1982 Started from Hong Kong

Chapter 490 Nuwa's Stone

"Guangdong has four special zones and eight leadership teams. Inspector Lu and his colleagues are locals from the south, so they may not have full authority."

All the way back to the guesthouse, Hong Huang kept explaining to Zhai Yuan.

As a middleman, Ms. Hong is well aware that her current status is entirely due to the blessings bestowed upon her by her ancestors.

As the chief representative of the German metals industry group in China, if she can take advantage of the current situation and make contributions to the two lines of Kuaibo and the future Jinling City semiconductor project, she can continue to gain a foothold in the Yanjing City circle and even continue to climb higher. Otherwise, once her glory fades, she will have to rely on herself to make her way, and even if she doesn't fall, it will be difficult to stay stable.

Hong Huang continued, "I'll contact the northern team in Pengcheng first thing tomorrow morning. This is too much of a bullying, we must make them give us an explanation!"

Zhai Yuan put his hand on Li Zhi's shoulder, looking somewhat drunk. He casually replied to Hong Huang, then turned and kissed Li Zhi's cheek, looking completely unruly and drunk.

Lizhi helped the boss up and gave Hong Huang an apologetic smile: "I'm sorry, Sister Huang, Mr. Zhai had a few too many drinks. I'll take him to his room to rest first."

Hong Huang then helped open the room door. After Li Zhi and Zhai Yuan went inside, he stood alone in the corridor, his face gradually turning grim.

At the end of the corridor, the sounds of night shift workers talking and the elevator dinging could be heard.

Hong Huang ignored him, took out a pack of Moore cigarettes, and lit one in the empty corridor.

Zhai Yuan was faking being drunk, and he did it so convincingly that only his dim-witted secretary couldn't tell.

Pretending to be drunk is a clear indication that he doesn't want to have a deep conversation with himself tonight, unless he can get the whole thing back on track.

Hong Huang took a deep drag on his cigarette, staring at the smoke slowly dissipating in front of him, and mentally reassessed the chips he held.

…………

Li Zhi huffed and puffed as she helped Zhai Yuan into the room, gently laying him flat on the bed before letting out a soft breath.

Zhai Yuan squinted his eyes, his breathing even, as if he had already fallen asleep.

"With such a low alcohol tolerance, why are you trying to toast others..."

Lizhi stood by the bed, fanning her neck which was covered in a fine layer of sweat, and looked at President Zhai lying on the bed, muttering to herself.

Then she squatted down, first helping Zhai Yuan take off his shoes and socks, then climbed onto the bed to unbutton his coat, and lifted the back of his head to lay it flat on the pillow.

After doing all this, Lizhi leaned on her elbows and rested her head on Zhai Yuan's side, lifting her chin and quietly looking at his profile.

To be fair, Mr. Zhai's son is quite handsome.

Just like the reader mentioned in this chapter, with slanted eyebrows, a straight nose, and an untold charm in the corners of her eyes and brows...

Lizhi stared at him intently for a long while, then pouted her red lips and gently brushed the stray hairs from Zhai Yuan's forehead.

"These leaders are really annoying, they insist on forcing people to drink. Who would dare to do that in Hong Kong?"

"And you don't keep your word. You treat us like suckers. We've known you for so long and never suffered any losses. How come you were able to put up with it tonight?"

"It seems that doing business is not as easy as I imagined. It's better to be a secretary."

Lizhi complained softly, as if she was standing up for Zhai Yuan, or simply grumbling. Finally, she smiled and lowered her head to give Zhai Yuan a light peck on the corner of his mouth.

Just as she was about to get up, she suddenly felt a tightness around her waist, and a pair of arms suddenly wrapped around her and hugged her.

"Oh—" Zhai Yuan opened his eyes, his voice drawn out in a strange, sarcastic tone: "You assaulted me!"

Lizhi was taken aback, her cheeks flushing red to her ears, and she stammered, "Weren't you drunk?"

"Just because you're drunk, you can molest me?"

