Chapter 78

"By the way, Sister Wang, I wonder if you could help me with something?" Jia Hongjian then explained that he wanted Wang Koulan to help notify the journalists and find a venue for the press conference. "Sure! Why not? It's just a word!" Wang Koulan nodded in agreement, her response quick and straightforward. She could now see that Jia Hongjian was not just someone who would be great in the future, but someone who would become great in the blink of an eye! For someone destined to rise to power so quickly, it was only right to help and form connections with him. What were they waiting for?

After that, Jia Hongjian chatted with Old Mr. Luo and Wang Koulan for a while. When it was time to accompany the old man for dinner, Jia Hongjian followed Old Mr. Luo out the door. A car had been sent to pick up the old man, likely one of the vehicles assigned to him before his retirement, which he could still use, though he probably didn't like to use it for personal matters often.

They got into a Volkswagen Santana and, after about half an hour, arrived in front of a two-story wooden building in Jing'an District. The building looked like a private residence from before the liberation, not very large, with "Shanghai Family" written at the entrance.

"This restaurant was privately run right after the liberation. I came here during the public-private partnership, but it closed down for a while. It only reopened a few years ago," Old Mr. Luo explained to Jia Hongjian, looking at the building with a touch of nostalgia.

Following the old man into the restaurant, Jia Hongjian found that it was indeed quite small, with the first floor probably only a few dozen square meters, making it seem cramped compared to modern restaurants. When he followed the old man into a private room on the second floor, he saw that three other old men were already waiting inside.

Old Mr. Luo then introduced them, "Come, come, let me introduce you. This is Xiaojia, Jia Hongjian, 15 years old. These three are Grandpa Dong, the tall one; Grandpa Zhang, the short one; and Grandpa Zhu, the medium-sized one..." As Old Mr. Luo introduced them, Jia Hongjian greeted each of the three elders. After returning his greetings, the three elders looked at Old Mr. Luo with a slight surprise, as if wondering why he had brought a non-relative, but they didn't ask, and Old Mr. Luo didn't explain.

Once everyone was seated, Jia Hongjian didn't sit idle. He picked up the menu and acted as a waiter. "What would the grandpas like to eat today? Would you like some wine?" His quick and attentive manner made the three elders, who had been a bit puzzled by his presence, suddenly brighten up. "Three bottles of yellow wine? My wife restricts me, I can't touch a drop..." the tall and loud-voiced Grandpa Dong asked like a child.

"Sure, go ahead. You old rascal, you can't live without your wine, can you?" Old Mr. Luo teased his old comrade.

After a short while, Jia Hongjian noted down the dishes the old men wanted and, without calling a waiter, took the menu and went downstairs as if he were a waiter himself. Seeing Jia Hongjian leave, the childlike Grandpa Dong asked Old Mr. Luo, "Old Luo, why did you bring this young man here?"

Old Mr. Luo looked up to see all three of his old comrades looking at him. "Heh, Xiaojia is a good person, with a lot of ideas and ambition. He's the Jia Hongjian who exposes fraud on TV. I'm getting old, and when I see such a talented young man, I always want to help. By the way, Old Zhang, the article I gave you to submit as an internal reference was written by him..."

Old Mr. Luo's words stunned the usually silent Old Zhang. After staring at Old Mr. Luo for a while, he asked, "That was written by him?"

"Yes, what did you think? Could I write something like that? Ha ha!" Old Mr. Luo laughed heartily. "I can't see as far as that kid. You don't know, when he first came to my house in August, he predicted that Harbin would approve Wang Hongcheng's technology for buses, and now it's been verified."

Hearing this, the thin and short Old Zhang nodded thoughtfully, saying nothing. At this moment, Jia Hongjian came in with a waiter to serve the cold dishes. He acted like a restaurant manager, directing the waiter with great skill.

The four old men at the table were silent, each quietly observing Jia Hongjian. If Old Mr. Luo's words had only piqued their curiosity about Jia Hongjian, his skillful direction of the waiter now made them realize how different he was from his peers.

