Chapter 1216: Monstrous Waves

Outside, the sky slowly darkened, and the lights in Li Xingquan's office flickered on.

A thick stack of documents sat on his desk, but he had no heart to look at them.

Time ticked away. He had smoked more than half a pack of cigarettes and drank nearly a whole thermos of tea, watching the hour hand jump to eight o'clock.

"Ring..."

The long-awaited phone finally rang. Li Xingquan quickly picked it up: "Where are you?"

A man's voice came through the receiver: "We'll be there in about half an hour."

"Good!"

Li Xingquan hung up, excited, and stood up to put on his coat before leaving the office.

His secretary, Sun Xuehui, saw how happy his leader was and knew the guests were arriving soon.

"Notify everyone immediately: gather at the provincial road entrance to welcome them."

Li Xingquan instructed his secretary, his pace never slowing as he headed out.

Sun Xuehui nodded and trotted toward the conference room, where everyone was waiting.

"Leaders, the Xiangjiang inspection delegation is arriving soon. We are to head out of the city immediately to the provincial road entrance to welcome them."

The people waiting in the conference room perked up and hurried out.

Standing by the window, Executive Vice Mayor Liu Jing watched Li Xingquan and his group get into their cars, a cold smile appearing on his face.

"The wind is rising in Ganzhou. Li Xingquan, oh Li Xingquan, I hope you can stand firm and not trip."

Liu Jing stood by the window for a while, then turned, picked up his teacup from the desk, and left his office.

Yu Wei had just stepped out of his own office when he saw Liu Jing walking over with a teacup, which left him stunned. He quickly said:

"Vice Mayor Liu!"

Liu Jing smiled: "Old Liu hasn't left yet, has he?"

"Not yet," Yu Wei replied quickly.

Liu Jing said: "For this period, Mayor Li has been leading the team to accompany the Xiangjiang inspection delegation, and Vice Mayor Xie has been accompanying them too. They've dumped all the work at home on me, and I'm swamped, so I've come to chat with Old Liu."

Yu Wei's eyes lit up. Suppressing his excitement, he knocked on the office door.

"Come in!" Liu Zhengming's voice came from inside.

"I'll go in myself," Liu Jing said, pushing the door open and walking in.

Liu Zhengming looked up to see Liu Jing and was stunned. He stood up immediately: "Vice Mayor Liu, if you had something to discuss, a phone call would have sufficed. Why come in person?"

"Old Liu, we're colleagues; don't be so formal," Liu Jing said with a smile, sitting on the sofa.

Liu Zhengming smiled too, but he was secretly bewildered. Since he took office,

aside from necessary exchanges during meetings, they had had no private contact.

Yet today, Liu Jing had come to his office in person; the situation felt a bit strange.

"I have some good tea here. Would you like to try it?"

Liu Zhengming took a small box from his drawer and shook it proudly.

Liu Jing's eyes lit up. He stood up and dumped the tea in his own cup into the trash can.

"Brew me some quickly."

Liu Zhengming personally brewed a cup for Liu Jing: "See what you think."

Liu Jing held the cup, first smelling it, then blowing on the tea leaves floating on top before taking a sip.

"Hmm?" Liu Jing's eyes brightened: "Good tea. This is top-grade Maojian."

Liu Zhengming laughed heartily: "A while ago, an old classmate of mine came to see me and brought me a bit."

Liu Jing nodded, took another sip, and said quite casually: "Old Liu, what are your thoughts on the economic development of Ganzhou?"

Liu Jing had come to his office out of the blue, and now he was asking for his views on Ganzhou's economic development. This left him even more confused, but he pondered for a moment and said:

"For Ganzhou to develop, investment attraction is the top priority. However, investors are precious and scarce market-economy resources. Every county and department must value, compete for, and guide investors well to achieve win-win cooperation.

Then there is service. Serving investors is serving development; it benefits the people's livelihood. We must unswervingly attract investment and unswervingly expand investment.

Furthermore, we should learn from Guangdong Province and establish chambers of commerce to leverage the role of chambers and market entities in attracting investment. We must fully utilize the role of chambers and enterprises as bridges, links, and promoters, supporting them in attracting investment through business, groups, and industrial chains.

Most crucially, and most importantly, all levels of government and relevant departments must unswervingly perform investment service work, striving to build a legal, fair, honest, and convenient investment ecosystem.

We must resolutely put an end to 'eating, taking, carding, and demanding' (corruption/extortion); every instance discovered must be dealt with strictly. At the micro level, work must be concrete, connecting projects point-to-point, promoting projects to every interested investor or partner, and operating with precision.

We must continuously improve the targeting and effectiveness of investment attraction. At the macro level, we must serve every investor with legal thinking, legal concepts, and legal methods. The government and investors must act according to the law, without taking crooked paths or shortcuts, embodying the principle of the rule of law.

People regardless of origin, money regardless of whether it is private or public—conditions, opportunities, and procedures must be open, fair, and just, embodying the market principle. The government, enterprises, and citizens must participate together to build an honest social system, treating each other with honesty and handling affairs with honesty, embodying the principle of integrity.

While deepening reform, we must transform our work style, optimize approval procedures, improve efficiency, provide convenient and efficient services, and promote greater convenience in trade and investment..."

Liu Jing listened carefully, his heart growing more surprised by the moment. This Liu Zhengming really had substance.

His thoughts and ideas regarding Ganzhou's future economic construction were very similar to his own.

"Old Liu!" Liu Jing exclaimed with emotion: "You've truly taken me by surprise today. I should have come to chat with you and seek your advice much sooner."

Liu Zhengming smiled and shook his head: "For the past year or so, I haven't had much to do, so I've just been pondering these things, hoping that one day they could truly be implemented."

"Opportunity always favors those who are prepared." Liu Jing looked at Liu Zhengming, his eyes filled with appreciation: "Ganzhou will definitely have a place for you to shine."

Liu Zhengming was stunned. What did that mean? He wondered secretly: Had Liu Jing taken the wrong medicine?

Or had he drunk too much, walked into the wrong room, and come to him to talk nonsense?

Liu Jing seemed to know what Liu Zhengming was thinking and smiled slightly: "I came over just to chat with you. Perhaps we will be working together as a team in the future, so we have to build some rapport first, don't we?"

Liu Jing looked at Liu Zhengming's face, but it remained calm; he couldn't read anything.

Liu Zhengming smiled faintly: "Old Liu, I'm not young anymore. You shouldn't make such jokes; my heart can't take it."

Liu Jing laughed heartily, stood up holding his teacup: "The wind is rising in Ganzhou, and the eye of the storm is in Lingbei Town. Have you made all the arrangements?"

Hearing this, Liu Zhengming could no longer maintain his composure. His face changed drastically, and monstrous waves surged in his heart.