The Grandmother in the Siheyuan

Chapter 428 People are afraid of being famous and pigs are afraid of being strong.
Liu Hua has always advocated that when selling to these developed countries, you must offer prices commensurate with their status. If you sell too cheaply, it will make them lose face.

These are two newly signed contracts, totaling $440 million, with consortia from both the Hans and France each making a purchase.

Liu Hua didn't want to make a big fuss, but the reality didn't allow it. In order to boost national morale, the relevant departments believed that this matter deserved to be widely publicized.

Liu Hua knew that if such a large sum of money were to be made public, it would definitely be a troublesome matter.

Liu Hua's family members are always surrounded by security personnel. In fact, after these news reports came out, Liu Hua hired some retired soldiers at high prices to protect his family.

All this effort was definitely not in vain, because quite a few people did decide to take the risk after seeing this number. Fortunately, Liu Hua had made preparations in advance, and his family was able to remain safe and sound.

However, this report also made Liu Hua famous. He used to be known only in academic and industrial circles, but now he is known to the general public.

With orders totaling 440 million, many people believe Liu Hua is the richest man in mainland China. Whether he is the richest man or not, Liu Hua doesn't know, but he believes that our country has a long history and rich heritage.

Back then, many powerful families didn't put all their eggs in one basket. Now that we've opened up the country, those wealthy clansmen who were living outside are coming back to help those who stayed in the interior. For these families, getting rich is just a matter of a blink of an eye.

Liu Hua knew he couldn't compare to them. Their businesses weren't just passed down through generations; some might even have been passed down for hundreds of years. That's why they didn't put all their eggs in one basket in the first place.

Taiyi Group's headquarters in Beijing is inconspicuous and was previously virtually unknown, but it suddenly became famous after this report.

Every day, people from all over the country line up at the door hoping to see Liu Hua. It's understandable for those who want to cooperate, but some people are just there to cause trouble.

Some came to solicit sponsorships, others to get Liu Hua to join some kind of association. These were all acceptable, at least on the surface they were respectable.

There's another type of person who can't even get past the security guards. These are the people who come here just to get Liu Hua to pay for them, on the grounds that Liu Hua is rich and should help others get rich by getting rich first.

But the idea that the rich should help the poor doesn't mean that. If you want to get rich, you have to be hardworking. Our slogan is "hard work leads to wealth." Those who were planning to ask Liu Hua for money were just incredibly lazy. If they didn't have to worry about not having enough money to install a phone at home and couldn't find Liu Hua's phone number, they probably would have just called him directly to ask for money.

Another group consisted of old-fashioned scholars who sought out Liu Hua purely to vent their frustrations and give him a good scolding.

The previous report may have detailed Liu Hua's identity: a graduate supervisor at Tsinghua University, an academician of both the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and a true research heavyweight.

Therefore, some dogmatic people believe that such people should not go into business, but should instead adhere to poverty, devote themselves to scientific research until old age, and disdain money.

The security guards accidentally let in an old man with a full head of white hair. No one knows how he managed to sneak into the Taiyi Group headquarters. There are forty or fifty security guards, all of whom are retired soldiers. It was an old man with a full head of white hair who could barely walk properly who managed to get in.

Liu Hua strongly suspected that the old man had been in some kind of secret industry back then. After entering, he actually managed to walk all the way to Liu Hua's office and, while Liu Hua was reviewing documents, he berated him for half an hour.

Half an hour later, Liu Hua finally came to his senses: "Grandpa, what exactly are you trying to say?"

“I told you to shut down the company and go back to doing research.” Liu Hua retorted, “Old man, what did you do before you retired?”

"I worked as a freelance commentator for a newspaper for a period of time, but I mainly focused on literature and history research."

Oh, Liu Hua understood. In his memory, there was someone else who did this job, namely Guo Degang, who also did the smelling of excrement.

“Grandpa, scientific research is different from your humanities research. Even your research in literature and history requires funding,” Liu Hua said with a smile. “The funding you get for a year of literature and history research is less than one percent of my project’s funding. Sometimes, I can buy a little bit of raw materials that is equivalent to several years of your funding.”

"What does this have to do with your business? If you want to do research, the government will allocate funds for you."

Liu Hua waved his hand, picked up the phone on the table, and asked the head of the security department to take two people to escort the old man out. Fortunately, although the old man was argumentative, he was not the kind of person to act like a rogue. When the security guards asked him to leave, he actually did. Otherwise, Liu Hua was really afraid that he would cause trouble.

The head of the security department, upon hearing that the old man had brazenly sneaked into Liu Hua's office, was utterly furious, his face darkening completely.

He thought his men were all elite troops, but then this old, weak, and disabled guy managed to sneak in. It was a complete slap in the face to him.

Without Liu Hua's approval, he went to the personnel department and asked for a punishment for himself. Not only him, but the entire department was also punished, and he also gave his subordinates a severe month of training.

At this time, CCTV-2 had a program called "Economic Half Hour," which included a segment called "Yidan's Topics."

The topic of Yidan was only recently started, and they were planning to interview a heavyweight figure to make a splash.

At that time, Liu Hua was at the center of public opinion, so CCTV asked relevant leaders to arrange an interview with Liu Hua.

This is a CCTV program, so we have to give it face. Therefore, Liu Hua nodded and agreed.

Although host Jing Yidan is a well-known talk show host, she was also a little nervous, after all, this was the first episode of her column program, so she was naturally a bit apprehensive.

Before the program started, Liu Hua smiled and comforted her: "Don't worry, this is your first time hosting a column program, and it's also my first time being interviewed. If you succeed, I succeed."

Liu Hua's humor amused Jing Yidan, and her nervousness subsided considerably. She quickly glanced at the materials in her hand, tidied her posture, and the program officially began.

After the opening remarks, Jing Yidan asked, "Professor Liu, there's a saying circulating that you are the richest person in mainland China. What's your opinion on this?"

"I'll just sit here and watch," Liu Hua said with a smile. "We don't have a ranking system like those in Europe and America. Besides, even if there were, it wouldn't mean anything. Smart people know that you shouldn't flaunt your wealth. None of those Western tycoons are fools."

(End of this chapter)