Chapter 325

On September 25, the County Party Committee Standing Committee was convened, and the personnel adjustment plan submitted by the Organization Department was reviewed and passed.

Because the Education Bureau had heavy responsibilities, County Party Committee Secretary Lu Fan personally conducted a pre-appointment talk and a clean-governance talk with Cao Chunlei.

Lu Fan first expressed his congratulations on Cao Chunlei's growth and progress, then focused on aspects such as being political, being responsible, being clean, and being disciplined. He required Cao Chunlei to change his role as soon as possible, treat power correctly, firmly establish a consciousness of serving the people, play a pioneering and exemplary role, influence and drive the vast number of cadres and staff in the education system, gather powerful strength for work and entrepreneurship, overcome difficulties with stronger perseverance, serve the people with a more practical style, and make new and greater contributions to the high-quality development of Ganshui County's education cause.

Lu Fan also put forward six requirements for Cao Chunlei: 1. Ganshui High School should create a provincial-level key high school; 2. The number of students admitted to Yingzhong should exceed one hundred; 3. Improve the professional level and overall quality of the teaching staff; 4. Successfully complete the school merger work during the winter break and properly settle the principals who were not selected; 5. Thoroughly reduce the burden on teachers, reduce those miscellaneous assigned tasks as much as possible, and let schools return to the essence of teaching; 6. Comprehensively improve teaching quality, return the discipline ruler to the teachers, the Education Bureau must support the teachers, and the County Party Committee will provide a safety net for the Education Bureau!

Cao Chunlei resolutely stated: He would strengthen his party spirit, maintain political firmness, firmly establish a consciousness of serving the people, perform his duties well, and with a pragmatic and innovative attitude and a clean and honest style, successfully complete the work assigned by the organization and repay the organization's trust and expectations!

Education Bureau Director Cao Chunlei officially took office. While excited, he kept the six major tasks assigned by Secretary Lu firmly in his heart; this was the entirety of his work!

The October 1st Golden Week was coming up. These days, Lu Fan was focusing on studying the county's petition cases, planning to turn Ganshui County into a "three-no" county for petition work—no repeat petitions, no collective petitions, and no accumulated petition cases.

On September 29, Lu Fan received a call from Municipal Party Committee Deputy Secretary Guo Zhitao: Zhongqing Tourism would come to Ganshui for an inspection on October 1st. The Ganshui County Party Committee also received a letter sent by Zhongqing Tourism.

Lu Fan was very helpless and had to call Li Zimeng to explain, canceling their trip to Qinghai Lake. This Zhongqing Tourism really knew how to pick its time!

Li Zimeng was very magnanimous. Not only did she express understanding and support to Lu Fan, but she also said she would come to Ganshui; as long as the two of them were together, she would be happy even if they did nothing!

On October 1st, Zhongqing Tourism Group Chairman Ma Shaohua led an inspection team to Ganshui County to inspect and connect with cultural tourism investment projects. Municipal Party Committee Deputy Secretary Guo Zhitao accompanied them, and Ganshui County Party Committee Secretary Lu Fan, County Head Wang Baoguo, and Deputy County Head Li Junxia accompanied the inspection.

After meeting, Lu Fan expressed his gratitude to Secretary Guo Zhitao and welcomed Chairman Ma Shaohua and his party.

Ma Shaohua said with a beaming smile: "Ganshui County is a place of outstanding people and beautiful scenery. Zhongqing Tourism sincerely hopes to cooperate with Ganshui for mutual benefit!"

Lu Fan responded enthusiastically: "Ganshui will show the greatest sincerity, provide the highest quality service, and welcome people of insight to come to Ganshui to invest and start businesses!"

The inspection team went deep into the Laoshan Forest Park and the Grand Canyon, two representative scenic spots, to learn in detail about Ganshui's unique scenery and culture, and also surveyed and learned about the Tofu Town, the Ganshui Winery, and the Eighty-Thousand-Mile Dried Tofu Factory.

Lu Fan introduced in detail the basic concepts of Ganshui's cultural tourism industry development, its location advantages, landscape, ecological products, folk culture, and other situations. He stated that the 4A-level national tourist attraction, the Grand Canyon, had started the work of creating a 5A-level scenic spot and a World Geopark, the creation of the 3A-level Meishui Spring Cultural Heritage Park was about to be achieved, and Ganshui Tofu would also soon receive national geographical indication product certification.

Lu Fan hoped that Zhongqing Tourism could leverage its advantages in resources, capital, talent, and management to carry out cooperation with Ganshui County in scenic spot development, cultural tourism industry development, and infrastructure construction, and provide support for the high-quality development of Ganshui's cultural tourism industry.

After three days of on-site inspection, the inspection team gave high praise to Ganshui County's good cultural tourism resources. They believed that Ganshui County had rich tourism resources, a deep cultural heritage, good ecological conditions and investment environment, and unique cultural charm. It possessed unique resource endowments and broad space for developing the cultural tourism industry, and they were willing to further strengthen communication and exchanges with the Ganshui County Party Committee and conduct in-depth negotiations.

On October 4, the two sides held a symposium, introduced their respective basic situations, and exchanged speeches on the integrated development of the cultural tourism industry.

Chairman Ma Shaohua stated that through these days of on-site inspection, he believed Ganshui County was suitable for investment by the Zhongqing Tourism Group. He hoped that they could strengthen communication and contact between the two sides, closely combine with the overall plan for the development of Ganshui County's cultural tourism industry, carry out in-depth exchanges and cooperation, and achieve complementary advantages and win-win development.

Lu Fan instructed that the County Party Committee and County Government attached great importance to the cooperation with Zhongqing Tourism, and instructed the County Tourism Bureau to strengthen communication and connection with Zhongqing, hoping that both sides would draft a cooperation agreement framework as soon as possible!

