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

Inside the brigade headquarters, Tian Chulian and Huang Bingkun, the brigade leader, saw that most of the villagers had arrived. Outside, it was noisy and bustling, with children playing and adults chatting and laughing, like a market day.

Huang Bingkun directed his two sons to carry a long table to the front of the square before walking out of the brigade headquarters with Tian Chulian. The villagers were chatting amongst themselves and did not notice Tian Chulian coming out.

"Everyone, quiet down!" Huang Bingkun clapped his hands and shouted loudly to the villagers present, "Quiet down, the meeting is about to start, everyone sit down!"

Hearing Huang Bingkun's shouts, the villagers stopped and looked at Tian Chulian. Huang Bingkun saw that there were still children chasing and playing there, so he shouted to the children, "Whose kids are these? Keep an eye on them, there's a meeting going on here."

The adults went up and each slapped the child, then dragged him away. The child being dragged was still shouting, "He stole my candy! My candy!"

Seeing that everyone had quieted down, Huang Bingkun then called out, "Now, let's have Secretary Tian tell everyone about the purpose of this meeting. Let's give him a round of applause!"

Scattered applause rose from the villagers in twos and threes. Tian Chulian, holding a large megaphone made of rolled-up sheet metal, shouted to the villagers present, "Fellow villagers, I have gathered you all here at the brigade headquarters today because there is an important matter concerning our Lianzhai Village that needs to be discussed with the collective members of Lianzhai Village."

"A few days ago, Chen Xiangui's nephew from our village came back from America to look for relatives. With the idea of ​​creating a prosperous life for our fellow villagers, he wants to build a factory on 34 mu of land at the west end of our village!"

As soon as Tian Chulian finished speaking, everyone present, except for the few members of the Chen family who already knew the inside story and sat there smiling, immediately erupted into a clamor and began to discuss it enthusiastically.

Tian Chulian and Huang Bingkun quickly spoke up, "Everyone, please be quiet. We'll discuss this later. Let me finish speaking first!"

"Everyone, please be quiet and let Secretary Tian finish speaking!"

"The completion of this factory is a great thing for our Lianzhai Village. Our Lianzhai is a poor and remote village. Comrade Chen Zaidong not only wants to build a factory here, but also to build roads and a power plant. Fellow villagers, this is a major event for the development of our Lianzhai!"

The people below listened, becoming more and more excited. They wanted to ask Secretary Tian Chulian a few questions, but they were afraid of interrupting what the secretary was about to say, so they could only hold back.

"However, that piece of land at the west end of the village belongs to our Lianzhai Village collective," Tian Chulian said, picking up an enamel water cup from the long table, taking a sip to catch his breath, before continuing, "Comrade Chen Zaidong gave me two options to avoid any future disputes, and asked me to discuss them with you to see which one you want."

The crowd below looked at Tian Chulian, waiting quietly for him to speak. Tian Chulian did not keep them in suspense and said, "These thirty-four mu of land belong to the village collective. Comrade Chen Zaidong's first proposal is to let our Lianzhai Village collective use these thirty-four mu of land as shares in Guangdong Company."

"He will give us a percentage of the profits as equity, and once the factory becomes profitable, it will distribute dividends to our Lianzhai village collective every year!"

Upon hearing that only one point was being allocated, some villagers immediately protested, "Thirty-four mu for only one point? Secretary Tian, ​​that's far too little!"

"Yes, Secretary Tian, ​​at this one point, the whole village only gets a few cents or two at the end of the year, barely enough to buy cigarettes!"

Upon hearing the commotion below, Tian Chulian glanced at Huang Bingkun, who then shouted at the loudest man, "Cai the scoundrel, trying to act tough, huh? Sit down! You're never this loud when we're working in the team. If you dare to slack off tomorrow, I'll teach you a lesson!"

Huang Bingkun reprimanded each of the village hooligans by name, finally silencing the commotion. Seeing that Huang Bingkun had calmed the unrest, Tian Chulian continued, "The second option is for Guangdong Company to follow our government's proper procedures. We'll have the Land Bureau officials come down to Lianzhai to conduct an inspection, and then Guangdong Company will fully compensate our Lianzhai village collective according to the national land expropriation compensation amount!"

"Let's discuss whether we want money or equity!"

After Tian Chulian finished speaking, he pulled up a bench behind him, sat down, lit a cigarette, and looked at the villagers below. Immediately, someone asked Tian Chulian, "Secretary Tian, ​​how much money will we get for this land requisition? What about these thirty-four mu of land?"

"If you ask me, we should just sell the land. It'll be more than that one percent dividend a year. Don't you all agree?"

"Yes, I heard from my relatives that the performance of factories across our country has been poor in recent years. Some factories have even had to close down, and the workers have all gone to sell roasted sweet potatoes. Whether these factories will be profitable is another matter!"

"If that's the case, why would Uncle Xian Gui's nephew want to open this factory in our Lianzhai? What's his motive?"

"I don't know about that, but the factory isn't making any profits, and they're still counting on the year-end bonus, which is only a pittance—probably not even enough to buy a piece of candy for a kid!"

"What if we give away all the land in our village, and then the factory goes bankrupt, and they just walk away without doing anything? We'll be the ones who suffer!"

The elderly people surrounding Chen Xiangui asked him, "Xiangui, why don't you tell your nephew? They're all neighbors. It's thirty-four mu of land, and he's only giving us a fraction of that? Isn't that a bit too little?"

"Yes, Your Excellency, you should at least get more. Our Lianzhai gave away 34 mu of land. He wants to set up a factory, and he can't do it without land. Our land accounts for the majority of that, so we should at least give him half!"

Chen Xiangui sat there holding his grandson Chen Rongguo, listening to these people talk without replying. He thought to himself, "Zai Dong is putting in a lot of effort for no reward."

Over here, Chen Zaixing's childhood friend Li Renfa whispered, "Zaixing, does your cousin really want to buy land and build? He can get me a job in the factory too, so I can also get government-subsidized grain rations!"

"Zaixing, your cousin is so rich, how come he only gave our village a small plot? That's too little. Talk to your cousin and ask him to give us more. This is thirty-four acres of land!"

The others surrounding Chen Zaixing chattered amongst themselves, but Chen Zaixing waved his hand, saying, "What do you know? Do you even know how much this one point is worth? Just the investment in this factory and the roads to be built, my Dongzi has already put up a hundred million!"

"Listen up, it's one hundred million US dollars," Chen Zaixing said, pointing a finger at them. "This one spot alone is worth over a million, do you even know that? And you're still complaining it's too little? What, is there gold buried in the fields of our village? Worth over a million!"

Wow! There are so many!