Chapter 64: A Historic Moment

Li Xian stifled his excitement and listened carefully to Xu Chaoyang's next words.

According to Xu Chaoyang, who was keen on reform, the more than forty enterprises should not be discarded blindly as a bundle. Instead, each enterprise needed to be assessed—its operations, liabilities, and employee situations must be understood. Based on these assessments, a set of solutions would be developed for each enterprise.

Given Li Xian's performance during the tile factory reform, this task was entrusted to him.

However, due to the unprecedented nature of this large-scale overhaul within the forest industry's system, Xu Chaoyang specifically instructed Li Xian to keep the evaluation process confidential to avoid unnecessary complications.

Upon receiving this significant responsibility, Li Xian immediately set to work.

That day, he sent Wang Zhiye away and dove into the Commercial Bureau's archives, retrieving information on all the enterprises listed by Xu Chaoyang.

The data was shocking; Li Xian had expected the forestry bureau's enterprises to be in poor condition, similar to the tile factory. However, the reality exceeded his imagination.

Among the forty-plus enterprises, half had annual losses exceeding 100,000 yuan. Many factories, though still operating, were unable to sell their products, and employees' wages were long overdue. Almost all the enterprises had substantial debts.

Li Xian estimated that the loans owed to rural credit cooperatives alone totaled over 3 million yuan! Adding the tangled web of triangular debts, this figure might double. Moreover, these figures only covered up to the previous year.

This revelation gave Li Xian a new understanding of the forestry bureau's situation.

His hometown was in severe financial distress!

...

With the goal of securing his future and completing Xu Chaoyang's task, Li Xian worked tirelessly, traveling between various factories under the forestry bureau.

Just as he finished assessing the two paper mills and one plywood factory, the much-anticipated 14th National Congress convened.

On the afternoon of October 11, at 14:00, the preparatory meeting of the Congress was held at the Great Hall of the People. The representatives voted to approve the list of the 16-member Credentials Committee and confirmed the agenda for the Congress.

On the morning of October 12, at 9:00, the Congress officially opened with 2,025 representatives and leaders gathering together.

At 9:15, a man later known as the "Old Man" strode onto the podium and, with a booming voice tinged with a Yangzhou accent, delivered a report titled "Accelerating the Pace of Reform, Opening Up, and Modernization, and Achieving Greater Victories for Socialism with Chinese Characteristics."

At 9:29, as the report introduced the concept of "constructing a path with Chinese characteristics for socialism" for the first time, many reporters, both domestic and foreign, left hurriedly after requesting the text of the report, overwhelmed by the shock and astonishment.

These reporters were lucky to witness the start of an indescribable miracle and stand at the beginning of an immensely grand era.

On stage, the powerful voice continued, resonating like spring thunder, broadcasting from the Great Hall of the People to the northern and southern regions of China.

At the forestry bureau's retirement home, the elderly stopped all recreational activities and gathered in the courtyard to listen to the radio.

The October wind in the forest was already quite cool.

Under the clear blue sky, the fluttering flies were like bullets with wings, colliding with everything they were unaware of.

*Slap*

Zheng Weishi swatted a fly on his face, ignoring the pungent smell of the crushed insect, and instinctively glanced at Li Xian beside him.

Not only him, but the elderly who often played with Li Xian were all surprised!

In the past month, this young man had made several "sky-changing" predictions based on clues about China's economy.

However, to the old cadres, these were merely ambitious speculations about current affairs.

But at this moment, the clear and loud voice on the radio seemed like a heavy iron hammer, turning all the young man's predictions into reality!

Beside him, Wu Shengli swallowed hard. "Little Li, I heard your grandfather is a very skilled fortune teller. Could it be he predicted this?"

*Pfft*

Li Xian, who was deeply moved by the historical moment, almost spat out his saliva.

This was national fortune!

If his grandfather could predict this, how impressive would that be?

If the old man, who couldn't even predict his own lifespan, had such a skill, Li Xian would have just learned that art and become a grandmaster, right?

He imagined sitting at home, doing nothing, just conning rich people like Jack Ma and Bill Gates, raking in money.

As Li Xian mentally mocked, he didn't notice that Wang Linhe was already in tears.

When the final word of the report was read, and the applause on the radio surged, the old man wiped his tears and sighed deeply. "The times have changed, and it's high time for a change!"

This exclamation stirred waves of sighs among the surrounding elderly.

Seeing Wang Linhe's cloudy eyes, Li Xian wondered what experiences this elderly man, who had worked in the forest region all his life, had undergone.

But while curious about Wang Linhe's sentiments, Li Xian clearly understood what he himself would experience in the near future!

...

The elderly at the retirement home were surprised to find that since the 14th National Congress, Li Xian, who had never been interested in reading newspapers or news, suddenly showed an unusual interest in newspapers.

Every day, as soon as the newspaper arrived, he would rush over as if seeing a beautiful girl. His method of reading was peculiar: he discarded the international and domestic sections and focused solely on the economic and industrial sections.

Moreover, his expressions while reading were colorful.

He would exclaim, "How could it only rise this much? It's unscientific!" or "Damn it, did I remember wrong?" in an incomprehensible manner.

This continued for several days.

Until the sixth day after the Congress ended.

Early in the morning, while the elderly were exercising, a piercing scream from the mail room drew everyone's attention.

Before they could reach the mail room, Li Xian burst out, clutching a newspaper and waving it around like a lunatic, his behavior resembling that of someone possessed by a spirit.

This shocked Zheng Weishi and Wu Shengli greatly.

"Little Li, what are you doing?" Wu Shengli, being physically strong, pulled him back.

In his ecstatic state, Li Xian hugged the old man tightly and, still unable to contain his excitement, kissed his wrinkled face.

*Yuck!*

"I'm rich!"

Exclaiming in extreme exhilaration, he threw the newspaper into the air and ran out with large strides.

A stunned Zheng Weishi caught the falling newspaper and, after opening it, understood the situation.

It was the economic section of the daily newspaper.

The headline read: "Since the successful convening of the 14th National Congress, local township enterprises have been greatly encouraged and actively expanded their markets and increased production capacity under the Party's call. The surge in enterprise production has driven domestic raw material prices up sharply. As of yesterday, aluminum ingots and iron ingots in the Tianjin area have risen to 6,500 yuan and 4,550 yuan per ton, respectively..."

Putting down the newspaper, Zheng Weishi trembled and instinctively glanced at the two warehouses that were locked tight.

"Old Wu, we've lived so long, and this kid actually predicted everything correctly!"

"Oh, yes," Wu Shengli replied, his face reddened, looking at his shoes.