After calming down the rear, Gu Kun felt that he could have a few days of leisure for the time being and sit back and wait quietly for the day when the whole country would celebrate together.
Yesterday was the graduation ceremony, today is June 29, and the day after tomorrow is the return of Hong Kong.
Every descendant of the Yan and Huang Dynasties, especially a person like Gu Kun who hates colonial dogs, who does not look forward to the arrival of this day.
However, it seems that an important person like him is destined to have no time to spare.
In the morning, he was blocked by several visitors at the River View Villa in Lujiazui.
Two of the visitors are local and one is from Lanfang.
They are Mr. Ye from COSCO East China Company, and He Lan, who was assigned to Gu Kun as the liaison officer by COSCO in the past few years.
As for the third one, he is Lan Fang's envoy to China, and Gu Kun is also familiar with him. Even though he has five to six people in China, when Lan Fang reports on his duties in China, he is only given to Gu Kun to carry shoes.
When such clerical staff come, they usually have to be invited for some ceremonial matters, and Gu Kun roughly knows this.
As expected, after Gu Kun invited the group to come in and sit down, He Lan took the lead in congratulating Gu Kun politely:
"Gu Sheng, it's rare that a busy man like you is willing to go back to China at this juncture. We originally welcomed international friends to attend the ceremony, and we have secured a place for you. You can go to Xiangjiang to watch the ceremony the day after tomorrow.
I know that both your fathers and mothers died at the hands of colonial dogs. You once swore that you would never set foot on the land controlled by colonial dogs in this life. We understand that parents have a mortal hatred. But the day after tomorrow, that place is already ours.
The land is gone, we welcome you to go.”
Gu Kun knew that this was the case. In his previous life, he watched TV and saw that many foreign dignitaries who had retired from office came to support those grand ceremonies. He never thought that he would reach this level in this life.
He also learned that Zhu Youdong and his wife were originally invited. After all, all countries, big or small, are welcome in China as long as they are willing to come. This is the tradition of a country of etiquette.
"Then I would like to thank Manager He and Mr. Ye for their kindness. It must be you who helped me mediate." Gu Kun accepted the other party's kindness generously.
After the benefits were delivered, it was time to negotiate the terms. He Lan glanced at the boss behind the scenes who was serving tea without saying a word, and said carefully:
"Gu Sheng, you have made it easy for us to find you in the past six months. You have not even returned to Hujiang. People from the relevant departments want to ask for help, but they don't know where to find someone. Over at Lan Fang, what are you doing?
Leaving them all to Tang Jia, Luo Haili and the others, and just disappearing and procrastinating by yourself, this is not the way to be a friend."
Gu Kun knew that she must be talking about his previous bet.
Gu Kun had already told others that he had to place bets in advance so that he could find rare things.
But now he is 97, and it has been a year since the wind direction in Oceania changed. Gu Kun has been unwilling to realize any substantial benefits and still maintains superficial neutrality. This can't help but make those friends and businessmen who are losing money and gaining favors uncomfortable.
.
Seeing that Gu Kun was still pondering, He Lan added another sentence: "We have been doing our best this year. COSCO should be supporting Lanfang Port in the shipping industry and transshipment port contracting, and it is supporting Lanfang Port at full capacity.
Gu Sheng, you should know by heart that this year, Lanfang Port has a total of eight berths of 35,000 to 50,000 tons, but they are almost never idle. Each ship has a daily transshipment revenue of more than 100,000 yuan."
In the 1990s, competition in the port industry was not as fierce as in later generations, and the berth fees generally charged were 30 cents to 50 cents per ton per day.
A 50,000-ton bulk carrier costs more than 20,000 yuan to dock and do nothing for a day. The key is that after the transfer, there are other consumption onshore, which drives the surrounding area. Therefore, a ship's one-day transfer brings RMB 10 to the port location.
A turnover of tens of thousands is definitely not an exaggeration.
Gu Kun's Lanfang Port's total rental income last year was more than 48 million yuan, which is not far from being 100% full of 52 million yuan.
At the beginning, the total equity (including land) of the port construction was only over 300 million. At this rate, the capital can be recovered in 7 years by rent alone, with an annualized rate of return of 15%. This is already extraordinary in the field of infrastructure investment.
What's more, in addition to berth fees, the port also has other major sources of money.
And if the throughput is insufficient and a berth is idle for a day, the rent alone will be in vain.
With Lanfang's current shipping conditions and operational efficiency, it is still unable to compete with Li Jiapo normally.
The reason why COSCO East China transferred the business originally done to Li Jiapo to take care of Gu Kun was clearly understood by both parties.
Why the hell do you still use the "Isakov" to continue operating the gambling industry, and try to satisfy COSCO's appetite by not using it to sell favors? Isn't that justified?
Gu Kun knew that this time he came to China, he would definitely have to give an explanation.
He thought about his words: "Manager He, Mr. Ye, please be patient. I'm not taking advantage and not doing things. In fact, the time was not yet ripe before.
We, as a small and weak country, cannot afford to leave any excuse for Oceania or Brittany to deal with us, and we cannot afford that anger."
He Lan was a little annoyed and raised her voice a little: "Of course we know about your difficulties, and I'm not inconsiderate. But if you put it that way, difficulties have existed since ancient times.
