Chapter 16

Su Mu did not expect the scene to be so grand. He originally thought that just making a phone call and going through the necessary procedures would be enough. After arriving, he planned to lead He Sheng and the others to go through the formalities, then have a meal at Wang Laosan's place. If possible, he would take them to visit the Da Liushu Primary School for a look around.

However, he did not expect that all the officials from the Heishan Town Party Committee and government would be present, making the reception truly grand!

After a brief moment of surprise, Su Mu quickly regained his composure and walked forward, taking on the role of the introducer, "Old Secretary, Town Mayor, these are the successful entrepreneurs who heard about the situation of our Heishan Town primary school and want to contribute their share of love. This is He Sheng, the general manager and chairman of Hongfa Trading Company, which deals with aquatic products in Shengjing City. Mr. He, this is our Heishan Town Party Secretary Liang, this is Town Mayor Yang, and this is..."

After a series of polite introductions, Liang Changgui, representing Heishan Town, led He Sheng and the others into the government meeting room and said with a smile, "I really appreciate Chairman He and all the managers for coming to our Heishan Town to contribute your love to these children. Since you've come from afar, I won't say too many formalities. Let's have a meal first. After the meal, we can talk about other things, okay?"

"Guests follow the host's convenience!" He Sheng said calmly.

If it weren't for Ye Xi, He Sheng would never have said such words. Visiting the Da Liushu Primary School was something he had never even considered.

Heishan Town was indeed poor, but He Sheng's money didn't come from the wind. As long as he and the others donated the funds Su Mu needed, they didn't care about the rest. As for officials like Liang Changgui and Yang Song, they didn't even put them in their minds.

After all, in Shengjing City, any one of He Sheng and his group could easily socialize with department-level officials. County-level officials were simply too insignificant.

As for Ye Xi, she never got out of the minibus, sitting in it the whole time. This kind of scene was not suitable for her to appear in, and she didn't want others to think that Su Mu was relying on her.

"Are you hungry? Do you want me to take you somewhere else to eat?" Su Mu smiled as he got back into the car.

"How did you come over? Don't you need to accompany He Sheng and the others?" Ye Xi asked in surprise.

"Do you think a small town mayor like me would have a chance to get close in such a situation? Don't worry, with Old Secretary and Mayor Yang here, they can handle it. The rest of the matters can be left to them. My task is to accompany you well," Su Mu said with a smile.

Knowing that Su Mu was telling the truth, and that the rest was just formalities, Ye Xi stood up with a smile, "They all went to have a meal, I don't want to go to such a noisy place. I brought some things this time. Let's just eat in the car."

"Beautiful lady's command, how can I refuse?" Su Mu smiled and sat down next to Ye Xi, immediately smelling a faint, refreshing scent that was very comfortable and invigorating.

Ye Xi took out a bunch of snacks and two cans of beer from her bag, opened them, and handed them to Su Mu with a smile, "I know you have a smoking habit, don't worry about me, just smoke."

"Let's eat first. By the way, you said on the phone that we would make a lot of money. What do you mean?" Su Mu drank his beer, looked at the beauty, and ate bread, feeling very relaxed.

"I thought you could hold out for a while, but you couldn't resist, could you?" Ye Xi teased, directly opening her small handbag and handing over a Bank of China card.

"I handed the three antiques to an auction house through a friend. Surprisingly, the auction made more money than if I had sold them individually. The three antiques were auctioned for a total of four million yuan. Four million! I can't even imagine it. Just the horse alone sold for 2.5 million yuan," Ye Xi said, her mood very excited.

"I deducted all the fees and put the remaining money into this bank card. There's about 3.8 million yuan. Keep it well."

3.8 million yuan? Hearing this number, Su Mu was clearly shocked. This was not a small amount of money, 3.8 million yuan. If he relied on his salary, it would take him a very long time to save up this much.

Now, just by finding three antiques, he had smoothly obtained this money. The money came so quickly! If he found more antiques, he would make a fortune!

In the past, Su Mu would have been excited for a long time, but now, with the Official Ranking in his hands, he was only briefly excited and then not very excited.

"Ye Xi, I said this money is your start-up capital. You've always wanted to apply what you've learned in practice, right? This is a good opportunity. You studied economics, so you should know that keeping money in the bank to earn interest is the least promising. The best way to operate is to invest and make more money," Su Mu said with a smile, pushing the bank card directly to Ye Xi without even blinking.

With the Official Ranking in hand, the world is mine!

Compared to this, Su Mu really didn't care about this money!

"Are you not afraid I'll run away with the money?" Ye Xi joked.

"Not afraid!" Su Mu laughed, "It's just a few million. In the future, we'll be billionaires. Then you'll realize that this amount of money is nothing."

