Cangmang Asks the Way 1: Guardian of the Lamp

In August, the southern part of the city was sweltering, like a sauna. The leaves of the sycamore tree outside the office window were curled up by the sun, and the cicadas chirped incessantly from morning till night. The office that Zhongzhi Construction rented in the south of the city was small, with a boss's desk, a few folding chairs, and two cases of mineral water piled in the corner. The electric fan whirred, making the reports on the desk rustle.

Cang Lifeng sat at the table, a draft of the company's articles of association spread out in front of him, which Lu Wenyuan had spent several nights writing. He had already read it twice.

"Brother, there are a few qualification application materials that need your signature." Lu Wenyuan pushed open the door and came in with a stack of documents in his hand.

Cang Lifeng took the documents, flipped through them, and signed them. Lu Wenyuan put away the materials but didn't leave. He sat down opposite Cang Lifeng, took out a notebook from his bag, and opened it.

"Brother, I've drafted a management system for the company's legal, human resources, and finance departments. We don't have many people now, so it doesn't need to be too complicated, but the framework is necessary. With this system in place, things won't get chaotic when there are more people later."

He pushed it towards him. Cang Lifeng looked down and examined it closely. The handwriting on the notebook was as neat as if it had been printed, and the table of contents was marked with a clearly structured diagram in red pen, like an open net. After a while, he looked up and said:

"Thank you for your hard work, Wenyuan. This policy you drafted is very detailed. Go and call Brother Wang, and the three of us will go through it first. After that, we'll call a meeting with all the workers, read it aloud to everyone, and raise any opinions on the spot so we can make changes immediately. After it's finalized, everyone will sign it."

Lu Wenyuan raised his head and gave Cang Lifeng a deep look. He thought his elder brother would just glance at it and sign it off, but he didn't expect him to make all the workers review each clause and involve everyone in the formulation of the rules. His elder brother was treating all the employees like his own family.

That afternoon, Cang Lifeng, Lu Wenyuan, and Wang Lide sat in the office for the entire afternoon. Lu Wenyuan read each clause aloud, Cang Lifeng asked questions about each clause, and Wang Lide checked each clause. Regarding the financial clauses, Wang Lide took out Jinzhou's old ledgers and explained each clause against the others—which were the pitfalls Jinzhou had encountered, and which were the absolute boundaries that Zhongzhi had to adhere to. The financial clauses were revised three times, the personnel clauses twice, and the boundaries of responsibility for project management were repeatedly reviewed four times, continuing until dark.

The next morning, after cleaning the meeting room, all the workers were gathered. There were about twenty people, including Da Zhou, Lao Zhang, Xiao Zhang, Master Li, and Master Zhao. Cang Lifeng personally presided over the meeting, and Lu Wenyuan read out the regulations clause by clause, asking after each clause, "Any objections?" Most of the time, no one spoke, but when the clause on workers' compensation was read, Lao Zhang raised his hand: "Besides insurance reimbursement, the company will provide an additional payment for workers' injuries—how is this amount calculated?"

After Lu Wenyuan explained, Old Zhang nodded. When the clause about stopping work due to high temperatures came up, Da Zhou asked, "What if we have to stop work from 2 PM to 4 PM? What if we need to meet the deadline?"

Cang Lifeng said, "We can't let people get heatstroke while rushing to meet the deadline. We should start work early in the morning and work a little longer in the evening to make up for the lost time." Da Zhou remained silent.

From beginning to end, no one objected. After the system was approved, Lu Wenyuan laid the final draft on the table and was the first to sign it. Then came Cang Lifeng, Wang Lide, Da Zhou, Lao Zhang, Xiao Zhang... Everyone in the meeting room that day signed one by one, totaling three pages.

After signing, Cang Lifeng carefully put away the original copy of the regulations. He straightened up, looked at his brothers gathered around the table, and said:

"This policy was decided and signed by us together. I suggest that we take the signature page to GG Company to make a copy, seal it, and hang it on the wall of this office."

