After lying in bed for a while, I felt thirsty, so I took my water cup to the living room. As I was filling my water bottle at the water dispenser, Chen Jin came out of his room and said to me, "Do you still have any cigarettes? Give me a pack."
"It's in the cabinet by my bedside, go get it yourself."
Chen Jin has a strong smoking habit. He had just gotten his cigarettes and couldn't wait to come out; he lit one in my room. He squinted at me and asked, "Why aren't you asleep yet?"
"I'm sleepy, but I just can't fall asleep."
"Shall we chat for a bit?"
As Chen Jin spoke, he offered me a cigarette, but I gestured that I didn't want to smoke it... I do have this habit: once I've brushed my teeth at night, I'm not really willing to touch a cigarette.
...
On the balcony with a fantastic view, Chen Jin and I sat facing each other. The lights on the opposite shore of Erhai Lake flickered on and off, just like the cigarette in his hand. Everything in the night was utterly silent. If the two of us didn't speak, we would be like two human stone sculptures. It was hard to tell whether our souls were trapped or our souls were restricting us... Anyway, we were both suffering from insomnia!
I took a sip of water and finally spoke to Chen Jin: "There's something I forgot to tell you... Our plan to install streetlights in the commercial street isn't going very smoothly. The Ancient City Protection Administration won't approve it... We do have connections with the construction company that can take on our project, but they think our budget is too low and it's not worth using those connections."
Do you think this streetlight is absolutely necessary?
"It has to be done."
"Then increase the budget..."
“We’ll definitely be using the smaller streetlights, which are quite inexpensive. Each light costs around 500 yuan, so 70,000 yuan would be 140 lights. There are over 200 shops on this commercial street, so on average, there are two streetlights for every three shops. That’s already a high density… If we were to increase the budget now, it would be like we’re just spending money to curry favor.”
"Isn't it true that favors are bought with money? If all else fails, just grit your teeth and get it done."
I smiled and replied, "Then you need to give me some confidence to spend this money... If you sign ten more shop contracts, I'll feel even more confident."
"You're something else, kid. You managed to shift the pressure of installing streetlights onto me!"
“It’s not all going to you. We’ll split the pressure in half. You sign the deal for the shop, and I’ll take care of attracting businesses. Once we get the money, we won’t feel bad about spending it.”
"No problem... Just one more question, are we running low on funds?"
"The money I can use now is what I earned last year from running a temporary inn... We'll open a corporate account later, and I'll deposit all the usable money into it so we can be transparent with our funds... It should be around 200,000 yuan."
Chen Jin nodded, then squinted and took another drag of his cigarette.
...
After we finished discussing business, I remained silent for a while before saying to him, "I've thought it over carefully, and I've decided not to stay here anymore."
Chen Jin looked at me with some surprise and said, "It's not that serious, is it, that I banged on the floor?"
"Knocking on the floor is a minor issue... the key issue is the people living upstairs."
"He's just Cao Jinbo's son, what's wrong with him?"
"The person living there now is not Cao Jinbo's son."
Who is that?
I glanced at Chen Jin and replied, "If you had come to Dali six months earlier, I wouldn't have had to go through the trouble of explaining this to you." After a slight pause, I added, "There's a young woman living upstairs now... I feel quite guilty and don't want Ye Zhi to misunderstand... so it's best to avoid her."
"I didn't understand, I'm completely confused."
"You don't need to understand too much, just know that this is a thing... and then make preparations in advance to rent out the room I live in."
"So where are you going to stay?"
"Let's find a single room near Jiulongju, which will make it easier to look after the shops."
Chen Jin nodded, and then the two fell silent... Suddenly, Chen Jin seemed to remember something and said to me, "By the way, I heard from Cao Xue that your girlfriend is coming over in the next few days to sign the contract for the Cangshan Villa project?"
"Um."
"She still refuses to compromise at all?"
"She represents the interests of the entire group, not just herself... That's basically how it is."
I felt a surge of frustration, and then, unusually, after washing up, I lit a cigarette for myself... I took puffs, my mind still racing, pondering the idea Sun Jiwei had given me a few days ago, hoping to find inspiration to solve the problem.
I think the biggest conflict between Ye Zhi and Cao Jinbo is that they can't balance their interests. It's like the matter of me installing streetlights at "Jiulongju". If I can come up with a sufficient budget, the construction company is willing to do me a favor and help me get the approval. Otherwise, they would rather not do the project than violate the principle of maximizing their interests.
In fact, nothing has only one absolute possibility. It all depends on whether the person planning the endeavor can break free from their own mindset. If they can, there is often a miraculous turnaround.
...
The night was unusually quiet, and my mind was unusually active. I suddenly thought of the paper mill that Cao Jinbo had shut down last year. I vaguely remembered that the land where the paper mill was located belonged to Cao Jinbo.
What if we take that land out for commercial development?
Because of his personal issues, Cao Jinbo is not favored by his superiors, so the paper mill and the land there have been frozen. Even if Cao Jinbo had the idea of abandoning the paper mill and developing real estate, his superiors would not approve it... But Ye Zhi is different. She has a good relationship with the local government. If she represents the group to negotiate with the government, there is a high chance that the government will approve it.
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