t consider such an important working environment—it’s an inexcusable oversight.”
“Mr. Song, thank you very much for caring so much about such an inconspicuous component. But please allow me to explain—I studied the process and thought there should be desulfurization equipment installed. I did consider the acid corrosion from sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide.”
The walkie-talkie was quiet for quite a while. Cui Bingbing heard something was wrong and waved her fist at Liu Jun. Liu Jun had already pressed the talk button again. “Yes, it was my oversight. When I entered the factory area and smelled the odor, I should have been alert.”
“Your explanation is correct. When we first introduced equipment more than ten years ago, I also encountered similar problems with foreign advanced equipment not adapting to Chinese conditions. I forgot to remind you. My considerations about introducing equipment back then include these small experiences…”
Cui Bingbing listened in amazement as the lofty Eastern Sea Mr. Song, whom she thought was beyond her reach, casually shared his experiences with Liu Jun like teaching his disciple. She didn’t know what relationship these two had, but after working for so many years, she clearly understood how rare it was for a senior to transmit experience to a junior like this. How many elders had such patience? Even if Liu Jun bribed Song Yunhui, he might not be able to buy such patience from this kind of person. She couldn’t help but turn back to see Jiali’s reaction, only to see Jiali concentrating on focusing her complex camera on the scenery outside the window, completely ignoring the conversation. All of Liu Jun’s friends exceeded her expectations, making Cui Bingbing even more curious about Liu Jun.
“There’s another problem—your company can’t produce an ISO9000 certificate. What should we do? Currently, almost all standardized enterprises have requirements for quality management system certification from their suppliers.”
“That’s useless. That system isn’t as good as mine, especially the attitude and level of certification bodies under the commodity inspection system—I strongly disagree with them. And I’d have to increase personnel for this. This kind of certification that brings no benefit to enterprises, only trouble, yet requires hefty certification fees, plus annual re-examinations in the future, it’s wasteful and harmful to the people. But I’m already in line for it. I can only get certified; otherwise, when bidding, not having the certificate gets you knocked out first. There’s also ISO environmental certification that I have to get—it’s completely formalistic. In the future, I might have to do one set and prepare another set of fake documents just for ISO.”
“Xiao Liu, listen… haha, we’re all laughing at you.” Liu Jun heard noisy laughter coming through the walkie-talkie, mixed with rapid conversation. Cui Bingbing beside him also laughed, “That’s pure childish talk.”
Finally, when they finished laughing and said “We’re done laughing, over,” Liu Jun could press the talk button. “Today’s different—we’re out having fun, let me vent a little. You don’t know how I negotiated that certification fee, and scheduling dates, and what working meals, you don’t know how many so-called friends I had to acknowledge for this, taking up so much of my lab time. But those big shots insist that I handle it personally. I can’t not listen, because they’re department heads from the bureau—who dares offend them? This isn’t certifying the company’s quality management procedures, but certifying my public relations skills. My big weakness—you know how much I suffer.”
Song Yunhui laughed again, but after laughing, he immediately said seriously, “Our system’s procurement has a clear written regulation about quality system certification. I believe there will be more and more enterprises with similar regulations in the future. Tomorrow, you will take back the remaining two trial components and redo the surface treatment. Without getting the certification, you can’t enter our doors again.”
This was a big blow.