Yi Anguo also knows, not every place is like Shenzhen, in places like this, government officials dining at hotels and leaving IOUs is basically impossible.

Even if there's a monthly settlement, by the end of the month, they will definitely clear up the accounts for you, there's no way they'd say they don't have money and need to postpone settlement to next month.

But this sort of thing is quite normal inland, Yi Anguo's third brother-in-law used to have a restaurant in the village, which was run into bankruptcy by a bunch of people from the village committee.

If you can't get the money, you don't dare to cause trouble, because if you make trouble they'll just arrest you.

They don't deny their debts, admitting that they owe you money for meals, but say they simply have no money to pay you right now, and you'll have to wait until they do.

If you tried to sue, there'd be no way, they aren't afraid of being sued, they never said they wouldn't pay you, just that there's temporarily no money available, and you should wait a bit longer.

While the two were chatting, Huang Liyao returned from outside.

Seeing Yi Anguo, naturally he was quite pleased.

After some exchange of pleasantries, Gong Hongmei asked her husband, "Did you get the money?"

"No, the new leader said he won't deduct a cent from invoices he signed, but he's not responsible for invoices signed by former leaders. Who dined? Who signed? They're responsible." Huang Liyao shook his head, looking troubled as he spoke.

"The new leader told me to take those IOUs signed by previous leaders directly to his new office to demand the money, and if he doesn't pay, cause a scene. He won't dare not pay."

"He told me not to fear causing trouble, in the end, the other party will definitely be the one afraid."

"What else can you do? We've long heard he's about to be transferred, and you were told to pursue the debt, but you said nobody would lose a penny, that everything would be settled by year-end, that even if he leaves, the government won't and whoever the leader is, they need to pay for the meals." Gong Hongmei said, somewhat frustrated.

"Now what? We won't be able to recover that money at all, will we?"

"Would you really dare to go cause trouble at his current workplace?"

Huang Liyao felt somewhat at fault, and didn't dare argue with his wife.

"How much is still missing that you can't get back?" Yi Anguo curiously asked.

"Over a hundred thousand yuan gone just like that! It's infuriating to think about." Gong Hongmei said, feeling quite uncomfortable.

"That much, huh? We'll need to get it back, if we escalate things, whether it's the current leader or the former leader, they'll all be scared and we'll definitely get the money back." Yi Anguo analyzed.

"If we escalate things, we can definitely get the money back, but afterwards, it's like tearing off the facade with them. Can the hotel still operate?" Huang Liyao said, somewhat worriedly.

"If they want to mess with our hotel, they can easily find any reason to send people over to check on us every few days, saying today our sanitation doesn't meet standards, tomorrow that our fire safety is problematic. Even if there are no issues, if they want to create problems, they can always find something."

"Unless we plan not to run the hotel anymore, then it doesn't matter. As long as you intend to keep running it, and run it here, you can't escape from them and you can't fight them."

"They can openly mess with us, and we have no way to counter them. Since ancient times, civilians don't fight government officials. Confronting officials, suffering losses, you can only accept it."

"If we don't run the hotel, then what's the point of transferring it out? We earn hundreds of thousands a year, and just let it go like that? You make it sound so easy." Gong Hongmei said, unable to contain her anger.

"If we stop running the hotel, what would we do? Go back home and farm? No matter where you open a hotel, it's all the same? All black crows under heaven." Huang Liyao said, resignedly.

"Running the hotel here, at least we've become familiar, having quite a few regular customers, and gained some reputation. Year round, we can still earn a couple of million, losing over a hundred thousand is like paying extra tax."

"As the old saying goes, only with giving can there be receiving, without sacrifice where does one gain?"

"Besides, the new leader is comparatively easier to talk to, and he already said that as long as the invoices are signed during his time, he won't deduct a cent from us."

"The new leader just arrived, who knows how he'll be in the future? It's possible that he'll slowly drag things out, and in time, another pile of bad debts will accumulate." Gong Hongmei retorted.

But her tone had softened slightly, actually she just couldn't swallow her frustration earlier, and when she said those angry words, she really couldn't refuse to run the hotel.

After all, it took effort to stand our ground here, and the business has smoothed out, gained reputation, and business is booming. In a year, it's not hard to earn over a couple million, losing over a hundred thousand realistically isn't severely crippling, it's still manageable.

They finished talking about this matter and started exchanging stories from over these years, ever since Yi Anguo left, the silk factory had closed down completely little after, the couple took over Gong Hongmei's mother's guesthouse and turned it into Silk Grand Hotel.

They operated in the county town for a few years, made some money, and eventually decided that the small county's development was limited, their small county only had a population of a little over a hundred thousand, with the county town having at most tens of thousands of people.

