Chapter 7: San Shan Electrical and Mechanical Factory

  The next day, Shen Fang didn't dare to open his eyes until his right hand touched the cool iron bed rail, and he let out a sigh of relief. Fortunately, it wasn't just a wonderful dream!

  The room was slightly dim, while outside it was drizzling, the windowsill was wet and a gecko was motionless on the screen window, making the whole scene look like an old movie. Shen quickly got out of bed, went to the kitchen to get his toothbrush and cup, then returned to the room, standing at the door brushing his teeth while looking through the screen door at the drizzle outside, discovering that the fig tree which usually only started producing fruit in late summer had already sprouted buds early.

  After washing up and sitting on the sofa, she finished off the fried dough sticks and soy milk her mother had prepared in one go. She rummaged through the wardrobe and put on a suit her brother used to wear when he was dating girls. Shen Fang looked at herself in the mirror and felt that although she still wasn't quite mature enough, she looked much better than she did yesterday.

  Attending classes is not yet in Shen Fang's plan, after all, time is pressing, and many things are still waiting to be done. Moreover, his academic performance at this time is still quite outstanding, but he has no confidence that he can muddle through, let alone being thought of as someone who has gone crazy overnight.

  After getting on the No. 3 bus, he was jolted for more than half an hour and swallowed a mouthful of dust before arriving at the Sanshan Electrical Factory. Shen Fang saw a black Lexus sedan next to which Qiu Qinghe was smiling and waving at him. Standing beside her was the elegant young man who had offered 160,000 yuan yesterday at the entrance of her apartment building.

  "What's with the getup today?" Qiu Qinghe frowned, pinching the collar of Shen Fang's light yellow shirt with both hands and naturally helping him button up the two buttons that he had deliberately left undone. "You look like a total rogue, people who don't know you would think you're much older than you are."

  "It's just that I want to appear more mature to match you." Shen Fang said, hastily stretching his neck to greet the elegant young man, "Hello, Sixteen!"

  The elegant youth and Qiu Qinghe were both stunned, and after reacting, they said that the price was 1.6 million. Both of their faces turned red, and Qiu Qinghe pinched Shen Fang's arm forcefully. The elegant youth walked over with some embarrassment and explained awkwardly: "Actually, in my eyes, love is priceless. It's just that at the time, I was afraid that Qinghe would be snatched away by someone else, so I had no choice but to join in the excitement, and it ended up making a joke out of Shen Fang."

  "Huh, you actually know me too?" Shen Fang pretended to be silly, patting his chest and saying, "It seems I'm also somewhat famous in Huangzhou. From now on, if there's anything that needs to be done, just mention my name and both the underworld and the authorities will give face..."

  "That's, that's..." The elegant young man couldn't see Qiu Qinghe turning away and stifling a smile, and still had to put on an honest expression, "I'll have to trouble you more in the future, take care of me more."

  "That's settled then, I've got dibs on her, you're not allowed to fight me for Qīng Hé, I'm going to make her my wife." Shěn Fàng took advantage of the situation and grabbed Qīng Hé's hand, starting to walk away. "But even if you want to fight for her, you can't win against me, I'll offer 500,000, that's more than your 160,000 - huh, a lot more... more than 300,000!"

  Watching Shen Fang holding Qiu Qinghe's left hand and calculating with his right hand, he finally came up with a figure of over 30 million. The refined young man was so angry that he gritted his teeth, but he had to pretend to be a magnanimous gentleman in front of Qiu Qinghe. He could only curse Shen Fang silently, "Damn you!"

  "Look at you, your face has turned purple...". He tilted his head to look at Qiu Qinghe, and Shen Fang finally understood what "beauty is edible" meant. He really wished he could put the whole of Qiu Qinghe in his mouth.

  Originally feeling stifled, being said by Shen Fang like that, Qiu Qinghe couldn't control herself anymore. She suddenly covered her mouth with her left hand and leaned on Shen Fang's shoulder, giggling for a while. When she finally stopped laughing, she glared at Shen Fang resentfully, "It's all your fault, how dare you say I... Next time don't pretend to be stupid again, don't drag me into it, and don't hold my hand - let go, I won't run away, why are you holding so tight? Do you really think you bought me with 500,000?"

  "How can I trust you?! We agreed to go see the San Shan Electrical Factory together, but you brought that 160,000 yuan along, what am I supposed to do?!"

  Qiu Qinghe burst out laughing again, and in her distress, she pinched Shen Fang's arm hard and said in a coquettish tone: "What sixteen million, his name is Jia Siyou, doesn't he have a good name and surname?"

  "Jia Siyou, even Master and friends can pretend, sixteen million people's character can be seen...". Just as Qiu Qinghe was about to pinch himself again, Shen Fang asked seriously, "Does he have connections in San Shan Factory? Can he take us in?"

  "Uh, he's a big shot, many directors and factory heads at San Shan Factory know him. Don't offend him too much, or else today's plan to gather military information will be ruined." Qiu Qinghe said with a smile as she turned her head back to Jia Siyou, her charm more alluring than a fox spirit. Let alone Shen Fang just teasing him a bit, even if he spat at him a few times, this kid probably wouldn't dare say half a word of refusal to Qiu Qinghe.

