Chapter 769 World Internet Conference
In the back seat of the car, Chen Xianghong sat up straight. His eyes, which had been blurry from drinking, were now clear. Perhaps it was because of the sudden cold sweat that had evaporated all the alcohol. Now he felt that his clothes were soaked.
"You just mentioned the richest man Lu, right? The richest man in Asia, Lu Yiming, right?"
Chen Xianghong leaned forward and grabbed Long Zhan's shoulder through the central armrest.
Long Zhan was afraid that he was driving unsteadily, so he stepped on the brakes and slowed down. Then he said, "Yes, if you are right, then it is indeed him."
"Mr. Lu is here in Wuzhen? What is he doing here?"
Chen Xianghong was puzzled.
People in their circle are very clear about Lu Yiming's deeds. Chen Xianghong knows that Lu Yiming usually invests in high-tech fields, but Wuzhen does not have high-tech, let alone low-tech.
Long Zhan was also shocked and said, "And he specifically asked to see you. Why? Could it be that..."
“Very likely!”
Obviously, both of them realized that this was a great opportunity. After all, in their eyes, Lu Yiming was the richest man in Asia.
As long as he can deal with the richest man Lu, will he still need to act like a grandson everywhere to get a loan of millions for a project in the future?
No way!
"Tomorrow! When Mr. Lu comes tomorrow, I will apologize to him. Oh, this Gong guy misled me. If I had known that Mr. Lu was going to see me today, I would never have gone to the dinner party!"
Chen Xianghong regretted it so much that he slapped his thigh. He risked his life today to get 5 million. If he waited for Mr. Lu at home, maybe Mr. Lu would invest tens of millions if he was happy. That would be nothing!
Judging from the investment scale of Mr. Lu in the past, tens of millions or even hundreds of millions are just the starting point.
Now, look what happens. I have to risk half my life to get five million.
The more Chen Xianghong thought about it, the more he felt he was losing.
Fortunately, Mr. Lu is a reasonable man. If he couldn't contact him today, he would come again tomorrow. If Chen Xianghong had missed Mr. Lu's investment, he would probably not be able to sleep for three days and three nights.
The next day, Chen Xianghong, who had been sweating all over, recovered from his fever and looked radiant. He wore a suit and tie and went to greet Lu Yiming in person early in the morning.
"Mr. Lu, we in Wuzhen have been looking forward to your arrival for a long time."
Lu Yiming joked, "How did Mr. Chen know that I was a distinguished guest? Maybe I was just passing by Wuzhen and came in to take a look on a whim?"
Chen Xianghong is a social expert. He was very familiar with Lu Yiming's answer and was not at all nervous. "Mr. Lu, you are joking. With your current net worth, you are making millions every second. Why would you deliberately come to tease a small person like me? Since you came to Wuzhen and found me on purpose, you must be willing to invest. Am I right?"
Lu Yiming smiled and said: Okay, Mr. Chen is indeed a smart man, so I won’t beat around the bush. I am indeed very interested in investing in Wuzhen. Let me invest this amount first.
After saying that, he stretched out five fingers.
Chen Xianghong exclaimed: "Five million?"
We've met for less than two minutes and you're planning to invest five million right away?
Is this the richest man in Lu?
Chen Xianghong remembered that he drank half a bottle of white wine last night and almost lost half his life before he got five million.
This comparison...
Chen Xianghong wanted to slap his thigh again.
When Lu Yiming heard this, he immediately said with a look of disdain, "What can five million do? At least fifty million should be enough to start with. If you can achieve something with this fifty million, Mr. Chen, I can consider adding more funds later."
"Fifty million!"
Chen Xianghong suddenly couldn't sit still anymore.
He had never seen so much money in his life.
And from what Lu Yiming said, this is just the beginning?
In order to raise funds in the past few years, he has tried every possible method, borrowing millions from the bank each time. As a result, after several years, more than half of the cultural relics buildings on the street that was burned down by the fire have not been repaired.
It can be said that his hair is almost turning white because of worrying about money.
If he had 50 million in his hand now, how much could he do?
Chen Xianghong immediately shook Lu Yiming's hand excitedly: "Mr. Lu, are you really willing to invest 50 million in Wuzhen?"
Lu Yiming was not polite and said directly: "This money is not invested in vain, I want shares."
Lu Yiming doesn't like being treated as a nice guy, and it's more reliable to talk business as usual.
Facing a financial sponsor like Lu Yiming, Chen Xianghong certainly would not refuse such a request, and immediately said: "Don't worry about the issue of shares, I will have a good talk with the higher-ups! I will definitely give you a satisfactory answer when the time comes!"
Wuzhen was not impoverished at that time, but it could be said that it was unloved. It should be secretly happy if someone came to invest, and naturally would not reject the olive branch extended by Lu Yiming, the richest man in Asia.
Ma Jieke and Li Yiwen were puzzled and wondered if Lu Yiming had too much money and didn't know where to spend it.
They met for less than two minutes, talked for less than three sentences, and with a wave of his hand, 50 million was spent just like that?
Even if you have money, you can't be so willful, right?
