Those Years When I Was Forced to Top the Forbes List

Chapter 3 The Kindness of Being Helped
During the last two classes of the morning for Class 36, Chen Xuebing's eyes were wide open, like copper bells.

The third section, Politics, discussed the operational mechanisms of political systems and the understanding of international political relations. This was originally a difficult point for students, but Chen Xuebing listened with great interest.

He even felt that the teacher's explanation was too superficial. He was quite interested in domestic and international situations and policies, and could talk with his friends over a cup of tea and a pack of cigarettes, from the national and local tax-sharing reform in 94 to the geopolitical landscape of the Middle East wars, for half the night without repeating himself.

But by the fourth math class, he was a bit lost.

Solid geometry, specifically frustums, took up almost half the class time with one big problem. Waves of drowsiness kept coming. It's true that falling asleep while listening to math has nothing to do with age. Chen Xuebing felt like he couldn't stay awake even if he lived another thirty years, so he could only read history books.

However, besides that, there were also things that he found strange.

He noticed that his former political science teacher, Ms. Jiang, actually had a certain charm behind her glasses. During breaks in class discussions, she would do some small exercises to maintain her figure. At forty years old, she still paid attention to maintaining her physique. Her husband must love her very much.

During the break between the third and fourth periods, math teacher Sun easily discerned his family crisis from a few words on the phone in the hallway.

Adopting the identity of a high school student is remarkable.

Chen Xuebing wasn't deliberately trying to read people's expressions; it was just a natural habit.

Before anything could be surprising, Mr. Sun, who loved to extend class time, actually ended the get out of class on time. The way he hurriedly packed up his books and left confirmed Chen Xuebing's guess to some extent.

A group of people quickly gathered at the entrance of Class 16, excitedly discussing the construction site and waiting for Chen Xuebing to come out.

Just as Chen Xuebing was about to leave the classroom, Yang Qingyue from the second row called him back.

"Chen Xuebing, the notes! You don't want them anymore?"

"Oh!" Chen Xuebing turned around and saw that Yang Qingyue had already organized a large stack of notebooks on her desk, and he immediately felt overwhelmed.

A liberal arts student's notebook is indeed a bit exaggerated.

He suddenly realized something: how much would it cost to photocopy so many things?

He didn't have a single piece of clothing on him!

"Um... how about I borrow it during evening self-study? I'll buy a few notebooks and copy it while I read it at night."

"Sure, I was just about to tell you. Printing is quite expensive, and some things you might not even need after photocopying, which is a waste. Just copy down the important ones. But these are all for the second year of high school. Do you want the first year ones? I'm going home this afternoon, so I can bring them to you."

Yang Qingyue was very decisive. As she spoke, she sorted the notebooks into categories and put them back into her bookshelves, seemingly not finding it troublesome at all.

At forty, Chen Xuebing was keenly observant and equally sensitive. He sensed that the girl was thinking of him, and his heart warmed.

Looking back now, I realize that she did treat me somewhat differently back then.

However, he has become quite indifferent to matters of the heart; when he divorced in his previous life, he only felt a sense of relief.

Too many things to do and too much to talk about, it's better to be alone and make decisions by yourself.

Yes, he still has an ex-wife.

However, he has a bad memory and has forgotten his ex-wife's name.

Let's start all over again.

"Okay, thank you for your help. Oh, you don't need to bring your math math book."

He completely gave up on mathematics.

Upon hearing this, Yang Qingyue smiled shyly: "I'm not good at math either. I only got 80 points on the last exam, which was a failing grade."

Hi.

That's life.

"If you can get 80, at least you can do the big questions. I don't even dare to turn the page when I take the math exam. Keep it up."

As Chen Xuebing spoke, recalling her pointing to a gun with her fingers, he patted his chest, pointed at her, and gave her the classic NBA cheering gesture.

Yang Qingyue laughed heartily.

Those outside could see it clearly, and there was another uproar.

