Chapter 0409: Eloquent Discourse

Ten minutes later, Zhang Qian returned to the ward, somewhat dejected.

He sat there, watching his grandfather lying in the hospital bed with eyes tightly closed, but breathing steadily.

In his mind, the figure of that young man flashed by.

From their first encounter at the door, to him sending someone to bring him boxed meals and fruit, to him saving the young man, and that guy leaving a few hundred yuan for his grandfather, to the scene just now.

"Zhao Fusheng."

Zhang Qian uttered these three words, and a rare softness appeared on his face.

Zhao Fusheng, naturally unaware that some of his affairs had been exposed by Chen Jianmin, stayed in the ward for a while, coaxing Fan Beibei to take a shot and sleep, then returned to school.

Back in the dormitory, Tan Kaixuan grinned triumphantly at Zhao Fusheng: "Done!"

"Huh?"

Zhao Fusheng looked at him blankly, and only after a moment did he realize he was referring to the matter with Tan's parents.

"How did you manage it?" Zhao Fusheng asked curiously.

Tan Kaixuan recounted his plan, and finally said, "Anyway, they want to leave something for me and Kaixin, so I might as well let them open a shop."

Zhao Fusheng looked at the smug Tan Kaixuan and gave a thumbs-up: "Brilliant, absolutely brilliant!"

He had nothing but admiration, with nothing more to say.

Tan Kaixuan laughed: "Alright, stop flattering me insincerely. I'll treat you to a meal, coming?"

Zhao Fusheng was a bit puzzled: "Treat me to a meal?"

He didn't quite understand why Tan Kaixuan would suddenly want to treat him to a meal for no reason.

Tan Kaixuan said somewhat sheepishly, "Well, I know you meant well for my parents. I didn't expect my dad to..."

Hearing this, Zhao Fusheng understood what was going on.

After all, no matter what, Zhao Fusheng had actually lost face today. He had kindly called Tan's father to warn him, only to be misunderstood and rejected.

An ordinary person might have taken offense.

Tan Kaixuan wasn't stupid. Zhao Fusheng didn't really need to play the villain; this matter had nothing to do with him. In essence, it was only because he considered Tan a friend that he thought of his welfare.

In a sense, without Tan Kaixuan, Zhao Fusheng probably wouldn't have cared whether Tan's parents lost money.

This wasn't because Zhao Fusheng was cold-blooded, but because that was the reality.

"Fine, I'll take that meal. You'll see how much money I saved you later," Zhao Fusheng said, waving his hand at Tan Kaixuan.

He wasn't joking. If he remembered correctly, this bear market seemed to last several years. For the Tan family to pull out their funds and go into business now wasn't a bad thing.

"Less talk, let's go. Hotpot," Tan Kaixuan said to Zhao Fusheng.

After thinking it over, he sent a text message to Wang Zhen and Wen Yu each. After all, they lived in the same dorm; they couldn't let things get too distant, and their relationship hadn't cooled to that point.

After a while, Wang Zhen replied that he was busy today, accompanying his girlfriend to a dinner party, so they should go ahead. Wen Yu, on the other hand, called directly, asked for the location, and agreed to meet at the restaurant.

On the way to the restaurant, Tan Kaixuan asked Zhao Fusheng, "About Wang Zhen, I always feel he's likely to get taken advantage of..."

Zhao Fusheng laughed: "Whether he gets taken advantage of depends on how you see it. A girl is with him, living outside. If you don't give something, is that possible?"

Tan Kaixuan was stunned, and it took him a while to grasp what Zhao Fusheng meant. He opened his mouth to retort, but on second thought, what Zhao Fusheng said was true.

Men often say women are materialistic, that they love their money.

But the problem is, if a man isn't even willing to spend money on a girl, why should she fall for him?

Can it be based solely on a handsome face, or just a silver tongue?

Come on, in marriage and daily life, everything costs money—fuel, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, tea. Even in dating, if a guy expects the girl to want nothing and just be with him wholeheartedly, how is he any different from a scumbag who just wants to take advantage of her?

Talk about feelings? If you're all about feelings, then don't go renting hotel rooms...

But on the flip side, it's the same for girls. If you expect to use someone and take from them without giving anything in return, sorry, that's not a boyfriend, that's a backup option.

No guy wants to be a backup, unless he's an idiot.

Is Wang Zhen stupid?

The answer is obvious: he's not.

So Zhao Fusheng wasn't worried at all that he'd get taken advantage of.

It was just a game of mutual benefit.

...

...

When they arrived at the restaurant, Wen Yu was already seated. There were only four of them, so they didn't take a private room but sat at a table in the main hall.

"Today, Boss Tan is treating. Don't hold back," Zhao Fusheng said to Wen Yu and Han Meimei with a smile.

