Chapter 254

Jiang Hongjun and his friends had taken out what they thought were their best clothes because they were going to a big city. However, he was used to doing the work of a bricklayer every day, so even the cleanest clothes would inevitably have a few drops of cement on them. His hair was still the short flat cut he had during the Chinese New Year, but now it had grown longer. He usually had short hair and didn't have the habit of combing it, so his hair was very messy.

The other people were the same. Young people who were not married still paid attention to their image, and they wanted to polish their leather shoes until they were shiny, and their hair was so slippery that flies would break their legs if they were greased. Married people really didn't think much about dressing themselves up.

They came from the countryside in this era, and were used to seeing Jiang Hongjun and his friends wearing such rustic clothes. They didn't think much of it at first, but the building designer was originally from Shanghai, a city at the forefront of fashion. He studied architectural design at school, and later went abroad to study. He paid more attention to some famous and unknown foreign designs, classic, fashionable and beautiful buildings and interior architecture. After returning to China after graduation, his temperament was one of the best in Qian's company. Standing with Jiang Hongjun and his friends at this moment, although he was not tall, he really made Jiang Hongjun and his friends look like ordinary people against the background.

In fact, Jiang Guotai himself was not dressed very fashionably, with a white shirt on the upper body, trousers on the lower body, a belt in the middle, a mobile phone bag on the belt, a mobile phone hanging conspicuously on the waist, and a bag in the armpit.

He actually had a gentle appearance, an oval face, and the common Aaron Kwok hairstyle of this era. Except for not having a big belly and wearing a gold ring and gold chain, he was dressed like a local boss. In his previous life, he was the richest man in the neighboring city. Except for wearing a suit when accompanying the leader to attend some important occasions, he always dressed comfortably and casually.

But his temperament could not be ignored at a glance. At a glance, he was the leader of this group.

Flying is expensive these days. Jiang Guotai was reluctant to spend so much money to take so many people on a plane, but his schedule was too tight. He was in his hometown, and he had to stay in town for a sand factory, a brick factory, or a big project he had just taken on. So he couldn't choose a train for several days and nights, and could only choose a fast plane. He

had only taken this plane once last time when he sent his son and future daughter-in-law to study abroad.

In this group, except for Jiang Guotai, only the floor designer had taken a plane before. Everyone else was taking a plane for the first time, and they looked around curiously at the airport.

Under the guidance of the floor designer, they checked their luggage.

Jiang Hongbing asked Jiang Guotai worriedly, "This...this thing won't get lost, right?"

Jiang Guotai pretended to be well-informed and said, "It won't get lost. Follow the building designer and let's go."

Jiang Hongbing then watched the luggage being taken away anxiously. Seeing that his elder brother and uncle were very calm, he felt relieved. As they walked, he smiled and said to Jiang Hongjun, "I never thought that I would get to take a plane one day. Before, I heard grandpa say that he had taken a plane, but I thought he was bragging."

Jiang Hongjun spoke with a little stutter, and said, "Grandpa...Grandpa is with Liu Liu. We will take a lot of planes in the future. Is there any need...need...to brag to you?"

"I've never been on a plane, so I thought Grandpa was just bragging, didn't I?" Jiang Hongbing looked around excitedly with a red face: "When I go back, I'll tell Dalanzi that I've also been on a plane, hehe." Thinking of telling his wife that he had been on a plane, he wished he had eight eyes so that he could see everything he saw at the airport and brag about it when he got back.

Jiang Hongjun had a stutter since he was a child, so he was always very calm in doing things. He was the type who watched more, listened more, and talked less. He was steady in doing anything, which was why Jiang Guotai brought him along on this trip.

There were really too few people he could use. In addition to the brothers Jiang Hongjun and Jiang Hongbing, one of the people who went with him was his sister's son, and the other three were all young people who had performed well on his original construction site, were down-to-earth, were willing to use their brains, and dared to fight and work hard. He was discovered and brought up.

He brought so many people with him because he heard from Jiang's father about the chaos at the Shenzhen Railway Station. He was afraid of any accidents. It was better to have more people from his hometown around him than to be alone in a foreign land.

When they got on the plane, the excitement of the group never stopped. They didn't dare to speak loudly, for fear of being seen as bumpkins who were flying for the first time. When the plane rose into the sky, they looked down at the clouds and the smaller and smaller buildings below the clouds.

They departed from Shanghai Airport and arrived at Guangzhou Hongyun Airport.

This is a modern city completely different from the small mountain village and ancient Wucheng where they stayed in the past. Even though they had seen the prosperity of Shanghai, they were still amazed when they came to Guangzhou.

It was like they had suddenly entered another fast-developing world that they did not understand from a closed world. They were suddenly restrained and followed Jiang Guotai and his friends closely, fearing that they would get separated and would not be able to return home.

