Chapter 613: Chapter 584: Strategic Adjustment

Zhao Feiyang checked the time and realized it was unrealistic for Tang Jingwei to rush from Nanjiang to attend tomorrow’s signing ceremony. Despite knowing Tang Jingwei wouldn’t be pleased, Zhao Feiyang called him to report the recent developments.

Tang Jingwei felt like a tiger down on his luck. In the past, he wouldn’t even bother with a trivial two-billion-dollar contract, but now he values even twenty million. After hearing the situation on Weishan Island from Zhao Feiyang, he immediately decided to send the company’s CEO, Tang Jinglun, to Weishan Island. Since he initiated the Healthy Elderly Care Hospital project, it was only fitting for him to see it through to completion.

The signing ceremony was scheduled to take place as planned at Hu Shan Town Government. Following his brother’s instructions, Tang Jinglun hurried from Nanjiang to Dongzhou, bringing along his nephew Tang Tianyi. Tang Jingwei had arranged for Tang Tianyi to assist him.

Tang Jingwei’s intention was to give his son ample experience, but Tang Jinglun considered Tang Tianyi to be a lazy good-for-nothing, merely tagging along to monitor him. However, given this guy’s abilities, he couldn’t even sell him out without considering family ties.

On the way, Tang Tianyi kept complaining, feeling it was entirely unnecessary to come.

Tang Jinglun thought to himself that this wastrel hadn’t yet faced reality. Huayuan Group was no longer the same, and if not for the financial difficulties, they wouldn’t be reducing projects and frequently cashing out. Selling the Weishan Island Hospital land for two billion was quite lucrative, especially since the initial investment in the project was only about eight or nine million in the sample area.

Tang Jinglun felt his luck was a bit off; he had carefully prepared three decisive moves, yet the first one didn’t yield the expected results. A lot of money was spent on the Healthy Elderly Care Hospital’s foundation ceremony, but it hardly made a splash.

In his struggle with his brother, he didn’t gain an advantage. He barely found an opportunity to use a scandal to force his brother out and take over Huayuan’s management, only for Huayuan to face significant debt defaults.

Tang Jinglun was self-aware that without his brother stepping in, he couldn’t handle the debt restructuring on his own. Nevertheless, he felt frustrated because Huayuan Group’s decline was entirely due to his brother’s misguided decisions: blind overseas expansion, rapid commercial expansion, leading to exhaustion, compounded by the domestic real estate slump and the deteriorating international environment, accelerating Huayuan’s crisis.

Although they tearfully sold overseas properties, the cash received was insufficient to cover the losses of recent years. The domestic debt defaults further worsened Huayuan’s situation, but fortunately, Tang Jingwei leveraged his good relationship with the local government to persuade them to guarantee Huayuan’s comeback.

Back then, when Tang Jinglun purchased Changxing Hospital against opposition, it became Huayuan’s best asset. He often thought if his brother had heeded his advice to focus early on the domestic health market instead of global expansion, Huayuan wouldn’t be in such a predicament.

No one can fight against the trend, and business is no exception. When discussing the business environment and opportunities to earn money, domestically, it’s second to none globally. Yet, Tang Jingwei insisted on overlooking the fundamentals, squandering an excellent hand of cards.

Tang Jinglun felt a poignant sense of declining family fortunes, forcing them to sell assets, while the naïve Tang Tianyi was bragging to his friend Han Wensheng, oblivious to Huayuan’s looming crisis, still gloating over selling a town hospital for two billion.

In Tang Tianyi’s view, Weishan Island was a godforsaken place, and even though Dongzhou City is developing a national-level tourist resort with a ’health’ theme, it’s unappealing to people like him. What attracts them is sunshine, beaches, bikini-clad beauties, the vibrant nightlife of booze and debauchery, none of which Weishan Island offers. Investing there was a sunk cost, so safely pulling out with a profit of two billion was sheer luck.

Tang Tianyi scoffed, "How can this sorry place compare to Qiong Island? I’ll tell my dad when we get back to invest in a resort there—it’s way above this place in terms of resources and quality."

Han Wensheng, who accompanied them for fun, nodded and said, "You’re the one with vision and big-picture thinking."

Tang Jinglun, annoyed by the noisy pair, frowned and said, "After the contract is signed today, this place will have nothing to do with Huayuan, and you’ll barely have an opportunity to come even if you want to."

Tang Tianyi replied, "As if I want to come here? If it weren’t for my dad insisting I represent him, I wouldn’t have come."

Xu Chunliang personally went to the dock to welcome Fu Guomin’s party. Fu Guomin had come with Li Yushan, and from the surface, they seemed to be getting along well.