Your country is too weak to bear the anger. This is an objective reality that will exist for a long time. So are you prepared to default on your contract for a long time? That’s not what you said when you asked us to support you!"
There are indeed difficulties.
But this difficulty has existed since the initial negotiations, and will continue to exist for a long time in the foreseeable future.
Well, anyone who has a little knowledge of the spirit of contract knows that this kind of difficulty can certainly not be used as a defense for non-performance of the "major misunderstanding" or "obviously unfair" type mentioned in the Contract Law.
Oh, I almost forgot, China's "Contract Law" is still being legislated. It was originally planned to be launched in 1998, but it is now being drafted.
At the beginning of the revision process, it was planned to add the paragraph "unfairly unfair" to Article 54 "Cancellability of Contract".
However, the subsequent legislative process happened to encounter the Southeast Asian financial crisis. As a result, if "obviously unfair" is allowed, those contract prices caused by drastic changes in exchange rates will be eligible to invoke this clause to break the contract, which will have a significant impact on China's foreign trade.
blow.
So in the end, the matter was heard all the way to the National Council. After the Prime Minister personally listened to the opinions, he insisted on putting it forward. However, due to delays, the final approval date was postponed to March 15, 1999.
It can be seen that China is still a big country with a strong sense of international responsibility when it comes to foreign trade issues.
Gu Kun's credit is pretty good, so of course he can't default on his debt.
"Manager He, please be patient. I said there were difficulties, but I didn't say I would not perform the contract. The time is really just 'temporarily' immature. How about this, I promise you a deadline——
You should think about it carefully. Before, I just told you that "the time is right", but I never promised you a time limit. Doesn't that count as being untrustworthy? Now is the first time that I have discussed a specific time limit with you. Do I care about it?
Isn’t someone’s name even worth this little grace?”
He Lan and Boss Ye looked at each other, and then He Lan nodded, indicating that Gu Kun had indeed never discussed a specific deadline before, and this was the first time.
Boss Ye nodded slightly.
After receiving the authorization, He Lan said businesslikely: "Then try to set a deadline, but don't go too far."
Gu Kun: "Give me more than half a year, and it will definitely not be a full year anyway. The decision will be made before the end of this year at the earliest, and until next spring at the latest. By then, if there is no suitable excuse, I will fulfill the contract even if I create one."
Whoever you want to come on, whether it's studying how to modify it, or doing other kinds of surveying, mapping, and testing, I won't stop you from doing whatever you want."
"More than half a year?" He Lan glanced at the leader's expression and felt that this period was acceptable.
They just want to ask for credit and reward, and let their brother units study the research and development addiction, but no one can afford to spend money on something that is really going to break their muscles and bones for a while.
The credit must be determined first, and the most important thing is to be safe.
"Then I'll give you some more time to prepare."
He Lan and his party then took their leave and politely told Gu Kun that they would see them the day after tomorrow.
…
Two days later, Gu Kun, as a well-known international friend, went to Xiangjiang for the first time to attend the ceremony.
Along with many other foreign former dignitaries, he was photographed by many media as a backdrop.
The process is too solemn and solemn, so I won’t go into details.
He flew there on the day of the ceremony, so he found a place to stay after the ceremony.
He didn't care much and just chose to stay at the Peninsula Hotel.
Unexpected, but reasonable. Gu Kun's arrival also attracted a small group of celebrities from Xiangjiang to watch. Many people sent invitations one after another, hoping that Gu Kun would be able to attend some cocktail parties in the next few days.
Unfortunately, Midlova helped Gu Kun screen it and found that there were mainly people from the entertainment and media circles, and the major plutocratic families did not take him seriously at all.
"It seems that they still value my two resources of being a 'world star' and having contacts with many Hollywood celebrities. They think I am a pure playboy, but they don't regard me as a top rich man."
Looking at these invitations, Gu Kun sneered in his heart.
Indeed, his wealth has never been disclosed by any listed company, so he does appear to be relatively "invisible rich".
Outsiders only know about his shares in tourism companies/resorts and port authorities/airports in Lanfang.
Those are fixed assets, net assets, lacking imagination and capital market premium.
As for Gu Kun's investment in the Nasdaq stock market and other hidden investments, they are invisible to outsiders. Therefore, in the eyes of several major Xiangjiang chaebol families, they probably think that Gu Kun only has a fortune of over 100 million US dollars.
As for the major chaebols in Hong Kong, they generally had a net worth of several billion Hong Kong dollars in the 1980s. 1997 was the peak of housing prices in Hong Kong. Those tycoons who are involved in real estate are now worth at least tens of billions of Hong Kong dollars. The Li family
It has reached hundreds of billions, which is over 10 billion US dollars.
(Historically, during the Southeast Asian financial crisis, in conjunction with the country's expansion of land supply after the handover, housing prices in Xiangjiang would fall to 30% of the peak in 1997 until 2002. During the trough in 2002, the book wealth of several major chaebol families shrank by more than half.
. But then they forced the authorities to reduce land supply and raise housing prices back up, and they became rich again. So in 1997, they were actually at the peak of a bubble, and it made sense for them to be arrogant at this time.)
I believe that in their eyes, Gu Kun is just a family property equivalent to one percent of the Li family's poverty, so why would they take a second look at it.