Bro | Chapter 62

Every project, once carried through, was a test of how accurately one could grasp both personal connections and the market.

Rough, broad-brush development and luck-based, hit-or-miss management would very quickly be washed away by the great waves of the industry. That was why Wei Qian had kept that big monkey, Ma Chunming, around back then. Even if Dr. Ma was a blockhead, he was a blockhead with an exceptionally clear line of thinking.

Although Dr. Ma did not often show himself in public, he more or less understood the way Wei Qian and the others handled things, so the moment he heard it, he understood.

What San Pang called “going ahead to soften things up” was the first hint. Even though in the past he had mostly just eaten, drunk, and chatted nonsense, that hint still conveyed that their local network was functioning smoothly. It had to be done subtly enough, and they also had to give the other side enough face, so no one would think they were forcing the palace. Then, in the so-called “project proposal” from the investment department, there would naturally be something tucked inside. How much they tucked in would show how much they were able to grasp.

It was like a big tree, exposing just one corner of its roots for others to see, letting the other side guess at the tip of the iceberg.

So they needed Wei Zhiyuan’s help.

“And what are you planning to do after that?” Ma Chunming asked, chasing after Wei Qian into his office.

Wei Qian crooked a finger at him the way one would call a dog over, beckoned Ma Chunming inside, and handed him a USB drive. “Go print this out.”

It was a project proposal nearly a hundred pages long. Ma Chunming printed it on recycled paper, and the stack came out so thick it could barely even be bound. He looked at Wei Qian in some disbelief. “You wrote this? Where did you even find the time?”

Wei Qian turned his head and sneezed, then said in a slightly stuffy voice, “That’s none of your business.”

Wei Zhiyuan, who had been standing nearby without saying much, walked over, bent down and felt Wei Qian’s forehead, then poured him a cup of scalding hot water and set it in front of him. “Drink it. I’m going out to buy you some medicine.”

After saying that, he really did put on his coat and leave.

Ma Chunming lifted his head and gave Wei Zhiyuan a strange look. As an only child, he could not understand sibling affection, but based on his life experience and his meager imagination, he had always felt that a “younger brother” was basically just another name for a little brat. He had never seen one like Wei Zhiyuan, so attentive and considerate he was almost like a boyfriend.

But the moment Ma Chunming’s gaze fell on their devil-boss, all those romantic thoughts shattered at once, and he shivered as if he had just downed a pot of ice water in the dead of winter.

I really must be possessed, he thought.

Ma Chunming read extremely fast, skimming ten lines at a glance. According to his own boasting, he even had a photographic memory.

After reading it, the doctor put away those creepy, sleazy little thoughts of his and frowned. “The concept of an industrial park really is a strong selling point. If it can actually be cultivated, the tax revenue, and even the employment it creates, would both be extremely attractive. But I’m afraid it won’t be that easy to pull off, right?”

Wei Qian spoke from behind the white steam rising from the hot water. “It won’t be easy, but where there’s a will, there’s a way.”

“I think something like an industrial park needs timing, location, and people, all three, and none can be missing. Of course, A City is feasible in terms of both its natural environment and cultural environment, but don’t you think it still isn’t enough? And don’t you think the positioning is too high? An industrial park centered on ‘culture and high technology,’ most of those either form naturally on their own, or are fostered by the government through tax reductions, exemptions, and prize incentives. The government definitely won’t do that. I don’t think the soil there is mature.”

Wei Qian named a very famous foreign game brand, then asked Ma Chunming, “Ever heard of it?”

Ma Chunming hesitated a moment, then nodded.

“Xiao Yuan was involved in making it,” Wei Qian said.

Ma Chunming thought for a moment, then asked, “So you’re planning to use his connections to lure in well-known brands? What are you going to offer them? What’s going to attract them here?”

“If the government won’t offer tax exemptions, then I’ll cut the rent. I’ll give them the best working environment, the lowest possible costs, and outstanding companies can even buy into the property with technology shares. I’m also going to carve out an area in some place with beautiful scenery and put up a whole block of expert apartments first, fully decorated, built to the standard of high-end resort apartments, as beautiful as possible, and I’ll bring in the best property management team to run it. As a supporting facility, it can be free in the beginning. Once the park matures, the cost can be spread into the office-area rent.” Wei Qian tapped lightly on the desk. “Once famous brands move in, the government will immediately have political achievements and tax revenue, and relying on them, we can also attract upstream and downstream service providers, building a complete industrial chain in a short time.”

