Chapter Summaries

Dong Xuebin and the Meihe City officials welcomed a foreign investment delegation, but struggled to communicate with its members while waiting for their leader. When the delegation leader arrived, Dong Xuebin recognized her and froze.

• Dong Xuebin reassured Zhenshui County's staff that their booth would not be canceled as the foreign investors arrived.
• Hua Li and Lu Weiguo welcomed the delegation, and the provincial female leader introduced several investors and their companies.
• An overseas Chinese investor said the delegation's leader would introduce the remaining members, while local officials struggled to communicate with the visitors in English.
• The provincial female leader announced that the delegation leader had arrived, and Dong Xuebin froze when he saw the mature woman step out of the car.

Zhang Longjuan introduced a delegation of wealthy foreign investors to Meihe City and said they would inspect the area on their own. The chapter ended with her revealing that Dong Xuebin was the friend who had invited her, surprising the officials around him.

• Zhang Longjuan arrived and took over introducing the foreign investors after the provincial leader left.
• Zhang Longjuan introduced the delegation’s shareholders and investment consultants, then offered to help with their inspection and possible investment.
• Dong Xuebin declined Zheng Dayou’s suggestion to approach the investors, and Zhenshui County’s officials stayed back.
• Zhang Longjuan told Hua Li and Lu Weiguo that she had come at a friend’s invitation and wanted to inspect independently.
• Zhang Longjuan spotted Dong Xuebin, walked over, and greeted him with a hug as the other officials stared.

Dong Xuebin was surprised when Zhang Longjuan arrived at the investment conference with a large delegation of foreign investors, giving Zhenshui County an unexpected advantage. He refused Hua Li and Lu Weiguo’s request to have city officials accompany the investors on their inspection.

• Zhang Longjuan greeted Dong Xuebin with a familiar hug and introduced him to the investors she had brought.
• The other conference attendees realized the investors had come for Zhenshui County, though many doubted the county could hold on to them.
• Hua Li and Lu Weiguo softened their attitude toward Dong Xuebin and praised his invitation after seeing Zhang Longjuan’s group.
• Lu Weiguo asked Dong Xuebin to persuade the investors to let Municipal Investment officials accompany their inspection.
• Dong Xuebin said he would not press Zhang Longjuan and insisted the city should respect the investors’ wishes.

Dong Xuebin secured Meng Rui and County Chief Jiang’s full support to keep Zhang Longjuan’s foreign investor delegation in Zhenshui County. He arranged their lodging and lunch, leaving his colleagues to continue courting domestic investors as the delegation prepared to rest before inspections the next day.

• Dong Xuebin told Meng Rui that Zhang Longjuan’s delegation had arrived, and Meng Rui put him in charge of keeping the investors for Zhenshui County.
• Zhang Longjuan asked to eat and rest before discussing inspections, and Dong Xuebin offered six Presidential Suites for the delegation.
• Dong Xuebin told Zheng Dayou and Chen Yunsong to keep pursuing domestic investors while he accompanied Zhang Longjuan’s group to lunch.
• Zheng Dayou realized Dong Xuebin had arranged the delegation long before the Investment Conference and had used his confidence to secure authority and funding.

After details confirmed the foreign delegation’s enormous wealth, Meihe City’s officials eagerly courted the investors. At a banquet, Dong Xuebin rebuffed county and district directors who wanted his help steering the delegation their way, leaving their inspection plans undecided.

• Information confirmed that Zhang Longjuan’s company held more than ten billion yuan in assets and that most members of the delegation represented major overseas conglomerates.
• At the banquet, Zhang Longjuan invited Dong Xuebin to sit at the main table, but he chose the second table with the county and district Investment Bureau directors.
• Ma Yanfen and other directors questioned Dong Xuebin about the delegation’s schedule and asked him to arrange visits to their jurisdictions.
• Dong Xuebin said the investors would decide their own route and repeatedly refused to promise any introductions.
• Remembering how the city and neighboring bureaus had previously treated Zhenshui County, Dong Xuebin ignored their overtures and focused on eating.

Dong Xuebin arranged lodging and meals for the foreign investors, then left the banquet to bring food to Chang Juan and Gong Na. He assigned his staff preparations for the Investment Conference before heading downstairs, where the city officials learned he had taken the investors’ signature dishes.

