Yu Jianguo worked at the tailor shop for five years. In his fifth year, he followed a portly merchant from Nuanzhou to do hardware business. He was still an apprentice, of course, but this apprenticeship was different from that in the tailor shop. In the tailor shop, the apprentice called the boss "Master," while in the hardware store, the clerk called the boss "General Manager."
Yu Jianguo was a diligent, hardworking, and resourceful man; otherwise, General Manager Yan, who could afford a car, wouldn't have brought him out of the tailor shop. He served the boss and customers with the same dedication he showed his master, serving tea, pouring water, and cleaning the toilets; he also applied the same patience he had for sewing buttons to inventory and bookkeeping. He quickly made a name for himself in the hardware store, becoming Boss Yan's most capable assistant. But this immediately offended the store's long-time employees and the boss's mistress.
Because the boss was very busy, often having to entertain clients and travel to the south to purchase goods, the shop's employees often took advantage of his absence to make some extra money or engage in shady dealings. However, since Yu Jianguo arrived, sales and inventory have been thoroughly investigated, and there's no more room for illicit activities. The veteran employees hate him to the Yu Jianguo is a clean and honest person with no major flaws, and the boss appreciates him, so they can't just fire him for no reason.
Boss Yan's home is in the south, and he keeps a mistress in this city. This woman is as docile as a cat in front of the boss, but turns into a shrew when he's not around. Knowing she'll never be promoted, she often secretly takes money from the store, and the older employees turn a blind eye. But after Yu Jianguo arrived, he kept perfect records of the accounts and inventory, without a single mistake. Although the woman was in charge of the accounts, she couldn't tamper with them under Yu Jianguo's watchful eye.
The old employee and his mistress conspired to get Yu Jianguo drunk, then pushed him towards the mistress. The mistress, revealing her shoulder, half-heartedly fell into Yu Jianguo's arms.
Yu Jianguo, a young man of seventeen or eighteen, couldn't resist this. Coupled with the alcohol, he acted rashly and grabbed his boss's mistress. When the boss returned, he witnessed this scene. The mistress screamed for help, saying that Yu Jianguo was abusing her. The employees also testified on the mistress's behalf, saying that Yu Jianguo had long harbored evil intentions, and that some people had seen him peeping at the boss's wife while she bathed several times, and so on.
Boss Yan lost his temper and slapped Yu Jianguo, sending him flying. The long-time employees, who had already disliked him, joined in the commotion and beat him up again at the store entrance.
Yu Jianguo was penniless and homeless, without even a coat, and was once again stranded on the streets in winter.
At that time, Yu Jianguo certainly didn't know Zhao Pengcheng. Zhao Pengcheng was still a kid running around in the mountains wearing open-crotch pants, but Yu Jianguo knew Zhao Pengcheng's father.
During the years he worked as an apprentice in the city, people from his village were still begging for food outside, including Zhao Pengcheng's father.
Zhao Pengcheng's father was more than ten years older Yu Jianguo, but they were considered to be of the same generation, Yu Jianguo called him Old Zhao. In the Yu Jianguo's apprenticeship, Old Zhao came to the city and met him once. Yu Jianguo asked him why he was begging for food again. Old Zhao said that the weather was bad this year, the harvest was poor, and his wife had given birth to another baby girl, so the family was struggling to make ends meet.
At that Yu Jianguo was just a young apprentice who didn't have to worry about anything but himself. But he still advised Old Zhao to stop begging, saying that working was better than begging. Old Zhao thought Yu Jianguo was right, so he left the begging group and started working as a laborer on a construction site in the city.
That winter, after Yu Jianhe and Shu Guo were beaten and starving for two days in the freezing cold, they had no choice but to go to the construction site to find Old Zhao. Old Zhao was very righteous and took him in without hesitation, letting him earn a living on the construction site. Yu Jianguo couldn't swallow the humiliation of being framed, so he worked especially hard, doing all kinds of work. The foreman saw that Yu Jianguo was thin, he was diligent, honest, and quick-witted, so he put him in charge of purchasing.
Yu Jianguo finally found an opportunity to take on the procurement of small hardware parts for the later stages of the entire project. This one deal turned his life around, and from then on, he started a serious business in hardware, ceramics, and sanitary ware, and opened his own shop.
He and Boss Yan became rivals, and the two companies engaged in fierce advertising and price wars, fighting to the death. In the end, Boss Yan was ruined by the falsified accounts made by his mistress.
Boss Yan's store inventory and funds had long been emptied by his unreliable employees and his mistress. When he was waging a price war with Yu Jianguo, the store stocked up on counterfeit goods to cover its losses and prevent exposure. Yu Jianguo was fully aware of this but kept quiet until they became increasingly audacious and all the funds were used to buy counterfeit goods. Only then did he anonymously report them to the Industry and Commerce Bureau and notify the media.
As a result, Boss Yan went bankrupt, and his mistress and the employees who beat Yu Jianguo were arrested and sentenced for crimes such as embezzlement and economic fraud. Yu Jianguo got his revenge and was in high spirits. Of course, he never imagined that he would one day end up in jail.
That same year, a stone beam broke off at the construction site, crushing Old Zhao's back.
Old Zhao could no longer do heavy work and had to leave the construction site. Yu Jianguo originally intended to let Old Zhao work for him, but Old Zhao could only do manual labor, and he was also a little homesick after being away from home for many years, so he took his savings and went back to the countryside.
Down-on-his-luck Boss Yan, burdened with debt, was dragged up from the cold railway tracks by Yu Jianguo. Yu Jianguo said, "You're a general manager, with a family and business in the south. How come you're acting like you're going to die just because one of your shops closed down?" Boss Yan replied that he had no family left. For his mistress, he had divorced his wife, all the assets in the south went to her, and the money he earned here had been squandered by his mistress. She had even lost a lot of money fighting a price war with him.
Yu Jianguo then told Boss Yan about how he had been framed, saying, "I've never forgotten Manager Yan kindness in bringing me into the business, Boss Yan. I'll pay off your debts for you. Let's work together. "Boss Yan burst into tears upon hearing this, the man in his fifties holding the young man on the train platform, sobbing uncontrollably.
Yu Jianguo and Manager Yan joined forces and quickly expanded their hardware and sanitary ware business. Yu Jianguo opened a branch in his hometown and became a prominent figure in that backward county.
He remembered the scene when he went to stay with Old Zhao in the dead of winter, and the bowl of spicy soup that Old Zhao cooked for him always warmed his heart. He had helped Old Zhao's family a lot, and he also paid for the school fees for his two children. But Old Zhao was a stubborn mule. He would accept occasional help, but if he received too much help, he would refuse it no matter what.
Later, Old Zhao told him, "Don't give me any more money. I'm too embarrassed to accept it. If you want to help, let Pengcheng work for you."
At that time, Zhao Pengcheng was about the same age as Yu Jianguo when they were apprentices at the tailor shop. Although Yu Jianguo felt that the boy should go to school, Old Zhao insisted, so he didn't say anything and just took Zhao Pengcheng away.
Zhao Pengcheng was also diligent and clever. Every time Yu Jianguo saw him, it was as if he saw his younger self. He said, "You'll have no future if you stay in the county town. Either go back to school, or go south with the librarian." So, he handed Zhao Pengcheng over to Old Yan and asked Old Yan to take him to Shenzhen to broaden his horizons.