Chapter 721 Welcome to Hong Kong (Two in One)
Because time was reserved for the Bank of China team to arrive in Shenzhen, the flight was delayed, so Fang Zhuo and President Li met up and had a Chinese New Year's Day Chinese meal at the Shanghai Airport before boarding the flight at one o'clock in the afternoon. Passenger plane to Hong Kong.
It takes more than two hours to fly from Shenfei Port. Fang Zhuo and President Li communicated enthusiastically and the communication atmosphere was excellent.
Of course, there are some deliberate gestures on each other's part.
Speaking of which, after the first private visit to President Li with Paulson, Fang Zhuo's several meetings with him in the capital were all for official business, and there was no more personal communication. Now sitting on the passenger plane, it feels like getting on board first. The subtle feeling of post-payment.
However, there is a basis for successful cooperation. Fang Zhuo has a lot of experience with this kind of leaders, and President Li regards Mr. Fang as someone who is not quite himself. The two of them talked and laughed, and halfway through the trip they seemed to be close friends. mean.
President Li chatted about official matters halfway and gave a concise and clear explanation of Bank of China's progress in the capital over the past two months.
He took a sip of juice, changed the topic to a lighter topic, and said with a smile: "Mr. Fang, it's a pity that you didn't come to watch this year's Spring Festival Gala. Otherwise, after Zhao Benshan finished speaking on the stage and the camera was pointed at you, then It really made the richest man laugh, and the skit will definitely be more effective.”
As the Spring Festival Gala sketch was broadcast, "The richest man laughed" unexpectedly became an Internet buzzword, and correspondingly, the e-commerce competition background of this sentence became more widely known.
Fang Zhuo smiled and felt helpless: "Don't tell me, they really invited me because Sina and CCTV reached a cooperation for the 2008 Olympics, but I am either busy outside or busy in Shanghai all year round. This year I still prefer to be at home.”
Manager Li nodded slightly: "I have to trouble Mr. Fang again today."
"It's okay. My parents took a flight to Italy yesterday. In a few days, we will be busy in Xiangjiang and will go there to watch the Winter Olympics." Fang Zhuo said with a smile.
President Li didn't know much about the Winter Olympics, but he was more interested in Dayao, who was playing abroad.
Fang Zhuo talked about some interesting things about team operations.
The atmosphere between the two became more relaxed.
Seeing that we were arriving in Xiangjiang in an hour, President Li talked about the road show and said frankly: "Mr. Fang, to be honest, this is my first road show, and I'm a little nervous when I think about it."
Fang Zhuo was a little surprised and said with a smile: "Most people may not have much experience with road shows. It is a relatively process-based thing."
He thought for a while and was not sure whether the leader's words were just idle chatter or meant something. He said thoughtfully: "However, it is human nature to be nervous. I was also very nervous last time I went to Xiangjiang. Goldman Sachs has many acquaintances there. organizations, I asked them to come to the scene to support me.”
President Li waved his hand: "That's not necessary, we also have people in Xiangjiang."
Bank of China has people in Xiangjiang, and not just people.
Bank of China is the absolute majority shareholder of BOC Heung Kong, which is independently listed in Heung Kong and is one of the three major note-issuing banks in Heung Kong.
Although Bank of China has strong business independence, it still maintains close ties in management and administration.
Mr. Li was afraid that Mr. Fang would not be clear about it, so after a few brief introductions, he actually said pointedly: "Something happened in the Bank of China two years ago. The current President He is one of our own people from the mainland."
Fang Zhuo felt President Li's eyes and spread his hands: "So, I am really wronged."
He understood the leader's rather playful words.
This is an old incident, and it does have something to do with Fang Zhuo afterwards.
In the past two years, the management of Bank of China was almost wiped out. Affected by this turmoil, the incident involving Xu Mingchang, who had dealt with Fang Zhuo, led to the disposal of the "East Five" land.
It was at that time that Hutchison and Wong of the Li family approached Fang Zhuo to jointly develop the land, but in the end he formed Yongke Real Estate to successfully seize the land from the tiger's mouth, and there was no follow-up land bidding.
It was at that time that Fang Zhuo could predict that his reputation would be tarnished if others stepped in, and he sighed helplessly, "Today's bad reputation is all due to old Xu."
The initial root of this is the old incident of Bank of China Xiangjiang.
Manager Li laughed loudly and asked, "Who is that? How is it now?"
Fang Zhuo knew who the leader was asking, so he pondered for a moment: "I heard that they went in again."
President Li nodded and did not ask further questions.
When Fang Zhuo heard about old things and old people, he couldn't help but feel a little emotional.
Today, Lao Xu is still there, but he has become a director of Bank of China.