  "So it's a loan shark, huh? — In '93, the whole country was busy with large-scale construction and projects, leading to chaotic financial order. The private lending rate was getting higher and higher, while the official interest rate was just a formality. Those who had connections, like Jia Siyou, could borrow money from banks at an interest rate of 9% and then lend it out at 20% or even 30%. This is what people commonly referred to as 'eating interest', or loan sharks. But isn't San Shan Factory a state-controlled enterprise? Why do they need to go through a private lender for a loan?"

  "If it's a corporate loan, of course, it's 1.6 million - haha, it has nothing to do with him naturally, but now which state-owned enterprise doesn't have some relatives going into business? Calling each other brothers and swearing loyalty won't bring any harm, those leaders are all on fixed salaries, no matter how good the company's performance is, it's none of their business, if they don't think of a way to make some extra money, once they retire, they can only stare blankly... actually, it's just our Donggang people being honest and down-to-earth, this kind of phenomenon seems to be very rare." Qiu Qinghe didn't want to think about it either, the 26 million yuan worth of Su Sanshan's stocks she was busy with, perhaps she just felt that Yao Qili and Shen Yun doing such things absolutely wasn't driven by personal interests.

  Only after entering the factory did Jia Si reveal his true identity as the boss, with three or four leaders from the factory fawning over him, exchanging pleasantries and offering two boxes of cigarettes. They also lavished praise on Qiu Qinghe, but completely ignored Shen Fang, treating him like an invisible person. A deputy factory director in charge of sales, who arrived later, even mistook Shen Fang for a temporary worker and nearly ordered him to go to his office to fetch gifts for the two esteemed guests.

  Most of the morning was spent in the reception room, so that the next hour or so visiting Qiu Qinghe couldn't muster up the spirit, lazily dragging Shen Fang's hand at the back of the team, looking around and saying some words. After the visit, compared to before the visit, the development prospects of Su Sanshan became even more unclear.

  The deputy factory director in charge of sales is called Tian Pengguang, which is only one word different from Tian Boguang in The Smiling, Proud Wanderer. Perhaps he felt embarrassed to treat Shen Fang as a temporary worker earlier, so when preparing gifts, he surprisingly didn't leave out Shen Fang, while others directly ignored Shen Fang's existence. He stood at the factory gate with the last gift, hesitating for half a day, and finally walked over to hand it to Shen Fang.

  On the other side, Qiu Qinghe was rushing to understand the development plan of the factory with Su Sanshan Factory Director Li Bianyong. Jia Siyou and a few others were discussing when to go to "Jade Pool" for some indulgence. Shen Fang took over the gift box, looked up at the red sign above the main gate that read "Su Lin Sanshan Machinery and Electrical Factory", and casually asked: "Can't the sign of Sanshan be made anymore? Even if the efficiency is poor, it can't be replaced with someone else's sign. If we get sued, will all the thousands of people in the factory go to drink northwest wind?"

  Tian Po Guang was startled by the words, and the factory's fake electrical products had only been produced for a few months. He believed that this was related to the workers' personal interests and no one would intentionally spread it out. Looking at the young man in front of him, he obviously discovered it after visiting, but didn't know where he had revealed his true intentions.

  He glanced at Tian Peiguang's expression and knew he was right without asking. As the provincial key enterprise of Su Lin Province, Su Sanshan, a state-controlled shareholding company, was the first to be listed in Shanghai, and its former glory can be imagined. However, it did not expect that in just a few years, it would fall to the point where it had to produce counterfeit products under the guise of OEM production. "You said, with Su Sanshan's current debt crisis, how many more years can its beautiful financial reports last? If there is another lawsuit for counterfeiting, Su Sanshan's stock price will surely plummet. At that time, guess how much capital I need to complete the acquisition? If I'm not mistaken, public shares account for 78% of Su Sanshan's total share capital, which means I only need to absorb no less than 22% of public shares to complete the acquisition and control of Su Sanshan."

  No one had ever spoken such outrageous words before. Tian Bo Guang thought to laugh, but the corners of his mouth only twitched slightly, and it was only then that he realized his facial muscles were stiff.

  "Let me introduce myself —" Shen Fang slightly turned his body to face Tian Pengguang, "My name is Shen Fang, 'Shen' as in Shenyang, 'Fang' as in liberation... We'll meet again soon."

  Tian Po Guang nodded subconsciously, staring blankly at Shen Fang's back as he walked away into the distance. In his mind, only two questions kept surfacing: Who was this young man? What did he want to do? He wanted to ask Ji Siyou who came over to bid farewell, but when he opened his mouth, all that came out were conditioned reflexive pleasantries.

  "What did Xiao Jia bring them here for?" Tian Peng Guang asked mysteriously, pulling Factory Director Li Bian Yong to a secluded spot on the way back to the factory.

  "It's just a visit, what else can we do?" Li Bianyong noticed Tian Pengguang's strange expression and added, "Xiao Jia took a liking to that little girl, saying she wants to write some graduation thesis and asked us to bring her to the factory for a look... What's wrong? Is there something not right here?"

  Tian Po Guang thought for a moment, feeling that it was better not to mention this matter, lest he be laughed at for being fooled by a half-grown child. He shook his head and said, "Nothing, nothing, just something strange. Xiao Jia's usually elusive Master Xi suddenly showed up on his own today, haha... did you guys plan to go out and have some fun tonight?"