Chapter 1942: The Four Trillion Plan

Ye Jing carried out Zhao Fusheng's instructions thoroughly.

He went to Ge You's home in person for a face-to-face talk, and for Chow Yun-fat, he flew all the way to Hong Kong to meet with him and his wife.

The central message was clear: even if the filming continued, everyone's safety had to be fully considered.

Chow Yun-fat and Ge You were both very satisfied with Ye Jing's approach.

In life, often it's about face.

Ye Jing, as the investor's representative, traveled a long distance to Hong Kong to meet Chow Yun-fat, and also condescended to explain the situation to Ge You.

This act alone gave both men ample face.

Moreover, it was at Zhao Fusheng's behest.

Hearts are made of flesh; they were being paid and given face. No matter how big a star, they still rely on investors for a living.

If no investor wants to hire you, even a Best Actor goes hungry.

Soon, accompanied by his wife, Chow Yun-fat returned to Sichuan, and Ge You joined the crew early.

Of course, this had nothing to do with Zhao Fusheng. He didn't pay it any mind, merely instructing Ye Jing and then letting it go.

In Zhao Fusheng's own words, there were too many things demanding his attention. If he looked into every single one, he'd soon become another Zhuge Liang.

Focusing on the big picture while letting go of the small, and steering the direction of development—that's the quality a qualified business manager should have.

Moreover, by now, the Future Group had developed to a point where there were few matters requiring Zhao Fusheng's special attention. As chairman, he was relatively relaxed.

Of course, that also had to do with the sluggish economic situation over the past year or so.

The global economic condition had problems, posing a severe challenge to both physical enterprises and internet companies.

...

...

"You actually donated five hundred million?"

After Tan Kaixuan returned from Hong Kong to the capital and met with Zhao Fusheng, his first question was about the donation.

"Yes."

Zhao Fusheng nodded. "How could I fake something like that?"

"Tsk, tsk, truly a rich man."

Tan Kaixuan chuckled, teasing Zhao Fusheng. "And your Fan Baobao is something else. I saw her speech on stage that day—a true heroine."

Zhao Fusheng rolled his eyes. "I feel like you're mocking something."

"How could that be?" Tan Kaixuan looked innocent. "Am I that kind of person?"

"Yes."

Zhao Fusheng pursed his lips, not giving any face.

"So, tell me, why are you back?"

Zhao Fusheng asked Tan Kaixuan.

"I'm planning to get married." Tan Kaixuan didn't hide it from Zhao Fusheng, saying directly.

"That's great."

Zhao Fusheng smiled. "It's time you got married. How old are you now?"

Tan Kaixuan looked helpless. Among his circle, it seemed that except for Zhao Fusheng, hardly anyone had married so early. Yet this guy always nagged him about it—it was really annoying.

"Don't count on being the best man."

Tan Kaixuan said smugly to Zhao Fusheng. "A married old man like you isn't qualified to be a best man."

Zhao Fusheng couldn't even be bothered to retort. He waved his hand. "Stop your nonsense and get lost."

"What's with you? Can't I see my goddaughter?"

Tan Kaixuan grinned, approached Zhao Xue, and scooped up the little girl. "Come here, sweetie. Let your godfather hold you."

The little girl didn't understand much, giggling as she grabbed Tan Kaixuan's hair, playing happily.

Zhao Fusheng couldn't be bothered with the two of them and went back to reading the newspaper.

After playing with the child for a while, until Zhao's mother came with fruit and took the child away, Tan Kaixuan finally sat back down across from Zhao Fusheng.

"Having trouble in Hong Kong?"

Zhao Fusheng casually asked Tan Kaixuan.

"How did you know?" Tan Kaixuan looked at Zhao Fusheng in surprise.

Zhao Fusheng chuckled. "I heard from Dong Chenxi that someone approached you to jointly develop Hong Kong real estate?"

"There is such a thing, but it's not going smoothly." Tan Kaixuan had nothing to hide from Zhao Fusheng and admitted honestly. "I thought it wouldn't be so troublesome, but actually executing it, just the approvals alone will cost a lot."

"Naturally."

Zhao Fusheng said calmly. "This is Hong Kong. Do you think it's easy to do business there? Especially real estate."

Hearing this, Tan Kaixuan was startled. "You mean someone is messing with me behind the scenes?"

Zhao Fusheng waved his hand. "Not messing with you, but the market there is completely saturated. You can't get a foothold."

This was no joke; it was the truth.

To use a popular phrase, the Hong Kong real estate market was completely dead.

This wasn't an exaggeration; it was a clear fact.

Although Hong Kong's tycoons kept shouting slogans, the truth was that Hong Kong had already completed capital accumulation and distribution back in the 1980s and 1990s.

