Restart life

Chapter 300, Section 0297: [Too Many People, Run!]

Chen Guiliang returned home from his great-grandfather's house on the third day of the Lunar New Year, and a large group of relatives from the city came down on the fourth day.

They are all relatives from my grandfather's side.

One of my cousins' second husbands was the third-in-command at a salt factory.

Longdu, also known as the Salt Capital, is a major salt-producing area with numerous salt factories. Currently, all of them are operating at a loss, mainly due to policy reasons; it wouldn't matter who were in charge.

This cousin's husband brought along another official, the investment promotion director of Longdu City High-tech Zone.

Don't let Longdu's poverty fool you; it actually has a high-tech zone.

Moreover, it was established in 1990 and approved in 1992, making it the first high-tech development zone in Sichuan Province. It was established even earlier than Chengdu and Chongqing!

At that time, the mountain city was under the jurisdiction of Sichuan Province.

"Hello Mr. Chen, my name is Sun Yuejin. I'm here in a private capacity to extend my New Year's greetings." The investment promotion director warmly shook hands with Chen Guiliang.

What are you here for?
To attract investment!
My cousin's husband, Yu Jianguo, said with a smile, "Director Sun and I are old friends. When he heard that I was coming to visit relatives, he wanted to come along too, saying he wanted to see the achievements of the new rural construction."

Chen Guiliang didn't have much contact with this cousin-in-law.

Both he and his cousin were in their second marriages, having been married for a total of six or seven years. During that time, he only visited the countryside twice, appearing and disappearing almost without a trace.

In another part of Chen Guiliang's life, when he had just graduated, his parents were afraid that he wouldn't be able to find a job. So they secretly asked this cousin-in-law to get Chen Guiliang a job at the local daily newspaper.

Chen Guiliang's uncle agreed, but he didn't come back. Instead, he applied for a job at a newspaper in a big city.

Chen Guiliang reached into his pocket to offer a cigarette, but Director Sun quickly stepped in first, presenting the cigarette to Chen Guiliang with both hands.

Just as Chen Guiliang accepted the gift, Director Sun pulled out a lighter.

"Director Sun, you're so enthusiastic, I don't even dare to smoke this cigarette." Chen Guiliang said, both amused and exasperated.

Sun Yuejin said with a smile, "Go ahead and smoke. I won't make any demands, nor will I force you to invest in and develop your hometown. Of course, if Mr. Chen has a suitable project, he can also set up shop in our high-tech zone."

Yu Jianguo explained the situation from the side: "In January last year, the country rectified blind construction, and many high-tech zones across the country were shut down. Our Longdu High-tech Zone was retained, and the managed area was even expanded."

Chen Guiliang thought to himself: A fish that slipped through the net.

The high-tech zone here has been established for over a decade, and its only notable achievement was collaborating with a fraudster in the 90s to pull off a nationally sensational backdoor listing. The catch was that the fraudster had to build a software industrial park.

The scammers did create it, but it only existed on paper.

It's no wonder local leaders were easily fooled; at the time, that swindler was already infamous nationwide, even building a software park and software training school in Shanghai. If it weren't for the fact that there were companies here that could be listed through a backdoor listing, he wouldn't have bothered coming all the way here to scam people.

In recent years, although the high-tech zone has failed to attract businesses to settle in, it has been vigorously developing real estate.

However, they also know how to do things properly, investing their real estate income to build an industrial park.

The problem is, who would be willing to invest in building a factory?
When the industrial park was established, only some local small businesses moved in because of the tax incentives.

Sun Yuejin said, "We've built an industrial park on the outskirts of the city, and the demolition work is all done. We'll start leveling the land this year, and the tax system will be three years of tax exemption and two years of tax reduction. If Mr. Chen is interested, you can come and take a look another day."

There's no need to even look; it wasn't until seven or eight years later, after the highway opened, that the area started to improve slightly. It did attract some factories from other places to relocate.

Only a fool would invest here before the highway is completed.

Chen Guiliang replied dismissively, "Then I'll go take a look when I have time."

Sun Yuejin pressed his advantage, asking, "Does Boss Chen have time this Spring Festival?"

"No, I need to get back to the capital," Chen Guiliang refused directly.

Sun Yuejin's smile remained unchanged as he continued chatting idly with Chen Guiliang. Attracting investment was an unexpected bonus; even if they couldn't, knowing a big boss was still a good thing.

Other relatives from the city would occasionally come over, smiling and offering compliments.

Chen Guiliang just smiled.

Chen Guiliang had a vivid memory of the aunt who had just come over.