He paused, his gaze slowly sweeping across Old Li's face, then over Da Zhou, Old Zhang, and Little Zhang, finally settling on Wang Lide.

"It's not for others to see, it's for us to see."

He raised his hand and pointed to the row of signatures.

"Old Li, sign your name here. You were my first mentor on the construction site, and the first person to teach me how to identify materials. Later, you took a wrong step, but you came back. On this system, your name is 'Turning Back'."

His hand moved toward the signature next to him.

"Da Zhou, Lao Zhang, you didn't leave the construction team during its toughest times, and you were the first to arrive when the team had nothing. On this system, your name is 'Never Apart'."

His hand moved to Xiao Zhang's signature.

"Xiao Zhang, your leg hasn't fully healed yet. When you were trapped under the collapsed floorboards, I was standing on the rubble, and there was only one thing on my mind—to rescue people. You sign here; this name means 'alive.'"

His hand stopped on Wang Lide's signature.

"Brother Wang, you didn't have to stand up. Sister-in-law Ayun said that every day we live now is given to us by Cang Lifeng. You stood up not because you owe me, but because you couldn't get over your conscience. In this system, your name is 'conscience'."

He withdrew his hand, turned around, and faced everyone.

"The system is established, the rules are set, but rules are rigid, while people are flexible. What does a company rely on to unite people's hearts? It's not the boss alone, but everyone knowing why they are here and what they are here for."

"Someone just asked what to do if we have to stop work from 2 pm to 4 pm to meet the deadline. I said, even when we're rushing to meet the deadline, we can't let people get heatstroke. I didn't just say that on the spot. My father is an honest, hardworking farmer. Our family has always been poor. The principle that poor people shouldn't make things difficult for other poor people is the most important thing in our family."

"So today I want to say something to everyone. I've been thinking about this for a long time. I've been pondering it ever since the idea of ​​unity was just a thought. Today the system is in place, and everyone is here, it's time to say it out loud."

The meeting room fell silent. A breeze from the fan gently ruffled the pages of policy documents on the table, which Lu Wenyuan quickly pressed down. Wang Lide removed his glasses and lowered his head. Old Li squatted in the corner, his rough fingers unconsciously fidgeting with the hem of his clothes. Da Zhou crossed his arms, his lips pressed into a thin line. Xiao Zhang leaned on his cane, his eyes fixed intently on Cang Lifeng.

"Unity is our home, and our home is in unity."

Cang Lifeng read it softly. His voice was not loud, but every word carried immense weight.

What does family mean? Family isn't about one person making all the decisions; it's about everyone caring about each other's well-being. Family isn't about passing the buck when things go wrong; it's about sharing the burden together when the sky falls. Family isn't about who's the most capable; it's about everyone being indispensable and inseparable from each other.

He looked at Old Li and said emotionally, "Uncle Li taught me how to identify materials. Without him, I wouldn't even be able to distinguish the cement grade. He is my mentor, and also the mentor of Zhongzhi."

He looked at Da Zhou and Lao Zhang: "You didn't leave when the construction team was going through the toughest time. Without you, none of us would be sitting here today."

He looked at Wang Lide: "The ledger that Brother Wang brought has given us a clear picture of the mess in Jinzhou. Without him, we wouldn't even have been able to take on the mining machine factory project."

He looked at Lu Wenyuan: "Wenyuan is a graduate student at Nanjing University. He could have gone to a bank or a government agency, but he came to Zhongzhi. He came not because I gave him a lot of money, but because he believed that our path was viable."

He withdrew his gaze and looked at everyone in front of him.

"Each of you is the root of our cause. Without roots, a tree cannot live. Without you, our cause is just an empty shell."

"Unity is our home, and our home is in unity," he proclaimed loudly. After finishing, his bright gaze slowly swept across the room, and he announced loudly, "I propose that these eight characters be adopted as our company's philosophy. Let's make them into eight large characters, encapsulate them, and hang them above this document. What do you all think?"

"Agreed!" they shouted. Tears welled up in everyone's eyes.

