Epiphanies of Rebirth (重生之豁然)

Chapter 34

Lin Jingzhe felt that he could understand why in the future, older businessmen would often reminisce about "the twenty golden years".

The last two decades of the 20th century had been a period of rapid economic growth of China. In order to promote business development, almost all new policies implemented by the state were aimed at boosting GDP.

Those who were lucky enough to jump on board managed to get twice the rewards with half the effort because formalities had been much simpler and less troublesome. If this were a few years into the future, Lin Jingzhe would never have managed to borrow a sum of money three times the market value of the land he was using as collateral, especially since Lot No. 9 was not in a good location—not even mentioning the fact that the newly established New Beginnings Real Estate, which had no prior contracts, was a high-risk borrower. However, in 1990, such an absurd thing was easily accomplished.

Unlike later generations, the people of this era did not have easy access to information and were much less daring; among the businessmen of the early nineties, even Hu Shaofeng could be considered a risk-taker. The Chinese had a culture in which people leaned towards being pragmatic and down-to-earth, and the story of "the Chinese old lady and American old lady buying houses" was not very widespread among the public. This difference in values meant that the banks' annual lending targets often could not be reached. As a result, as long as it wasn't a blatantly obvious fraud, loan applications from legally registered companies would not be rejected.

T/N: The story of the Chinese old lady and American old lady buying houses:
The business license that Lin Jingzhe had acquired with the help of Fang Wenhao now came into great use. Fang Wenhao also inadvertently let him become acquainted with Big Tiger, the boss of DaHu Group and one of the "local snakes."

Big Tiger's real name was Xiao Zhanghu. He was actually related to Fang Wenhao, but his parents were far less powerful than Fang Wenhao's. Unable to act as freely and boldly as Fang Wenhao, he ran an "intermediary agency" in Yan City. To put it bluntly: he was a broker and an agent who would do anything except for pimping. He and Tian Dahua could be said to operate similar businesses.

Big Tiger, however, was more straightforward and less inquisitive than Tian Dahua—as long as he was paid enough money, he'd do what was requested of him, no questions asked. When Lin Jingzhe contacted him and asked for help with the loan, he silently took the deposit; three days later, the loan documents were delivered to Lin Jingzhe's door.

For a period of two years, the seven million was now twenty million. The moment Lin Jingzhe got the money, he went to take a look at the current state of Yan City.

At this time in his last life, he had just arrived here. He was picked up by his father right away and ended up living a life of a rich man from that point on; whenever he went out, there was a car to send him and bring him back, so he never really paid much attention to the development of the city. Even so, he still retained some broad impressions, and the older the memory, the more vivid it was.

However, because he had grown too accustomed to seeing the results of those changes, the world prior to them became unfamiliar instead.

For example, the area surrounding Lin Runsheng's house. Lin Jingzhe felt strange when he drove along the road leading to it. He had lived there for several years in his last life, but what he remembered more vividly was the skyscraper that had been built next to the intersection about ten years after he moved out or Yan City New Cultural Park that in the future would be 200 meters away after turning right.

Around '94, he hadn't fallen out with Lin Runsheng yet; it was the period when he had acted the most arrogant and unbridled, living a life that the majority of rich young masters lived, similar to Hu Shaofeng's.