Du Zhaohui and Director Wang didn’t see eye to eye.
Young Master Du didn’t fully understand China’s national conditions. Tang Hong’en wasn’t trying to make things difficult for him – he just had strong principles.
When someone wanted to make things difficult for him, he’d discover how nasty those tactics could be.
In Hong Kong, money talked; in the mainland, leaders did. Young Master Du thought a deputy director of the Higher Education Department wasn’t an important figure. After all, the Cheng Rong Group’s donations were for publicity, not really for developing mainland education, so what did the Higher Education Department matter?
But the Higher Education Department could interfere with universities!
Huaqing University was a vice-ministerial level unit with a department-level structure.
The Party Secretary and Principal were appointed as vice-ministerial level officials, the Executive Deputy Secretary and Executive Vice Principal were department-level officials, and the Deputy Secretaries and Vice Principals were deputy department-level officials.
Wang Guangping’s position was equivalent in rank to Huaqing’s Vice Principal.
But the Higher Education Department wasn’t simple – it handled macro-management of higher education… This scope was quite broad. If the department wanted, they could meddle in anything, even at Huaqing University.
Wang Guangping’s power was greater than Young Master Du imagined. By not showing respect, Du Zhaohui had seriously offended Wang Guangping.
Yet Young Master Du didn’t take it seriously. The guide, considering his generous salary, did try to warn Du Zhaohui. Du thought about it but figured the Education Ministry couldn’t help with anything since it had nothing to do with the group’s business, so he didn’t take it to heart.
Du Zhaohui waited and waited, but Xia Xiaolan never came to say she regretted her decision.
Was it about pride?
Were Huaqing students so proud? If their grades were good enough, wouldn’t they still take money from the Cheng Rong Group’s scholarship?
Even with a high scholarship amount, it would only be a few hundred yuan per year at most.
By Du Zhaohui’s standards, what could a few hundred yuan a year do? But Huaqing’s view was that they couldn’t give away all the annual interest, since they wanted to make it a lasting fund that would benefit as many people as possible.
5 million yuan in the bank would generate 414,000 yuan in annual interest!
If this money was used for scholarships, counting both undergraduates and graduate students, choosing 1,000 recipients would mean over 400 yuan per person.
In reality, not that many people could receive awards. Since it was a scholarship, it should encourage students to work harder. How could it motivate everyone to study more diligently if it was too easy to get?
So the school created several tiers, like living allowances.
Evaluated annually, with first-class scholarships at 500 yuan.
Du Zhaohui thought a few hundred yuan wasn’t enough for him to take a girlfriend to dinner at a hotel, but in the mainland in 1985, any student receiving a 500 yuan scholarship during their school years meant significant income not just for the student but for their family. This money was legitimately earned through their efforts. Being able to support their family financially while still in university was truly a lifeline for students from poor backgrounds.
Whatever Du Zhaohui’s purpose, regardless of what business the Du family did in Hong Kong, Xia Xiaolan thought the Cheng Rong Group’s scholarship donation was right and praiseworthy.
Money itself wasn’t wrong – whether the Du family’s money was blood-stained was for Hong Kong’s judicial system to judge.
If they broke laws in the mainland, the mainland would handle it!
The Du family’s choice to donate money to education wasn’t wrong. Xia Xiaolan wouldn’t criticize the Du family from a moral high ground, even if they donated small money hoping for big returns… Students were still benefiting, what was wrong with that? It was better than the Du family using money to corrupt honest officials, right?
The Cheng Rong Group probably learned their lesson from Tang Hong’en, discovering that most mainland officials had strong principles, so they changed tactics to donate educational funds.
Xia Xiaolan had contact with Du Zhaohui, and because of Xia Dajun, their contact wouldn’t be just this once.
She needed to analyze Du Zhaohui as a person.
A typical rich kid, with wandering eyes when looking at people.
Beneath his frivolity lay deep schemes.
Du Zhaohui was only in his twenties.
The Cheng Rong Group’s young master wasn’t simple at all.
Such people should be very vigilant; Xia Dajun was lucky to gain his trust.
Opportunities were unpredictable. If Xia Dajun had stayed in Dahe Village, his later life would have been predictable – maybe remarrying, continuing to be pushed around by the Xia family, contributing everything to them!
When Xia Dajun disappeared from the hospital and left Dahe Village, wasn’t that an opportunity?
Who knew what Xia Dajun experienced before seizing the opportunity to become Du Zhaohui’s bodyguard? Never mind Xia Dajun climbing up to become close to the group’s young master – even if Xia Dajun himself became wealthy, Xia Xiaolan wouldn’t have anything in common with such a person.
She wouldn’t care for him, nor would she covet his wealth. Du Zhaohui thought Xia Xiaolan would regret seeing the donation ceremony and actively seek him out – Young Master Du was bound to be disappointed!
Young Master Du’s aura was all built on the Cheng Rong Group’s money.
Xia Xiaolan’s life was already so full, that even Zhou Cheng had to work hard to squeeze in. She wouldn’t spare a second glance for someone as frivolous as Du Zhaohui – in short, when she looked at Du Zhaohui, she thought about their different camps, wondering if he would cause her trouble in the future, with no other emotions.
If anything, it was keeping a respectful distance.
Xia Xiaolan again lamented that she wasn’t strong enough.
But she couldn’t rush such things. From ’83 to January ’85, it had only been just over a year. Starting from nothing to reach where she was now, Xia Xiaolan felt she hadn’t done enough, yet knew she couldn’t go any faster. The Ji family’s position was accumulated over decades. The Du family’s wealth was the same, their current foundation was built on past sweat. Xia Xiaolan wasn’t willing to take shortcuts, wanting to do honest business, so she couldn’t rush even if she wanted to.
Though that was true, Du Zhaohui’s appearance had wound Xia Xiaolan’s spring tighter.
She finally made time to discuss loans with Branch Manager Wu.
Manager Wu welcomed loans to quality clients.
Quality clients weren’t judged by their ability to repay on time but by their ability to solve Manager Wu’s problems.
Xia Xiaolan offered her Shichahai house and soon-to-open store as collateral for a loan. Manager Wu wasn’t worried about her ability to repay:
“Is 200,000 yuan enough?”
The house and store together weren’t worth 200,000, and the store wasn’t even Xia Xiaolan’s. If she couldn’t repay, the bank would have another bad debt.
But Manager Wu didn’t care. The bank didn’t lack one more bad debt – those poorly performing units were all waiting for bank loans to pay salaries. Even knowing the units couldn’t be repaid, banks still had to issue loans for various reasons.
Xia Xiaolan hadn’t expected Manager Wu to be so straightforward.
With 200,000, she could open three stores at once.
Could she manage enough staff?
When Xia Xiaolan heard the interest rate, she stopped worrying about staffing issues.
“…Then I’ll buy another 20,000 in government bonds to support national construction!”