Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 915 Reputation is Important

Setting down his teacup, Zhou Zhengdong's smile vanished. Looking at Chen Fan, he said seriously, "This matter is not simple. I must give you a heads-up."

First, a board seat at Motorola is extremely important; it's not something you can get by simply throwing money at it. Multiprotocol routers can serve as a stepping stone, but this stepping stone isn't the one that knocks on Motorola's door, because the technology isn't particularly important to them. The one who values ​​this technology and can play a decisive role in negotiations is the U.S. Department of Defense. This stepping stone is the one that knocks on their door.

"Only with their permission can we possibly get this seat..."

Before Zhou Zhengdong could finish speaking, Zhang Xuansong exclaimed, "Wait, wait, how is this related to the US military?"

Zhou Zhengdong frowned slightly, looking somewhat troubled, wondering how to explain this to the veteran who had fought on the northern battlefield.

Chen Fan, on the other hand, didn't think it was a big deal. "We are the victors, not the vanquished. What is there to be ashamed of?"
He then said directly, “Third Master, the American-made walkie-talkies you captured on the battlefield were mostly produced by Motorola. For example, the SCR300 handheld two-way walkie-talkie is one of their products.”

So strictly speaking, this company is actually a military-industrial enterprise. If it were just an ordinary equipment supplier, the military would probably not mind, but since it involves communication equipment, it's equivalent to being linked to the military's largest command and communication system. Therefore, any changes in the company's senior management certainly require their approval.

Zhang Xuansong raised his head and blinked repeatedly, "Oh, so that's how it is. I actually did seize that walkie-talkie you mentioned."

He tilted his head, looking at Chen Fan with a puzzled expression, and asked, "Isn't it said that capitalist countries are all about money? What, do they also have political vetting?"

Chen Fan nodded, turned to look at Zhou Zhengdong, and said with a smile, "Of course, family background is very important."

If it were a white person, especially an Anglo-Saxon capitalist, all they needed to do was give a notification and go through the motions. But it wasn't the same for a Chinese person. Even if my uncle grew up in the United States, he was still an outsider in their eyes.

"If they hadn't been interested in our router technology, and if the stakes weren't high enough to warrant breaking the rules, we wouldn't have even had a chance to get a board seat, let alone a chance to negotiate."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Xuansong clicked his tongue and turned to Lin Yuanxiang and Li Shangde, saying, "Those Western countries always boast about being free societies, but after all that, they're not really free societies."

Lin Yuanxiang could understand. "Hey, it's the same everywhere. So-and-so is a white person who grew up here, and he speaks Mandarin better than you. He can't even speak his own country's language."

Speaking of performance, he is usually conscientious in his work, and when the two elderly people passed away a few years ago, he cried very sadly. He truly has a heart that turns to the sun.

But would you agree to let him work in the General Logistics Department?

Zhang Xuansong immediately shook his head, "That won't do. Those who are not of our kind will surely have different hearts..."

After saying this, he stopped talking and smiled at Zhou Zhengdong, saying, "You guys chat, you guys chat."

Zhou Zhengdong smiled, turned to look at Chen Fan, and asked with a hint of curiosity in his eyes, "How do you even know this?"

Chen Fan shrugged and laughed, "I heard it from Ya Li."

She paused for a moment, then explained, "She didn't say that, she just talked about the current state of society in America. But if you use your brain a little, you'll know exactly what the situation is like there, it's not hard to guess."

"You're quite smart."

Zhou Zhengdong laughed and then said, "Since you know, that makes things easier."

So, first of all, getting a seat on their group's board of directors is really difficult; one router might not even be enough...

As he spoke, he suddenly shook his head and changed the subject, "Let's not talk about those things. Anyway, you know it's not guaranteed to work out, but the board seat in the mobile phone business unit is still very promising."

The other option, even if successful and getting into their board of directors, would likely be a mere figurehead, possessing only a title but no real power. At most, they could oversee a small part of the mobile phone business unit's operations, but that wouldn't even affect strategic decision-making.

Hearing this, Zhang Xuansong spoke up again, "Isn't that just an empty title? It's meaningless. Why bother trying so hard to get it?"

Zhou Zhengdong smiled, but did not explain immediately. Instead, he looked at Chen Fan.

Chen Fan turned around and smiled at Zhang Xuansong, "Third Master, how about I give you a position as the Deputy Minister of the General Logistics Department, which doesn't involve any real work? Would that be enough?"

