This problem was a big blow to Liu Jun. Cui Bingbing saw Liu Jun subtly furrow his brow. Since they had known each other, this was the first time she had seen Liu Jun frown. “Mr. Song, for small manufacturing enterprises like ours, it’s exactly as the saying goes: ‘Small temples have big winds, shallow ponds have many turtles.’ Countless unreasonable social costs are reaching out to us, skinning us alive every few days. Not long ago, there was an annual training review for one job category. The company paid for training, the classes were perfunctory, and finally, for the exam, the examiner above read the answers while those below copied them down. When the papers were submitted, everyone passed on the spot. What use is such training and such an annual review? But if you don’t participate, this job category won’t have this year’s annual review stamp, and soon investigation teams will trace their way to your door and catch you for fines. Even more ridiculous, at the beginning of the year, the industrial zone police station notified us that we were selected as some kind of comprehensive public security excellence unit, wanting us to pay 200 yuan in plaque costs to exchange for an excellence unit plaque. I quickly said we had several public security incidents last year and weren’t worthy. Everywhere, there are these phenomena of buying passes with money. I’m extremely disgusted by this and refuse whenever possible, which is why I’m famous as a troublemaker in the industrial zone. Including this ISO quality system certification, there are many certification bodies in society, but we can’t go to those institutions for certification because we export products year-round. Exports must bow to the whims of commodity inspection and customs, and the export office of commodity inspection is the leading unit for ISO quality system certification—the so-called one team with two signs. We can only obediently go there for certification and accept a high-priced certification. But supposedly, with some public relations, the price can be negotiated. I chose not to do public relations. Meanwhile, because the ISO quality system was supposedly only introduced to China in recent years, from breakthrough to popularization to the current situation where unit procurement bidding uses ISO quality certification as a hard requirement, these two years can be considered the peak. Therefore, many units need certification, but also due to the aforementioned reason of having to go to a certain certification institution, it causes certification traffic jams, and we can only queue and wait for certification. But because I’m unwilling to do public relations, I keep seeing latecomers cutting in line, not following queue order, so my company’s certification keeps getting pushed off the schedule. I’ve been trying every way to avoid getting knocked down by the ISO hard requirement, preferring to wait rather than open this Pandora’s box of proactive public relations. Once I open this box, I might indulge myself in cheating in many aspects, including my current most urgent high-tech enterprise designation. But now it seems I might not be able to wait. There’s another problem—although I’ve only been dealing with domestic government agencies for over two years, based on experience, I already clearly understand what they will and won’t do in elastic work like ISO quality system certification, which directly determines whether certification passes or not. That’s why I say certification is certifying my public relations ability, but I fundamentally don’t want to do this kind of certification—it’s not just about certification fees.”
The walkie-talkie quieted for a moment. The car cabin also suddenly became quiet, and even Jiali put down her camera and looked toward Liu Jun. Cui Bingbing looked at Liu Jun with even more surprise. She had originally thought what Liu Jun said earlier was childish talk, but listening to this lengthy discourse, she finally understood the struggle in the heart of this idealist Liu Jun. Knowing Liu Jun had turned off the talk button, Cui Bingbing kindly reminded him, “Isn’t it inappropriate for you to say these things to Mr. Song? Have you considered his position and his relationship with you?”
Liu Jun frowned again, “It’s not easy to find someone I can say these things to. I sense similar sentiments about Mr. Song. Even if I say something wrong, there won’t be any consequences.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Thank you, I know my limits.”
Cui Bingbing was speechless. “Sorry, let me say one more thing—the problems you encounter, other enterprises encounter the same ones. Is it necessary for you to complain so much?”
“If it were like that, with everyone at the same starting line, then however much money I have to pay, I can only endure it. But the problem is that so many rules only constrain those who follow rules, while those who execute the rules cheat, causing enterprises to start at different starting lines. For example, pollution discharge—I strictly follow the rules, and the environmental protection fees I invest annually need to be included in costs. But some people communicate with institutions and discharge pollution recklessly, avoiding this expense, invisibly lowering their costs compared to mine. Another example is labor insurance—I provide labor insurance for employees according to rules, but some places have lax management, and some enterprises communicate with institutions, so their labor costs are reduced again. So, making the same products, my law-abiding costs are so high—who will raise my product prices? This means my product competitiveness is weakened. This is exactly the problem I currently face. For my products, if the core technology is easily copied, I can only produce for a few months and have relatively good profits within those months. Once the market opens up and imitation manufacturers target it, when high-quality knockoffs come out, I will have no competitiveness left. I can only withdraw from this market and sell the technology to manufacturers who can’t even imitate, letting this market engage in vicious competition. My current problem is that the controllable core technology products I’ve developed are being tested at the Eastern Sea. If the test succeeds, with Eastern Sea’s endorsement, I can promote to the entire system—Mr. Song has helped me enormously in this. But if it gets returned because I don’t have an ISO quality system certification in hand, how can I face Mr. Song’s appreciation? Moreover, the impact on product credibility after being returned and then re-entered is vastly different. There’s another problem—being returned will seriously disrupt my annual work arrangements.”
“At a loss?”
“Yes. Temporary shutdown.”
“Following the law is difficult, while violations offer endless temptation. Very agonizing.”
“I’m not a qualified business owner.”
“The premise is this environment—in this environment, you’re not qualified.”
At this time, the walkie-talkie sounded again. “Xiao Liu, my wife and I shouldn’t have laughed at you just now. We apologize.” Liu Jun looked at Cui Bingbing in surprise, and Cui Bingbing, as if afraid the other party would hear, said softly, “You are compatible.”
