My Lord, you need to stand up!

Chapter 822 Envy, and then what?
Because their eyes were filled with envy, pure and simple envy.

As for whether there was jealousy or hatred, that's unknown.

For college students, Wei Dong can teach them step by step. What more can be said about these outstanding people from this blessed land?

Can't say.

The resources and connections they possess can disrupt the balance of influence far too much.

Even Wei Dong himself is struggling to maintain this balance.

Someone must have tipped them off.

Wu Xi happened to show up for lunch.

The explanation is that the shredded pork with garlic sauce at the buffet restaurant upstairs in the Super 6 Hotel is particularly delicious with rice, especially when mixed with Mapo Tofu and rice; the taste is simply heavenly.

This is the dining model that Super Six Hotels and Hongguang Hostel are now promoting in various places.

The price is the same across the country: two yuan.

At the clean and beautiful restaurant entrance, you pay and get a plate, then you can eat as many as you like—more than twenty meat and vegetable dishes.

No drinks are required, just make sure there's no waste.

Actually, this originated from the fast food boxed meals that were popular in the southwest region for the next thirty or forty years, where you could eat your fill for five, ten, or fifteen yuan.

In Wei Dong's view, this is the most standard barometer of prices.

He himself likes to eat like this, and casually served himself a plate: "Four years ago, a bowl of beef noodles cost 18 cents in our area, and now it costs 90 cents, a fivefold increase. But in reality, most grassroots wages have not increased fivefold. This is the simplest example of price increases."

Wu Xi ate it with big mouthfuls, showing no signs of being pampered: "The average soldier in the army only gets 1.32 yuan a day for food. This isn't cheap either. Many people can't even afford to eat this every day with their salary."

Wei Dong chewed his food much more slowly than him: "But if you can eat a full meal like this every day, you'll have enough nutrition for the whole day. This is very necessary for many business travelers."

Wu Xi looked up at the orderly queue: "Aren't they all hotel guests on business trips?"

Wei Dong nodded: "We've never advertised it publicly, but we're selling more than three thousand servings every day at noon. In reality, even if the hotel is fully booked, there are only about two thousand people. This shows that people accept the price and nutritional intake, so that's fine."

Wu Xi had almost finished eating: "I've come here a few times, and it's always packed with people. Can you guarantee the safety of the place?"

Wei Dong smiled and said, "You know, we already have eight budget hotels open across the country, sixteen more are about to open, and we expect to have more than thirty opening next year. There's only one thing in all of them that we need to import. Guess what it is?"

Wu Xi tried hard to recall the room she had seen: "What?"

Wei Dong pointed to the ceiling: "The sprinkler system is crucial for densely packed high-rise spaces like this, where each floor is divided into dozens of rooms. If even one person intentionally or unintentionally starts a fire in a room, it can cause a huge safety accident. Therefore, this kind of safety facility, which cannot tolerate any mistakes, can only be imported. From smoke detectors and alarm systems to sprinklers, there is no domestically produced part of any of these components, and we dare not use domestically produced parts."

Wu Xi let out a satisfied burp, picked up a tissue from the tray to wipe his mouth, and slumped down to look up at the metal head on the ceiling.

"Why didn't we have this before? Everything was fine then."

Try to calm Wei Dong down: "We can't worry about that now. We haven't even solved the problem of food and clothing, and the national and social security situation hasn't improved. How can we have the energy to deal with these details? But as long as we can catch our breath, we need to change the concept of putting people first. It's no longer about everyone having to sacrifice for the country and society. The main direction is to make everyone's life as better as possible."

Wu Xi glanced at him sideways, wanting to reach for a cigarette, but seeing the sign on the table that read "Please do not waste, please do not smoke," she refrained.

"Without dedication and sacrifice, would we have achieved what we have today?"

Wei Dong wasn't a theoretical expert: "Of course I have to talk about it, but as education becomes more widespread and people's cultural level increases, the more books they read, the more ideas they have. There's some truth to the saying that 'the unfaithful are often scholars, and the righteous are often butchers.'"

Wu Xi was clearly not a very good student, and snorted, "Scholars are indeed troublesome."

Wei Dong pointed to the ceiling again: "But without culture, we couldn't invent and manufacture so many advanced things."

Wu Xi seemed to be having withdrawal symptoms from cigarettes, and her expression started to twitch: "I can tell, you're implying that capitalists are indispensable, right? Without capitalists, the economy can't develop well?"

Wei Dong shook his head: "It's the private economy, the private sector, it's roughly that kind of relationship. Capital has a positive side in promoting development, but it also has a negative side. We don't need to praise it to the skies, nor do we need to condemn it outright. We have to find ways to use it rationally... Yes, you're familiar with the military. As a weapon of violence, we can't just say that we don't need the military because of the dangers of soldiers. Isn't it good to build a people's army?"

Wu Xi slowly absorbed the information: "This analogy makes it clearer... This matter concerning the automotive industry chain is quite convincing, and you have done a very meticulous and careful job. It's clear that you are trying your best to avoid capital control. Hey, why are those two women always looking at you?"