Workaholic Ma Chunming immediately began estimating the rough level of investment in his head the moment he heard that short explanation.

This project carried tremendous risk and enormous capital costs, and in the first several years, as could already be foreseen, there would be almost no income.

The profits from all their large and small projects across the country might all have to be poured into supporting this one place. And just like a certain software company using all the income from its other businesses to support one office software team, in the end it might well turn out that this thing everyone had poured all their strength into, barely keeping it alive, simply had no future at all.

Several billion in investment. An extremely long recovery period. Daily financing costs that could very likely reach over a million.

It might collapse halfway through unfinished, or it might make it all the way to the end, only to prove to be a dead end.

Ma Chunming sat there blankly for a while. It took him a long time to find his voice again, and when he did, he spoke almost to himself. “Your guts are way too big… why?”

Ma Chunming knew that even if Wei Qian had gone mad, he would never throw around that much money just to pick a fight with Wang Dongliang.

More importantly, there was no way Wei Qian could have produced such a detailed proposal on his own in such a short amount of time. The huge amount of research involved, covering multiple provinces and cities, plus deep analysis on macro and micro levels alike, was something that simply could not be completed without years of work.

This proposal alone, if taken out and sold, was valuable enough that Ma Chunming could already estimate it would fetch a considerable price… The question was, how many people would actually dare to do it?

A City’s government would absolutely have a hard time finding a second person willing to do a project like this for them. Compared to that, their original major taxpayer, Wang Dongliang, really had become nothing more than a hooligan who caused trouble and social instability, not to mention that he was also suspected of tax evasion.

“Ten years ago, someone once said something to me, and I’ve always admired him. Other than the fact that he loses his head in front of his wife and can’t even see the road under his own feet, I think he has the kind of vision that can see straight through an era.” Wei Qian spoke slowly. “At the time, he told me that the era of labor had already passed. What we were about to welcome was ten years of capital, and spring for technology would follow right behind it. Now ten years have passed, and he was right. I’m betting he’ll be right about the next ten years too.”

Of course Ma Chunming could tell who he was talking about, and his eyes immediately lit up.

Wei Qian’s voice was a little hoarse. He coughed a few times, then continued, “One day, the era of building houses and then selling them will come to an end. Under our country’s circumstances, a policy-driven or market-driven collapse may be unlikely, but unequal development between regions will cause high-quality land parcels to gradually disappear, and prices will become correspondingly very high. Or it may be that because of an economic bubble, the excessive financing channels we currently rely on get cut off, and high interest compresses profit margins even further. By the time the industry declines to that point, it’ll be too late to turn back…”

At this point, Wei Qian’s throat grew even itchier, and he could not help breaking into another fit of coughing. His cold seemed even worse than it had been that morning.

As if to show concern, Ma Chunming casually said, “Ah, you caught a cold? You should drink more water.”

Then, utterly lacking in tact, he completely ignored Wei Qian’s cup, which had already been empty for quite a while, eagerly pulled his chair closer, and urged, “And then?”

With both his words and his body language, he was clearly expressing: I was only being polite just now. Take care of yourself.

Wei Qian: “…”

At that moment, he suddenly understood why this man had been dumped by his wife. Sure enough, pitiable people always had hateful sides too.

So Wei Qian had no choice but to drag himself to his feet on slightly heavy legs, refill his own cup with hot water, and continue, “By then, countless small and medium-sized companies in the industry will die in prolonged turmoil. If any are going to survive in a healthy, lasting way, instead of just dragging out a miserable existence, then of the two pillars, they must have at least one, industrial property, or globally unobstructed asset securitization.”

By the time he heard this, Ma Chunming had already leapt to his feet like he had been pumped full of stimulants. “I get it! Either become the hematopoietic stem cell yourself, or become part of the blood that flows!”

Wei Qian leaned against the wall, seeming quite satisfied with how quickly he had caught on, and nodded. “That’s roughly what I mean. Whether this succeeds or not depends on you. You can pick your own people from each of the branch project companies stationed outside and form a temporary team specifically for this.”