"Got it," Wen Yu nodded with a smile.

Han Meimei patted her boyfriend and said to Tan Kaixuan with a grin, "Don't worry, it won't exceed five hundred yuan."

Tan Kaixuan was about to nod and thank her, but when he heard the number, he pointed at Han Meimei, speechless.

Four people eating hotpot for five hundred yuan—that was either eating someone out of house and home or fleecing a sucker.

Of course, it was all in jest. Besides, even if Zhao Fusheng and Wen Yu had huge appetites, they couldn't eat that much hotpot.

This was Ninghai Normal University in the year 2000, not a celebrity restaurant in 2017.

While eating hotpot, adding vegetables and lamb to the pot, they chatted idly. Wen Yu casually mentioned something happening in his hometown county. Of course, he had heard it from his father, but he didn't reveal his father's name, just said it was a rumor.

"Development in our Northeast really isn't as fast as the coast, even with policies," Wen Yu sighed. "In my hometown, officials form cliques. Without connections or background, you can't get promoted."

Zhao Fusheng smiled and said, "The problem with traditional Chinese politics lies not with the emperor, nor with the common people, but with the bureaucratic group. In the traditional political structure of ruler, minister, and father, the common people cannot restrain the bureaucracy, and while the emperor has great power in legal theory, in practice he lacks the means to restrain the bureaucracy."

Tan Kaixuan was startled and said in surprise, "So you mean the current reforms are also going to be hindered by these bureaucrats?"

Zhao Fusheng nodded: "That's only natural. The current special interest groups have become the most urgent hurdle to bypass and the biggest mountain to remove in the reform process. They are also the unavoidable issues of political system reform and power oversight that the limping reform cannot evade. You see, once the bureaucratic system becomes an indispensable part of the state governance machine, it develops its own independent interests apart from political leaders and the people.

Throughout history, this is almost an iron law, needless to say.

Thus, there is ample reason to view the bureaucratic group as an economic agent that tends to maximize its interests under given conditions. In China, due to the lack of basic checks and balances, the bureaucratic group has become almost the sole means of state governance, with profound and far-reaching influence on society. This tradition has not changed much with modernization. In this way, the bureaucratic group, which monopolizes all governance resources, not only serves as an important initial condition for reform but also as the most dynamic factor in reform, exerting a decisive influence on the country's reform path from start to finish. It is clear that the bureaucratic system has always been the only strong group with collective action capability throughout the reform process, and its attitudes and actions have silently regulated China's reform process."

After this lengthy speech, everyone was dumbfounded. No one expected that a casual remark from Wen Yu could elicit so many reflections from Zhao Fusheng.

But Zhao Fusheng was quite pleased and seemed to feel he still had more to say.

Seeing his expression, Wen Yu laughed: "According to you, then, officials have become the chief culprits harming economic development?"

Zhao Fusheng waved his hand: "Not exactly chief culprits. Throughout the reform process, once officials and businessmen become entangled, three main behavioral motivations inevitably emerge."

"Which three?" Wen Yu asked instinctively.

"Maximization of bureaucrats' personal economic interests, and maximization of political interests to cater to superiors' political demands," Zhao Fusheng said calmly. "And also, maximization of local or departmental fiscal capacity."

Han Meimei frowned slightly and said after a moment, "Isn't that just seeking promotion, getting rich, and grabbing territory?"

Zhao Fusheng laughed and nodded: "The bureaucratic economy replaces the market's foundation of rights with power, and replaces the market's center of citizens and organizations' rights with bureaucratic monopoly power. Then such a market actually becomes a market for competing for power. Do you understand what that means?"

All three shook their heads. Clearly, what Zhao Fusheng said was like a book from heaven to them. They recognized every word, but when combined, it was truly baffling.

Zhao Fusheng didn't mind and simply explained: "That means this market selects the best based on the size of power and the distance from various power centers. As a result, in the domestic market, a competitive pattern emerges: the closer to power, the stronger the competitiveness; the farther, the weaker.

Because the power center is the credit center, the capital center, and the information center.

Power is like a black hole, attracting all kinds of resources to itself. Both traditional state-owned enterprises and new private enterprises have undergone significant changes. They have moved from both ends of the spectrum toward the bureaucracy. The result is the gradual emergence of official-businessmen in the country—officials relying on their power to help and support some enterprises to grow and develop, then reaping economic benefits and political achievements from it."

As he spoke, Zhao Fusheng sneered: "In ten years, you'll find that every time a senior or mid-level cadre falls, a large number of star enterprises will be implicated."

Everyone looked at each other in dismay. They suddenly felt that Zhao Fusheng's words seemed to imply something.