• Dong Xuebin learned that six Presidential Suites could not accommodate all thirteen investors, and Zhang Longjuan offered her suite so the extra guest could stay there while she took a business room.
• Dong Xuebin stopped waiters carrying dishes from entering the banquet hall and took the food upstairs for Chang Juan and Gong Na.
• Dong Xuebin told Chang Juan to coordinate preparations in Zhenshui County and instructed Gong Na to return to the conference venue and have Zheng Dayou oversee matters back home.
• Dong Xuebin assigned Chang Juan responsibility for the Investment Conference after his departure and urged the staff to secure real investments, not just inspections.
• After Dong Xuebin left, Hua Li learned that Dong had taken the Soft Fried Shrimp and Squirrel Fish, leaving the banquet guests astonished and Zhang Longjuan amused.

Dong Xuebin oversaw arrangements for Zhang Longjuan and the foreign investors in Meihe City, then met Zhang in her hotel room after Municipal Investment staff escorted her upstairs without informing him. Zhang rested on the sofa and flirted with Dong, leaving him flustered.

• Dong Xuebin arranged the investors' luggage and coordinated details for their stay while they finished lunch with the city leaders.
• Xu Yan called Dong Xuebin, teased him about Zhang Longjuan's visit, and declined his invitation to visit Zhenshui County because she had work to do.
• Lu Weiguo and Municipal Investment staff escorted Zhang Longjuan to her room without notifying Dong Xuebin, who suspected they wanted to cultivate ties with the investors on their own.
• Dong Xuebin followed Zhang Longjuan into her room and offered to find her a better place to stay, but she said the executive room was comfortable enough.
• Zhang Longjuan teased Dong Xuebin, drew him onto the sofa beside her, and trapped him between her legs as he grew flustered.

Dong Xuebin spoke privately with Zhang Longjuan after she brought foreign investors to support his city’s investment drive. They agreed to visit his county the next morning, and Zhang Longjuan ended their conversation with a kiss before going to sleep.

• Zhang Longjuan explained that she had brought investors to help Dong Xuebin, though she could only guarantee her own investments and had persuaded some of the others to come.
• Dong Xuebin thanked Zhang Longjuan, and she teased him while he lit her a cigarette.
• Dong Xuebin and Zhang Longjuan arranged for the group to leave for his county at eight the next morning.
• Zhang Longjuan joked about undressing and sleeping with Dong Xuebin, then said she needed to rest.
• Zhang Longjuan pulled Dong Xuebin close, kissed him, and sent him away as she went to sleep.

Dong Xuebin prepared to take the foreign investors to Zhenshui County the next morning, but Lu Weiguo tried to make him postpone their visit so the city and other districts could receive them first. Dong refused, defending Zhenshui County’s right to a fair chance to secure investment.

• Meng Rui called Dong Xuebin to confirm the investors’ schedule and urged him to bring every investor to Zhenshui County.
• Dong Xuebin alerted Chang Juan, Chen Yunsong, and the others to watch for attempts to contact the investors privately.
• Lu Weiguo summoned Dong and asked him to delay the Zhenshui County visit so the investors could first attend the conference and tour the city.
• Dong said Zhang Longjuan had already arranged the visit and argued that changing plans would damage the county’s credibility.
• Dong confronted Lu over Zhenshui County’s repeated mistreatment and declared that he would take the delegation to the county the next morning regardless.

Dong Xuebin prepared his Zhenshui County team to take the foreign investors to their county despite the city's efforts to keep them. At a Municipal Investment Bureau banquet, he realized Lu Weiguo’s sudden friendliness and a succession of toasts were likely meant to get him drunk and disrupt the next day's plans.

• Dong Xuebin told Chang Juan, Chen Yunsong, and Gong Na to arrange vehicles and take the foreign investors to Zhenshui County the next morning, while warning them to watch for underhanded tactics.
• At the banquet, Dong Xuebin refused Lu Weiguo’s invitation to sit with the officials and chose a nearly empty table with his colleagues.
• Lu Weiguo praised Zhenshui County’s work and announced there would be no drinking restrictions at the banquet.
• Lu Weiguo toasted Dong Xuebin, who reluctantly finished a glass of strong liquor, and Chen Mingming then stood to offer another drink.
• Dong Xuebin suspected Lu Weiguo and the others were trying to get him drunk so they could keep the foreign investors in the city the next day.

