My Lord, you need to stand up!

Chapter 585 Don't even think about small businesses.

Even after boarding the plane the next day, the old leader surnamed Fang still maintained an observant and scrutinizing gaze.

But the tone was mainly sarcastic: "I've looked at your file. Your defensive attitude of being so vigilant everywhere is probably because you've been to prison and been punished. But since you finished your studies, you've been running around all the time. There's no time like this. It's very strange."

Wei Dong was secretly shocked. "Damn, you can even tell that I spent three months in prison more than forty years ago?"

Whether it was because she was pressed against her father's chest or not, Xiaodie felt his rapid heartbeat and exclaimed "Holy crap!" before she drew Lao Fang's attention.

Wei Dong felt as if he had escaped the cruise missile lock, and quietly breathed a sigh of relief: "You can see for yourself that you didn't go to jail. I could have gone to university after graduating from high school, but my father fell at the construction site and was sent to Jiangzhou for surgery. I sold cured meat as a porter and learned how to do business from private trading companies in Shangzhou. Then I watched them get caught as speculators and were wiped out. I will definitely... learn my lesson."

I still managed to hold back on saying things like "the rabbit mourns the fox's death."

The other party smiled shrewdly and shook his head: "Some things you can only understand by experiencing them yourself... I was just released two years ago, so I'm very accurate in this regard. You little devil, you have a lot of tricks up your sleeve."

Hearing that the higher-ups had personally assigned Wei Dong to go on a business trip to Pengzhen, Dong Xueqing hurriedly prepared some luggage. Her brother-in-law had been staying in Jiangzhou as much as possible for the past six months, and she was actually a little flustered, as if she had neglected some important national matter, so she quickly went out to get busy.

Shen Cuiyue arranged for Mao'er and Zhuoma to follow along, since there were quite a few people going to Pengzhen, and it would be too strange for a little kid like Shitou to follow along. Mao'er was almost thirteen years old and had a robust physique, looking like a teenager.

So the only thing that could be done was to let Wei Dong accompany Lao Fang on the front of the plane. The people from Jiangzhou who were seeing him off quietly reminded Wei Dong that this man was in charge of the reform and opening-up affairs in the Pengzhou-Zhenjiang-Hong Kong-Guangdong area. They told him to study and learn from him, and that his family would take good care of him.

Wei Dong was told to be alert and cautious: "Reform and opening up is a process of exploration everywhere, so we naturally have to be careful and prudent."

Old Fang, leaning back in his chair, looked ahead and smiled: "But you're not careful when you take a step. In all the years that I've sent cadres to Hong Kong, I've never seen anyone dare to attend a wealthy businessman's banquet without asking for permission or reporting, let alone bring back a joint venture to Jiangzhou and carry out housing reforms in the three major cities. You're teetering on the edge of execution with every single one of these things. You're really bold."

Wei Dong broke out in a cold sweat after hearing this: "I... I thought it wouldn't hurt for an ordinary citizen like me to say a few good things about the mainland."

Old Fang chuckled: "Ordinary people wouldn't dare guarantee that bringing Hong Kong businessmen in wouldn't cause them any trouble, and why would they trust you? Just because of the girlfriend you found for them?"

what? !

"You even know this?" Wei Dong's liver trembled. "No, no, I've already reported this to Jiangzhou City. Of course, Hong Kong businessmen will stop at nothing to drag people down. They immediately arranged luxury cars, hotels, and so on. This also has the intention of seducing people with their beauty. I didn't fall for it. I didn't do anything to her. On the contrary, I developed her... to become a bridgehead for investing in the mainland. I did not cross the line between men and women."

Therefore, he has always kept his distance from Qin Yuye. This is a very clear issue of positioning. Getting entangled with the female Hong Kong businesswoman would be tantamount to throwing himself into the other side.

This tug-of-war continues, at least for the next ten years there will still be some explanation.

Old Fang finally glanced sideways at the child on his chest and stopped talking about it: "There is indeed a limit to how much you can go in frontline work. Most idiots are too afraid to step out of line because of the rules and regulations, and end up accomplishing nothing. But the even more idiotic ones fall into traps that others have carefully set up and are doomed. You have to remember that your value is demonstrated by standing on the edge of this knife. Once you lean to one side, your value is gone."

Wei Dong finally understood the deeper meaning behind the senior's words of guidance.

He had been studying diligently from the beginning, learning from You Qili, Jin Zhuoqun, and Yu Songhai. Now, he immediately seized the opportunity to ponder this sentence, especially the last few words, which shocked him. This was something he hadn't expected before, and he certainly hadn't expected it to come out of this person's mouth.

Then he said, "I will keep it in mind and try my best to reflect it in my work."

This is a battle between experts, every step is nerve-wracking. It seems that Wei Dong's guard was broken before the intensity suddenly increased: "So what's the story behind your Hong Kong girlfriend making tens of millions of dollars in North America?"

Wei Dong felt utterly defeated, forced to look up and admit defeat. He cursed the Hong Kong girl inwardly for flaunting her wealth and getting him into trouble, while simultaneously laying a trap: "This involves technology patents. Yesterday, during the presentation in the office building, I specifically showcased that electronic PowerPoint software. For every computer we sell in China, we give the corresponding software developers a royalty of one, two, or even five yuan. With 100,000 computers, that's hundreds of thousands of yuan. This is how we can motivate more researchers to actively engage in invention and creation, instead of just completing tasks assigned by their units and slacking off."

