Yonghe Road

Chapter 43 No Vote
A village-level team beat more than a dozen township teams and won the runner-up in the city and a place to advance to the prefecture-level city competition. This is a gratifying thing for Baile Village. Secretary Wang Kai was very happy, and Le Taotao went to report to Director Mei Wending.

The Baile Village basketball team was formed at the request of Director Mei Wending. Its current performance has lived up to Director Mei Wending's high expectations. Although it lost to the Baicha Town team, it was an honor to lose.

The final night is also a celebration night.

Secretary Wang Kai had to host a banquet to reward the basketball team. He also wanted to invite Director Mei Wending, Executive Director He Bing, Director Hong Fangfei, President Ji Tong and others to attend the banquet. However, the championship team's celebration banquet had also been invited. In order to be fair, the leaders showed up at both banquets. They used water instead of wine, toasted the players, said some congratulatory words, and encouraged them to perform well in the prefecture-level city basketball game and strive to advance to the provincial competition. Then they left the table one after another on the prefecture-level city basketball game, saying that Secretary Song Qinglai had called for a meeting.

Is there any urgent matter that requires a meeting late at night?
Secretary Wang Kai discovered that when Director Mei Wending, Executive Director He Bing and other leaders came just now, President Ji Tong was not there.

Chairman Ji Tong was receiving Secretary Song Qinglai who came to visit at night at his group headquarters.

The base camp is located in the villa area in the east of the city. The four large characters "十卄卅卌" shine bright red in the night, contrasting with the colorful neon lights of the Ferris wheel in the amusement park under the distant night sky.

Song Qinglai finished a meeting in the provincial capital and then took a two or three hour bus ride. When he returned to the city, he did not go back to the Standing Committee Building in the Municipal Party Committee compound to wash up and rest. Instead, he went straight to Chairman Ji Tong's base camp without stopping for a moment, because he had received an important task from the province today.

As soon as Director Mei Wending, Chairman He Bing, and Director Hong Fangfei stepped into the reception room on the second floor of "Shishishishi", they heard Chairman Ji Tong's decisive voice: "I will not invest in this project."

The three of them had already walked into the reception room and saw Secretary Song Qinglai's frustrated expression sitting at the long conference table. Meanwhile, President Ji Tong was sitting opposite Song Qinglai, with his back to the door, leaving the three of them with a tall, imposing figure.

Secretary Song Qinglai was born in the 70s and looked much younger than Mei Wending and He Bing, who were born in the 60s. However, as the top leader, he had a calm aura. Ji Tong's refusal without hesitation disappointed him, but did not surprise him too much, as if such a result was within his expectations.

Upon seeing Mei Wending and the other two, Song Qinglai smiled and said calmly, "Now that you're here, I just wanted to tell you about the mission I received from the provincial government today. Let's brainstorm together and make sure this mission is completed successfully."

The task that Song Qinglai mentioned refers to the filming of a large-scale integrated media light comedy, a key project in CCTV's "Three Rural Issues" theme publicity series and a customized key drama for the Agricultural and Rural Channel.

The script of this light comedy tells the life stories of farmers, trying to show the ups and downs of rural life, as well as people's tenacity and optimism in the face of difficulties. It is in line with the current main theme of rural revitalization. Whoever secures the main filming location for this drama will undoubtedly bring a huge wave of traffic to the development of local cultural and tourism industries.

When many county and city leaders wanted to compete for this project, Song Qinglai took out the city's carefully shot promotional video. Whether it was the natural landscape where mountains and seas blend together, or the white tea culture and She ethnic customs with strong regional characteristics, they all made the city shine in the eyes of higher authorities and producers.

As a result, this city was favored by the producers and became the best filming location for this rural-themed light comedy.

In this case, the city must also show its sincerity, invest in the film, and become one of the producers.

"If this TV series can be made, it will be the first TV series that our city has participated in. It will be of great significance to our city..."

Song Qinglai said as he looked at Mei Wending and others who were already sitting at the conference table.

"Through CCTV's broadcasting platform, we can showcase our city's natural scenery, cultural landscapes, and unique cuisine to audiences across China and even around the world, greatly enhancing our city's visibility and influence both domestically and internationally. We are expected to welcome even more tourists in the future, directly boosting the development of our local tourism industry and tourism-related industries such as hotels, restaurants, transportation, and shopping. This will inject new impetus into our economic growth, promote the prosperity of the tourism consumer market, and increase tourism revenue and employment opportunities for the people."

