Entertainment: 1990

Chapter 327

Seeing Wang Luyao's behavior of being arrogant at first and then obsequious, Cao Ying and Sun Yue exchanged a glance and couldn't help but chuckle to themselves.

Zhang Fang smiled and took Wang Luyao's arm, saying, "I came with my sister-in-law yesterday afternoon. Because I'm a little afraid of dogs, I spent the night at Xiao Cao's place."

"Panpan and Lele are both very well-behaved."

As Wang Luyao spoke, she glanced sideways at Cao Ying beside her, thinking to herself that this girl was quite lucky to have become best friends with her sister-in-law.

Otherwise, how could a young girl who works as a hairdresser have made it big so quickly?
The group chatted and laughed as they returned upstairs. Seeing that Gai Lili's door was locked, Wang Luyao asked Cao Ying, "Xiao Cao, where did Sister Lili go? I didn't see her at the company."

"Sister Lily went to practice martial arts routines with those martial arts students."

After the meeting a few days ago, most of the students from the Central Academy of Drama and the Beijing Film Academy returned to Beijing, but the trio from the martial arts school didn't leave, since they don't really have a concept of graduating or not graduating.

"That's really unfortunate."

Wang Luyao shook her head dismissively and said, "I was originally planning to discuss forming a dance troupe with Sister Lili."

Although encountering Zhang Fang at the apartment was somewhat unexpected for Wang Luyao, she had no choice but to pretend when she was forced into it.

"Form a dance troupe?"

Sun Yue immediately asked curiously, "What do you mean? Is our company going to form its own dance troupe?"

"Correct."

Wang Luyao proudly puffed out her chest: "President Zhang and Sister Hong put me in charge. In a couple of days, I'll be representing the company to go to the Beijing Dance Academy to discuss campus recruitment."

She was so busy showing off and observing Zhang Fang's expression that she didn't notice the hint of determination in Cao Ying's eyes, besides envy.

…………

Zhang Xingguo and his wife Sun Xiaohong arrived on the afternoon of the 17th.

I heard there were seven or eight people accompanying him. In order to make a good impression, Zhang Yan wanted to borrow Xu Wei's Toyota Accord for a while. Apart from Chen Hong's Mercedes-Benz and Zhang Yan's Crown, this Accord was the best car in the company.

Xu Wei hesitated and said that it had been sent for repairs.

So Zhang Yan settled for second best and drove off in Wang Luyao's Ford Tianba.

"Did they sell the car?"

On the way to the train station, Zhang Yan frowned and said, "The company has only gone five months without a commercial performance, and the basic salary is usually quite high..."

"Being too proud is a recipe for suffering."

Chen Hong chuckled and said, "I heard from Lu Yao that Gao Feng and Teng Ge'er wanted to return the 5 yuan they gave him for opening the restaurant, but he almost got into a fight with them instead."

Anyway, we've done everything we could to say and advise him; we've done more than enough. Let's wait until he really can't take it anymore and asks for help before we start reasoning with him.

"Uh~"

At this moment, Zhang Fang from the back row suddenly spoke up: "I feel that Xu Wei's mental state is a bit off. Yesterday he got drunk and cried and made a scene in the dormitory. He even leaned out the window and howled like a wolf—could he be jumping off a building or going crazy because of financial pressure?"

Hearing this, Zhang Yan and Chen Hong exchanged glances and said, "I'll find some time in a couple of days to ask him. After all, we've known each other for a while, and we can't just let something really happen to him."

Chen Hong also changed her tune, saying, "I've asked my assistant to keep a close eye on him these next few days."

It's not big news that singers cause financial crises due to extravagant spending; after all, there are countless people like that in the industry.

But if serious mental health issues arise, or even if someone dies, then it's simply giving others ammunition against them—given Yuanmeng's current status in the industry, who knows how many people are hoping for a miracle.

Upon arriving at the train station, three cars lined up in a row, showing respect to the delegation from their hometown.