The other young people who had gone out to work were fine, such as Jiang Hongjun and Jiang Hongbing. The farthest place they had been was Wucheng, the neighboring city, and Linxian County, where Jiang's aunt's mother lived.

Although they had been traveling outside for many years, building houses for this family and that family, they had never even taken a train. The first time they went to another province was to take a plane to Guangzhou, thousands of miles away. This gave them a great shock and impact.

Guangzhou in the millennium was already full of high-rise buildings and constant traffic.

As soon as they got off the plane, Jiang Hongbing and his companions started looking around. As soon as they left the airport, they saw someone holding a big sign with the three characters "Jiang Guotai" written on it.

"Uncle, uncle! Is that the person who will pick us up?" Jiang Hongbing was the first to see the person holding the sign, and he quickly pulled Jiang Guotai's arm and pointed it

out to him. Jiang Guotai whispered to everyone, "Speak less, look less, listen more, look more, and just follow me after you have taken your things."

After giving the instructions, he slightly adjusted his collar and walked towards the young man holding the sign.

When the young man saw a group of people walking towards him, he knew that the person he was waiting for had arrived. He hurriedly stepped forward to shake hands with them and said with a broad smile, "Is this Mr. Jiang Guotai? I'm Wang Han from the Cultural and Creative Office of the Propaganda Department of the Municipal Party Committee. You can just call me Xiao Wang."

Jiang Guotai had already grasped the young man's hand and shouted enthusiastically, "Hello, Director Wang, hello. I'm so sorry to bother you to come and pick us up in person. We feel deeply honored."

The word "Director Wang" made Wang Han, an ordinary clerk in the Cultural and Creative Office, couldn't help but twitch his lips even though he had tried to endure it again and again. He hurriedly said, "I don't deserve it."

"Director Wang, you're too polite. You're so young and working in the municipal government of a big city like Guangzhou. You're truly young and promising. Thank you for coming to pick us up. Thank you, leader." Jiang Guotai held the young man's hand tightly.

The young man then went to shake hands with the floor designer next to him, and then Jiang Miao.

As Wang Han shook hands, everyone introduced themselves. After the introductions, Wang Han led them to a business car and said, "Director Li has arranged accommodation for everyone. It is a hotel not far from the Tea Expo Exhibition Hall. I will take everyone to the hotel to check in first, and then take you to the Tea Expo site to have a look."

Jiang Guotai also smiled and said, "Oh, Director Li is too polite. Thank Director Li for me. I wonder when Director Li has time. I will be the host and I must thank Director Li in person."

Wang Han drove here by himself. He smiled and said while driving, "Now is the early stage of the Tea Expo. There is a lot of work to do. There will be foreign tea merchants from more than 20 countries coming. If Director Li is not too busy, Director Li will come to pick them up in person."

This is of course pure nonsense.

What is Director Li's current position and who are these people? Director Li is now too busy to receive foreign guests from various countries, so how can he have time to pick them up? It's not that he looks down on these people. It's really that except for the three people in the lead, the others are really too different from the city of Guangzhou. They are almost the same as the migrant workers he sometimes sees on the road.

But he didn't dare to look down on them.

If these people were not important, Li Chu would never have specially arranged for him to come and pick them up. He also arranged a hotel for them near the exhibition hall and gave them the best exhibition hall location.

Not to mention, these people are exhibitors at the Tea Expo. They must be people with important influence in the local area. The tea they brought must also be very famous tea, otherwise they would not be able to get the registration qualification and admission ticket to Guangzhou, let alone give them the best exhibition hall.

Wang Han himself was born and raised in Guangzhou. After the development of Guangzhou in recent years, there are many old farmers who look ordinary and unremarkable on the outside, but they may have several buildings in their homes. Many local people have tens of millions of assets from the demolition of their homes.

Wang Han was not sure what the relationship between these people and Li was, but judging from Li's arrangement of these people, they must have a very good relationship, so even though Jiang Hongbing and his friends acted like bumpkins who had never seen the world, Wang Han was very polite to Jiang Guotai and his friends.

Lou Chengyu, who came with them to work as a showroom designer and translator, was also shocked when he heard Wang Han's self-introduction that these nouveau riche from a small mountain village in Wucheng actually had such connections in Guangzhou that people from the Municipal Party Committee's Propaganda Department would come to the airport to pick them up in person. He couldn't help but pay more attention to his employer Jiang Qi's house, and his attitude towards this trip to Guangzhou became more serious.

When they arrived outside the hotel arranged by Li, they were even more shocked.

This was actually the first World International Tea Expo held in Guangzhou, and it was held in the Liushui Pavilion of the Export Commodities Fair. The hotel that Director Li booked for them was also a newly built, fully modernized, star-rated hotel not far from the Liushui Pavilion.