“Oh~~”

"Come on~"

Chen Xuebing ignored him and walked straight downstairs, but those bastards wouldn't leave and kept teasing Yang Qingyue at the classroom door.

"Sister-in-law! My soldier will take you home tonight!"

"Sister-in-law, we'll take you there together tonight!"

"Sister-in-law, we're going to the construction site with the soldiers, do you want to come?"

Yang Qingyue blushed instantly, stood up and shouted, "Go to hell!"

Chen Xuebing was speechless at these bastards, but he also missed the taste of youth and let them make a scene.

At this moment, only Gou Hongyi is concerned about practical issues.

"Soldier, how are we going to get there with so many of us?"

"Route 11!"

……

The school in Nan'an is only four kilometers away from the sewage treatment plant construction site on Changbin Road in Yuzhong District.

"only".

These days, four kilometers doesn't seem that long. A group of people can walk there in half an hour while bragging.

People were used to walking back then, unlike in later generations when two kilometers or more were considered the absolute limit for taking a taxi.

"That's fucking amazing!"

"This is a major project! If it can come here, who the hell would want to work at our company!"

"You talk as if you've actually gotten a job at the company."

"Pshaw, my uncle is a section chief at the re-drying plant!"

The imposing fence and blue iron gate made everyone quite surprised.

The fences on both sides were very long, clearly indicating a large construction site. The sign above the entrance read "Chongqing People's Livelihood Project - Yuzhong Sewage Treatment Plant," while the pillars on both sides read "Building Quality Projects, Setting an Industry Standard."

“The Fourteenth Metallurgical Construction Company…” Liang Hui read the company name next to him and exclaimed in surprise, “Brother, is this a state-owned enterprise? Is your uncle a leader of a state-owned enterprise?”

"This is the general contractor. They build the project office, but the actual work is done by others."

General contracting, subcontracting, further subcontracting, labor contracting, materials contracting—there are still plenty of lucrative jobs these days. Sometimes a project is subcontracted four or five times, and in some cases, it can even create six or seven levels of contractors.

Chen Xuebing was very lucky. His uncle was a former leader of the local military who had been demobilized. He knew many former leaders and comrades-in-arms, and was able to directly find some clients and obtain many contracts from general contractors.

The general contractor was the first owner, and the uncle was the second owner.

Even without the strength of a general contractor, this is already quite good; in the eyes of many downstream subcontractors, this is a big boss.

It was lunchtime and very quiet. The small iron gate under the main gate was open, but Chen Xuebing still knocked on the door, told a man in a red hat at the door his uncle Yu Chunyin's name, and then led the way in.

The place was a mess as soon as I came in.

Reinforcing steel and PE pipes, materials that are easy to steal, were placed in the doorway area. Timber was also placed in a place where it was exposed to direct sunlight. Moreover, the timber used to support the formwork was not covered with anything to prevent moisture, but was just placed on a few steel pipes underneath.

Chen Xuebing doesn't really understand engineering, but he's good at management. In his eyes, there are problems everywhere here.

The 11 people following behind could only click their tongues in amazement. The sewage treatment plant in Yuzhong was designed with a high treatment capacity and a large building area. There was also a complex water supply network system around it, so there were naturally a lot of people and machinery working on trench excavation. It certainly looked like a big project.

In reality, this project only costs around ten million yuan. The factory building is not complicated, and the work area is all on the ground. There are no tower cranes. The main work is just pipeline excavation and backfilling, and the area is relatively large.

This project also includes several other wastewater treatment plant projects that started construction this year. The contractor gave the urban section to Yu Chunyin because it was the toughest part. During the day, there was the need to prevent noise pollution and complaints from nearby residents. At night, there was the need to allow traffic police to allow commercial concrete trucks to pass, as well as environmental protection issues. Many construction relationships needed to be coordinated.

My uncle's project doesn't make any money at all; it's just a way to relieve the leaders' worries. The profitable projects are in the later sections that start construction: two factory areas plus dozens of kilometers of pipelines, involving a lot of earthwork and dredging. Those who know, know how lucrative those projects are.

