"Who's bullying you! Don't listen to his nonsense, Uncle," Yi Xiaoman's wife said quickly.

"It's okay, you can bully Xiaoman a little; that's no problem at all! He just can't bully you. If he dares, come to me. I'll have your back and put him in his place," Yi Anguo said with a quick smile.

Yi Xiaoman's parents, Yi Anguo's cousin and his wife, also chimed in.

"Your Uncle Anguo is right. You can bully Xiaoman all you want; it doesn't matter. But if Xiaoman dares to bully you, call me, and I'll help you teach him a lesson," said his mother. "Or you can ask your Uncle Anguo to stand up for you and teach Xiaoman a lesson."

"Mom! I'm your son! You can't just cast me aside now that you have a daughter-in-law!" Yi Xiaoman exclaimed, looking as if life had lost all meaning.

Everyone is backing up my wife. Who's going to back me up?

But nobody cared about Yi Xiaoman's feelings. Because his wife was pregnant, even his own parents would naturally protect their daughter-in-law first. As for their son, what did it matter if he felt a little wronged? It wasn't like he'd be missing a piece of flesh. With a grandson on the way, their son just wasn't as important anymore; his status had taken a nosedive!

Yi Xiaoman's parents were also surprised to see just how large Yi Anguo's mahogany furniture factory was. When they later visited the factory's showroom and saw the beautiful mahogany furniture—and more importantly, the price tags—they were even more astonished. Each piece was priced at thousands, or even tens of thousands, of yuan.

"This mahogany furniture is so expensive! It's much more than what Xiaoman gets when he makes furniture at home," Sister Peony couldn't help but say.

"The main reason is that the wood itself is quite expensive. The miscellaneous wood we have at home is very cheap, so there's no comparison," Yi Anguo explained. "And this is just the more common type of mahogany. The better varieties are even more expensive."

"You get what you pay for. If it sells for a high price, there must be a good reason," his cousin said from the side. "Anguo! Your factory is so big. Just buying the land must've cost a pretty penny, right?"

"It was alright, not too expensive. This is mainly industrial land. If it were commercial land for building houses, that would be really expensive," Yi Anguo explained.

"You've earned so much money out here. Haven't you ever thought about going back home to contribute to its development? You could open a factory there too!" his cousin added.

"Developing back home? The conditions aren't right yet. When the time is right, maybe one day," Yi Anguo said with a sigh of helplessness.

Going back to his hometown to invest and build a factory sounded simple, but in reality, it was incredibly difficult. Setting up a factory back home was fraught with problems. Although investment was being sought everywhere, including his hometown, which offered many incentives, there were countless other troubles and difficulties.

For instance, two years ago, a businessman from Hong Kong bought a large piece of land a few kilometers from his hometown, investing over a hundred million yuan to build a knitting and garment factory. After the land was leveled and construction had begun, the investor reluctantly pulled out. He chose to lose millions and leave, because staying would have meant even greater losses.

The reason was simple: local thugs and layabouts would constantly show up to extort money. If you didn't pay, they'd make it impossible to get any work done. Pay off one group of hooligans, and another would appear. It was a daily parade of people showing up with their hands out.

As if that wasn't bad enough, various local government departments would also stop by every other day, expecting bribes and handouts. Even though they didn't ask for much each time, the frequent visits added up. In the end, the developer left in frustration and went to invest in the neighboring county.

There are reasons why some inland counties and cities fail to develop, and this is just one of them. A much bigger issue is the supply chain. Say you wanted to open a mahogany furniture factory back home. The first problem you'd face is where to buy the mahogany.

In the end, you'd still have to come to Guangdong Province to buy the wood and transport it back to Xijiang Province. The same goes for the machinery; you'd have to buy your woodworking machines from Guangdong too. It doesn't matter if you're in neighboring Xijiang Province or all the way in Dongsan Province in the northeast; southerners setting up furniture factories there still source their machinery from Guangdong.

It's not just the machinery. Many other materials, like sanding belts, sandpaper, and glue, also have to be sourced from Guangdong. You simply can't find them locally, or if you do, they're not the right type or are far too expensive. Ultimately, you'd have to purchase everything from Guangdong.

