My Lord, you need to stand up!

Chapter 693 is all about human relationships and social interactions.

The Lantern Festival, which falls on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, is approaching, and it also happens to be my wife's twentieth birthday.

So, under the guise of New Year's greetings and birthday celebrations, he hosted a banquet in Tsim Sha Tsui for Hong Kong tycoons with whom he had business dealings in mainland China.

Dressed in a suit and tuxedo, with no tie and slicked-back hair, Rang Weidong was warmly greeted by his wife at the entrance of the luxurious restaurant.

Uncle De and Lao Heng graced us with their presence. Four or five people who had invested in Jiangzhou were also there, bringing along several old friends. The person Xu Rao had approached to open a hotel in Beijing was also present. Including those from Shanghai, there were more than ten people, most of whom were at least in the hundreds of millions.

It still carries considerable weight.

Several of them were accompanied by young female celebrities, making it a rather relaxed scene.

Shen Laosan wore a suit and skirt, and always acted like a female housekeeper, in charge of the entire restaurant. His orderly manner clearly showed that he enjoyed doing this job.

Even from a distance, Wei Dong could see her and wonder if she was being kept cooped up in the factory or the food street.

Qin Yuye, taking advantage of her status as his wife, reached out and gently but firmly turned his chin, her face full of reproach as she warned him with her eyes not to look at other women!

This made the several wealthy men laugh heartily.

Wei Dong reluctantly looked away: "Generally speaking, there shouldn't be any problems, especially since Hong Kong investors won't have their investments confiscated or shut down. If they really did that, we could forget about doing business again. It's just that I've become too prominent and attracted too much attention. I unintentionally started a collaboration between Chrysler and Wanmad Hotel Group. The hotel tycoon plans to invest in no fewer than sixty hotels in mainland China, ranging from high-end luxury hotels to the cheapest budget business hotels. I tried to advise him to keep a low profile, but he has his own connections. He found a piece of land a few hundred meters outside the Forbidden City and insisted on building a luxury alleyway hotel. Holy crap!"

Thankfully, Xiaodie was wearing a little princess tulle dress and was playing with the birthday cake with Shitou nearby.

Otherwise, they would definitely learn this tone.

Those who have basically been to Heijing were still shocked by this seemingly complaining but actually boastful tone.

The five-star hotel converted from that military guesthouse has been topped out and is currently undergoing interior decoration and staff training. Its location is already excellent, being the closest foreign-invested joint venture to the capital city, located between the first and second ring roads.

The straight-line distance is two kilometers, but the road distance is three or four kilometers.

It's located on the first ring road, directly opposite the side gate of the Imperial City, and can be seen from the street.

The connections the US has are truly extraordinary.

Moreover, the Wanma Hotel Group, as one of the top three industry giants in Citibank, is a household name among Hong Kong's wealthy elites.

Hearing that Weidong Holdings was still in charge of this alley hotel, all my initial worries disappeared.

Wei Dong then counted on his fingers again: "Among the Bund's international architecture in Shanghai, I'm already considered quite prestigious to have rented just one building. But this old gentleman insisted on having one, and even cleaned up all the mess behind the building to build a hotel tower. The old buildings in front are only used as the lobby and restaurant. Holy crap, just imagine how high-profile this hotel project is!"

His gesture of clapping the back of his hand with his palm was exactly like a village auntie showing off, and you could hear various dialectal interjections coming through.

Why didn’t I think of that!
Why didn't you try to fight for us?

Back then, you dragged us to the other side of the river to build skyscrapers and hotels.

Wei Dong sighed helplessly: "I've tried before. Even a big high-tech company like Apple can't rent a building. What kind of place is Shanghai? Deep down, it feels more international and more prestigious than Hong Kong. Even Citibank has to screen companies. They only give face to companies with international reputations like Wanmad Group. But you know what? Some people are definitely unhappy about that!"