"Okay!" Ye Xi bit her lip, put the bank card away, and said without any pretense, "Su Mu, I'll take this money as our first pot of gold. No matter how much I make in the future, there will be your share. Since you understand antique appraisal, I plan to start a company specializing in antique trading. What do you think?"

"Good, why not!" Su Mu laughed, "Let's start with antique trading. You focus on collecting antiques, as many as you can. Once we make this big, we can develop other areas. For example, luxury goods, acquiring other companies, physical businesses, or entering emerging industries like communication technology. In short, I trust you."

"You not going into business is a waste. You were the top talent in our economics and management department. How did you end up in politics? I can't understand it! Never mind, I know you don't like to hear this, so I won't say it. But this money is too much. You can't avoid socializing as an official. Here, give me your bank card number, and I'll transfer some of it back to you. Let's take the change and transfer it to you."

"Do what you want, I'll listen to you!" Su Mu pretended to make a small joke.

"Go to hell, who said 'our home'!" Ye Xi's face turned red at this. If the people familiar with her saw her like this, they would be shocked.

"Isn't it 'our home'?" Su Mu, in a very good mood, continued to tease her.

"I'll strangle you if you say 'our home' again!"

"Don't, it really hurts."

"Hmph, who asked you to be so smooth, I'll strangle you!"

...

Everything went very smoothly. After the meal, the donation matters for He Sheng and the others were all settled. However, the amount was not the few ten thousand yuan Su Mu initially expected, but a staggering 300,000 yuan!

Su Mu knew what 300,000 yuan meant. Especially in a place like Heishan Town, where the annual fiscal revenue was only a few ten thousand yuan. Suddenly having 300,000 yuan, such a large sum, it was impossible for no one to be tempted!

Fortunately, with Liang Changgui in charge, he directly promised in front of He Sheng that every penny of the 300,000 yuan would be spent on the right things and recorded.

Heishan Town would form a special task force, with Liang Changgui as the leader, Yang Song as the deputy leader, and Su Mu as the direct implementer, ensuring that every penny was spent wisely.

After completing these simple procedures, He Sheng said goodbye to Su Mu, and Ye Xi also got back into the car. The group left as suddenly as they had come. If it weren't for the 300,000 yuan on the books, Yang Song would have thought it was all a dream.

In the Heishan Town government meeting room.

Liang Changgui sat in the main seat, looked at the few people on both sides, and said with a cough, "Everyone, you've all seen what happened today. The county has issued a notice for us to renovate the dilapidated houses in Heishan Town. Thanks to Su Mu's efforts, we've secured this funding. I want to hear everyone's opinions on how to use this money."

That's right, if the renovation of the Da Liushu Primary School's dilapidated houses were all to be done with flat buildings, 80,000 yuan would be enough! What to do with the remaining 200,000 yuan was a big problem.

"I'll speak first. Secretary, Mayor, you've all seen that our office building is really too old. Other towns have already been renovated, but we are still the same. My suggestion is to use this money to renovate the primary school and also to repair the office building," Ma Yangfan said first.

"I agree. If there's any money left, we can add some furniture to the office. After so many years, it's time for Heishan Town to change its appearance," He Chengli said with a smile.

"That won't do. This funding is specifically for education and can only be used to renovate the primary school. Renovating the office building on such a large scale would likely have a bad impact and damage the credibility of our government," Zhang An said calmly.

"You can't say that. If it were only a few ten thousand yuan, I wouldn't suggest renovating the office building. But now there's so much left. We can't just leave it there," He Chengli countered.

"Even if we leave it, we can't touch it. This is a matter of principle!" Zhang An said firmly.

Bang bang!

At this moment, Liang Changgui knocked on the table, looked at the few people, and said loudly, "Look at what you're thinking. Do you want to argue? Mayor Yang, what do you think about how to use this funding?"

"I only have one requirement. This funding should be used by the town government. Other than that, I have no opinion," Yang Song said generously.

However, this one sentence completely changed the atmosphere on the scene. What does it mean to be used by the town government? Isn't it saying that the 300,000 yuan will be under your full control, Yang Song? How can you want a share now that there's money, when you weren't involved in attracting the investment? Is this cherry-picking?

"Secretary, shouldn't we ask Deputy Mayor Su's opinion on this matter?" At this moment, the town's discipline inspection commission secretary, Dong Xiangrui, said expressionlessly.

The funds were brought in by Su Mu, and he was the deputy mayor in charge of education, science, culture, and health in Heishan Town. It made the most sense to let Su Mu handle this matter.

"Su Mu, what do you think?" Liang Changgui said.

Whoosh!

When several pairs of eyes focused on him, Su Mu was not at all nervous. Instead, he opened his mouth calmly, and his first words made everyone's expressions change.

"Not a single cent of this 300,000 yuan can be misused. It must all be used for the renovation of the primary school's dilapidated houses!"

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