Chapter 2: The Road to Prosperity 46: Environmental Storm (Part 4)

That evening, I had dinner with my friend Duanmu Wuyang and brought up this matter. That former poet, now a master of capital operations, just smiled as I finished recounting the events. I asked him what he was laughing at, and he said to me:

"Dongshan, you still take yourself too much to heart."

"How do you mean?" I asked, feeling somewhat curious.

"You feel guilty toward these villagers, don't you?"

"Yes. Under the current resolution plan, I really do feel quite sorry for them."

"That is precisely why I say you take yourself too much to heart." Duanmu Wuyang paused for a moment before continuing, "Have you ever thought about it? You think your actions influenced them and caused their harmed interests to go unprotected, but in reality, you play no such significant role in this matter at all. Everyone's role is already assigned. No matter where a person is placed, their actions are dictated by that role; it is simply beyond individual control."

"Take Director Shi, for instance. From his perspective, he had to ensure this incident was classified as an environmental accident. If it had been the director of the brick factory or the earth factory, they would have done the exact same thing. And what about Director Zheng or District Head Long? Did they have a choice? Could they simply sit back and watch the factory get shut down? Director Shi is actually not so bad; he is at least willing to offer some donations. If it were someone else, they might not give a single cent. Go ahead and make a fuss—what kind of result could you possibly achieve? GDP is the bigger picture, and stability is the bigger picture. In the face of this bigger picture, could there possibly be any other outcome?"

"And what about Bureau Chief Wu? He had no choice. Putting aside the fact that as a bureau chief he has to listen to the district head, he still has to look out for the bigger picture. And Yuan Huajie? He had no choice either. Could he afford to ignore Bureau Chief Wu's words? Does he still want his job or not? He has probably seen this sort of thing plenty of times, and he knows how to gauge the boundaries to absolute perfection."

"To look back at these victimized villagers—they suffered losses, and it is entirely natural for them to rise up and protest. Yet their fate was sealed from the start, and the outcome of their protests was predetermined as well."

Duanmu Wuyang's words left me deeply shaken, yet they did not lessen my sympathy and guilt toward the victimized villagers in the slightest. So I replied:

"What you say makes sense, but I still find it all too cruel. If everything is predetermined, then there is no need for us to take the initiative to do anything, nor would there be any need for charity or the protection of vulnerable groups. Although I understand the actions of Director Shi and the others, I still feel that I could at least do a little more for these people in this situation. I also grew up in the countryside; I know what a failed harvest means to farmers, and what it means when someone in a rural family falls seriously ill."

Duanmu Wuyang seemed somewhat touched by my words, after all, he too had grown up in the countryside:

"Dongshan, it is truly rare for you to still hold onto your original aspirations. It really is rare. But trying to do something to help them is indeed quite difficult."

After a moment of contemplation, he added, "Perhaps the only thing you can do is talk to your Director Shi again and raise the standard of the donations."

"It seems that is the only option left," I sighed.

"We will also need to find a plausible justification for it," said Duanmu Wuyang.

"Indeed. Let me give it some serious thought," I replied. Then both of us fell into deep silence.

Not long after, Duanmu Wuyang suddenly broke the quiet with an excited voice: "I have actually thought of an idea! I just don't know if it's feasible given your factory's current situation."

"What idea?" As soon as I heard he had a solution, my spirits instantly revived.

"It's that your factory could expropriate all the land belonging to these villagers. You must realize that once their land is demolished and relocated, they will receive a very substantial sum in compensation. At the same time, your factory's environmental problems would also be completely resolved."

At first hearing, this certainly sounded like a good idea. However, expropriating this tract of land would require a massive cost, and our factory currently had no plans for production expansion or facility enlargement to make use of it.

I voiced my doubts. Duanmu Wuyang smiled and said, "Just because it has no use now doesn't mean it won't be useful in the future. Leaving aside the fact that it's impossible for your factory never to expand, just look at land prices—they are bound to soar significantly in the future. When that time comes, if your factory wants to expand, you will save costs. Even if you didn't expand and instead found a way to transfer the land out later, the profits would be considerable."

"Land prices are going to soar significantly in the future?!" I was not very knowledgeable about this field.

"That is an absolute certainty. To put it simply: have you noticed how rapidly the real estate market has risen in many parts of the country over the last few years? This is mainly because our country's economic development has been extremely fast in recent years, raising the purchasing power of residents, which in turn acts as a massive stimulus for the real estate industry. As for our city of Jiangning, although the real estate market has experienced a certain degree of growth, the margin of increase is still quite small. However, as Huajang Province is a key central province designated under the national Western Development strategy, its future strategic position is becoming increasingly vital."

"Coupled with the fact that many local governments in our country rely on land-based finance, the Huajang Provincial Government is no exception. Ever since the implementation of the 'tender, auction, and listing' policy for land transfers, land prices in Jiangning have risen higher and higher, with quite a few even exceeding the prices developers charge for commercial housing. You tell me—with land costs alone being this high, plus construction and installation costs, can the prices of houses built by developers in the future possibly fail to rise? A rapid surge in the real estate market is only a matter of time. Many developers have already caught wind of this and are scrambling to stake their claims across Jiangning. Even some local bosses in Jiangning who were never in real estate—people formerly in automobiles, motorcycles, pharmaceuticals, or machinery—are now hastily establishing real estate companies and breaking into the housing market."

"I might as well be frank with you: my own group acquired a plot of land measuring over five hundred mu a few kilometers away from your factory quite some time ago. We spent over two hundred million yuan, preparing to build a commercial center in the future along with some residential development. That area is still so desolate right now; many people probably cannot comprehend how a commercial center could ever be built there. But regardless of urban planning or future development, that place will thrive sooner or later. By building a commercial center there, and leveraging our group's driving influence in the commercial sector, we will in turn stimulate the popularity and foot traffic of the entire district. That is why District Head Long is so welcoming to us and has granted us many preferential policies. But why did we acquire the land now? It's very simple: if we waited until the area was fully developed before considering entry, there might be no land left to acquire at all. Even if there were, it wouldn't be a matter of hundreds of thousands of yuan per mu, but millions of yuan per mu."

Millions of yuan per mu—this was a price beyond my imagination. No one had ever analyzed Jiangning's real estate market for me in this way. Hearing Duanmu Wuyang put it like this, I became completely convinced that expropriating the villagers' land was the best solution. Just as he said, if land prices truly soared, it would undoubtedly benefit the factory, resolve the hidden environmental dangers, and provide the villagers with a substantial income through demolition compensation, which could be considered treating them fairly.

Yet in my heart, I knew that persuading Director Shi to accept this plan would be extraordinarily difficult. Director Shi had always regarded costs as more important than his own life. Expropriating this land would require spending an enormous sum of money, not just some trivial amount. Even though the land held potential for future appreciation, it might yield no short-term benefits. Spending such a massive amount of money with no short-term returns—that would practically be the death of him.

I thought about it carefully. No matter how difficult it was, I still had to report this train of thought to Director Shi. Even if there was only a one-percent chance, I had to give it a try. However, the world rarely provides such pleasant surprises. After reporting the idea to Director Shi, he rejected it without a second thought. He didn't even give me the opportunity to present the real estate market prospect analysis I had prepared beforehand, nor did he care to listen to how much land needed to be requisitioned or how much capital it would require.

Although it was within my expectations, I still felt a sense of regret. Nevertheless, Director Shi did agree to raise the standard of partial donation funds: for those who suffered heavy losses, the donation could be increased to 2,000 yuan, and for those suffering from lung cancer, the donation amount could be raised to 3,000 yuan. It could be considered a meager harvest.