Rebirth: Fan Debiao rises from the Liaobei land

Chapter 72 Broadband

It was 6 p.m. on the sixteenth day of the first lunar month in Victoria.

Fan Debiao arrived at the private room half an hour early, ordered the dishes and set out the wine, and then went downstairs to wait for his distinguished guest. The private room that Wu Derong had arranged was called "Auspicious Purple Qi from the East." It wasn't large, but it was quiet and suitable for discussing business.

At 6:30, Mr. Zhang arrived at Victoria on time.

"De Biao!" General Manager Zhang said with a smile, "You're too kind. Have you been waiting for a while?"

"No, no, I just arrived too." Fan Debiao quickly shook Zhang's hand. "Mr. Zhang, please come in."

Upon arriving at the private room, Mr. Zhang took off his coat, draped it over the back of the chair, and sat down. Fan Debiao poured tea and handed it to him.

"Mr. Zhang, have some tea first to warm your stomach."

Mr. Zhang took the teacup, took a sip, and looked him over.

"You must have had a very fruitful trip to Guangzhou and Ningbo, right?"

Fan Debiao smiled.

"It's alright. We've signed contracts with both TCL and Bird, and the volume has doubled compared to last year."

"That's great." Mr. Zhang nodded. "You did a fantastic job on that project. I knew you could do it."

Fan Debiao picked up the bags next to him.

"Mr. Zhang, I brought you something."

Mr. Zhang peeked inside and saw that the Xinhui tangerine peel and old medicinal tangerines were packaged in brocade boxes, which looked very elegant.

"Oh my, Debiao," Mr. Zhang picked it up and looked at it, "this is a real gem, twenty-year-old aged tangerine peel, hard to find on the market. It's too valuable, I can't accept it."

Fan Debiao waved his hand.

"Mr. Zhang, please don't stand on ceremony with me. I carried this all the way back from Guangzhou. If you don't accept it, I'll have to carry it back to return it. Who's going to reimburse me for the round-trip airfare?"

Mr. Zhang was stunned for a moment, then burst into laughter.

"De Biao, De Biao, you're forcing me to accept this!"

"Keep it," Fan Debiao pushed the brocade box towards him. "It's nothing valuable, just a token of my appreciation."

Mr. Zhang smiled and shook his head.

"Alright, I'll accept it then. Debiao, you've made great progress on this trip."

After several rounds of drinks and five courses of food,

Fan Debiao raised his wine glass.

"Mr. Zhang, this toast is for you. Congratulations on your successful promotion to the top position!"

Mr. Zhang raised his glass and clinked it with his.

"Debiao, don't just congratulate me." General Manager Zhang took a sip of his drink. "Your excellent work on the project is a bonus for me too. Last year's base stations were of impeccable quality and on schedule; the provincial company leaders all saw it."

Fan Debiao chuckled twice.

"Mr. Zhang, you flatter me. It's all thanks to your excellent guidance."

The two clinked glasses again.

As they ate and drank, Fan Debiao picked up a piece of food with his chopsticks and casually opened his mouth.

"Mr. Zhang, I heard that China Netcom is going to launch broadband services this year?"

Mr. Zhang paused for a moment, glancing at him.

"You're quite well-informed."

"Just asking around," Fan Debiao chuckled. "Last year, fewer people installed telephones, but more installed broadband, and people were complaining about it. I figured you guys would definitely make some moves this year."

Mr. Zhang nodded and put down his chopsticks.

"De Biao, you were right." He leaned forward. "This year, our company is promoting 'Broadband E-Line New Life,' which is being rolled out across the province. Kaiyuan has to follow suit."

Fan Debiao's heart skipped a beat, but he kept his expression hidden.

"As for the engineering..."

Mr. Zhang looked at him and smiled.

"What, you want to take it?"

Fan Debiao also smiled.

"Mr. Zhang, you can't hide anything from me." He poured Mr. Zhang a drink. "I have the qualifications, the people, and the team. You saw how the base station project went last year. If you trust me with the broadband project, I'll definitely do a great job for you."

Mr. Zhang picked up his wine glass, but didn't drink it; he just swirled it around.

"De Biao," he said, "things are different now. The head office has regulations that, although these kinds of projects don't require bidding, there are still thresholds."

Fan Debiao's heart skipped a beat, but he didn't reply, waiting for him to continue.

"Now it's all internally designated subcontractors," said General Manager Zhang. "Framework agreements, annual cooperation agreements. Whoever is capable gets the job, whoever has the qualifications gets the work."

He looked at Fan Debiao.

"Has your telecommunications engineering construction general contract been approved yet?"

Fan Debiao nodded.

"It's approved. It was approved yesterday, level two."

"Where are the personnel?"

"Network engineers, electromechanical engineers, we have all the necessary personnel. The training center also has a group of technical backbones who are ready to go at any time."

Mr. Zhang nodded and drank the wine.

"Okay," he put down his glass, "Once I've finalized the policy, I'll have Director Zhao contact you."

Fan Debiao's eyes lit up.

"Mr. Zhang, thank you so much!"

Mr. Zhang waved his hand.

