Restarting life by going to the countryside to support medical work

Chapter 668 Development
It's very simple; he plans to rent this courtyard to Zhu Yongyang and Cheng Jianwen.

What exactly do we do?
I'd like to open a club here, a business club, the very formal kind, of course.

This clubhouse is specifically for foreign investors coming to China, as well as for foreigners in China to conduct business.

Using the Cheng family's name will surely get approval from above. Zhu Yongyang will be in charge of the actual operation, and Li Yancheng can guarantee that this place will not become a den of iniquity.

Old Zhu and Cheng Jianwen walked behind, discussing business; this was the very thing they were talking about.

Old Zhu didn't understand business clubs, but if you put it another way, that this place caters to a certain type of people for eating, drinking, and having fun, Old Zhu immediately understood.

It's easy to understand, but how do you arrange entertainment? You can't break the law, and that's where things get complicated.

There are no private clubs in China yet, but there are quite a few in the U.S. Others may not know how to set them up, but Cheng Jianwen knows it all.

Since it was a task assigned by his older brother, he naturally had to do his best to teach the person beside him everything he knew.

"Actually, my brother is right. We don't need to do all that messy stuff. Let's just make this look like what he called it again..."

"Mr. Cheng, are you referring to a private kitchen restaurant?"

"Yes, yes, a private restaurant. The environment here is so nice and private. It's a great place to discuss business. Some people want to invite important people to dinner but can't find a suitable place. This place is definitely the place for them."

Cars can drive right in, and each room only has one table, so guests can eat here without disturbing each other—it couldn't be more perfect.

However, the meals must be special. Western food is out of the question; I can arrange for a chef to come over later. As for Chinese food…”

“I’ll take care of it. I’ll arrange the Chinese chefs,” Zhu Yongyang said, taking over the conversation.

"I can find chefs specializing in all major cuisines in China, including those specializing in official cuisine. Leave the Chinese food to me; all I need are the ingredients..."

Compared to the previous two years, this year's supplies, especially those related to people's daily lives, are much more plentiful, but that's still relative; it's far from the point where you can buy whatever you want and have plenty.

State-owned restaurants can obtain permits to purchase ingredients directly from relevant units such as vegetable companies and meat processing plants. Individual restaurants, on the other hand, have a much tougher time. They can only go to the vegetable market early in the morning and buy whatever is available. The key issue is that even with permits, they can't buy much.

Because the purpose of the farmers' market is to meet the daily needs of ordinary people, it is impossible for restaurants to buy everything.

Actually, this is no big deal for Zhu Yongyang. He has been dealing in tickets for so many years and controlled so many shady markets. Although he has stopped doing it in recent years, the connections he made in the early years are still there.

He runs a private restaurant, so he doesn't have to worry about ingredients at all. As long as it's not something particularly strange, he has plenty.

The problem is that if he does that, he will have to use his personal connections, and this won't just be for a day or two, but every day. If he ends up owing people favors, he probably won't be able to pay them back.

"You don't need to worry about that, I'll figure something out." Having lived in mainland China for almost the past few years, Cheng Jianwen is quite familiar with the situation there and knows that many things, including rice, flour, and oil, require ration coupons.

But he doesn't need to. As a foreign investor in China, he not only has Chinese Yuan, but also a large amount of Foreign Exchange Certificates, which are valuable assets.

Foreign exchange certificates were a very special product. They were issued from April 1, 1980, until they ceased circulation and were redeemed on January 1, 1995.

It is a certificate issued by the Bank of China under the authorization of the State Council in accordance with the foreign exchange management regulations. It contains foreign exchange cash and foreign exchange deposits. It is a special form of currency equivalent to the local Chinese currency during a specific historical period, but it is not legal tender. It is issued to foreigners and returned overseas Chinese.

It circulates domestically, but can only be used in specific occasions, such as designated shops and hotels.

Only in these designated places could foreign exchange certificates be used to purchase high-end goods that were considered luxury items at the time, such as imported wines, cigarettes, color televisions, Swiss watches, as well as some handicrafts and silks with Chinese characteristics.

It can also be exchanged for an equivalent amount of foreign currency.

