Chapter Sixty: High Mountains and Flowing Water

Xicheng Wireless No. 1 Factory had completely halted production, and the veteran factory director, Xu Yongjin, had already retired. Liu Jiande, who had been the most promising candidate for the new director, had been arrested. No one dared to touch this hot potato, fearing they would be implicated and dragged into the police station.

Following Xu Yongjin’s retirement, the factory leaders of Xicheng Wireless No. 1 who had connections used every possible means to transfer to other units or factories.

As for the ordinary employees, those who managed to secure transfers to other state-owned factories could be counted on one's fingers. The vast majority of workers were left with only two choices: take early internal retirement—though no one knew when or if they would ever receive a pension—or resign and be laid off. Regardless of the choice, they were forced to go out and look for work on their own.

Song Yajun, the tireless workhorse, was naturally among this crowd. Many employees from Xicheng Wireless No. 1 were being recommended to work at Dongling Hi-Tech’s newly established electronic industrial park, and this side did indeed give priority to hiring workers from Xicheng Wireless No. 1.

However, Song Yajun had heard that the Dongling Hi-Tech Electronic Industrial Park was founded by Li Dongling—the very same "newcomer" whom he had mocked and ridiculed during the technical department meeting last year.

Now, Song Yajun desperately wanted to slap himself a few times. Why had he let his mouth run wild back then? Who could have imagined that in such a short span of time, the world would be completely turned upside down.

By now, his long-cherished wish of having his son take over his official position as a state-owned enterprise worker was completely dashed. Even if he wanted to join Dongling Hi-Tech to work like a beast of burden, Song Yajun was terrified they wouldn't want him. If word got out that he had once dared to speak disrespectfully to the founder of Dongling Hi-Tech, it would be a miracle if the recruitment staff deigned to look at him!

Song Yajun had not failed to look into other state-owned enterprises, but none of them would take him. Like Zhou Wenyan, another veteran workhorse, he had spent the better part of his life at Xicheng Wireless No. 1, faithfully toiling away in the factory for over a decade. He had zero connections in the outside world. With the collapse of the wireless factory, the foundation of his life over the past dozen years collapsed right along with it.

After wandering around the factory gates for half a day, the security personnel of the industrial park caught sight of him and began staring fixedly at Song Yajun.

Finally, hardening his resolve, Song Yajun stepped forward and headed inside. He needed this job; he had a family to feed. His son wasn't even married yet, and all of these things required money. If he didn't work like an ox, what would his family eat? Where would the color television, the motorcycle, and the bride price needed for his son's wedding come from?!

"Master Song!"

Just as he stepped into the queue, keeping his head lowered for fear of being recognized by an acquaintance, Song Yajun heard a crisp voice calling out to him. "You've come too?!"

Looking up, Song Yajun saw that the person speaking was none other than Wei Hongying. Quite a few other acquaintances were also present; Zhang Ao, Fan Xugang, and others were standing close by.

Zhang Ao was now a sales manager at Dongling Hi-Tech, while Fan Xugang, Wei Hongying, and various other former employees of Xicheng Wireless No. 1 had also joined Dongling Hi-Tech. Because the industrial park needed extra hands lately, they had come over to help out.

Seeing these familiar faces, a trace of awkwardness crossed Song Yajun's face. Wei Hongying was quite warm to him, but when Zhang Ao looked at Song Yajun, a playful expression appeared in his eyes—he certainly remembered the incident at last year's technical department meeting.

Song Yajun muttered a few vague pleasantries and was just considering whether he should slip away first when a black Mercedes-Benz drove straight over and came to a halt in front of the crowd.

"President Li!" "Brother Li!"

The moment Li Dongling stepped out of the car, the crowd called out to him. Shortly after, Li Dongling caught sight of Song Yajun standing off to the side, looking as though he wanted to retreat.

Glancing at Song Yajun, Li Dongling walked straight toward him.