"Don't thank me yet. The policy hasn't been fully implemented yet, but it's pretty much set. Go back and get your team ready, and prepare all the necessary qualification documents. Don't let Director Zhao down when he needs you."

Fan Debiao raised his wine glass.

"Don't worry, Mr. Zhang, I definitely won't let you down. I'll finish this drink, you can drink as you like."

He tilted his head back and finished it.

Mr. Zhang smiled and drank the wine in his glass.

We chatted for a while longer, until almost nine o'clock.

Mr. Zhang stood up and put on his coat.

"Debiao, that's enough for today. Just keep the broadband issue to yourself, don't spread it around."

"Understood." Fan Debiao saw him to the door. "Mr. Zhang, take care. I'll come to your office in a couple of days."

Mr. Zhang waved his hand and left.

Fan Debiao stood at the door, watching his figure disappear at the end of the corridor before turning back to the private room.

He ate a few bites of the remaining food, capped the bottle, and sat there lighting a cigarette.

broadband.

If this goes through, it'll be another big piece of meat.

He recalled his past life; 2003 was indeed the year of the broadband boom. Back then, if a family didn't have broadband, they'd be embarrassed to greet people. Apparently, you had to wait in line to get broadband installed, sometimes for half a month. Later, China Netcom, China Telecom, and China Railcom all launched, and everyone was scrambling to get it installed.

He didn't understand then, but he does now—this is the right opportunity.

He finished his cigarette, stood up, and took out his phone.

"Awei, tomorrow morning at nine o'clock, call Gangzi and General Manager Wu to come to the store for a meeting."

On the seventeenth day of the first lunar month, at nine o'clock in the morning, in the inner room of Dexing Communications.

Fan Debiao, Awei, Gangzi, and Wu Derong sat around a small round table. Tea and a plate of fruit were laid out on the table.

Wu Derong spoke first.

"De Biao, what's the rush?"

Fan Debiao recounted his dinner with General Manager Zhang from the previous day. Everyone became quite interested when the topic of broadband business came up.

Gangzi said, "Brother Biao, this is a big job!"

Fan Debiao nodded.

"Yes. That's why I called you all here today to discuss manpower."

He looked at Gangzi.

"How many people are on the construction team now?"

Gangzi counted on his fingers.

"There are 23 full-time employees, about 10 manual laborers, and odd jobs like Brother Ma, totaling about 40 people."

Is that enough?

Gangzi thought about it.

"If we're just building base stations, that's enough. But if we add broadband..."

He shook his head.

"That's definitely not enough. Broadband needs to be installed in homes, wired, and tested. One person can only handle two or three homes at most. Once it's rolled out, the manpower will need to double."

Fan Debiao looked at Awei.

How many people are at the training center right now?

Awei opened the notebook.

"The batch before the Lunar New Year consisted of eleven technical workers and thirty-nine manual laborers. The technical workers all got their certificates before the New Year, including electrician's and high-altitude work permits. The manual laborers were just manual laborers and didn't have any certificates."

"Can all of them be used?"

"It's usable," Awei said. "All eleven students in the technical class passed the practical training. Liu Tiezhu personally trained them, so their skills are definitely up to par."

Fan Debiao nodded.

"Alright, bring all of these men out and let them work for Gangzi for now."

He then looked at Wu Derong.

"Mr. Wu, we'll have to trouble you with the recruitment matter again."

Wu Derong was stunned for a moment.

What kind of people are you hiring?

"Professionals," Fan Debiao said. "Network engineers and communications engineers need to be certified. We also need to hire budget clerks and data clerks. With more work in the future, we can't rely on just the few of us to do everything."

Wu Derong pondered for a moment.

"This kind of person is hard to find in Kaiyuan. We'll have to recruit him in Shenyang."

"Then let's go to Shenyang," Fan Debiao said. "If we offer higher salaries and better benefits, we can definitely attract some people."

Awei was taking notes.

"Also," Fan Debiao said, "we'll open new classes at the training center. Have Liu Tiezhu keep an eye on them, select the promising talents, and give them focused training. In the future, our team can't just have heavy laborers; we need technical backbones too."

Gangzi nodded.

"Okay, I'll talk to Brother Liu."

Wu Derong looked at him, his eyes somewhat unreadable.

"De Biao," he said, "you're expanding your army."

Fan Debiao smiled.

"Mr. Wu, we have a lot of work this year. Fifty base stations, and if we can secure the broadband, that's not just for a few hundred or a few thousand households. If we don't hire now, we'll be scrambling later."

Wu Derong nodded.

"Okay, I'll do as you say. I know Shenyang well, I'll handle the recruitment."

Awei closed the notebook and looked up.

"Brother Biao, is there anything else?"

Fan Debiao thought for a moment.

"That's all. You all split up and prepare. We'll have to get started as soon as Director Zhao calls."

Several people stood up and walked outside.

As Gangzi reached the door, he turned back.

"Brother Biao," he said, "I have something to tell you."

Fan Debiao looked at him.

"How's he doing?"

"Not bad," Gangzi said. "He's quite hardworking and does whatever he's asked to do. He's still a bit stubborn, but he hasn't neglected his work."