Zhang Xuansong blinked, then immediately realized what was going on. He turned to Zhou Zhengdong and said, "You want to use this mule company's name to do your own thing?"

Zhou Zhengdong laughed heartily, "That's right. Whether you can actually manage things isn't important; having that title is very important!"

He didn't care how much power Motorola's board of directors had. To put it bluntly, even if he were to become the chairman of Motorola, who could he command?

Then, taking a step back and not thinking about power, as long as he can get this title, Zhou Zhengdong's name will immediately spread throughout the entire American high society, which is equivalent to having a ticket to enter high society.

With this ticket to the game, given the Zhou family's current strength, ongoing projects, and foreseeable future profits, it will no longer be a pipe dream to transform the Zhou family from a second-rate local family in New York into a first-rate family with influence throughout the United States.

This is the greatest benefit.

To put it more bluntly, the only Chinese family in the United States that has entered the upper class is Wang An, who runs a computer business.

If Zhou Zhengdong can secure a board seat at Motorola, with that title and the backing of the Zhou family and the tech upstart Wanmu Chun Group and the publishing and media upstart Qianfan Group, he will have the opportunity to surpass Wang An ten years ahead of schedule and become a representative figure of Chinese Americans.

Well, if it weren't for Wang An's poor decision-making, we should be on par with him, not surpass him.

Wang Laboratories once competed with IBM, and its products dominated the US office equipment market. In 1986, Wang An ranked fifth on the Forbes list of billionaires with a net worth of $20 billion, becoming one of the five richest people in the world at the time. In the same year, he received the Medal of Freedom, the highest honor awarded to immigrants in the United States, and participated in the 100th anniversary celebration of the Statue of Liberty as a representative of science and technology.

This is the prestige of Wang An.

Now, Zhou Zhengdong also has the opportunity to receive such treatment.

In short, do your best to try, and if it doesn't work out, then we'll see.

……

Early the next morning, Zhou Zhendong boarded a nearly new second-hand business jet that he had bought for $680 million, and flew from Beijing to Tokyo to return to the United States.

He couldn't wait to take it a step further.

As for the trivial matters of being a beast of burden for my nephew and daughter, and paving the way for my youngest son, none of them matter.

Things always need to be done by someone. If you don't do it and I don't do it, who will do the work?!
I've got Motorola under my belt!
After seeing off his spirited uncle, Chen Fan got into the minivan and headed north to continue his meeting at the Film Association.

As Mr. Xia said, we must wait until the Hundred Flowers Awards ceremony is over before we can leave. If we're going to do it all, we have to do it professionally.

However, when they arrived at the meeting place and pushed open the meeting room door, they found it to be completely empty.

Chen Fan left, completely bewildered, and found a staff member. "Where are the people who were supposed to be in the meeting? None of them showed up today?"

"no."

This young woman, who looked like she had just graduated, was quite excited to see Chen Fan. "Wow, I've seen Chen Fan on TV before, and he was already quite handsome. Seeing him in person, I didn't expect him to be even more handsome than on TV!"

Not only is he good-looking, but he's also incredibly talented. He writes great novels and can sing. How can someone be so wonderful?
Unfortunately, there's one downside.

They actually got married.

At this moment, she seriously doubted whether the writer Chen had lost his mind. With his good looks and many talents, what kind of good woman couldn't he find? Getting married so early was like giving up a whole forest!
What if you meet someone even better in the future, like... cough cough... wouldn't that be such a pity?

Chen Fan had no idea about the girl's inner thoughts. He frowned and asked, "Do you know where they went? Is this meeting still going to take place?"

The little girl finally came to her senses and asked in surprise, "Writer Chen, didn't you receive a notification?"

Chen Fan blinked. "What notification?"

Just as the little girl was about to speak, two people walked over.

When they saw Chen Fan, they immediately waved and greeted him, "Director Chen, it's been a long time!"

Chen Fan turned his head and looked over. After a moment's thought, he immediately recognized them. He extended his right hand to shake theirs and said with a smile, "Director Deng, Director Ke, it's been a long time."

The visitors were Deng Bo and Ke Yu from Liaoning Film Studio. I had interacted with them a few times when I went to Shenyang to pay respects to my ancestors. Later, Chen Fan promised to give me a script and collaborate with them on a film. These two people from the studio continued to contact him.

Several months have passed, and Chen Fan hasn't given them anything, nor have they pressed him for it, until today when they finally came across him.

