However, someone else had encountered trouble. Rumors were spreading throughout the city that after Yang Xun’s wife Ren Xia’er went abroad, her wings had grown strong, and she was resolutely demanding a divorce. The situation was unexpected, and Yang Xun had already flown to America to handle it. Shen Huadong was the first to inform Liu Jun, believing Liu Jun needed some material to gloat over Yang Xun’s misfortune. Liu Jun was dismissive: “The three great joys of middle-aged men: promotion, getting rich, and wife’s death. Now, Yang Xun’s wealth is certain, and as for promotion, he’s vice president of the local private enterprise association and vice president of this city’s chamber of commerce in a certain province—these all count as half-official positions. His wife voluntarily seeking divorce—isn’t this exactly what he wants?”
“Yang Xun’s wife is extraordinary—she’s the financial chief behind Yang Xun. Even when pregnant and giving birth, when she couldn’t go to the office, she still clutched account books in her hands. Who knows how much money she helped Yang Xun manage and how much tax she helped him avoid paying each year. We were still wondering last year how Yang Xun could bear to let his wife go to America. Later, we heard she would return after the child started boarding at elementary school. Who would have thought his wife was planning never to return? Yang Xun losing a wife might be tolerable, but losing such a right-hand person, would you be willing to let that go?”
“But why is Yang Xun’s wife proposing divorce? As far as I know, Yang Xun’s lifestyle isn’t that bad. There haven’t been rumors about him keeping any particular woman long-term. At most, he might have had some affairs while his wife wasn’t around, but his wife might not necessarily know about that. Could it be that his wife found someone new abroad?”
“Don’t know. I’ll tell you when I have more information. Seeing that you’re not gloating, I’m a bit hurt.”
“Haha, I’ll make up for it. I just replaced a cylinder on the Yamaha beach motorcycle—it can climb sixty-degree slopes now. You can take it for a ride this Sunday.”
“Come play together—I’ll drive my own.”
“Manager Song made an appointment a month ago to visit my R&D center this Sunday, so I can’t get away. I suggest you take advantage of it while it’s fresh this Sunday—the power is so strong that it might get dismantled again next week.”
“Is it those old treasures in your R&D center again? When do you even have time lately? Your rare bit of rest time is monopolized by that girlfriend of yours.”
“Of course it’s them. This time, there’s progress—the cylinder was self-developed, with our molds and casting. After all, it’s easier to produce than automobile cylinders. Speaking of automobile cylinders, I don’t know how many times they’ve dismantled my GOLF GTI cylinder without results. Sigh, that’s truly discouraging.”
“You pay wages and high R&D expenses just to let those old treasures play around like this?” After Liu Jun agreed on the phone, Shen Huadong said with incomprehension: “That’s why I can’t manage my technical department well, but you can. You’re a technical maniac yourself, so you can understand those treasures of yours.”
Liu Jun laughed playfully. He didn’t dare admit to being a technical maniac anymore—he now managed the livelihoods of over three hundred people of all sizes and couldn’t afford to act according to his whims anymore. However, he did truly understand technical personnel.
The development work at the R&D center in the technology park progressed relatively quickly, showing some promise by summer. Liu Jun wanted to create a beautiful environment for the R&D center. Thinking that Jiali had quite good artistic vision—the decorations and paintings in her home all had artistic appeal—he called Jiali and asked if she was interested in helping him design the general landscaping. Liu Jun was afraid of hurting Jiali’s delicate and sensitive heart, so he deliberately said he had no artistic sense, and those rough contractors who came to him also seemed to lack artistic sense—he hoped to get guidance from Jiali’s professional perspective.
Jiali took it seriously immediately. Thinking of Liu Jun’s pursuit of perfection in technology, she carried a stack of candidate blueprints with a heart full of anxiety. To live up to Liu Jun’s trust, she went to the city library to borrow books for last-minute cramming. But finding the materials insufficient, she entrusted Xiao Suihua to her mother and went alone to Shanghai, having Qian Hongming drive her to bookstores and libraries to search for materials. After gnawing through books for a week, she finally understood the meaning of those symbols in the blueprints and could visualize the flat blueprints three-dimensionally, expanding them into effective images in her mind. Qian Hongming actively served as a chauffeur. Seeing Jiali’s interest and enthusiasm for this matter, he thought Liu Jun was good at catering to Jiali’s interests, finding such an elegant yet challenging job for her. In just a few days, Qian Hongming had already spent his own money to buy Jiali many beautifully bound large-format landscaping books. He willingly spent this money—not only could it enrich Jiali’s life, but he could finally repay Liu Jun’s continuous kindness. Strangely, he always seemed to owe Liu Jun favors.
