I'm back in 1990

Chapter 690: More Suggestions Needed

Although Huang Xiaochuan had drunk quite a bit the night before, he still got up on time the next morning.

After washing up, Huang Xiaochuan took his swimming gear and went to the swimming pool. He believes that swimming is the best form of exercise because it is a full-body workout that can train every part of the body and improve coordination.

Early in the morning, the hotel's indoor heated swimming pool was empty, which suited Huang Xiaochuan perfectly. After warming up, he jumped into the water and swam to his heart's content.

After swimming only two laps, Gao Song hurriedly grabbed his phone and went to the poolside.

"Mr. Huang! It's a call from your classmate, Director Wu."

Huang Xiaochuan swam to the edge of the pool, wiped the water off his face, and then put his phone to his ear.

"Good morning, Lao Wu!"

Wu Duo's voice came through the phone: "You're amazing! You managed to thoroughly refute people at an academic conference. I'm truly impressed!"

"You already know that?" Huang Xiaochuan thought to himself, "This news spread way too fast!"

"What do you think? I'm not going to say any more. The car is already on its way to pick you up. The big boss can spare some time to see you this morning." Wu Duoyi succinctly entrusted the important matter to Huang Xiaochuan.

"Okay, I got it!" Huang Xiaochuan hung up the phone and handed it back to Gao Song. He grabbed the edge of the pool with both hands, pushed himself up, and flipped himself ashore.

At 8:30 a.m., a FAW Hongqi picked up Huang Xiaochuan and headed straight for Chang'an Avenue, passing through the Dahongmen (Red Gate) and arriving at the legendary central location.

After getting off the car, Huang Xiaochuan was led to a meeting room to wait. During this time, Wu Duo came by in a hurry and told him, "Don't worry, just wait here for a while. The big leader is busy with work and hasn't had time to spare yet."

Huang Xiaochuan nodded in understanding: "I know, it's okay, you go ahead and do your thing, I'll sit here for a while."

Is he nervous? Not really. But he has a restless feeling. Huang Xiaochuan sat alone in the meeting room, thinking about what to say when he met the big boss.

While waiting, Huang Xiaochuan would check the time on his watch from time to time. He waited like this until after noon when Wu Duo finally reappeared.

"Come with me. You're really lucky. The big boss wants you to have lunch with him. You can chat while you eat. But try to keep the time short so you don't disturb the big boss's lunch break," Wu Duo repeatedly instructed.

"Okay! I understand!"

After actually meeting the top leader, Huang Xiaochuan was no longer nervous. However, to be honest, the top leader looked much older than he had seen on TV.

After exchanging greetings and pleasantries, Huang Xiaochuan accompanied the senior leader for a meal and a chat.

Lunch was simple: four dishes and a soup, two meat dishes and two vegetable dishes. It was just a regular work meal, and it was served separately, with each person eating their own.

The senior leader mainly inquired about the forward-looking research paper on e-commerce that Huang Xiaochuan had previously published using the Hong Kong Economic Research Institute.

Huang Xiaochuan explained to the top leaders some conclusions they had predicted through theoretical models. Under the traditional business model, the circulation of a commodity requires six to eight intermediate links, and each link will create 3 to 5 value-added services. In this way, a regional economy can be formed, which is enough to support most of the local employment.

The advantages and disadvantages of e-commerce are too obvious. E-commerce can reduce the intermediate distribution links to two or three or fewer. Although it seems to double the transaction efficiency, it also causes the disappearance of one-third of the jobs. In short, for every new job created by e-commerce, three traditional business jobs will disappear.

Huang Xiaochuan used a large number of professional terms, such as the spatial and temporal shift in employment structure, the flattening characteristics of the Internet economy, the decline of regional economic multiplier, the trend of wealth distribution polarization, and the change in consumption behavior paradigm. Through the explanation of these terms, he directly told the top leaders that e-commerce needs to be controlled and cannot be allowed to develop in a disorderly manner.

Huang Xiaochuan maintains his stance: emerging industries should be developed, but not on the basis of destroying existing industries. Instead, they should coexist and then gradually replace them. Industrial progress should benefit every consumer, but the rights of workers should not be harmed, since workers are also consumers.

After discussing e-commerce, the senior leader asked kindly, "I heard you shared some thoughts on the real estate economy and GDP yesterday?"

Huang Xiaochuan smiled somewhat embarrassedly, "I didn't expect the leaders to find out so quickly. I'm really ashamed!"

The senior leader waved his hand: "I've seen the recording of your speech at yesterday's meeting. You're right, but you can't just raise questions; you also need to think about how to solve them. That's one of the reasons I invited you here today."

Huang Xiaochuan nodded: "I understand. After I get back, I will put my thoughts into writing and bring them to you for review once they are finished."

Huang Xiaochuan nodded: "I understand. After I get back, I will put my thoughts into writing and bring them to you for review once they are finished."

The big boss laughed: "That's right! I don't think you, Huang Xiaochuan, a Clark Medal winner, are someone who can only find problems but not solve them. I'm looking forward to your grand speech."

After lunch, the top leader shook hands with Huang Xiaochuan to say goodbye and expressed his hope that Huang Xiaochuan, as an economist, would offer more constructive suggestions for the country's economic development.

Wu Duo escorted Huang Xiaochuan all the way to his car. Before Huang Xiaochuan got in, Wu Duo said, "It's clear the leader is very satisfied with you. I can only take you this far; I won't see you any further!"

Huang Xiaochuan waved his hand: "Alright, go ahead and do your thing!"

After getting on the bus, Huang Xiaochuan got his phone. There were many missed calls on it. Huang Xiaochuan glanced at them to see who had called. Only the most familiar people knew this number, so it must have been a call from someone he knew.

One of the calls was from Zhang Sui. Huang Xiaochuan checked the time and didn't rush to call her back. Instead, he called Zhang Xiangguang back first. This guy had made more than a dozen calls.

As soon as the call connected, Zhang Xiangguang's voice came through: "What the hell? Where have you been? If you hadn't called me back soon, I was going to call the police!"

"Is it really necessary! Just tell me, what do you want?" Huang Xiaochuan didn't reveal where he had been all morning over the phone.

Zhang Xiangguang explained the whole story over the phone: "I told you, we shouldn't have let Mo Hongwei come to toast last night. Now look what's happened. I've received no less than seventy or eighty calls since this morning, all from people trying to invite you to dinner through me."

"Really!" Huang Xiaochuan wasn't surprised at all.

Zhang Xiangguang asked on the other end of the phone, "What did you say on your end?"

"That's easy, just tell them I've already left." Huang Xiaochuan then said to Zhang Xiangguang, "By the way, I'm really going back to Shanghai later. I'll let you know on the phone, and I'll call Lao Xu to tell him too."

Zhang Xiangguang asked, puzzled, on the phone, "Isn't that academic seminar still going on?"

"I've said everything I needed to say, so what's the point of staying here? It just makes me annoyed with certain people!" Huang Xiaochuan said self-deprecatingly.

"Alright! Then I won't see you off!" Zhang Xiangguang didn't intend to persuade Huang Xiaochuan to stay a few more days. He knew Huang Xiaochuan's temperament, and besides, this guy had a lot of things to do and was extremely busy every day.