At a dinner for city officials and investors, officials from other districts tried to get Dong Xuebin drunk so he could not lead the investors to inspect Zhenshui County. Dong Xuebin pretended to struggle through their toasts while secretly welcoming the chance to teach them a lesson.

• Chen Mingming pressured Dong Xuebin to drink, and Chen Yunsong took his first glass for him.
• Ma Yanfen came to toast Dong Xuebin, and the Zhenshui County group realized officials were trying to derail their investors’ visit.
• Dong Xuebin stopped Chang Juan, Gong Na, and Chen Yunsong from taking further drinks and accepted Ma Yanfen’s toast himself.
• Chen Mingming and Lu Weiguo urged Dong Xuebin to drink again, and he laboriously finished another glass while pretending to be drunk.
• Dong Xuebin privately revealed that he was amused by the drinking challenge and intended to teach the officials a lesson.

Dong Xuebin appeared dangerously drunk at the banquet, but he kept demanding that the Municipal Investment Bureau and county officials drink with him. He left most of the guests collapsed, though he was still standing and pushing the banquet onward.

• Chang Juan and Gong Na tried to take Dong Xuebin away, but he refused and demanded that everyone drink a full glass together.
• Lu Weiguo and the other guests drank with Dong Xuebin, and more than a dozen people, including Chen Mingming, collapsed or went to vomit.
• Dong Xuebin remained standing and challenged the Municipal Investment Bureau cadres to drink another glass, leaving most of them unable to continue.
• Dong Xuebin fell but climbed back up, then pressured Ma Yanfen and the Yangli County staff to drink with him.
• Ma Yanfen and the remaining Yangli County staff collapsed after drinking, while Dong Xuebin continued to insist that the banquet go on.

At a chaotic banquet, Dong Xuebin kept drinking despite his colleagues’ attempts to stop him, accepting Lu Weiguo’s challenge to face the remaining guests one by one. He brought down two more drinkers but appeared close to collapsing himself as the contest continued.

• Thirty of the fifty banquet guests passed out, while Dong Xuebin staggered after drinking more than three pounds of liquor.
• Chang Juan, Gong Na, and Chen Yunsong tried to stop Dong Xuebin, but he insisted on toasting the twenty guests still standing.
• Lu Weiguo accepted Dong Xuebin’s challenge and had the remaining guests drink with him one at a time, ordering more liquor for the banquet hall.
• Lao Liu drank against Dong Xuebin twice, then passed out and was carried away.
• A young clerk started drinking with Dong Xuebin but choked after two sips and collapsed, while Dong Xuebin stopped at the same amount and called for the next challenger.

Dong Xuebin outlasted Lu Weiguo’s drinking relay despite appearing on the verge of collapse, leaving the room full of fallen cadres. Lu Weiguo realized Dong Xuebin had drunk eleven jin of baijiu.

• Dong Xuebin kept drinking as the cadres on Lu Weiguo’s side collapsed one by one, while Chang Juan and the others urged him to stop.
• When Dong Xuebin said he could drink no more, Lu Weiguo and his cadres provoked him into continuing the relay.
• Dong Xuebin agreed to drink eight cups while each remaining opponent drank one, then downed his cups as the others fell.
• Dong Xuebin clinked cups with Lu Weiguo, who took a sip, choked, vomited, and collapsed.
• Before losing consciousness, Lu Weiguo realized Dong Xuebin had drunk eleven jin of baijiu.

Dong Xuebin outdrank Lu Weiguo and more than fifty officials, then revealed that he had never been drunk and had played along with their attempt to get him under the table. He left the hotel with Chang Juan and the others, while the defeated drinkers were left for the hotel staff to care for.

• Dong Xuebin drank eleven bottles of strong Baijiu and outlasted Lu Weiguo and everyone else in the Small Banquet Hall.
• Chang Juan, Gong Na, and Chen Yunsong worried that Dong Xuebin needed medical attention, but he stood steadily and refused an ambulance.
• Dong Xuebin instructed the hotel staff to take the other officials to their rooms and let them sleep, then left with Chang Juan and his colleagues.
• Chang Juan realized Dong Xuebin had never been drunk and had knowingly joined the drinking contest to foil Lu Weiguo's plan.
• Dong Xuebin told Chen Yunsong and Gong Na that he had previously drunk more than eight jin of liquor and could handle any number of opponents.