After the cold dishes were served, Jia Hongjian asked warmly, "Would the grandpas like some hot towels to wipe your faces and hands? I can have them prepared if you want..." His service attitude made the old men feel a bit embarrassed. Old Mr. Zhu, who had been silent, said, "Xiaojia, you sit down and rest. You've been busy since you came in, and it makes us old guys feel bad."

Jia Hongjian smiled shyly and sat down. He hadn't expected that people of this era would feel so embarrassed by such attentive service. In his time, he and his girlfriend would play on their computers and read magazines while waiting in line at Haidilao, with shoe shining, manicures, and free unlimited snacks provided, and the service was incredibly热情. If these old men experienced that, they might think they had become emperors in ancient times.

"Xiaojia, right? I heard from Old Luo that the article analyzing the tax-sharing system and the future of the real estate market was written by you?" Old Zhang lifted his dim eyes and stared at Jia Hongjian.

"Sort of, it wasn't very good, I'm sorry to have embarrassed you, Grandpa Zhang," Jia Hongjian said humbly. He wasn't a fool to be overly confident at the wrong time; he knew when to be confident and when to play the role of a good boy.

"Tell me, how did you come up with those ideas?" Old Zhang was testing Jia Hongjian.

"Well, how to put it... I just considered the local government officials as ordinary people, which makes it easier to predict their future behavior..." Jia Hongjian thought for a moment and continued, "I'm not saying the local government officials lack awareness, but by putting myself in their shoes and considering the environment they will face, I can better judge what they will do."

He paused, seeing that the old men didn't react negatively to his "party spirit" comments, and continued, "The central government can only provide a limited number of positions, and even if the positions were unlimited, the funds and taxes the local government can get are limited. But now, more foreign capital is coming in, more private enterprises are emerging, and these enterprises need more labor, leading to the phenomenon of migrant workers in Guangdong, where farmers come to the cities to work. This increases the floating population and the workload of local government units, but they don't have enough staff, so they have to hire externally. However, the tax-sharing system means they have less money, so they have to consider ways to increase revenue..."

Jia Hongjian paused again, observing the reactions of his audience, and then continued, using his knowledge of future history as his judgment: "How to increase revenue? The most legitimate way is to transfer land, which means developing the real estate market. As housing prices rise, the value of the land increases, and the local government can get more money to hire people and set up slush funds. When all the land is sold, they will demolish old urban areas, sell the land, and build new houses, which is another opportunity for appreciation... This method is completely legal and no one can say anything about it, but in the end, it's the ordinary people who suffer..."

Actually, what Jia Hongjian was saying was based on his knowledge from the internet in the future. For example, he had a friend who was the head of the local tax bureau, who had only 20 official positions, but after removing the relatives who were just eating the salary, only a few could do the actual work. However, the workload required dozens of people, and the higher-ups didn't provide more funds or positions, just saying, "Overcome the difficulties yourselves." In the end, his friend had to seek "sponsorship" from local enterprises to hire "temporary workers" to complete the tasks.

But this created a debt to the enterprises, and the tax bureau became close friends with them. If the head of the tax bureau had ambition, he might try to show off, but if not, he would side with the enterprises against the higher-ups...

However, Jia Hongjian didn't plan to say these things. He felt that these "predictions" were too lacking in party spirit, and he wasn't sure if the old men would accept them.

At this moment, the three old men were thinking about Jia Hongjian's words. They had to admit that his reasoning seemed plausible. They had faced many challenges in their work before, and when they needed to overcome them, they always found ways that wouldn't lead to mistakes. At least, selling land was not against the rules...

"The young are to be feared..." Old Zhang suddenly sighed, "Seeing how far ahead Xiaojia can see, we really have to admit that we are old. No wonder ** said the future belongs to you, ha ha..."

His words immediately broke the heavy atmosphere...

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