Sail across the sea

Chapter 517 Even the Chairman Has to Work
These are the things we need to discuss.

Over the next two days, Gao Fan inspected various factories located in Cangtang, Yanxiu, and Wuyuan counties, engaging in friendly conversations with the cadres and employees of each factory, putting on a show of being approachable and friendly.

Upon hearing of Gao Fan's return, leaders from the three counties and Luping City all called, extending warm invitations for him to visit at their convenience. Canghai Chemical is the largest enterprise in Luping, ranking first in both tax payment and job creation; local officials dared not neglect Gao Fan in the slightest.

It's said that Canghai Chemical is preparing to respond to the national call to expand investment and build a new business group. Local officials at all levels have shown great enthusiasm, claiming they will give the green light, providing policies and land as needed. Of course, Gao Fan didn't need to personally handle these specific matters. He simply had a long talk with the local officials about national sentiments and established some fundamental principles. The rest was naturally handled by Gu Kunquan.

After finishing these matters, Gao Fan made a detour to Shuainan to check on the production situation of Xinglong Coatings Company, met with Chen Xingquan and others, and then returned to Beijing.

"Uncle, uncle!"

At Gao Min's house, her little nephew, Little Lamb, toddled towards Gao Fan, who had just entered the house, with his short legs. He could already call out the name of the child very clearly.

"Xiao Fan is back. How are your parents?"

The person asking the questions was Yang Kai's mother, who now lives with Yang Kai and helps them take care of their child. Because Gao Fan often comes over to eat and drink for free, he has become quite familiar with Yang's mother.

"They're all doing well, and they even asked me to send their regards to you," Gao Fan replied. Of course, the last sentence was made up by him, and Yang's mother wouldn't bother to verify it anyway.

"Please thank them for me and tell them to come to Beijing to visit when they have time. The little lamb misses his grandparents quite a bit."

“Hey, my dad is very busy right now, and my mom doesn’t want to come to Beijing alone. I’ve tried to persuade them, but it didn’t work.”

"Your dad is a leader, so it's normal that he can't get away."

"Actually, I'm not a big leader, I'm just busy doing nothing."

After exchanging polite, albeit somewhat frivolous, words, Yang Kai emerged from the inner room and casually gestured for Gao Fan to sit on the sofa in the living room. At this point, the little lamb's initial enthusiasm for his uncle had faded; clutching the small toy his uncle had given him, he went out to play with his grandmother.

"You stayed in Maolin for more than ten days this time, right?" Yang Kai poured Gao Fan a glass of water and then sat down next to him and asked.

Gao Fan said, "I went to quite a few places. First, I went to Muyang, then back to Ruizhang, then to Cangtang, and then I went to Renqiao in Shuainan. Ten days passed by in no time."

"Is everything alright at home?" Yang Kai asked.

The "home" he mentioned is actually a very broad term, referring to both the home of Gao Yiping and his wife, and Gao Fan's business, namely Canghai Chemical. It's a perfectly normal inquiry.

Gao Fan said, "My parents are doing well, and business at the fertilizer company is also going well. Business in Cangtang is the same as before, but they gave me a new task. I've been thinking about it, and I might need your help."

"Oh, so someone actually dares to assign tasks to Chairman Gao?" Yang Kai joked with a smile.

Gao Fan said, "The chairman has to work too. This mission is quite troublesome. I've been thinking about it all the way back from Shuainan, but I still don't have a clear clue." "What is it? You're making it sound so serious."

"Canghai Chemical needs to establish a research institute and recruit high-end talents from around the world."

"worldwide……"

Yang Kai grinned. His brother-in-law's tone was too arrogant, which hurt his brother-in-law's feelings.

"What's so strange about that? Doesn't Peking University also claim to recruit talent from all over the world?" Gao Fan said confidently.

Yang Kai said, "You know it's just a claim, right? With Peking University's status, the talent we've recruited from overseas is less than one-tenth of the talent we've lost. What makes you, a private enterprise in a third-tier county, think you can compare to Peking University?"

Gao Fan said, "My engineers can earn 2000 yuan a month. How much can you, an associate professor at Peking University, earn?"

Yang Kai was speechless again. This stab was really hard, leaving Yang Kai speechless even if he wanted to refute it.

"By the way, Lao Yang, you just said that the number of talents recruited by Peking University is less than one-tenth of the number of talents who leave. It would be better if your talents came to us instead of leaving for other countries. Do you know any teachers or doctoral students who want to leave? We can hire them with high salaries."

"You want me, an associate professor with a monthly salary of 500, to recruit engineers with a monthly salary of 2000 for you?" Yang Kai retorted irritably.

His heart, still bleeding from the knife wound inflicted by his brother-in-law, was far from being polite.

In fact, Yang Kai and Gao Min's family lived a life that could be considered extremely wealthy at Peking University. Not to mention Gao Min's high salary and generous year-end bonus at Xinglong Company, Yang Kai himself also received a considerable amount of patent fees every year because several of his invention patents were used by Canghai Chemical, which was dozens of times higher than his salary from Peking University.

Yang Kai felt annoyed because he knew his colleagues were indeed struggling financially. When they chatted in the office, they all complained constantly about social injustice and how their talents were being wasted. Gao Fan boasted about his company's engineers' high incomes, which made Yang Kai anything but happy.

To be fair, university teachers in this era earn a decent income, though not the highest, but certainly not the lowest. Even compared to factory workers, let alone farmers, professors earn two to three times more.

By this time, most state-owned enterprises were suffering severe losses, and some factories had already experienced layoffs. Workers were only receiving half of their wages, barely managing to survive. Even those enterprises that were still able to pay wages had drastically reduced benefits, leaving workers with very little actual take-home pay.

However, even the lowest-ranking university professor, a teaching assistant, has earned their position through more than a decade of hard study. Professors like Yang Kai from Peking University were once the most outstanding young men in the surrounding villages; how could they compare themselves to laid-off workers?
The objects they were comparing themselves to were, of course, those classmates who were at the bottom of their class in high school but now act all high and mighty, running a shell company and swindling people everywhere.

To use an inappropriate analogy, it's like Gao Fan's classmate, Yin Xiaobiao.

Yin Xiaobiao now earns several hundred thousand yuan a year. He goes out with an entourage, whose members carry mobile phones that look like bricks.

Imagine if Gao Fan were a university teacher earning 500 yuan a month, how would he feel standing next to Yin Xiaobiao?

(End of this chapter)