"I do not have……"

"No need for so much talk, just give it back!"

Zhai Yuan flipped Li Zhi over and pinned her to the bed, cupped her burning face, and lowered his head to kiss her directly.

After a long exchange of words, Zhai Yuanfang finally released her, and the two of them took a few deep breaths together.

"Not bad, you still know how to stand up for me." Zhai Yuan pressed his forehead against Li Zhi's and teased, "I thought you were going to curse the unscrupulous boss while I was asleep. Looks like my concern for you wasn't in vain."

"Ugh~" Lizhi's eyes glistened with tears as she muttered, "They really broke their promise first!"

Zhai Yuan chuckled, buried his head in the crook of her neck, and said in a muffled voice, "That's how business is. Either you're begging people, or they're begging you. There's no such thing as smooth sailing."

"You heard what Miss Hong said too?"

"Hmm," Zhai Yuan responded, "I don't want to talk to her."

Listening to Hong Huang's apology and attempt to shift blame is meaningless; the key is to see what she does next.

Lizhi was pinned down by the man, gently stroking his hair: "Miss Hong said she'll go see the leaders in the north tomorrow."

Zhai Yuan smiled noncommittally upon hearing this: "A local official is more powerful than a distant one... In short, it's not that easy."

For some reasons of balance, Beijing does indeed have a separate team to manage the four special economic zones of Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Xiamen, and Shantou. Usually, the city proper is managed by local leaders from the south, while the special economic zones are managed by leaders from the north.

This is what Hong Huang meant by the so-called four special zones and eight sets of leadership teams.

However, what makes Shenzhen special is that, due to the extremely large area covered by the special economic zone plan, which covers nearly 400 square kilometers of the entire city of Shenzhen (2000 square kilometers), the urban area and the special economic zone actually have to be integrated into one entity.

Therefore, what Sir Lu said at Mei Zhu Zhai tonight was definitely not a spur-of-the-moment decision.

Li Zhi gave a vague "oh," then suddenly seemed to have come up with a brilliant plan. She patted Zhai Yuan and offered her advice: "How about moving to another place? How about Zhucheng?"

"Isn't the horse market across from Zhucheng?"

What about Xiamen?

"Across from Xiamen is Taiwan, and that's where Taiwanese businesses keep their private plots."

"Shantou! Shantou is neither near the Straits Exchange Foundation nor Taiwan, it's definitely a good place!"

"It's not even facing Hong Kong yet!"

Zhai Yuan laughed and reached out to pinch her cheek: "You think you're just putting Lego pieces wherever you think looks good?"

In Zhai Yuan's limited understanding, only one and a half of the four special economic zones truly took off.

Shenzhen, backed by Hong Kong, is definitely one, while Xiamen, backed by Taiwan, can only be considered half.

For some reason, Zhucheng doesn't have much of a presence.

The local clans in Shancheng are too united, which makes them relatively xenophobic.

"It has to be Shenzhen. The land in Yantian Port is too attractive. I could have let it go if I hadn't seen it, but now I must get it. That way, once Kuaibo is built, I guarantee that we can distribute our products all over the country within three years!"

Zhai Yuan concluded by giving Li Zhi a vicious bite on the neck, saying, "Let's see how Hong Huang resolves this. If he can't, I'll just give up the special economic zone's land subsidies, spend more money, and turn this cooperation into pure business!"

In short, taking over state-owned enterprises is impossible. It's too much trouble to support a bunch of bosses. It would be better to give you a few million every year and let you divide it among yourselves.

For us at Kuaibo, a few million is a piece of cake.

We can cut costs a little and come up with some measures in no time.

Don't do this. Why bother taking your pants off and farting again?
Thinking this to himself, Mr. Zhai pressed down on Lizhi and casually unbuckled his belt, pulling his pants down halfway. Lizhi sensed something was wrong, gasped, and gently pressed down on his arm, blushing as she said, "No, it's time to sleep."