Gan City is a big city, with a lot of people, so the couple moved to Gan City to develop, while the hotel in the county town was handed over to Huang Liyao's younger brother and sister-in-law to manage.

Huang Liyao's parents passed away early, the older brother is like a father, the older sister-in-law like a mother, it's only right to care for the younger brother and brother-in-law.

After arriving in Gan City, they started entirely from scratch, and have slowly seen results, and now the couple can be considered as people with a net worth of several million, all previous debts and loans have also been cleared.

Yi Anguo naturally recounted his experiences over the years. As for his assets, it wasn't convenient to go into detail, but even without specifics, Huang Liyao and his wife could tell that their little brother was no longer the person he used to be; he was definitely richer than them now.

Finally their daughter, Huang Xian, appeared with a shy and timid demeanor, calling out to her godfather and hiding behind her mother.

"The little girl from back then has grown up and now feels embarrassed seeing her godfather." Yi Anguo said, teasing, as he looked at his goddaughter.

Back then, Huang Xian loved sticking to Yi Anguo like a little shadow.

Because at that time, Yi Anguo's salary was considered quite high, in '97 easily earning three to four thousand a month, which was a lot.

Especially in the backward and remote small county, Yi Anguo liked to take Huang Xian with him to play in the streets of the county, bringing her to shop, buy delicious snacks, and fun toys.

So when she was a child, Huang Xian really liked her godfather. Whoever was good to her, she would be good to them; she liked to stick to those who were kind.

"Godfather! You went away and didn't come to see me for so long, now I've grown up and you don't even recognize me."

Huang Xian peeked her little head out from behind her mom, expressing her dissatisfaction to this godfather who had left her for so many years.

"If I hadn't recognized you, who knows when we'd have seen each other again!"

"It's godfather's fault for losing touch, but from now on, such things will definitely not happen again." Yi Anguo apologized sincerely.

"Xin Yi! Yunlong, quickly bring your younger siblings over to meet your sister Huang Xian."

"Are they all my godbrothers and godsisters?"

Huang Xian widened her eyes, looking at the little ones calling her sister, and asked.

"Yes! Suddenly there are so many godbrothers and godsisters, isn't that nice?" Yi Anguo said with a smile.

"What about them? Which one of them is my godmom?" Huang Xian looked over at Hu Jing, Li Sisi, and others, asking.

Especially Li Shanshan, who was heavily pregnant, and Ding Jing, who was holding a baby in her arms.

"They're all your godmoms?" Yi Anguo hesitated for a moment before speaking.

Though Huang Xian had her doubts, once her godfather said this, she was left speechless with surprise.

One godfather, and so many godmoms? There's no way a high-school-aged Huang Xian wouldn't know that society follows a one-man-one-wife system, and a man can only marry one woman. How could one godfather have so many godmoms?

But that's how godfather said it, so what could she do?

"Your name is Huang Xian! You're such a sweet and adorable girl. From now on, just call me Auntie Hu Jing." Hu Jing said with a smile.

Huang Xian looked to godfather for confirmation, and Yi Anguo nodded, consenting to Hu Jing's approach.

Calling so many women godmoms was indeed a bit shocking.

Fu Huanhuan and Fu Shanshan used to only call Li Sisi aunt, and would call everyone else by their names or simply not call them anything.

Later, to be fair, they stopped calling Li Sisi aunt altogether, especially when other women were around because it felt like calling Li Sisi aunt somewhat negated the others, which wasn't good.

"Hello Auntie Hu Jing!"

"I am your Auntie Hu Qian, and we are twin sisters!" Hu Qian said with a cheerful smile.

"Hello Auntie Hu Qian! I realized right away, you two look exactly the same, I knew without being told you must be twin sisters."

From initially being shy and afraid of strangers, Huang Xian gradually became more bold and outgoing.

After all, she's only fifteen or sixteen, an age of liveliness and cheerfulness.

At this point, everyone had already eaten and drunk well, and since driving was involved, the security and drivers hadn't drunk, and nobody else had either.

Originally Huang Liyao and his wife wanted Yi Anguo to stay a few more days so everyone could gather properly, but Yi Anguo needed to get back on the road, and having so many people stay would be quite inconvenient.

The couple didn't even ask for payment for the meal they just had, and Yi Anguo couldn't insist. With such a relationship, being overly polite wouldn't be appropriate.

Luckily, everyone had regained contact, and Yi Anguo extended an invitation for them to visit Shenzhen when they have time.

Yi Anguo even invited the couple, suggesting that if they didn't want to continue developing in An Country, they could come to Shenzhen, whether to open a hotel themselves or help out at his hotel.

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