Back to 80: My Literary Life

Zhao Hongjun drove his Mercedes-Benz and took Fang Minghua straight to the Shengshi Building construction site in Lujiazui.

Today's Lujiazui is not as prosperous as it was in later generations. There are construction sites everywhere. The two got out of the car. Zhao Hongjun pointed to the building under construction not far away with his mobile phone and said, "Here, that's the building."

Fang Minghua looked at the surrounding environment. It should be at the intersection of Pudong South Road Shopping Mall. He pointed to the building under construction not far from Shengshi Building and asked: "Who built it?"

"I heard that it was a joint project between a company called Yaohan from Little Japan and Shanghai First Department Store." Zhao Hongjun replied.

"According to a director of the Municipal Planning Bureau I know, Shanghai Metro Line 2 also passes here, and there is an exit, right there."

Zhao Hongjun pointed to an open space in the southeast, "It's less than 500 meters away from our building. Is it a good location?"

"Not bad." Fang Minghua said with admiration: "This is a prime location. If nothing else, just this 20 acres of land. In a few years, the value will increase many times."

"Minghua, you don't know how many times I went to the district government and the city government for this piece of land! I invited those department directors to eat, sing karaoke, and take saunas to commit evil." At the end of the sentence, Zhao Hongjun actually shouted Qu Lai.

"It's hard work. How about I treat you to a one-stop service tonight? Eat, sing karaoke, and take a sauna." Fang Minghua joked.

Zhao Hongjun laughed loudly after hearing this: "Minghua invites someone else to hire a team? That's unusual. Okay, that's it!"

The two chatted and laughed for a while, and Zhao Hongjun suddenly said: "Hey, Minghua, when I ran this project last year, some people said that my 18th floor was too short, and suggested that I build it to 33rd floor. Some even said that 33rd floor was not enough. It’s better to be above 50 floors, so that you can show your courage, and they told me to learn from Shi Yuzhu’s courage!”

"Shi Yuzhu?"

"Yes, he is the one who was elected as one of China's top ten reform figures. He founded Giant Company in Zhuhai and started selling Hanka. This year, I heard that he launched a health ball called "Brain Gold" and it was very popular."

"It is said that this guy was building the Giant Tower in Zhuhai. He planned to build it to 18 floors at first, but later planned to build it to 78 floors, making it the tallest building in the country! He is so awesome."

Zhao Hongjun said.

"Then why don't you learn from others?" Fang Minghua asked.

"I'm a timid person. I can do whatever I want with how much money I have. Besides, why would I put my funds on this?" Zhao Hongjun said with a smile.

"If you are timid, you will be in trouble because Shi Yuzhu is so happy about his achievements!"

In the evening, Zhao Hongjun set a table for Fang Minghua in Xinjinjiang, and all the senior officials of Shengshi Books attended.

After that, there was another singing sauna session, which lasted until midnight. Of course, Zhao Hongjun paid for it.

The next day, when Fang Minghua saw that the matter was done and was about to return to Xijing, he was stopped by Zhao Hongjun.

"Why are you so anxious? Since you've come to Shanghai, let's stay here for a few days. We haven't had a good chat together for a long time."

Yes.

Now Zhao Hongjun is busy with business matters and is often away from Xijing. As for Fang Minghua, he basically hangs out in a circle of writers and literati. It is indeed not like when they were young, they often chatted together.

"We can chat, but I don't want to climb the Oriental Pearl Tower." Fang Minghua declared in advance.

That crappy thing has been climbed several times before coming to this era, and it’s not interesting.

“I won’t even go to Nanjing Road Pedestrian Street or Yuyuan City God’s Temple!”

"You're a weird person. Now the first stop for foreign tourists coming to Shanghai is to climb the Oriental Pearl Tower, but you'd better just declare that you won't go." Zhao Hongjun complained, and then said:

"Then let's go play golf? There is a golf and country club in Qingpu with a nice environment."

"Hey, when did you learn this high-end entertainment?" Fang Minghua was slightly surprised.

"Follow the trend. Besides, if you want to treat others, you can't just eat, sing, sing and take a sauna all the time, right? You need to do something high-end. Now the bosses in Shanghai are starting to do this." Zhao Hongjun said with a smile.

"Forget it, I don't know how, and I'm too lazy to learn now." Fang Minghua said with a smile.

"Look at you. Well, let's go play something you know how to play later!" Zhao Hongjun said.

"What are you playing for?"

"We'll know when the time comes. Let me go home first to pick up my things."

Seeing Zhao Hongjun's mysterious look, Fang Minghua agreed.

"Okay, I haven't come to see your new home yet."

Fang Minghua took Zhao Hongjun's Mercedes-Benz and went straight to his new home in Shanghai, which was a bit far away from Xin Jinjiang. It was located in a high-end residential area at the intersection of Hongqiao Road and Shuicheng Road in the CN District.

When the two arrived, they saw rows of French-style residential buildings. They were all multi-story and different from the surrounding buildings.

"Our community is called Diamond Apartments, and they are export housing." Zhao Hongjun said, slowing down and driving towards the community gate. When they saw his license plate, the two security guards standing guard at the door immediately saluted him and watched the car go in.

The so-called export housing was quite famous in Shanghai in the 1990s. It was developed and constructed by domestic and foreign real estate companies, and the land was obtained in the form of leasing. It was mainly targeted at overseas Chinese, foreigners, and people from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.

Of course, wealthy people in the mainland can also buy it if they can.

However, they don’t accept RMB, only Hong Kong dollars and US dollars!

Fang Minghua looked at the outside environment through the car window. The greening was relatively good, and there were Mercedes-Benz Audis coming and going, and the last ones were Crowns and the like.

"This house is finely decorated, with imported Hitachi air conditioners, Kohler sanitary ware, intercoms, etc. The community is equipped with 24-hour patrols and video surveillance." Zhao Honghong said.

As expected, Fang Minghua saw four security guards wearing uniform uniforms and walking in neat steps along the roadside, wearing berets and with intercoms hanging on their shoulders, looking like the Flying Tigers in Hong Kong movies.

"How much per square meter?"

Fang Minghua asked curiously:

"It's not expensive. I bought it after the Spring Festival, 2,000 US dollars per square meter, and 150 square meters cost about 300,000 US dollars in total."

2,000 US dollars? !

After the exchange rate reform, the RMB has suddenly depreciated to 8.6 yuan to exchange for RMB, which means nearly 17,000 per square meter!

Really rich.

Zhao Hongjun is a guy who knows how to enjoy.

"Minghua, do you want one too?" Zhao Hongjun said.

"With more than one million, I might as well buy an old villa in Shanghai instead of buying this thing?" Fang Minghua immediately refused.

"I know you are interested in old houses. I will ask around for you later. If there are any old houses for sale, how about you come to Shencheng to have a look?"

This is possible.

Fang Minghua agreed happily.

Arriving at Zhao Hongjun's house, which is on the third floor, Fang Minghua followed him upstairs. It was Liu Xue who opened the door.

Liu Xue came to Shencheng and did not work at Shengshi Group. She became a housewife. Her daily job was to take care of her son who was already in kindergarten and do housework.

However, she hired a nanny, but there was actually not much work to do.

Seeing Zhao Hongjun and Fang Minghua coming in together, Liu Xue hurriedly greeted them and hurried to pour tea but was stopped by Zhao Hongjun.

"Liu Xue, you don't have to be busy. We will be out soon. Bring me my things."

"Okay." Liu Xue took out a black bag and a bunch of messy things from the storage room.

Fang Minghua then noticed that it was a fishing rod!

When did this guy become a fisherman again?