Chapter 41: One Land Before

  The tiger lily on the windowsill of Lu Zhong's office has bloomed, its tender green leaves and pink flowers bursting with vitality in the bleak autumn air.

  Chen San Shui stared blankly at the intimate conversation between Qin Re and Lu Zhen, he was now speechless about this young director.

  This Mr. Smith is the chief administrative officer of Oriental Financial Investment Company, which, although newly established, has an extraordinary background, and even Japanese financial giants like Mitsubishi Bank are eager to cooperate with it.

  According to Mr. Smith, the main target of Oriental Financial Investment Company in the next few years is the Hong Kong market.

  The application for the business trip to Hong Kong has been approved by the municipal party committee, and it happens that this CEO, who is very familiar with the situation in Hong Kong, can provide some valuable advice for this business trip.

  But why should they help us?

  Schroeder, the German, is nothing to worry about. After all, he's currently investing in and setting up a factory in Wushan, and as the Party Secretary of the joint venture company, Lu Zheng is someone he has more contact with, they get along well, and have some emotional connection, so it's no big deal for him to help out and offer some advice.

  Mr. Kostmayer, why again?

  And looking at Smith's attitude towards Director Lu Zhen, it's not just a simple old friend, but rather a subtle flattery and obedience, as if it's a subordinate and superior relationship.

  Chen San Shui, although a new graduate of the 78th class of Peking University and an intellectual, has been immersed in official circles for many years after all, and some things that can only be sensed intuitively are still perceptible.

  In fact, Chen San Shui's feeling was not wrong. The relationship between Smith and Lu Zhong is not superior or inferior, but rather a big boss and an employee.

  Smith, in fact, was the agent who took care of Lu Zhong's investments in Hong Kong. Smith, of course, did not know that this was a gamble and did not know the true relationship between Lu Zhong and these funds. He only knew that Lu Zhong was his behind-the-scenes big boss.

  To one's own big boss, no matter how talented or arrogant Smith is, he should be given the respect due to him.

  Chen San Shui was very sensitive and could capture the subtle revelation of this interpersonal relationship.

  The phone rang, Lu Zhong answered it, and made a gesture: "San Shui, you'd better get more experience from Mr. Smith, and make sure to grasp the details of this business promotion activity."

  Chen San Shui hastily agreed and warmly invited Smith to sit in his office. Smith was slightly fluent in Chinese, while Chen San Shui roughly understood English. The two of them managed to communicate with each other by gestures and simple language.

  "Hello, who is this?" Lu Zhong mechanically answered the phone while flipping through materials on his desk, including a list of Hong Kong business people.

  With the current business environment in Wushan, one must have a clear positioning. In the short term, it's not necessary to consider those large financial groups and tycoons from Hong Kong. Even if they want to invest in Wushan, they will go through the central government channels first, and then deal with your local government.

  The list consists of some Hong Kong business figures who intend to invest and open up the mainland market, although they are not tycoons, but also not anyone can see them at will. Lu Zhong hopes that in Hong Kong, he can meet with some of them and persuade them to come to Wushan for investment and development.

  This time in Hong Kong to attract investment, focusing on electronic enterprises and service industries, if some funds can be brought in for urban infrastructure construction, it would be even better.

  "Is it Lu Zhong?"

  Inside the receiver was a man's low and stern voice. Upon hearing this voice, Lu Zhong couldn't help but pause for a moment, slowly putting down the list in his hand, "Dad?"

  "Ah, it's me."

  Lu Zhong's heart tightened. His father had never called his workplace to find him before, today was the first time. Could it be that something had happened at home?

  After all, the trajectory of this world is already different from that of the previous life. Just because something didn't happen in a past life doesn't mean it can't happen now.

  It's just like a father, in the past two years, he has been persuading himself to re-enter officialdom, but now, his father doesn't have to worry too much about him, and this feeling is different, so is his judgment of people and things, which will also change many things that happen around his father.

  So, what is called foresight and insight, its realization nowadays, at least for the fate of family members, has gradually become invalid.

  "Dad, nothing's happened to Mom, has it?" If someone in the family were likely to get into trouble, it would most likely be my stubborn old mom. She has always been at odds with a certain powerful military leader over the fate of some military research projects and the direction of reform for military enterprises.

  Lu Tianhe chuckled in the receiver and said: "No, your mom is fine. I heard that you've been working very hard lately, how's it going? Do you want to come back to Beijing?"

  Lu Zhong knew that his father had always hoped he would follow in his footsteps, joining a ministry at a young age and getting in touch with macro-level things to expand his connections, waiting for the opportunity to be sent to a local area for development.

  Especially, Rehe is not a suitable place for self-development. All along, important cadres of the Lu system have never held important positions in Rehe.

  Grandfather came from the Northeast Bureau, and high-ranking officials who united around Grandfather almost all had experience working in the three northeastern provinces. Before reform and opening up, as a heavy industry base, the three northeastern provinces had an extremely important position on the country's political map. Grandfather, who was stationed in the northeast, was indeed the King of the Northeast, and at the beginning of the founding of the country, when there were many brave generals and strategists, he was already a hero in his own right.