Seeing Li Dongling walking his way, Song Yajun's already slightly stooped back curved even further, his body trembling faintly. Song Yajun had heard rumors that Liu Jiande had been arrested not only because of his shady dealings, but also because of his personal feud with Li Dongling—with the latter being the primary reason. Otherwise, why would so many factory leaders of Xicheng Wireless No. 1 escape, while only Liu Jiande was locked up?

Whether these rumors were true or false was hard to say, but for such stories to circulate, there had to be some grain of truth to them. Even Liu Jiande, a towering figure who could practically blot out the sun at Xicheng Wireless No. 1, had fallen. How could Song Yajun not be terrified when facing Li Dongling?

He had already prepared himself to be publicly humiliated and fiercely scolded by Li Dongling, just as he and other factory leaders like Technical Department Chief Xu Yi-qiao and Liu Jiande had treated him back at Xicheng Wireless No. 1.

However, the anticipated scathing rebukes did not materialize. Standing somewhat lost, not knowing where to put his hands, Song Yajun felt his hand being firmly grasped, followed by a voice saying, "Engineer Song, welcome to Dongling Hi-Tech!"

Hearing these words, Song Yajun’s eyes widened, and his throat worked as he swallowed. How long had it been since he last heard himself addressed as Engineer Song? The expected insults never came, and Li Dongling was actually welcoming him to join Dongling Hi-Tech. In his late forties, Song Yajun felt his eye rims instantly turn red.

"Process Engineer Song's onboarding paperwork right away. From now on, Engineer Song is the most important engineer in Dongling Hi-Tech's technical department!"

Li Dongling announced to the crowd gathered around. Hearing this, the former Xicheng Wireless No. 1 employees waiting in line immediately broke into whispering, and more than a few looked at Song Yajun with envy.

"Tsk, old Song is about to strike it rich!"

"I heard Old Song actually offended Boss Li back in the day."

"This fellow surnamed Song really has some luck."

Amidst the babble of voices and the looks of envy and even jealousy, Song Yajun was led away by personnel department staff to complete his paperwork. It was worth noting that although the industrial park had not officially started production yet, anyone hired by the Dongling Hi-Tech industrial park would receive a partial training subsidy just by participating in the training sessions.

Xicheng Wireless No. 1 had ceased operations for nearly half a year, and many of those worker households had gone without pay for over six months, surviving entirely on their meager savings. For those with heavier family burdens, they were truly on the verge of running out of food, relying on borrowed money to scrape by. Dongling Hi-Tech’s offer of an eight-yuan daily training subsidy during the training period was enough to resolve the urgent needs of many, ensuring at the very least that their families wouldn't go hungry.

"How many people have been recruited so far?!" Li Dongling asked Zhang Ao, Wei Hongying, and the others. Knowing Xicheng Wireless No. 1 inside and out, having them interview and vet the applicants meant there was no need to worry about slick schemers or slackers sneaking in.

"We've already recruited thirteen hundred people," Wei Hongying looked at Li Dongling and asked, "Should we keep hiring?!"

The industrial park had not yet started production, and even if they were only paying out training subsidies, the daily disbursement to the workers amounted to over ten thousand yuan—requiring more than three hundred thousand yuan a month in expenditures!

"Keep hiring. Not just from Xicheng Wireless No. 1, but skilled personnel from other state-owned factories can also be brought in. We can offer them a slightly higher salary!"

Li Dongling said. The electronic pet project was about to kick off and would require a massive workforce, especially skilled technicians.

At this time, whether on the production lines or as operators in other manufacturing departments, technical expertise was essential. The level of automation on production lines wasn't that high yet, and even the final product inspection relied primarily on human labor, heavily testing the experience and proficiency of the technicians. It wasn't like the fatal assembly lines of later generations, which required no experience—just human machines working away, where anyone could be pulled off the street to do the job, and speed was the only requirement.

