Zhou Yu sat in the car and could vaguely hear the person on the phone talking about the restructuring of Mei Xi Steel Factory. Although he couldn't hear clearly, after Shen Huai finished the call, he slammed his phone onto the dashboard, even knocking out the battery, so Zhou Yu knew that Shen Huai had encountered obstacles with the Mei Xi Steel Factory's restructuring elsewhere.

  Although Zhou Yu was startled by Shen Huai's action of smashing his phone, he quickly calmed down. The greater the obstacles Shen Huai encountered elsewhere, the more important the Zhou family seemed.

  "District Chief, is there a place in Donghua that you particularly like?" Shen Huai asked Zhou Yu without paying attention to his broken phone.

  "My dad used to work at Zhusha, and I often sat in the back of my dad's tricycle, collecting old goods as we rode through the streets," Zhou Yu recalled with a sense of nostalgia. "Although Zhusha belongs to Tangshan District now, I haven't had much chance to visit Zhusha yet..."

  The train departed from Shenhuai, turned around and headed straight for Zhusha Town on the old South Suburban Highway.

  Zhusha is separated from Hetang Town by Meixi River and is a riverside area in Tangxia District.

  Tangzhai District plans to establish a district-level industrial park in Zhusha, but it is adjacent to the Donghua Development Zone on the west side. The city's opinion is that there is no need to establish two different levels of industrial parks in the two adjacent areas, and it would be better to merge Zhusha into the municipal development zone for joint planning.

  However, behind this, various interests and contradictions are entangled, and no one has given in or made significant concessions to the other. As a result, the establishment of an industrial park in Tangzhai District and the merger of Zhusha with the municipal development zone have been dragging on without making any substantial progress.

  Zhusha Town belongs to the urban-rural fringe area, and its infrastructure such as roads is much better than Meixi Town. The roads along the river are all asphalt roads. Shen Hua directly stopped the car in front of the land that Pengyue had taken over in Zhusha to build a dock.

  It was well known that Bai had made his move quite early, but he hadn't expected the dock's batch of documents to be held up because Wu Haifeng had stepped down. After this land was reclaimed, it lay idle for nearly half a year. At this time, in April or May, the weather was warm and sunny, with weeds growing thickly everywhere. The car stopped under the shade of trees on the Binjiang asphalt road, outside which was the murky water of the Zhe River, while inside, the grass was lush and green.

  "District Chief, do you know why I just smashed my phone?" Shen Huai opened the car window and lit a cigarette.

  "I'm not a tapeworm in your belly, how can I guess?" Zhou Yu smiled and knew that Shen Huai was going to lay out the conditions, feeling more at ease.

  "Pan Shi Hua has set the conditions," Shen Huai said, "400 million shares in exchange for his support of the restructuring plan; it's not even accurate to say shares, he wants me to help him borrow 40 million from the bank to buy into the steel factory and then use the dividends to repay the loan..."

  "It doesn't sound unreasonable," Zhou Yu said, "If the steel factory really needs funding, Pengyue can invest 4 million in cash..."

  Shen Huai turned her head to look at Zhou Yu, and at such a close distance, she still couldn't see any flaws on his face. The sunset outside the car window shone in, casting a layer of soft light on his face, making it look even more delicate and radiant.

  Zhou Yu felt Shen Huai's gaze fixed on her face, and she was afraid of meeting his eyes, so she turned her head to look at the river water flowing down from the Riverside Highway, with the sunset light shining on it, magnificent and beautiful, making her feel like getting drunk in the evening scenery of the river that she usually paid attention to.

  "I don't want to discuss the terms of cooperation with Zhou's family, I want to discuss cooperation with Zhou's family..."

  When Shen Hua said that, Zhou Yu curiously turned his head back, and the two of them gazed at each other from a distance of about 30 centimeters.

  This distance is far from reaching the psychological safety limit, and Zhou Yu doesn't have a special rejection.

  "What Pan Shi Hua proposed is not too excessive," Shen Huai said, "but I won't agree to it. I have my own principles and bottom line when doing things. Of course, my principles are not as high and unattainable as imagined. Mutual benefit is the fundamental driving force for everyone's participation, but the premise is that you participate in it, you can promote the cake to be bigger, rather than making no contribution at all, just taking a piece away. After I took over Mei Xi Steel Factory, I suspended cooperation with Wan Hu Company, but still maintained business with Peng Yue, that's how it is..."

  "Oh, so that's what you're saying. In your eyes, the Zhou family still has a bottom line and principles when it comes to doing things?" Zhou Yu asked with a smile.

  "I'm not familiar with the Zhou family, but I think cooperating with Pengyue is beneficial for Meixi Steel Factory at least for now," Shen Huai said with a smile. "As for the equity restructuring of Meixi Steel Factory, I don't want Pengyue to get involved at this time, but I also need some guarantees from the Zhou family. Here are three responses I can give to the Zhou family:

  Firstly, it's not an exaggeration that Meixi Steel Factory will surpass the current scale of City Steel Factory within three years. To ensure a smooth restructuring process, Meixi Steel Factory's production capacity this year should break through 180,000 tons; next year and the following year, we'll definitely start with a project of at least 200,000 tons.

  Secondly, Meixi Steel Factory will not directly engage in scrap steel business. With over one billion tons of accumulated steel domestically, it's essential to do a good job in domestic scrap steel recycling and further improve the quality of scrap steel to provide greater energy-saving benefits for smelting. These tasks must be done by professional companies. If a steel factory tries to do everything itself, it will only suffer; I'm very clear about this point. Under equal conditions, Meixi Steel Factory can prioritize using Pengyue's scrap steel materials, but the proportion won't exceed 70%.

