But the reality was that no matter how much confidence he had, it couldn’t match a red-headed document hidden in some government office drawer. For instance, when the factory was first being built, if Liu Jun hadn’t bought the so-called “recommended” acid washing water treatment equipment from environmental protection, he wouldn’t have been able to get the final stamp of approval, even if he had better treatment equipment. Of course, he could apply for administrative review, but first, his arm couldn’t twist the thigh, second, he didn’t have the energy, and third, the project schedule wouldn’t wait. Administrative review might be feasible, but regardless of the review outcome, by the time the review process was completed, his Tengfei would be dried out. So, at the time, he submitted to pressure and spent an unbudgeted sum to buy the environmental protection “recommended” equipment, then sold it at a loss to another company. From purchase to sale, the equipment never actually entered Tengfei’s doors – both the seller and buyer were “helpfully” arranged by a “kind person” from environmental protection.
So if the director had ill intentions and was actively maneuvering within the system, Liu Jun didn’t know what consequences he might face. But he also wasn’t willing to learn from those two small foundry bosses and submit to the director on the spot. His enterprise couldn’t possibly move out of the industrial zone anytime soon, and if he appeared too easy to bully, then it could be reasonably inferred that future demands would be endless. As the saying goes, kind people get bullied, gentle horses get ridden – in this jungle of the industrial zone, one cannot be virtuous. He first had to figure out why the director was treating his enterprise the same as the two small foundries. Compared to other factories in the industrial zone, since his company could be selected for Secretary Cao’s research visit, it was naturally superior to the others. Was this a blanket approach to foundries for environmental reasons, or was he using the two small foundries to make an example while extracting some activity funds from them to compensate for being criticized by Secretary Cao? Without understanding the reason, Liu Jun couldn’t act. Even for bribes, money had to be spent where it counted. Moreover, he didn’t want to be bullied and manipulated by the director like that.
He consulted with friends, his father, and Cui Bingbing. Everyone said both possibilities couldn’t be avoided. As for how to respond, the methods were varied. But a classmate working at the tax bureau gave Liu Jun some reassurance: from last year until now, due to the impact of the SARS epidemic, although this city wasn’t a severely affected area, it still couldn’t escape the overall environment. Many enterprises had fallen into operational difficulties, seriously affecting this year’s tax collection targets. There would definitely be tax audits coming down recently, and it was even possible they’d check old accounts from three to five years ago, but they absolutely wouldn’t do anything that killed the goose that laid golden eggs, especially using account-sealing measures against Tengfei Company, which had always been honest and transparent in its tax-paying attitude.
Liu Jun felt mostly relieved upon hearing this. In these times, as long as tax authorities, police, and courts didn’t come to seal the doors, what could stop an extremely powerful motor from spinning? And anything that could be solved with money wasn’t a problem. But regarding how to handle the management committee director, Liu Shitang’s opinion was directly opposed to Cui Bingbing’s. As soon as Liu Shitang heard about this matter, he thought of his son’s somewhat scholarly, stubborn character and strongly requested to fly back despite the danger to help his son coordinate this matter. He planned to negotiate with the director, bargain a bit, and slip him a red envelope to settle the matter, just like encountering a ghost while walking at night. But Cui Bingbing said that even if there was pollution, they shouldn’t move. Let them try to fine, let them try to enforce – absolutely no groveling to such people. Among the clients she dealt with at the bank, many made such tough resistance.
Besides this, Liu Jun had another unavoidable consideration: orders were chasing his foundry workshop, and he was still waiting for the foundry workshop to be completed ahead of schedule, start trial operations ahead of schedule, and ship products ahead of schedule. Where was there room for relocation? Moreover, who would pay him relocation costs for dismantling installed equipment and moving a specially designed workshop? What right did the director have to take a knife to his millions in assets with just a few words? Therefore, seeing Cui Bingbing’s support, he was pleased. Yes, he was also an enterprise; he could also resist stubbornly – at most, he’d pay attention tactically while looking down strategically. This made Liu Shitang so anxious that he specially flew to Shanghai to argue with Cui Bingbing, demanding she change her stance. He hoped that Cui Bingbing, who had grown up in a large state enterprise, would face the reality that individual business owners could be bullied by anyone, and not encourage Liu Jun to confront government officials – there would be no good outcome. Cui Bingbing used numerous examples to tell Liu Shitang that colluding with officials was naturally best, but unfortunately, Liu Jun wasn’t cut out for that; confronting officials was a poor strategy and naturally unfeasible; but even worse than a poor strategy was passive submission. With society’s development to this point, private enterprises operated legally and didn’t need to maintain a marginalized mentality.