My aunt gave my cousin Chen Guirong 10 yuan as a New Year's gift, which Chen Guiliang happened to see. Feeling embarrassed, my aunt also gave Chen Guiliang a New Year's gift, but only 50 cents.

Chen Guiliang happily took the money home, but when his mother found out, she pulled him to return the money to his aunt. His aunt refused to accept it, and his mother threw the money on the ground.

At that time, Chen Guiliang burst into tears, crying very sadly, because five cents was a huge sum of money for him.

He can remember many things for a lifetime.

Of course, there's no need to fall out. Dad is currently enjoying the compliments from our relatives in the city; let's just say it makes him happy.

After lunch, Yu Jianguo and Sun Yuejin took him fishing.

Chen Guiliang readily agreed, since the fishpond was contracted by his uncle anyway, and it wouldn't hurt to help his uncle generate some income.

After fishing for most of the day, Director Sun finally had to leave.

Before leaving, he mentioned the convenience of the industrial park again, hoping that Chen Guiliang would consider it in the future.

Chen Guiliang bluntly stated, "Now all the land along the river in the city has been converted from farmland to forest, and a small portion of it has been collectively converted to grow bamboo. In the summer, there are so many bamboo shoots that we can't eat them all. If the highway is ever completed, I can set up a factory to process bamboo shoots, and then I can have my dad be the factory manager."

Upon hearing the words "expressway," Director Sun's smile turned somewhat helpless.

He went around trying to attract investment, but all the business owners asked him was if he owned a highway.

“Mr. Chen is a straightforward person, so I won’t bother you any longer,” Sun Yuejin said. “I will inform Mr. Chen as soon as the highway construction starts.”

Chen Guiliang shook hands and said, "Take care, Director Sun."

The following morning, the village party secretary, along with town leaders, came to offer New Year's greetings.

Chen Guiliang could only warmly welcome them, and after lunch he quickly left, asking Yang Shuo to drive over and pick up Bian Guanyue together.

If we don't leave now, who knows who else might come to wish us a Happy New Year?

Bian Guanyue's maternal grandparents came downstairs carrying large and small bags. They were all local specialties, mostly food; the guys in the dormitory were in for a treat.

"Aren't you going back to say goodbye to Grandma?" Bian Guanyue asked.

Chen Guiliang said, "I'll come again next year. I'm already fed up with all the New Year's visits. If I go back to the village now, I bet some relative will come knocking again. My dad is a proud man, so I'll let him stay home and entertain them slowly."

Bian Guanyue said, "Your family is quite interesting. The clothes your parents are wearing, and your mother's hairstyle, remind me of old Hong Kong movies from the 80s." "I really admire them. I don't know where they bought those clothes. Ordinary people really can't buy them," Chen Guiliang retorted.

Bian Guanyue laughed as she listened, and then asked, "Grandma, were you a daughter of a wealthy family before?"

Chen Guiliang shook his head: "Not really. My grandmother's father was a salt smuggler. He had a fleet of boats that specialized in smuggling salt. The fleet was made up of small fishing boats, and I heard it was a joint-stock company. They were small-scale operators, responsible for transporting the salt to Luzhou and selling it to the real salt smugglers there. They would also bring some other goods back to sell."

There were more than one or two such small-scale salt smuggling gangs during the War of Resistance against Japan.

With the coastal salt-producing areas falling to the enemy, Longdu City had to supply salt to seven provinces, giving rise to a large number of small private salt-producing groups.

The area was heavily bombed by the Japanese; planes would bomb the overhead cranes at Yanjing whenever they saw them.

When Feng Yuxiang came to appeal for donations to the war effort, the people of Longdu, enraged by the bombing, donated 1.2 million yuan in one go. In contrast, the total national donations for the war effort over those eight years amounted to only 13 billion yuan.

In addition, they donated 120 airplanes, 1100 taels of gold, an unknown amount of silver, and a large quantity of salt to support the front lines.

The gold and silver jewelry of our great-grandmother was donated at that time.

After chatting for a while, Yang Shuo drove into the city and passed by the inscription "Return My Rivers and Mountains" written by Feng Yuxiang and carved on the rock wall of the riverbank.

Once out of the city and onto the provincial highway, the car began to bounce violently.

The entire route is a mountain road.

Chen Guiliang and Bian Guanyue fell asleep together after being jostled around for a while, leaving Yang Shuo to continue driving miserably.

Yang Shuo returned home in a grand manner this year, with relatives even coming to introduce him to potential partners.

He works for a big company in Beijing.

