Liu Jun ignored her, glumly escorted Song Yin home, handed her over to her grandparents, and took his leave. He felt unhappy the entire way, and for some reason, particularly unhappy in his heart. Suddenly, he didn’t want to return to the noisy bar, but halfway there, he instructed the taxi to turn around. He returned to the bar, greeted his friends, and walked toward Qian Hongying without hesitation.
“I was just escorting a friend’s wayward daughter home. Was it necessary for you to react so quickly and gleefully to slander me to Hongming?” Liu Jun leaned down and spoke rudely into Qian Hongying’s ear.
Qian Hongying startled and moved away, turning to see clearly that it was Liu Jun, then said indifferently, “Oh, sorry, I misunderstood. I thought that even men need to pay attention to their reputation, so I wanted Hongming to stop you in time.”
Now it was Liu Jun’s turn to be surprised. He stared at Qian Hongying for a long while, then glumly said “Sorry for disturbing you” and withdrew to his seat. For a moment, he couldn’t figure it out – the roles of the Qian siblings had become confused in his head. Everyone was still laughing about old lovers reuniting with special jealousy, and he thought to himself that the generational relationships were completely wrong. During the meal, he finally remembered Yang Xun’s divorce matter and asked Shen Huadong if Yang Xun had returned. Before Shen Huadong could answer, everyone started chattering away – almost everyone had a different version of the story. Shen Huadong wasn’t very clear either, only knowing that Yang Xun had returned empty-handed – the divorce hadn’t gone through, but Ren Xia’er hadn’t brought the child back to China for summer vacation either. Someone else’s information came from Ren Xia’er’s classmate, saying that Ren Xia’er was working very hard and toughly in America, raising the child while pursuing a master’s in accounting, and also studying for the American CPA exam, apparently planning to stay in America and not return. Shen Huadong had naturally discussed the Yang family’s affairs with his father, but he couldn’t conveniently share his speculations in such a crowded setting – he only stated the facts.
After leaving the bar and returning home, Liu Jun received a call from Shen Huadong explaining that Ren Xia’er’s stated reasons for divorce were incompatible personalities, no prospects for improvement if the marriage continued, and that her husband lived dissolutely and brought disease home. Liu Jun and Shen Huadong analyzed together, estimating that Ren Xia’er had originally just wanted an excuse to take the child to America to study – out of sight, out of mind. But after living independently in America for a while, she discovered herself, and looking back at her married life, probably found it looked dark from every angle, so she simply steeled herself to make the break. Of course, the prerequisite was that Ren Xia’er had good independent survival abilities.
As the two talked, they couldn’t help but think of their respective girlfriends’ formidable nature – if they dared to provoke them even slightly, they’d probably be devoured alive.
The industrial zone finally had some movement. A notice came down asking the Tengfei enterprise head to attend a meeting. Then came a phone call with the office director emphasizing that it would be best for Liu Jun to go personally, and if Liu Jun couldn’t get away, he must send someone who could make decisions. They said it was to hold a meeting on rectifying the industrial zone environment. Liu Jun thought this was as expected – since the management committee had been criticized by name by Secretary Cao for serious pollution, the management committee director naturally had to make some gesture, and it was about time. Liu Jun rearranged his schedule, forcibly squeezed out time to go see what movies the management committee had.
Walking into the meeting room, it was cold and sparse, with only two bosses Liu Jun recognized present. These two were exactly the culprits who had made the industrial zone’s tree leaves gray and dusty – the owners of two casting factories. Liu Jun quite disdained being grouped with them. Although they were all in mechanical manufacturing, their philosophies were completely different. His two hands, while not delicate and smooth, were the hands of working people, but compared to these two bosses whose skin creases were all embedded with soot and ash, he was incomparably clean. But when the management committee director entered and the meeting room door closed, Liu Jun discovered that his enterprise had been treated the same as those two factories.
Liu Jun was displeased, watching as one of the two bosses eagerly lit the director’s cigarette while the other quickly moved to sit at the director’s right hand in a submissive posture. Liu Jun didn’t move, remaining in his original seat – he couldn’t and wouldn’t perform such small courtesies.
The director spoke at length about policies, which Liu Jun listened to as background noise. He now knew that the government had many policies, but most were grand and empty without implementation methods. If he took them seriously, first the policies weren’t publicly available, and even when they were public, he was at a loss – the scope was so broad that people didn’t know how to implement them. But if he didn’t take them seriously, that wouldn’t work either – who knew when some relevant department might suddenly find him displeasing and dig up some policy that had been gathering dust for years, shake off the ashes, and apply it perfectly to his situation. Therefore, however many policies the director cited didn’t matter – what mattered was how the director planned to flexibly use these policies.
The director finally revealed his true intentions, demanding that the three enterprises strictly rectify according to environmental regulations within a three-month deadline – if they couldn’t improve, they had to move.
The other two bosses immediately panicked and started doing public relations on the spot. Liu Jun stated that his casting enterprise’s design plan had already passed environmental assessment, and according to current construction progress, it could be completed and put into use within three months – the environmental protection bureau could come inspect then. Liu Jun left, while the other two bosses remained in the meeting room. But Liu Jun knew that this time those two bosses’ public relations efforts would have no effect whatsoever. Compared to the director’s official position, what did those two enterprises with low profits and taxes amount to? They could be crushed like ants at any time. As for whether his enterprise could pass environmental inspection, Liu Jun had complete confidence.