He suppressed the little emotion in his heart and said: "I'd better tell Goldman Sachs. It doesn't matter if I add icing on the cake. The people at Goldman Sachs are very efficient in doing things. The last time I did it at the Peninsula Hotel, the effect was good. We can do it the day after tomorrow." Peninsula Hotel road show, the environment there is also very good. ”
The Peninsula Hotel is one of the most luxurious hotels in Hong Kong.
President Li smiled and said: "There is no need to go to the peninsula. President He has made arrangements. He has been staying at the Mandarin Oriental in Central these days. He said the feng shui is better there."
Fang Zhuo laughed dumbly: "President Li, please don't spread your words. Otherwise, people from the peninsula will come to ask for an explanation at night."
"We're just chatting in private." President Li took a sip of tea, "People in Xiangjiang still value Feng Shui very much. President He also paid some attention to this after he went there. He just followed the Romans."
Fang Zhuo was noncommittal.
President Li glanced at Mr. Fang and chatted: "It's just like the Bank of China Building, the headquarters of our Bank of China Xiangjiang. It has three edges and corners, like a sharp sword with three blades rising from the ground. Didn't it have a conflict with the HSBC Building next to it? Feng Shui War."
Fang Zhuo was a little surprised: "Is this happening?"
"It is said that there are two ground lines in Hong Kong, one is the edge of the Kowloon Peninsula, and the other is the Kowloon Peninsula extending through Victoria Harbor to Pingdingshan. The intersection of the two ground lines is the HSBC Tower of HSBC Bank." President Li cheered up, and he was quite familiar with it. "Generally, buildings are built with mountains on their backs and water on their backs, but the HSBC Tower has mountains on their backs and water on their backs. Therefore, the first floor of several thousand square meters was completely empty without even a door."
"When our Bank of China Building was built next to it, and the sharp edge of the sword was pointed at the HSBC Building, it didn't take long for HSBC's stock to plummet."
Fang Zhuo was making new tea and just smiled.
President Li continued: "Mr. Fang, don't laugh. Xiangjiang is telling the truth. HSBC specifically asked the master to break the situation and ordered two cannons to be mounted on the top floor of the building. The muzzles of the cannons are facing the Bank of China Building."
Fang Zhuoqi said: "Really? Are you still arguing?"
President Li nodded: "Yes, and the Feng Shui war is not over yet. The Bank of China Building has a blade, and the HSBC Building has a cannon. Later, the Li family built a Yangtze River Group Building between the Bank of China and HSBC, which was specially designed to be surrounded by shields. It looks like it is used to withstand attacks from swords and bombardments.”
"That's what they believe over there, Mr. Fang. Come to Central at night and see if those three buildings are what I said."
Fang Zhuo smiled and said, "Okay, I'll have to see a lot at night."
Manager Li took two sips of tea and asked, "Mr. Fang, you don't believe this?"
"I can't say I believe it, and I can't say I don't believe it. I'm a little scared, because I'm a layman and don't understand this. It's easy to feel intimidated in unfamiliar fields." Fang Zhuo smiled.
Manager Li found this attitude interesting and repeated: "Afraid?"
"The main reason is that I can't tell the difference. If there are labels on my head, I'm either a liar or a master. That's both simple. I'm afraid of the in-between." Fang Zhuo shrugged, "In between there are deceptions and truth. Something, that would be very annoying.”
Manager Li understood and said: "So, if this kind of thing is really necessary, you have to find someone with a good reputation. There used to be a well-known man named Uncle Chen in Xiangjiang. I heard that many rich people have met him. Are there several royal Feng Shui masters in Lijiacheng?"
Fang Zhuo shook his head, not understanding.
"For people from the mainland, I have heard other people chatting about it. For example, there is a person named Zheng Mu in Gan Province." President Li mentioned a famous person from the mainland, and then lowered his voice and said that this person had a good relationship with Zheng Mu.
Fang Zhuo said in surprise: "No way? Everyone believes this. Is it true?"
President Li smiled like a gossip.
"That's quite a coincidence. I met this Zheng Mu two months ago. He gave me a peach wood sword at that time, but I didn't take it seriously." Fang Zhuo shook his head, thought for a while, and complained, " It's just you leaders talking about this and knowing that that make ordinary people like me suspicious. If there is really a liar with such a name, I have to wonder if it is really possible. "
He added: "I saw that Zheng Mu last time. After thinking about it, I couldn't tell where he came from. I'd better remember Confucius's saying of 'respect ghosts and gods and keep them at a distance'."
Manager Li laughed: "I don't believe this. This is not talking about the customs and customs of Xiangjiang."
He casually changed the topic of economic development.
Fang Zhuo looked at Mr. Li's enthusiasm before and after, and felt a little weird in his heart to keep up with the new content.
At 3:20 in the afternoon, the flight from Shanghai landed at Xiangjiang International Airport.
"Hey, Mr. Fang, why isn't Mr. Qiu with us?" President Li was a little surprised when he saw Qiu Ciyun saying goodbye to him and others.
