Me! A high-ranking official!

He took a taxi and headed straight to the central commercial street of the old county town to meet Liu Tao.

As for the location, Liu Tao, who had been struggling at the bottom of society for many years, had already set his sights on a place and even negotiated with the landlord several times without telling his wife.

This is a three-story shopping mall located at the crossroads of the old town. The second and third floors sell affordable clothes and cosmetics, and the customer flow has always been relatively stable. What they are interested in is the huge open space of 300 square meters on the first floor.

When Zhao Jianguo arrived, Liu Tao was holding a tattered measuring tape and gesturing back and forth in the empty lobby on the first floor.

Upon seeing him arrive, Liu Tao quickly went to greet him, offered him a cigarette, and excitedly pointed around, introducing the area: "Jianguo, what do you think of this location? It's the absolute heart of the old county town! The annual rent is only 150,000!"

He looked around and saw that the place was indeed large, but it was a mess. There were several rows of dilapidated shelves on the east side, and there were traces of soot on the west wall.

"Previously, half of this place was occupied by small, privately-run supermarkets. The owners went bankrupt due to poor management, and the other half was rented out to individual vendors selling grilled squid and fried skewers. The place was chaotic and the businesses didn't work out, so they all went out of business one after another. Now, only two holdouts remain. The landlord is paying penalties to evict them in order to rent the entire floor to us," Liu Tao explained from the side.

He nodded and asked, "Why didn't you go check out the new urban area? There are several newly built upscale residential complexes there; their purchasing power should be even stronger, right?"

Liu Tao gave a wry smile and sighed as he did some calculations: "How could we not have looked? But the shops in the new county town have been ridiculously expensive these past few years. A 300-square-meter space starts at 250,000 to 300,000 yuan in rent! We only have 1.5 million yuan. After paying the rent, and then factoring in the large-scale hard and soft furnishings, even if we're extremely frugal, the renovations will still cost at least 400,000 yuan. That's almost half gone!"

Liu Tao smacked his lips and continued, "The biggest expense in opening a supermarket is stocking inventory! 1.5 million seems like a lot, but if you really fill this 300 square meters, you'll immediately be strapped for cash, both for inventory and working capital. So I was originally planning to partition off the innermost 100 square meters and sublet it to someone else to run a children's indoor playground or a jewelry store, to share some of the rent pressure..."

"That's not appropriate." He waved his hand directly, interrupting Liu Tao. Although he didn't understand business, he had seen many disputes in shared shops when he worked before.

"Since you've agreed that you'll be the boss, the place needs to be kept clean and completely under your control. If other bosses get involved, it will not only be chaotic, but if any fire safety or hygiene issues arise later, you'll be unable to resolve the disputes."

He patted Liu Tao on the shoulder and said with a reassuring smile, "Taozi, don't worry about the money. You can use that 1.5 million first, and I'll cover any shortfall. Since we've decided to do this, let's not be stingy. Let's just go for the best and most reputable boutique supermarket in the county!"

Hearing Zhao Jianguo's confident words, Liu Tao breathed a long sigh of relief, and her tense expression instantly turned into ecstatic joy.

"Damn! With you saying that, I dare to go all out! You have no idea how much I've been worrying these past few days, I've lost so much hair, I'm always thinking about how to save money, I'm even considering buying second-hand shelves. If I had enough funds, I guarantee I could get us the best storefront in the county!"

With Zhao Jianguo's financial backing, Liu Tao radiated a different kind of brilliance. She pulled Zhao Jianguo aside and began to describe her grand division of the area in detail: how to attract customers to the fresh produce section, how to arrange the daily necessities section, and how to design the cash register to most effectively stimulate impulse purchases...

Just as Zhao Jianguo was nodding repeatedly as he listened.

"Buzzing..."

His phone suddenly started vibrating wildly, as if it were having an epileptic seizure.

He was stunned for a moment, then took out his phone and saw that, good heavens, those local gossip groups and hometown groups that usually stayed silent were now flooded with messages like a nuclear bomb had been dropped on them, and the unread red dots in the upper right corner instantly soared to 99+!

Curious, he clicked on one of the most active groups, where a bold group announcement was prominently displayed at the top:

A stunning reversal! The newly appointed county party secretary, Zhou Qingyan, has returned to the county party committee compound!!!

Following that, a series of jaw-dropping statements followed:

Holy crap! I just got confirmation! Not only is Secretary Zhou back, but he was personally escorted down in a special car by two big shots: the Deputy Secretary of the Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection and the Director of the First Cadre Section of the Municipal Party Committee's Organization Department!

Not only that! No sooner had he gotten out of the car than Secretary Zhou, without even returning to his office, convened an enlarged meeting of the county party committee and county government in the county party committee auditorium! City leaders were sitting on the stage overseeing the proceedings!

What kind of incredible background does she have?! Just a couple of days ago there were rumors that she had contracted that filthy disease and was taken away for investigation?! How did she suddenly come back to life?!

Not only did they come back from the dead, they also returned with imperial authority! I heard that several departments in our county were directly criticized by name at the conference, and now the county government compound is in a state of panic, with several leaders looking pale with fright!

That's incredible! On her very first day in office, such a devastating scandal broke out. A normal person would have been forced to step down long ago, but she actually managed to come back unscathed and continue as the top leader? This is incredibly complicated!

Looking at the various speculations on the screen, a mixture of shock, doubt, and awe, he was first stunned, then secretly delighted, muttering to himself, "It seems she really did take that Rejuvenation Pill."

Although I don't know why Zhou Qingyan was delayed for a whole week at the Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection before returning, there must have been an extremely dangerous political struggle involved. But none of that matters. What matters is that the medicine took effect, her terminal illness was cured, and my 20 million yuan was well spent!

Moreover, judging from this situation, this woman not only escaped unscathed, but also used the situation against her, intending to establish her authority in Linshui County.

"Nation-building? Nation-building!"

Seeing Zhao Jianguo staring at his phone and grinning foolishly without saying a word for a while, Liu Tao curiously leaned closer and asked, "What's wrong? What are you looking at that's making you laugh so much?"

"Get lost!" Zhao Jianguo quickly locked the screen, put his phone back in his pocket, and chuckled casually, "It's nothing, I just posted a few funny videos in the group. Where were we? What are we going to do with the cosmetics section?"

When it comes to business, Zhao Jianguo is indeed a novice. He is very self-aware and only plays the role of a listener, occasionally asking a few simple questions from the perspective of an ordinary consumer.

Although it was Liu Tao's first time managing such a large venue, he had delivered goods door-to-door and managed small shops in his early years, so he had clearly done his homework. Facing Zhao Jianguo's questions, he was confident and explained the procurement channels and loss control in detail.

The two wandered around the 300-square-meter unfinished hall for a whole morning, only stopping reluctantly when their stomachs started growling with hunger.