Wen Leyu: "You Don't Understand Anything!"

"We discussed this with your grandfather preliminarily. We'll proceed in two parts. One part will continue with your current operating model, Li Ye, since you've already proven that model's success.

"The other part is for you to put up some money and form a joint venture with a state-owned enterprise, establishing a subordinate company focused on investment. Then it can invest in and hold controlling stakes in manufacturing industries both domestically and abroad. That also happens to coincide with the 'binding yourself to the nation's destiny' you mentioned."

Now that Li Ye had opened the subject, Teacher Ke and Wen Qingsheng laid everything out and explained it to him. Yet it sounded rather like the approach Li Ye had used when investing in Changbei Machinery Factory and Factory 506.

But Li Ye knew it had to be different. Otherwise, there would have been no need for Teacher Ke and her husband to come together.

So Li Ye tested the waters. "Then who would I be forming this joint venture with? COFCO?"

COFCO had overseas operations as well. Forming a joint venture to test the waters while expanding would have worked too.

But Wen Qingsheng shook his head. "Originally, after you graduated, I planned to recruit you into COFCO. Once you had risen a few ranks, I would arrange a suitable placement for you elsewhere."

"But with this joint venture, you won't be able to transfer away for the next ten or twenty years. We'd be in the same organization. We need to avoid suspicions."

"..."

Li Ye pursed his lips and nodded slowly, showing that he understood Wen Qingsheng's "cultivation."

Rising a few ranks at COFCO before being sent elsewhere at the department-level was a shortcut. At the end of that shortcut lay positions many people could never even touch