"Your Shanghu Town is really something else."
Vice Mayor Wang was in charge of the city's economy. Due to Nanhu's geographical location, even with Tongtian Lake—the number one lake in the Three Hunan region—the aquaculture industry wasn't particularly prominent, mainly due to technical equipment and, more importantly, funding issues.
Previously, they had applied upward for funds, but there were too many children crying for candy, and they were still waiting in line.
This year, the policy changed—reform and opening up had arrived—which gave them another path forward. Vice Mayor Wang naturally turned his attention to overseas Chinese, dragging Xu Baoguo from the city's Overseas Chinese Affairs Office to fight their way through the competition and secure funding to build a foreign-related hotel.
The hotel hadn't even been completed yet, but they had already received several waves of overseas Chinese returning to visit their roots. However, not all overseas Chinese could afford to invest.
Most were ordinary people; some had spent their entire life savings on plane tickets just to return home.
When encountering such overseas Chinese, they had to subsidize them out of their own pockets—they were compatriots after all, and they couldn't just turn a blind eye.
As for those with family assets and the ability to invest, each one was craftier than the last.
Naturally, they were unwilling to invest in Nanhu, since the coastal special economic zones offered better treatment in every aspect. In business, one talks business—he could understand that. After all, haste makes waste. It hadn't been long since reform and opening up began; the policies of the coastal special zones would eventually spread nationwide. Vice Mayor Wang was quite confident about that.
Who would have thought that with just one moment of carelessness, a township under his jurisdiction would steal the deal from right under his nose?
When Vice Mayor Wang returned from a meeting at the provincial level and learned the news, he was completely beside himself.
He was angry at Shanghu Town for being unscrupulous—using the ancestral home as bait, disregarding the bigger picture to snatch the city's investment. But he was even angrier at himself, for not having paid enough attention to Lu Chuyu. Truly, one should never judge by appearances.
Why had he subconsciously assumed Lu Chuyu wouldn't invest in Nanhu just because he looked like a "foreign devil"?
Vice Mayor Wang regretted it so much he wanted to bang his head against a wall. He had originally planned that since Shanghu Town was being so unscrupulous, they shouldn't blame him for obstructing their efforts and cutting in to snatch the deal.
But who would have thought that shameless Guo Weihua would bypass the city government entirely and go directly to the old leaders at the provincial level?
Utterly lacking in organizational discipline.
Now what could he do? He could only cooperate fully, since he still needed to make a good impression on Lu Chuyu—that was the only way to have a chance at getting Lu Chuyu to invest in the city.
Qian Changjiang wore an awkward smile as he faced Vice Mayor Wang, while inwardly cursing Guo Weihua from head to toe.
While Qian Changjiang was swallowing his pride in the city, Guo Weihua was throwing a thunderous tantrum at the beverage factory.
Pointing at the factory director Li Yuanjun, he berated him: "I'm telling you, Li Yuanjun, I'm not negotiating with you. This is a notice. You're a Party member, not a bandit or a robber. That's the Lu family's ancestral home. Now that the Lu family's descendant has returned and is about to invest in a joint venture factory right here in Shanghu Town, what was taken must be returned. Don't play tricks with me. I'm giving you three more days. If your beverage factory can't resolve this internally within three days, don't blame me for removing you from your post.
I'm telling you, if your lack of awareness and selfishness, Li Yuanjun, causes any problems with the joint venture, then you'll be the sinner of all Shanghu Town."
Li Yuanjun pressed his lips together, feeling deeply aggrieved.
"No, Secretary Guo, we need to be reasonable here. What was the Lu family? They were landlords, wealthy exploiters—they should have been overthrown. That eldest young master of the Lu family changed his name, fled to the Beiquan Production Brigade, and hid there like a turtle. Shouldn't he have been arrested and sent to a labor farm? And housing is so tight now! The Lu family ancestral home—a three-courtyard compound—houses how many beverage factory workers inside? How am I supposed to relocate them all!"
"How to arrange it? Isn't the factory's dormitory building still empty? What, can't you move them there? Don't give me that nonsense. Times have changed. The country has new policies now. Landlord or wealthy exploiter—anyone who is loyal to the country is a comrade."
"It's empty now, but the housing allocation list has already been posted! Won't the workers be upset? Won't they cause trouble?"
"Calming the workers' emotions is your job as factory director. Don't think I don't know about your little schemes. Every name on this round's dormitory allocation list is from the factory's management level. As cadres, you should have awareness. And you, Li Yuanjun, don't argue with me here. There are over a dozen units, and four of them are allocated to people related to you by blood or marriage. Do all of them actually meet the allocation criteria?
If the Lu family ancestral home isn't vacated within three days, don't blame Guo Weihua for showing you no mercy."
At these words, Li Yuanjun's attitude immediately softened.
Though everything had been done according to proper procedures, if someone really dug deep, they could still find faults.
Guo Weihua let out a cold "hmph" and left the beverage factory with a stern face. If it weren't for the fact that Li Yuanjun was capable, he would have dealt with him on the spot.
…
The Lu family ancestral home was a three-courtyard siheyuan, but due to decades of neglect and the fact that residents had built unauthorized additions because of the housing shortage, it was already in a sorry state.
Lu Changgui stood in the unrecognizable courtyard, his entire body trembling. This was his home!
Had Shi Cuixia and Lu Baohua not been supporting him, he might not have been able to stay on his feet.
Lu Chuyu, meanwhile, felt a bit of regret that the courtyard had been destroyed to such a state. Beside her, Guo Weihua's face also wore an awkward expression, at a loss for what to say.
Lu Chuyu glanced at the system panel. She hadn't done her Daily Check-in yet today, so she mentally tapped the Novice Check-in button.
[Check-in successful. System randomly rewards one chest of gold and jewelry.]