Song Qinglai said this while looking at Executive Director He Bing and Director Hong Fangfei. The two were leaders in charge of the city's cultural and tourism industry and knew the ins and outs of it best.

"Even through the publicity effect of the TV series, we can attract more talent, capital, technology and other resources to flow into our rural areas, promote the construction of our rural infrastructure and the development of characteristic industries, and achieve rural revitalization. For example, some investors may see the development potential of our rural areas and come to invest in homestays, farm stays, agricultural product processing and other related industries, thereby promoting the diversified development of the rural economy..."

Song Qinglai's point of view is completely correct. The filming of this TV series will have a significant driving effect on the city's cultural and tourism industry. It will not only enhance the city's visibility and influence, but also shape the city's brand image, promote cultural inheritance and exchanges, promote the development of the tourism industry, assist in the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy, and enhance the cultural confidence of local residents.

If you want to gain benefits, you have to pay first.

"But," Song Qinglai paused and said, "600 million. The producers hope we can come up with 600 million in investment funds."

For a TV series that costs tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars, 600 million is really nothing. It is just a small sincerity as the host. Moreover, investing in a TV series on the theme of "agriculture, rural areas and farmers" has significant social benefits.

For a city with nearly half of its population being from rural areas, participating in such a project is a responsibility.

However, this city has just won a huge "golden baby" in recent years - a new energy production base project.

After the project is completed, the annual output value is expected to reach 100 billion yuan, which will bring considerable tax revenue to the local area and help the government invest more financial resources in infrastructure construction, education, medical care and other public services; it will attract upstream and downstream related enterprises to gather, forming an industrial cluster effect, thereby driving the development of the tertiary industry and creating more employment opportunities and jobs; it will help attract more investment and talents, promote local industrial upgrading and economic structure adjustment, and thus enhance the competitiveness and sustainable development capabilities of the regional economy.

In the long run, this "golden baby" will bring huge benefits to the local economic and social development. However, in the early stages of project construction, the government needs to invest a lot of money in the preliminary work such as land acquisition, demolition, and infrastructure construction. As the project progresses and personnel flow in, the demand for public service facilities such as education, medical care, and housing will also increase accordingly. The government needs to further increase investment in these supporting facilities to meet the growing demand.

This will undoubtedly cause the city's fiscal pressure to increase sharply in the short term.

In the past two years, the city's financial funds have been spent very carefully, and every penny has been saved wherever possible. When Song Qinglai came back from the province, he went straight to Chairman Ji Tong to discuss investment matters, hoping to reduce the financial burden as much as possible and use social forces to promote the implementation of this filming project.

However, President Ji Tong is not interested in this investment project. She has feelings for her hometown, but she is also a businessman who likes to do business. She has money, but she likes to spend it on projects she likes.

It's her turn to decide her own business with her money; this is a deal that can't be forced.

Secretary Song Qinglai naturally understood this.

In the next stage, Director Mei Wending will be holding a large forum event to promote the white tea brand, and he has already negotiated a two million sponsorship with President Ji Tong. At this moment, it would be inappropriate for him to help Secretary Song Qinglai and then give President Ji Tong some support.

Executive Director He Bing and Director Hong Fangfei were even more speechless. The sports activities they oversaw had flourished in recent years, making a significant impact both provincially and nationally, all thanks to the generous financial support provided by President Ji Tong. Since she had decisively rejected Secretary Song Qinglai's proposal, she must have been either running low on cash flow or had other needs. Besides, Ji Tong hadn't even given face to the top leader, so why would she give them any? Could a deputy director and a section chief really outweigh the Secretary's?

Seeing that the atmosphere had quieted down, Director Mei Wending quickly said, "600 million is not too much, but not too little either. Let's all think of a solution together and we can always solve it. We have so many entrepreneurs here, we can't just take advantage of Chairman Ji Tong, don't you agree?" Chairman Ji Tong laughed first, and the leaders followed suit.

Ji Tong said, "Recently, we at 'Shishishishi' have set our sights on the villa complex in Baile Village and are planning to acquire it all. As a result, the group's funds are a bit tight, and I'm willing but unable to afford it."

The current real estate market is not optimistic, and few businesses are willing to invest in real estate, unless they are from state-owned or central enterprises with deep pockets. The "10,000" are merely private enterprises.

President Ji Tong's reason made the leaders' eyes light up.

We have to find a way to raise the 600 million investment for filming, right?

