At the start, I had to choose one of four options, and I immediately picked the Brahmin from the cou

On Monday afternoon, the inauguration ceremony for the first phase of the Jiangyang High-tech Data Industrial Park was held as scheduled in the central square of the park.

In early winter in Jiangyang, the sky was gray-blue, and the wind blew unhindered from the open area in the south of the city, making the red banner hanging on the rostrum flutter loudly.

Nearly a thousand guests sat in folding chairs below the stage, including members of the inspection teams from the Provincial Development and Reform Commission and the Provincial Department of Science and Technology, the main leaders of the four leading bodies of the city, the heads of various bureaus and offices of the county, as well as enterprise representatives and media reporters who came from Jianye, Suzhou and other places.

Cao Weidong stood in the center of the stage, wearing a brand-new dark blue suit and a dark red striped tie. He was in excellent condition today, looking ten years younger, and the strength in his fingers as he held his speech notes was palpable.

Li Xiao sat in the first row on the left, next to Chen Qiming and Sun Zaiquan.

He didn't go on stage to speak, letting Cao Weidong steal the spotlight. In these situations, Li Xiao never tried to steal the show. He only needed to sit there and let everyone know that Xinglan Technology was in the audience; that was enough.

Cao Weidong's speech lasted for nearly half an hour.

From the selection of the park site to land acquisition and demolition, from infrastructure construction to the first batch of enterprises moving in, he spoke off-script several times, making those already passionate sentences even more exciting.

When he mentioned Xinglan Technology's entry into the company, he paused deliberately, nodded slightly in the direction of Li Xiao in the audience, and then said:

"Xinglan Technology is the most outstanding calling card of our Jiangyang High-tech Zone. I believe that, under the leadership of Xinglan, the park will definitely become a highland for the development of the digital economy in the province and even the country."

Thunderous applause erupted from the audience. Li Xiao also stood up and bowed slightly to Cao Weidong.

This was followed by a signing ceremony for companies entering the zone.

The first batch of 21 companies to move into the park lined up and went on stage one by one to sign the "Entry Agreement" with the director of the management committee.

Li Xiao glanced at the company representatives on the stage, his mind perfectly clear.

These 21 companies include server maintenance, software outsourcing, and data recovery services. They are all small and medium-sized enterprises with registered capital ranging from hundreds of thousands to millions of yuan. Some of them have office space of less than 200 square meters.

They rushed to sign the agreement and move in on the day the park was completed, drawn by the policy benefits of the high-tech zone: three years of tax exemption and five years of tax reduction, plus the logistics subsidies and talent apartments provided by the province to the high-tech zone.

Most of these companies lack technological barriers and core products; some don't even have stable clients. In Jianye District, they would be small, micro-sized technology companies that rely on connections to secure system integration projects and depend on government policies. How long they can survive depends entirely on whether the local government provides them with orders.

Li Xiao was not surprised.

Cao Weidong had mentioned the pressure of attracting investment to him.

Jiangyang is not close to the provincial capital, lacks a decent industrial cluster, and has a shortage of talent. Large companies with real technical expertise simply don't value this place.

Bringing in 21 small and medium-sized enterprises at the same time was already the result of Cao Weidong and the management committee's tireless efforts. For the county, these enterprises will at least reduce the vacancy rate in the industrial park and gradually generate tax revenue and employment.

For Cao Weidong personally, the agreements for these 21 companies to enter the zone are the most tangible report card in front of the inspection team.

After the signing ceremony, Cao Weidong accompanied the members of the provincial inspection team on a tour of the park, focusing on Xinglan Technology's newly lit data center.

Chen Qiming personally took to the stage, explaining to a group of leaders who weren't very tech-savvy what a T4 server room was and what millisecond-level response time meant. The leaders nodded frequently, and the cameras followed them, capturing the footage which would be broadcast on the provincial news that evening.

By four o'clock in the afternoon, the park had quieted down again. Li Xiao and Cao Weidong stood side by side on the observation deck on the top floor of the main building, watching the trucks carrying company equipment slowly drive into the park in the distance.

Cao Weidong took out a pack of cigarettes, pulled one out and put it in his mouth, but didn't light it. He had talked too much today, and his voice was a little hoarse, but he was still in high spirits.

"Mr. Li, how was the scene today?" Cao Weidong asked with a smile.

Li Xiao nodded: "It's more lively than I expected. Twenty-one companies signed contracts in one afternoon. The park is definitely bustling with activity."

Cao Weidong gave a wry smile: "They're all small businesses, here to take advantage of the policies. Don't laugh at me, Mr. Li, I'm just using them to fill the space and lay the foundation for the park. Whether it can develop further depends on Xinglan's leadership."

Li Xiao didn't respond to that, but simply said, "Small businesses have their own methods. First, stabilize them and help them survive in Jiangyang. Once the industrial park is bustling with activity, other things will be easier to handle. Don't worry about what others say; just get this pot of water boiling."

Cao Weidong lit a cigarette, took a deep drag, as if to expel all the fatigue that had been building up in his chest.

Leaning against the railing of the viewing platform, he told Li Xiao that the inspection team had initially approved the county's rectification plan, and that once the official opinion was released, there shouldn't be any major problems.

When he said this, he didn't look at Li Xiao, but instead stared at the three T4 server rooms that were running in the distance, as if they were the source of Jiang Yang's confidence to turn the tide.

Li Xiao didn't stay long. That evening, he had to return to Jianye.

On his way back to Jianye, he habitually opened the page of industrial ecosystem in his mind.

The framework for Xinglan Technology and Xinglan Intelligent Manufacturing has been established, and the site and labor plans for the annotation center have been discussed with Chen Qiming and Zhou Yanhuai. Now, what he needs to do is connect these scattered points within the Jiangyang High-tech Zone.

He looked at the "Starbee" cluster blueprint in the system again and again.

The more I look at it, the more I realize that the real value of this system lies not in building a few AGVs, but in its ability to completely change the traditional warehousing operation model.

The coordinated operation of 10,000 AGVs is something no domestic company can achieve. Even internationally, Amazon's Kiva robots are only deployed in the thousands on a large scale. Once Xinglan Intelligent Manufacturing can mass-produce Xingfeng robots, its potential will not be limited to Jiangyang or Jianye, but to the entire country.

But Li Xiao isn't in a hurry to get involved in intelligent manufacturing right now. Starbee's hardware production requires supply chain support, industrial land, and a large number of skilled workers, none of which can be resolved in a short time. He needs to solidify the foundation of software and data for a while longer.

It was already past nine o'clock in the evening when the car arrived in Jianye.

Li Xiao leaned back in his chair, flipping through the list of the first batch of companies to move in that Sun Zaiquan had compiled during the day. Twenty-one companies, each with its category, legal representative, registration date, main business, and committed investment amount—everything was clearly written down. He flipped through it, his gaze lingering on a company called "Yunfan Zhilian."

The company is registered in a neighboring province, and its legal representative is Su Wenjing, a woman in her early thirties.

The business scope is the integration of intelligent security systems, and the committed investment amount for entering the area is three million.

Li Xiao noticed her because Sun Zaiquan mentioned a person named Su Wenjing when he was researching enterprises in Jianye yesterday. Su Wenjing was the former IT director of Zhou Bingsheng Bingsheng Logistics, who had just left the company six months ago for unknown reasons.

This woman has now come to Jiangyang High-tech Zone to sign a contract with a little-known small company.

Li Xiao folded a corner of the page and sent a message to Sun Zaiquan: "Check out Yunfan Zhilian."