The surge in studying abroad began in the early 1980s. Due to tight foreign exchange reserves, it was extremely difficult for individuals to exchange foreign currency. Even if they could exchange it from banks, the amount was extremely limited and simply not enough.

However, if you can get foreign exchange certificates, you can exchange them directly at the Bank of China counter.

Putting aside Cheng Jianwen's ability to use foreign exchange certificates to buy the ingredients he needs from people who want foreign exchange, just considering the Cheng family's investment in a restaurant in China, all the necessary supplies would be readily available from various government departments.

Therefore, future hotel procurement will be of no concern to him.

"President Cheng, it seems that everything is ready now, except for the final push."

"The East Wind you mentioned is..." Cheng Jianwen turned his head to look at Zhu Yongyang beside him and asked with some doubt.

The two of them hadn't just started dealing with each other. Ever since Li Yancheng took office as the deputy director of the Municipal Public Security Bureau in September 1980, he had asked Lao Zhu to stop his previous business of dealing in invoices and scarce materials, and instead obtain a formal individual business license to start doing legitimate business.

But in those two years, those who could do small business were all people with their own skills. If you wanted to be a legitimate merchant and make a profit from the price difference in commodity circulation, you needed to have a source of goods. Without a source of goods, you couldn't do business honestly.

For a whole year, Zhu Yongyang lost money.

The money he lost wasn't from a failed business, but from supporting a large group of brothers.

After his business dealing in bills ended, some of his associates left, but some of his brothers who had followed him for over a decade chose to continue working with him.

Old Zhu is a man of great loyalty. His brothers chose to follow him, and even when there was no business, he would still support them. He would give each person at least 60 or 70 yuan a month, which was about the same as what ordinary workers earned. With dozens of people, it was a considerable expense every month.

Li Yancheng didn't realize what was going on at first, but later he sensed something was wrong. He called Zhu Yongyang over and asked him what was happening, and then Zhu Yongyang introduced him to Cheng Jianwen.

The lack of supply for others is not a problem for the Cheng family at all. If they can't get it domestically, can't they get it from abroad?
Cheng Jianwen simply registered another trading company in China to engage in import and export business, and handed it over to his subordinates to handle the liaison with Zhu Yongyang.

And so, Old Zhu and his gang transformed themselves into importers, making a fortune in the past three years.

Cheng Jianwen never expected that the import and export company he set up just to give his brother face would not only not lose money, but actually make a profit, and quite a lot of it. This was the first time he had witnessed the spending power of the Chinese people.

This reminded him of what Li Yancheng had told him before he decided to invest in building a factory in mainland China: the factory's production capacity might not even be enough for domestic needs, and exports? That was just wishful thinking.

At first, he thought his brother was joking, but later events proved that his brother's understanding of the domestic market was something he, as an outsider, couldn't match. The daily necessities produced by Cheng's factories in China had no export share whatsoever. What to do? They could only increase production lines.

Now, Cheng's factories in China have expanded their production capacity fivefold compared to when they were first built, and the output is barely enough to keep up with sales.

"Mr. Cheng, are you sure you want to set up that private restaurant here?" Zhu Yongyang raised his arm and pointed around.

"Of course, it would be a waste not to make use of such a good place."

"What about the rent? How much would be appropriate?"

"Rent..." Upon hearing this, Cheng Jianwen narrowed his eyes. Yes, how much rent would be appropriate?
Whether a private restaurant can actually make money is a question he can't answer definitively, even though he has high hopes and can attract initial customers.

He's in business, and whatever he does, he naturally wants to make money.

His original intention was to involve his brother, but he was rejected.

Li Yancheng is determined not to do business, nor will he get involved in anyone's business and take shares. Given his current status, doing so would only give others a handle to use against him.

His relationship with the Cheng family had already drawn criticism from many people, but no one could really say anything, since the Cheng family was his biological family, and they had been in business for generations, making indelible contributions to the country both during the war and after liberation.

It's unreasonable to prohibit the Cheng family from investing and doing business in China just because Li Yancheng exists.

That is why he is always very careful in his dealings with the Cheng family. This time, his decision to rent the courtyard to them was made after careful consideration and after consulting with the organization and his superiors and receiving their approval.

But this rent issue...

