Chapter 192: A Newborn Calf Is Not Afraid Of Tigers
Qin Hengzhi made a gesture to her.
It meant seven.
Lu Qiaoge instantly understood, meaning a date at seven o’clock tonight.
He must have something to do, otherwise he would have taken her to a restaurant.
Lu Qiaoge nodded to him.
The smile in Qin Hengzhi’s eyes flashed and vanished.
This subtle interaction amid the crowd stirred a ripple in his heart.
The feeling of mutual understanding was truly wonderful.
Unfortunately, Lu Qiaoge couldn’t make the date at seven o’clock that evening.
She was informed by Old Hu while at work in the afternoon that the application had been approved and the Trade Group established.
Lu Qiaoge wasn’t surprised, but she hadn’t expected it to happen so quickly.
What she didn’t know was that this report wasn’t a small splash; in today’s era of nationwide mobilization to earn foreign exchange, there were actually many suggestions, and quite a few had already been put into action with results.
But a suggestion like this was the first of its kind.
Because previous approaches had all been about selling our products, whether imitation cultural relics handicrafts or minerals, all sold as commodities in exchange for foreign exchange.
One buys, one sells—that’s how it had always been since ancient times.
But no one had ever thought it could be done this way.
Maybe some had thought of it, but didn’t dare mention it—after all, this world, no matter the era, never lacks smart people.
But Lu Qiaoge had proposed it, with the boldness of a newborn calf unafraid of a tiger, yet backed by a detailed plan report.
Qin Hengzhi submitted the report through his own connections.
He had also consulted Director Hao and Secretary He about it.
After all, Lu Qiaoge was staff at the military factory.
The temptation to exchange for grain was truly great.
We had always been frugal, even needing to sell grain to get foreign exchange.
Now, by just providing a venue to sell clothes, the other side would donate grain to us or the supplies we needed.
But there was one issue with this: would the other side agree? Would there be difficulties, or even no one willing to come?
Lu Qiaoge had already written in great detail about this in the report.
As long as the profits were sufficient, even in times of war and chaos, weren’t there still merchants doing business?
That was the essence of capitalists.
As long as you dared to provide the platform, they would dare to come—and come gratefully, which would make negotiating conditions easier.
Thus, the Trade Group was established.
As long as those naysayers didn’t matter, having them watch was a good thing—it could ensure this trade activity went off without a hitch, at least not criticized for the next two years.
Lu Qiaoge had naturally considered everything before acting.
So, upon receiving this phone call, Lu Qiaoge was approved to not come to the Neighborhood Committee for work in the coming days, to focus fully on doing the Trade Group work with the others.
But in truth, everyone knew whether it would succeed still depended on Lu Qiaoge.
So, the factory leaders approved it, and to cooperate with local work, they assigned a Jeep exclusively to Lu Qiaoge.
Lu Qiaoge refused without a second thought.
She insisted that riding a bicycle would suffice for the work, and besides, there were public buses— with so many means of transportation, there was really no need to use a government vehicle.
Especially at a time like this, one must not engage in special treatment; otherwise, even if achievements were made, there would be merit tainted by special privileges.
Lu Qiaoge’s refusal made Old Hu breathe a sigh of relief—this child was truly low-key and steady.
She was already somewhat in the spotlight, so it wasn’t suitable to be too ostentatious now.
Otherwise, returning the car and then riding a bicycle would inevitably draw sour remarks from people.
And with car pickups and drop-offs, if the trade fell through, the sour words and piling on would be endless.
The more you did, the more responsibility you bore.
But Lu Qiaoge’s behavior still put Old Hu at ease.
Because there had been prior communication, everything proceeded very smoothly; with Lu Qiaoge’s report application approved, it naturally had to follow the regulations outlined in it, and the authorities even added some requirements and precautions.
In short, it had to be foolproof.
But now Lu Qiaoge needed to call Zhen Xi to communicate—this was the most important part.
For Zhen Xi, he had facilitated this matter—what benefits did he get?
Lu Qiaoge felt that Old Mr. Zhen designating Zhen Xi as heir was probably a smokescreen.
He didn’t particularly like Zhen Xi, and had even long forgotten Zhen Xi’s mother.
Otherwise, he couldn’t be so intimate with Secretary Xue.
Though there was no overt contact between the two sides, we weren’t entirely ignorant about Hong Kong.
Before Lu Qiaoge submitted the report, Qin Hengzhi had told her all the information she could know about Lu Qiaoge.
Chairman Zhen, before the promulgation of monogamy, had one wife and two concubines, several mistresses, and a few illegitimate children.
The eldest son was born to the original wife, named Zhen Mingze; the third son was Zhen Xi, whose mother was Lin Manyun, from a famous local family in Yuancheng, who all left by ship later due to the war.
Because it was all before the founding of the PRC, much information was incomplete; to date, no relatives of Lin Manyun here have been found.
But while Lin Manyun was alive, she had no contact with family members far away in M Country.
But one point: Lin Manyun was the legitimate eldest daughter of the Lin family elder branch; though that sort of thing was long out of fashion now, deep down they still treated the eldest legitimate son differently.
For such a great family to still stand in M Country, why would Lin Manyun, this legitimate daughter, become a concubine to Chairman Zhen?
Of course, after abolishing polygamy, Chairman Zhen divorced his original wife and second wife, and formally married Lin Manyun.
But just a few years later, she unexpectedly fell into the sea.
Chairman Zhen didn’t remarry, but never lacked women around him—though openly, there was only Secretary Xue by his side.
Chairman Zhen’s original wife wasn’t in Hong Kong; the eldest son was now the group’s General Manager.
As for Zhen Xi, the enterprises he managed included a hypermarket and an electronics company.
But he was the heir named in the will.
Lu Qiaoge actually leaned toward there being some unknown conspiracy here.
But this had nothing to do with her, nor with this grain exchange; she just wanted to have a clear picture of what to discuss with Zhen Xi.
After discussing with the Trade Group in advance what benefits could be offered to Zhen Xi, at 4:50 in the afternoon, Lu Qiaoge got through to Zhen Xi on the phone.
Zhen Xi on the other end seemed a bit surprised and not very interested, but Lu Qiaoge always knew how to get to the point; she first mentioned Zhen Xi’s older brother, Zhen Mingze.
Thus, Zhen Xi suddenly perked up.
“…As far as we know, General Manager Zhen—that is, your older brother—has now entered real estate and already controls one-third of the market share; given the current population growth, even without building houses or speculating on land, it’s hugely profitable.”
“But as our ancestors said, clothing, food, housing, and transport—clothing ranks first, housing third; people can only think about housing once they have clothes to wear and food to eat, which shows how important clothing is.”
“General Manager Zhen, your hypermarket is famous in Hong Kong—this is an enviable prerequisite. If you’re interested in the suggestion I made that day, you can give it a try. I can promise that Mr. Zhen’s clothing will have all priority rights; whatever conditions you have, feel free to state them.”
Zhen Xi on the other end of the phone fell silent.
He still couldn’t figure out why his father made him the heir but handed real estate to his older brother!
Could it be that after he inherited the family business, he could also inherit Zhen Mingze’s real estate?