Ma Chunming slapped the desk. “As long as this proposal can convince the local city government, I’ll give you a practical and feasible operating plan within two months.”

After he said that, the big macaque seemed instantly full of spirit, as if he intended to dive into it headfirst and never come back out.

Just then, however, Wei Qian hesitated, then suddenly called him back.

“Lao Ma, it’s normal if you don’t know how to play dirty or can’t stomach it. There are plenty of people who can do that. Even kids a few years old know how to cheat and scheme for favor, let alone all those big and little foxes who’ve spent years crawling and scrambling around the business world. But those things are only auxiliary tools in the end, minor branches and twigs. Some people spend their whole lives playing tricks brilliantly, and in the end, this is all they amount to. The real key to going far is having people like you.”

Ma Chunming froze for a second. Then his face suddenly flushed bright red, and he stood there at a complete loss. “Wei, Wei Dong…”

He had followed this terribly hard-to-serve man for five or six years. Wei Qian had given him a job, an opportunity, even a kind of dignity. Ma Chunming had always been grateful, but it was not until this very moment that the thought of a gentleman dies for the one who knows him suddenly rose up from the bottom of his heart.

Ma Chunming’s eyes stung at once, and he nearly burst into tears. He opened his mouth, but once again he was so clumsy with words that he could not say a thing.

Wei Qian could not be bothered to watch him cry with gratitude, so he waved him off like he was shooing away a dog and said resentfully, “Otherwise why do you think I’ve tolerated an idiot like you for so long? Get lost. Looking at you is enough to get in my way… you don’t even have the sense to pour a cup of water for the person who feeds and clothes you, so what use are you? So I can watch monkeys perform?”

Ma Chunming left the boss’s office delighted after being viciously insulted by him, and just then Wei Zhiyuan came back.

Wei Zhiyuan gave him a polite nod, then went inside carrying a chill from outdoors with him. Ma Chunming thought about it, then turned back and decided to observe how a person with “good sense” handled things, so he could learn a few moves for himself and repay kindness in the future.

He saw Wei Zhiyuan breathe warm air into his hands and rub them together until they were warm before going in. Then he took out some pills for Wei Qian, watched him swallow them, and bent down to lightly press his own forehead against Wei Qian’s.

“A little fever,” he heard Wei Zhiyuan say softly in a negotiating tone. “How about coming home with me first?”

Ma Chunming thought gleefully, This time the bootlicking is definitely going to hit the horse’s leg. That damn pervert never leaves the front line just because of a minor illness. At most he only doubles down on tormenting his subordinates, he’d never skip out halfway.

Who would have thought that Wei Qian only frowned a little and said nothing at all, letting Wei Zhiyuan take down his overcoat and drape it over him, then carry off his car keys and his bag too.

Ma Chunming: “…”

Two seconds later, he came back to himself and hurried downstairs before Wei Qian could notice. He hid in the public restroom around the corner on the first floor and poked his head out furtively like a grain-stealing rat, watching Wei Zhiyuan take Wei Qian away.

“How come he didn’t get hit or cursed out?” Ma Chunming muttered. In the end he could not make any sense of it. “This is not scientific!”

The next day, a cold current from the north swept over the whole city. Wei Qian, like a human weather forecast, began his annual early-winter cough… and his chosen method of suppressing the cough was smoking.

Taking advantage of a moment when he was not paying attention, Wei Zhiyuan gathered up all the cigarettes from both his house and office into one bundle and stuffed them into a cabinet, keeping the key on himself. He only left one pack outside and declared without discussion, “Abruptly changing your lifestyle habits is bad for your health. I’m not going to force you to quit cold turkey, but from now on we’re implementing a ration system. This is three days’ worth. Divide it up yourself. If you finish early, then you go without early.”

Wei Qian: “…”

He was silent for a moment, then asked, enunciating each word, “Are you getting on my head after I’ve let you step on my nose?”

Wei Zhiyuan looked at him with a bright, genial smile, then rather suggestively tapped his own lips with a nod, meaning: You’ve already kissed me, already touched me. Are you planning to deny it now? Of course I have the right to manage you.

Wei Qian took a deep breath and said with forced patience, “Stop messing around. Why weren’t you this hard to deal with when you were little? Give me the key.”