"This wall will stand here from today onwards," Cang Lifeng continued. "When the company grows bigger and we move to a new office, we'll take it down, bring it to the new place, and hang it up again. No matter how many years pass, no matter how big the company becomes—when new employees ask, 'Who signed this?'"

He looked at the three pages and read through each name one by one.

"It's us."

"Everyone here is a supervisor of the company. The rules are posted here, not just for show. You can always look at them and see if I, Cang Lifeng, have acted in accordance with the rules, and whether Zhongzhi has deviated from today's promises. I, Lifeng, am saying this here today: If one day in the future I forget what I said today, you can ask me about it by looking at the words on this wall."

There was a moment of silence in the conference room. Old Li suddenly turned his face away, lowered his head, and shrugged. Da Zhou lowered his head and rubbed his hand under his nose. Wang Lide took off his glasses, wiped the lenses with his sleeve, and put them back on.

Lu Wenyuan remained silent. He picked up the three pages of signed regulations, walked up to Cang Lifeng, and said:

"Brother, I'll take care of it. I know the owner of Qingyun GG at the street corner. Laminate, frame, hang it on the wall, it'll be done in two days."

Cang Lifeng nodded. Lu Wenyuan carefully rolled up the three pages, held them in his hand, and turned to leave the conference room.

Two days later, in the evening, Lu Wenyuan walked into the office carrying a framed item with an aluminum alloy border. The plastic film gleamed warmly in the setting sun, and three pages of signatures were neatly embedded inside. Each name was clear and fresh—some were written meticulously, some were crooked, one had a stroke broken in two, clearly indicating that the writer's hand was trembling, and next to another name, a drop of sweat had seeped in, the ink faintly spreading out like a tiny, grayish-blue flower.

Da Zhou pulled a piece of thin wire used for hanging things out of the drawer. Xiao Zhang, leaning on his cane, moved to the corner and cleared away the clutter piled on the old table, making room for something flat. Old Li silently took a measuring tape from his pocket, gestured on the wall for a while, and then marked a spot with a pencil.

"Here," he said, "right in the middle."

The sound of the nail being hammered in wasn't loud, but it was crisp. One, two, three times.

Lu Wenyuan carefully hung the framed document, stepped back, and looked at the regulations on the wall. The three pages hung neatly on the wall, the top page beginning with a line of powerful words: "Unity is our home, and our home is in unity."

"It's done," he said.

Cang Lifeng stood before the wall, silent. He stared at the framed names on the wall, each with a different handwriting. He didn't ask whose sweat had dripped from it. He simply gazed at the names for a long time. In his heart, it was more than just a set of rules; it was a weighty promise—a promise to himself, a promise to his brothers, a promise to the word "United Will."

Then he turned around, looked at the people in front of him, and said, "The system is in place, the walls are up, now we need to talk about funding."

He spread out the list of unfinished projects left by Jinzhou on the table and said, "The mining machinery factory dormitory building and the Chengnan Agricultural Wholesale Market, Wen Yuan, Brother Wang and I have already negotiated these two projects with the contracting parties. The mining machinery factory is a state-owned enterprise, and they are most afraid of finding another unreliable contractor. I brought copies of the news reports about last year's bank robbery and the press release from the Public Security Bureau. The Chengnan Agricultural Wholesale Market is a public welfare project, and the vendors have been calling the petition office to complain. The government is more anxious than we are. One project relies on trust, and the other relies on speed."

He looked at Wang Lide and said, "You know Director Wan Shoucheng well at the bank. You handled Jinzhou's loan back then, and Director Wan trusts you. The three of us will go together. I'll provide the credit guarantee, Wenyuan will submit the financing analysis report, and you'll handle the procedures."

Wang Lide nodded and said, "The procedures and plans for the loan are all clear. But that's not enough. We still need to maintain some goodwill with Director Wan. It doesn't have to be big, but it can't be small. Two bottles of good wine and a pack of cigarettes. It's the proper etiquette for a first visit."

Cang Lifeng nodded and said, "That's only right. Basic social interactions are still necessary."