Chapter 2386: Take care on your way to Yanbei!

In late October, Su Xinghui and Lu Xiaoya arrived in the capital together. At Elder Yu's strong insistence, they temporarily moved into the Yu residence. Faced with the old man's earnest expectations, Su Xinghui found it difficult to refuse.

Furthermore, living at Elder Yu's home was indeed safer. There were staff to take care of their daily needs and professional healthcare doctors on hand. Niuniu could also be looked after by them for the time being; once Niuniu was a bit older, he could attend nursery school and kindergarten.

Of course, once the Planning Commission allocated stable housing for Su Xinghui, he planned to move there. Living at Elder Yu's home for the long term would be too extravagant.

After Su Xinghui's family was settled at Elder Yu's, Su Xinghui first went to see Premier Nan.

Premier Nan was clearly very pleased that Su Xinghui had come to the capital to report for duty so quickly. He had originally granted Su Xinghui a half-month vacation to spend more time at home, but Su Xinghui had arrived so soon. Premier Nan greatly admired such decisive and efficient action.

Premier Nan said happily, "Xinghui, welcome to the capital!"

Su Xinghui nodded with a smile and said, "Thank you, Premier!"

Premier Nan asked, "Do you have any objections to this position as a researcher?"

Su Xinghui replied, "I have no objections. The Premier's arrangements must have their reasons."

Premier Nan explained, "This is mainly because I intend to send you to a state-owned enterprise to lead their reform work. Therefore, you cannot sit in an office at the Planning Commission for the time being; I can only arrange the position of researcher for you. Once you have opened up the situation there, I will immediately transfer you back to the Planning Commission."

Su Xinghui naturally understood. Since Premier Nan had positioned him as a vanguard, he was meant to charge into the front lines; it was impossible for him to sit in a ministry office every day. This was, in fact, his purpose for coming to the capital. If he had wanted to sit in an office, he would have come years ago—why wait until now?

Su Xinghui said, "Your arrangement is excellent. I came here precisely to serve as the vanguard!"

Seeing Su Xinghui's spirited appearance, Premier Nan admired him from the bottom of his heart. He loved young people who were willing to take on responsibilities and had the ability to get things done. How similar he was to himself when he was young! He was perhaps even more outstanding than he had been at that age.

Premier Nan asked, "Have you settled your family affairs? Where are you staying in the capital? Do you need me to arrange a place for you?"

Su Xinghui replied, "That won't be necessary. My family affairs are all settled. Upon arriving in the capital, Elder Yu asked me to stay with him first. I thought that I might not be able to stay in the capital for long, so I am temporarily staying at Elder Yu's."

Although Premier Nan did not say which state-owned enterprise Su Xinghui would be working at, Su Xinghui estimated it would not be one in the capital. The waters in the capital's state-owned enterprises were too deep; Premier Nan likely wouldn't have Su Xinghui start working here, but rather in the surrounding areas, to let him adapt first. That was why he said he might not be able to stay in the capital for long.

Premier Nan nodded and said, "Staying at Elder Yu's? That's good. Your wife and child can be taken care of there, so you won't have any worries behind you. In that case, I am going to place a heavy burden on your shoulders."

Su Xinghui puffed out his chest and said, "Please rest assured, Premier. I came here this time prepared to shoulder heavy burdens!"

Premier Nan asked again, "When will your wife report for duty?"

Lu Xiaoya had been arranged to work at the Capital Municipal Propaganda Department. This time, her rank had been raised by one level, making her a deputy section-level official. In truth, this was a bit slow given her ability and qualifications, but this was because Su Xinghui had deliberately suppressed it. For him to be a high-ranking official while his wife was also a high-ranking official—that was never a pleasant thing to hear.

Therefore, Lu Xiaoya's rank has remained only that of a section-level cadre for these past two years. Come to think of it, even though Lu Zhenghong has become the provincial governor, Song Qiaoli is now merely an ordinary cadre in the cultural system; she has not followed the path of many leaders where the wife shares in the husband's glory, a strange phenomenon where the leader's wife is also a leader.

