Chapter 57
If we don't punish him, who will we punish?
Secondly, today's incident has completely exposed the truth—it was clearly Xu Huizhen who made the decision, but he shamelessly and without batting an eye took all the credit for himself.
If we don't punish him, who should we punish?
"Hey~" Chen Xueru waved at Fan Jinyou from behind Xu Huizhen, her tone light and playful: "Cadre Fan—oh no, I should call you Manager Fan now, welcome to our little tavern~"
Fan Jinyou's face was as black as the bottom of a pot that had been burning for three days and three nights under the stove.
At this moment, Director Zhang spoke up: "Alright, alright, stop standing outside and come inside for a meeting! We need to discuss how to make this first pilot project a success."
A group of people then filed in.
Chen Xueru was familiar with the place and knew the situation inside and out, so she naturally joined the meeting.
Director Zhang cleared his throat: "According to regulations, the public-private partnership will proceed in three steps!"
"The first step is to thoroughly investigate the company's assets. Only when both parties agree on all the figures can the process be considered complete!"
"The second step is to sign a contract and agree on the salary and benefits; everything must be clearly written down!"
"The third step is to clearly define the division of responsibilities. It must be made clear who is responsible for what and who listens to whom!"
"Let's start with the first step: taking inventory of our assets!"
"This house belongs to Xu Huizhen. The government can only rent it; not an inch of land can be occupied for free!"
"The remaining stock of alcoholic beverages—all belong to her."
The tavern was simply constructed, and everything was readily apparent: the storefront belonged to her, and so did the goods.
There are only two things in common: business qualifications and brand reputation.
But at the time, these things weren't worth much money.
Xu Huizhen was quick-witted and not the type to haggle; she agreed to a price that was roughly reasonable.
The asset inventory was completed successfully in less than an hour.
The next step is to sign the contract.
From then on, the tavern was jointly managed by the public manager, Fan Jinyou, and the private manager, Xu Huizhen.
In terms of salary, Xu Huizhen received a larger share; however, when it came to making decisions and finalizing matters, Fan Jinyou still had the final say.
Finally, the responsibilities were determined: Fan Jinyou was in charge of management, and Xu Huizhen was responsible for assisting.
Important matters must be handled according to Fan Jinyou's arrangements.
After all, he represents the government!
No sooner had the contract been signed than Director Li gave new instructions—the empty public housing storefront next door should be allocated to Xu Huizhen's tavern.
This is a huge profit.
Xu Huizhen suddenly received three benefits: a fixed monthly salary, rent payments, and dividends to be returned in installments over twenty years.
These three items combined actually earned her far more than she had when she ran the business on her own!
The news spread like wildfire.
"Xue Ru, thank you so much!" Xu Huizhen took a deep breath, her eyes slightly reddening. "Without your and your husband's help, how could I be where I am today? It's like a windfall!"
"Hehehe..."
Chen Xueru beamed from ear to ear, "You hit the jackpot, didn't you? Isn't my man amazing?"
"Amazing!" Xu Huizhen exclaimed from the bottom of her heart.
She was truly envious—how could Chen Xueru be so lucky to find such an outstanding man as Liu Dong?
He is handsome, intelligent, farsighted, and reliable.
Xu Huizhen felt increasingly regretful as she thought about it, a pang of bitterness rising in her heart: If only she had taken the initiative back then and kept Liu Dong by her side. She was afraid she would never meet such a good man again.
"Have you heard? Xu Huizhen's tavern has become a public-private partnership, and now she's earning more than double what she used to!"
"Oh my, really?"
"Would I lie to you? Director Li said it himself; it's the first pilot program, and the policies are incredibly generous!"
"I also heard that the neighborhood committee gave her a storefront for free!"
"Wow—no way? This is so enviable!"
Xu Huizhen's act of being the first to respond to the call was quickly packaged as a typical case by the street and propaganda departments and publicized everywhere.
In an instant, the merchants in Qianmen and Dashilan were in an uproar.
Inside the Chen family's silk shop.
Chen Zhong leaned lazily against the counter, holding a teacup in his hand, slowly sipping his tea.
Seeing this, Old Gu shook his head with a wry smile: "Young Master, please do something! There are so many customers outside, you can't expect me to run around all by myself, can you?"
"You expect me to go and greet the guests?" Chen Zhongze raised an eyebrow.
"Old Gu, haven't you got it backwards? If I did everything myself, what would be the point of hiring you?"
"But..." Old Gu said helplessly, "Some customers only recognize the boss; if the staff tries to serve them, they simply don't listen!"
Chen Zhong waved his hand impatiently: "Ignore them, they're spoiling themselves. They've had a few drinks and they're already this arrogant? They come to buy a piece of cloth and expect the shopkeeper to chat with them and serve them?"
Old Gu could only sigh with a wry smile, his expression as if he had just swallowed a bitter pill.
"Young Master... Young Master!" Another shop assistant rushed into the room in a panic, stopping in front of Chen Zhongze, panting.
"What's wrong?" Chen Zhongze slowly took a drag of his cigarette, squinted, and exhaled a ring of white smoke. He then casually stubbed out the cigarette in the ashtray twice.
The emerald ring on his finger gleamed dazzlingly under the light, its brightness shifting like a cat's eye in the night.
The waiter, panting, said, "That little tavern across the alley... that's the one Xu Huizhen runs. It's now a public-private partnership!"
"What?!"
Chen Zhongze suddenly jumped up from his chair, nearly knocking over the corner of the table: "Who's in the joint venture? Xu Huizhen?"
"It really is her!" The waiter nodded hurriedly, like pounding garlic. "She's the first one. The district and the neighborhood have given her the green light; the policies are incredibly favorable. The pub has even become a pilot site!"
"And some people say," he lowered his voice, speaking mysteriously, "that the neighborhood committee pays her the highest salary on the whole street!"
"Now the news's out everywhere, Xu Huizhen has really reaped a huge benefit this time!"
"Bullshit!" Chen Zhong sneered, his eyes turning icy. "The shop's gone, what can we possibly gain?"
"No, no!" the waiter hurriedly explained, "The shop is still in her name! Just because she was the first to stand up, the government gave her special permission to keep the shop under her control, and the government pays her rent every month! They even allocated those two state-owned shops next door to her!"
"I heard that such good things won't happen again—after that, all storefronts will be nationalized! The later you join the joint venture, the worse the conditions will be, and there won't be any preferential treatment at all!"
With a "thud," Chen Zhongze plopped back into his chair, his body slamming heavily against the backrest.