Gun-Ho felt relieved that he came with Chan-Ho to China and that he didn’t lose his wallet because of him. However, the tattoos on Chan-Ho’s arms sort of bothered him.
‘As long as he wears long sleeves, no one would notice his tattoos. But, during the summer when he has to wear short sleeves, I might not be able to take him with me on a trip or to a meeting with some important people.’
The following morning at 9 am, the Audi that was sent by the Foreign Affairs and Trade Office of Antang City was waiting for Gun-Ho at the front entrance of the hotel.
“Did you have good sleep last night, sir?”
The staff from the Foreign Affairs and Trade Office asked. She was wearing a black business suit.
“Yes, I did. Where did you stay last night?”
“We stayed in Chodaeso (similar to a motel in Korea).”
Once the car got out of the city, a road in the countryside was unfolded. Beautiful countryside scenes were opened in front of Gun-Ho one by one. Gun-Ho enjoyed the view of a field filled with rapeseed flowers, a small village, and a small creek.
Gun-Ho and Chan-Ho eventually started dozing off in the car. When they woke up, the car was still moving.
“It’s far.”
“It must have been at least three hours by now. We are not there yet, right?”
They departed the hotel at 9 am, and they finally arrived at a small town around 1 pm.
“We are in Antang City now.”
Antang City was less developed and less sophisticated than Guiyang City, but it was still a city. It had a high population density along with tons of buildings. There were so many cars on the roads as well. But still, since it was a provincial city, many three-wheeled rickshaws were easily found.
The car stopped at a hotel. The hotel was small but looked cozy.
“Why don’t you check in the hotel and unpack your luggage in your room? Someone from Antang City will be waiting for you at the lobby.”
After leaving their luggage in the hotel room, Gun-Ho and Chan-Ho came down to the lobby. The same lady from the Foreign Affairs and Trade Office was waiting for them in the lobby.
“Please come with me. We are going to a restaurant, and we will meet people from Antang City there.”
The staff took Gun-Ho and Chan-Ho to a restaurant in the hotel. It seemed that they reserved a room there for them to have more privacy. In the room, there was a round table with ten chairs around it. Gun-Ho and Chan-Ho sat at the table. The staff lady from the Foreign Affairs and Trade Office and the chauffeur who drove the Audi joined them. The chauffeur wore dark sunglasses. When the four people sat at the table, a waitress came to the room and served them tea.
When they were sipping the tea, four men with sturdy builds entered the room. The man who was wearing a t-shirt and carrying a small bag under his arm greeted them.
“Ni hao!”
The lady staff quickly stood up and introduced the new man to Gun-Ho.
“This is our deputy mayor of Antang City— Mr. Lixian Zhang.”
The deputy mayor took out his business card from the small bag that he was carrying under his arm and gave it to Gun-Ho. Gun-Ho also handed his business card to him. The deputy mayor didn’t forget to give his business card to Chan-Ho. Chan-Ho took it with his hands showing his utmost respect.
The deputy mayor introduced three other men who he came with, one by one. They looked older than the deputy mayor.
“This is our transportation department’s director.”
The director of the transportation department smiled broadly and extended his hand to Gun-Ho for a handshake.
“Ni hao!”
“This is the owner of Chantu qiche (intercity bus company) in Antang City.”
“And this is our chauffeur.”
The third man must be the chauffeur who drove the other three men here.
Food started coming out.
The deputy mayor started talking.
“Thank you for coming all the way to Antang City. I’ve heard a lot about you from Director Seukang Li of Shanghai City. I was told that you are a progressive businessman with outstanding management skills.”
“I’m so flattered. I just have a few small factories that I’m running.”
Since the conversation was being done in Chinese, Chan-Ho couldn’t understand a thing. He just focused on eating the food on the table with a beer. The other Chinese men also kept eating without chipping in the conversation between Gun-Ho and the deputy mayor.
The director of the transportation company eventually chipped in.
“The highway between Antang City and Guiyang City was recently completed. It was part of the great five-year term project of the People’s Republic of China for the purpose of our traffic development in the west area. The project is still ongoing, and we want to modernize our bus terminals and shuttle systems accordingly. We believe it will greatly improve people’s convenience and life in the community.”
“Hmm.”
Gun-Ho pretended that he was paying full attention to the explanation and writing down some notes.
The deputy mayor picked up a deep-fried freshwater crab with chopsticks and placed it on Gun-Ho’s and also Chan-Ho’s plate.
Gun-Ho put his palms pressed together in front of the chest, which he learned from a Chinese martial arts movie, to show his appreciation, and said, “Oh, xiexie (thank you).”
Chan-Ho, who was watching Gun-Ho’s move, mimicked his gesture. He put his hands in front of his chest with his palms pressed together and said, “xiexie.” It came out awkwardly though.
The deputy mayor toasted Gun-Ho as he indicated Gun-Ho as his friend from another country.
He shouted, “Ganbei.”
The deputy mayor continued to talk.
“If you join us in our project as a partner, I will support you unconventionally at the government level in any way I could help. Also, I guarantee you that you would be able to send profits resulting from our partnership to your country without any problem.”
Gun-Ho responded.
“I used to have a joint company in Kunshan City, Jiangsu Province before. I will be straight with you. So, in this business partnership, you are suggesting that you would provide the land to build the bus terminals on, and you are asking me to construct the buildings on it. Am I correct?”
“That’s correct. We will be using the same land where the old terminals are located. For the buildings, we already completed the design.”
“Hmm, so you are not getting new land, but you are bringing the same land that is currently in use…”
The bus company’s business owner chipped in.
“Finding new land is not efficient at this point. It will take time, and we will need to figure out the zoning issues as well, not to mention that the current location is the best location for the purpose. If we use the current location, we would save troubles advertising a new location. After finishing our meal, we will visit the location together.”
“How large is it?”
“It’s 50 mu.”
’50 mu? So, it’s about 10,000 Korean pyung. It would be smaller than the Seoul Express Bus Terminal but about the same size as Dong Seoul Bus Terminal.’
Gun-Ho was trying to figure out if it was worth investing in.
