Traveling back to 1977

Chapter 935 Add another line

After Wang Jianguo finished speaking, the carriage returned to silence.

As Chen Fan watched the large, covered bus being overtaken, he silently recalled information about Shenzhen at that time.

After a while, he turned to Zhou Yali in the back row and asked, "Did President Ye say which company is in charge of the hotel's construction?"

Zhou Yali shook her head blankly, "No."

He paused for a moment, then quickly asked, "Is there a problem?"

Chen Fan ignored her, turned to Wang Jianguo, and asked, "Are there many outsiders in Shenzhen now?"

Wang Jianguo thought for a moment, "Uh, it seems like quite a lot."

He glanced at Chen Fan and said, "Currently, almost all the outsiders are concentrated in the Shekou Industrial Park. Oh, I mean the workers in the factories."

If you include construction workers, it's about the same. The railway troops are currently responsible for construction in the Shekou Industrial Park; they were also transferred from other areas. They're mostly stationed within the park.

Chen Fan then asked, "Didn't Shenzhen become a city? Aren't there any construction teams in the urban area?"

Wang Jianguo laughed and said, "Yes, it's also the Railway Corps. However, the scale of the project is not large; it mainly focuses on the Shekou Industrial Park."

Hearing this, Chen Fan understood something.

At this moment, Wang Jianguo looked at him and asked, "Is there a problem?"

Chen Fan smiled and said, "It's nothing."

There's nothing wrong with him. He's just a little worried that after the official announcement of the establishment of the special economic zone next month, some of the construction team assigned to build the hotel might be transferred to other projects.

If this happens, it will undoubtedly affect the hotel's construction progress.

Don't think it's impossible; when the highest order is issued, all other "unimportant" projects must give way.

Of course, not all construction personnel will be withdrawn, but it is possible to transfer one-third or even half of them.

In August of this year, the higher authorities announced their approval to establish special economic zones in Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Shantou, and Xiamen.

Following orders from above, the Infrastructure Engineering Corps' metallurgical system mobilized five companies to form an advance team, which traveled from AS City to Shenzhen.

Yes, that's right, it's Anshan again.

Whenever there's a major construction project, this precious resource is indispensable. There's no other way; there are just too many talented people here.

After these five companies arrived in Shenzhen, they found that they were not enough!

Just a few days after the meeting, a colleague from the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations arrived in Shenzhen to inspect the progress of the special economic zone's development. Upon arrival, a heavy rainstorm struck.

As mentioned before, Luohu Village, the core town of Shenzhen, is nicknamed "Luohu" because there is no flat land there, but there is a tall mountain called "Luoshan". Whenever it rains, the villages and streets at the foot of the mountain will be flooded.

Under such circumstances, the first step the comrade from the External Liaison Department took after getting out of the car was into waist-deep water. He said at the time, "If the floods in Shenzhen are not eliminated, the special economic zone cannot be established."

It was this statement that led then-Secretary Wu Nansheng to decide to "move mountains and fill valleys".

To get this project going, five advance teams of established companies wouldn't be enough.

Then, two more companies were transferred from the 36th Detachment in Chenzhou, Hunan, to join the advance team.

Then came a steady stream of engineers joining the ranks.

In just two years, by the autumn of 1982, more than 20,000 engineering soldiers from Liaoning, Hebei, Henan, Shaanxi and other places had successively rushed to Shenzhen.

Here, they constructed the Shenzhen Municipal Party Committee Building, the Shangbu Industrial Zone (the predecessor of the Huaqiangbei commercial district), the first batch of industrial plants, Shenzhen's first high-end shopping mall, "Friendship Shopping Mall," and the famous restaurant "Panxi Restaurant." Among them, the most famous project was the construction of Shenzhen's first high-rise building in 1981: the 20-story Electronics Building.

Another year later, in September 83, the more than 9 engineering soldiers were reorganized into eight regiments and then demobilized on the spot, forming the earliest eight construction companies in Shenzhen.

Isn’t this a coincidence?!
The "Pengcheng Hotel," jointly invested by Wanmuchun Group, Qianfan Group, and Mr. Huo from Hong Kong, had a design and construction period of three years, perfectly coinciding with Shenzhen's early infrastructure construction projects, including land reclamation, roads, bridges, municipal works, hotels, schools, and hospitals.

Chen Fan would bet that if he hadn't had to be reassigned, he would have personally worked on the cement and bricklaying until the hotel was completed!
Thinking about this, Chen Fan couldn't help but feel a headache coming on.

Why didn't we consider this before?

……

The car bumped along the dirt road, and Mr. Chen swayed back and forth, wondering how to minimize the impact.
They fell silent halfway through.

It wasn't until 8 p.m. that we finally arrived at Wanmuchun Industrial Park in Shekou Industrial Park.

The detached office building was brightly lit. Ye Yufeng had already received the message through the car radio and, together with Fang Xiaoying, Liu Yadong, and Ma Liyuan, waited at the entrance of the lobby.

As soon as the car came to a stop, they quickly walked down the steps.

Zhou Yali pushed open the car door, opened her arms and ran over, "Sister Yufeng, Sister Xiaoying, I missed you so much!"

