Returning wealthy individuals develop their hometowns and become rich in the 1980s

Inside the guesthouse room, the atmosphere grew somewhat solemn as the conversation deepened. Zhou Bingguo, as the head of the special task force, knew time was of the essence and decisively asked Zhou Haimin, "Comrade Haimin, are you able to contact Mr. Chen Zaidong now?"

Zhou Haimin glanced at his Shanghai-brand watch; it was already 9:15 PM. He wasn't sure if Chen Dong was asleep yet, so he simply replied, "Okay!"

"Contact Mr. Chen Zaidong and arrange to meet him tomorrow in the conference room of this guesthouse. Tell him that, to demonstrate the importance of our cooperation, a special delegation from the ministry has arrived in Tuocheng, and he must come tomorrow!"

"Okay, I'll call Mr. Chen Zaidong right now," Zhou Haimin said, getting up and walking to the phone booth next door. He picked up the phone and dialed Chen Dong's number.

"Hello, who is that?"

"Hello, this is Zhou Haimin, Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee. Please answer the phone, Mr. Chen Zaidong!"

"Secretary Zhou, please wait a moment!"

Inside the small canteen of the Guangdong Food Factory, Chen Dong, Chen Zaiguang, and others were drinking heartily. Today, the opening of Huaxingsheng Supermarket was a great success, and Chen Zaixing suggested that the brothers have a drink to celebrate.

Chen Dong finished his drink, and seeing that Chen Zaixing had only drunk half of it before putting down his glass, he blushed and immediately pointed at Chen Zaixing, saying, "Hey, Fifth Brother, are you raising fish here?!"

"Fifth brother, if you can't drink, that's fine, don't force yourself," Chen Zailong said with a smile, holding up his glass. Chen Zaixing, annoyed by his fourth brother's words, retorted, "I can't drink? Fourth brother, who do you think you are!"

Chen Zaixing immediately tilted his head back and gulped down the remaining half glass. Then he picked up the Moutai liquor, refilled his glass, and drank another whole glass, as easily and comfortably as if he were drinking plain water.

After finishing his drink, Chen Zaixing revealed the bottom of his cup. "Fourth Brother, it's your turn. Drink, drink up!"

"My god, a bunch of drunkards!"

When Chen Zaiguang saw the way Lao Wu was drinking, he immediately felt a little scared. He wasn't a big drinker, and if he drank too much, his wife Lin Ruiqing would definitely get angry when they got home.

"Fourth brother, let's see if he can be outdone by fifth brother!" Chen Zaiguang laughed loudly, banging his chopsticks. "Drink!"

Chen Zailong is a regular drinker of the village's homemade rice wine, and he can easily handle a small bottle of Moutai. He's already been to the toilet three times, but his face isn't flushed at all, and he's acting like nothing happened.

Seeing Chen Zailong down a cup and about to get up again, Chen Zaixing objected, yelling, "Damn it, Fourth Brother, you're not going to throw it up in the toilet after you finish, are you? Don't try to cheat me!"

"You little rascal, back when your fourth brother and I were drinking baijiu with our grandpa, you were crying and begging our mom for a penny to buy candy!"

At this point, Chen Zailong stopped rushing to the toilet and started telling Chen Dong about the embarrassing things his fifth son, Chen Zaixing, did when he was a child. "Dongzi, you wouldn't believe it, when that kid was little, he would pester the peddler who came to the village to sell candy. If my mother wouldn't give him money, he would keep banging his head against the wall until she gave him money to buy candy!"

"Is it really that ruthless?!"

"That's right. You see, this kid isn't always so bright. He comes up with ideas on a whim. I suspect he might have hit his head and made himself stupid!"

"Fourth Brother, you can't talk nonsense about me like that," Chen Zaixing immediately protested. "I may be a little slow, but I'm not stupid!"

"Hahaha!"

Everyone burst into laughter. Just then, Zhang Tiejun, holding a mobile phone, knocked on the door and came in. He leaned close to Chen Dong's ear and whispered, "Boss, it's Secretary Zhou from the Municipal Party Committee on the phone."

Upon hearing this, Chen Dong raised his hand and glanced at his Rolex. It was already 9:20. At this time, Zhou Haimin was still calling. Chen Dong said to Chen Zaiguang and the others, "Brothers, you guys keep drinking. I'll take this call first."

After saying that, Chen Dong picked up the phone and said with a smile, "Secretary Zhou, why are you calling me in the middle of the night?"

"Zai Dong, did you get any rest?"

"No, no, I'm just having drinks with some of my cousins. Is there something you need, Secretary Zhou?"

"Here's the thing, Zai Dong, regarding the conditions that Directors Mo and Lu discussed with you last time, the central ministries are taking it very seriously and have already formed a special task force that has come to our Tuocheng. Minister Zhou would like to schedule a meeting with you. Do you have time tomorrow to arrange a meeting?"

"Tomorrow," Chen Dong thought for a moment about his plans, then replied, "Okay, where shall we meet?"

"It's right here at the Yingbin Hotel on Haibing Road. You can just drive over."

"Okay, Secretary Zhou, I'll head over there tomorrow. If there's nothing else, I'll hang up now."

"Alright, alright, then I won't disturb your drinking session with your cousins. Bye!"

When Chen Dong returned to the small restaurant, the group was still noisily drinking. Chen Zaisheng, due to health reasons, didn't drink at all. Seeing Chen Dong come in after finishing his phone call, he asked, "Zaidong, is something wrong?"

"Second Brother, come with me to the city's guesthouse tomorrow. The Central Special Envoy Group has come down and wants to meet me tomorrow," Chen Dong said to Chen Zaisheng, taking out a cigarette, lighting it, and exhaling smoke.

Chen Zaisheng nodded. "Is it about equipment procurement again?"

"right."

"Is it going to be the same as last time, with them proposing conditions that are unacceptable to you?"

"That's alright. Anyway, after the village's banquet at the end of the year, I'll be heading back to America. If we still can't reach an agreement this time, we'll just have to ask them to wait a little longer," Chen Dong said with a smile.

Tuocheng Guesthouse

After finishing his call, Zhou Haimin came out and said to Zhou Bingwang and Wang Huaimin, "I have already made an appointment with Mr. Chen Zaidong. He will come over here tomorrow if he has time."

"Okay," Zhou Bingguo said, and after chatting with Zhou Haimin for a while longer about some economic reforms in Tuocheng, Zhou Haimin got up to say goodbye and leave.

"The more rushed things get, the worse it will be for us. We might have to make big concessions," Wang Huaimin said, standing at the window with a cigarette in his hand, gazing at the pitch-black inner bay of Tuocheng.

"Making concessions is a last resort," Zhou Bingguo took a deep drag on his cigarette, exhaling smoke through his nostrils. "The current international situation is very unfavorable for us. COCOM has imposed martial law on us, and they simply won't sell us much of the equipment we need!"

Speaking of COCOM, capitalism has never given up its desire to destroy us. In order to restrict China's development, COCOM has even set up a separate export ban list for China, which includes more than 500 more items and equipment than the big brother and other socialist countries.

They were on tight guard, setting up checkpoints and restrictions everywhere. Now that Chen Dong, an overseas Chinese, has the ability and means to transport some special equipment that China urgently needs, how could the central government not be anxious?

Every day we delay, the upgrading of domestic equipment will be delayed by half a year. Time waits for no one!