I'm back in 1990

Chapter 480: A New Direction

When Huang Xiaochuan arrived at Huahong Hotel, he saw Ding Yi's car parked in the parking lot. It was very conspicuous. Tang Jianhua had even arranged for two people to surround the car with a fence, just in case someone accidentally bumped into it. The main reason was that the car was too damn expensive, and at that time there was nowhere in China to repair such a car. If there was any major or minor problem, it had to be sent to Hong Kong or Japan for repair.

Upon seeing his brother-in-law arrive, Tang Jianhua took the initiative to greet him: "Your two classmates are in the East Hall."

"Brother-in-law, it's been a while since you and my older sister visited my house, hasn't it? What have you two been up to?"

Tang Jianhua looked helpless: "Your older sister wants to take the accounting certificate exam, and I'm busy opening chain stores. I'm so busy that my heels are practically hitting my butt. I really don't have time."

Huang Xiaochuan was taken aback: "My older sister wants to take the CPA exam? Why didn't she tell me? How about this! I'll find someone to tutor her and get her some professional books to read."

"That would be great! You know I don't understand her finances, so I can't help her at all." Tang Jianhua was naturally happy to help his brother-in-law.

"Then let's do it this way. Tell my older sister later, and I'll arrange for a tutor to come to her home for extra lessons within a week."

After finishing this story, Huang Xiaochuan added, "By the way, brother-in-law, my classmate is from Yanjing. Tell the head chef to use less sugar when cooking."

Tang Jianhua laughed upon hearing this: "I just hired a master chef specializing in Shandong cuisine. Tonight, you can try his cooking. His braised sea cucumber with scallions, stewed sea cucumber skirt, stir-fried double crisp, braised prawns, and braised pork intestines are absolutely amazing!"

Upon hearing this, Huang Xiaochuan's appetite was immediately whetted: "Okay, besides these dishes, can you help me think of a few more to add?"

"Alright, go keep your classmate company, I'll take care of the food!" Tang Jianhua readily agreed.

After Huang Xiaochuan entered the private room, he saw Ding Yi and Wu Duo chatting happily. Upon seeing Huang Xiaochuan, Wu Duo pointed to the room's decor and said, "Xiaochuan, your brother-in-law's restaurant is quite upscale!"

Huang Xiaochuan teased Ding Yi, "There's no way around it! If the decoration isn't high-end enough, our stock market guru Ding won't come to patronize the business! That's the style he wants, you know what style means!" As he spoke, Huang Xiaochuan winked at Wu Duo.

Wu Duo smiled knowingly. Huang Xiaochuan was absolutely right; Ding Yi just loved to put on airs.

Ding Yi glared at him with his signature small eyes and cursed, "Damn it, big shot, speak with your conscience! I'm not bragging, but I paid for at least a fifth of the renovation costs for your brother-in-law's restaurant. Don't you even know how much I spend here every month?"

Huang Xiaochuan mercilessly exposed Ding Yi's true colors: "Don't you have a conscience? You expect me to speak with my conscience? You always sign my name when you come to eat, okay?"

Ding Yi pretended not to hear and turned to look at the menu with the waiter. Wu Duo was both amused and exasperated by the two of them. They were almost thirty years old, yet they still liked to make a ruckus just like they did in school.

The dishes were served quickly, and Ding Yi, seeing them, asked, "Did you change chefs?"

"What a coincidence! My brother-in-law just hired a master chef of Shandong cuisine. Old Wu is so lucky. Old Ding, you're benefiting from Old Wu's good fortune. You'd better hurry up and have a few more drinks with him later."

"Fine, I'll drink it. It's not like I've never had it before!"

A short while later, Tang Jianhua came in carrying a plate of braised prawns.

Huang Xiaochuan immediately stood up and introduced him to Wu Duo: "Old Wu, this is my brother-in-law, Tang Jianhua. You can just call him brother-in-law!"

Wu Duo also stood up, shook hands with Tang Jianhua, and called out, "Brother-in-law!"