Let's start listing them. Hmm, didn't I just hear Lao Fang mention the eight "kings" from Jiangsu and Zhejiang who were sentenced for reforms a few years ago, plus that foreign trade tycoon from the ports of Anhui and Zhejiang who was just arrested?

Wei Dong himself was reflecting: "I've become too famous and attracted too much attention. I happened to be back in Jiangzhou with Mr. Awald for an inspection, and at the end of the year, we held a national auto expo. More than 200 small car manufacturers and thousands of auto parts companies signed contracts worth 3.7 billion yuan. So some people questioned whether I had made a lot of money. Well, as you all know, we've all made a lot of money through our joint investments. We haven't even started making any money yet, but outsiders only think I've made a fortune..."

At this point, capitalists all felt the same way: "Your scale has grown too fast. You're not even 23 yet, right? I heard your electronics factory in Pengzhen West District is worth 300 million US dollars?"

The combined value of a wafer fab and a packaging plant is so astonishing that even Hong Kong tycoons, who are not known for their manufacturing expertise, were taken aback.

This is a scale of two billion Hong Kong dollars.

Currently, they believe it's a pipe dream to free up this asset within one or two years without relying on capital injections from Hong Kong stocks.

Unfortunately, this was only the southernmost project among the major regions in mainland China.

Wei Dong was about to persuade everyone to develop the dock and help the electronics factory export to make big money: "I'm at that port in the western district..."

Qin Yuye, who was holding his arm and translating some Cantonese, quietly pinched his arm to indicate the entrance, where another group of people walked in.

It wasn't that big shot from 17K, but the tycoon Li Bancheng, whom Wei Dong recognized at a glance. I don't know if he's the richest man in Hong Kong now, but his warm and friendly expression is absolutely unforgettable.

Then Chen Wenliang actually walked right behind him.

Even though they were all big shots of the same level, they still stood up to greet and welcome them.

When Chen Wenliang got involved, the wealthy businessmen had told Wei Dong about Hai Di, and how the Chaoshan businessmen, led by Li Bancheng, had jointly swallowed up the assets of Hong Kong's largest trading company. Chen Wenliang got the IBM agency rights from the mountain of assets.

As he got up, someone whispered in Wei Dong's ear, "He just got the deep-water port investment project in Pengzhen East."

Wei Dong suddenly realized, "Oh, oh, oh, Lao Fang had previously jokingly scolded me for attracting a big shot to bully the West District Wharf."

Yes, it was him who built it. Combined with the online gossip and video clips from twenty or thirty years later, it's all his doing.

However, all the information Wei Dong received about Li Bancheng was negative. But the attitude he learned from Lao Fang was that no matter the other party's intentions or how deep their schemes, at this stage, as long as they were investing in the mainland, it was worth pursuing.

Because every penny invested now will fuel future productivity.

Therefore, even with two ports, one in the east and one in the west, they could still contribute to the subsequent boom in manufacturing and large-scale export of foreign trade in the inland areas.

With such magnanimity, Wei Dong also joined in shaking hands and exchanging pleasantries with everyone: "It's a pleasure to meet you."

The others were also very polite: "I heard it's your wife's birthday party today, so I came uninvited. Here are a few bottles of red wine I just bought and a small gift. I wish you both a long and happy marriage and great success..."

These few words alone are enough to make someone very prestigious in Hong Kong.

After all, the other party is basically considered one of the top Hong Kong business tycoons.

Qin Yuye was overjoyed and happily took her husband's arm to greet and thank him.

Rang Weidong was quite polite: "Thank you, thank you. Hello, Brother Wenliang. Please take your seats. We're all old friends chatting and catching up. In our Southwest region, we call chatting 'longmenzhen' (a type of storytelling). I'm also in a semi-settled state since I came to Hong Kong, so I'm paying my respects to all of you brothers and uncles."

Chen Wenliang felt extremely proud.

