Sail across the sea

Chapter 544 How many people will be envious?

Back at the resource building, the receptionist handed Gao Fan a phone registration form, which recorded the phone calls Gao Fan received while he was away from Beijing, including the caller's name, workplace, and other relevant information.

Gao Fan glanced at the list and found that, as usual, the vast majority of the calls were unimportant greetings. As the company chairman, most matters were not directly submitted to him but handled by specific departments. His daily work mainly involved maintaining relationships with various people, so the calls to him were usually of this nature.

The receptionist knew Gao Fan's whereabouts, so if anyone had an emergency and needed to contact Gao Fan, the receptionist would call the fertilizer company in Ruizhang or Canghai Chemical in Cangtang to inform them of the situation. The people there would definitely be able to pass the message to Gao Fan.

As for the phone list Gao Fan has now, those aren't urgent. Some can be ignored; he can simply wait for the other party to call back. Others require Gao Fan to call back, but there's no rush.

Gao Fan saw Wu Zixian's name in the phone list, so after returning to his office, he dialed Wu Zixian's lab number.

"Hey, Lao Ba, you were looking for me?"

As soon as the call connected, Gao Fan asked directly.

"Oh, Gao Fan, it's Chuan Lin who's in Beijing for a meeting. Lao Gu said we should all get together. I called you, and your receptionist said you'd be back today. So, do you have any plans for tonight? If not, I'll contact Lao Gu, Lao Pan, and Chuan Lin, and we'll find a place to sit down."

Wu Zixian said on the phone.

"How many days has Lao Qi been here? When is he going back?"

“You’ve been here for four or five days. You’ll probably go back the day after tomorrow or the day after that. If you’re not back by tomorrow, we’ll just have our get-together without worrying about you.”

"Okay, let's do it today. I came to Beijing with my future mother-in-law today. I reckon there will be a welcome banquet at her workplace tonight, and I'll take my wife there tomorrow to welcome her back."

"Okay, tonight then. I'll call Lao Gu and the others right now."

After hanging up with Wu Zixian, Gao Fan dealt with some backlogged company matters. Just before leaving get off work, Wu Zixian called to say that Gu Songtao had booked a restaurant near Sanlitun for everyone to have dinner there.

Gao Fan's company was located in the Peking University Resources Building, and Wu Zixian was a teacher at Peking University, so the two happened to be traveling together. Gao Fan waited for Wu Zixian at the south gate of the school, then hailed a minibus and headed straight for Sanlitun.

The two arrived at the agreed-upon restaurant and entered the private room. Pan Chang was already there, but Gu Songtao and Chen Chuanlin were not yet. Upon seeing Gao Fan, Pan Chang smiled and asked, "How did it go, Lao Liu? Have you met those two guys, Lao Yan and Lao Yu, whom I introduced to you last time?"

Gao Fan said, "I've met him. That Yan Wenjin, he heard that our research institute is in Ruizhang and he's not too keen on going, so I didn't force him. Yu Guanqing, on the other hand, said he could work in Ruizhang and made some demands regarding salary, which I agreed to. I guess he's already submitted his resignation to the design institute."

They were still talking about Gao Fan poaching people. After graduating from university, Pan Chang joined the Petrochemical Corporation. After working at the Petrochemical Design Institute for three years, he was transferred to the company's Production and Operations Department, where he is now a deputy division-level cadre.

Gao Fan was going to recruit people from various organizations, so he naturally cast a wide net and contacted all his familiar classmates. Pan Chang had some friends at the petrochemical design institute, so he recommended two engineers to Gao Fan, whom he thought were both skilled and of good character and were looking to switch jobs. These were Yan Wenjin and Yu Guanqing, whom Gao Fan mentioned.

Gao Fan arranged for the two to meet separately.

Among them, Yan Wenjin's conditions did not satisfy him, so he emphasized that his research institute was located in the suburbs of Ruizhang and the conditions were relatively poor, "I'm afraid it will be unfair to Engineer Yan," and so on. Yan Wenjin was also a person with social experience, and he understood what was going on as soon as he heard it, so he cleverly said that he was not used to the southern weather and could only disappoint President Gao's good intentions.

Gao Fan was very satisfied with Yu Guanqing, and the two sides had a harmonious discussion. Gao Fan promised to give Yu Guanqing a good salary, and Yu Guanqing immediately said that he would submit his resignation to the design institute upon returning home, and that he would have to rely on Gao Fan's help in the future.

Pan Chang didn't care who went or didn't. Gao Fan asked him for help, and he happened to know a few colleagues who wanted to change jobs, so he introduced them. As for the final outcome, it had nothing to do with him.

After listening to Gao Fan's story, he laughed and said, "You poached people from the design institute. Don't tell anyone that I introduced them, or the company will say I'm a traitor."

"No, no, I'm hoping Director Pan will continue to rise in rank and introduce me to more people in the future," Gao Fan said with a smile.

Pan Changdao said, "Promotion my ass! The current trend is to go into business. It's better to go into business early than late, and better to keep struggling in the sea than to go into business early. Lao Liu, in the entire Class of '82, you were the most farsighted. You skipped classes to start a company as soon as you entered university. At that time, everyone thought you were short-sighted, willing to give up a bright future for a little money. Now everyone realizes that this is the bright future you have."

"Old Pan wouldn't be thinking of going into business too, would he?" Wu Zixian interjected.

Pan Chang let out an exaggerated sigh and said, "I also want to go into business, to be Lao Liu's horseman, and save myself from attending meetings and writing reports every day, and having to watch the faces of all those leaders. But my old man said that if I dare to go into business, he'll break my legs. You don't have to believe me, he really will do it."

“In our Maolin dialect, what you’re saying is called Versailles,” Gao Fan said. “A 26-year-old deputy director of a large state-owned enterprise, do you know how many people would be envious? In our small county, many people spend their whole lives just to become a deputy section chief, and that’s enough to bring honor to their ancestors.”

"Old Pan, listen to me, just work diligently at the Petrochemical Corporation. These past few years, state-owned enterprises seem to be having a tough time, but it's just friction during the transition from the old to the new system. At most, in seven or eight years, things should get better for state-owned enterprises, and that's when your colleagues who are struggling in the sea will envy you."

When Gao Fan mentioned the time, his mouth suddenly twitched. He originally wanted to say a shorter time, but then he suddenly realized that a few years later would be a time of major reshuffling of state-owned enterprises across the country, with a large number of state-owned enterprises going bankrupt or undergoing restructuring, which was hardly a good time.

But he also clearly remembers that by the beginning of the new century, many state-owned enterprises began to rise from the ashes and thrived thereafter, as evidenced by the popularity of university graduates taking civil service exams in later generations.

With Pan Chang's education and family background, if he could work steadily in a state-owned enterprise for more than ten years, he would definitely be able to join the ranks of senior executives by the new century. At that time, Gao Fan would probably have to look up to him.

(End of this chapter)