Dong Xuebin seized an opportunity when investors’ scheduled county visits fell through and persuaded more than fifty domestic investors to visit Zhenshui County. He hurried to secure enough vehicles before the other investment teams woke or city leaders arrived.

• Investors complained to Dong Xuebin that the investment promotion staff they had arranged to meet were missing and unreachable.
• Dong Xuebin invited the waiting investors to inspect Zhenshui County, and most agreed to go.
• Dong Xuebin told Chang Juan, Chen Yunsong, and Gong Na that he had brought in more than fifty investors and ordered them to prepare vehicles immediately.
• Chen Yunsong said they could rent more vehicles, though the urgent booking might cost double.
• Dong Xuebin handed Chen Yunsong fifty thousand yuan and urged him to get the investors to Zhenshui County before the absent staff woke or city leaders arrived.

Dong Xuebin gathered more than seventy domestic investors and a dozen foreign investors to travel to Zhenshui County, leaving his colleagues to manage the fallout at the Investment Conference. As the buses headed out, he told Yao Cui to prepare the county to receive a delegation of roughly one hundred people.

• Dong Xuebin and Chang Juan recruited investors at the hotel until three buses carried more than seventy domestic investors toward Zhenshui County.
• Dong Xuebin sent Gong Na with the buses and told her to avoid Shuangjiang Road so the city could not intercept them.
• Dong Xuebin arranged for Zhang Longjuan and more than a dozen foreign investors to leave early, then drove ahead of their bus.
• Dong Xuebin left Chang Juan and Chen Yunsong at the Investment Conference and called Yao Cui to report that roughly one hundred investors were on their way to the county.

Deputy Mayor Hua Li discovered that Lu Weiguo and the other Investment Bureau officials were too hungover to manage the visiting investors, while Dong Xuebin had taken the investors to Zhenshui County. The officials learned that their failed attempt to get Dong drunk had left them the laughingstock of the city.

• Hua Li arrived at the hotel and found that Lu Weiguo, the other Investment Bureau officials, and the investors could not be reached or found.
• Lu Weiguo and several officials came downstairs drunk and vomiting, and Hua Li ordered them to contact and apologize to the investors.
• A hotel employee told Hua Li and Lu Weiguo that Dong Xuebin had taken nearly a hundred investors to Zhenshui County about twenty minutes earlier.
• The officials discovered that only a little over twenty investors remained at the hotel.
• News spread that Dong Xuebin had outdrunk more than fifty officials, consumed eleven jin of liquor, and taken the other counties' investors, making Lu Weiguo and his colleagues citywide laughingstocks.

Dong Xuebin led the domestic and foreign investors toward Zhenshui County after other counties' investment officials failed to meet them. When Vice Mayor Hua Li ordered him to turn back, Dong Xuebin defended his decision and refused, leaving the investors on their way to the county.

• Dong Xuebin joined Gong Na's convoy with Zhang Longjuan and the foreign investors' bus, then led the four buses toward Zhenshui County.
• Hua Li called Dong Xuebin and ordered him to bring all the investors back to the city.
• Dong Xuebin explained that the other counties' investment officials had left the investors unattended and that he had taken them to Zhenshui County to prevent them from leaving.
• Hua Li blamed Dong Xuebin for getting Lu Weiguo and the other officials drunk, but Dong Xuebin argued that they had insisted on drinking with him.
• Dong Xuebin questioned Hua Li's judgment, refused to obey the order to turn back, and ended the call.

Dong Xuebin brought nearly a hundred investors back to Zhenshui County after taking them from the City Investment Conference. Meng Rui and Jiang Fangfang decided to keep the investors and put Dong in charge of securing their investments, while they handled pressure from the city.

• Dong Xuebin drove the investors into Zhenshui County and was greeted by Meng Rui, Jiang Fangfang, and county officials.
• Meng Rui and Jiang Fangfang welcomed Zhang Longjuan and the other investors before calling an emergency meeting aboard the tour bus.
• Dong Xuebin defended bringing the investors to the county and said he would take responsibility for his actions.
• Jiang Fangfang and several committee members backed keeping the investors rather than sending them back.
• Meng Rui decided to retain the investors, assigned Dong Xuebin full responsibility for their inspections, and promised that he and Jiang Fangfang would handle pressure from the city.