Even though Chen Xianghong was right beside him, Li Yiwen didn't care and said directly to Lu Yiming: "How can you be sure that he can develop Wuzhen? This place is so rundown, there is no hope for economic development, right? Are you planning to tear down the whole area and rebuild it?"
Although Wuzhen is close to Hangzhou, it has no resources and no location advantages, so it is not worth investing in no matter how you look at it.
Hearing Li Yiwen's words, Chen Xianghong couldn't help but argue: "There are so many ancient buildings here, how can we tear them down and rebuild them? We must protect all these things. Moreover, I am very confident that we can make this place a place that everyone yearns for."
Li Yiwen was about to start mocking him when Lu Yiming said, "This place is a good place to develop tourism. These ancient buildings are natural treasures. You can't buy them with money anywhere else."
Chen Xianghong complimented, "Mr. Lu is indeed very insightful. He found the key to the problem right away."
Lu Yiming smiled and said to Li Yiwen, "Besides, didn't I just say that? We should try to make this conference an organization, and find a time every year to hold a meeting to exchange ideas and information. We can also give it a name, for example, call it the 'World Internet Conference'. This name is cool and domineering, and it will definitely be awesome."
Li Yiwen thought Lu Yiming was talking nonsense. How could a group of dilapidated ancient buildings in front of him give Lu Yiming the illusion that they were connected to the Internet? Not to mention whether there was Internet in Wuzhen, Li Yiwen even doubted whether there was electricity here.
If there weren't some houses still standing, Li Yiwen would have thought that this place was a ruin.
"Why do I feel like you're kidding me?"
Lu Yiming patted Li Yiwen on the shoulder and said, "Don't just look at the surface when you look at a problem. I am still very confident in Mr. Chen's ability. Just wait and see how Mr. Chen will operate after he gets the money."
Chen Xianghong said confidently: "Mr. Lu, don't worry, I will definitely give you a satisfactory answer."
After getting the money from Lu Yiming, Chen Xianghong was full of confidence. With such a sum of money and Lu Yiming's subsequent investment commitment, he could finally do something big.
If one wants to completely transform Wuzhen, the first difficulty is naturally to communicate with the local residents.
Although this place is rather dilapidated, many people have lived here for generations. If we want to transform it, we must of course communicate with them.
The next morning, Chen Xianghong walked into a house carrying two bottles of rice wine.
"Mr. Song San, I'm here to see you. Have you eaten?"
Uncle Song Sanye is a five-guarantee household. He is over 50 years old and has not married or had any children. He has no job to make a living. If his ancestors had not left him such a house, he would not even have a place to shelter from the wind and rain.
In the past, Chen Xianghong had dealt with Mr. Song Sanye a lot, and now he is quite familiar with him.
The room was very dark, with plastic film and newspapers pasted everywhere. A piece of colored wire was pulled directly from the electric pole at the door and hung on the beam. The orange-yellow light was very weak, and even in the daytime, turning on the light had little lighting effect.
In the corner on the right side of the house is a stove, where Mr. Song San usually cooks. Because there is no ventilation here, the house is filled with mist every time he cooks. Over time, the originally white transparent plastic film turns yellow and black, making the house even darker.
"I was wondering who it was. Xiao Chen is here? I was just about to eat. Have you eaten yet?"
Mr. Song brought out two chipped enamel bowls. One bowl contained a bowl of smoked pickled mustard greens, garnished with chopped chili peppers and fermented black beans. The other bowl contained half a bowl of white porridge. This was Mr. Song's lunch today.
Chen Xianghong took a look and quickly said with a smile: "I have eaten. I just happened to bring you two bottles of wine. I know you usually like this. This pickled mustard greens is a good dish to go with wine."
Mr. Song grinned, revealing his big yellow teeth. Then, without any hesitation, he took out a bottle of wine, unscrewed the lid, took out two mottled enamel teacups with red five-pointed stars painted on them, poured some wine in them, and said, "Let's have two cups."
After taking a sip of the good wine, Mr. Song San only felt comfortable all over. Smacking his lips, he asked, "You are free to come here today and bring me two bottles of wine. What's the matter?"
Chen Xianghong said bluntly: "It's like this, I plan to carry out a comprehensive renovation of Wuzhen. Now I have two options. The first option is that you can get a sum of money from me, and then transfer the right to use the house to me, and the property rights will be transferred to me in the future. The other option is that during the renovation period, you can move out for a period of time and come back after the town is renovated. If you want to come back and become a merchant, you can make your money, and I will pay you a monthly salary. See which one you are interested in."
It has to be said that as expected of a person who comes from the tourism industry, Chen Xianghong knows very well how to develop the tourism economy of a place. The final result also proves that he is a capable person and he has successfully created the most profitable ancient town in the country - Wuzhen.
How awesome is this job?
Those who come later simply won’t be able to learn it!
For example, Mr. Wang of Wanda invested tens of billions of yuan to build several Wanda town projects. After all the hard work, he only managed to revitalize the Wanda town in Danzhai, Guizhou, while the others were all lost.
Look, even real estate tycoons have such a hard time developing small town cultural tourism, so it is even more foolish for outsiders to rush in without hesitation. For example, Li Yapeng spent 3.5 billion to build the Lijiang Snow Mountain Art Town.
