Broken Fact: Lane Sharman's Business Practice

The Original Story:
While enjoying a nice, and perhaps romantic, relationship with her boss Lane Sharman, Fu Ping nonetheless despised the latter's business practice of frequent and outrageous over-billing of their clients. On Pages 64-65 of Drifting Bottle, she detailed her dilemma and hurt in the face of the questionable ethics:

On my first service job, I behaved like an honest fool. That night, a secretary at a law firm called, crying for help. None of their computers was working. She was preparing briefs for the next day. I took off with my toolbox and found out it was an issue of power supply. Once replaced, computers were working again. 

I reported to Lan the next day. Unexpectedly, he got very angry. He did not say a word but walked away. I only learned from other coworkers that I was not supposed to have told the truth to the secretary. The smart consultant would pretend to examine everything, send the secretary home, and then fix the machines by morning. Then we would be able to issue a bill of $1,000 to the firm. The way I fixed it, we would only get $100. 

This kind of job was terrible to me. But I had to do what the boss told us to do for survival. If the company could not make money, it would also be our misfortune. 

... 

More and more, Lan becomes happy with my work. But whenever he was the happiest, I was in the most pain. Those clients who paid high fees were mostly kind, trustful, or ignorant. I could not feel the happiness of success dealing with them, but only guilty and shame. Lan told me that I did not know how to separate work from feelings, which meant that I did not know how to enjoy life. Maybe he was right. 

第一次出门，我就做了一个诚实的大傻瓜。那天深夜，一个律师事务所的秘书带着哭腔打来电话，事务所里的计算机全都不工作了，她正在为第二天出庭准备材料。我马上带着工具赶到事务所，一查是电源线的问题。换上一根，计算机马上恢复正常。 

第二天向蓝汇报工作，谁知他满脸乌云。欲言又止，一句好话没说，掉脸走了。向别的员工打听才知道，我是不该告诉律师的秘书实情的。聪明的顾问会假装东摸西摸，把秘书打发回家，第二天早上机器修好了，便可寄一张一千美元的账单给律师。像我这样半个小时就修好的只能收一百美元。 

这种工作对我太不适合了。为了生存又无法不按照老板的规矩去做。公司挣不到钱，也是我们员工的不幸。 

…… 

蓝对我的工作越来越满意。他最高兴的时候总是我最痛苦的时候。那些多付了很多费用的顾客，大多是善良、轻信或无知的顾客。和他们做生意，我无法感到成功的喜悦，有的只是内疚与惭愧。蓝说我不懂得如何分离工作与感情，这说明我不懂得如何享受生活。也许他是对的，我太多情。

The Debunking:
On April 4, 2013, Lane Sharman himself entered a comment on the NYT blog site:

Everyone, 

This is Lane Sharman. 

I have to confess that I am very saddened to be accused of promoting dishonesty.
I have a long record of developing trusted relationships with people across all types of business. I practice the golden rule. 

I can defend myself on the basis of a long record of fair dealings with all people, from all walks of life and from all ethnicities. 

Thank you,
Lane

To which Fu Ping responded on April 10:

Lane, I am sorry your integrity is questioned by people who don't know you or me. Let me state publicly here. Lane is one of my heros and I love him dearly. My success today was significantly influenced by learning from him and by his compassion and support of me when I was a struggling new immigrant and a student.  

Taking content out of context from a Chinese book with censorship in China, disregard what I wrote in Bend, Not Break, to attack Lane's integrity is wrong.

I wrote the Chinese book, which is a collection of essays, using material of first 10 years of my life and observations in America in early 90s. The book was heavily controlled and edited by a Chinese state owned publication house and I was limited to what I can write. Anything not allowed in China then was deleted or altered.  

In Bend, Not Break, I openly admitted my ignorance and poked fun of myself for what I wrote in the Chinese book: (p131-132) 

If there is anything in the Chinese book that can be read as questioning Lane's integrity or honesty, that is entirely my fault. I was clueless about business and entrepreneurship at that time and I carried imprint by years of brain washing during CR. It only illustrates my ignorance.  

Lane is one of the most outstanding people who I had the fortune to work for long time ago, I learned a lot from him. His integrity and kindness are self-evident through what I wrote in Bend, Not Break and from people who know him.  

Ping

It's rather puzzling how Chinese censorship would have played a role in the paragraphs Fu Ping wrote in that book. Was Fu Ping claiming that the Chinese government made her do it?!