Fu Guomin introduced Xu Chunliang to Li Yushan, who shook Xu Chunliang’s hand and said, "I’ve heard a lot about you, Xiaoxu."

Xu Chunliang replied, "Good news doesn’t leave the house; bad news travels a thousand miles—I’m ashamed, truly ashamed."

Li Yushan said, "What I’ve heard has all been good."

Xu Chunliang knew his fame was fueled by the hot topic of his fight, engineered by some behind-the-scenes instigator. Xu Chunliang reviewed the whole incident and increasingly felt that Wu Fajun was suspicious.

As the saying goes, it’s possible to overdo things. Wu Fajun had been more agitated than Xu Chunliang himself during the incident, being the first to rush out to fight. Observing afterward, Xu Chunliang realized Wu Fajun wasn’t a rash and impulsive person.

That brawl led directly to Xu Chunliang’s exit from Huayuan Group, making Wu Fajun the trigger. Though Xu Chunliang hadn’t found solid evidence, he was the victim, and Wu Fajun was the beneficiary, not affected at all; instead, he was trusted by Pei Lin.

It was the first time for Fu Guomin and Li Yushan visiting Weishan Island. Upon arrival, their first stop wasn’t the town government or Weishan Island Hospital; they wanted to visit the national resort project headquarters, which wasn’t part of the planned itinerary.

Xu Chunliang quickly called Fan Lidada, who had been feeling down lately and was fishing by the lake. Hearing about the leaders’ visit, he hastily packed up and returned.

Fan Lidada arrived just in time, with Fu Guomin and the others arriving shortly afterward.

Due to the formation of the Cultural Tourism Bureau, their project headquarters was in an awkward position. The city hadn’t clarified whether they belonged to the Cultural Tourism Bureau or whether the headquarters should be dismantled. Fan Lidada now regretted coming here. Had he stayed at the Tourism Bureau, he might have been on the list for deputy director of the Cultural Tourism Bureau. Instead, he holds the position of project headquarters commander, not knowing exactly what to do and leaving his staff in confusion.

The city’s initial intention was macro-planning, unified control, ensuring proper supervision and command over the national-level tourist resort’s construction. However, adjustments led to focusing mainly on coordinating with Jizhou’s departments to share resources, coordinate, avoid duplicate projects and waste.

This minor adjustment greatly reduced their initially granted authority. Although Dongzhou and Jizhou had coordinated well at the leadership level, signing several joint construction documents for the national resort, there was little real cooperation in specific work, each managing independently.

This situation was inevitable because the two cities belonged to different provinces, each with its development plans and interest needs. Collaborating is easy to say but hard to execute.

Ultimately, the project headquarters led by Fan Lidada became a mere formality. After the Cultural Tourism Bureau was formed, he had hoped to transfer to the bureau and return as a deputy, but for some reason, the leaders had forgotten about the headquarters, let alone him, a deputy-level official.

Fan Lidada’s hopes for promotion became unattainable, and through this process, he realized that in the eyes of city leaders, he was insignificant.

Although Fan Lidada hadn’t been working long at Weishan Island, the changes were significant, especially in skin color, getting darker due to frequent outdoor fishing.

Li Yushan was familiar with Fan Lidada, yet initially almost didn’t recognize him. Fan Lidada stepped up to shake hands with Fu Guomin, saying, "Director Fu, welcome to guide our work."

Fu Guomin, long stationed at the Dongzhou Beijing Office, was unfamiliar with the local middle managers of Dongzhou. His work at the Beijing Office mainly served leaders unless there were particularly promising, worthy associates, most of whom he didn’t know. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

Li Yushan introduced him, "Fan Lidada; previously deputy director at the Tourism Bureau, notable working ability."

He said this with a smirk, as Fan Lidada was famously good at drinking, earning the title of ’Chief Drinker’ at the bureau—known not for how much he drank, but for what he’d dare promise after a drink.

Fu Guomin said, "Director Fan, you’ve worked hard."

Fan Lidada replied, "Not really hard."

Fu Guomin inspected their office environment. It was indeed rough, but having mentioned Fan Lidada to him before, Xu Chunliang had made sure to learn more. The Cultural Tourism Bureau’s formation signaled the city’s focus on cultural tourism.

Fu Guomin personally felt the national tourist resort headquarters was redundant, overlapping with Hu Shan Town Government’s functions. If the key was coordination with Jizhou’s departments, Fu Guomin also found it unnecessary, as the cities were primarily competitors despite parts of collaboration in cultural tourism.

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