They invited Japanese designer Kengo Kuma to design the villa, and transported landscape trees from Beijing. The transportation of the trees alone cost 15,000 yuan per truck. It was a big move, but in the end they suffered such a huge loss that they had to kneel down for 40 million yuan.
So in comparison, the one who understands the ancient town best is Chen Xianghong.
You know, among all the ancient towns, Wuzhen has the best economic benefits, receiving more than 10 million tourists every year, so much so that it has become a famous tourist attraction for internet celebrities to check in. Its annual revenue easily exceeds 10 billion yuan, which is hard to deny.
Let’s get back to the topic.
Chen Xianghong came up with two plans, and with Lu Yiming's financial support behind the scenes, the negotiations with the residents went very smoothly.
After dealing with these natives, Chen Xianghong took Lu Yiming and Li Yiwen to the industrial area of Wuzhen.
He pointed to one of the factories and said to Lu Yiming, "Boss Lu, I will spend part of your money on the renovation of these buildings. I plan to demolish seven factories alone, and I also plan to demolish all the houses that don't match the style of the ancient town."
Li Yiwen was a little surprised and said, "Tear it all down? Why? This is a huge expense."
Now Li Yiwen has become an investor in the town, so Chen Xianghong said to him very politely: "It has to be demolished. This is also for the sake of unifying the style of the town's scenic area."
Li Yiwen said puzzledly: "There is no need to carry out such a large project."
In his opinion, tourism is a cultural matter, such as saying that this is the former residence of someone, and then doing some cultural tourism promotion, that's it. After all, other tourist attractions do this.
As a result, Chen Xianghong directly demolished all the factories and even residential houses within the scenic area just to unify the style?
This is not treating money as money!
Chen Xianghong looked at Lu Yiming, but Lu Yiming said without hesitation: "Mr. Chen, just go ahead and do it. I won't interfere with any of your decisions."
Facts have proven that Chen Xianghong is capable of doing this well, and he did it under the circumstances of dancing with shackles. Lu Yiming believes that with his financial support, Chen Xianghong will definitely be able to do better than before. Therefore, there is no need to interfere at all, just wait for the dividends in the future.
Chen Xianghong didn't know what Lu Yiming was thinking, but he was very touched by Lu Yiming's unconditional trust.
Huihuang Textile Factory is an old factory in Wuzhen. It has existed since the founding of the People's Republic of China and is still one of the town's pillar enterprises.
Although the factory's performance is very poor now and it often has to rely on bank loans to survive, after all, it concerns the jobs of hundreds of families, so the town has not made up its mind to close the factory.
However, today, there is a different atmosphere in the factory. Although the workers are doing their own work, they are obviously absent-minded.
More workers gathered at the factory gate, looking at the notice, angry and helpless.
"The factory is going to be closed? Why should our factory be closed?"
"What are we going to do after the factory closes? Are we going to starve?"
"That's right. Who said they wanted to close the factory? They don't care about our lives."
Although the factory's performance is not good, these workers feel that it has nothing to do with them. They come here to work and make money, and if the factory closes down, it would be a disservice to them.
Thinking about being laid off, they feel a little panic in their hearts. There are old and young people at home, if they are laid off, what will this big family do?
"Let's go find Director Pan and ask him about this."
"Yes, go find Director Pan."
A group of people came to the office of the factory director Pan Huihuang in a noisy manner soon.
"Director Pan, what's going on? Why is the factory shutting down for no reason?"
“Where are we going if the factory closes?”
They are all in their 40s and 50s. They definitely don't want to learn anything from scratch, but no company will hire them if they don't learn new things at this age.
Pan Huihuang had already been annoyed by a group of people this morning. Now, looking at the group of emotional workers in front of him, he had no choice but to reiterate again: "This is a decision made by the town, not by me."
"No one has the right to decide to shut down our factory."
"That's right, the factory is closed, how are we going to make a living in the future?"
"I have worked in the factory for more than ten years. Do you think I will have to go and fight with the northwest wind in the future? I won't agree!"
"We don't agree to that either!"
Under pressure, the factory director had to tell the truth, saying: "The decision was actually made by Chen Xianghong. He plans to build a first-class tourism industry in Wuzhen."
When these people heard that it was Chen Xianghong's idea, they were immediately furious.
“So it’s this guy?”
"This guy came to my house a few days ago and asked me if I wanted to sell the old house. I saw his shifty look and I didn't agree to his request. This guy is really up to no good!"
"Who said it wasn't? Alas, you can never know a person's heart by his appearance. I originally thought he was a reliable person. He paid for the house and delivered the goods. I didn't expect that this guy was not satisfied with our house and wanted our factory. We don't even have a place to live, and now we don't even have a place to work. Does he want us to starve?"
"Damn it, do you really think that honest people are easy to bully? Come on, who will come with me to ask him for an explanation?"
"I."
"I'll go."
"I'm going too."
Someone raised his arm and called for action, and immediately many people responded.
Suddenly, a group of people rushed out of the industrial zone and walked towards Chen Xianghong's office in a menacing manner.