Once you finally manage to produce the furniture, do you think it's over? The mahogany furniture is so expensive that you can barely sell any of it locally. In the end, you'd probably have to ship your finished products right back to Guangdong to sell them.

Furthermore, when it comes to hiring master carpenters, carvers, or painters, you'll find that after running in circles, you end up having to recruit them from Guangdong anyway. Of course, there are some craftsmen in his hometown who learned these skills in Guangdong, but they wouldn't even know a mahogany furniture factory exists back home. Some have simply gotten used to life in Guangdong and would rather work there than in a factory back home. They have stable jobs and incomes where they are. If they were to join a new factory at home, they would worry about a stable workflow and income.

In the end, you'd have no choice but to pay a premium to hire these masters from Guangdong. And if their income back home proved unstable or lower than what they could earn in Guangdong, they would almost certainly head back. For them to stay, their income would have to match, or even exceed, their earnings in Guangdong. If it's the same or less, no one would want to stay.

The reason is quite practical. They're used to life in Guangdong, where everything is convenient. The streets are bustling and exciting, and there are beautiful women everywhere. Their hometown is different. It's not exciting, and there are few young, beautiful women on the streets since most young people have left to find work elsewhere. Even if they worked "at home," it wouldn't be in their own village—you can't possibly find enough skilled craftsmen in a single village.

In short, anyone accustomed to working in Guangdong would find it very difficult to adapt to working in a factory back home. It feels like nothing is as good, comfortable, or convenient. Life is better in Guangdong, it's more exciting, and with so many young, beautiful women around, it's easier to date and find a partner!

So, returning home to invest and start a business might sound easy, but it's anything but. Look at Guangdong, at Shenzhen. The wealthy business owners aren't all locals. Many bosses are from Xijiang, Hunan, Sichuan, Chongqing, and other provinces. Among them are incredibly wealthy entrepreneurs who have opened massive factories, some employing thousands, even tens of thousands of people.

Do they not want to build up their hometowns, give back, and start businesses there? Don't they wish for their hometowns to become as prosperous and economically developed as Guangdong and Shenzhen? They couldn't possibly not love their hometowns or want them to become better, but it's just not that simple. Many people can run a factory and make a profit here, but if they were to do the same back home, there's no guarantee of success.

Yi Anguo certainly hoped his hometown could become better and more economically developed, but he felt that the conditions were not yet mature and the timing wasn't right. Besides, he didn't have a suitable company under his name to invest with. A mahogany furniture factory? Unsuitable. A property management company? Even more so.

The Huafeng Precision Science and Technology Manufacturing Group was a possibility; he could consider building a new Huafeng Science and Technology Industrial Park in his hometown. But the Huafeng Precision Science and Technology Manufacturing Group wasn't his company. Besides, it was already building an industrial park in Dongguan, so there was no way it could invest in Xijiang Province right now. Perhaps in a few years.

「Time flew by.」

At 10:30 a.m. on November 12th, Chen Ting safely gave birth to a healthy eight-pound baby boy, whom they named Chen Feilong.

Just as Yi Anguo was rejoicing, Zhang Jing finally contacted him. He had invited someone who was willing to return to the country, someone dedicated to developing high technology for the motherland, to come and help.

Zhang Jing told Yi Anguo, "This person is a colleague and close friend of mine from Baodao Province. He was recently snubbed for a promotion and felt there was no future for him there. A company in South Korea wanted to hire him at a high salary, but I intercepted him and told him about your situation. He's very interested, and I told him to meet with you in person to discuss it. His name is Liang Song."

Upon hearing the name Liang Song, Yi Anguo couldn't help but draw a sharp breath.

He might not have known many other big names, but Liang Song was no stranger to him! His reputation was on par with Zhang Jing's, with over 500 patented inventions to his name. If I can successfully recruit him and get him to cooperate, it would be a massive boon!

However, one thing was deeply troubling. Once the company was established and became successful, it would inevitably attract attention from Baodao Province. A competitive and adversarial relationship would be unavoidable. And Liang Song was from Baodao. Although he held over 500 patents, they were from his time working there. The ownership of many of those patents was contentious, and Baodao could sue him for corporate espionage.

If they sued and won, a fine would be the least of his worries. The other party could demand his dismissal from the company and bar him from working in a related field for many years.

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