Zhai Yuan pinned both her wrists above her head with one hand, unbuttoned his shirt with the other, leaned down and pressed his face against hers, teasingly saying, "Don't worry, we're definitely not the only ones having insomnia tonight..."

…………

The next morning, Hong Huang walked out of the guesthouse room with bloodshot eyes.

She had insomnia last night.

He lay in bed pondering until dawn before finally finding a few numbers in his address book and arranging to have lunch with one of the leaders.

In the corridor, a waitress pushed a food cart and gently knocked on the door of Zhai Yuan's room.

The door opened, and Lizhi leaned out to let the food cart in.

Hong Huang stood there for a moment, pondered, and then went downstairs on his own without disturbing them.

“I just saw Miss Hong outside the door.”

In the room, Lizhi peeled an egg, ate the egg white herself, and then stuffed the yolk, which she didn't like, into Zhai Yuan's mouth.

"Do you think I'm your dumping ground?"

Zhai Yuan flicked her forehead in annoyance, took a sip of soy milk to wash the egg yolk down, and said, "Then why don't you invite her in for breakfast?"

Lizhi chuckled: "I was afraid you didn't want to see her, so I pretended not to see her."

Zhai Yuan shrugged and said nothing, guessing that Hong Huang must have gone out to smooth things over since he got up so early.

Let's see how much power this second-generation scion from Yanjing City can wield.

After finishing a simple breakfast,

Zhai Yuan, supporting his lower back, walked to the sofa, slumped down in a relaxed posture, and let out a long yawn.

I overworked myself last night and didn't get enough rest.

Lizhi quickly tidied up the dishes, pushed the food cart outside, went inside to look at Zhai Yuan, who was slumped on the sofa, and said, "Go lie down on the bed."

"No, please get me the information on anime and The Voice."

Zhai Yuan greeted him lazily, then asked, "Or should I go shopping with you?"

Lizhi's eyes lit up, but then she remembered her experience of being cheated out of her alms bowl yesterday and shook her head repeatedly: "Forget it."

After speaking, he placed the information of the two companies in front of Zhai Yuan.

Zhai Yuan smiled and reached out to pull her close to him: "Then stay in the room and help me with my work."

This time, a lot of information was brought from Hong Kong. The Voice of China has Zhou Huimin and others acting as its face, and Zhai Yuan often visits it. On the other hand, Anime is completely left to the free rein of the comic book artists, and Ma Rongcheng and Li Huizhen have taken over the management.

Without Zhai Yuan's intervention, based on his previous experience of gathering material for the South Korean Olympics...
Takehiko Inoue's "Slam Dunk" was finally launched successfully.

The response was lukewarm...

Sometimes we have to follow market rules.

Until the mid-1980s, many schools and housing estates in Hong Kong still lacked standard basketball courts, and physical education classes mainly focused on track and field, football, and badminton.

Outside of school, it goes without saying that football dominates the narrative, both in reality and in film and television.

Chan Ho-nam has been playing football since he was a child, and decades later Fat Corpse and his friends are still on the football field. It's nothing new!
Therefore, after Slam Dunk was published, it was serialized for two issues, but its influence in Hong Kong was not satisfactory.

"But it doesn't matter. We can try it out in Japan and Taiwan in a while. Street basketball culture has already developed there."

Zhai Yuan thought to himself, "Once sales pick up and cover the cost of animation production, a virtuous cycle can be formed."

This is a completely different project from "Slam Dunk".
Naoko Takeuchi's "Sailor Moon" was a minor hit in Hong Kong.

We have to thank the pirate comic book distributors in Taiwan for bringing Weekly Girls' Comics to Hong Kong early on, including shoujo manga like "The Equation of Man and Woman," "White Falka," and "100% Cotton," as well as female-oriented animations like "Candy Candy" and "Glass Mask" imported by TVB.

In Hong Kong, where the comic book market is dominated by male readers, a large number of female comic book readers were cultivated in advance.

