Chapter 884: You Forgot That the Rich Must Help the Poor

Zi Xia said: “When one excels in office, one should study; when one excels in study, one should serve in office.” Originally meaning that those with spare capacity after studying should take office, it later came to mean that those who read well could become officials.

This conclusion persisted in Huazhia for thousands of years, even reaching extremes in the Ming and Qing dynasties, where people became bookish fools who couldn’t tell grain from weeds from reading too rigidly.

After the new era, this attitude still existed, but became more practical than in the Ming and Qing dynasties—at least requiring some understanding of real society.

Unlike Ming and Qing officials, who needed no specialized knowledge to preside over court cases—only the ability to strike the wooden paddle.

Like Zhang Qiyan, a core figure among reformers in mainland economics, he is now riding a strong tide, transferred from school to the economic management system—his learning put to proper use.

The people in government offices are the shrewdest; as soon as Zhang Qiyan was promoted to Ruan’s unit, they began circling around Li Ye to establish connections.

After all, Zhang Qiyan is an industry titan, with a group of students supporting him in the Economic Committee, making him a leader of a faction, and his new position is likely significant.

So when Ruan’s father asked Li Ye if he knew Cai Minying, he was really testing how close Li Ye was to Zhang Qiyan.

Because Cai Minying was the student closest in age to Li Ye—if Li Ye didn’t even know her well, then he had no real connection to Zhang Qiyan.

In an office, building connections requires subtlety; too direct a move only makes you lose face.

【What a clever calculation!】

But it wasn’t summer vacation yet, and Zhang Qiyan suddenly stopped teaching and was reassigned—there must be a special reason.

Li Ye silently calculated the timeline in his mind and formed a guess.

So he asked Cai Minying: “When did the teacher get promoted? Did he even throw a promotion banquet? I knew nothing! Where does the teacher live now? I absolutely have to bring a few pig heads to apologize!”

Cai Minying said: “The teacher hasn’t moved yet, nor has he thrown a big celebration—but you should visit more often. From your unit to the teacher’s house is only a ten-minute drive. Even if you’re busy, can’t you spare ten minutes?”

“Yes yes yes, I’ve been so busy I’ve lost my head lately.”

After quickly admitting his fault, Li Ye casually asked Cai Minying: “Sister, you just said you had some questions you wanted to discuss with me? What are they?”

“Wait a moment!”

Cai Minying pulled out several notebooks, flipped through them, then picked up her cola and drank it down in one go, as if moistening her throat.

Li Ye blinked and immediately said: “If you want to discuss something with me, I’m fine—but if you want to fight with me, I don’t have time!”

Cai Minying raised an eyebrow at Li Ye, then said: “You manage operations and sales at Factory One, so you must understand the inflation situation in the mainland over the past two years.”

“With your sensitivity to economics, you must have your own speculations and predictions—so do you think this pace of inflation is beneficial or harmful to the mainland’s economic reform?”

Li Ye looked at Cai Minying and replied frankly: “It doesn’t affect our scale of unit much, but it hits small collective factories hard.”

“Production materials under plan are scarce, while market raw material prices keep rising—now whoever can get affordable raw materials can survive.”

Cai Minying said: “But township enterprises have also grown! According to incomplete statistics, the number of township enterprises nationwide has increased dozens of times over the past two years.”

Li Ye smiled: “Their numbers increased dozens of times—how many times did their tax payments increase?”

In the 80s and 90s, why were private business owners so afraid of being audited back thirty years? Because everyone was doing it—if you didn’t take advantage of the public, you were a fool.

But Cai Minying pulled out several sheets of data: “Look at these companies—they’re all affiliated enterprises, and their tax payments have grown rapidly every year, even better than state-owned enterprises.”

“There are companies like this?”

Li Ye took the papers in surprise, but after one look, he nearly exploded with anger.

Fenghua Apparel, Fengyu Electronics, Changbei Machinery—all were Li Ye’s own enterprises.

【You’re using me—a conscientious entrepreneur—to generalize about all township bosses in the country?】

When Li Ye taught Hao Jian, Jin Peng, Li Dayong, and others, he emphasized: “Don’t just enrich yourself—always think from the perspective of benefiting the country and the people.”

