Chapter 0170 Father's Thoughts

Zhao Fusheng's words plunged Chen Hai and Hou Liangping into deep contemplation. Since they could walk alongside Father Zhao, they were undoubtedly among the more sharp-minded and prestigious members of that group of comrades. But the problem was that the suggestion Zhao Fusheng had just made was too much of a shock to them.

In this era, although the concept of a market economy had already taken root in people's hearts, in the northern regions, such a complex method of share division had never been seen before.

They had originally thought it was just everyone going into business together, but now it seemed that Zhao Fusheng clearly intended to run this shopping mall as a formal enterprise.

On one hand, they were happy; on the other, they were also a bit worried. After all, this was no small amount of money. Even though each family had only put in ten or twenty thousand yuan, it was already all the funds they could scrape together.

"Old Zhao, how about this: we go back and discuss it. After all, if we do it the way Fusheng says, we really need to come up with a set of rules."

After a long silence, Hou Liangping was the first to speak.

Chen Hai also nodded: "Yeah, not just our two families, but the others too. We need to sit down together and have a good talk about this."

Facing the gazes of his two comrades, Father Zhao showed no hesitation and nodded calmly: "That's right. As I see it, let's all get together tomorrow and have a good chat."

His thinking was very clear: even if they were going to adopt a shareholding system, he had to explain it face-to-face with his comrades; he couldn't just decide quietly on his own.

That was the kind of person he was—always upright in everything he did, never playing tricks. It was precisely for this reason that all his comrades and colleagues trusted him.

Perhaps that was charisma.

Zhao Fusheng had to admit that, at the very least, he himself definitely did not have his father's ability.

After seeing off Chen Hai and Hou Liangping, Father Zhao turned to look at Zhao Fusheng and did not speak for a long time.

Zhao Fusheng was not anxious either. He ate fruit and watched TV, looking perfectly calm.

After a long while, Father Zhao let out a soft sigh and looked at Zhao Fusheng, saying, "Son, you've grown up."

As he spoke, a look of relief appeared on his face. It was clear that he meant it sincerely and was not just saying it casually. After all, over the past few months, everyone could see the changes in Zhao Fusheng. Whether in dealing with people or in other aspects, the Zhao Fusheng of now was much more mature than before.

"Dad, you're not old yet." Hearing his father's words, Zhao Fusheng chuckled and shook his head: "I was hoping you'd work hard to build an empire for me, so I could be a rich second-generation layabout."

Father Zhao burst out laughing at his son's words and glared at Zhao Fusheng: "You little brat, nothing's even happened yet, and you're already thinking about being a layabout. Are your skin itching?"

After saying this, both father and son laughed, as if they had returned to Zhao Fusheng's childhood, when his father would say this to him every time he did poorly on exams or got into trouble.

But Zhao Fusheng clearly remembered that back then, although the family's financial situation was very modest, whenever he wanted something, his parents would try their best to satisfy him.

Memories of childhood become fuzzier as one grows older, but Zhao Fusheng would never forget that home was his warmest harbor, and his father was the everlasting mountain before him.

"Dad, seriously, this time you took too big a risk." Zhao Fusheng hesitated for a moment before speaking to his father.

In fact, he had never expected that his father, driven by a desire to compete with him deep down, would rashly lease an entire floor of Hualian Department Store.

After all, even he himself had not thought of rashly venturing into such physical industry.

Given all the aspects involved, Zhao Fusheng did not think his family had the connections to navigate them.

At the very least, departments like industry and commerce, taxation, and health were, in his view, quite troublesome issues. In this era, some departments were always difficult to deal with and had unpleasant attitudes. Sometimes when Zhao Fusheng thought about it, he found it extremely headache-inducing.

"What, you think your old man can't pull this off?" Father Zhao smiled and glanced at Zhao Fusheng.

Zhao Fusheng smiled bitterly and shook his head: "It's not that I think you can't do it; I just feel that your pace is a bit too fast."

He was genuinely worried. After all, it wasn't just their family's business; there were so many partners. Inevitably, various disagreements would arise. Zhao Fusheng had seen too many junk companies born out of mutual compromise, where each participant would repeatedly claim that the company's bankruptcy had nothing to do with them, and when it came to dividing interests, they would show no concession, while in the face of difficulties, they would shirk and evade.

It is often said that starting a business is easy, but maintaining it is hard. Behind this saying lies the blood and tears of countless entrepreneurs.

The business world is like a battlefield. The battlefield is a dark world where one cannot see clearly into the distance. In the business world, the hardest thing to see through is people's hearts.

According to Zhao Fusheng's plan, his father should first open a small supermarket near the school to accumulate initial capital and connections, then wait two or three years until Ninghai's economic situation improved before considering going further and expanding the business.

Instead of doing it like now, trying to bite off more than he could chew without considering his own conditions.

Zhao Fusheng even felt that if he didn't intervene, even if his father scraped together a large sum of money from here and there to open the mall, problems would sooner or later arise.

But what Zhao Fusheng didn't expect was that Father Zhao was still all smiles, even reaching out to pat his son's head.

"Dad, listen to me, I..." Zhao Fusheng was getting a bit anxious. Although his mental age was past forty, the man before him was still his father, and he couldn't just watch his father head toward failure.

"You what, you silly boy. Do you think that because your old man hasn't read as many books as you, he has fewer tricks up his sleeve?" Father Zhao glared at Zhao Fusheng.

Zhao Fusheng was momentarily speechless. Before he could say anything, Father Zhao spoke: "I know all the problems you mentioned. At first, I did think like you said, about opening a small supermarket near your school and just getting started."

"But later, when I heard that Hualian Department Store was recruiting tenants, I felt that maybe this was an opportunity." Father Zhao looked at Zhao Fusheng calmly and said, "It's always 'like father, like son.' Now that my son has made something of himself, as his father, I can't embarrass him too much, can I?"

At that moment, Zhao Fusheng had nothing to say.