The magical transformation and school romance of "Sailor Moon" has sparked a "girls' fever" not only in schools but also among middle-aged women after the first two volumes of the manga have generated buzz.

Once you've made money, the first thing you need to do is expand your audience.

Therefore, Sailor Moon was released in several regions and countries, primarily in Japan, this year, and its reputation spread rapidly, making it one of the few profitable works in the anime industry.

"But it's clearly not yet a phenomenon that has gone viral." Zhai Yuan rubbed his chin. "Otherwise, Brother Chao would definitely have contacted me and collaborated with Tokyo Hot to create a sailor uniform craze."

After all, whether or not a work can be sexually explicit is one of the important indicators of whether it can break into the mainstream.

The remaining projects, whether they were acquired from Japanese copyright holders or were original works by local comic book authors, all achieved roughly the same overall performance.

...Oh, Dragon Ball doesn't count, that stuff is too overpowered.

That's how comics are; without the boost from anime adaptations, it's like having a leg broken from the start.

So currently, in the entire anime community...
There is only one work that can consistently outsell "Sailor Moon".
That is, Ma Wing-shing's "Storm Riders".

After Zhai Yuan wrote the first half of the "Storm Riders" storyline for Ma Wing-shing, the comic sold over 25 copies in its first issue, becoming another phenomenal work in Hong Kong after "Chinese Hero".

The henchman was also pragmatic, knowing that Boss Zhai wouldn't be able to explain the plot to him word for word like he did in the beginning.

Therefore, a scriptwriting team was quickly established, and efforts were made to recruit talent.

And so, Chen Danqing arrived.

This most mysterious man in Hong Kong's comic book circle quit his job last year due to a setback in his relationship. He first applied to work as an assistant at Kwong's Comics, but Shangguan Xiaobao only paid him a little over a thousand Hong Kong dollars a month. Just then, Ma Wing-shing was recruiting, so Chen Danqing wrote a story called "The Legend of the White Snake" and submitted it. After reading it, Ma Wing-shing immediately offered him a salary of six thousand Hong Kong dollars and asked him to form a scriptwriting team with Shaojie, Cui Yuanfa, and Chen Zhenzhou to help sort out the plot of "Storm Riders".

At this moment, Zhai Yuan held a text version of the setting information for "Storm Riders".

Nuwa created three stars: Wu, Feng, and Yun. Wu star Guan Yu, Feng star Nie Feng, and Yun star Bu Jingyun. She then ordered Guan Yu to go to the Eastern Han Dynasty to quell the chaos, and Nie Feng and Bu Jingyun to go to the future to stop the great calamity.

Nuwa left four of the divine stones used to mend the heavens in the mortal realm, which transformed into the Thousand-Year Ice Soul, the Snow Drinking Blade, the Peerless Sword, and a super weapon.

Guan Yu descended to earth, unleashing a super-fast, breathtakingly powerful attack that created a black hole, annihilating an entire city. Bu Jingyun descended, falling in love with the Demon Lord Bai Suzhen. Fahai, wielding a super weapon transformed into a golden alms bowl, severely injured Bai Suzhen. Nie Feng descended… Dragon Turtle, Phoenix Qilin… Cangjie's creation of characters triggered twelve acts of terror… The Great Sun Buddha surveyed the entire universe…

It must be said that, as a set of settings to supplement the comic's plot, Chen Danqing's imagination is quite wild and boundless.

Ma Wing Shing and Chen Danqing were kindred spirits who met by chance.

After Chen Danqing passed away, the third installment of "Storm Riders" and its later spin-offs became utterly unwatchable.

The Hong Kong comics of this period, in terms of both setting and plot, soon profoundly influenced generations of online literature creators.

Mouth teeth!

Li Zhi leaned against Zhai Yuan's chest. She wasn't interested in the plot, but she asked the question that had been bothering her: "How come Nuwa had so many stones to mend the sky? I remember the textbook said that she sacrificed herself to fill the hole in the sky because there weren't enough stones..."

(End of this chapter)