Spring Breeze Twenty Years

Chapter 754 Getting Down to Business

The weather is getting colder day by day. When I woke up in the morning, the small puddles left on the side of Fengtian Road had frozen over, and the leaves of the plants were covered with white frost. Autumn is finally leaving, and winter is impatient to come.

After a few days of rest, Li Weibing's eyes have basically returned to normal, with only a little bloodshot remaining, but it no longer affects his ability to go out. Only Mi Le's cheek has not completely recovered from the bruising, but the swelling has subsided.

Dalian's climate is warmer than Fengtian's, but it is still subject to the Siberian cold front.

The incident has passed, but its aftershocks are still reverberating. The Discipline Inspection Commission is still busy. This time, some positions have become available. For those in the system where everyone is stuck in a few positions, this is great news. People who feel they have some qualifications have been quite active lately, hoping that good fortune will fall on their heads.

The police have also made significant personnel changes, but these have nothing to do with Xiaowei and his five friends.

In the hotel's small conference room, Secretary Bi and Mayor Wei had a cordial and friendly conversation with Xiao Wei and his group of five. The matter was settled; this visit represented the city and was a gesture to show the people behind them—the younger generation wasn't worthy of such a high-level reception. Another objective was to attract investment; Xiao Wei and his group's background had been thoroughly investigated in the past few days.

"This was just an accident. As a result, the city will conduct a special campaign to regulate entertainment venues and public places related to recreation. Don't take it to heart. Come and visit often. We welcome your supervision and feedback. We're all family here, so feel free to speak your mind."

Secretary Bi made his statement with a smile. His smile is actually very familiar to people across the country today, though they may not know it.

Xiao Wei scratched his head, a little embarrassed, and said, "Secretary, you flatter us. Actually, we're all quite embarrassed about this. It was such a coincidence; nobody expected it. We didn't plan to stay here long; we were planning to buy an apartment in the city and then go back. But it turned out like this."

Mayor Wei waved his hand and said, "This isn't your fault, and it's all in the past, so let's not talk about it anymore. Xiao Zhang, Chairman Zhang, how about you consider investing here? What's the point of just buying a few small buildings?"

Xiao Wei said, "The plan is to buy a few suitable small buildings. We don't have any other plans yet. As you can see, we've expanded our operations a bit too much this year. Now, I get a little nervous just thinking about investing. We're not at the point where we can make big investments everywhere."

Mayor Wei tapped his finger on the table: "Xiao Zhang, you have some misconceptions. I know you're in the business of manufacturing, restaurants, food factories, right? That birthday cake was quite good; I've had it, and it seems like it's only available in Longcheng right now."

However, there are many investment directions. Real estate is also an industry. You can't put all your energy into restaurants and food factories, right? The real estate market has such a good outlook and quick returns, so why insist on attaching it to restaurants and food factories? Develop it separately.

You've done quite a few projects in Fengtian, like Xidu Andong Xingcheng, and they're all pretty big. Our Dalian project has such a great location, wouldn't it be more suitable?"

At this time, Dalian's urban area was not very big. It ended at Nansha in the south, and then the line from Nansha to Zhoushuizi Station was the westernmost point. The northern end was now Ganjingzi Park. The area around Qixing Square was now a desolate wilderness. Lushunkou District only had a small bay, and Jinzhou District was an industrial development zone. At this time, it was not considered part of the urban area and there were not many people.

From any perspective, Dalian was not a good place to invest at that time. It was small, sparsely populated, and had poor transportation. It was also quite far from Fengtian, the city center. Compared to Liaodong, western Liaoning was a completely underdeveloped region at that time.

Secretary Bi said, "The country is now vigorously developing the port economy, and everything is geared towards the sea. Dalian has unique advantages, and its future prospects are quite promising. Jinzhou Development Zone is the first national-level economic development zone in our country. If the higher-ups didn't have confidence, would they have made this decision so easily? Right now, this area is a blank slate, isn't it the perfect place for you to put your talents to use?"

Mayor Wei handed out cigarettes to everyone and said with a smile, "We all know that welfare housing will definitely end, and future housing will have to be acquired through buying and selling on the market. Therefore, the real estate industry is a good business with a promising future."

You've taken the lead and already have a solid foundation. You can definitely develop independently, which is much better than your other businesses. I'm not saying your other businesses are bad. Restaurants and food factories are also good businesses. As long as you cover these four areas—clothing, food, housing, and transportation—there are no bad businesses.

"Your company is doing well, covering all three aspects: food, accommodation, and transportation. The young people here have both ambition and vision, but they're a bit timid and overly cautious, which isn't typical of young people. Now that the country's reform and opening-up policies are yielding significant results and the economy is developing rapidly, just seize the opportunity and develop with confidence. Don't worry about anything."

Xiao Wei gave a wry smile and said, "Right now, we are not lacking in manpower. There are too few capable people who can handle things on their own. Now we have to do almost everything ourselves. Without enough talent reserves, I am worried that if we move too fast, something will go wrong."

"Even now, the person in charge of Xingcheng Xidu is still uncertain, not to mention Bingcheng. So it's not that I don't want to develop, it's just that the conditions aren't right now."

Secretary Bi said, "If we need people, we'll recruit. We'll put the recruitment notice in the newspapers and on TV, telling people what kind of people we're looking for and what kind of benefits we'll offer. Aren't there enough people who want to work these days? Every city has talent exchange markets and labor markets now. You can totally delegate the recruitment to them. China has a shortage of everything, except people. Isn't that easy to handle?"

Chen Hui said, "I have thought about that, but I'm a little worried about whether the people we hire are reliable. After all, we don't know them well, and our business is not small. If something goes wrong, it will be a big deal."

Secretary Bi pointed at Xiao Wei and Chen Hui and said, "You two are still too young. What's there to worry about? Once we hire someone, we need them to do what they need, what we can offer, what level of achievement we need, and what level of performance they need to reach. All of this is clearly written down in black and white. Once the contract is signed, it's legally binding. What are you afraid of?"

Xiao Wei nodded and said, "Let's discuss it again. We need to think about this. Anyway, we can't do anything this year, so we'll talk about it next spring. Let's talk about these buildings. Secretary Bi, Mayor Wei, what do you think about these buildings? Can you sell them for what price?" He handed over the prepared documents.

The three buildings are located next to three squares, all in prime locations.

Secretary Bi took it, flipped through it, and handed it to Mayor Wei, saying, "Why aren't there any from Lushunkou? Didn't you find anything you liked?"

Chen Hui said, "The people in charge of this area selected a total of six buildings. These three were chosen by me. The other three were a bit too small and didn't have any special features. Considering the high probability of them being demolished as the city develops, it didn't seem worth it."

Mayor Wei said, "Okay, I understand what you mean. Location, transportation, coverage area, population size, right? I'll help you choose. You've spoken, so this is how it is for this year. We'll have a meeting in Fengtian at the end of the year. I'll bring you the information then, and leave me your contact information, like your phone number."

(End of this chapter)