Mei Wending was the first to offer a suggestion: "Secretary Song, can you talk to the production company about reducing the investment cost from 600 million to 500 million or 400 million? We can also provide more support for the crew's reception. Executive He, Director Fang Fei, and I will talk to a few companies interested in investing, and I will be responsible for raising 100 million."

Mei Wending expressed his opinion, and Song Qinglai turned his gaze to Executive Director He Bing.

"I will try my best to raise it to 80." Executive Director He Bing also expressed his opinion.

"I don't know if I can raise 50." Hong Fangfei's voice was soft.

"Okay, it's settled." There are always more solutions than problems. Song Qinglai nodded with satisfaction. He finally felt tired and could go back to the Standing Committee Building to sleep.

After midnight, Secretary Wang Kai's celebration banquet finally concluded. He was happy tonight, and the players, busy with training, had been relaxing after a successful finals victory. They both drank freely, feeling satisfied and stumbling.

After paying the bill, Secretary Wang Kai was supported by Luo Youcai and others as he walked out of the small restaurant. He saw a young man in front of him walking with a limp, and his back looked very familiar.

Isn’t this the brat from his Wang family?

"An An, Wang Zian!" Secretary Wang Kai shouted.

Wang Zian had already walked to the side of the road and opened the car door lock with the remote control in his hand. The car made a "beep" sound.

Hearing his father calling him, he opened the driver's door, but did not get in. He just stood by the door and looked back at his father.

Secretary Wang Kai pushed aside Luo Youcai and Luo Chuxiu, who were holding his arms, and stumbled over to Wang Zian and said, "You guys still want to drive tonight?"

"I didn't drink." Wang Zian said.

"Then why were you limping just now? You were staggering even more than when you were drunk." Secretary Wang Kai's face was flushed and he was breathing heavily with alcohol at Wang Zian.

Everyone was happy tonight and had a couple of extra drinks. Wang Zian didn't seem to mind his father being drunk, but instead said aggrievedly, "I twisted my ankle during the game today. Did you forget?"

"I was wondering why our Baile Village couldn't win the championship today. It's you, kid, who's holding us back. You're already thirty years old, why are you so useless? Others your age have already married, with wives and children, and you're still single. Even Ziqi has a girlfriend. How are you any worse than them?"

Secretary Wang Kai said this and reached out to push Wang Zian. He was drunk and pushed with great force, causing Wang Zian to stagger and fall directly onto the driver's seat.

Secretary Wang Kai wanted to step forward to confront them, but was pulled away by Luo Youcai and Luo Chuxiu.

"An An, are you okay?" Luo Youcai looked at Wang Zian in the driver's seat with some sympathy.

"I'm fine. He's drunk. Please help me get him to the car. I sprained my ankle and it's inconvenient."

Wang Zian's obedient appearance made Luo Youcai feel a little distressed.

Afraid that Secretary Wang Kai would act crazy again in the car, Luo Youcai and Luo Chuxiu wanted to follow the car and send the father and son back to Baile Village first, but Wang Zian refused and asked them to go directly back to Baicha Town. After all, it was already late and everyone was tired after a day, so they should go back to bed early.

Luo Youcai was worried about Wang Zian's foot, but Wang Zian said that it was not the foot that was used to step on the brake that was sprained, so it was okay.

So everyone said goodbye to each other and went home.

Fortunately, Secretary Wang slept soundly the whole way home and didn't make any noise. Because he had slept all the way, he was still quite awake when he got home and went back to his room to sleep, without causing any trouble for Wang Zian.

Wang Zian was exhausted from playing basketball and driving. He took a shower, lay down, and quickly fell asleep. However, his sleep was not restful. Perhaps Secretary Lao Wang's drunken words had hurt him. Those words echoed repeatedly in his dreams, waking him at three or four in the morning.

Zhong Ziqi did not attend the celebration banquet. He and Xie Anmin went out to enjoy their own world. At this moment, he must be sleeping soundly with his beautiful woman in his arms, right?

Thinking of Xie Anmin, Wang Zian felt a faint sadness in his heart.

Wang Zian couldn't sleep anyway, so he took out his cell phone from under his pillow, intending to read a book by Xie Anmin to help him pass the long sleepless night. But at this moment, his cell phone rang, and the caller ID showed that it was Zhong Ziqi.

Zhong Ziqi didn't expect Wang Zian to answer the phone so quickly.

"Boya, something happened to my elder brother." Zhong Ziqi was already crying on the other end of the phone.