Lin Gaofeng's Glorious Four Months

Just as the country’s push to develop its cultural tourism industry was getting underway, Xue Zhiqiang, a well-known entrepreneur in Shaanxi Province, was making his mark in the liquor business. Hoping to secure several hundred million yuan in government project subsidies, President Xue spared no expense in planning to build a bottle-processing plant in his hometown. The company temporarily hired four young people with connections, one cashier and three apprentices, to learn pottery-making in Jingdezhen. The company promised them three months of paid training, after which they would return home to become workshop managers at the new factory!

While they were training in Jingdezhen, the boss, the HR manager, and officials from the local government and cultural department all came to visit. But everyone knew best what hurt them. In the end, the company’s whole arrangement had been nothing more than a test of the waters.

President Xue sent Lin Gaofeng to Jingdezhen to keep an eye on things, but he turned this privilege into an excuse to throw his weight around.

Lin Gaofeng was stingy and greedy, and went out of his way to make life difficult for Li Erlong, Wang Shaobo, and Tian Wa, the three apprentices. Hoping to get the company to pay him more, he started making trouble for the apprentices and anyone working for the company’s Jingdezhen subsidiary, filing false reports to make himself seem indispensable.

Later, Lin Gaofeng’s breach of the company’s trade secrets came to light. He received a formal reprimand and a pay cut, but refused to accept it. He secretly joined forces with President Chen of Jingdezhen to deceive the head office, falsifying accounts for equipment and raw-material purchases to embezzle more than a hundred thousand yuan. President Chen persuaded Lin Gaofeng to invest the stolen money in his company in Jingdezhen, but Lin Gaofeng had no business sense and was ultimately taken advantage of.

During this time, Lin Gaofeng’s arrogance led him to become involved with several young women. Later, when the company audited its books, President Chen was investigated and kicked out of Qiannianhong. The new shareholder was surnamed Tang and came from Tianjin. Lin Gaofeng was unhappy once again, and turned his dirty tricks on the new manager. But he had picked on the wrong person. His attempt to frame President Tang failed, while Li Erlong and Wang Shaobo used Tang’s support to bring Lin Gaofeng’s scandal to President Xue’s attention. That put an end to Lin Gaofeng’s four months in the limelight.

Many years later, Li Erlong looked back on those hard days spent far from home and found them both absurdly funny and a reminder of life’s harsh realities. So he wrote his memoirs as a warning to himself, reminding himself to love life and cherish friendship.

As well as telling the story of the four men’s struggles, the novel introduces readers to Jingdezhen’s local customs and cultural beauty, along with the art of pottery-making. Come along, friends, and take a tour of Jingdezhen through the author’s words!