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

When Huang Bensheng faced the microphone handed to him by the reporter, his expression was neither humble nor arrogant. When facing the camera, he lifted the briefcase he was holding to his chest and held it in his hand to show the Xiaochi Motors "horse" logo on his work uniform.

The female reporter looked excited. Perhaps it was her first time facing such a large audience during an interview; her hand holding the microphone trembled slightly. Her bright eyes looked at Huang Bensheng. "Hello, comrade, could you please introduce yourself?"

"Hello everyone, my name is Huang Bensheng. I currently work for Xiaochi Group in Tuocheng, Guangdong Province. I am the supervisor of this road test. Our Xiaochi Automobile Group is a wholly foreign-owned automobile brand with shares held by Huasheng and Dagong Fund. It was founded in 1981," Huang Bensheng said calmly, looking at the camera.

The female reporter asked with a smile, "Comrade Huang Bensheng, could you introduce these three cars to the audience?"

"Of course," Huang Bensheng walked to the three cars, pointing to the silver-gray Lu in front and introducing, "The two cars we see in front of us are Lu cars, the flagship luxury brand of our Xiaochi Group. They feature a Leapmotor 4.0-liter V8 engine, producing a total power of 300 horsepower!"

"Wow!"

Hearing the low murmurs from the crowd, Huang Bensheng then pointed to the Zhaoyebai car, "This is our Xiaochi Group's 100,000 RMB mid-size family car, model Zhaoyebai, with a 1.6-liter inline four-cylinder engine and a maximum power of 180 horsepower. It's currently the best 100,000 RMB car in all of China, bar none!"

"Wow! Is this Snapdragon car really that amazing?"

"Yeah, they're always talking about 300 horsepower or 180 horsepower, are they trying to fly it like an airplane?!"

"It's faster than taking the train!"

"Hahaha!"

Ignoring the murmurs of the onlookers around her, the female reporter continued, "Comrade Huang Bensheng, are these cars really produced in Tuocheng by your Xiaochi Automobile?"

"Yes, lesbian," Huang Bensheng replied, "Our Xiaochi Group invested 200 million US dollars in the early stage to purchase internationally advanced manufacturing equipment, re-plan the industrial park, and train a more skilled workforce."

"All components are manufactured by local Chinese workers. The three core components—engine, chassis, and transmission—are all controlled by our Xiaochi Group, without any overseas suppliers. Apart from necessary seals and precision electronic components, the localization rate of our Xiaochi vehicles has reached 90%. In the future, with the completion of other supporting plants for Xiaochi vehicles, our Xiaochi Group is committed to increasing the localization rate of vehicle manufacturing to 100%!"

A round of applause erupted instantly. Huang Bensheng, the road test supervisor representing Xiaochi Motors, received an enthusiastic response from the onlookers when he spoke these words.

In the early days of reform and opening up, the Chinese people still had confidence in domestically produced goods. Before being heavily impacted by international products, domestic products remained quite resilient.

Many people might say that there are problems such as outdated technology and lagging production capacity, but with hundreds of millions of people in China, the first thing to solve is the problem of having or not having, and only then can the problem of quality be addressed. China is not yet the all-rounder with 41 major categories, 191 medium categories, and 525 minor categories. At this time, China is somewhat like Russia in its early days, with heavy industry accounting for 40.8% of GDP. In order to develop its military, it is inevitable that it will be top-heavy.

It was precisely because of the excessive proportion of heavy industry and the low capacity of high value-added light industry that China had to propose reform and opening up. However, the leaders of the Chinese government were not short-sighted. They always held the mentality of "it's better to have what my parents have than what my parents have", and devoted themselves to developing various industries. In the end, China became the world's only industrial Cthulhu!

Just as the female reporter continued to ask Huang Bensheng questions, a few young people who had been watching gathered around Lu's car. One of them, wearing bell-bottoms, reached out to touch the horse head emblem on the hood of Lu's car. Immediately, someone nearby whispered a reprimand, "Don't touch it, you'll break it!"

Upon hearing this, Huang Bensheng immediately turned to the young man who was about to reach out and said, "It's alright, feel free to touch. Our Xiaochi cars are very sturdy!"

Seeing this, the photographer immediately panned the camera over. The young man in bell-bottoms, upon hearing that he was allowed to touch it, grinned and grabbed the horse head emblem in his hand, twirling it around. "This isn't gold, is it? It feels so good!"

My companion rolled his eyes. "You wish! It's definitely gold-plated. If it were real gold, it would be worth a fortune! Who would dare park it outside after this? It'd get broken every day!"

Everyone around burst into laughter. The young man in bell-bottoms chuckled and scratched his head, saying, "That's true. If it really were made of gold, anyone who wanted to get rich could just snap Lu Libiao up and sell him for money. It's impossible to even think about it."

The cameraman from Shanghai TV station, carrying his camera, was half-squatting in front of the Lu's car, taking a wide shot of the entire vehicle from bottom to top and front to back. After the cameraman finished shooting and moved the lens back, the female reporter continued to ask, "Comrade Huang Bensheng, could you tell us about this road test?"

Huang Bensheng nodded approvingly to the female reporter and replied with a smile, "This road test is a powerful and confident test for our Xiaochi Group's automotive brands. Starting from southern Guangdong, the test will proceed along the coastal provinces of our country!"

"We will head north to the northernmost point of our country, then turn back and detour through the northern border regions, entering Sichuan from Shaanxi Province, passing through Yunnan and Guizhou, and finally reaching Hainan Province. The plan is to travel more than 20,000 kilometers and take two to three months!"

"We need to test all kinds of road conditions in our country, including cold regions, sandstorms, mountainous areas, high temperatures, high humidity, high altitudes, etc., so as to ensure that the vehicle will not have any major problems after it is delivered to the user."

Among the onlookers, some whispered among themselves, "Over 20,000 kilometers! That's like driving all over the country!"

"Look at them! That's what you call being conscientious and responsible. Our other state-owned automobile factories should learn from their dedication!"

"This is what it means to get things done! Unlike some factories, the cars they produce break down every few days, and there's nowhere to get them repaired."

"I feel like the Xiaochi Motors cars are even better made than those imported cars!"

"It has to be better than those imported cars!"

"Indeed! This car looks sturdy. If it can really run more than 20,000 kilometers without breaking down, that would be truly remarkable."

After the police verified the documents, the person in charge of the team came over and said, "Comrade, the documents are fine, the procedures are complete, you can continue. But be careful on the road, especially when entering the city, drive slowly."

"Yes, comrade!"

Upon hearing that Huang Bensheng was about to leave, the cameraman carrying the video camera immediately shouted, "Comrade Huang, could I take one more picture of the car's interior?"

Huang Bensheng checked the time, then looked at the dense crowd of onlookers behind him, and thought for a moment before saying, "Okay, but we need to hurry, we still have a long way to go."