Because of the help rendered by Jin Shanshan's father, Jin Dahai, the newly established Xinguang District managed to survive its most grueling early days despite being desperately short of manpower.
More than six thousand people had arrived in steady waves, and even for a merchant of Jin Dahai's considerable clout, the effort required must have been immense.
And he was still helping to recruit more people on top of that.
This was a debt of gratitude that Mingcheng—and indeed Longcheng itself—would not forget.
The pace of construction in Xinguang District accelerated dramatically, and in less than two months, an entire new town had risen almost from bare earth.
The power plant equipment had been shipped in by waterway, and installation was a straightforward matter.
When the machinery was switched on, the dim and shadowy Xinguang District was flooded with electric light in an instant.
Jin Dahai, who had been specially invited to witness the occasion, tilted his head back and let his mouth hang wide open. Between his considerable girth and that expression, he looked utterly comical—like an oversized toad.
"This… this… it's simply unbelievable."
"Shanshan wrote to me saying that Longcheng's nights are bright, and I couldn't really picture it. Now I know exactly what kind of bright she meant."
"Mr. Jin, shall we take a stroll down the street?"
"After you—I wouldn't dream of declining."
The two men set off down the broad Taoyuan Street, surrounded by a retinue of attendants. The shops lining both sides of the road blazed with light, and many merchants were open for business.
All the shopkeepers here were people who had come from Longcheng. They had been notified that the power would be switched on tonight, and so had stayed open accordingly.
"Mr. Jin, let me treat you to a modest meal today."
"Whatever suits you, whatever suits you—one look at this figure of mine and you'll know I'm not fussy."
The two men made their way to a street-side quick-service restaurant. The proprietor caught sight of the District Chief and greeted him with an excited wave, but had the good sense not to come over and take up the man's time.
Mingcheng selected two meat dishes, two vegetable dishes, and two bowls of rice, then led Jin Dahai to sit down at a cafeteria-style table.
Jin Dahai picked up his chopsticks with a cheerful grin and dug in.
"Not bad at all—the cook knows what he's doing."
"I find it quite decent. It can't quite match a proper restaurant, but for an ordinary person, this would be a real treat."
"Mr. Jin, care to guess what four dishes and two bowls of rice cost here?"
"It should run to a little over one qian of silver, all things considered—two meat dishes and two vegetable dishes after all."
"At local prices it comes to three yuan fifty—roughly thirty-five wen."
"That cheap? Is there any profit in it?"
"There is. Small margins, high volume."
"The grain all comes by water from Longcheng. Coarse grain is three jiao a jin now; rice and white flour have dropped considerably too, around one yuan. Ordinary chicken and pork runs about three yuan."
"Here, the cheapest meal you can get is three jiao."
"Three wen? That cheap? How is that even possible?"
"My master's wish is that every poor soul under heaven should be able to eat a meal like this. Spreading the Longcheng model outward, it's not out of reach."
"Master Zhao has a great and generous heart. I, Jin Dahai, am far from his equal."
This time Mingcheng did not deflect the praise. He simply nodded. "My master is the most singular person in this world. I and my brothers and sisters are all far from his equal as well."
"I tell you this not to boast, but because I want to ask you something directly: Mr. Jin, would you consider joining us?"
Jin Dahai was taken aback, and for a moment he had no idea how to answer.
"My master will overturn everything the old world has built. Through that process, the standing of ordinary people will rise steadily, while the privileges of the powerful and the wealthy will be leveled down. The gap between them—in status and in fortune alike—will begin to close."
"Those who do not move with this tide will eventually find themselves with nothing at all."
"Mr. Jin, I am inviting you to serve as Deputy District Chief of Xinguang District, overseeing all commercial affairs."
"There's no need to answer now. Go home, think it over carefully. Even if you decline, that changes nothing between us—we remain friends."
Jin Dahai finished that meal in a state he could not quite put into words.
What he did in the days that followed, he could not entirely account for either.
But on the fifth day, he walked through the doors of the Xinguang District government office to report for work.
Deputy District Chief—ranked at Grade Eight, drawing a Grade Eight salary of eighteen yuan a day.
After that, he set about voluntarily dismantling the business empire he had spent his life building, placing person after person into government departments or under the banner of Jinxiu's commercial holdings.
He took apart his own empire with his own hands, giving his mid-level and senior managers a sum of money each and sending them off to seek their fortunes elsewhere.
Most of those who remained were the rank-and-file workers at the bottom, who would be taken in and trained from the ground up in the Longcheng way.
As for the managers—the majority of them could not stomach starting over from nothing, and so they would become, as Mingxin had warned, people who would eventually have nothing left at all.
And so Xinguang District, by absorbing a merchant empire of the first rank, secured its footing in the region virtually overnight.
Territory—it had. Manpower—it had. Connections—it had. And strength? Longcheng itself was overflowing with that.
It was not that Longcheng had swallowed Jin Dahai whole and left not even the bones. All his assets were tallied up, converted at fair value into a substantial sum of Longcheng currency, and deposited into his account.
More than enough to keep him comfortable for several hundred lifetimes.
On top of that, there was a profit-sharing agreement—the first of its kind that anyone had received.
The income from that agreement was modest compared to what his former assets had generated, but by any ordinary person's measure, it remained a fortune beyond imagining.
And it would keep coming, without end.
A minivan pulled into the Jin family compound. The rear doors swung open, and Jin Dahai climbed out with some effort.
The middle and rear rows of the van had four seats in total, all of which had been removed and replaced with a single custom seat. Without that modification, getting in and out would have been a genuine ordeal.
"The master is home! No—the District Chief is home!"
The household steward's flattery was polished to a high art. Jin Dahai thrust out his belly with great satisfaction, and the oversized black Zhongshan suit that had been rushed to completion nearly burst at the seams.
"Master, I've heard that this little motorcar is the only privately owned vehicle outside of the Zhao family's in all of Longcheng—even the emperors don't have one."
Jin Dahai's grin widened even further. Ha! Not even the emperors have one, and I, Jin Dahai, do!
Ha ha ha ha—
He thrust out his belly again in triumph. With a sharp pop, the button that had been bearing the brunt of it gave way and flew off.
"Oh my, Master! Your prosperity has grown again!"
Jin Dahai had been on the verge of embarrassment, but the moment he heard his steward pointing at his great belly and calling it a sign of growing prosperity, he broke into delighted laughter once more.
Sure enough—a man who could serve as steward to a merchant magnate of the Jin family's stature was no ordinary person.