Most of Hong Kong's top richest people made their fortunes in real estate. With them in place, how could they let an outsider like Tan Kaixuan get a piece of the meat? Not even the soup would be given to him.

Of course, the specifics were complicated, and Zhao Fusheng didn't know all the details, but he was absolutely certain that Hong Kong's real estate industry had no future.

Investing in Hong Kong real estate was basically throwing a meat bun at a dog—never to return.

"You don't have faith in that place?"

Tan Kaixuan wasn't stupid; he could tell that Zhao Fusheng clearly didn't believe in Hong Kong's future development, otherwise he wouldn't have said such things.

Zhao Fusheng nodded. "Hong Kong's decline is already a fact, whether in economic development or other aspects. Under these circumstances, if you want to get into real estate, you might as well acquire my father's company outright. The old man is about to retire anyway."

Tan Kaixuan was taken aback, then frowned deeply.

Clearly, he had taken Zhao Fusheng's words to heart.

Zhao Fusheng didn't say more. Instead, he picked up a document and handed it to Tan Kaixuan. "This is an internal reference I just got. Take a look."

Internal reference?

Tan Kaixuan took it, and after a few glances, his expression changed dramatically.

The internal reference indicated that the country was about to launch a "four trillion" plan.

After the global financial crisis fully erupted, China's economic growth rate rapidly declined, exports turned negative, a large number of migrant workers returned to their hometowns, and the economy faced the risk of a hard landing. To cope with this crisis, the government planned to introduce ten measures to further expand domestic demand and promote steady and relatively fast economic growth by the end of this year. Preliminary estimates suggested that implementing these ten measures would require an investment of about four trillion yuan by the end of 2010.

The ten measures included:

First, accelerating the construction of affordable housing projects. Increasing support for the construction of low-rent housing, accelerating the renovation of shantytowns, implementing a settlement project for nomadic herders, and expanding pilot projects for the renovation of dilapidated rural houses.

Second, accelerating rural infrastructure construction. Increasing efforts in rural biogas, safe drinking water projects, and rural road construction, improving the rural power grid, accelerating major water conservancy projects such as the South-to-North Water Diversion and the reinforcement of dangerous reservoirs, strengthening water-saving renovation in large irrigation districts, and increasing poverty alleviation and development efforts.

Third, accelerating the construction of major infrastructure such as railways, highways, and airports. Focusing on building a number of passenger dedicated lines, coal transport corridors, and western trunk railways, improving the expressway network, arranging the construction of central and western trunk airports and feeder airports, and accelerating the renovation of urban power grids.

Fourth, accelerating the development of medical and health care, culture, and education. Strengthening the construction of the primary-level medical and health service system, accelerating the renovation of junior high school buildings in central and western rural areas, and promoting the construction of special education schools and township comprehensive cultural stations in the central and western regions.

Fifth, strengthening ecological and environmental construction. Accelerating the construction of urban sewage and garbage treatment facilities and the prevention and control of water pollution in key river basins, strengthening the construction of key shelterbelts and natural forest resource protection projects, and supporting key energy-saving and emission-reduction projects.

Sixth, accelerating independent innovation and structural adjustment. Supporting the industrialization of high-tech and industrial technological progress, and supporting the development of the service industry.

Seventh, accelerating post-earthquake reconstruction in all aspects.

Eighth, increasing urban and rural residents' income. Raising the minimum grain purchase price next year, increasing standards for comprehensive direct agricultural subsidies, seed subsidies, and农机具 subsidies to increase farmers' income. Raising the treatment level of low-income groups and other social security recipients, increasing urban and rural subsistence allowance subsidies, and continuing to raise the basic pension level for enterprise retirees and the living subsidy standards for entitled groups.

Ninth, fully implementing the value-added tax transformation reform in all regions and industries nationwide, encouraging enterprise technological transformation, and reducing enterprise burdens by 120 billion yuan.

Tenth, increasing financial support for economic growth. Lifting credit scale restrictions on commercial banks, reasonably expanding credit scale, increasing credit support for key projects, agriculture, rural areas and farmers, small and medium-sized enterprises, technological transformation, and mergers and acquisitions, and cultivating and consolidating growth points for consumer credit in a targeted manner.

Looking at the internal reference, Tan Kaixuan's expression grew increasingly serious.

As a businessman, his acumen was sharper than ordinary people's. Others might see it merely as a national strategy to stimulate domestic demand, but Tan Kaixuan sensed a hint of danger in this plan.

"Prices are probably going to rise."

Seeing Tan Kaixuan's expression, Zhao Fusheng knew he understood what was happening.

Tan Kaixuan nodded. "I think it's not just prices, but also housing prices. The domestic real estate market might really take a few somersaults, just like you said."

"Yes."

Zhao Fusheng's expression was calm. He knew that the real estate industry frenzy in his memory was about to emerge.