Chapter 91

Zhou Andong organized his thoughts: “First, focus on the big and let go of the small—keep large enterprises under state control, and that’s upholding socialism. Small enterprises don’t control the nation’s lifelines and don’t affect the dominance of public ownership; they can be boldly experimented with, and even if problems arise, it’s no big deal.”

“But I want to emphasize two points: one, don’t hand the proceeds from sales over to the State Assets Bureau for unified management. Two, don’t distribute large dividends, because enterprises are currently struggling—keep the money as working capital to strengthen their self-development capacity.”

“Also, adopt the shareholding cooperative system: sell the enterprise’s net assets to its own employees. This model fully mobilizes employee initiative—they work for themselves, and the more prosperous the factory becomes, the more money they earn. There’s no way they’ll drift through life like during the days of the communal pot, where it made no difference whether you worked hard or slacked off.”

Zhou Andong couldn’t help it—he pulled out a cigarette from his pocket. The old man tossed a pack from his desk: “Smoke these.”

Zhou Andong caught it, took one out, lit it, then shamelessly slipped the whole pack into his own pocket, sneaking a glance at the old man.

The old man’s lips twitched slightly, pretending not to notice, and pulled out another pack from his drawer. This old man really had a bad habit—he’d already lit another cigarette so soon.

Zhou Andong took a drag and continued: “Lastly, the government must transform its functions. The key to reform is to unleash enterprise vitality—administrative interference must be minimized. The crucial part is to properly supervise leadership teams and straighten out relationships. The danger of micromanaging is that you’ll never fully let go, and problems will still arise.”

The old man looked at Zhou Andong: “That’s it?”

Zhou Andong nodded: “That’s it!”

The old man pointed vaguely at Zhou Andong and said disapprovingly: “You little rascal isn’t being honest.”

Zhou Andong gave a forced laugh. Some things weren’t suitable for him to say, but since the old man had expressed dissatisfaction, he had no choice but to push forward.

“First, establish clear reform goals—explicitly propose building a modern enterprise system, using property rights reform as the breakthrough point, and explore multiple forms to invigorate small and medium enterprises. All reforms must revolve around this goal, eliminate doubts, strengthen confidence, and ensure the direction of reform doesn’t change and the pace doesn’t stop.”

“Second, adopt the right working approach—treat reform, development, and stability as an integrated whole, pilot first, then expand gradually. Focus on starting with pilot projects, and only promote them after obtaining replicable experience.”

“Third, uphold the people-centered principle, protect employee interests, and ensure the broad masses of workers understand, participate in, and support reform, willingly becoming the main force behind it. The Chinese Dream is the nation’s dream, the people’s dream, and also every individual’s dream.”

“Fourth—and most importantly—select and utilize reformers well. Be courageous in taking responsibility. We need to advance reform according to law, explore innovation, and above all, we need a large number of reformers with vision and boldness, passion and resilience, ideas and methods, ability and accountability.”

“Good!” the old man said happily. “That’s more like it. Don’t always hold back.”

Zhou Andong smiled. He’d talked too much and was thirsty—he picked up his teacup and took a sip.

At that moment, the old man said: “If I gave you the Jiangzhou Distillery, could you make it succeed?”

“Cough!” Zhou Andong choked violently. He didn’t think the old man was serious, but still shook his head: “I won’t do it.”

The old man wasn’t surprised. In his mind, someone like Zhou Andong would naturally think differently from others.

“Why?”

Zhou Andong answered honestly: “It’s a thankless job. Whether you succeed or fail, you’ll offend a lot of people, and you’ll gain nothing for yourself.”

“Reform and opening-up will surely succeed. In less than twenty years, our country will stand again at the pinnacle of the world, and the entire globe will be stunned by China’s speed.”

“So, as this great era of reform and opening-up arrives, I also want to dive into business—to become one of those people you mentioned who get rich first.”

The old man asked: “What kind of benefit would make you take over the distillery?”

Zhou Andong bluffed: “Like foreign senior executives—give me a high salary and equity. I guarantee that within three years, sales will reach two hundred million yuan, making it the largest liquor company in the country, and every employee will live in apartments and eat meat every day.”

The old man nodded approvingly: “Alright, that’s enough for today.”

Zhou Andong stood up, and as he left, he bowed deeply to the old man with utmost respect. For this man who had fed over a billion people, his admiration was genuine.

Zhou Andong went downstairs and saw a young man in his early thirties sitting on the living room sofa. The guy looked like a red-rooster—he wore a red suit, a red tie, red shoes, and had his hair slicked back.

“Gu Bing, I never thought you’d sink so low—you’re actually wasting your time at some tiny distillery in Jiangzhou.”

Gu Bing sat across from the red-rooster and sneered: “The distillery may be small, but I revived it myself. It’s still better than you, Pu Zhenrong, mooching around, swindling and conning everyone.”

The red-rooster scoffed: “Do you think I don’t know? If it weren’t for that guy Zhou Andong giving you advice, you’d probably be buried in a ditch by now.”

Pu—such a rare surname. Now it appeared here. Zhou Andong already knew who this red-rooster was.

“Leader!” Zhou Andong walked over. “Who’s this? Introduce me.”

“Zhou Andong.” Before Gu Bing could speak, the red-rooster grabbed Zhou Andong’s hand enthusiastically. “The old man has praised you more than once, so I came here specially to wait for you.”

“You came here specially to wait for me?” Zhou Andong was surprised. “Wait for what?”

“Of course, to do business,” the red-rooster said matter-of-factly. “You turned a nearly bankrupt distillery around—you must be great at making money.”

Zhou Andong looked at this fool and said, half-laughing, half-exasperated: “You really believe I can make money?”

The red-rooster said: “It’s not that I believe in you—it’s that I believe in the old man. If he says you’re extraordinary, then you are.”

Zhou Andong’s heart stirred. Damn, I’ve been worrying about getting foreign currency—and here it comes!

“You really want to make money?”

“Of course!” the red-rooster said. “Who’d ever say money bites their hand?”

Zhou Andong said: “There’s actually a big business opportunity. You don’t have to do anything—I can give you a thirty percent profit in one year.”

The red-rooster perked up immediately: “Thirty percent profit in a year?”

“Yes!” Zhou Andong said. “Net profit. But you need U.S. dollars—and a lot of them.”