A chest of gold and jewelry?!
Ever since returning to Huaguo, the random rewards she'd gotten from her daily check-ins had been nothing more than ceramic jars or double-happiness thermoses, with the most valuable being a Shanghai-brand watch—nothing compared to the random rewards she'd gotten when checking in while in Meili.
Every gain comes with a loss. Collecting Emotion Points in Huaguo was, so to speak, easy as pie, so she could accept the daily check-in rewards being somewhat ordinary. Moreover, Lu Chuyu knew in her heart that these rewards were only ordinary by her standards—in the current Huaguo, they were all in high demand, things ordinary folks would struggle to buy even if they wanted to.
She hadn't expected that coming to the Lu family ancestral home today would give her such a pleasant surprise.
"Secretary Guo, do you happen to know if there are any skilled craftsmen in town? I'd like to restore the ancestral home. Money isn't an issue."
Having received a chest of gold and jewelry, Lu Chuyu was in a great mood. Even if she had to tear down the courtyard house and rebuild it from scratch, it wouldn't cost her much.
"Don't worry, Ms. Lu. Shanghu Town has several artisans with family-inherited skills. I guarantee they can restore the Lu ancestral home to its original state."
Lu Chuyu nodded. "Then I'll leave it to you, Secretary Guo. As long as the restoration is done well, don't worry about the cost."
With that, she turned to Lu Changgui. "Uncle, you should stay in town for now. You know best what this place originally looked like, so you can communicate with the craftsmen. It's fine that it's fallen into disrepair—we can fix it."
Lu Changgui choked back tears and answered with a simple "Okay."
The approval from the State Planning Commission came down quickly, and the city government gave its full support. In particular, the state-owned construction units directly dispatched three engineering teams that worked around the clock.
Lu Chuyu wasn't idle either. After all, this was the first time in two lifetimes that she was starting a business, and she was still somewhat excited about it. Driven by curiosity, she was happy to handle many things herself, including designing the work uniforms for the food factory—though she dictated her ideas verbally, and the master tailor at the town's garment factory made the patterns.
After several days of nonstop work, Lu Chuyu once again experienced the "joy" of the 996 work schedule from her previous life.
Back at the town guesthouse, Lu Chuyu collapsed onto the bed. She needed to hire people.
Professional matters required professional people. Although she possessed the advantage of foresight, she only had a superficial understanding of many things. It was enough to point the way at critical moments, but if she tried to be involved in every step, she'd eventually expose herself.
First, there was the need for management talent at the food factory. She'd made Lu Changgui the factory director for two reasons: one was for appearances, to send a signal to the outside world that she was someone who valued personal relationships.
The second was that, regardless of anything, Lu Changgui was the original body's biological uncle. Moreover, from what she'd seen so far, the Lu family knew how to be grateful. At least in the short term, they wouldn't betray her—though of course, whether they could hold firm once there was enough profit at stake, no one could say.
But for now, Lu Changgui was the best choice. At the very least, she didn't have to worry about him colluding with the deputy factory director sent by the commune.
However, she didn't dare gamble on Lu Changgui's abilities, so she still needed a capable management professional.
Next was the staff around her. Having only Sun Yueying as a personal assistant wasn't enough, and she also needed bodyguards for her safety—at least two more people.
The food factory's security team absolutely had to be her own people. After all, the instant food she produced could be eaten straight out of the package. If some extremely jealous person slipped something into it, that would cause major trouble.
She couldn't recruit through the commune for any of these positions. Lu Chuyu thought it over and called Liu Changxing and the other two in.
"My food factory produces ready-to-eat food, so safety is of the utmost importance. From my understanding of Huaguo, its soldiers are the most trustworthy people. You're all veterans—I wonder if you could reach out to your former comrades-in-arms and see if anyone would be willing to come work at my food factory. I place great importance on security personnel. Besides a high salary, anyone who comes will be a regular employee with housing allocated to them."
Liu Changxing and the other two exchanged glances, excitement shining in their eyes.
In Huaguo, there was no question about soldiers' selflessness and their commitment to putting the Party and the people's interests above all else. This also meant that many veterans, not wanting to burden the military or the country, quietly returned to their hometowns and took up hoes to become farmers.
Their family circumstances naturally weren't well-off. Seeing such good conditions offered by Lu Chuyu, they were genuinely happy for their old comrades.
"Don't worry, boss. This matter is in our hands. There won't be a single coward among us."
Lu Chuyu nodded with satisfaction. "Get it done as soon as possible within the next couple of days. Oh, and if there are any veterans who were discharged due to injury and are facing financial difficulties, if they're willing to come to Shanghu Town, they can come too. There are some positions on the production line that we can provide for them."
"Boss, are you serious?"
Sun Yueying's eyes suddenly reddened. She herself was a veteran discharged due to injury, but she was lucky—at least she had all her limbs intact.
During her recovery at the military hospital, she had seen too many comrades who had lost arms or legs. Although the military had provided considerable disability compensation, she knew that many of her comrades had refused to take it and instead forwarded the money to the families of fallen soldiers.
She truly hadn't expected the boss to be this kind-hearted.
"A gentleman will die for one who appreciates him." She finally understood the meaning of that saying today.
"Of course I'm serious. There's an old saying in Huaxia: 'When poor, one cultivates one's own virtue; when successful, one benefits the world.' I'm not a philanthropist, but as long as it doesn't affect my own interests, I'm naturally willing to make some contributions to society. Besides, I'm not keeping them for free—once they enter the factory, they still have to follow all the relevant rules. If they violate them, they'll still be fired."
Lu Chuyu looked at Sun Yueying, whose eyes were brimming with tears and whose face was full of emotion. Although she was also deeply moved inside, she didn't want to be a philanthropist—it was too exhausting.