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Wenren Yan's analysis left Wenren Jing speechless. He knew that, given the current domestic climate, layoffs and production-line cuts were unavoidable. But most of Wenren Heavy Industry's employees were veterans who had fought alongside him to build the company. From their teens and twenties onward, they had devoted their youth, most of their lives, to Wenren Heavy Industry. During the busiest periods, they worked three shifts around the clock every day without ever complaining of hardship or fatigue. Their efforts had laid the foundation of Wenren Group. Now that Wenren Heavy Industry was in trouble, everyone should pull together and get through the crisis. How could Wenren Jing bring himself to lay off these veteran employees? He could not bear to do it either.

"They're all old hands who built this empire alongside the Wenren Family. Many of them are highly skilled Grade Eight workers—you couldn't even recruit people like them from outside. Besides, now that the company is struggling, they've all agreed to take pay cuts. We'll share the hardship and get through this together."

"Exactly!" Zhao Mingli chimed in. "Our employees aren't afraid of hardship or exhaustion. Everyone is united and working toward the same goal. They understand Wenren Heavy Industry's current difficulties too. They were the ones who voluntarily proposed the pay cuts."

The other shareholders voiced their agreement as well.

Wenren Yan had never understood this mentality. Running a business was not child's play. Employees worked diligently, and the company paid them fair wages and compensation. It should have been a straightforward exchange of labor for pay. Yet Wenren Jing, along with most of Wenren Group's shareholders and senior executives, always liked to talk about feelings. It had been the same when Wenren Yan wanted to implement professional managers and internationally standardized management systems within the group. Clearly, managing the company through systems would have been more efficient and less troublesome, but Wenren Jing insisted that such a management model was too cold and impersonal. If they had not compromised for the sake of going public, Wenren Yan reckoned that Wenren Group would still be run like a brotherhood from the martial world.

This was also an important reason why Wenren Yan had never been optimistic about Wenren Heavy Industry. Compared with the various difficulties Wenren Heavy Industry currently faced, Wenren Yan had always believed that Wenren Group's outdated management mindset and bloated staff structure were the more fatal risks.

"Before we talk about feelings, should we consider reality?" Wenren Yan clasped his hands on the conference table. He was growing impatient, but his expression revealed nothing. "Allow me to remind you that Wenren Heavy Industry's current predicament is its forty billion yuan bank loan being called in."

With that forty billion yuan loan, the annual interest payments alone amounted to hundreds of millions. Wenren Group's predicament was that it could not even come up with that one-plus billion yuan now.

At Wenren Yan's words, the noise in the conference room came to an abrupt halt.

After a long while, Zhao Mingli forced himself to speak. "Isn't that why we brought you back? Yan Feng Capital is renowned on Wall Street. I hear the cash flow you can mobilize can reach tens of billions of U.S. dollars. As long as Yan Feng Capital is willing to inject capital into Wenren Heavy Industry, our current predicament will be solved immediately."

The other shareholders nodded in agreement. None of them could understand why, when it was such a simple matter, Wenren Yan insisted on selling Wenren Heavy Industry—it was something Wenren Yan would inherit in the future anyway. They were family, so why draw such clear lines?

"I also have to answer to Yan Feng Capital's interests." Wenren Yan's long fingers tapped the tabletop. "Tell me, how am I supposed to persuade Yan Feng Capital's major clients to invest forty billion yuan under the current policy environment in a heavy-industry enterprise that has already seen its best days?"

"Putting in money is easy. Tell me, where will the return on capital for this project come from over the next few years?"

"Yan Feng Capital also has to prepare annual reports and answer to all of its major clients."

Wenren Yan's words were too sharp, leaving every shareholder in the conference room unable to say a word. After a while, Tian Xinjian, chairman of Wenren Heavy Industry's labor union, cleared his throat. "Well, let me say something."

Wenren Yan's gaze settled politely on Tian Xinjian's face. Meeting Wenren Yan's overly profound eyes, Tian Xinjian's heart inexplicably skipped a beat. He actually felt a heavy pressure that he had never even sensed from the old chairman. Tian Xinjian understood that it was pressure from capital. And this overly scrutinizing, calculating gaze was something they had seen plenty of over the past few years, when Wenren Group had been seeking investment everywhere.

He just had not expected that one day, he would see it in the old chairman's son—the future heir of Wenren Group.

"I want to say—" Tian Xinjian had barely begun when he was suddenly interrupted by a commotion outside the conference room. The tightly shut doors were thrown open with a bang, and a group of frontline workers in gray uniforms burst in. They demanded angrily, "I heard you're going to sell Wenren Heavy Industry?"

All the shareholders turned to look at Wenren Yan in unison.

Wenren Yan frowned slightly and said gently, "Everyone, rest assured. Even if Wenren Heavy Industry is sold, we will properly handle the placement of every employee. We will provide compensation and severance pay according to the highest domestic standards. If anyone has questions or demands, you may raise them with Wenren Group's human resources department and lawyers. We will do our best to meet them—"

"Who needs that?" An old worker who looked to be in his fifties, his face covered in wrinkles, rudely cut Wenren Yan off. "I don't want any compensation. I only want Wenren Heavy Industry. You can't sell Wenren Heavy Industry."

"Exactly! You can't sell it!"

"Who the hell are you? We brought you back to save Wenren Heavy Industry, not to sell off the foundation of Wenren Group. You little brat, selling your grandfather's fields without a care! Do you know how important Wenren Heavy Industry is to Wenren Group? It's the pillar of Wenren Group, its symbol."

"Profits fell twenty percent in the first half of the year. Revenue is only one-sixth of what it was a few years ago. Bank loans exceed forty billion yuan." Wenren Yan listed several figures, then delivered his conclusion in a light tone that nonetheless carried immense weight. "Wenren Heavy Industry has now become a burden on Wenren Group."

The arguments and complaints in the conference room suddenly vanished.

After a long while, the veteran worker who had just been shouting at Wenren Yan not to sell Wenren Heavy Industry broke down in tears. "I joined Wenren Heavy Industry when I was eighteen. I'm a Grade Eight worker. I've worked at Wenren Heavy Industry for twenty-six years. When the old chairman got married, we drove a whole fleet of concrete pump trucks to pick up the bride. When you were born, the entire construction site hung red silk and set off firecrackers to celebrate. We've always treated Wenren Group as our own home. We once made Wenren Group profits of tens of billions. Yes, we're useless now. We've fallen behind, we don't make money anymore, and we even need the group to subsidize us. But we never wanted this either! You can't throw us away like broken junk."