Liu Shitang had originally hoped to use his status to pressure this future daughter-in-law and form a united front with him. He thought a girl wouldn’t dare openly oppose him, so he could have Cui Bingbing express her position to Liu Jun over his phone on the spot. He never expected that while Cui Bingbing had a good attitude and kept smiling, her stance was firm – she wouldn’t retreat a step, but also didn’t try to convince him further. Liu Shitang discovered this girl was even more cunning than his son, worried for his son, and naturally cast a negative vote for Cui Bingbing in his heart.
Liu Jun didn’t know his two relatives had such a confrontation in distant Shanghai. After consideration, he decided to find the two foundry bosses to discuss with. He didn’t have their phone numbers, but since they were all in the same industrial zone, he looked at work hours and rode a bicycle to visit one of them first. Very simple – find the dirtiest one. Of course, everyone knew there were many more toxic and dirty enterprises in the industrial zone than foundries, such as dyeing factories, electroplating factories, and chemical plants, but they were lucky this time – they hadn’t hit Secretary Cao’s radar. The industrial zone had given advance notice to stop work, temporarily hiding the polluted water and foul gases that these factories discharged.
Charging straight into the foundry, the all-encompassing blackness made Liu Jun relive his teenage years. Back then, there was also a foundry next to his father’s agricultural machinery factory – whenever he went in for a circle, he’d come out with only the whites of his eyes still white. This one was the same – going in, he couldn’t find a place to stand, let alone sit, including the chairs in the office, which were also suspiciously gray. The boss was very courteous, using a towel that looked like sheep’s stomach lining to wipe out a chair for Liu Jun, then quickly called the other boss to come discuss. When Liu Jun saw the other boss enter, his big black hands casually grabbed a black stool to sit on – naturally, he didn’t need the sheep’s stomach towel treatment.
The two black bosses spoke very directly, joking that it was rare for Liu Jun, this highly educated person who had studied abroad, to condescend to visit a factory that was like a turtle’s intestines. Liu Jun also frankly said that indeed they hadn’t been on the same path before, each going their way, but now that they were squeezed together by the management committee director’s completely incorrect procedural decision, unity was better than scattered sand. This reassured the two black bosses, and everyone then discussed sincerely. After talking, none of them wanted to move – moving a factory was like a tree changing locations, one move would cost half their lives. Without subsidies, who would move? They couldn’t afford to move – it was a dead end. They said they’d found out this was all the director’s damned idea. They’d decided that whoever dared use force on their factories, they’d use force on the director. A lifetime’s hard work couldn’t be manipulated by others. Money was hard to earn – they spent sixteen hours a day in the workshop working alongside workers to achieve today’s situation. They had no money, only their lives. Whoever dared demolish their factories would fight to the death.
These words expressed Liu Jun’s innermost feelings. The three bosses, by different routes, reached the same destination – the path of confronting administrative orders. Liu Jun thought to himself, was this like Lin Chong being forced up Liangshan Mountain? After experiencing this personally, he decided to question those irregular enterprise behaviors reported in newspapers in the future.
Soon, the accounting firm that handled Tengfei’s outsourced bookkeeping called to ask Liu Jun if he’d offended anyone – someone had asked the national tax bureau to audit Tengfei’s accounts. But when the tax bureau inquired, they found Tengfei’s finances were outsourced to their closely connected firm, so naturally, there were no accounts to audit. Even if they found some excuse to impose a fine, according to the contract between the firm and Tengfei, fines were the firm’s responsibility, so naturally, it couldn’t be audited. The firm reminded Liu Jun to be careful of petty people. Liu Jun thought that Yang Xun’s enlightenment back then was useful – the preventive measures for new Tengfei came in handy years later.
However, the two small foundries weren’t so lucky. Tax authorities came to meticulously and deliberately audit them, finding many loopholes and immediately sealing the finance office and confiscating invoices. A factory without invoices could naturally continue normal production, but couldn’t conduct normal business operations – after all, they didn’t face ordinary consumers, and buyers of their products required invoices. So without waiting for the management committee director to come seal their doors, the two bosses had no choice but to obediently close down. They came to ask Liu Jun how he escaped disaster, hoping Liu Jun would, for the sake of being grasshoppers on the same rope, point out a path for bribery. Learning that Tengfei’s finances were transparent and completely outsourced, they knew they couldn’t imitate – with their meager profits, doing this would mean they couldn’t survive.