Wei Zhiyuan said, “Back then I worshiped you like a male god. Forget the smell of cigarettes, I would have loved the smell on you even if you hadn’t bathed for ten days. It’s different now. From now on, you’re mine. I want my person to live a few years longer. What’s wrong with that?”

“Bullshit.” Wei Qian stood up, clearly intending to deal with him personally.

Wei Zhiyuan hurried back into a corner, both hands clutching at his own collar. “Don’t come over! If you come over, I’m taking my clothes off!”

Wei Qian: “…”

Wei Zhiyuan flashed a grin, showing his little tiger teeth. “Learned it from my roommate. Black guy, exhibitionist.”

“You spent all those years abroad and the only thing you learned from those foreign devils was striptease?” Wei Qian snapped, veins bulging on his forehead. “Go on then, strip if you’ve got the guts!”

Who would have thought Wei Zhiyuan really did have the guts. He proved it immediately, yanking his shirt out from under his sweater and tearing open a whole row of buttons so fast it was like lightning, then planting a hand on his belt. “There, I stripped. Want to watch me take off my pants too?”

At that exact moment, Song Xiaobao, who had just finished showing Alex around the local scenic spots, pushed the front door open.

The instant she saw that scene, she once again turned on the spot into a door plank wearing a horrified expression, freezing there in a ridiculous pose.

Alex poked his head out from behind her. His eyes rolled, and with his usual lack of filter he blurted out, “Wow! Rape! So intense, this is the first time I’ve seen it happen live!”

That sightseeing-tourist tone, like someone admiring the tidal bore on the Qiantang River, finally made Wei Qian fly into embarrassed rage. But right now it was inconvenient to go over and stomp Wei Zhiyuan in front of outsiders, and equally inconvenient to directly scold Xiao Bao’s guest to his face, so in the end he could only turn and go back into the room expressionlessly, slamming the door so hard it rang.

Wei Qian dropped heavily onto the bed and thought, These two damn little debt collectors.

Outside, Wei Zhiyuan calmly finished buttoning himself up, glanced at the two of them, and considerately did not disturb Song Xiaobao.

Ever since that morning when she had caught him spending the night in Wei Qian’s room, Song Xiaobao had started vanishing in mysterious ways under the pretext of “taking the fake foreign devil to tour the local famous attractions.”

Wei Zhiyuan knew she still found it hard to accept. In truth, anyone would find it hard to accept, wouldn’t they? The fact that she had not started wrecking things like San Pang had back then was already her showing a lot of consideration.

A minute later, Song Xiaobao came silently in through the door. With a numb expression, she shut the door behind Alex, then stood in the narrow entryway without even changing her shoes, and all of a sudden, with no warning whatsoever, let out an “Aoo!” and burst into tears.

It was real howling sobs, which startled both Alex and Wei Zhiyuan. Even Wei Qian, who had already gone back into his room, was alarmed. But after hesitating for a moment, he still did not come out. He only stood by the door, pulling the bedroom door open a crack and listening nervously to what was happening outside.

At a total loss, Alex gently patted her. “Lili? What is this for? Hey… stop crying, your face is all smeared.”

Song Xiaobao paid him no attention at all. She cried until she was almost too choked up to breathe, and when she was exhausted from crying, she slowly crouched down against the shoe cabinet and grabbed hold of Wei Zhiyuan’s pant leg, sobbing too hard to get the words out.

It took quite a while before her violent hiccuping sobs eased a little. Then Wei Zhiyuan finally made out her broken words. “I… I’m giving gege to you. Later on, don’t… don’t make him angry.”

Wei Zhiyuan crouched down too, reached out and pressed lightly on the top of her head, then asked gently in return, “When have I ever made him angry?”

“T-that’s… true too.” Song Xiaobao sniffed hard, sucking back the snot that was just about to run out, but then sorrow still welled up in her again. “Then in the future, will nobody dote on me anymore?”

Wei Zhiyuan laughed. “Nonsense.”

Song Xiaobao thought about it, and she also felt she was worrying over nothing. But she did not understand why she still felt so bad inside. Since childhood, the pain and entanglements around her had always seemed to have a layer between her and them. She had always ignored their existence. But now it seemed that, just like her late-maturing body, she had finally developed a late-maturing inner world too. The moment she vaguely brushed up against a little of it, she immediately panicked and did not know what to do.