Big things have small meetings, small things have big meetings, and important things have no meetings. Everyone knew that if they cooperated, the equity issue was the biggest dispute facing both sides, but this had to be discussed in private.

After the symposium ended, Municipal Party Committee Deputy Secretary Guo Zhitao communicated with Lu Fan separately and said earnestly: "Zhongqing Tourism is a well-known domestic tourism enterprise with very strong strength and rich experience in tourism resource development. That they can take a fancy to Ganshui is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for you. I hope Ganshui can seize this opportunity, actively carry out cooperation with Zhongqing Tourism, and jointly promote the development of Ganshui's tourism industry.

To facilitate cooperation, both of you need to have sufficient sincerity. You cannot be too tough on some key issues, and you should make appropriate compromises when it is time to make concessions!"

"Please rest assured, Secretary. We will definitely negotiate cooperation matters with Zhongqing Tourism with the most sincere attitude and the greatest sincerity, striving to achieve a win-win result!" On the surface, Lu Fan agreed fully, but in his heart, he had made up his mind that there must be a bottom line. Ganshui's interests could not be damaged, because the cooperation involved the well-being of all the people of Ganshui!

Before the luncheon, Lu Fan called County Tourism Bureau Director Dong Pengxin aside and specifically exhorted: "The cooperation between government and social capital is an important reform measure to transform government functions, stimulate market vitality, and create new economic growth points.

When talking about cooperation, you can generously promise in terms of streamlining administration and delegating power, optimizing services, simplifying administrative approval procedures, and policy support, but when it comes to issues involving the interests of the people of Ganshui, you must have principles and a bottom line!"

Although he generally understood the Secretary's meaning, he hadn't fully grasped it yet. Talking about cooperation was of great importance, and Dong Pengxin dared not have the slightest carelessness, so he gathered his courage and asked: "Secretary, forgive my dullness, I can't grasp the scale. Could you please clarify?"

Lu Fan smiled slightly and said: "Management rights can be given to them; they have advantages in this regard, but don't agree too readily; it can be used as a big concession in the negotiation. As for shares, the government must hold more than 51%. As for how much more, it depends on your ability. You can start talking from 70% and lower it bit by bit. Also, grasp one principle: Ganshui only provides resources, and not a single penny can be invested!"

Dong Pengxin couldn't help but exclaim: "Secretary, you are truly far-sighted! But I'm worried that talking like this will cause the talks to collapse!"

Lu Fan laughed: "Such a large investment cooperation cannot be settled in three or five talks. Many details need to be discussed tirelessly; it is definitely a long tug-of-war. As long as they are sincere about cooperating, the talks won't collapse completely. Our attitude must be to treat them with courtesy. On the negotiation table, we can be red-faced and not yield an inch, but once off the table, we are good friends and good partners, serving them with good food and drink!

Pengxin, after achieving satisfactory cooperation, I will record a great merit for you!"

Hearing this, Dong Pengxin immediately puffed out his chest and said resolutely: "Please rest assured, Secretary. I will definitely carry out my work according to your instructions, fight with them with wit and courage, will absolutely not sell out the interests of the people of Ganshui, and will not live up to the Secretary's expectations!"

Lu Fan would not worry about the rest for the time being, but he would keep focusing on it.

At 3:00 PM, Lu Fan and Li Zimeng set off for a tour around Yingjiang.

When people live and work in an environment for a long time, repeating the same things every day, they will feel tired, bored, and depressed, and their brains and bodies will crave more stimulation. Even if it's just driving out for a spin, it can change one's mood, release stress, and rediscover the joy of life and the motivation for work. This is probably the meaning of travel.

Appreciating the beautiful scenery along the way, listening to favorite music, and having a beloved by his side, Lu Fan felt very comfortable.

On the afternoon of October 6, Lu Fan took Li Zimeng back to Langcha Village to visit his second uncle and second aunt.

This was equivalent to meeting the parents. Li Zimeng brought a pile of gifts in big and small bags and was warmly received by the second uncle's family.

During the meal, the second uncle asked Lu Fan to make the decision and guide his cousin Lu Linfang on applying for a position in a career unit.

Lu Fan studied it for a while and told his cousin to apply for a remote township in the most remote county of Yingjiang City.

The second uncle was a bit unwilling and said: "Xiaofan, it's so far away, it's not convenient to go home, and it's hard for him to find a wife. Can't he apply to Ningyang or Ganshui?"

Lu Fan explained: "Second uncle, Ningyang and Ganshui are both close to the city, so many people apply and the competition is high. I'm worried Linfang won't be able to pass the exam. Let's apply to places where no one wants to go. The competition is small. I know some positions weren't even filled last year. Let's specifically pick those kinds of positions to apply for, and get on shore first. Once he has a position, I can help with things later; I won't let him stay holed up there forever!"

The second uncle understood and smiled: "I'll listen to you, let's pass the exam first! Xiaofan, you've made something of yourself now, and you've found a wife. Go burn some paper for your father and mother later, and let them be happy too!"

After the meal, Lu Fan carried the sacrificial offerings and paper money and took Li Zimeng to pay respects to his parents.

Lu Fan lit the incense, set up the offerings, knelt before the grave, and said softly: "Dad, Mom, this is my wife. I've brought her to see you!"

Li Zimeng also knelt down with Lu Fan. She picked up a stack of paper money, slowly put it into the fire, and said: "Dad, Mom, please rest assured. I will definitely take good care of Lu Fan and his sister for you, and spend the rest of my life with him, supporting each other!"

The flames of the burning paper money grew higher and higher, as if his parents' spirits in heaven were blessing them!