Cui Bingbing didn’t like Jiali. She couldn’t understand how shameless and ignorant a woman had to be to dare completely entrust herself to a man’s control. Even if she loved someone deeply, she would never be willing to do that. She couldn’t imagine what it would feel like to ask her husband for spending money. She even looked down on Jiali, feeling that Jiali was wasting a good brain that had gotten into a key university. But Jiali was reportedly helping Liu Jun with something. Although Cui Bingbing had long known that Liu Jun’s purpose was simply to get Jiali out and about, broadening her horizons, since Jiali was busy in Shanghai with Liu Jun’s affairs, she had to take time from her busy studies and work to show some gesture. She called asking Qian Hongming to convey that she wanted to invite Jiali to a fine dinner. Qian Hongming declined on his wife’s behalf, saying Jiali was taking advantage of being in Shanghai to busy herself with studying, trying to quickly understand what other knowledge she needed, checking what needed to be checked, and buying what needed to be bought while still in Shanghai. Qian Hongming’s refusal was exactly what Cui Bingbing wanted.
What Cui Bingbing didn’t expect was for Jiali to personally call to apologize. What made Cui Bingbing burst into laughter was that after Jiali clearly stated her apologies for not being able to accept the invitation, there was immediately nothing more to say. On the other end of the phone was only gentle laughter and repeated apologies. The rest was all Cui Bingbing asking polite questions about whether she was doing well in Shanghai, while Jiali simply replied with yes or no. If Cui Bingbing didn’t say it was over, Jiali patiently stayed on the line. Cui Bingbing found it both funny and exasperating—she thought men might just like women with this kind of personality.
Cui Bingbing immediately recounted this phone call as a joke to Liu Jun, who also laughed when he heard it. However, Liu Jun knew this was just how Jiali was. He was also supervising work at the construction site in the technology park that weekend while waiting for Song Yunhui’s visit. Hearing the noisy background sounds on the phone, Cui Bingbing felt inexplicably comforted.
Song Yunhui drove himself, and Liu Jun went out to greet him when he saw the car from afar. But Liu Jun saw a beautiful young girl jump out of the car, along with Keke, whom he knew. Through Song Yunhui’s introduction, Liu Jun learned the girl was Song Yin, Song’s daughter with his ex-wife. When Liu Jun heard Song Yin call him Uncle Liu, he nearly stumbled—was he old enough to be an uncle to such a big girl?
Song Yunhui looked down at the layout of the ground buildings from a high vantage point and understood immediately. He said with wonder, “You’re using such a large piece of good land entirely for an R&D center, rather than falsely reporting a project to get a ticket into the technology park. Wouldn’t that burned piece of land next to your company be cheaper and more convenient?”
“The air in the industrial zone is getting worse and worse. My controlling emissions alone can’t affect the overall environment. Often, one company’s random emissions stink up a large area. Our engineers are all experts—they smell the air and say what chemicals are in it and what diseases they can cause. How can they work with peace of mind under such conditions? Looking at the technology park’s planning and the projects they’ve already attracted, they exclude polluting industries, and the designed environment is quite good. This place might become a good spot for tranquility amidst the bustle in the future, and it’ll be convenient for engineers’ commutes and for those with urban household registrations to settle down.”
Song Yunhui nodded repeatedly. “You’re willing to invest heavily. Is personnel turnover large in your R&D center?”
Compared to other enterprises, my R&D center is quite stable. But several excellent talents have still left, which I hate to lose. If they’re starting their businesses or going to better places, then I bless them. But some are short-sighted, only seeing the high salaries offered in front of them—it pains me to watch, but I can’t hold a knife to their necks to prevent them from leaving.”
“In the past, when foreign capital first began entering China on a large scale, they poached away many of my good talents with high salaries, almost half, which was like hitting me with a heavy blow. It forced me to continuously find ways to provide advancement opportunities and generous benefits for personnel. Now, personnel loss is becoming less and less. After more than ten years, looking back at those who jumped to foreign enterprises back then, their development opportunities were far inferior to those who stayed at Donghai. Success depends on human effort—you can do it too. Your company’s reputation in the industry is already getting better and better.”
Liu Jun sighed. “Manager Song, although mine is nominally foreign-funded, it’s essentially a private enterprise. I’m also unwilling to learn from some companies that hang a name registered abroad to swagger and deceive domestically. So ultimately, we don’t belong to the mainstream—neither grandma loves us nor grandpa cherishes us, with nowhere to affiliate. Take that bid in North China that Manager Song also knows about—the tender clearly stated they only give green lights to state enterprise products and purely foreign products. Originally, state enterprise products had no share either, but state enterprises are at least mainstream. Later, relevant departments applied pressure, finally adding a provision for state enterprise products. But no one backs our private enterprises. Such a big contract—I was so anxious I wanted to take a box of money to bribe someone. No wonder people from our R&D center still want to job-hop. Everyone can see how low the social status of private enterprise bosses is, so working under private enterprise bosses is even lower. Who among the young and spirited would be willing to be looked down upon? There’s one I regret most—worked here for two years, an extremely excellent talent, but he tearfully bid me farewell to go do sales at a Fortune 500 foreign enterprise, completely abandoning his technical knowledge…”
“Complaining is useless. You should do everything possible to retain that excellent talent. Success depends on human effort.” Song Yin’s eyes sparkled as she interjected from the side.
