Xiao Liang tapped the table and said to Zhang Feili with deliberate seriousness,

“Zhang Feili, Section Chief Wu, don’t zone out. The workflow I’m writing will be detailed enough, but the real essence of sales management—the stuff that actually matters—I won’t be putting into it. There’s too much of it, and a document can’t hold it all. That kind of thing can only be passed on bit by bit—over meals like this, or in everyday conversations.

“Like Section Chief Xu mentioned earlier: when we push into regional markets and lay down inventory, the first step is reconnecting with distributors, wholesalers, and all kinds of retail outlets—shops, city malls, restaurants, bars. But in the end, our products face the consumers. Different targets require different strategies—how to approach them, how to break through their defenses, and what makes each group tick. That’s what we need to focus on beyond the workflow itself.

“That’s also what we should be discussing during this preparation period. The more thoroughly we analyze and debate, the more prepared we’ll be for this last-ditch fight. Otherwise, once the town approves my unpaid leave, we’ll just rush out blindly. Charging in without even knowing what the enemy looks like or what tricks they have—how could we not get wiped out?

“Director Gu only gave us two months to earn that bonus. We don’t have time to go out, smash our heads against the wall, and then sit back to reflect.”

The past two days of intense meetings had only scratched the surface—mapping out the factory’s overall production and operational processes. That included marketing and distribution, but only at the level of procedure.

And procedures alone weren’t enough.

Even if Liu Weiwei and Xu Xiaodong followed them perfectly, they were still far from qualifying as core team members. Fortunately, the overall management standards of the era were fairly low, leaving them plenty of room to grow. As long as they were just a little better than their peers at any given moment, they wouldn’t fall behind.

Of course, that still depended on their willingness to learn and improve.

They ate for nearly an hour and a half—no alcohol, just a slow, dragging meal—before Xiao Liang sent Xu Xiaodong downstairs to call Shen Qimin back up to collect the dishes.

Xiao Liang had already drafted the workflow. The rest he left to Xu Lihuan and the others to refine, while he went to Gu Peijun’s office for a smoke.

“Shen Qimin came looking for me yesterday,” Gu Peijun said with a chuckle. “I ignored him. Back there, in front of Xu Lihuan and the others, I didn’t bring it up—I’ve still got to maintain some dignity as factory director, you know.”

He leaned back in his chair.

“Those dishes he brought today were the real deal. You only gave him fifty yuan—that’s a bit stingy. I thought you’d at least give him a hundred.”

“Even if I paid ten, I still paid,” Xiao Liang said lightly. “That way I don’t owe him anything.”

Then he added with a self-mocking sigh,

“My skin’s still not thick enough. I gave him too much.”

…

…

With limited manpower and almost no budget for advertising, no one needed Xiao Liang to push the decision. Everyone agreed to concentrate all their efforts on Xijiang City—the most economically developed area in Jiang Province—and make one all-or-nothing gamble there.

Xiao Liang had Xu Lihuan lead the team ahead to Xijiang. After completing the paperwork for his unpaid leave, he made a special trip home to persuade his parents to let his older brother take unpaid leave as well.

After everything their family had been through over the past two years, the idea of both brothers stepping away from secure government jobs—or even resigning outright—didn’t trouble Ge Minglan as much as it might have before.

But when she learned that Xiao Liang had added harsh internal betting conditions on top of the restructuring plan, she couldn’t hold back.

“This is an impossible task,” she said. “If it fails, how are you going to make good on your promise?”

Xiao Liang wanted his brother to take leave not only to handle the health supplement formulas and production processes, but also to work closely with Gu Peijun and familiarize himself with the factory’s production lines.

After all, any process had to be realized on actual production lines—otherwise, it was just empty theory.

With that, there was no way to hide the internal betting agreement from the family. His brother trusted him, but not to the extent of keeping something like this secret.

So Xiao Liang laid it all out.

Faced with his mother’s concern, he simply spread his hands.

“I never planned to make good on it.”

Ge Minglan froze, staring at him in confusion, then turned to her husband.

“What does that even mean? I don’t understand.”

Xiao Liang glanced at his father, who was already frowning slightly, and asked with a faint smile,

“When Xiang Yu crossed the river and smashed his cauldrons, when Han Xin lined up his troops with their backs to the river—if they had lost, would they have died together with the enemy on the far bank? Or do you think one of them secretly kept a boat ready to escape?”

“You’re saying your ‘guarantee’ is just talk?” Xiao Changhua asked, stroking his stubble.

“I’m young. I’ve been in township work less than two years. If I go to Xijiang to lead a team without that kind of all-in momentum, I won’t be able to keep people in line,” Xiao Liang said.

He shrugged.

“But if it really fails, what are they going to do—carve flesh off me to pay them back?”

Ge Minglan stared at her son as if seeing him for the first time.

“So you’re saying you never intended to honor your promise?”

“Two years ago, in the Chen Fushan case, Dad was completely innocent. Why was he still removed from his post and sidelined? And this time—why did something like this happen to me?” Xiao Liang said quietly.

“After I escaped that crash, I kept thinking about it. About how people take advantage of our decency, our kindness, our need to save face. This world… sometimes being too decent, too concerned with dignity, just makes you easy to exploit.”

He paused, softening his tone.

“I’m not saying I’ll abandon my principles. But this time, yes—I’m bluffing. Because I have to. If we don’t fight like our lives depend on it, those five or six million yuan of inventory will rot in the warehouse in a few months. And the factory—along with the livelihoods of hundreds of people—will be finished.

“If I use a bit of cunning, tell a lie to push things forward, I won’t feel guilty about it. And two months from now, even if we don’t hit the exact target, as long as we’ve made real progress and brought the factory back to life, no one will hold me to it.”

“And what if they do?” Ge Minglan pressed. “What if someone won’t let it go?”

“Yeah,” Xiao Xiao added, frowning. “What then?”

Xiao Liang turned to his father.

“What do you think?”

Xiao Changhua sighed softly.

“If you truly don’t care, then others won’t be able to hold it against you.”

Xiao Liang broke into a laugh.

“Finally, you get it, Dad.”

He glanced at his watch.

“I’ve got a long-distance bus to Xijiang at two. No time to keep chatting.”