The two iron foundry bosses thought of other methods, while Liu Jun also felt uneasy, not knowing what underhanded move the director would use against him next.
When it rains, it pours – with SARS’s tail winds sweeping through, the Hong Kong-funded company manufacturing special dust removal equipment for Tengfei’s processing foundry workshop collapsed. By the time Liu Jun got the news, the company’s valuable assets had already been stripped clean by some well-informed suppliers and unpaid workers using their bare hands. When the local government sent personnel to set up security, Tengfei’s 30% advance payment, like the payments of other creditors stamping and cursing outside the gate, entered government processing procedures. Liu Jun bribed the security guards posted by the local government and climbed over the wall to check if equipment belonging to Tengfei was still there. But looking around, he not only couldn’t find any parts that might belong to Tengfei, but most of the main components of the fine processing equipment he’d seen when signing the contract were also missing. When he climbed back out and told everyone, he learned the Hong Kong company had planned and premeditated its bankruptcy. Given this, could the 30% advance payment be recovered? Although Liu Jun and other creditors registered with the relevant departments, none of them expected to get that money back.
Under the blazing summer sun, trains didn’t dare run air conditioning to avoid cross-infection, opening windows wide and blowing hot air in all the way. When Liu Jun got off the train and entered Shanghai Station, every strand of his hair looked avant-garde, as if loaded with hair gel. But his mood was very troubled – recent misfortunes were constant. Matching this avant-garde hairstyle was a bitter melon face and body odor. He didn’t notify Cui Bingbing, taking the subway directly to her home to turn on the air conditioning, shower, and sleep.
Cui Bingbing came home exhausted from work at midnight, startled by the extra luggage and person in her home. Looking closer, she saw Liu Jun sleeping deeply while grinding his teeth, completely unlike his usual comfortable appearance when sleeping soundly. She knew Liu Jun had been having a hard time lately, but didn’t expect him to come unannounced, completely unlike his usual straightforward manner. Hearing his breathing was wrong and feeling his forehead was burning hot, she quickly found a thermometer to take his temperature. Coming from a medical family, she knew something was wrong from the temperature and forcibly dragged and pulled him awake to go to the hospital – his fever was too high and required injections to reduce it.
But when Liu Jun was awakened, he was deliriously insisting he was fine, breaking free from Cui Bingbing’s hands and collapsing back on the bed to continue sleeping. Cui Bingbing suddenly realized that if a fever patient entered the hospital at this time, the procedures would be troublesome. She quickly called her parents for consultation, giving Liu Jun medicine and water, plus full-body physical cooling. Sleepless all night, by dawn, she finally got his temperature down to just over thirty-seven degrees – normal. Cui Bingbing was also exhausted, sending a text to colleagues asking for half a day off and collapsing beside Liu Jun to sleep soundly. When she woke up, the air was filled with rich coffee aroma, and the person beside her was long gone. Cui Bingbing lay with eyes closed for a while with some resentment, shaking her still muddled head as she got out of bed – she still had to go to work, there were important matters today.
But walking into the living room and seeing Liu Jun holding coffee in a daze, Cui Bingbing’s heart softened. She walked over and nestled in Liu Jun’s arms, firmly telling him: “It’s not a big deal, it will pass, don’t be too sad.”
“I’m not sad, but… I’ve discovered my limits. I don’t want to think about anything now, but I also know this mental state is terrible. I can’t stop now, I must continue desperately thinking about backup plans, but I can’t right now. I’ve discovered for the first time that I can be completely powerless. It’s very troublesome – maybe my spirit has reached its limit.”
Cui Bingbing felt her heart tighten upon hearing this, but she laughed “hehe” in the most natural manner, saying: “You dummy, do you think you’re Superman wearing underwear outside? Let me tell you, your fever reached 38.6 degrees last night, keeping me awake all night. That you can get up today already shows your ability – you still want to think? Go to hell. What, no memory of last night’s ordeal? I was planning to claim credit, don’t try to renege. Hurry up and remember – do you need me to hypnotize you?”
“I… had a fever… uh… no memory at all.”
“Want evidence? There are lots of wet bath towels and wet towels in the washing machine, and by the bedside there are…”
“No wonder when I got up I wasn’t wearing a stitch of clothing. I thought you molested me while I was sleeping soundly – that would be too perverted.”
Only now did Cui Bingbing truly burst into laughter, raising a fist halfway before thinking of his pitiful state at midnight and consciously pulling it back.