Investment

Qin An's arrival naturally turned Qin Jude and Qin Xiangshan's conversation to him...

"I started teaching this child Tang poetry when he was two and a half. By five, he could recite the entire Caigentan from memory, and he memorized plenty of Song lyrics and Yuan verse too. Unfortunately, there wasn't time to study the writings of Confucius..." When Qin Jude was born, the Qing dynasty had not yet fallen. Qin An's great-grandfather had been a scholar who passed the county examinations in the late Qing, a well-known man of learning in Qingshan Town. He had taught Qin Jude in the traditional scholarly fashion. Qin Jude had never had the chance to educate the brothers Qin Huai and Qin Youliang that way, but he had put those methods to use on Qin An...

"Ah, the educational environment really is better here. Xiaotian has always done poorly in Chinese. Never mind reciting the Caigentan-he can't even read the family genealogy fluently..." The thought of Qin Xiaotian gave Qin Xiangshan a headache. Born and raised in Taiwan, Qin Xiaotian spent most of his time outside gaming reading all sorts of comics, and had no interest whatsoever in studying...

"How will that do?" Qin Jude reached back to smooth his silvery hair and sat upright in his recliner. "If Huaide were still alive, wouldn't that infuriate him?"

"Yes, Xiaotian's grandfather passed away too early. If he'd been around to discipline him, things wouldn't have come to this..." Qin Xiangshan sighed. Unwilling to talk more about his son, he asked Qin An, "How are your grades at school?"

"Only my English is passable..." Qin An answered honestly...

"Oh?" Qin Xiangshan grew interested. "Then let me test you..."

Qin Xiangshan ran a fairly sizable company in Taiwan and had regular trading partners in the United States. His English was quite good too, so he began a simple conversation with Qin An in English...

This level of difficulty posed no problem at all for Qin An. By the end, Qin Xiangshan even noticed that Qin An's pronunciation sounded rather like the "Oxford accent" An Shui habitually used...

"Good... very good... With English at this level, if you want a part-time job in college, you can certainly come help at your second uncle's company!" Qin Xiangshan was pleasantly surprised. He had not expected someone so talented back in his hometown. "I've opened a branch in Shenzhen, and we have more work than we can handle. Unfortunately, you're too young. Your ability to communicate in English is much better than that of the college graduates I've hired... They come with English proficiency certificates and TOEFL score reports and the like, but they can't even speak fluently..."

"Then could I do some part-time work at your company during the holidays, Second Uncle?" Qin An took the opportunity to ask...

"Of course you can. At your level, you could even teach them spoken English..." Part-time work was common among students in Taiwan, so Qin Xiangshan saw nothing inappropriate about it...

"Your studies come first. There's no hurry to get a job..." Qin Jude did not consider this a good thing. Students should concentrate on studying. How much could he possibly earn working now?

Qin An and Qin Xiangshan exchanged a knowing glance and wisely chose not to argue with Qin Jude on the subject...

As they spoke, a group arrived at the courtyard gate, led by the village chief. He knocked on the gate and said with a cheerful smile, "Mr. Qin, you're home! Have you got an honored guest? Secretary Tang and the town leaders have come to see you..."

Qin Jude and Qin Xiangshan stood, looking at the village chief's party with some surprise. "How could we trouble you all to come in person?"

Qin An glanced over. The first to approach was a young man who looked not quite thirty: Secretary Tang, Qingshan Town's top official. In Qin An's memory, Secretary Tang had a bright future and later rose rapidly through the ranks, though he did not know what position he had ultimately reached. In the past, he had simply thought Secretary Tang attracted a great deal of attention and support from the townspeople and was a capable man. Thinking about it now, he was most likely the son of an official, sent down to the grassroots to build his résumé...

Accompanying Secretary Tang were town police station chief Wu Huade; Qin An's eldest maternal uncle, Li Linjian, director of the town government office; and various officials of different ranks whose names Qin An did not know. With everyone clustered around Secretary Tang, they filled the fairly spacious courtyard...

Qin An dutifully carried out benches for the leaders to sit on. His uncle Li Linjian quietly pulled him aside. "Did you know that second uncle of yours came from Taiwan?"

"Yes..." Qin An looked at his uncle. Li Linjian was only in his early forties then, but half his scalp was already bald, and he had put on weight. He looked more like an official than Secretary Tang, who was over a decade younger. Unfortunately, in Qin An's memory, his uncle's official career had never taken him beyond Qinshan Town...