After the hug, Liu Yadong and Ma Liyuan stood aside, sighing in unison without saying a word.

Zhou Yali turned around and laughed, "Brother Yadong, Brother Liyuan, your wives asked me to pass on a message to you."

The two men immediately perked up, looking at her expectantly. "What did you say?"

Zhou Yali pointed at the two of them and laughed, "Your sisters-in-law said that you should work hard and earn more bonuses. If the bonuses are enough, they will bring their nephews and nieces to visit you at the end of the year. If the bonuses are not enough, well, you can figure it out yourselves."

Upon hearing this, the two exchanged a glance and walked into the hall without saying a word.

Zhou Yali quickly asked, "Where are you going?"

Without turning their heads, the two said, "We're working overtime."

At this moment, Chen Fan, accompanied by Jiang Lili, greeted Ye Yufeng and Fang Xiaoying, and entered the office building surrounded by them, Wang Jianguo, Li Nan, and Kong Wanshan.

Ye Yufeng followed beside him, saying as they walked, "I didn't expect you to arrive so quickly. I thought I would have to wait two or three days."

Zhou Yali snorted twice and said with a pout, "You have the nerve to say that? If you hadn't been so persistent, my brother wouldn't have set off today. He spent the whole night on a ship and only arrived in the provincial capital this morning."

In the afternoon, I flew from the provincial capital to Guangzhou, and from there I still have to take a three-hour bus ride to get here. How tiring!

Ye Yufeng left her speechless. "I told you a long time ago that we needed to prepare for the groundbreaking ceremony, but you insisted on going to Shanghai to play first. You didn't even tell Young Master Biao that you wanted to surprise him. How can you blame me for this?"

Chen Fan walked ahead, then suddenly turned to Fang Xiaoying and asked in a low voice, "Have they always been like this?"

Fang Xiaoying shrugged and said, "It's been like this since we were little, everyone's used to it."

The two people next to them, upon hearing their words, chuckled awkwardly and remained silent.

Liu Yadong and Ma Liyuan naturally didn't actually go up to work overtime; instead, they waited at the elevator entrance beforehand, pressing the elevator button to wait for them to come over.

After everyone else entered the elevator, they were the last to go in and went straight to the top floor. The top floor was originally intended to be Chen Fan and Zhou Yali's office and lounge, but Chen Fan declined and gave it to Ye Yufeng instead.

But when he comes here, he'll be invited to the top floor... At worst, he'll just take up Zhou Yali's space, since she doesn't use it much anyway.

The place is quite spacious; even when the group sat down in the reception area, it still felt very roomy.

After Wang Jianguo and the other two helped bring the luggage up, they saw that the others had something to talk about, so they said goodbye and left. Soon, only the seven of them remained.

Fang Xiaoying, acting as a tea server, fiddled with the Kung Fu tea set and said with a smile, "The conditions here are top-notch, even more luxurious than the top offices in Hong Kong. It's just a pity that the owner doesn't come here often."

Zhou Yali sat down on the sofa, stretched, and then sighed, "I'll have to come here more often from now on."

Upon hearing this, Ye Yufeng and the other three looked at her. "What do you mean?"

Zhou Yali shrugged and said, "I've finished all my studies. I just need to submit my thesis and defend it when I graduate. So my parents dumped me here and ordered me to study hard with my younger brother and improve every day."

After saying that, she tilted her head and said, "But our headquarters in the mainland is in Shenzhen. What can I do? I can only run back and forth between Shenzhen and Yunhu."

He then grabbed Jiang Lili's arm and leaned his whole body against her, chuckling, "We also have to go to Shanghai."

Ye Yufeng and the others exchanged bewildered glances. "Your young lady hasn't even started doing anything serious yet, and you're already thinking about going to play with the young master and young mistress? Are you sure you're here to work?"

However, they dared not ask that question aloud.

It's good that they even came; it's better than only missing out two or three times a year before.

Chen Fan stood by the window, looking at the sea outside, and couldn't help but shake his head. "It's pitch black and you can't see anything, not even a few lights."

Upon hearing this, Ye Yufeng immediately looked up at him and said with a smile, "Later on, there will be searchlights, and you'll be able to see it."

Chen Fan turned to look at her, somewhat confused, "Searchlight?"

Ye Yufeng laughed and said, "They swim to the other side at night. This place is almost the closest to Hong Kong. They usually like to go swimming after 10 p.m., when the checks are extra strict."

Chen Fan suddenly realized, "So that's how it is."

He turned around, walked over, sat down on the sofa, picked up the teacup Fang Xiaoying handed him, took a sip, and chuckled softly, "If this area is developed, fewer people will naturally swim, so there's no need to use a searchlight to sweep around."

Then he looked up at Ye Yufeng and asked, "When will the groundbreaking ceremony begin?"

Ye Yufeng said with a smile, "The preparations have been completed long ago, and we have also communicated with the Industrial Zone Management Committee, the city, and the province. We are just waiting to determine the specific time."

After receiving a call from Yali at noon today, we immediately began sending out invitations. The preliminary date is July 6th, the 7th day of the fifth lunar month. We consulted a master in Hong Kong, who determined that this is a rare auspicious day, suitable for breaking ground, praying for blessings, and offering sacrifices.

