In the club, a tea table was set up on a dining table. Zhuang Jiaxiong took off his suit jacket and sat in his shirt before the tea table he had brought. He picked up the copper kettle with boiling water in his right hand, and with tongs in his left hand, pinched the edge of a small teacup, scalding and washing the tea set under the stream of boiling water.

The boiling water rinsed the teacups and fell onto the tea tray. The steam dispersed, making the British merchants around the tea table feel much more comfortable.

After scalding a small teapot and six cups, Zhuang Jiaxiong put about 5 grams of black tea leaves into the teapot and began pouring hot water. A moment later, he poured out all the water in the small teapot. The aroma of black tea immediately spread around the tea tray.

The Englishmen watched dumbfounded, not understanding why the good tea water was poured out. Zhuang Jiaxiong quickly rinsed it twice, and on the third time, he handed the first brew of six cups of tea to the six British merchants.

After tasting the tea, the British merchants frowned slightly. It was evident they couldn't quite appreciate the changes in pure black tea prepared with Chinese tea art. But almost all the British merchants Zhuang Jiaxiong had met were like this, so he wasn't anxious.

The second brew wasn't a short 5-10 second infusion, but a three-minute steep. Then, using a tea separator unique to Fujian, he poured out the pure tea liquid and added sugar and milk to modulate it.

This time, the British merchants all showed satisfied expressions. One of them, his eyes lighting up, sighed, "It really became delicious!"

More British merchants shook their heads, indicating that the impact of the "kick" was weakened. A dispute even arose between the two sides.

He Rui actively intervened, temporarily stopping both sides. Pulling Zhuang Jiaxiong to his side, He Rui smiled at the British merchants. "There is an old Chinese saying: *Like a person drinking water, one knows hot and cold oneself*. Everyone's view on tea is different. Mr. Zhuang Jiaxiong here is the young master of a tea garden in southern China and a university student. I think he can represent a certain mid-to-high level of Chinese tea drinking cognition. Everyone can chat more."

The merchants were familiar with He Rui. Hearing that the tea this time was brought by Zhuang Jiaxiong, they were quite enthusiastic toward him.

While socializing with the British merchants, Zhuang Jiaxiong felt somewhat surprised in his heart. He didn't like the British at all, including foreigners. Calling a group of Englishmen brothers and discussing tea art and tea tasting was something Zhuang Jiaxiong had never imagined. If he hadn't undergone several days of chopstick-biting training [smile training] with Wu Youping, he probably wouldn't even be able to squeeze out a smile.

But this was work. Zhuang Jiaxiong could only use all the experience he had accumulated to chat with the British merchants.

He Rui's main job today was to bring Zhuang Jiaxiong into the circle of "attracting investment." Just as he was watching Zhuang Jiaxiong chat with the British merchants, the British merchant who had tasted the difference in the tea leaned over. "Your Excellency Governor, I heard you imported a canned food production line from the French?"

"News travels so fast?" He Rui smiled. The British merchants were indeed well-informed, but the accuracy was slightly lacking. The French merchants had indeed proposed building a cannery in Siping, and they were very enthusiastic. But it hadn't been signed yet because the French merchants required Siping to provide a portion of the investment to purchase French equipment.

The risk of this kind of cooperation was too great for Siping; it couldn't be easily agreed to, or rather, it fell into the category of impossible to agree to at present.

Seeing He Rui look as if the contract had already been signed, the British merchant said somewhat urgently, "Your Excellency Governor, if you can get a British bank inside the pass to issue an endorsement, I also want to cooperate with the Governor to open a cannery."

"Where do the tin cans come from? Where does the processing equipment come from? What type of canned food should be produced? Where is the sales market?" He Rui gave a standard inquiry for the current stage.

***

In the afternoon, He Rui and Zhuang Jiaxiong left the British Merchants' Club. Back at the headquarters, Zhuang Jiaxiong sat opposite He Rui, looking exhausted. Drinking a mouthful of tea, Zhuang Jiaxiong sighed, "Governor, attracting investment is actually so hard. Although I thought about it, I didn't expect it to be so troublesome."

He Rui sighed. "This is because Youping completed a lot of work beforehand, and the British merchants have some mutual trust with us. Jiaxiong, do you understand the importance of cadres now?"

Zhuang Jiaxiong nodded repeatedly. "Yes. We have quite a few classmates. Youping said he only invited me, which I actually didn't quite understand. Now I finally understand a little; many classmates have much better academic performance than me but can't do this work."

He Rui didn't mention Zhuang Jiaxiong's classmates. "The mainstream of world liquid capital in the next two years will be seeking production capacity. As long as we can obtain a tiny bit of the world's liquid capital, it will be enough for us to gain tremendous change."

Zhuang Jiaxiong asked about something he was very curious about. "Why is the Governor so indifferent to the President proclaiming himself Emperor?"

"Because the moment the President proclaims himself Emperor, he is destined to fail, and it opens the era of Chinese civil war. Compared with such huge changes, the proclaiming of Emperor itself is only meaningful for historical analysis; its significance to the real world is very limited."

Zhuang Jiaxiong tried to follow He Rui's train of thought. Thinking of the political situation of the whole of China, he only felt there were thousands of threads and he couldn't think clearly. But hearing He Rui describe such a big event as if it wasn't important at all made Zhuang Jiaxiong's heart surge. He managed to pick out a slightly clear question from his thoughts. "Governor, what will Beiyang become after Yuan Shikai fails?"

"Essentially similar to the situation of China being in a state of division. Various forces will conquer each other, all wanting to be the one to unify China."

"Shouldn't we do something?" Zhuang Jiaxiong asked carefully.

He Rui chuckled lightly. "The Siping comrades, including you, are making preparations. It's all very hard work."

Zhuang Jiaxiong indeed felt exhausted, but he also realized He Rui had no intention of recounting future plans. Thinking that he had arrived less than a month ago, Zhuang Jiaxiong felt he perhaps shouldn't ask so much. But if he didn't ask anything, he inevitably felt uncomfortable in his heart.

While he was entangled, he heard He Rui say, "Comrade Jiaxiong, our two major tasks at this stage: first is to obtain regime legitimacy. Second is to rapidly increase our production capacity. Let's make a hypothesis: if President Yuan hands the position of Great President to us after his failure, do we dare to go to the capital?"

Zhuang Jiaxiong was startled by such a hypothesis and answered hurriedly, "Of course we can't go; going would be seeking our own death."

"Since our strength is insufficient, do you feel we should do something within the scope of our strength?"

This was exactly Zhuang Jiaxiong's thought, so he nodded hurriedly. But a moment later, Zhuang Jiaxiong suddenly realized his view of "within the scope of strength" might be vastly different from He Rui's, so he started shaking his head again.

Finally, Zhuang Jiaxiong could only speak his heartfelt words. "The Governor handles so many foreign merchants with ease; I thought the Governor could do more things. But now I only know we *can* do it, but I'm still unclear about *how* specifically. It's hard to avoid having various thoughts."

He Rui knew Zhuang Jiaxiong was speaking from the heart and was satisfied. "What China needs is no longer a system of governing the country through court politics, but an industrialized system of governance. For an industrialized governance system, everything must inevitably be transparent. Attend Party classes on time; what is taught in Party classes is this highly political content."

"Yes," Zhuang Jiaxiong responded, forcing himself to be spirited and preparing psychologically for arduous study.