After carrying out the benches, Qin An brewed tea, bustling back and forth. He had never intended to wait on these petty officials, but he could hardly let his grandfather and second uncle do the work, so he had to fulfill his duties as the young host...

"What a hardworking boy. Is he your son, Mr. Qin?" Secretary Tang asked, somewhat uncertainly...

"Ha ha, he's my nephew, but he's as close to me as a son..." Qin Xiangshan liked Qin An very much and certainly did not mind raising his standing in front of outsiders. He knew perfectly well why these people had come...

Qin Xiangshan had invested in a company in Shenzhen. At an investment promotion event, he had met the deputy Party secretary responsible for attracting investment to Fengyu County. After learning that Qin Xiangshan was originally from Qingshan Town in Fengyu County, the deputy secretary had used their shared hometown connections to get close to him. Qin Xiangshan had also expressed an interest in investing in his hometown. Secretary Tang had evidently heard about it from this deputy county Party secretary and had come to meet him under the pretext of visiting Qin Jude...

Secretary Tang chatted with Qin Jude for a while. After the chairman of the senior citizens' association presented Qin Jude with a "Centenarian" silk banner, Secretary Tang shifted the focus of the conversation to Qin Jude's purpose in returning home this time...

Qin Xiangshan did not beat around the bush. "My father was a Qingshan Town native, and I was born and raised here too. One's feelings for one's hometown always run deepest... After so many years in Taiwan, I'm well aware of how far Qingshan Town lags behind the mainland's coastal areas and Taiwan. I'd like to make a contribution to my hometown too... My main purpose in coming back this time is to invest in a machinery factory and help develop local manufacturing. Qinshan Town has an abundant labor supply, is close to the railway, and has two national highways running through it. The investment environment is quite good... It's just that..."

"If there are any difficulties, please speak freely, Mr. Qin. Creating the best possible investment environment for investors is the responsibility of our town Party committee and government..." Secretary Tang was clearly very eager. Taiwanese businessmen were a major source of investment these days, and economic development was the focus of government work. If he wanted achievements to his name that would lay the groundwork for promotion, he could not let an investor like Qin Xiangshan slip away...

"Secretary Tang, you aren't a Qingshan Town local, are you? I'm from here, and I know how tough the people are. What worries me most is that once the machinery factory opens, people will come demanding handouts under all sorts of pretexts. A friend of mine went back to invest in his hometown recently, and people demanding protection money actually forced him to abandon his half-built factory..." Qin Xiangshan genuinely wanted to help develop his hometown's economy. But Qingshan Town was close to Xiangxi, a notorious bandit haven where campaigns to eradicate bandits had continued for more than twenty years after Liberation. The bandits were gone, but the people remained fiercely tough. Qingshan Town had picked up those habits from its neighbor, and among the local villagers, might always made right... If Qin Xiangshan opened a machinery factory, people would certainly come demanding protection money. He had no desire to pay it...

Secretary Tang said solemnly, "I can guarantee that if anything like that happens, the town government will take full responsibility and ensure that investors' lawful interests are not harmed..."

"With that assurance from you, Secretary Tang, I can put my mind at ease... I wonder, Secretary Tang, do you know a man named Zhu Hongzhi?" Those were precisely the words Qin Xiangshan had been waiting for...

"Zhu Hongzhi?" Secretary Tang turned toward Wu Huade, the police station chief beside him. Qin Xiangshan's mention of that name at this moment clearly carried some significance...

Wu Huade froze briefly before saying, "Zhu Hongzhi... I think I've heard of someone by that name. I'm not quite sure what he does..."

"Zhu Hongzhi? I know him... He's the head of the local thugs in Qingshan Town. Anyone opening a shop, restaurant, or anything like that has to pay him a fee for operating there. If they don't, Zhu Hongzhi sends people to cause trouble every few days until they can't stay in business..." Knowing Wu Huade was playing dumb, Qin An chuckled and revealed who Zhu Hongzhi was...

"This Zhu Hongzhi is quite something... He even seems to have connections at the county level. Otherwise, how would he have known I was here to invest? He came to see me yesterday afternoon and said that if I wanted to make money in Qingshan Town, I had to work with him. I thought he wanted to set up the machinery factory with me, but from what Qin An says, that doesn't seem to be the case?" Qin Xiangshan glanced at Wu Huade, then at Secretary Tang, and lowered his head as though reconsidering the investment. When he turned, however, he winked at Qin An. Qin An's words had come at exactly the right moment. From now on, there would be no need to worry about Zhu Hongzhi...