In July of 1983, Chen Yang sent his sister-in-law, who had been running a street stall in Shanghai, to Hong Kong City University to pursue a master's degree in finance.
In his previous life, Shen Rong had only attended a small vocational school and was then assigned to work in the county's finance bureau. The man she later married was just an ordinary government clerk.
She never even reached the rank of deputy section chief in her life, but the couple had a relatively happy family and a daughter, whom Shen Rong raised. Despite the bumps along the way, they managed.
The down payment for the apartment where their daughter lived was scraped together by Shen Rong. Therefore, Chen Yang paid special attention to his sister-in-law.
He specifically found people to inquire about the economics professors at Hong Kong City University and once again donated one million Hong Kong dollars to the Hong Kong Financial College as project funding.
Shen Rong's graduate supervisor was naturally the best professor in the School of Finance. Chen Yang didn't necessarily want Shen Rong to excel academically.
He agreed to let Shen Rong study abroad mainly because he wanted her to broaden her horizons and see the world outside.
Given Shen Xue's educational background, even if Chen Yang wanted to invest in her education, it would be difficult for her to grasp everything. Shen Rong was different; she had attended high school and gotten into university on her own, so her capacity for learning was greater.
Putting other matters aside, the Shen Family Winery, driven by the success of the fermented fish factory, had already taken shape. While not a leading name domestically, it was undoubtedly a top-tier winery in Anhui Province.
In recent years, every time Chen Yang invited his father-in-law over for the Lunar New Year, he would mention acquiring the Xuan Distillery and bringing back the ancestral property.
Chen Yang already had so many of his own businesses; he had no interest in the Xuan Distillery and was unwilling to covet his father-in-law's money. Ultimately, the winery would fall to Shen Rong.
If managed well, it wouldn't reach the market value of Moutai or Wuliangye, but it would certainly be substantial. China was, after all, a society built on relationships. Whether in officialdom or business, if you couldn't drink, if you couldn't navigate social situations at the table, you couldn't get things done.
Even in the future, when numerous foreign executives from multinational corporations arrived, they would still be seen carrying baijiu. In China, if you couldn't grasp the culture of alcohol, you wouldn't achieve great things.
This was the market for baijiu; no matter how much it was suppressed and rectified, it would not disappear!
The foreign trade company in Hong Kong had now become a well-known enterprise. Through Elder Zhou's connections, Chen Yang had formed quite good relationships with several senior ethnic Chinese police superintendents.
This was also a general trend. Anyone with foresight understood that Hong Kong would eventually be Chinese territory and return to the motherland. Building good relationships with the mainland at this time would only bring benefits.
Chen Yang served as an opportunity, or rather, a bridge, for them to establish good relations with the mainland.
Otherwise, given Elder Zhou's status and the Zhou family's assets, why would they care about opening a few gold shops in the mainland? At least for the Zhou family, business in the mainland was insignificant at present.
It was precisely because the state had explicitly indicated its intention to reclaim Hong Kong in 1982 that well-informed businessmen like Elder Zhou could not have been unaware.
Merchants pursued profit and understood the importance of leveraging trends. Investing early and aligning with the mainland now was the most sensible choice.
It was after that incident that Chen Yang clearly felt a significant increase in the warmth of Elder Zhou and those senior superintendents towards him.
However, Chen Yang did not become arrogant because of this. He knew that their politeness was primarily to use him to connect with mainland leaders, ensuring a fallback in case of reunification.
Chen Yang never pretended not to see this. Where there are people, there are rivers and lakes. For Hong Kong to return smoothly, it would naturally be less turbulent if the state could secure the support of some individuals within Hong Kong beforehand.
This was a major achievement that could be added to one's merit record, bringing nothing but benefits to both the country and himself.
Chen Yang naturally introduced several leaders from Guangdong Province to these aspiring individuals from Hong Kong. He understood very well that even after Hong Kong's return in '97, China would implement the "one country, two systems" policy. The stability of Hong Kong would naturally depend on the assistance of its current ethnic Chinese high-ranking officials.
With his help, Elder Zhou even contacted a group of patriotic businessmen, including Mr. Fok and Mr. Shao, to secretly prepare and accelerate business cooperation with the mainland.
The mainland was undergoing rapid development. Even purely from a business perspective, these influential figures were not foolish; they could see the potential for profit. Moreover, they could build relationships with the mainland in advance. At the very least, it signaled a proactive alignment.
Chen Yang's foreign trade company flourished against this backdrop. He naturally wouldn't let such a window of opportunity pass him by.
Now, with the exception of foreign companies, most Hong Kong residents were willing to give him face, making Chen Yang's business incredibly smooth.
When he needed to purchase products, others would arrange ships for delivery in advance, and his sales were prioritized for marketing.
No one would refuse to make money; Chen Yang naturally wouldn't miss such an opportunity. It was precisely for this reason that he took out substantial loans from HSBC in Hong Kong to construct factories.
Given how rapidly the foreign trade company was developing, failing to leverage this to obtain funds from Hong Kong banks and missing such a prime development opportunity would make him truly foolish.
He had the market trends recorded in his mind; all he needed was capital. Others said one shouldn't try to swallow too much at once, lest they choke.
That was only because their appetites weren't big enough and their digestion wasn't fast enough.
Chen Yang's business empire was currently like a child with an adult's stomach and digestive system. He just needed sufficient capital to feed himself, and he could continuously transform paper into productivity.
Therefore, Li Yong's concerns were not entirely potential risks for Chen Yang. The money was borrowed from banks in Hong Kong, and the collateral was the foreign trade company established there.
Using the money from foreign banks in Hong Kong to develop and build the mainland was a wonderful thing.
After settling his sister-in-law, Chen Yang did not linger. He briefly checked on the operations of the foreign trade company. With no major issues, he prepared to return to Anhui Province.
The acquisition of the Xuan Distillery, with Chen Yang's assistance and the gradually improving development trend, had led the Anhui provincial leaders to consider trying it out.
Anhui was not a coastal developed region. To develop its economy, it could not avoid being bold in its reforms. From the recycling of radios from dreams, to being the first individual proprietorship in the country, to Chen Yang's fermented fish factory and the Shen Family Winery, these were all achievements born from bold reforms.
Now, the public-private partnership where private enterprises acquired state-owned wineries was also a reform worth attempting.