The red-hatted man quickly called out Yu Chunyin.

Yu Chunyin didn't approach, but waved from outside the two-story prefabricated house built with corrugated steel panels.

"Soldier, come here!"

After his uncle finished calling out, he went inside.

The room inside looked small and couldn't accommodate many people. Chen Xuebing knew Yu Chunyin wanted to speak privately, so he turned around and said:
"Wait here for me, I'll take you to see the construction area in a bit."

"Get it!"

Everyone was excited to see Chen Xuebing enter the site with his hands behind his back, inspecting everything without any stage fright. They had heard that Brother Bing often went to construction sites, and today they witnessed it for themselves.

As Chen Xuebing looked around, he walked toward the prefabricated house, wondering whether he should mention some management regulations to his uncle.

My uncle was actually an outsider, only knowing the basics of project management. He stayed on the project site to prevent his subordinates from messing with him. He just kept quiet and flipped through the ledgers every day. Anyone else with ulterior motives would be wary of him.

As for the technical aspects, they were all construction workers; my uncle only cared about the finances.

These days, there aren't many strict requirements for standardized construction. Everyone does it this way, doing whatever is convenient. Those who actually do the work are the lower-ups, and if you say too much, you'll offend people for no reason.

It's fine to just randomly select.

When he first joined his uncle's construction site, he led a group of people to manage excavators and materials, and learned about construction. Gradually, he discovered many problems and even foolishly told his uncle: "You are the boss, you should learn more technical skills."

My uncle laughed and called him a simpleton.

"If I understood technology, you wouldn't have this opportunity."

In short, Chen Xuebing became aware of his own position and quickly learned everything he could about management.

Later, my uncle retired, and I helped him get projects. My uncle offered a 5% commission.

He never negotiated the price of those five percentage points, regardless of whether the project was good or bad, or how much profit there was. He knew that his uncle would only get a maximum of two percent of that.

Moreover, after he started working on his own and built his own connections, he never refused any projects offered by his uncle. He knew that his uncle's former boss had a hard time after retiring, and if he refused a project that someone had helped him get, it would be difficult to ask for it again in the future.

His uncle had been a mentor to him.

However, my uncle's experience reflects the entire industry: pure engineers often struggle to make ends meet after ten or twenty years.

Those who are still thriving all have side businesses, using financial methods.

Chen Xuebing still wants to work in this industry. He wants to live a second life and fulfill his original dream, but he can't confine himself here.

There need to be other ways to make money.

"squeak."

Chen Xuebing pushed open the half-open door to the room.

Desk, slicked-back computer, red hat, ledger, bed.

My uncle was inside alone, dressed in a sharp suit and shiny imported leather shoes, with his legs crossed.

My uncle's attire exudes a sense of江湖 (jianghu, a term referring to the world of martial arts and chivalry

These clothes and shoes are expensive to clean once they get dirty.

This will prevent construction workers and foremen from coming to him for every little problem.

My uncle is actually very lazy. He doesn't want to come to the construction site at all, but he doesn't have anyone he can completely trust who is also capable.

"You've called so many people here, are you really planning to work on this project with me?"

Yu Chunyin spoke, patting the table to indicate that he should sit down.

Chen Xuebing pulled on the door, which creaked open again, before smiling and walking to sit down on another chair next to the table.

"Your door is broken. I'm here to fix it for you, so it will be easier to close now."

Yu Chunyin raised his eyebrows, looking somewhat surprised, wondering if his nephew's casual remark was the implied meaning he was thinking of.

He hoped Chen Xuebing would close the door so he could save himself some trouble and stay home with his wife and daughter.

However, Chen Xuebing was too old to say such a thing, so he couldn't help but probe again:
"The door is open, it's nice and bright."

"Keeping it locked up saves trouble." Chen Xuebing said with a half-smile.

"Hey!" Yu Chunyin laughed: "Young man, you've grown up!"

(End of this chapter)