Chapter 1421: The Flavor of the New Year

The Spring Festival of 2006 arrived as scheduled.

In fact, for those born in the 1970s and 1980s, the flavor of the Spring Festival is tied to their parents.

It is often said that one should not travel far while one's parents are alive. In ancient times, this saying might have held true, but nowadays, to make a living, the vast majority of those born in the 1970s and 1980s have to work desperately hard to earn money. For them, the Spring Festival has become one of the few opportunities to reunite with their parents.

In his previous life, after his parents passed away, Zhao Fusheng no longer cared much about the Spring Festival.

In fact, there are only so many activities during the Spring Festival: eating out, shopping for clothes, watching the Spring Festival Gala, and sitting together as a family chatting.

But back then, neither Zhao Fusheng nor his parents had ever imagined that one day, when they sat together, the topic of conversation would be business deals worth tens of millions.

"The company acquired a lot of land this year."

On the second day of the Lunar New Year, Zhao Fusheng and Fan Baobao did not go out but stayed home with their parents. Li Yuan and Zhao's mother pulled Fan Baobao into the kitchen to cook and chat. Judging by her occasional blushes, they were probably asking about having children.

As for Fan Beibei, she was watching cartoons with great interest.

Zhao's father and Zhao Fusheng simply sat on the sofa and chatted casually.

"That's good." Zhao Fusheng nodded upon hearing his father's words. "Real estate is a good opportunity now. Our family's company shouldn't be too aggressive; just develop in the three northeastern provinces."

He had originally thought about letting his father expand the market, but then he reconsidered and gave up the idea. After all, given his father's abilities and the company's strength and background, if they really went national, would they end up being crushed by others?

The real estate industry, simply put, is about competing in connections, background, and capital.

Wanda did not lack capital, and with Xue Yuanfang around, it did not lack background or connections either. But the problem was that Zhao Fusheng did not want his family's company to be too heavily tinged with politics.

Money can never be fully earned.

This truth, Zhao Fusheng now understood profoundly.

"If I weren't so young, I'd be thinking about retiring." Zhao's father glanced at his son and said helplessly.

There was no helping it; his son was too successful, so much so that whenever Zhao's father thought about the future scale of the group, he felt that while it was said the disciple surpasses the master, in his case, his son hadn't needed his help at all and had carved out a world with his bare hands.

"Don't overthink it." Zhao Fusheng laughed upon hearing this. "I am me, you are you. Wanda was founded by you yourself. For now, I haven't considered the issue of succession. I still have a lot of things to deal with. So you still have to manage this company yourself."

Hearing his son's words, Zhao's father shook his head helplessly, feeling both amused and proud.

Other bosses were racking their brains to find ways to let their children inherit the family business, or to prevent power struggles within the family. But in their case, it was completely the opposite.

His precious son had absolutely no interest in inheriting his company; instead, he was worried that his father would push Wanda onto him.

There was no helping it; after all, his son's business was bigger than his own.

Although they were in different industries, Zhao's parents still paid close attention to Future Group. Zhao's father even collected information about Future Group through various channels. Naturally, he knew that Future Group was now a well-known company in the northern region.

It was only because his son was low-key and didn't like to show off that he hadn't been covered by the media.

After all, starting from scratch before the age of thirty and now having assets worth billions—such news would be eye-catching wherever it appeared.

"As long as you're happy." Zhao's father couldn't be bothered to say anything more about Zhao Fusheng's decision. He simply waved his hand and dropped the topic.

"By the way, what do you think we should do if we want to open up a new market?" Zhao's father took a bite of an apple and suddenly asked Zhao Fusheng.

Zhao Fusheng was taken aback. After thinking for a moment, he casually said, "Stir up some trouble."

"Stir up trouble?"

Zhao's father was a bit puzzled and asked, "What do you mean?"

"If you want to invest and open up a new market somewhere, first create some big news there, like making donations or running advertisements." Zhao Fusheng shrugged and recounted some methods commonly used by investment companies in his later memory. "The best approach is to have the internet, print media, and television all work together to create a big atmosphere. That way, the company's name will quickly leave an impression on the local people's minds."

"Uh, would the media cooperate with that?" Zhao's father was taken aback and asked subconsciously.

Zhao Fusheng smiled. "Dad, do you know what the purpose of media reporters is?"

"Uh, isn't it to report the truth?" Zhao's father naturally gave the standard answer.

Zhao Fusheng sneered. "That was in the past. Nowadays, the media pursues attention. For example, if the media doesn't have news that catches readers' eyes for a week, the reporters will definitely be scolded. So reporters will definitely work hard to find a news story to focus the public's attention on themselves.

For instance, if an actor in the film and television circle gets married, the reporters might hype it up for half a month. But if another director is caught cheating, the news of the actor's marriage will naturally be overshadowed. A story that might have been five hundred words could be reduced to a single sentence."

Seeing that Zhao's father was still confused, Zhao Fusheng explained helplessly, "People always say that a dog biting a person is not news, but a person biting a dog is news. But the problem is, nowadays there are only dogs biting people. Have you ever seen a person bite a dog? Would those reporters stop reporting news? No, they would dig deeper, like if the dog bit a sanitation worker, or if the dog bit someone because it was kicked. As long as there is a news hook, these media reporters won't care about moral conscience."

"So, as long as we pay them, they will report on our company?" Zhao's father was stunned. He had never thought of using such a method for publicity before.

Zhao Fusheng nodded. "As ridiculous as it sounds, that's the reality."

No one knew better than him how low the future standards of Chinese media could be. Take their provincial TV station as an example: a provincial TV station, with its hosts openly promoting so-called water purifiers on their programs.

Water purifiers originally worth a few hundred yuan were often sold for thousands of yuan. Anyone with discerning eyes could see through the inside story. But they just did it so blatantly.

In the end, it all came down to profit.

Zhao's father was clearly shocked by Zhao Fusheng's words. He had done advertising before, and Future Advertising had helped plan it. But he naturally wouldn't ask Future Advertising for a plan to open up a new market. This time, he had only asked casually, but he didn't expect his son to give him such an unexpected answer.

"Let me think it over." After a long silence, Zhao's father said to Zhao Fusheng.

Zhao Fusheng smiled and didn't say anything more. After all, this was Wanda's development strategy. He could only offer suggestions; the specifics were up to his father to decide.

Besides, Tan Kaixuan was also a shareholder and could occasionally offer suggestions.

"By the way, when do you and Baobao plan to have children?" After finishing business, Zhao's father naturally turned to personal matters.

After all, with the family business now so large, both Zhao Fusheng and his father were no longer ordinary people. The issue of succession was naturally crucial.

Zhao Fusheng thought for a moment. "It should be this year. Baobao has finished filming a movie. She doesn't plan to participate in the promotion. I'll talk to the company later. Barring any surprises, it will be this year."

"That's good." Zhao's father smiled. "Your mother and I are getting older. Your mother has nothing to do now. If you have a child, she can help take care of it."

No matter who it is, once they get older, they inevitably start to like children. It is often said that grandparents dote on grandchildren; that's probably the reason.

Zhao Fusheng suddenly felt a bit sorry for Fan Baobao. He could imagine that at this moment in the kitchen, the two mothers were probably talking to her about the same topic.