  Thirdly, building a cargo terminal in Hetang is the only way to provide the most direct and low-cost transportation foundation for the factory's raw materials and steel products. If the Zhou family wants to be a supplier of furnace materials for Meixi Steel Factory, they should also participate in the construction of Hetang Jiang Port Terminal, which would better align with their interests. If the Zhou family is worried that I'm just talking nonsense, we can allocate a piece of land from the terminal and have Pengyue build a scrap steel storage yard, but at least 30% of the site must be reserved for Meixi Steel Factory to lease..."

  Zhou Yu looked at Shen Huan with a tilted head, still somewhat puzzled: she had carefully read the reform plan book, and Shen Huan had not gained any personal benefits from it. He should still have hope for advancement in his official career. However, even if he managed Mei Creek Steel Factory well, it would not provide as much help to his career advancement as Tan Qiping's favoritism towards him.

  Even if she was skeptical, seeing the sparkle in Shen Huai's eyes when he described the future of Mei Xi Steel Factory, Zhou Yu couldn't help but be moved by his unyielding will and charisma. She thought to herself: A man like this, even if battered and bruised, wouldn't easily back down. However, she was only representing the Zhou family in communicating with Shen Huai, and wasn't able to give him an immediate answer.

  "Does Director Zhou still need to go back to the district government?" Shen Hua asked Zhou Yu.

  "No, take me to Pengyue International on Nanguo Road..."

  Shen Hua drove the car, turning the steering wheel down Binjiang Road, driving back and forth.

  Pengyue International Golf Practice Field, located at the east end of Nanguo Highway, is only 400-500 meters away from Meixi River. To the east, you can see the blast furnace chimney of Meixi Steel Plant and rows of residential buildings erected with collective investment.

  Across the river is the west end of Gangchang Road, with some deviations, but still roughly on a straight line. However, there are no bridges connecting the two roads, and the Meixi River is nearly 300 meters wide between them.

  The car stopped in front of Pengyue International Parking Lot, and Zhou Yu asked, "Has Secretary Shen played golf abroad? Is he interested in going in to play a couple of rounds?"

  "Let's forget it for today." Shen Huan shook his head, declining Zhou Yu's invitation. He looked up at the high netting that had been erected around the outside of the court and saw that there were only a few cars parked in the parking lot, and smiled faintly.

  If Pengyue's scrap steel business doesn't shrink, Zhou Zhi will build a golf driving range here, even if it doesn't make a profit, it's nothing, after all, the initial land acquisition cost is extremely low, and it can be used as Pengyue's industrial diversification layout.

  However, Shen Hua learned from other channels that this golf practice field actually gave Peng Yue a lot of pressure.

  Shen Huai even yearned to stand on the same stage as Wu Haifeng, but had to consider that sometimes it's better to hold back his sharp edges; in dealings with the Zhou family, Shen Huai didn't insist on direct dialogue with Wu Haifeng or Zhou Yu and Zhou Zhi Bai's father Zhou Yanbin, and was content with having Zhou Yu act as an intermediary.

  ***********

  Saying goodbye to Zhou Yu, Shen Huai drove directly back to Mei Xi Town.

  The daylight was dwindling, Shen Hua drove back to Mei Xi Town, and the dusk completely enveloped everything.

  It was the time when the lights of the Zhuxi Hotel were red and the wine was green, Chen Dan wanted to stare at the hotel, while Xiao Li should be in school for night self-study. Shen Huai didn't want to go to the town government or the steel factory, so he drove directly back to the old mansion.

  Zhu Li called the day before yesterday and said that the renovation of the old house has been completed, asking him to go over and take a look, if there's anything not satisfactory, they can make corrections immediately.

  If there is anything wrong, it is mostly Sun Yalin's opinion.

  The renovation of the two business outlets of Yeshin Bank was completed by Zhu Li in just over a month, while the old house on this side had been delayed for more than two months due to Sun Ya Lin's repeated opinions, and the construction cost had increased from the initial 200,000 yuan to 400,000 yuan.

  Sun Yalin grew up in a mansion since she was young and had very high demands on life. Anyway, it's her money, so Shen Huan let her take charge, letting such a picky person supervise him, and he could also help Yu Jiang improve his business level.

  Shen Huai hadn't returned to the old mansion in a long time, and he didn't know what kind of state Sun Ya Lin had gotten it into. After getting off the gravel road, Shen Huai saw that Sun Ya Lin's three-pronged spear was parked under the east wall of the courtyard, so he stopped his car at the back of the yard and walked over to see Sun Ya Lin, Zhu Li, and two people who looked like engineers standing outside the gate, pointing and gesturing towards the inside.

  "For such a small project, you let Old Zhu send a construction manager and a designer to keep an eye on it here, and every now and then, you bring Old Zhu over. You're making things so complicated, aren't you afraid of annoying people?" Shen Huai said.

  "No trouble, no trouble, Miss Sun's vision is really far beyond us. From this project, we've learned a lot of things," Zhu Li turned around and saw Shen Hua walking over, saying "Secretary Shen, you take a look too, what do you think? We'll make note of it and change it all tomorrow..."

  "What can I have an opinion on? Come and take a look." Shen Huan said with a smile.

  Sun Yalin renovated the old house to make it look like a private villa, and such a big move made all the neighbors aware of it, he was worried that moving in would have a very bad influence.