In this current private-sector bloodbath, after you make money, pay some to the state, give more to your workers, and even if what’s left is small, it still ensures you can eat your fill.

If you're truly gluttonous and greedy, like a pixiu that only eats and never excretes, suffering karma is the least of your worries—if the higher-ups come down with a slap, hehehe~

Even Sun Wukong would be crushed for five hundred years—think about it!

Li Ye tossed the documents down and said sternly: “These figures aren’t reliable—you must look at the national picture.”

“Also, if this trend continues, there may be overcapacity waste—when products are made but have no market, the consequences will be severe.”

Cai Minying stared at Li Ye in surprise, then asked sharply: “Li Ye, have you changed your thinking? No wonder you haven’t visited the teacher lately! Have you become conservative and corrupt after being promoted two ranks?”

【I’m not conservative or corrupt, not even a bit!】

Li Ye laughed bitterly.

He and several senior and junior classmates, including Cai Minying, often gathered at Zhang Qiyan’s home, discussing reform—and they all supported market economics. But Li Ye knew too many dead ends and pitfalls, so he firmly supported “reform with distinctive characteristics.”

Although the massive layoffs of the 90s had many complex causes, overcapacity was one of the key reasons.

Compared to the later strategy of coexisting state and private enterprises, many in the 80s supported full market liberalization.

For example, the “price breakthrough” set to begin this May is precisely the bold attempt by people like Cai Minying.

From May to the end of August, the mainland will fully liberalize market supplies, triggering the largest buying frenzy in history.

That’s probably why Zhang Qiyan was suddenly reassigned before the semester ended—likely tied to the upcoming major event.

So Li Ye didn’t beat around the bush—he asked directly: “Tell me straight—what are you planning to do?”

Cai Minying’s face tightened, coldly replying: “What are we planning to do? What do you mean by that?”

Li Ye realized he’d touched on “confidentiality principles,” triggering Cai Minying’s alertness.

Some policies cannot be leaked before release, for fear someone will exploit the information for advantage.

But Li Ye didn’t need anyone to give him inside information—he already had endless sources.

Li Ye smiled faintly: “You’re such a proud person—if you weren’t unsure about something, why would you come to argue with me?”

“.”

Cai Minying sat silent for a long while, then said quietly: “I didn’t mean to argue with you. I just thought you had unique insights into overseas economic conditions and domestic market changes, so I wanted to discuss the feasibility of deeper liberalization.”

Li Ye looked at Cai Minying, didn’t press further, and said calmly: “Our factory can get sufficient planned production materials, but since last year, I’ve deliberately stockpiled raw materials.”

“So if everything is fully liberalized, I believe production units will be hit hard—but the real impact will be on people’s livelihood.”

“Because here, we’re a public unit that doesn’t care—we don’t care if material prices rise and we lose money; it’s public money anyway. But if people’s personal wallets shrink drastically—will they care?”

“.”

Li Ye poured out half his thoughts, leaving out the most forward-looking ones.

If Li Ye said the upcoming price breakthrough would cause the public to hoard everything and inflate inflation to astonishing levels, would Cai Minying later treat him as a “prophet” and come daily for fortune-telling?

But Li Ye never imagined that merely voicing half his thoughts would “anger” Cai Minying.

“Then according to you, why bother with reform at all? Why not just follow old routines and drift through life?”

“No no no—I mean some goods can be gradually liberalized, but things vital to people’s livelihood and national survival must remain under state control.”

“Isn’t that still half-baked? The successful experience of Western developed countries is right there—why refuse to learn advanced methods and insist on building a carriage in isolation, being so timid and indecisive?”

“What do you mean ‘building a carriage in isolation’ and ‘timid and indecisive’? Aren’t we constantly reforming?”

“No, Li Ye—you’ve changed. You act one way in public and another in private. You forgot that the rich must help the poor. You’ve made yourself rich beyond measure, yet you’re blocking others from getting rich.”

“.”

Li Ye froze.

He had indeed made himself rich beyond measure—richer than almost everyone else on earth—but he’d never once thought to block others from making money.

“You don’t know shit!”

“Bang!”

Li Ye slammed the table, grabbed his cola, and drank it down in one gulp, throat moistened, ready to argue with Cai Minying.