In the past, he would definitely have gone on blind dates, but now he's not so keen on them. His dream is to marry a local girl from Beijing.

Halfway there, Chen Guiliang's text message kept ringing.

Chen Guiliang glanced at it, replied with two messages, and then put his phone back in his pocket.

It was sent by Tao Xue.

Chen Guiliang was too foolish before, thinking that two women could coexist peacefully. He's learned his lesson and now he's determined not to let them meet, and he won't even let one of them make a phone call or send a text message to the other in front of the other.

Bian Guanyue also woke up and guessed it was Tao Xue. She said helplessly, "You reply to the message. I'm going to sleep for a while longer."

Tao Xue: "Spending the Spring Festival in Hangzhou is so boring. My brother is really something, he's become a big boss and he's showing off. He took my parents to his new house in Hangzhou for the Spring Festival."

Chen Guiliang: "Your parents must be happy, their son is successful."

Tao Xue: "They were really happy. They even went to visit West Lake a couple of days ago."

Chen Guiliang: "Haha, when they go back to their hometown, they can brag to their relatives and friends about spending the Spring Festival in Hangzhou for the whole year."

Tao Xue: "My brother wanted to bring my parents to Hangzhou to settle down. My parents absolutely refused, saying they couldn't get used to the food there, and it tasted like it had no salt."

Chen Guiliang: "There's no other way. We produce salt here, so we have to put in as much as we can. As a result, it's all very salty."

The two kept texting each other.

Bian Guanyue sat next to him pretending to be asleep, but as she slept, she felt very uncomfortable and pinched Chen Guiliang's thigh through his pants.

After twisting it, I went back to sleep.

Chen Guiliang was actually quite happy to be pinched. He knew it was good that Bian Guanyue was venting her anger, but he was afraid that Bian Guanyue would always keep it bottled up inside.

They drove to Chengdu, returned the car to the Bian family, and then the three of them flew to Beijing.

Yang Shuo returned to his rented room and couldn't wait to turn on his computer and chat online.

This guy is currently in an online relationship with a girl from the suburbs of Beijing, whom he met through a local search on a Chinese online forum. They've already met in person, and both seem to like each other.

If we wait a few more years, this marriage might be in jeopardy, as the girl's house in the suburbs will be demolished...

Chen Guiliang and Bian Guanyue went to their house.

As soon as they entered the house, Bian Guanyue took out the sausages and cured meat that her grandmother had given her.

"No, I'm so sick of eating all this during the New Year. I can just stir-fry two plates of vegetables today," Chen Guiliang quickly stopped him.

Bian Guanyue smiled and said, "Then let's go to the market to buy vegetables together."

She enjoys the process of grocery shopping together.

After returning from grocery shopping hand in hand, Chen Guiliang was about to go to the kitchen to cook when Bian Guanyue pushed him out, saying, "I know your cooking is better, but you have to give me a chance to practice some more. Go watch TV and wait."

Chen Guiliang smiled.

Bian Guanyue is enjoying the pleasures of being a housewife.

It's like playing house.

Chen Guiliang returned to the living room and sat down. Instead of turning on the TV, he sent a text message to Lu Zhihui, the person in charge of the listing: "I'm back in Beijing."

Lu Zhihui immediately called: "The initial due diligence and planning will take about half a month to complete because it involves several companies. For the next period of time, the accounting team will be stationed at the company for three or four days a week. They will stay at the company for the two or three months leading up to the submission of the application."

Lu Zhihui and his accounting firm team had already moved into the company before the Lunar New Year and were busy throughout the holiday. On the first day of the Lunar New Year, some of them even flew to Shanghai and Hangzhou.

Chen Guiliang also contacted Peking University to allocate some dormitories from the accommodations prepared for exchange personnel to provide temporary accommodation for the accountants.

Chen Guiliang said, "Thank you for your hard work. When I get back to the company, I'll give everyone a red envelope."

Lu Zhihui laughed and said, "Those Americans in the team don't understand what a red envelope means. I wonder if anyone will get angry if it's mistaken for a tip."

“Just say it’s similar to the presents you put in a stocking at Christmas,” Chen Guiliang said.

Lu Zhihui laughed heartily: "That's a great idea, President Chen is their Santa Claus."

The preparations for the IPO are progressing well, and no major problems have been found so far.

-

(Many of the people and events are true, including my great-grandmother. I can't write about my mother's side. I've heard my uncle say since I was little that he and Jiang Jie were from the same ancestral hall, and according to seniority, he should call Jiang Jie his great-aunt. She's the one from Red Crag.)
(End of this chapter)