Courtyard Houses: From Bronze Compasses to Global Reach

Chapter 445 Mainland Layout Closed Loop

In September, Chenchen and Xixi walked into the campus of Shijia Primary School with their brand-new schoolbags.

The area is shaded by green trees, with a spacious playground. The teaching buildings are simple gray-white, yet they possess a solemn and orderly atmosphere unlike any other kindergarten.

As one of the top schools in Beijing at the time, renowned for its "harmonious education" and emphasis on all-round development, it attracted far more than just children from the nearby hutongs.

Because it was quite far from Dongxinglong Street, the black Cadillac sedan once again became the means of transportation for the brother and sister to go to school.

On the streets of Beijing in 1994, this sleek sedan with its exquisite interior exuded an aura completely different from the surrounding minivans, Xiali cars, and even Ladas.

Every day, it stops precisely at a short distance from the school gate, drops off two neatly dressed students whose demeanor is noticeably different from most of the children, and then drives away silently, enough to attract the attention and whispers of many parents dropping off their children.

Soon, this "difference" became apparent in the class as well. Chenchen and Xixi's stationery was the latest trendy Hong Kong goods, their backpacks were made of imported waterproof fabric, and Xixi's hair clips, dress, and even her ordinary white athletic socks all exuded a sense of "difference" in terms of texture and details.

At lunchtime, Wang Yuling's carefully prepared lunchboxes often contained shrimp, beef tenderloin, and Western-style desserts, which were rarely eaten by children in ordinary families at the time.

These details are compared and discussed in the world of first-graders.

The bigger "shock" came from the pocket money that Xixi had at her disposal.

When I entered primary school, my allowance increased to one hundred yuan per week. In 1994, this was almost equivalent to half a month's salary for an average worker.

For a first-grader, this is an unimaginable "huge sum of money".

Xi Xi is naturally enthusiastic and outgoing, and she quickly made friends in her class.

She made no effort in using her "money power".

During breaks, she would take out five or ten yuan bills and invite a few close classmates to the school store to treat them to Jianlibao (a popular Chinese herbal tea brand), Big Big Bubble Gum (bought in whole boxes), or beautifully packaged imported chocolate wafers, which were considered "luxuries" by children at the time.

Occasionally, she would bring some novel stationery or small toys that were rarely seen in China, sent by relatives in Hong Kong or abroad (that's how she described it), as gifts to share.

With money paving the way, coupled with her talent for singing and dancing and her lively and cheerful personality, she quickly became one of the "core" figures in the class.

Children naturally prefer playmates who are generous and open-minded.

When the homeroom teacher, Ms. Wang, proposed electing a class monitor, Xixi was elected with an overwhelming majority of votes, almost as expected.

The day she put on the "One-Strike" armband, Xixi's little chest was held high like never before, and she chattered excitedly all the way home, her cheeks flushed.

She felt that she had "earned" all of this herself because she was popular and capable.

A sense of accomplishment mixed with a little vanity began to quietly grow in her heart.

She began to get more used to "giving orders" and naturally became the leader in group activities. Sometimes she would even show a little impatience towards classmates who were slow to react or "disobedient".

Lin Yan observed this, and when Wang Yuling occasionally brought it up with a hint of worry, he simply smiled faintly.

"Let her be the class monitor. It's not just about wearing an armband. She'll only understand the true significance of that armband after she hits a wall and suffers losses."

He doesn't intend to intervene too early; some growing pains must be experienced firsthand.

Chenchen, however, was indifferent to his sister's "glory." He was more concerned about the chapter on dinosaurs in the newly released nature textbook and how to use his allowance to collect a set of "100,000 Whys".

After years of quiet infiltration and planning, Siyuan Venture Capital, under the leadership of Lin San, finally revealed its all-encompassing fangs in 1993 with a gentle yet irresistible attitude.

It has become an invisible "strategic investor" and "order integrator" spanning multiple vital sectors of the national economy.

In the field of traditional Chinese medicine, it holds controlling or minority stakes in several pharmaceutical factories with century-old brands and core secret formulas, and has invested heavily in establishing a modern extraction and quality inspection center that meets international standards, promoting the standardization and secondary development of ancient prescriptions.

In the cutting-edge field of biopharmaceuticals, Siyuan Venture Capital has partnered with world-leading research institutions and returned scholars at almost no expense, establishing high-standard laboratories in Beijing and Shanghai. Its long-term vision has astonished the industry.

The real estate industry is booming, and Siyuan Venture Capital has already appeared in the earliest and best land reserves and urban renewal projects in several core cities. However, it never makes a show of becoming a "land king". Instead, it participates deeply in a more stable way, such as cooperative development and holding core commercial properties, and quietly accumulates incalculable physical assets.

In the core industrial sector of automotive engines, Siyuan, through a complex equity structure, became an important technology partner and the second largest shareholder of a large state-owned enterprise engine subsidiary that shoulders the important task of introducing and assimilating national technology.

It brought them world-class design software and some precision machining technology channels, in exchange for future sharing of technological achievements and market collaboration.

Perhaps the most eye-catching is in the emerging consumer electronics sector.

Leveraging the Lin Group's supply chain advantages in Singapore, Siyuan Venture Capital successfully introduced the "Apex" laptop and LM Group's subsequent desktop computer product lines through joint venture production and domestic general agency, quickly capturing the high-end commercial and professional market.

At the same time, it also keenly grasped the nascent stage of mobile communication and began to get involved in the localization of early "big brother" mobile phones and the research and development of next-generation cellular technology (GSM) by acquiring a controlling stake in a communications equipment factory with military background.

Apart from the banking industry, which Siyuan Venture Capital has not directly ventured into due to strict financial regulations and licensing restrictions, it has formed an independent closed-loop ecosystem in each of the sectors it has chosen, making it difficult for outsiders to intervene.

It does not seek monopoly, but rather structural embedding and control of key nodes.

To outsiders, what may appear to be companies revitalized by the injection of "mysterious foreign capital" or "Hong Kong capital" is merely the presence of a few. Only a very few can vaguely perceive that behind these seemingly unrelated companies lies the same profound vision.

On campus, Xi Xi was overwhelmed with the task of rehearsing her first independently organized class New Year's Eve party program. A few mischievous boys refused to cooperate, making her realize for the first time that the "class monitor" armband did not always bring cheers and obedience.

In the study of the courtyard house, Lin Yan had just finished listening to Lin San's report on the early layout of the integrated circuit design industry in the Yangtze River Delta region next year, and his fingertips lightly traced across the huge map of China.

Children's world has its own rules and worries; adults' world has its own boundaries and power struggles.