Wei Dong suddenly had a flash of inspiration: "Does the Second Deputy Director know? I was taking someone there this morning on business, but they stopped me and asked me to help with housing reform. I could tell they were just trying to use me as a stepping stone so they could get the benefits, and any problems would be my fault." Wu Xi squinted and scrutinized the two women's faces: "So you used a honey trap?"

When Wei Dong saw Wang Zhiwen and Yu Xiaoqiu, who had been sent to isolate them, he was amused: "They're female spies. Come on, come on, let's go see them. We won't expose your identity, we'll just let you observe and witness. It's similar to the job in that industrial area near the airport."

Wu Xi grumbled and complained to the others, only praising him for doing the right thing when they went downstairs. In reality, many people were very sensitive about Wei Dong doing things for them.

Wei Dong explained that he wouldn't have come to Pingjing at all if it weren't for checking the progress of the industrial park: "I haven't seen my son for two or three months."

Wu Xi chuckled slyly, "Not coming? That's impossible..."

Just then, the guy who works with TV off-road vehicles chased after them from the elevator next door: "My mom said, how about inviting Dongzi to the TV factory for a chat?"

Wei Dong thought to himself, "I'm the one who's paying the bill, how can they do business like this?"

However, state-owned enterprises are used to thinking they are the boss, no wonder so many went bankrupt later: "Tomorrow, I've already booked my time tonight."

Then this guy used a similar tactic, insisting on handing over the car keys so you could drive away and run into him the next day.

They just had to find something to dangle in their hands: "Try it, try the car, try the TV and the VCR."

That's true; the video recorder is what caught Wei Dong's attention among this pile.

Wu Xi couldn't stop laughing as soon as she got close to the car, making Wei Dong unable to watch. What kind of mess was this?!

Describing it as a workshop product is an exaggeration. The car is just a 212 chassis covered with a Land Cruiser-like body shell; you can't even look closely at that piece of junk.

The interior is even funnier, with two seats in the back that look like the individual seats for a luxurious six-seater boss thirty or forty years from now.

Actually, in order to free up space in the middle, a metal frame was welded to fix a 14-inch color TV between the front seats, as well as to install a hidden video recorder and a large battery underneath.

When Americans manufacture cars, they prioritize creating open-plan front seats for maximum luxury, comfort, technology, and design.

Everywhere you look, you see makeshift solutions; they're practically just tying things up with ropes and wires.

It was even more rudimentary than the repairmen I saw in those short videos of Pakistani drivers fixing cars.

Wei Dong shook his head in disbelief.

Needless to say, the driving experience after starting the engine was terrible: "Who are you kidding? This is considered a unit innovation and invention? The industrial system is a matter of science, not just patching things up. If this were a war, it would be utterly destroyed on the international commercial battlefield. And you still won't open your eyes to see the gap. Are you really going to drag this out until we're facing warships and cannons pointing at our heads again?"

Wu Xi glanced sideways again: "So you just decided to build your own ship."

So it's impossible to talk about this with Xu Rao.

All I could see were those massive cargo ships weighing tens of thousands of tons; I couldn't take my eyes off them.

Wei Dong gestured for the two cars to follow.

He carefully drove the broken piece of metal on the road again: "What else can we do? There are hardly any ships docking at Pengzhen West District Wharf now. It can only serve as a feeder transshipment port for Hong Kong. I told Guoyuan to pay attention to container ships. Their main focus is on bulk carriers. Shipbuilding takes several years. Everything changes very quickly. If you are a step behind, you will be left behind and held back by others."

Wu Xi sincerely admired him: "I've known you for almost three years, and I've watched you go from knowing nothing about TV to getting into computers, cars, real estate, and even massive ships. And it wasn't just buying and selling; you built everything from scratch. Any one of these things would take most people a lifetime to accomplish, but you managed to understand everything you didn't know. You're truly willing to risk your life!"

Wei Dong thought to himself that he had divine insight, but he didn't mention the matter of taking the aircraft carrier out for a friendly basketball match.

It only mentions how Citibank discussed the automotive supply chain process.

He even spoke frankly about his assessment of the car company president: "When the Economic Commission sent people over to talk before, they were just pretending to be arrogant and playing tricks to suppress their mentality. They didn't expect Volkswagen to interfere and mess things up. I suspect it was very likely that this president instructed them. He is no longer satisfied with his position and reputation in the car business. He wants to go into politics or have a world-class reputation. So I took advantage of his ambitious attitude to get the supply chain. When he comes to cut the ribbon, I can cleverly agree with him and get more benefits without losing out."

Wu Xi clicked her tongue in amazement: "I was wondering where you got the courage to make such a decision. It's just like when you were in your early twenties and became a regimental commander or division commander to lead a major battle."

Wei Dong was told to be self-aware: "It's not that serious. I just fully realize that we must learn from advanced industrial technology. So we have to find ways to borrow from home. There are experts who can sort and connect it. Or, to put it another way, we are so bad that we have nothing right now. Anything we borrow will be useful."

Wu Xi was silent for a while before saying, "Many people just don't see this huge gap. Some people see it but immediately kneel down. But you don't have that feeling at all. You are determined to roll up your sleeves and work hard. I know you are working hard little by little. As long as you don't change your attitude, I will definitely stand by you."

He didn't have that envious attitude.

(End of this chapter)