Both Song Yunhui and Liu Jun smiled upon hearing this. The little girl naturally wouldn’t understand the complex background behind talented people tearfully seeking to leave. “Little Liu, you strongly invited me to visit your R&D center—do you hope I’ll put in a word for you with that North China company?”
“Yes, Manager Song. We can completely meet all technical requirements. To be honest with Manager Song, we’re competing with a foreign enterprise in this bid for another project in South Asia. Instead, I’m getting fair competition opportunities abroad and have a hope of winning orders with good quality at reasonable prices. I hope our state enterprises will also give us opportunities.”
Song Yunhui pondered. “That company—I have a good relationship with them. However, their bidding approach has its reasons. Their main responsible person used to support domestic R&D too, but unfortunately, four years ago, he supported a private enterprise’s products despite opposition. The private enterprise’s samples were very good, and the initial products were also very good, but gradually, they bribed inspection personnel and cut corners, ultimately leading to accidents. For this, the main responsible person was investigated quite severely. You can’t blame anyone for backing private enterprises—the key is that no one dares guarantee for you. Moreover, if bidding were allowed private enterprise participation, believe it or not, there would be many private enterprises participating. Their initial tender documents would look better than anyone’s, with prices more favorable than anyone’s. If judged purely on paper, you still couldn’t compare to them. But once advance payments are made, the second party transforms and becomes the first party holding huge funds. To separate wheat from chaff, bidding enterprises need to invest enormous human and financial resources to investigate clearly. So, which company would be willing to spend this extra money working hard to support a private enterprise? If it were you, wouldn’t you also calculate bidding costs? You can’t be impatient about some things. Reputation needs to be accumulated bit by bit—the current environment is already far better than the past. For instance, when your R&D center here is completed and operational, that will be the most presentable hard condition. For North China, I’ll ask around for you.”
Liu Jun almost felt disappointed, not expecting the situation to suddenly turn around. He knew Song Yunhui wouldn’t agree easily, but if he agreed, there would be results. Liu Jun was so happy he jumped up, wanting to lift Keke and toss her in the air. He grasped Song Yunhui’s hand and repeatedly thanked him. But Song Yunhui didn’t take credit, pointing at the construction site: “Seeing your genuine investment today is not easy. It’s not easy for a person to persist in ideals and walk one path to the end. You must believe that more and more managers supporting industrial revitalization will appear in the future. The city’s new Party Secretary, Cao—I just met with him the day before yesterday. He’s someone with real ideas. We talked about the green GDP that began being discussed at the end of last year, about this city’s industrial development, and urban development. I believe your dawn is ahead.”
“Will there be opportunities for us?” Liu Jun somehow didn’t quite believe that changing a municipal party secretary would truly bring dawn—after all, there were too few knowledge-oriented cadres like Song Yunhui.
“Don’t avoid eating for fear of choking. However, as for you, you must also balance development and innovation, pay attention to expanding your scale, and increase your added value and tax contribution. You must let most people who don’t understand research see reasons to cherish you—you can’t just focus on the happiness that belongs to research personnel.”
Liu Jun couldn’t help scratching his scalp. He wondered how Song Yunhui always managed to hit his weak points. So he honestly said, “I’m planning a manufacturing workshop at the new factory site. In the future, our product range can expand greatly, and production capacity will also increase substantially. I’ve invested particularly heavily this time. That money was originally prepared to buy the burned enterprise across the road. Now, instead, I’m letting the casting workshop go up another level. Funds are so tight that I dream of robbing banks every night when I sleep.” But he couldn’t help proudly boasting: “Not counting the R&D center here, my entire company’s production land is now close to one hundred acres. I feel we have some scale now.”
“Good. While you’re young, what’s the harm in suffering a bit? When the workshop installation is almost complete, notify me to take another look.” Liu Jun’s bit of scale, compared to the thousands of troops Song Yunhui commanded, really amounted to nothing—it was hard for him to feel empathy about this. But Song Yunhui was optimistic about Liu Jun’s persistence. In this impetuous society, having someone who could be down-to-earth turn ideals into reality was extremely difficult. “Will the casting workshop’s pollution be very large? I see in the new planning that the city is preparing to expand in your industrial zone’s direction.”
“I’m working hard to reduce the casting workshop’s pollution. Not only can I personally not stand the casting pollution from those several auto parts factories in the industrial zone, but my precision equipment can’t stand it either. How could I possibly install a pollution source in my facility?”
Song Yunhui nodded. “Green GDP—although it’s just a proposal in meetings, at least someone has raised it. All of us in business must conduct ourselves properly.”
But Liu Jun didn’t take Song Yunhui’s reminder too much to heart. He was already conscientiously applying the emission standards he had learned in Germany with strict requirements. The industrial zone should set him as a benchmark—he didn’t need to worry.