“Your elder brother pays so much attention to me?” Liu Jun broke out in a cold sweat, but after Yang Li slipped the tongue while drunk, she said no more, leaving Liu Jun with tremendous doubts in his heart. Yet Liu Jun couldn’t help himself—he was too wary of Yang Xun, and not clarifying things left his heart scratching like a cat’s claws. “Does your elder brother have plans for that micro bearing company?”
Yang Li, slightly tipsy, asked instead: “The newly opened golf course—have you become a member? I went to play there last time, and the environment was quite nice.”
“No, I haven’t. I’m not very interested in golf.”
“Someone told me the social networking there is quite good. What have you been playing lately that’s fun?”
“Recently… hehe, I’ve been very narcissistically recording myself playing piano pieces, going to play around in a rather mediocre recording studio.”
Yang Li’s eyes revealed envy. Yes, those who are privileged don’t know they’re privileged, but others can see it. “Does this take several days? Isn’t it just playing a few pieces?”
“One of my fingers isn’t very flexible. If I perform well, I can get through it in one take. If I don’t perform well, I have to do it over again. I don’t like it either.”
The atmosphere in the private room suddenly turned cold. Yang Li pondered for a long time before saying, “How could my elder brother not constantly guard against you? He’s probably very, very regretful now. He originally thought you were just a pale-faced scholar, a scholar who had a way back, thinking that when you encountered setbacks, you would flee abroad. He never expected you to be so persistent. Of course, he wouldn’t tell me this, but I think his sending the two children abroad was also out of safety considerations.”
“I wouldn’t stoop to such despicable actions.”
“Yes, I believe that, but my elder brother wouldn’t think so. People are different from each other, so their bottom lines are also different. I originally always wanted to resolve your resentment, but… demanding that others be saints is unwise, isn’t it? Don’t worry, there’s currently no intersection between you two, so elder brother wouldn’t do anything that harms others without benefiting himself.” Yang Li shook the empty wine glass in her hand, glanced at Liu Jun’s, and unconsciously poured half of the red wine from Liu Jun’s glass into her own. “One last toast—please bless my marriage a month from now to be happy and fulfilling.”
The two drank it all in one go. Liu Jun asked curiously: “Are you worried? A girl as open-minded and rational as you, first, you wouldn’t choose the wrong person, and second, you’d handle the trivial matters of future life well. What’s there to worry about? Pre-wedding anxiety? I’ll take you singing tonight to relax.”
“I’m… open-minded… rational?” Until paying the bill and leaving, Yang Li kept repeating “open-minded and rational,” her slightly drunk mind unable to process it. She could be associated with being open-minded and rational—if Liu Jun hadn’t said it, she definitely wouldn’t have believed it. Therefore, once in the car, she decided to throw caution to the wind and shamelessly asked Liu Jun: “Do you think I’m that good? If there were no grudge between you and my elder brother, would you pursue me?”
Liu Jun gave an unhesitating “yes.” Thus, Yang Li’s heart soared, and she smiled very happily. The typhoon’s peripheral effects were gradually becoming apparent, with gusts of wind hitting the streets one after another. Liu Jun came up with a good idea—instead of going to a karaoke room to sing, the two would go home and sit on Liu Jun’s large east-facing terrace to drink and sing in the wind, with live piano accompaniment. Yang Li enthusiastically applauded the idea. All the way home, Liu Jun kept holding his phone, giving instructions about the company’s typhoon preparedness work, talking for a full half hour, but Yang Li understood—she had also managed a factory and knew about such trivial matters. She thought, this must be the open-minded rationality that comes after experiencing life and death and traveling through countless trials.
The two sang very enthusiastically in the typhoon wind, singing old songs from high school and college days. Being similar in age, they had much common ground. They kept singing until the wind grew fierce and rain poured down, soaking them through. When they could no longer stand on the terrace being buffeted by the typhoon, they finally laughed heartily and went back inside. But after Yang Li drank a cup of ginger soup that Liu Jun had made and went home, she stood under the hot shower head and cried. Happiness never belonged to her—she’d rather not have any open-minded rationality.
Liu Jun never expected he could have such wild fun with a rational girl. He fell asleep happily in his drunken mood, embraced by the sound of wind and rain beating against the windows. Outside the window was torrential rain that had been falling all night without stopping—the typhoon’s center made landfall at dawn. When he got up in the morning, even the well-built walls showed some slight seepage. Liu Jun looked at the ground in amazement, seeing the city streets covered in a vast expanse of muddy yellow water, indicating the night’s rainfall volume. Checking his phone, he found it had been turned off—probably because he’d drunk too much last night. Liu Jun broke out in a cold sweat and immediately rushed out the door without even eating breakfast, carefully driving through the floodwater to reach his company.