  Looking back on those years, Grandfather, this great lord of a region, was summoned to the capital to take office, and immediately shook the world, being called "Five Tigers Enter the Capital, with Lu at the Forefront!"

  Thinking of this, Lu Zhong couldn't help but feel a surge of emotions. When would he be able to reach his grandfather's level? Only then could he consider this life not lived in vain!

  And Father, also having a Northeast complex, hopes that he can go to the Northeast too.

  In Jidong, there are some things that may be neglected at home.

  He is just a bit extreme in his personality, and since he was young, he has always lived in Wushan. After retiring from the army, he insisted on coming to Wushan, and his parents couldn't persuade him otherwise.

  This year, Father may feel that his relationship with himself has improved a lot, so he brings up old things again, hoping that he can still follow his arrangement and make progress step by step.

  Lu Zhong hesitated for a moment, then said in a low voice: "Dad, just let me do my own thing." In the official circles of Wushan, it seemed that his career was not going smoothly, but in fact, he had his own considerations. Many things were not about temporary gains or losses, such as his thoughts on the reform of state-owned enterprises, which had already had a real impact on this world. Not long ago, the Wushan Iron and Steel Group had prepared to implement a general manager responsibility system, and at the same time, a supervisory committee would be established to supervise and regulate the operation of the group, to some extent limiting the power of the head of the state-owned enterprise.

  And these changes are exactly the result of the reform and opening-up policy initiated by Guangning State-owned Enterprise Contracting System.

  Lu Zheng has now confirmed that the father of Jiang Haiyan, Secretary of Guangning County Committee, is actually Jiang XX, Director of Provincial Advisory Committee and Second Secretary of Provincial Committee. It was precisely relying on Director Jiang's influence accumulated in Jidong for many years that Jiang Haiyan could smoothly promote state-owned enterprise reform in Guangning, and even began to affect Wushan.

  In fact, Jiang Haiyan's push for state-owned enterprise reform has largely followed her own path, and what she is doing now is exactly what she wants to do.

  Now, I am a minor figure with little influence, and in terms of connections and influence, I am far inferior to Jiang Haiyan. If these things were handed over to me, for example, if I had been leading these efforts in Guangning all along, it would be impossible for me to do better than Jiang Haiyan in just over a year's time.

  To a certain extent, I also count on Jiang Haiyan's hands to achieve my own ambitions, and it is a kind of borrowing power to strike power. Only in this world, only myself can understand what I am doing.

  And as for Father, he naturally wouldn't know his true thoughts, and probably didn't have a good view of his prospects in Wushan. That's why he brought up old matters again, hoping to leave Wushan and Hebei.

  It seemed that Lu Tianhe had expected Lu Zhong to refuse, and when he heard that Lu Zhong wanted "free play", Lu Tianhe chuckled on the phone and said: "Forget it, let you be. However, I heard that you initiated a trip to Hong Kong for investment promotion? Better not to."

  Lu Zhong was taken aback and asked: "Has there been another change in policy upstairs?"

  "It's not that, anyway, you think carefully about it for now, and be stable during this period." A voice came from the receiver, and Lu Tianhe said: "I still have something to do, if you're free, go back home and take a look." Then he hung up the phone.

  Lu Zhong slowly put down the receiver, lit a cigarette and pondered his father's words.

  Things at the top level, when it comes to the position of father, are actually sometimes difficult to make clear, especially when involving disputes over routes and ideologies. Before the dust settles, it is hard to predict what kind of result will come out of the power struggle and compromise among the highest levels.

  Nowadays, Wushan, this economic special zone adjacent to the capital, has also gradually entered the vision of the central bigwigs.

  My father's words hinted that something might happen to Wushan in the near future, but what kind of change it would bring and what the consequences would be, my father could only make an educated guess, and he didn't want to talk about it with me.

  Wushan government, these two years have not been very stable, because of the special economic zone, it is often a battlefield for high-level ideological struggle. And now, it seems that an unprecedented storm is approaching, this time's confrontation will be more brutal than any previous one, otherwise, Father would not have called himself to warn him in an unusual manner.

  Where is the eye of this storm again?

  Hong Kong, you really aren't going yourself?

  The city gate is on fire, and the fish in the moat are also affected. Now I am just a small fish or shrimp in the boundless ocean of officialdom, and in the whirlpool of power struggles, one careless move will make me vulnerable to the winds and rains, thinking about it is futile.

  Lu Zhong shook his head and slowly extinguished the cigarette butt in his hand.

  At this time, the office door was knocked and a woman in a beige suit and trousers walked in. She was He Hongmei, Zhang Qingtian's lover.

  He Hongmei's face was somewhat haggard, but she had long since stopped crying. She wasn't the type of woman to be overly emotional anyway; she had simply been caught off guard when she first heard about her husband's situation and had lost control for a moment.