"Oh, right." After the two of them finished talking about Zhao Jin, Zhao Shouzheng suddenly slapped his head and said to Xiwa, who was sitting next to him and eating melon seeds, "Your father also said in the letter that the court promised one of his sons to be a centurion of the Imperial Guard because of his contribution to the construction of Guiyang. Your father is going to let you do it."

"Oh." Xiwa continued to eat his watermelon seeds calmly, then spat out a bunch of watermelon seed husks and said, "Forget it, uncle. I want to live two more years. Let my eldest brother take over."

"Your elder brother is going to study for the imperial examination." Zhao Liben rolled his eyes and said, "He will come to the academy after the New Year. Your father doesn't need to worry about him."

"Anyway, I'm not going. Whoever wants to go can go. I'd rather die than leave my uncle." Xiwa pouted and said unwaveringly, "Only by my uncle's side can I avoid bad luck. If I leave my uncle, I might die before I even get to Beijing..."

"You are superstitious." Zhao Shouzheng glared and said, "We must believe in science and oppose superstition!"

"Isn't science just whatever my uncle says it is?" Xiwa muttered.

"Say something." Zhao Shouzheng glanced at Zhao Hao and said, "He is already the son of one of the nine ministers. How can he run errands for you all day long?"

"The son of the governor can run errands, so why can't the son of the temple minister?" Xiwa said depressedly: "Besides, no one believes that my father is Zhao Jin..."

"Forget it, let him be." Zhao Hao couldn't persuade his father, so he had to say: "But Xiwa, you can't always hang around me. The Coast Guard School will start next year, and I plan to send you there for training."

"Uncle, is this up to me?" Xiwa said with a sad face, "Then I'd better go to Beijing..."

"I didn't force you, did I?" Zhao Hao asked with a smile, "If I didn't force you, just smile."

"No, I volunteered." Xiwa smiled a smile that was uglier than crying.

"Uh..." Master Zhao was dumbfounded. Why did he become so scared the moment Zhao Hao said he was going to send him to the Coast Guard School? "Why, aren't you afraid of bad luck?"

"I'm afraid, of course I'm afraid, but I'm more afraid of Director Tong..." Thinking of the thick stick, Xiwa's legs tightened and her buttocks trembled.

~~

Mr. Zhao happily spent a few days at home picking up cabbages. On the 14th day of the twelfth lunar month, he finally got up and went to Suzhou reluctantly under the urging of the cabbages to attend the inauguration ceremony of the Jiangnan Group headquarters on the 15th day of the twelfth lunar month.

This grand event, which caused a sensation in the south of the Yangtze River, attracted leading figures from the ten prefectures in the south of the Yangtze River, as well as Huizhou, Guangde, Chizhou, Ningguo and other prefectures in southern Zhili, and even Shaoxing, Ningbo, Taizhou and other prefectures in Zhejiang, all of which came to offer congratulations.

Two days in advance, all the high-end inns in Suzhou City had sold out their rooms. Many late guests could not find a place to stay and had to make do with brothels and boats.

It is no exaggeration to say that this winter, all the wealthy businessmen in Jiangnan are eagerly looking forward to an invitation letter from the Jiangnan Group.

If you didn't receive the dark blue satin invitation with a golden anchor embroidered on it, it meant that in the eyes of the Jiangnan Group, your rank was not high enough. This was undoubtedly a heavy blow to those bigwigs who boasted that they had all the power and could shake the Jiangnan River with just a stomp of their feet.

Think about it, when you brag about it in the future, people will say, "You are so capable, why didn't Jiangnan Group hire you?"

Directly kill...

So the Jiangnan Group originally planned to invite only two or three hundred important guests, but they couldn't resist the numerous dog owners who sent people to inquire whether they could also invite their own masters to attend. They could even pay a high price of one thousand and two taels of silver to buy an invitation.

The directors of the group were overwhelmed by the constant stream of requests for favors. Even Yu Men, the doorman of the Kunshan County Government, became a popular commodity, and his office, that is, the doorman's room, was filled with people asking for invitations all day long.

Yu Men is so depressed. How can I, a gatekeeper, get the invitations for you?

But when people heard that his brother was the secretary of the Jiangnan Group, they thought he would definitely be able to get her. They lined up to invite him to brothels and boats, but Yu Men was very moved and refused. He was very touched and then accepted all the invitations. As for whether he told his brother about it after the incident, and whether it would work if he told his brother, I can't guarantee it...

Otherwise, people say that even the best people become dirty-hearted after being a doorman for a few years. But then again, if you are not dirty-hearted, you can't be a doorman.

As a result, with the joint efforts of all parties, the number of invitations continued to increase, and finally by the Laba deadline, a total of more than 2,300 invitations were sent out.

Even so, there are still many people who haven't gotten it, and they can only shamelessly walk on the red carpet and pretend to be guests.

In addition to the wealthy and famous people, the governors of various prefectures and counties also received invitations from the Jiangnan Group. Although they could not leave their posts due to the rules, they sent their assistants as government representatives and their advisors as private representatives, and carefully prepared generous gifts to come and congratulate.