Ke Yu released his grip, looked at the two of them, and smiled, "Are you two discussing something? Shall we wait over there for a bit?"

Upon hearing this, Chen Fan glanced at them again. Judging from their tone, they were here to see him.
He smiled and said, "No need, I just want to ask a few questions, it'll be quick."

He then looked at the girl and asked, "No one notified me. I went home after the meeting yesterday, and no one has said anything to me since."

Upon hearing this, the young girl looked somewhat confused. "You stayed until the end of the meeting yesterday, so you should have known. Old Master Xia said at the end of the meeting that the list of winners for the Hundred Flowers Awards was finalized, and the awards ceremony would be held on May 23rd."

Then everyone started discussing setting up a new film award, and that was it.

Chen Fan was speechless. So what did he come here for today?

He smiled helplessly and asked, "Where is Elder Xia now?"

The girl shook her head. "I don't know. You'd have to ask our director; he might know."

As soon as she finished speaking, Deng Bo said from the side, "I know that. I heard from Mr. Liu from our Provincial Federation of Literary and Art Circles that Mr. Xia and Mr. Liao from Hong Kong went to the Ministry of Culture together. It seems that they had something important to discuss."

Chen Fan clicked his tongue. Well, it was all his own fault.

He turned to the little girl and smiled, "Thank you, I'm alright now."

The little girl immediately grinned and said, "It's nothing, it's what I should do."

She paused for a moment, then suddenly became a little hesitant. "Writer Chen, I bought your new book. Could you sign it for me?"

Chen Fan was stunned for a moment. He hadn't published a new book in a while. Apart from contributing one short story or novella to each of the "Shanghai Literature" and "Jiangnan Literature" magazines every month, he had stopped contributing to other publications. So where would he get a new book?

Could it be an imposter?
He immediately said, "Then bring the book over, and I'll sign it for you."

Upon hearing this, the little girl immediately ran back happily.

A moment later, she came running over, carrying a thick, 32mo book, panting as she handed it to Chen Fan with both hands, saying, "Writer Chen, here you go."

Chen Fan picked it up and took a look, and suddenly realized what was going on.

This book was indeed "written" by himself. At the beginning of the year in Shanghai, in order to "stock up" for his own publishing house, he took out more than a dozen novel outlines he had written about the war in Southwest China and "shared" them with more than a dozen young writers.

The one in my hand is one of them.

A while ago, when Jiang Tiantian called him, she asked if he wanted to review the manuscript himself. Chen Fan was busy at the time and didn't have time to look at such things, so he told her and the magazine editors to decide for themselves.

Anyway, all those editors were personally selected by Buffett; they were experienced and trustworthy.

It seems the publisher's first batch of works has already been released.

After figuring it out, Chen Fan immediately took out a pen from his bag, asked the little girl's name, wrote a sentence quickly, and finally signed his name.

The little girl took the book and looked at it, her eyes shining. "Writer Chen, your handwriting is so beautiful."

She then looked up and said, "Thank you."

Chen Fan smiled and said, "I should thank you for your support."

He then looked at Deng Bo and Ke Yu, who were still waiting to the side, and then at the little girl, and said with a smile, "I need to trouble you with something else. Please arrange a place for us to talk."

The young girl immediately replied, "No trouble at all. The Filmmakers' House is for filmmakers, and you are a filmmaker too, so you can come here anytime."

As she spoke, she turned around and gestured an invitation, "This way, please."

He then led the three to a reception room with only a sofa and a coffee table, made three cups of tea, and then left happily with the signed book in his arms.

After she closed the door from the outside, Chen Fan turned to look at the two of them and said with a smile, "You two didn't come all this way just to urge me to finish my manuscript, did you?"

Upon hearing this, Deng Bo and Ke Yu exchanged a glance, and couldn't help but show awkward smiles.

Chen Fan raised an eyebrow slightly. "Oh, it really is?"

He then laughed and said, "You don't need to feel embarrassed. I should be the one who feels embarrassed. It's really wrong of me to not deliver on my promise after so long."

Ke Yu quickly replied, "No, no, Director Chen, everyone knows you're very busy, and we wouldn't dare to urge you."

He then looked at Deng Bo, then at Chen Fan, and said with a smile, "We came here today because we learned that you would also be here, since Mr. Liu was invited to the Film Association meeting."

He rubbed his hands together and quickly explained, "But we absolutely don't mean to rush it. We just want to ask when that script can be scheduled?"

(End of this chapter)