Technicians like Song Yajun might not be rare commodities right now, but they were unquestionably reliable assets. His educational background might not be high, but his experience was deep. He might not come up with grand innovations or play around with cutting-edge technologies, but his practical experience was right there. As the saying goes, "An old person in the family is like a treasured possession." Whether it was developing new products or resolving issues encountered on the production line, he could help solve them. With such a dependable workhorse around, who knew how much worry it would save? How could Li Dongling ever bring himself to chase him away...

Upon returning to Dongling Hi-Tech, Hu Zixian sought him out to air his grievances. "Our expenditures are getting a bit too heavy right now. Between building the joint laboratory and the electronic industrial park, the liquid funds left in our account are less than sixty million. When we launch the electronic pet machine, we'll also need to run overseas advertising, which will cost even more!"

The electronic pet machine was definitely going to be sold into overseas markets, which would require finding distribution agents and spending huge sums of money on advertising and promotion. That was when the money would truly start flowing out like water.

Take the domestic health supplement industry at present: brands like Sanzhu Oral Liquid, Fengtian Feilong, and Tianshen measured their advertising budgets in the tens of millions. They would routinely spend tens of millions to blanket television stations, newspapers, magazines, and radio stations with ads, and even go out to rural towns to paint slogans on walls and distribute flyers, trading advertising for revenue.

Why was Boss Shi of Giant Group famous for claiming to invest five hundred million into health supplements? In reality, researching and developing supplements didn't cost much at all; the crucial part was advertising and ground promotion. Boss Shi was preparing to mobilize more than thirty branch offices of the Giant Group to build a sales and promotion team. Together with hired personnel, he planned to deploy one hundred thousand sales staff for nationwide ground promotion. One could only imagine how high the costs would be for feeding, housing, and paying wages for so many people.

And that was just for advertising domestically. Going overseas to advertise would undoubtedly cost even more, and the risk would be correspondingly higher. Heaven only knew how much profit could actually be recouped after pouring a massive amount of money into advertising.

"These expenditures are absolutely necessary!" Li Dongling told Hu Zixian. "Dongling Hi-Tech needs to build an R&D center, and we also need a production center!"

"We need to conduct campus recruitment at Pingyang University and bring in another batch of fresh personnel!" Hu Zixian said as he prepared to leave. Dongling Hi-Tech's framework was gradually expanding, and the manpower required was growing greater by the day.

At present, all private companies were starved for talent, regardless of where their headquarters were located. Even companies headquartered in Beijing faced shortages of various types of talent.

College students, especially those from prestigious universities, were currently highly valued commodities. While some did choose to go to private enterprises, they were still in the minority; the vast majority of graduates still entered municipal governments, public institutions, or state-owned enterprises. Even among those who chose private companies, foreign enterprises were the top choice, followed by large corporations offering high salaries. As for small companies, they couldn't even dream of getting them.

Even if Dongling Hi-Tech were to relocate its headquarters to the provincial capital, Beijing, Shanghai, or Shenzhen, trying to recruit top-tier university graduates wasn't impossible, but if they were brought in only to work as ordinary clerks or technical operators on the workshop floor, would those proud sons and daughters of heaven from elite universities agree to it? You could figure that out with your toes—it was utterly impossible.

This situation would only begin to change four or five years later, following the expansion of university enrollments. During this transitional period, recruiting graduates from Pingyang University or other local colleges to join Dongling Hi-Tech was actually much easier.

As for a few years down the line, if Dongling Hi-Tech still failed to become that towering "mountain" capable of attracting top talent through high salaries and fame, then even if its headquarters were placed in Silicon Valley, it wouldn't have much effect. Much like famous mountains and great rivers, people who wanted to witness their grandeur would brave wind and waves to travel thousands of miles to reach them; they wouldn't expect the mountains and rivers to come running to their homes.

Those giant corporations of his past life, even with their headquarters located thousands of miles away, were able to establish R&D centers all over the world and gather vast pools of talent to serve their needs. If it proved feasible in the future, Dongling Hi-Tech could likewise establish R&D centers across the globe!