After the Divorce, I Could Hear the Voice of the Future

The next morning, Lu Liang arranged to meet Zhuang Wei at the hotel restaurant, and the two headed to the Detroit factory.

A year ago, Zhuang Wei, as the leader of the Tianxing Automobile exchange group, led 28 members to the United States.

Now, after the one-year exchange period, he is also about to return to the country, but of the original 28 exchange members, only 25 remain.

"Tong Bitao, Wei Jialiang, Chen Haodong, they're planning to stay," Zhuang Wei said, feeling ashamed, unable to face Lu Liang.

At the time, to select members with better learning abilities, they were chosen from recent graduates from renowned 985 universities like Harbin Institute of Technology, University of Science and Technology, and Nanli University, and then 28 exchange group members were selected from that batch.

It can be said that Lu Liang had high hopes for them and never mistreated them, offering each a monthly living allowance of 2000 US Dollars, enough to cover their daily expenses with some left over.

Zhuang Wei thought that joining such a good company and having such a good boss, those past incidents shouldn't happen again, yet reality once again hit him hard.

During the nearing end of the exchange period, the three applied for visa extensions to the United States, as graduates from 985 universities and Tianxing Automobile technical exchange students.

Officially, they wanted to further their studies, but Zhuang Wei was no naive fool; he knew very well what this meant.

Unless unexpectedly, until they obtain their green cards, they won't return to the country; many of Zhuang Wei's classmates stayed like this back then.

Despite the United States particularly resisting foreign immigrants since Trump took office, the ones they resist are border Mexicans and Africans; for highly skilled talents who are particularly hardworking and resilient, they still welcome them with open arms.

Otherwise, Zhuang Wei wouldn't have known about their visa extension approval until it was passed, but should have been notified when they applied.

"Where are they?" Lu Liang furrowed his brows.

"Still at the factory, saying they want to give their last performance," Zhuang Wei sighed, his tone carrying a hint of mockery.

They understood they let the company down, trying to make themselves feel better through this way.

Little did they know that this contribution, compared to the company's investment in them, was just a drop in the ocean.

"Let's go, we'll swing by to see."

Lu Liang smiled and left the hotel with Zhuang Wei, heading to the super factory away from the city.

Detroit is located in the upper middle-right region of the North American Continent; there's nothing much here except endless yellow land.

Although the United States covers only 9.37 million square kilometers, smaller than our country by tens of thousands of square kilometers, the whole central region is flat land, larger than the non-free-shipping regions plus the total area of the three eastern provinces, where tumbleweed can even flood, enough to prove how flat the terrain is here.

Just like our country has tumbleweeds too, but they're only the size of a fist at most, because as they drift they'll get caught on the mountains or blocked by residential buildings, unable to form a growing snowball effect.

The General Tianxing super factory covers an area of 3.18 million square meters, 2.28 times larger than Tianxing Automobile's park in Su City.

As soon as the vehicle stopped at the factory entrance, a blonde lady in a fitted skirt ran up with a smile: "Mr. Lu, I am Meris, Mr. Flannery's secretary. The company has a bit of an urgent matter that needs Mr. Flannery's attention, he specifically asked me to wait for you."

Accompanying her were several people in suits, seemingly factory management personnel. Zhuang Wei cheerfully greeted and introduced, "Mr. Lu, this is workshop director Chris, and this is factory manager Davidson, and secretary Flan."

The United States factories don't have positions like director and secretary; these are specially appointed positions from East Country, but the roles they handle are similar, hence using terms Lu Liang could understand.

"Hello." Lu Liang slightly nodded, boarded the sightseeing vehicle, going from the warehouse to the assembly plant and then to the research department.

The first impression this factory gave him was chaos, the second was size, with absurdly unreasonable distribution among various departments, but all compensated by the factory's large area.

Even a random main road was wide enough for a 17-meter semi-trailer to turn around, and the unreasonable distribution among departments turned reasonable.

They casually wandered around for more than an hour, finally arriving at the research department, where they met all Tianxing Automobile exchange group members.

"Hello everyone, long time no see, how's it been recently?"

Lu Liang cheerfully greeted them, able to accurately call out everyone's name and chat a bit: "Wu Junjie, you've gained weight again, it seems General Motors has pretty good meals."

"Ma Guolong, don't always hunch your back, don't end up hunched over at a young age."

On the way to the factory, Lu Liang silently recalled these people's appearances and names.