Cheng Jianwen had a bit of a headache. In the past two years, he had gained some understanding of the domestic political scene. Precisely because of this understanding, he didn't know how much rent to give his brother.

He glanced ahead and said, "Let's discuss it with my brother later."

Domestic real estate is not valuable now. Although some major cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai, are piloting commercial housing, the completed commercial housing is mainly aimed at overseas Chinese who have returned to China. Ordinary people in China are not buying houses at all.

The same applies to renting a house. Even if there are rentals available, they are rented from the government, and the monthly rent is only a symbolic one or two yuan.

This is still residential housing; storefronts used for business are almost never privately rented.

Nowadays, most small vendors who do business push bicycles or ride tricycles through the streets and alleys. Even those who run restaurants use their own houses.

These days, being a chef or driver is still a highly desirable profession, and people are in demand in various organizations, so very few people choose to go into business for themselves.

It was precisely because there was no comparison that Cheng Jianwen was unsure how much rent his brother should pay for this courtyard.

The eldest son of the Guan family had finished introducing the courtyard and, after saying goodbye to Li Yancheng and the others, he left first.

"Speaking sincerely"

Chairman Cheng

The way Li Yancheng addressed him brought a hint of helplessness to Cheng Huaigu's eyes. Four years had passed, and he still couldn't get his long-lost eldest son to change his way of addressing him. He had no other feelings but helplessness.

"Are you really planning to rent this courtyard to your younger brother and that classmate so they can open some kind of private club?"

"Yes, these wooden houses will deteriorate very quickly if no one lives in them for a long time. Instead of leaving them empty and wasting time, it's better to rent them out so my family can collect some rent."

"You didn't build this yard with the intention of renting it out, did you?"

“No,” Li Yancheng said with a smile and shook his head. “Chairman Cheng, you have been to China often these past two years, so you should know that there is almost no rental market in China now. When I built this courtyard, I wanted to leave something for laughter and joy.”

"You mean you're optimistic about the future of the domestic real estate market?"

"Chairman Cheng, you don't need to try to trick me. How could I possibly know what the domestic real estate market will be like in the future? All I know is that the welfare housing system will disappear sooner or later. For the country, this burden is simply too great."

If the real estate market can be revitalized, it will have a huge impact on the upstream and downstream industries of the construction sector, which will benefit economic development, ensure employment, ensure everyone has jobs and can earn money, and relatively speaking, social order will also improve significantly.

He couldn't stop talking about his profession, which made everyone laugh.

Cheng Huaigu's favorite thing to do was to chat with his eldest son, and his biggest wish was to bring him onto the Cheng family's ship and have him take control of the Cheng Corporation.

In his eyes, his youngest son was a capable general who charged into battle, but not a strategist who could plan and command.

The 1980s were a period of great upheaval. The Cheng family seemed to have a large and prosperous business, but precisely because of this, it was even more necessary to consolidate its existing business advantages while actively exploring new avenues.

However, Cheng Jianwen does not possess advanced business acumen or a sharp mind.

Unlike Li Yancheng, Cheng Huaigu deeply admired his eldest son's long-term vision ever since the father and son first met and had a long talk in the spring and summer of 1981.

In his view, his two sons were a perfect match: one set the future development direction and policies of the Cheng family and made decisions, while the other followed orders and led the team to expand the territory.

However, as he may think, Li Yancheng is different from Cheng Jianwen. He would never follow his cheap father's arrangements. Even if he were to go into business, he would choose a state-owned enterprise, reorganize and gradually rise to the top, rather than inherit the so-called family business. Besides, he had no intention of entering the corporate world in this life.

More importantly, even if he wanted to go, given his current rank, it would still require a meeting to discuss and a vote.

After the representative meeting in March, Director Dai officially stepped down to the second line, and Li Yancheng took over the position of director at the age of 42, with the administrative rank of director-general.

Just as everyone was wondering why he hadn't taken on the role of a member of the headquarters leadership team like the previous bureau chiefs, perhaps because he was too young, another appointment document arrived a week after he took over as bureau chief.

He did not break that convention and continued to serve as a member of the headquarters' leadership team. Consequently, his administrative rank was raised by half a level.

(End of this chapter)