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Speaking of innovations and passions, he really liked to remake some of his favorite Chinese movies or TV series meshed with Lord of the Rings animation technologies.  He felt those stories had marvelous story plots but poor theatrical effects because of backward outdated computer animations.  For instance, Romance of 3 States really could use the technology of those Lord of the Rings battle scenes.  But with monthly utility bills and mortgage payments waiting, it could only be a dream for him when he was looking for the next Burrito House like customer.  He realized the sad fate of being a small contractor in the computer industry is this: if his next customer would be in the pizza business, he would learn a lot about pizza.  If his customer after the pizza project would be in the automotive industry, he would have to get familiar with cars and trucks.  Otherwise, he won't be able to fit in or differentiate himself from other small contractors with computer knowledge.  Of course, knowing a friend who is a relative of some important people would make a big difference in the East or West.  But important people are not easily known, a kind of like truth of the universe are not easily understood.  
  
One day, he decided to take a break from his mundane work of searching for next several IT consulting clients, because he had a surprising visitor calling from his past.  Li, Hongjun (李红军) or literally could be translated as "a plum that was a Red Guard or a Read Soldier".  Mr Li was a college classmate of David during the late 1980's. Since many Chinese words with the same pronunciation could have different spelling and meanings, and also feeling his name had too many ingredient of -- "red", "guard" or "soldier" -- bearing too deep an earmark of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, Mr. Li decided to write his name as 李宏俊, starting from a certain day in the 21st century.  Now his name literally meant "A plum that is grand and majestic".  Mr. Li was better know among his friends as a "wise guy" in college and was used to be called by that nickname, because he was regarded as the smartest among them all.  But it seemed like this yesterday's "Wise Guy" now wanted to become simply a "Cool Guy" or a “Rich Guy” after all these years.   
 
Upon graduation from the Earth and Space Science Department from the University of Science and Technology of China, Wise Guy went on to study philosophy in Beijing and became engrossed with politicking in China and abroad.  Since the politics in China after Cold War was pretty much the politics of good 'o economics and trade developments, Wise Guy mainly devoted his studying and career in economics and later could be viewed as not too different from an ordinary money man or a business consultant.  
  
Wise Guy and David used to have a bond tighter than those among biological brothers from an ordinary family.  It was the fantasy of many Chinese boys to grow up, meet some good friends for life, and eventually build a career and a life time of success based on a web of good friends.  This whole quasi-sibling friendship story can be largely attributed to the popular Chinese legend of wars among three ancient states, and may rise and fall of dynasties in Chinese history were viewed as one group of brothers toppling another group of brothers.  David was a beneficiary of such brotherly friendship and he often felt that he owed large part of his professional and academic achievements, and even his calm demeanor and maturity to Wise Guy.  It was this Wise Guy who taught him how to behave properly as a junior and senior in the college, so he grew out of a fiercely competitive university environment with a relatively healthy mental state and physical condition.  
  
Several years later when they talked in the United States over the phone for the first time after graduation, the opening phrase by the Wise Guy was, "Do you fancy yourself having a good career in US?  If your answer is 'yes', maybe you should not be calling me often.  I am now working for the Chinese Embassy.  Your name could be smeared much worse than that of Wen Ho Lee if you are not careful when talking to me over the phone, or if you simply call me too often."  Wise Guy said the same thing to his other university friends who later were studying in US.  But none of those friends, including David, seemed to mind too much of what kind of damages could be done to their careers.  First of all, they all treasure the friendship with this Wise Guy and wanted to continue picking his brains.  David cut off his opening remarks by saying: "Come on, don't flatter you or me too much.  We are just such small and inconspicuous drops of water in a heavy rain.  Nobody will ever notice our existence unless we happen to splash on some ones' faces."   
  
Then after the Wise Guy finished his stint in United States at the Chinese Embassy, he went home to become a pseudo research scientist in China and soon became a business consultant in Chinese Science Corporation.  It was common among the elites of the corporation to also polish their resume by getting employed by the premier's office in Central South Sea 中南海 -- a term not familiar by people outside of China, but rings loudly in most of the normal Chinese ears.  David noticed another funny thing about English-Chinese translations.  Kremlin, White house, Downing Street meant something in English and almost immediately led people to associate these place names to leaders of their respective countries, but not many English speaking people seemed to know where the top Chinese leaders reside.  As Chris Pattern, the last governor of UK once said of the city of "Beijing": "Peking" is an English word, "Beijing" is not.   
  
Occasionally, there are shrewd business men from United States recognized the place known as Central South Sea in China and took notice of Wise Guy's impressive background as consultant for certain officials in the Chinese governmental complex.  Wise Guy was later hired as a consultant by a high tech corporation from Austin, Texas trying to develop its Chinese telecoms equipment market.  His official responsibility was to help facilitate market development in China, but David felt that the business endeavor of his old friend was really none of his business, especially after they both were getting old-and-grey and started having next generation and shifting attentions to their kids.  After all, friends come and go, only family remains -- as Ted Turner once told a group of students in their graduation ceremony -- therefore what used to be brother-like friends drifted apart farther and farther away.  They found themselves answering calls of duties to their wife and children more and more diligently. 
  
Years passed and David moved on from job to job as a good productive member for one country and then onto another.  It came to him as a pleasant surprise, when he heard that Wise Guy wanted to meet him in Seattle Washington inside of USA, because he had just finished accompanying his wife to give birth to a child on US soil, and was on his way back to China to continue developing Chinese telecom market for his new employer / business partner.  It only took less than two hours to drive from Vancouver British Columbia to Seattle Washington.  David could understand why his old friend went through such a trouble wanting to have an appendix attached to US.  For him on the other hand, he was wondering he should have hid next child born in China so he would be able to have his children help him to apply for immigration status when he wants to spend his golden years in China after retirement.   


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