So she stopped talking. Instead, she simply sat down on the floor and had one good, hearty cry, thinking that she might as well treat it as detox for beauty.

The temperature quickly plunged. Wei Qian’s cold seemed as if it simply would not heal completely. No matter whether he took medicine or received Wei Zhiyuan’s meticulous, attentive care, that virus seemed determined to stay on him for all seven times seven, forty-nine days.

Wei Qian soon stopped taking it to heart, because things over in A City were progressing smoothly. The suspicious people quickly scattered like birds and beasts, and one after another, several cases serious enough to count as criminal offenses were exposed on Wang Dongliang’s side. He was close to being stretched thin, and everyone felt thoroughly delighted to see it.

Meanwhile, Ma Chunming’s team also began operating with extremely high efficiency. Once the proposal was delivered to the A City government, the mayor personally invited San Pang, who had stayed behind there, to a meal. His attitude was exceedingly warm, as if overnight he and San Pang had become friends despite the difference in their ages.

A heavy snowfall came that day. When Wei Qian left work, he saw Ma Chunming still working overtime, so he reminded him to be careful on the road, then turned up his collar and went back.

The snow kept falling harder and harder. The weather forecast had already started issuing extreme weather warnings, and then, around ten that night, Wei Qian suddenly received a phone call from Ma Chunming.

Ma Chunming rarely disturbed him over non-work matters. Mainly, the two of them did not really have much to say to each other. But this time, Ma Chunming was practically crying on the other end. “Boss, save me.”

Wei Qian was startled and thought something had happened to the company.

Then Ma Chunming said, “I fell into a sewer.”

Wei Qian: “…What?”

Ma Chunming had really fallen into a sewer. He was not joking.

Wei Zhiyuan absolutely refused to let Wei Qian go out. After the two of them struggled back and forth for a while, Wei Zhiyuan pulled a dirty trick, locked Wei Qian inside the house from the outside, and drove off by himself to rescue that damned big monkey.

By the time he found Ma Chunming, passersby who had gathered around had already sent him to the hospital.

Heavy snow had buried the entire city. In the thickest places it could cover a person’s ankles. Ma Chunming had been trudging along the roadside, one step deep and one step shallow, when he accidentally stepped into an open manhole.

Fortunately, his life was tough. In the midst of his frantic flailing, only half his body went in. He broke his leg in the fall, but at least he had not vanished directly into the city’s sewer system.

His bag had fallen in and could not be found, and he did not have a penny on him, so Wei Zhiyuan had no choice but to pay his hospital fees for him.

Ma Chunming lay on the hospital bed with a face full of utter despair. Wei Zhiyuan was not familiar with him and did not have much to ask, so he could only go back first. It was not until daylight the next day that Wei Qian went to the hospital to look in on him and ask what had happened.

“My car went in for repairs yesterday. I’d originally planned to just take the subway home.” Ma Chunming spoke incoherently. “But she… my ex-wife, she called me and said… said she was sick. New Year’s was almost here, and I…”

“So you went out into the heavy snow, and then fell in,” Wei Qian said.

Ma Chunming squeezed out a desolate smile, one of those half-dead, half-alive gloomy smiles.

Wei Qian coughed heavily into his thick scarf a few times. “Serves you right.”

Ma Chunming leaned back and flopped hard onto the bed, muttering, “I gave her everything I had to give. From now on, my love is dead.”

Wei Qian said without the slightest sympathy, “Then you ought to go die pathetically right along with it.”

Ma Chunming picked up the pillow from the hospital bed and, in outrageous insubordination, hurled it at his boss, venting his anger as he said, “I can see it now. A pervert like you, cold-hearted and heartless, is just like her. People like you are born only to let others down!”

Wei Qian caught the pillow he had thrown over. Before he could deal with Ma Chunming for daring to rebel against his superior, he first reflexively glanced at Wei Zhiyuan.

Wei Zhiyuan seemed to have been waiting for that glance. He gave Wei Qian a meaningful smile.

After that day, they had not had any further physical contact. At most, Wei Zhiyuan would occasionally make a few verbal jokes. He had remained properly behaved the whole time and had not done anything at all to pressure him.

And now, from that look in his eyes, Wei Qian suddenly saw that kind of expectant waiting.