Chen Fan raised an eyebrow and looked at her, saying, "You even hired a master from Hong Kong to choose an auspicious date? How much did it cost?"

Fang Xiaoying, who was standing next to her, immediately said, "It's not much, 8888 Hong Kong dollars."

It wasn't much, but it wasn't a small amount either. Three or four years ago, in 1976, Leslie Cheung's family fell into poverty, and he had to set up a stall to sell shoes to supplement the family income. He earned more than 800 yuan a month, which was considered by others to be "quite a lot of money," comparable to a white-collar worker.

Several years have passed, and wages in Hong Kong have skyrocketed, but the average salary for white-collar workers is only HK$2,500 to HK$3,000. This is just for white-collar workers; the salary for workers is almost half that, and the salary for ordinary clerks is about the same as that of workers.

These "masters" certainly made a fortune, earning half a year's wages just for calculating a date.

Chen Fan snorted twice, looked at them and laughed, "Don't you know I can tell fortunes too?"

what?
Ye Yufeng and Fang Xiaoying looked at each other in bewilderment.

After pausing for two seconds, Ye Yufeng pouted and said with a slightly aggrieved tone, "But you work in the mainland, so I can't ask you to calculate the auspicious dates. If people find out, wouldn't that be bad?"

Chen Fan chuckled, "You're talking about people within the organization who can't do these mystical things. I'm different. Everyone who knows me knows I'm a Taoist priest. Not to mention calculating auspicious times, I can also do feng shui, determine the location of ancestral graves and residences, and perform rituals."

He increasingly felt that the Taoist priest's identity was a stroke of genius; he could do things that others couldn't do, and he could say things that others couldn't say.

As long as one's heart is set on the sun, there are almost no taboos.

Hearing his words, Ye Yufeng and the others were a little confused. Is that so?

At this moment, Zhou Yali, who had been silent all along, couldn't help but chuckle. "Sister Yufeng, next time you should ask Xiaofan to choose an auspicious date. You'll save yourself a big red envelope."

"Not just that."

Chen Fan chuckled and said, "I am a living True Person certified by the Dao Association. My Daoist skills are so profound that no one can compare to me. No matter how powerful those overseas masters are, they have to be three points lower in front of me, otherwise they would be disrespecting the ancestral temple."

Although it was a joke, he suddenly had an idea and said to Ye Yufeng, "I'll give you a few talismans later and stamp them with the Celestial Master's seal. You can frame them and put them in your office. If any guests from Hong Kong come, show them to them and spread the word that there are real talismans and seals here."

Ye Yufeng stared wide-eyed, completely bewildered. "What's the use of this?"

Zhou Yali, standing nearby, couldn't help but shiver. She stared blankly at Chen Fan and whispered, "Brother, could there really be demons and monsters in this world?"

Hearing her say that, Jiang Lili, whose arm she was holding, also felt a little uneasy.

She now has a mysterious faith in Chen Fan; everything her husband says is the truth of the world, and she has no doubts whatsoever.

Seeing that they all looked distracted, Chen Fan couldn't help but laugh and said, "Where did these demons and monsters come from? No matter how big the demons and monsters are, they can't compare to the wickedness of the human heart."

He paused for a moment, then explained to Ye Yufeng, "No matter what, these things still have a good market in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. Some people like to believe in both righteous and evil ways, especially crooked ways, and like to 'perform evil deeds to harm people'."

Those things are nothing to brag about, but knowing about them can still be disgusting.

I've left a few talismans here. If anyone really has bad intentions towards our business, as long as they believe in these, they'll have more reservations, and their bad intentions might disappear on their own. They might even develop more respect for them.

So, what I'm protecting you from isn't demons or monsters, but rather from the schemes and plots of petty people.

He chuckled as he spoke, "Why not use a few cheap talismans to advertise our company and ward off some unnecessary trouble?"

After hearing his explanation, everyone breathed a long sigh of relief.

Before Ye Yufeng could speak, Zhou Yali eagerly asked, "Brother, brother, is this the legendary psychological warfare?"

Chen Fan glanced at her, smiled, and nodded. "Hmm, that's somewhat interesting."

Zhou Yali pursed her lips and rubbed her hands together, then nodded in realization, "So this is how business warfare can be played. I've learned another trick."

Chen Fan laughed and said, "Business warfare can involve both high-end, far-sighted, and meticulously planned strategies, as well as simple and unpretentious methods like sticking pins in voodoo dolls, cursing, spraying paint, and hiring people to come and insult you. It's all about making money, so it's not shameful."

My 'True Person Talisman' is also a kind, but it goes against the grain. What I just mentioned were all about attacking the opponent, while mine is about strengthening oneself and becoming more righteous and honorable.

Zhou Yali chuckled dryly twice, "If I hadn't heard your explanation, I would have really believed it."

The people around couldn't help but chuckle.

Ignoring them, Chen Fan turned to Ye Yufeng and asked, "Later, contact the city and add another agreement to the 'Pengcheng Grand Hotel' project."

(End of this chapter)