After divorce, I can hear the voice of the future

Chapter 687 Observations at the Super Factory
The next morning, Lu Liang met Zhuang Wei at the hotel restaurant, and the two went to the factory in Detroit together.

A year ago, Zhuang Wei, as the head of the Tianxing Auto Exchange Group, led 28 members to the United States.

Now that his one-year exchange program is coming to an end, he is about to return to China. However, of the original 28 people in the exchange group, only 25 remain.

"Tong Bitao, Wei Jialiang, and Chen Haodong, they plan to stay." Zhuang Wei looked ashamed and couldn't face Lu Liang.

In order to select members with better learning abilities, they selected graduating students from prestigious 985 universities such as Harbin Institute of Technology, University of Science and Technology of China, and Nanjing University of Science and Technology. From that batch of graduating students, 28 exchange group members were selected.

It can be said that Lu Liang placed high hopes on them and never mistreated them. Each of them received a living allowance of $2000 per month, which covered their daily expenses and left them with some money.

Zhuang Wei thought that by joining such a good company and meeting such a good boss, those things from before wouldn't happen again, but reality still gave him a hard slap in the face.

With their exchange program nearing its end, the three applied for visa extensions in the United States as students from a prestigious 985 university and exchange students from Tianxing Automotive Technology.

He said he wanted to pursue further studies for a while. But Zhuang Wei wasn't some naive fool who knew nothing; he was very clear about what doing so meant.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, they will not return to China until they obtain their green cards, just as many of Zhuang Wei's classmates did in the past.

Although the United States has been particularly resistant to immigrants since Trump took office, they only target Hispanics and African Americans at the border. They still warmly welcome highly skilled and hardworking individuals with technical expertise.

Otherwise, Zhuang Wei wouldn't have waited until their visa extension was approved to find out; he should have received the notification when they applied.

"Where are they?" Lu Liang frowned.

"Still at the factory, saying he wants to stand firm at his post until the very end," Zhuang Wei sighed, his tone tinged with self-deprecation.

They knew they had let the company down and were trying to make themselves feel better this way.

Little did they know that this small amount of effort was just a drop in the ocean compared to the company's overall investment in them.

"Let's go, let's check it out on the way."

Lu Liang smiled and followed Zhuang Wei out of the hotel to the super factory far from the city center.

Detroit is located in the upper-middle part of the North American continent. It has nothing else to offer but endless yellow earth.

Although the United States is only 937 million square kilometers, which is hundreds of thousands of square kilometers smaller than China, the entire central region is a plain. It is larger than the combined area of ​​the three northeastern provinces and the region outside of China. The fact that tumbleweeds can spread like wildfire is enough to illustrate how flat the terrain is.

Just like tumbleweeds in China, they are at most the size of a fist, because they will eventually get stuck on a mountain or blocked by residential buildings, and cannot form a snowball effect that grows bigger and bigger.

The GM Tianxing Gigafactory covers an area of ​​318 million square meters, which is 2.28 times larger than Tianxing Auto's industrial park in Suzhou.

As soon as the car stopped at the factory gate, a blonde woman in a pencil skirt jogged up to him with a big smile: "Mr. Lu, I am Merris, Mr. Flannery's secretary. There is an urgent matter at the company that Mr. Flannery needs to handle, and he specifically instructed me to come and wait for you."

She was accompanied by several people in suits, who seemed to be factory managers. Zhuang Wei greeted them with a smile and introduced them: "President Lu, this is Chris, the workshop director, and this is Davidson, the factory manager, and Frant, the secretary."

American factories don't have the terms "director" or "secretary." These are unique positions at Dongda University, but their responsibilities are similar, so he used a term that Lu Liang could understand.

"Hello." Lu Liang bowed slightly, then transferred to a sightseeing bus, traveling from the warehouse to the assembly workshop and then to the research and development department.

His first impression of the factory was that it was chaotic, and secondly, it was huge. The distribution of various departments was extremely irrational, but the factory's large area made up for it.

Any main road can allow a 17-meter semi-trailer to make a U-turn, making even the most irrational departmental distribution seem reasonable.

The group toured around for over an hour before finally arriving at the R&D department, where they met all the members of the Tianxing Auto Exchange Group.

"Classmates, it's been a long time! How have you been?"

Lu Liang greeted everyone with a smile, able to accurately call out their names and chat for a few minutes: "Wu Junjie, you've gained weight again. It seems the food at General Motors is pretty good."

“Ma Guolong, don’t always hunch over. Don’t become a hunchback at such a young age.”

On the way to the factory, Lu Liang silently memorized the faces and names of these people.

They are all carefully selected flowers of the motherland, and they will become the backbone of the company in a few years.