He turned sideways to meet her when he said this.

While Wei Dong appeared to be being extremely respectful, Wei Dong was actually observing the other party's expression.

Old Fang closed his eyes to rest: "Don't try to guess my reaction. This has the suspicion of prioritizing the economy. You can make a living with one ginseng, but if you can produce even better results to suppress the problem, it won't be a big deal."

This confirmed Wei Dong's suspicion that this person was truly different, even quite different from the old leaders of Shangzhou who needed to change their old ways of thinking.

So I became bolder: "I learned this from North America. I requested that this software be made. The idea was actually mine. How it was actually made was just a matter of implementation. But I didn't take a single penny in China. I sent it to experts at Apple abroad and had them work on it again. They only took the work itself, not the copyright. So in the end, this modified electronic presentation software has sold tens of millions since June. I got tens of millions of dollars from it, which is the intellectual property. The principle is the same as what you said. If I can keep creating this kind of software, foreign capitalists will have to suppress their greed and cooperate with me and share the profits with me."

Old Fang didn't open his eyes: "How should we use the money?" Wei Dong thought for a moment: "We'll definitely spend some in North America, otherwise we'll have to pay very high taxes. Spending some legally and legitimately will actually reduce the amount; consider it a toll. We also need to sell cosmetics and skincare products there, which will generate revenue later. We'll definitely spend some in Hong Kong as well, for the same reason. Besides, the main people involved are Xiao Qin and her brother, who are from Hong Kong. They'll only put in the effort if they get something in return. I think we should use the rest for computers. We're in the computer age now, and this war is huge. The R&D investment in the Xishan Electronics and Computer Industry Cluster is probably at least several billion..."

Old Fang had no choice but to open his eyes and look at Wei Dong, but he simply couldn't tell the difference between the real and the fake.

Finally, they actually said, "Support us some..."

His tone was very calm, and he added, "It's not free. I can exchange anything you want, as long as it doesn't violate my principles."

Old Fang is probably sixty years old. Yesterday, Wei Dong noticed that the style of the shirt he was wearing was similar to his own. When Qin Yu Ye bought it for him, he mentioned that it was an Italian version, unlike almost all the suits and shirts on the mainland market, which are derived from British or Japanese versions.

But now that you sit up close, you can see that it's a bit old and heavily worn, which means there aren't many left to wash.

So he felt like he was seeing an old farmer saying he wanted to buy some fruit.

But he managed to restrain himself from acting on his emotions: "What will it be used for?"

Old Fang laughed and nodded, saying, "No wonder you've been able to achieve such a remarkable scale in the past two years. If you're considering investing, that's fine too. We have a hotel that just opened this year, a five-star hotel, and we have $1200 million in shares. You can take it all. The rest are construction sites, docks, buildings, and warehouses. You can choose whatever you want."

Therefore, life is a constant crossroads where you have to choose your path.

This allows Wei Dong to test the people around him anytime, anywhere.

This is something that those in positions of power do almost instinctively.

Now he keenly sensed the many traps in those words, and chuckled: "I try my best to avoid anything related to state-owned assets. Losing them would be a huge mistake. So what do you need most?"

Old Fang laughed heartily: "You little devil, I told you you've been to jail and you still won't admit it. How could you be so vigilant if it didn't touch your soul? As for factories, what I need most over there is factory buildings, because only in this way can we quickly gather a large number of laborers and boost the popularity of the entire area. Pengzhen's biggest weakness right now is its ability to provide large-scale resettlement."

Wei Dong nodded: "Then allocate ten million US dollars first. You just need to designate a piece of land as the area for use. I will find a way to open a factory. Actually, that's what I did in Shangzhou. First, build factories, then build industrial workers, then develop residential areas, and finally the Binjiang New City will be completed. It doesn't touch the land red line, nor does it seek to make huge profits. It's a steady way to develop productivity."

This is already a very subtle way of putting it; just give a little something as a token, ten million US dollars as a contribution.

If Wei Dong earned tens of millions from selling sanitary napkins domestically, it would definitely be painful for him.

Citibank is making millions of dollars a day selling PowerPoint software, it's so lucrative, we don't care at all.

It couldn't be easier to do this kind of favor by spending American money.

But the old security guard with the missing hand was still a bit inexperienced at this level, and he accidentally revealed his true colors.

Old Fang stared at her intently for a moment before lowering his voice and asking, "How much did you do in North America?"

Wei Dong hesitated for a moment: "Forty million... no, sixty million..." Actually, it was eighty million, he habitually laid a trap.

Old Fang was truly incredulous: "From June until now?!"

Wei Dong quickly explained, "It's been like this since the press conference in June. Sales only really pick up when we have a press conference. It only happens once or twice a year. Otherwise, sales are steady, only tens or hundreds of thousands."

Old Fang was even more shocked: "Tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands every day normally?!"

Let Wei Dong explain the math to him: "Europe and America have been in the computer age for ten years, with millions of computers sold every year for the past five years, and the number is increasing year by year. If a piece of software is good, it may cover most or even all computers. Taking a cut from each computer is quite a lot of money. Of course, the money isn't net income. Shareholders get a share, local operators get a share, the sales system gets a share, and taxes have to be paid..."

That makes him sound like a small business owner who works hard, getting up early to make steamed buns.

(End of this chapter)