Officials from Suzhou Prefecture did not have so many concerns, because they were supposed to report on their work in the prefecture at the end of the year and take the opportunity to travel around, so naturally everyone would be present.

Songjiang Prefecture also had all the officials present. Zhong Zhenji was able to keep his position as prefect thanks to the help of the Jiangnan Group, so it was natural for him to come and support them. Besides, he only had two counties under his command, and the two county magistrates were classmates with Mr. Zhao. The three of them decided to come to Suzhou City under the pretext of discussing the Huangpu Project.

~~

On the fifteenth day, the weather was fine, with clear skies and no wind or clouds.

The streets of Suzhou city were deserted today. All the common people ran to the outside of the Changmen Gate to watch the excitement. The Qili Shantang Street was packed with people. Even the other side of the Shantang River and the roofs were densely packed with people.

Fortunately, Wu County Magistrate Yang Chenglin had anticipated this and set up a fence outside the ceremony venue, allowing only guests with invitations to enter. Otherwise, the flowers outside the group building and the red carpet among the flowers would have been trampled under the feet of onlookers.

The flow of water on the Shantang River was also restricted in advance, and officials from Suzhou Prefecture set up checkpoints at both ends of the river in boats, blocking all boats without invitations and only allowing them to pass after the ceremony was over.

Because there were so many guests, the pier was unable to accommodate boats, so even those with invitations could not take their own boats to Shantang Street. They could only board the ferry arranged by Jiangnan Group with their invitations, and the boat would only depart when there were ten people.

This inadvertently cut off the possibility for some people to walk the red carpet.

Fortunately, the all-black ship was luxuriously decorated with glass on all sides. There was a heater and elegant seats in the cabin, with fragrant tea, snacks and fruits on the table. There were also polite young people wearing simple blue uniforms and black warm hats, providing one-on-one reception, so the guests did not feel neglected.

The guests had hundreds of servants in their homes, and they soon realized that these fifteen or sixteen-year-old boys were not ordinary servants. Compared with the humble servants, they were obviously very energetic, and even more incredible was that they had a bit of the vigor of scholars.

After asking, I found out that they were all interns trained by Jiangnan Education Group. Currently, the group has built a total of ten primary schools in Jinling, Suzhou, Kunshan, Taicang, Wuxi and other places, and the crash courses of eight of them will graduate at the end of the year. A total of more than 2,000 graduates from all over the country gathered at the Suzhou headquarters to receive a three-month induction training.

Only after they have passed the induction training and examinations can they sign a contract to become formal employees of the group. Before becoming formal employees, their status is "internship".

However, each ship has a regular employee who is responsible for leading the interns. The foreman on ship No. 09 is Cai Yimu, an outstanding graduate of the first crash course of Caijiaxiang Primary School, the first school built by Mr. Zhao.

Yimu has always felt that he was very lucky because his graduation certificate was awarded by Mr. Zhao himself. Moreover, when he came to the group for internship last year, it coincided with the construction period of the headquarters. There were few interns in their batch, so most of them were retained and became part of the group headquarters.

And this year, more than 80% of these 2,000 junior brothers will go to work in the company...

Yimu is a down-to-earth person. Unlike some people who get carried away, he takes his job more seriously.

Well, some people say he is too picky, and gave him a Japanese nickname called "Kumeo Ikki"...

~~

Seeing that ten people had gathered on the boat, Yimu immediately ordered the boat to start. Then he used these few minutes to explain the process of today's celebration to the guests.

"...After lunch, please return to the dock. Our boat will take you back to your entourage." Ichimu, who was wearing a neat smoky blue Songjiang cotton uniform, bowed slightly to everyone and said, "Now please follow your guides off the boat. They will accompany you throughout the celebration today, answer your questions, provide guidance, and wholeheartedly create a wonderful memory for you distinguished guests."

After the guests got off the boat, they saw a straight red carpet with flowers on both sides leading directly to the main entrance of Jiangnan Building across the street.

In the middle of winter, even in Jiangnan, you can only see plum blossoms, but in front of the Jiangnan Building, there are thousands of pots of hundreds of flowers, competing with each other in beauty, making people feel as if the season called "spring" has arrived...

What is even more amazing than the flowers is the "Jiangnan Building" itself. This well-arranged three-story row of buildings adopts Suzhou's traditional white plaster walls, black tile roofs, and sloping roof architectural style, blending seamlessly with the surrounding environment.

But it is so different. The whole building completely breaks away from the traditional complicated French style. It boldly simplifies the complex and abstracts the pavilions and towers into geometric patterns such as triangles, squares, diamonds, etc. with clear contours and strong lines, which creates a strong visual impact on people.

There will definitely be people who find such a bold style unacceptable, but no one will openly say it is ugly.

When they learned that the exterior of this building was designed by Master Zhao himself, they immediately felt that the building was very unique and had its own personality, embodying the simple beauty that was most admired by the literati of the Ming Dynasty... Master Zhao was the pioneer of the new generation!

Some people even composed poems on the spot to praise this unique and great building.

There is no way, Jiangnan Group is too rich. Is Mr. Zhao the God of Wealth?

P.S. Obviously, this place pays tribute to Master Pei's Suzhou Museum. I think this is the best building that combines classic and modern elements.