Startled, Tang Jianhua quickly waved his hands, saying, "I dare not accept such praise!"

Huang Xiaochuan then introduced Wu Duo to Tang Jianhua: "Brother-in-law, this is my college classmate Wu Duo. We used to share a dorm room."

"Wu Duo, you're welcome to come often in the future."

As he spoke, Tang Jianhua took a wine glass, poured some wine, and drank two glasses with Wu Duo. Then he drank two glasses with Ding Yi before preparing to leave.

Ding Yi protested, "Brother-in-law, I see now. You're really siding with your own people. There are three of us here! And one of us hasn't even had a drink with you yet!"

"Brother-in-law, let's have a couple of drinks and set a good example for others," Huang Xiaochuan said, raising his glass to help Tang Jianhua out of his slightly embarrassed situation.

After having a couple of drinks with Tang Jianhua, Huang Xiaochuan sent him out to get busy.

Ding Yi looked on with envy: "Why didn't I end up with such a good brother-in-law?"

Huang Xiaochuan gave him an annoyed look: "Don't take your good fortune for granted. What's wrong with your brother-in-law? Is he bad to your sister or to you?"

Ding Yi scoffed, "Tch! I know Shao Shuxun better than you do. He's not after my sister, he's after her status and my family's background."

Huang Xiaochuan quickly stopped him, saying, "Alright, alright, you've only had a few drinks! You're already talking nonsense. Your sister isn't stupid; she knows better than you. Don't worry about things that don't concern you. Besides, your sister and brother-in-law have been married for so many years, and I've never heard of them having any arguments. Don't go looking for trouble!"

Wu Duo wasn't very clear about Ding Yi's family situation, so he consciously avoided participating in the topic.

Ding Yi glanced at Huang Xiaochuan and then at Wu Duo, realizing he had gone too far, and immediately changed the subject.

"Old Wu, are you not leaving again this time?"

Wu Duo held up his cup and drank another cup with Ding Yi: "I'm not leaving anymore. I've already got my degree, so why don't I hurry back? Besides, after all these years over there, I haven't developed a stomach that can handle Western food. All I can think about every day is hot pot with mutton and fermented bean curd with fried dough rings."

"Old Wu, I really admire you for this. Out of all the people I know, you're the first one who was willing to come back."

"What you said makes me ashamed! Just so you know, Old Zhang will be back soon too!"

Ding Yi was puzzled: "Why would he come back? He's an internet tycoon now, isn't he doing incredibly well in America?"

"Old Zhang wants to come back even more than I do, but as you know, he's currently tied down with too many things on his mind. He needs to sort them out before he can come back. However, he already has a new idea and is just waiting to come back to China to implement it."

Upon hearing this, Huang Xiaochuan asked, "What project has Lao Zhang set his sights on this time?"

"semiconductor!"

Upon hearing Wu Duo utter this term, Ding Yi couldn't help but look at Huang Xiaochuan. The two of them had been planning to establish a semiconductor processing industry chain in Hong Kong, but the timing wasn't right yet, and they hadn't implemented it in practice. What they were eyeing was the economic transformation project that Hong Kong was currently planning. However, this project had been acquired by a certain rich second-generation in Hong Kong. Huang Xiaochuan knew that this rich second-generation was only using the construction of Hong Kong Cyberport as a pretext to develop real estate, and didn't really intend to make Cyberport a reality.

Huang Xiaochuan planned to wait until the dot-com bubble burst to seize the opportunity to take over the project from the rich second generation, which is why he prevented Ding Yi from getting involved at the beginning.

Huang Xiaochuan was very happy to hear that Zhang Gaolei also had the same idea. It was impossible to do this by relying on one or two people. It was necessary to integrate most people to do this together. Only Huang Xiaochuan knew that this project was really too expensive.

Since they hadn't seen Wu Duo for a long time, the three of them chatted and reminisced until 11 p.m. Fortunately, this was a restaurant owned by their own family; otherwise, they would have been kicked out long ago.