Entering the industrial zone, along the way were overturned colored steel roofing, water-soaked machinery and equipment, packaging boxes floating in dirty water, and worried people. Liu Jun anxiously thought about his precision CNC machine tools—if they were flooded, that would be serious trouble. His heart was burning with anxiety, but he didn’t dare press harder on the accelerator for fear of water getting into the engine. Finally crawling to the company gate, seeing the intact roof with his own eyes, Liu Jun was almost moved to tears with excitement. Walking into the factory area, the drainage system designed according to the city’s once-in-fifty-years rainfall had done its job. Even though the municipal drainage system outside had collapsed, Tengfei was able to use water pumps to drain water and keep the workshops dry. Tengfei had perfectly weathered the typhoon’s landing.
During the infrastructure construction period, he had withstood ridicule and even abuse, meticulously selecting design units, meticulously reviewing all designs, meticulously choosing building materials, and meticulously supervising on-site. Now, in this great wind and rain, the true test was finally revealed. Liu Jun stood proudly in the pouring rain, looking at all this, wanting to grab one of those who had mocked him back then to come see this scene—look, he had been right back then, and the high costs he’d paid were worth it.
Including the materials he’d insisted on for his products over these years, the quality of his products, and the design of his products, time would prove his correctness.
However, another company owner in the same industrial zone calmly looked at his flooded workshop and told Liu Jun that only the market could prove what was right or wrong. Fixed assets suffering losses in the typhoon due to cutting corners? No matter. They never pursued precision machining anyway. After the rain stopped and the weather cleared, the machinery and equipment could be washed and used normally. Rust marks on finished products after being flooded? Just acid-wash them—the tolerance requirements weren’t that high anyway. He could also submit documentation to the tax office for loss reporting and to the insurance company for claims. His low costs were also the result of precise calculation, and they were recognized by the market. That boss even kindly teased Liu Jun, saying that he only needed to steadily maintain a few mature, classic products to ensure steady income throughout the year, making life increasingly carefree—who told China’s market to be so large? Unlike Liu Jun, who worked so hard, constantly chasing the cutting edge of technology, where not advancing meant falling behind, unable to rest, with most of his earnings going to labor costs in the end, what was the point? He only earned slightly more than him anyway.
Liu Jun’s pride was extinguished with a “hiss.” On this magical land, pursuing faster, higher, and stronger was sometimes a joke.
In this wind and rain, another unexpected small incident touched Liu Jun’s nerves. Because the hourly rainfall was too heavy, coinciding with astronomical high tide, river drainage was poor, and the science and technology park’s rivers backflowed, flooding like a golden mountain. The small temple across from the land Liu Jun had his eye on, being an ancient earthen wall, couldn’t withstand a day and night of soaking and quietly collapsed. This was exactly what the science and technology park management committee wanted. This kind of small temple—to demolish it didn’t comply with current policy, but not demolishing it meant it occupied a prime central location, forcing all planning to work around it. Now they could use this opportunity to relocate the small temple. The management committee offered a high, dry, flat piece of land, finally removing a thorn from their hearts.
But Liu Jun was worried. He had only learned from Yang Li’s enlightenment about the cause and effect of getting that good piece of land. Now with the small temple’s relocation, would his qualification be canceled? As soon as Liu Jun learned of the news, he rushed straight to the science and technology park management committee, only to see Yang Xun’s Buick also parked in the parking lot. Liu Jun had a premonition from somewhere that Yang Xun was there for the very piece of land he had his eye on. Sure enough, Liu Jun’s unfortunate prediction came true. The check he brought as a down payment was not accepted, with the explanation that due to changed circumstances, the land would be replanned and considered in coordination with the opposite shore. Liu Jun was asked to wait for notification after the re-planning. The reason was so high-sounding, and it just happened to coincide with a force majeure caused by nature. Facing the smiling staff and the huge science and technology park map on the wall, Liu Jun could only sigh helplessly. Who told him that his cash flow had been tight recently, and it just happened to be the bank loan repayment date, so he hadn’t deposited the down payment early? But then again, even if the down payment had been deposited, would he have confidence in his heart when facing this kind of result caused by force majeure? Based on his understanding of those people, the answer was still no.
Liu Jun returned to the company in low spirits, seeing Luo Qing hanging around the R&D center again, holding several temporary access passes for him to sign. Liu Jun grabbed Luo Qing into his office—he wanted to consult this clever person who had worked in government agencies for two years about how he should get that piece of land he had his eye on. At the same time, he called Yang Li to ask if Yang Xun had already begun taking action.