Fang Zhuo explained: "Our road show is quite eye-catching. Mr. Qiu is here to recruit people. He has to keep a low profile."
President Li: "..."
The group got into a car arranged by Bank of China to pick them up at the airport.
Fang Zhuo was in the same car with President Li, and the co-driver was his safety assistant Chen Zhao.
The two of them chatted about unfinished topics on the passenger plane while admiring the scenery of Hong Kong.
Fang Zhuo had not been to Xiangjiang often, but President Li had served in Xiangjiang before, and he occasionally described the distant scenery.
The car drove for about ten minutes, and the speed suddenly slowed down.
The co-pilot, Chen Zhao, coughed.
Fang Zhuo leaned forward slightly, looked at it, and asked, "What's wrong?"
"There is a car blocking the road." The driver sounded a little unsure.
The road the car was on was the North Lantau Expressway. There seemed to be a merging intersection in front of it, and a row of cars slowly merged in at a very low speed, blocking all lanes.
Manager Li also looked forward. The black cars in front were all of the same model, traveling side by side at low speed.
Fang Zhuo asked: "Is there usually a traffic jam here? Was there a car accident ahead?"
The driver denied: "This section is not blocked."
Fang Zhuo frowned and watched the car moving at a low speed behind a row of cars.
After driving like this for a while, the black cars in front stopped completely.
Fang Zhuo and President Li looked at each other and felt something strange.
A few minutes later, many people got out of the black car, smoking and chatting as if no one was around.
"What do you mean?" President Li frowned, "They are blocking the road and refusing to let you go?"
The co-pilot, Chen Zhao, whispered: "Maybe the people here are evil. I see them looking towards us frequently."
At this time, people from the Bank of China had already stepped forward to negotiate, but to no avail.
Director Li was a little worried: "What do they want to do? Should we turn around and go back to the airport? Or call the police?"
An idea came to his mind. The first thing he did when the road show came to Xiangjiang was to call the police. Wouldn't this make a fool of himself? What would the media reporters here write?
Fang Zhuoxian comforted him: "Don't worry, I don't think they have done anything out of the ordinary. Let's wait for the Bank of China to handle it first. The ban on guns is very strict here in Xiangjiang."
President Li was even more worried.
Because of an unexpected situation, the other three safety assistants in the car behind Fang Zhuo had already come down and were standing by.
Before the people from BOC Xiangjiang could figure out and deal with the situation, there was a sudden whistle sound from behind, followed by another convoy blocking the back.
"This..." President Li's face darkened. It was a mountain road now, and the malice was quite obvious. There couldn't be any accidents, right?
However, someone from the second convoy that appeared took the initiative to communicate. After being stopped by the security assistant outside, they started chatting.
A few minutes later, Fang Zhuo saw Ahu gesturing for him to lower the window, and another stranger greeted him politely and walked forward.
Following this man's footsteps, people from the convoy behind got out of their cars to help out.
The situation became a bit tense.
After ten minutes of this stalemate, the convoy in front compromised and quickly left to get out of the way, while the convoy behind them turned from back to front to clear the way for the guests.
Both Fang Zhuo and President Li were confused about this, not knowing what this brief and unexpected solution meant.
Security assistant Ahu was called into the car, and he explained the situation clearly.
"Mr. Fang, the person blocking the road ahead is from the local chamber of commerce. For some reason, he wants to give us a bad look."
"The following are other local chambers of commerce invited by Macau Situ Yulian."
Fang Zhuo felt puzzled: "Who does such an upright person want to embarrass? Situ? Why should she help?"
"Because her surname is Situ, she has a close relationship with us." Ahu replied.
Manager Li was a little confused and took a deep breath: "Mr. Fang, this doesn't look good. They are too courageous. Where is this? Is this still Xiangjiang?"
He felt offended and felt very unhappy: "Who is this trying to cause trouble?"
Fang Zhuo met President Li's eyes and knew who he was referring to. He muttered: "This unscrupulous method is too unflattering."
He shook his head, it couldn't be his home city, it would be too rude, but he couldn't guarantee that someone else would be unhappy.
Fang Zhuo looked at the motorcade in front of him, thinking about the customs and customs that President Li had mentioned earlier, and considering the important matters of this road show. He suddenly felt that there was a mixed bag of fish and dragons, which was particularly funny, and he couldn't help but smile.
"Mr. Fang, you are very generous." Manager Li smiled when he saw Mr. Fang going through this.
"I think this is the right time to come back. We didn't encounter such a battle last time. I think everyone is still very enthusiastic." Fang Zhuo said it was even more funny, "President Li, welcome to Xiangjiang."
Manager Li looked at Mr. Fang's smile, exhaled, and said, "Such an enthusiastic approach is a bit different from what I thought."
He regained his composure. After a small setback, Mr. Fang seemed to have something, and he wanted to see what else he could do.