Song Yunhui continued on his end, “But quality system certification must be done. Let me give you an example—why do I dare to give the green light for your unknown small company’s products to enter the Eastern Sea? It’s precisely because I had the chance to personally see the details of your company and had a long conversation with you. However, for others who are unfamiliar with factory operations, have no understanding of quality management, or don’t take their work seriously, they can only judge your enterprise by recognized standards and recognized certifications. Quality system certification is just such a thing. Even if you look down on this certification, you still have to do it.”
“The problem of compromise—we probably have a lot of common ground and can exchange experiences in the future.” Liang Sishen picked up her husband’s words. “My thinking is to persist in ideals but find ways to survive, so that we can influence more people within our capabilities and transform more of the world. I’m an action-oriented person, but perhaps some people also believe that survival cannot override ideals—then let each seek their path.”
Liang Sishen’s words gave Liu Jun a theoretical foundation, or rather, an excuse. If he faced only his survival, he would rather not compromise and seek peace of conscience. But what he now carried on his shoulders wasn’t just his survival. From the moment Song Yunhui proposed the need for quality system certification, he had no second choice. Today, he was acting spoiled toward the Song couple—at least he hadn’t misjudged them. He admired Song Yunhui even more.
On this side, Liang Sishen asked her husband, “Isn’t Liu Jun too willful? If he were running a solo operation, that would be fine, but he now has about a hundred people under him—won’t such a scholarly temperament cause problems?”
“Don’t worry, being willful requires qualifications. Only people with exceptional confidence and those with nothing to lose can afford to be willful. Liu Jun is a smart person. He knows that today we’re out having fun and everyone’s relaxed, knows that I appreciate him—he’s just acting spoiled.”
“Such a grown man still acting spoiled…”
“Intellectuals have more complex emotions than other types of people. But you just need to give him a way down. This guy is really capable. Those engineers under him are all like spirits, and his R&D system is extremely effective. I’ll have to assign more tasks to him in the future. You know, if that component he trial-produced becomes domestically manufactured, it would be a milestone in our system’s equipment localization. Slowly accumulating into a series, I can save considerable foreign exchange annually. He can also reap good benefits himself. That’s why I want to be demanding of him and push him to do more. Small matters like that certification—he was probably irritated when dealing with those bureaucrats and got into a fit of pique. After the anger passes, he’ll figure it out.”
“But the things he’s struggling with in his heart are similar to what I went through before. So you used to see me the same way? But you pretended to take it seriously back then. Oh my, I was being self-righteous again just now.”
“No, no, you’re different…” Song Yunhui discovered that pressing down one end lifted the other, and this end’s trouble was even bigger—he was confused as the person involved.
In another car, Cui Bingbing looked at Liu Jun puzzledly and asked directly, “Why do the Songs indulge you?”
“What do you mean indulge? We’re friends, okay?”
“Who’s your friend? Do you have the qualifications in front of them? Why the indulgence?”
“You just want to force me to say ‘a fool holds big cards,’ don’t you?”
“What big cards are you holding?”
Liu Jun was stumped by Cui Bingbing’s question and couldn’t answer. Yes, why did Song Yunhui help him? It couldn’t be just because he helped Song Yunhui arrange his wife’s activities. Seeing how those people at Eastern Sea were silent as cicadas in winter before Song Yunhui, he did seem a bit too casual with Song Yunhui. “Did I speak too presumptuously just now?”
“If it’s a case of one willing to hit and one willing to be hit, nothing is too much. I just can’t figure it out.”
Reminded by Cui Bingbing, Liu Jun restrained himself a bit after getting out of the car. But his restraint didn’t mean others restrained themselves. The group that came was all mischievous young men and women who became unusually excited in the vast countryside. Someone pulled out a soccer ball from a trunk, a bunch of men swarmed over, naturally formed two teams, and started playing on the threshing ground. It had just rained yesterday, so the threshing ground was muddy and watery. In a short while, everyone became mud monkeys. The girls on the sidelines shrieked and cheered, having great fun. Liu Jun also dragged Song Yunhui onto the field. Honestly, he truly respected Song Yunhui without fear, just feeling that this was like a big brother figure.
Since Cui Bingbing was nicknamed A’San, she was naturally not the type to stand on the sidelines cheering in a miniskirt pose. But soccer was intensely competitive, and she knew what it felt like to get hit by a hard soccer ball, so she didn’t dare even be a goalkeeper. She ran around the sidelines anxiously, doing the job of retrieving balls, actually coordinating seamlessly with the players on the field, though she also quickly got muddy hands and feet.
Finally, when pot after pot of crabs were steamed, the group of mud people were willing to stop. Shen Huadong first chased after one of the girls who had been in his car and gave her a big bear hug, causing the girl to shriek in surprise—one mud person became two. Everyone thought it was fun and followed suit, with screams rising and falling. Cui Bingbing couldn’t play soccer but was very active in imitation. She turned around, found Jiali, rushed over, and gave her a big hug, leaving two reverse handprints on Jiali’s back. There was also someone who rushed up demanding to become a mud person—that was Liang Sishen. Cui Bingbing didn’t cooperate and was even more active than the men. Liu Jun had no one to hug and could only go to the riverside to wash his hands.
After the exercise, everyone ate with particular enthusiasm. Liu Jun originally wanted to take care of the relatively quiet Jiali, but discovered that Jiali had already been taken under Cui Bingbing’s wing, and the two seemed to get along better than he did with either of them. He seized the time to pester Song Yunhui for management experience. Shen Huadong was clever and quickly ceded territory as compensation, asking Cui Bingbing to switch places and sitting next to Liu Jun to join the discussion. Two newcomers and one veteran had endless questions. This nearly depressed Song Yunhui to death—his wife’s crab legs were still waiting for him to shell! But the two bold fools couldn’t read his expression.