They were carefully selected blooms of the motherland, destined to become the backbone of the company in just a few years.

Having just graduated and sent to the United States for further studies, they haven't entered the workforce nor been polluted by society.

Each of them had clear yet naive eyes like students; as long as you treat them kindly, even just remembering their names would cause them to be tremendously excited, eager to repay with their utmost effort.

And indeed it was the case, everyone whose name Lu Liang called was eagerly gripping their thigh, their eyes filled with admiration.

Some even brazenly asked, "Mr. Lu, we saw the news, you seem to have made a fortune, will you treat us to a meal?"

"That's a small matter, after a year of hard studies, it's time to relax a little," Lu Liang laughed and said, "At the end of the month, when you return home, I'll have Zhuang Wei allocate some funds for you to visit Atlantic City, and you can buy some souvenirs to take home."

"Mr. Lu, amazing!"

"Mr. Lu, mighty and domineering~"

"Mr. Lu, I love you."

Lu Liang seriously refused: "Not into bromance."

As soon as he said this, everyone laughed even more joyfully, but a group of people's celebration was the solitude of a few.

The three planning to stay exchanged a glance, each showing an awkward smile, out of place with the others.

"Everyone get busy, I'm just here to check on you, about time to leave, the American version of Tianshu is launching this afternoon."

Lu Liang waved with a smile and said: "Next time we meet will be in the country, I'll be waiting for you at home."

Just as he left, Zhuang Wei returned.

He announced with a smile: "Starting from the 25th, we'll have a three-day vacation, we're going to Atlantic City, each of you will have a spending bonus of 10,000 US Dollars, which won't count against the group funds and won't affect the company's rewards after returning home.

It's a treat from Mr. Lu out of his own pocket, but he requests that each person must spend their entire limit, no cashing out allowed.

After three fun days in Atlantic City, we'll directly board the plane back home."

As soon as he finished speaking, deafening cheers erupted in the office, almost lifting the ceiling.

Foreign colleagues in the neighboring department were puzzled, until someone helped translate, they all showed expressions of envy.

Many sprouted thoughts of job hopping, and some even asked secretly, "Tong, is your company hiring?"

Tong Bitao had a stern face, but seeing that the person was a foreigner, forced a smile: "I'm not sure about that."

Amidst the cheers, Zhuang Wei silently approached them and whispered: "Bitao, Jialiang, Haodong, Mr. Lu is waiting for you at the door."

The few were startled, expressions varied, bowed heads followed Zhuang Wei out of the office.

At the end of the corridor outside the office, there was an open balcony, with a figure standing there.

The few approached feeling like schoolchildren who had misbehaved, now nervously waiting outside their homes after being reported to parents.

Upon hearing footsteps behind him, Lu Liang turned around, glanced at Zhuang Wei, gesturing him to go away.

He looked at the three, the oldest being Tong Bitao, 24 years old this year, Wei Jialiang and Chen Haodong were both 23.

Lu Liang softly asked: "Have you thought it over?"

Tong Bitao remained silent for a long time and then said solemnly: "Mr. Lu, I was born in rural Baoding, north of Baoding, in the county very close to Beijing. I remember as a child I often rode my bike to play there and made a good friend.

At that time I thought there was no difference between him and me, except their houses were prettier, infrastructure more complete. Sometimes we had power and water outages, but they didn't, only that.

Until I went to middle school did I realize that just one county apart, just one difference in household registration, I had to work ten times, even a hundred times harder to get the same educational resources as them.

From then I swore to get out, I didn't want my next generation to experience such pain..."

Tong Bitao's voice gradually choked up, yet his eyes grew increasingly determined, he wasn't just persuading Lu Liang, but himself too.

"So you think staying here is better than returning home?" Lu Liang's expression remained calm.

"Yes." Tong Bitao nodded, still trying to convince himself: "At least my next generation, if he wants to return home, would only need to exert half the effort of his peers in the country, or even not, to enter the best schools and receive the best educational resources."

Lu Liang looked at Wei Jialiang and Chen Haodong, asking: "Do you think the same?"

The two lowered their heads, not daring to meet Lu Liang's eyes, answering with silence.

Lu Liang smiled, patted their shoulders: "Wish you fulfillment."

He left, decisively,

Without a word of persuasion.

The three left behind exchanged a glance, suddenly feeling an emptiness, like they'd lost something.

Did they make a mistake?

They weren't wrong! Nor could they be.