He was sent to the United States for further studies right after graduation and has not yet entered the workforce or been corrupted by society.

They were all students whose eyes still revealed a clear and naive naivety. If you were kind to them, or even just remember their names, they would be extremely excited and would be willing to give their all, even die for them.

And that was indeed the case. Everyone whose name was called by Lu Liang excitedly clenched their thighs, their eyes filled with admiration.

Even more audacious, some boldly shouted, "Mr. Lu, we saw on the news that you seem to have made a fortune. Shouldn't you treat us to dinner?"

"It's nothing. You've studied hard for a year, you deserve a break." Lu Liang said with a smile, "You'll be going back to China at the end of the month. I'll approve some funding for Zhuang Wei so he can take you to Atlantic City and buy some souvenirs to take home."

"President Lu, you're awesome!" "President Lu, you're so powerful and commanding!"

"Mr. Lu, I love you."

Lu Liang solemnly refused: "I'm not into gay relationships."

These words made everyone laugh even harder, but the revelry of one group was the loneliness of a few.

The three who intended to stay exchanged glances and gave each other awkward smiles, feeling out of place with the others.

"Go ahead and get busy. I just came to see you all. I should be leaving soon. The US version of Tian Shu will be released this afternoon."

Lu Liang smiled and waved: "See you next time, back in China. I'll be waiting for you to come home."

He had barely left when Zhuang Wei turned back.

He announced some good news with a smile: "We'll be on vacation for three days starting on the 25th. We're going to Atlantic City, and each person will receive a $10,000 spending bonus. This money won't be included in the tour fee, nor will it affect the company bonus after we return home."

It was Mr. Lu who treated us out of his own pocket, but he had one condition: everyone had to spend their entire allowance and couldn't withdraw it in cash.

After three days of fun in Atlantic City, we boarded our flight home.

No sooner had he finished speaking than deafening cheers erupted in the office, nearly lifting the ceiling off.

The foreigners in the next department were confused until someone helped translate, and then they all showed envy.

One by one, the idea of ​​changing jobs arose, and some even secretly inquired, "Tong, is your company still hiring?"

Tong Bitao's face darkened, but when he saw that the visitor was a foreigner, he forced a smile: "I'm not too sure about that."

Amid the cheers, Zhuang Wei quietly approached them and whispered, "Bi Tao, Jia Liang, Hao Dong, President Lu is waiting for you at the door."

The group of people were taken aback, their expressions varied, and they silently followed Zhuang Wei out of the office with their heads down.

At the end of the corridor outside the office, there is an open-air balcony, where a figure stands.

The group of children were like students who had made mistakes at school and whose parents had been reported to the teacher, leaving them anxiously waiting at their doorsteps.

Hearing footsteps behind him, Lu Liang turned around, glanced at Zhuang Wei, and waved for him to leave first.

He looked at the three men. The oldest was Tong Bitao, who was 24 years old. Wei Jialiang and Chen Haodong were both 23 years old.

Lu Liang asked softly, "Have you thought it through?"

Tong Bitao remained silent for a long time before saying in a deep voice, "President Lu, I was born in a rural area of ​​Baoding in northern Hebei. Our county is very close to Beijing. I remember when I was a child, I often rode my bicycle there to play and made a good friend there."

At the time, I thought that I was no different from him, except that their houses were nicer and the infrastructure was more complete. Sometimes our house would have power and water outages, while theirs would not. That was all.

It wasn't until I entered junior high school that I realized that just because we were separated by a county and by a household registration, I would have to put in ten or even a hundred times more effort to get the same educational resources as them.

From that moment on, I vowed that I would get out of this mess, because I didn't want my children to experience that kind of pain...

Tong Bitao's voice gradually choked up, but his eyes became more and more determined. He was not only trying to persuade Lu Liang, but also trying to persuade himself.

"So you think staying is better than going back to China?" Lu Liang asked calmly.

“Yes.” Tong Bitao nodded, still trying to convince himself: “At least my next generation, if he wants to return to China, only needs to put in half the effort of his peers in China, or even none at all, to get into the best schools and receive the best educational resources.”

Lu Liang looked at Wei Jialiang and Chen Haodong and asked, "Is that what you think too?"

The two lowered their heads, not daring to look Lu Liang in the eye, and answered with silence.

Lu Liang smiled and patted them on the shoulder: "I wish you all the best."

He left, very decisively.
Not a single word was offered to persuade them to stay.

The three who remained looked at each other and suddenly felt an emptiness in their hearts, as if they had lost something.

Did they do something wrong?

They are not wrong! Nor can they be wrong.

(End of this chapter)