Lu Xiaoya did not mind at all; in fact, she didn't even want to be a high-ranking official. She felt she wasn't cut out for it and that it was enough for her to manage the household well.

Su Xinghui said, "She will probably need another two days; she needs to get our son settled."

Premier Nan nodded and said, "Fine, let her rest for a few more days."

Su Xinghui just smiled slightly; he was waiting for Premier Nan to get to the point.

Sure enough, after a few pleasantries, Premier Nan's expression turned serious again: "Xinghui, I intend for you to go to the Yanzhong Textile Group in Yanbei Province this time. You will lead a working group to go there and take charge of their institutional reform."

As he spoke, Premier Nan handed a file to Su Xinghui, signaling him to take a look.

Su Xinghui quickly flipped through the file. The person opposite him was Premier Nan, a man with a thousand things to do every day; he dared not waste any more of the Premier's time.

Su Xinghui read very quickly, and his memory was excellent. After reading it once, the basic situation of the Yanzhong Textile Group was already in his mind.

Yanbei Province was north of the capital and was one of China's important old industrial bases. Yanzhong City was the provincial capital of Yanbei Province, and the Yanzhong Textile Group was the largest state-owned enterprise in Yanzhong City.

The predecessor of the Yanzhong Textile Group was the Yanzhong No. 1 Cotton Mill. In the mid-1980s, the Yanzhong No. 1 Cotton Mill was extremely glorious. They successively merged with several other factories in the Yanzhong textile system, and their scale expanded rapidly. The current workforce reached nearly 30,000 people—a huge number—and their name was changed to the Yanzhong Textile Group.

By the end of the 1980s, the Yanzhong Textile Group's looms had developed to over 20,000 units, the number of spindles reached over one million, and their annual output value reached over 300 million, with profits reaching the astonishing figure of 100 million.

What kind of concept was this? At that time, the total output value of a county was roughly that figure, and fiscal revenue was far from reaching the 100 million level.

It could be said that in the ten years from the end of the 1970s to the end of the 1980s, the taxes and profits turned over by the Yanzhong Textile Group were enough to build several more Yanzhong Textile Groups.

But after entering the 1990s, the Yanzhong Textile Group began to decline rapidly. In any case, the Yanzhong Textile Group lacked none of the various reasons for the decline of state-owned enterprises. Now they had fallen into difficulty; they were insolvent, and their net losses and liabilities were a huge figure. Looking at the current report, this figure had already reached 700 to 800 million.

Now, the Yanzhong Textile Group, including its various branch factories, had been shut down for two or three years. Their workers had not received a single cent of wages for nearly a year. Although they had stopped production for the past two years, they had relied on a little bit of their old foundation to issue living expenses of 100 to 200 yuan per person per month to the staff. Now, even those living expenses had been stopped.

Could such an enterprise not be reformed? But now, this place had become a quagmire, and their reform had fallen into a stagnant stage. Although several enterprises that wanted to cooperate with them had come to negotiate, some were scared away after seeing their current situation, while others proposed conditions that were too harsh, making them not even worth discussing.

Su Xinghui read through it quickly and roughly understood their situation. He then raised his head and said to Premier Nan, "I have finished reading."

As he spoke, he handed the file back to Premier Nan.

Premier Nan asked, "You've finished? What are your thoughts?"

Su Xinghui smiled bitterly and said, "Premier, this is indeed a heavy burden!"

Premier Nan laughed and said, "Don't think this is the heaviest burden. There are some burdens much heavier than this that I haven't given you yet."

Su Xinghui certainly believed Premier Nan's words. There were too many large state-owned enterprises, and quite a few were currently in difficulty. No matter how things were in Yanbei Province, the situation there was not as complex as in the capital. Su Xinghui still had a certain degree of confidence in handling this matter well. ===== CHAPTER 2388 =====