Rebirth: 1977

On the morning of the second day of the Lunar New Year, Xia Minglei called Ye Tianshui to wish him a happy new year.

The excitement of New Year's Eve in the Ye family manor this year was not deliberately concealed from anyone, so on the first day of the new year, the news spread among the noble circles in the capital, and naturally reached Xia Minglei's ears.

He suddenly felt a sense of crisis. For such a lively New Year's Eve dinner, Ye Tingfeng actually agreed to let Ye Tianshui invite so many people into that sacred and majestic manor.

Among those people, such as Su Jianxin, He Jie, and Yuan Shikang, in terms of position, they are on par with himself.

In terms of relationships and friendships, Xia Minglei believed that he was no inferior to any of them.

There were also business partners, like the Fujia brothers, the Tong brothers, etc. When they invested in Pengcheng, Xia Minglei thought that he had a very close relationship with them.

As a result, they all received invitations from Ye Tianshui, but Xia Minglei was not invited.

Just because he knew that Ye Tianshui had invited only his "closest friends and relatives", Xia Minglei made a comparison with them.

Does this mean that Ye Tianshui has now excluded him from the close relationships of "friendship, friendship, and cooperation"?

When he was at the peak of his career and in power, he kicked himself out of his close circle?

If Ye Tianshui was just the young man who only knew how to make money, had extensive business connections and could bring more foreign investment to Pengcheng, he would no longer be a threat to Xia Minglei today.

He has now built the new city of Pengcheng. Whether it is foreign or mainland investors, if they want to come to Pengcheng to invest and make money, they still need to see if Xia Minglei will approve it.

The vast majority of entrepreneurs or project investors need to find ways to obtain government preferential policies and bank loans.

Projects can be acquired through competition, but as for bank loans, in this era the authority lies entirely in the hands of local government leaders, who decide whether or not they are willing to approve them.

At that time, state-owned banks had not yet opened up investment channels to private enterprises, and the destination of their funds was often subject to government approval.

In the 1980s, the money that large companies obtained from banks was basically used to fill holes and make up for the companies' increasingly serious losses.

So, later on, market-oriented economic reforms also spread to the banking system, and the leader's pen began to become heavy.

When the government no longer bears the responsibility for those messy debts and banks begin to be responsible for their own profits and losses, the countless bad debts in front of them will become a permanent mess.

But now in 1985, the pen in the leader's hand is very powerful.

The development of Pengcheng has been put on track and has set a precedent for the country's economic development.

Xia Minglei can be said to be the king of Pengcheng now. He dominates the overall economic development of Pengcheng.

But the biggest hidden danger in his mind now is Ye Tianshui.

'Success and failure are both due to Xiao He', just as Ye Tianshui helped Xia Minglei develop the economy of Pengcheng in the past, now he is also controlled by him.

Because, now in the corporate economy and commercial economy of many industries in Pengcheng, there are Ye Tianshui's projects, or entrepreneurs and businessmen who are on good terms with Ye Tianshui.

Especially among the large foreign-funded enterprises, basically, they have inseparable cooperation and interest relations with Ye Tianshui, the Fujia brothers, and the Tong brothers' companies.

This is what Xia Minglei fears most about Ye Tianshui.

At around 9:30 am on the second day of the Chinese New Year, Ye Tianshui received a New Year's greeting call from Xia Minglei.

"Hello, Master Ye! Happy New Year to you and your father, Old Master Ye!"

Xia Minglei's tone was lighthearted and cheerful, yet also respectful.

"Leader Xia? Hello, hello. Thank you on behalf of my father and wish you a happy new year!"

Ye Tianshui's tone was calm, polite and distant.

"Mr. Ye, congratulations. I just left Pengcheng when I heard the news of your promotion, and I haven't had time to congratulate you in person yet."

On the other end of the phone, Xia Minglei's voice was so sincere and heartfelt.

"Mr. Ye, are you at home this afternoon? I would like to come and personally wish you and Mr. Ye a happy new year."

Ye Tianshui smiled faintly and declined: "Thank you, Leader Xia, my father and I appreciate your kindness.

There are only a few days of rest during the Spring Festival, and it is rare for you to come back to Beijing, so you must be very busy. In your free time, you should stay at home and spend more time with your family.

With a relationship like ours, there's no need for all those fancy formalities. I'll visit you when I go to Pengcheng.

As for my promotion, it is actually just a job. No matter what position we are in, we are all serving the people.

Leader Xia, I am young and I don’t know many things about being an official. I will have to ask you for more advice when I have the chance in the future.

I hope that Leader Xia will be generous with his advice when the time comes."

Ye Tianshui had no interest in chatting with Xia Minglei about those high-sounding formalities.

It has been confirmed that he has plotted against his brother-in-law, and his means are so despicable.

No matter what his purpose was, no matter that he did not achieve his goal in the end, he did it anyway, and Ye Tianshui was disgusted.

He only told this matter to Old Man Ye, his parents-in-law, Zi Lan, and his brother-in-law. Ye Tianshui did not tell them.

"I didn't expect that a cadre like Xia Minglei would also be corrupted. It's such a pity." Ye Tingfeng's face was full of regret.

He arranged for Xu Zhen and the others to continue doing what they were supposed to do. As for when it would be useful? Whether it would be used? All of these were unknown.

After all, Ye Tianshui had experienced all kinds of means of "human relations" after the great social and economic development in later generations, so he was really knowledgeable and was not surprised by anything.

Therefore, he would be more relaxed about what he did to Xia Minglei.

As long as Xia Minglei doesn't go too far and isn't so greedy, Ye Tianshui's investigation data can be regarded as 'prepared for any eventuality'.

Xia Minglei hung up the phone heavily with a very bad look on his face.

He hadn't been rejected like this in many years, and he was rejected by a young man at that. Of course, he felt very uncomfortable.

There weren't many people Xia Minglei needed to see off to wish him a happy new year, but there were many who came to visit him to wish him a happy new year. The first day of the new year was almost a day for him to rest.

The gifts filled their small room.

In addition to cigarettes and alcohol, there are also health products. In the evening, after all the guests have left, Qiao Jingyu checked them out with a look of joy on his face.

"Old Xia, look at that. This Cordyceps is of good quality."

"Hey, this old ginseng is also in very good condition. It looks like it is more than fifty years old."

"Oh my, there are also top-quality bird's nests, both white bird's nest and red bird's nest."

Qiao Jingyu's exclamations made Xia Minglei feel very annoyed.

What he was thinking about was what one of the visitors had told him about who had gone to the Ye family manor on New Year's Eve.

He cares a lot!

Qiao Jingyu turned a blind eye to things like cigarettes and alcohol:

"Old Xia, take a look, these are all good things. Let's distribute them. We should send some to your family, my family, and our in-laws' family.

Oh no..."

Qiao Jingyu's low cry finally attracted Xia Minglei's attention.