Except for Jiang Guotai, the floor designer, and Jiang Miao, everyone else saw such a luxurious and modern hotel. For a moment, they looked at this international hotel that seemed to tower into the clouds, and the brightly decorated and magnificent hotel lobby.

They stood outside the hotel for a while and almost didn't dare to go in. Jiang Guotai and the floor designer had seen the world before, and they followed Wang Han inside with a calm look.

Jiang Hongjun was fine, but Jiang Hongbing and his friends were just country bumpkins who had just come to the city and had opened their eyes. They didn't even know which foot to step on. In the end, they walked in with their bodies stiff, almost at the same time. They looked up and looked around at the tall and majestic modern buildings that were completely different from their small mountain village. They couldn't help but sigh in their hearts, how much money would it cost to build such a large and luxurious building?

And the floor tiles on the ground were really spotless and bright, and there was also the huge crystal chandelier above. It was

really poor. Jiang Hongbing couldn't think of how to build such a large hotel and building.

No wonder Qingqing didn't want them to help her build a house, and specially found a designer who had studied abroad from Shanghai to help her design and decorate.

Compared with the buildings and decorations in these big cities, the houses they built in their hometown, the so-called decorations, are really rough.

In addition to painting the walls white, nothing has actually been done. At most, a ceiling has been hung in the room.

The other young people who came with Jiang Guotai were actually young people who worked on highway projects in neighboring cities before following Jiang Guotai. Jiang Guotai selected a few people with relatively stable personalities, tall physiques and capable people and brought them to Guangzhou. They have never seen such a hotel in the neighboring city. For them, this is another world. When passing by such a hotel, they all looked at it from a distance outside and did not dare to approach it.

But now, they have also moved in with Boss Jiang.

After completing the check-in procedures, Wang Han sent them to the room and gave each of them a stamped pink meal ticket. He asked them to rest for a while and wash their faces. He went to the lobby downstairs to wait for them. He would go to the restaurant on the second floor to eat later and take them to the exhibition hall to see the booths in the afternoon.

After Wang Han went downstairs, Jiang Hongbing and the others put down their things and began to look around the hotel room, very excited. Jiang Guotai sat on the bed in the hotel room, also looking at the arranged hotel. He looked calm on the surface, but was very shocked in his heart.

He thought Jiang Xi and this Director Li were just work relations and acquaintances, but that was all. He didn't expect that he could persuade Director Li to send someone to pick him up and arrange the hotel. How could he not be surprised?

This at least shows that the relationship between Jiang Xi and this Li Chu is much deeper and closer than he thought!

Not wanting to keep the leader waiting for too long, Jiang Guotai quickly washed his face, wiped his face with the hotel towel, and wiped his hair at the same time. Seeing a comb in the sink, he combed his hair a few more times and called out to the others next door: "Are you done? Don't keep the leader waiting for too long, hurry down!"

To Jiang Guotai, all people working in the government are collectively called leaders, but there is a difference between big leaders and small leaders.

Their rooms are all standard rooms. Jiang Miao and the tea artist they invited share a room, and the others also share a room for two. Jiang Guotai and the floor designer were arranged in one room, Jiang Hongjun and his brother shared a room, and the other four people who came together shared a room for two.

Since Wang Han was speaking in music score and Jiang Guotai and his friends spoke Mandarin with an accent, only Jiang Guotai, Jiang Miao, and the floor designer were listening carefully, and the tea artist was smiling the whole time.

When the others got to the elevator, they had forgotten where they were going to eat, but Jiang Miao was still listening carefully. He pressed the second floor button directly and followed the restaurant sign to the second floor restaurant.

After Wang Han went downstairs, he called Li and reported that he had already picked up Jiang Guotai and his friends to the hotel and would take them to the exhibition hall after lunch. After hanging up the phone, he returned to the second floor and waited for them outside the restaurant on the second floor.

There were several restaurants, and Wang Han led them into one of them.

They originally thought that the restaurant prepared by Li was a private room, with a large round table and dishes served one by one, but it turned out to be a buffet restaurant, with rows of steaming hot meals in stainless steel dishes, and they could pick up whatever they wanted with their plates. There were many round tables covered with tablecloths in the restaurant, and many guests were already eating. The people who stayed here were basically tea merchants from all over the country who came to participate in the Tea Expo.

The first thing Jiang Guotai did when he came in was not to look at the food, but to look at all the people who were eating in the restaurant like them, and observe them.

It was the first time for Jiang Hongbing and his friends to eat in such a big hotel. Everything looked fresh. However, because Jiang Guotai had warned them not to be too excited or look around, they followed Jiang Guotai obediently and lined up to get food.