There were a total of 7 people who came from their hometown with Zhang Xingguo and his wife this time. Among them were two old acquaintances of Zhang Yan: the president of Hengjiang Daily and Director Li of the printing factory.

The others came from the municipal government, the investment promotion office, and state-owned enterprises such as textile factories and dyeing factories.

Seeing this lineup, Zhang Yan became even more determined in his idea: restructuring a state-owned enterprise with such a large workforce is the most troublesome thing.

If it's just about making money, then so be it; it just means the workers will suffer.

But Zhang Yan had no intention of going back to his hometown to exploit the land, and he didn't want to be scolded by laid-off workers when he returned.

So on the way back, he took the inspection team on a detour to visit the Yuanmeng Building opposite the August 1st Film and Television Base, as well as the large plot of land that had just been approved.

Seeing that the factory managers all had expressions that said, "He's a rich guy, we're saved," Zhang Yan pointed to the empty space and poured cold water on their hopes, saying, "I'm just being forced into this situation. Right now, the company is building dormitories on one hand and making movies and TV shows on the other. Every day, tens or hundreds of thousands of yuan are flowing out of our pockets."

Others see me as living a glamorous life, but realizing this dream is like dancing on a knife's edge. One wrong move and the funding chain breaks; I fear it could take three to five years to recover.

His words chilled everyone to the bone.

However, once they arrived at the restaurant, the director of the investment promotion office still tried to flatter Zhang Yan, leading several factory directors to frantically praise him.

It wasn't until the director of the management committee, whom Zhang Yan had invited to accompany him, arrived that everyone fell silent—the director of the management committee was on par with the top two leaders of a prefecture-level city.

During the meeting, Zhang Yan did not mention the labor export issue, but instead planned to leave the inspection team waiting for two days until their desire to exploit them completely cooled down.

After settling my parents in for the night.

Zhang Yan then treated the newspaper editor and Factory Director Li to a late-night snack. The newspaper was still doing alright, but the printing factory was also declining rapidly, barely surviving by printing exam papers for schools.

How much money can you make printing exam papers?

Zhang Yan was somewhat puzzled. When he worked at the printing factory, he would occasionally get jobs printing papers, but those were just small jobs.

"Don't underestimate the power of printing exam papers."

Factory Director Li chuckled and said, "Ever since Hengzhong started its reforms in 92, the other schools we've been involved in have all started to work on it. We have to print a lot of test papers every month. Our factory doesn't have many people, so we can barely make ends meet by doing this."

After a pause, he bluntly warned, "This time the city is coming with the intention of getting things done, so don't give in. Those textile factories are already rotten. Take the No. 2 Cotton Mill for example, a few bastards there are running rampant, forcibly dragging female workers to bed, and then throwing ten yuan at them afterward, claiming it's prostitution."

"Isn't anyone in charge?"

Zhang Yan was surprised. These factories used to be chaotic, but it was mainly about fighting, petty theft, and the like. This kind of thing... should be considered a criminal gang, right?
"Haha~"

Factory Director Li shook his head and sneered, giving off an expression that said, "You'll figure it out yourself."

Zhang Yan became even more determined not to get involved in the mess. In the following days, he treated everyone to good food and drink and even took them to the August 1st Film and Television Base to participate in the activities of the Jinshi Parade and the audience with the emperor.

But he absolutely refuses to listen to or engage in any discussions about investment or acquisitions.

After several days, seeing that no one in the inspection team was bringing it up again, Zhang Yan privately spoke with the two team leaders and proposed the idea of ​​labor export.

The first reaction of the two team leaders was whether the city could share the profits generated by the workers, and whether this could be considered a political achievement in attracting investment.

It's fair to say that there's a reason why Hengjiang remained so poor even thirty years later.

Zhang Yan ignored these issues, only promising to broker negotiations between Hengjiang and the Economic Development Zone, but what specific terms could be negotiated was beyond his control.

(End of this chapter)