He was a smuggler by trade and a marginal figure in the Chaoshan business circle. It was rare for him to be treated with such respect in such a high-profile circle. He quickly indicated that his gift was behind him and did not want to overshadow the host.

It also seemed that he was very familiar with Wei Dong.

Li Bancheng sat down and said softly, "Okay, okay, what kind of nonsense are you two chatting about?"

Uncle De and Lao Heng were not much different from him at this point, and they jokingly pointed at him: "Dongzai said that he has also invested a lot in the Pengzhen West District Wharf, with more than 2 billion yuan invested in just two electronics factories. You have invested 2 billion yuan in the East District Port. This is like two dragons playing with a pearl!"

I must say, that's a really vivid metaphor.

These two ports and wharves sandwich the entire city of Pengzhen in the middle, creating a sense of fierce competition.

Wei Dong immediately waved his hand: "No, no, no, it should be 'two dragons circling a pillar.' Is there such a saying here? It means two dragons circling a huge red pillar. We are not competing for Pengzhen, but rather embracing the entire Guangdong-Hong Kong corridor pillar. We will work together to make it bigger and stronger. It is definitely not a competitive relationship, but a joint effort to expand the entire scale and attract foreign trade imports and exports from the entire southern and even southwestern regions of the mainland!"

That's what you call vision.

Keyboard warriors in large countries are used to looking at the entire territory and borders, while the super-rich in small places may only be focused on the small rivers and mountains in front of them.

Anyway, Li Bancheng immediately smiled and clapped: "Good point, good vision..."

As he spoke, he even got up and took a wine glass to gesture to Wei Dong.

Wei Dong was somewhat taken aback by the other party's politeness, and he also got up to clink glasses and drink.

But he didn't let the topic go: "I don't really care about Pengzhen. The whole Guangdong-Hong Kong line is much more important. Actually, right now, I'd say that if anyone is interested, they can invest in building a highway from Guangzhou to Pengzhen and even connecting it to Hong Kong."

Those who came to this banquet were all there for business opportunities in mainland China.

Immediately, someone will retort, "Then why don't you invest...?"

Someone chimed in, "Didn't you hear what Pete said? He's already attracted enough attention!"

Wei Dong nodded in agreement: "Right, how many billions per kilometer is a highway? With such a huge investment, it must have tolls, right? Damn, if I, a private businessman from the mainland, dared to build a road and charge tolls, do you believe I'd be dragged here to hang lampposts?"

It's no exaggeration to say that if Wei Dong had dared to do this in the 1980s, no matter how many things he did that benefited people's livelihoods, this one thing alone would have been enough to kill him.

Charging tolls for road construction, and doing so for decades, is absolutely capitalist behavior.

Therefore, it is perfectly legitimate for Hong Kong capitalists to invest.

Then someone sitting next to me raised their hand and said, "It's been repaired, it's still being repaired. It's not that expensive. We only started construction two months ago, from Yuezhou to Foguan. We're just testing the waters first, repairing a dozen kilometers to see how it goes. It's going to be very difficult, very challenging..."

The audience erupted in cheers: "So you were secretly eating all by yourself!"

"What's so difficult about it? Is it difficult to find a hotel in a hutong a few hundred meters from the imperial city? You just want to eat all by yourself!"

"Let me tell you, I've been working on this project for half a year at that hotel near Pingjing Railway Station. When I got Let me to take charge, the whole project suddenly became clear!"

"Pete, explain in detail about this highway from Guangzhou to Hong Kong. Whether it's worth building is not up for discussion; the key is whether you're confident you can secure it..."

"It's difficult. If you get involved in finalizing it, you'll attract too much attention. It's better to wait until things calm down before making a decision, so as not to affect the current projects in Shanghai."

When it comes to profit, capitalists become bloodthirsty and insane.

The martial arts practitioners were all pushed to the sidelines.

Chen Wenliang's eyes lit up with hope that he could participate in such a big project.

(End of this chapter)