The restaurant had a wide variety of dishes, but unfortunately, they were all light in flavor. For people like Jiang Hongjun who had lived by the river since childhood and were used to eating spicy food due to the humid air, the dishes here were rich in variety, including all kinds of fish, shrimp, meat, and crab. After looking around, they found that there was nothing they wanted to eat, but they didn't dare to say anything and just filled their plates with meat, shrimp, and crab.

They were used to eating fish since they were young, so basically everyone avoided fish. Everyone piled up two plates full of food, picked up a lot of fruits, and sat around a table.

When they got to the table, they saw that Wang Han only picked up a simple plate, and they piled up several plates on their side, and they felt embarrassed. However, Wang Han seemed to have noticed nothing and said to them with a smile: "After dinner, do you want to go back to the room to rest, or go to the exhibition hall right away?"

Jiang Guotai had a tight schedule and was in a hurry, so he said: "Let's go after dinner."

Wang Han smiled and said: "Okay." His face was a little round, his skin was white and tender, and he always had a smile on his face, giving people a feeling of being bathed in spring breeze. I felt that, "We have a total of 236 exhibition halls for this exhibition. The one Director Li has arranged for you is one of the best locations for this exhibition. If you have plenty of time, it is recommended that you make full use of the good location arranged for you by Director Li and plan and design the booth well. In addition to our domestic tea merchants, there will be tea industry professionals from nearly 20 countries as well as Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan participating in this Tea Culture Expo."

This is already a reminder to them.

Jiang Guotai immediately introduced the designer Lou who they brought with them this time, saying, "This is a designer from Shanghai who we invited at a high price. He is also our booth designer and translator this time - Lou Chengyu. He graduated from Shanghai University with a bachelor's degree in architectural design and has studied abroad." He smiled at Lou Chengyu and said, "Designer Lou, you should also introduce yourself to the leaders."

Wang Han had actually noticed that Designer Lou in their team had a very different temperament from Jiang Hongjun and the others, but he didn't expect that this was a designer and translator they specially invited from Shanghai. This made him think highly of this group of people, and he was also satisfied with their emphasis on and adequate preparation for this Tea Expo, and his favorability towards them soared.

This time it was not because of their relationship with Li Chu, but because of themselves.

The organizer of this tea expo was their Guangzhou Municipal Government, but the specific organizer was still the Cultural and Creative Office of their Municipal Party Committee Propaganda Department. The tea merchants who came to the exhibition attached so much importance to this exhibition. As a person in the Cultural and Creative Office, Wang Han was also busy with the affairs of this tea expo. Although the Guangzhou Tea Culture Promotion Association cooperated with them, they still spent a lot of energy and effort on this tea expo in order to make this exhibition a success.

Jiang Guotai was very sensitive to the change in Wang Han's attitude towards them, and immediately asked Wang Han about the tea expo.

Wang Han naturally talked more because he liked them more, so Jiang Guotai and the others had a better understanding of the people who came to the tea expo, the tea merchants from various countries, and other information.

If Jiang Guotai and the others hadn't asked, Wang Han hadn't planned to tell them.

After dinner, they didn't stay in the hotel for long, and immediately rushed to the exhibition hall of the tea expo, the flow pavilion of the foreign export commodity trade fair.

When Jiang Guotai heard the name of this place, "Foreign Export Commodities Fair", he was moved and asked Wang Han, "Director Wang, are the goods here originally exported?"

Wang Han smiled and said, "Director Li should have told you, right? We are holding the first World International Tea Expo here. The leaders above attach great importance to this tea expo and hope to create more conditions for you to sell our tea overseas, generate income for the people, and create more foreign exchange for the country!"

Now the country's foreign exchange reserves have actually been increasing steadily. The purpose of holding this World International Tea Expo is mainly to attract more foreign investment and improve the quality of foreign investment, so as to maintain the vitality of the domestic and foreign economies. This is a major government policy and there is no need to tell Jiang Guotai about it.

Jiang Guotai's original purpose of participating in the tea expo was to promote the popularity of "Wugong Tea". If more foreign tea merchants could know about "Wugong Tea", it would be the biggest gain of this trip to Guangzhou. Unexpectedly, this tea expo was mainly aimed at the overseas market. This was really an unexpected surprise for Jiang Guotai.

And all of this seemed to be an inadvertent instruction from Jiang Xi, which brought them such an opportunity.

Now it depends on whether they can seize such an opportunity!

Jiang Guotai's heart was pounding. This feeling was like the first time he heard Jiang Xi talk about the three sand factories in his hometown. It was like a huge gold mine that was suddenly unveiled and appeared in front of him.

Wang Han didn't know how Jiang Guotai was shaken at the moment. He led Jiang Guotai and his friends to a very conspicuous booth not far from the entrance of the exhibition hall and stopped and said, "This is your booth this time."