Gu Yingtong smiled bitterly and explained, "First of all, Shannan is a poor province, and its geographical location is not very good. Our reputation in the country is not as good as the coastal provinces in the southeast. Our ability to attract investment is a little lacking. Secondly, although the expo will be held in Beijing, Beijing is too big. There are many similar kinds of expo held at the same time, and our venue is too far away, so we might not be able to attract too many investors. Lastly, Shuanghe County doesn't have a booth, so you can only use the roaming method to attract investment. Naturally, the success rate will not be too high. So I advise you not to have too much hope. Otherwise, the disappointment will be greater. "
After hearing her explanation, Li Rui smiled and said, "It's okay. We're going to try our luck anyway. Of course, it'll be great if we get lucky, but if we don't, we won't lose anything. On the contrary, we can achieve the goal of training our soldiers in actual combat. No matter what, we'll gain a lot."
Gu Yingtong looked at him in admiration and said, "You're very open-minded. Such a state of mind might help you get a project."
Li Rui chuckled and said, "I'll count on your auspicious words then."
They did not speak for the rest of the journey.
At around noon, they arrived in Beijing. At Beijing South Station, they took many taxis and headed to an express hotel outside the South Third Ring Road. For this year's expo, the Shannan Provincial Office in Beijing was in charge of the accommodation of the participating teams in the province. The express hotel was also booked by the Provincial Office in Beijing. As Gu Yingtong's team was participating in the expo, they could just carry their bags and check in. As for Li Rui's team, which was not on the list of participating teams, they could only pay for their own accommodation.
After arriving at the express hotel, Gu Yingtong and the rest checked in with the receptionist at the front desk and checked into their respective rooms. Li Rui brought Lin Ziyan and Chen Yang to the front desk to check in. Li Rui booked a standard room for each of them. As for himself, he did not plan to stay here for the time being. If there was enough time at night, he would go and accompany An Ying.
After settling down, Li Rui brought Lin Ziyan and Chen Yang out of the hotel to look for a meal. There were quite a few restaurants outside the hotel. Li Rui picked a good restaurant and went in. He ordered four dishes and a soup. After the dishes were served, the three of them started to eat together.
While they were eating, Li Rui received a call from Bo Yubing. He thought that she was asking about the progress of Liao Sanqiang's case, so he got up and went outside the restaurant to answer the call.
"Why didn't you come to work this morning?"
The moment Bo Yubing opened her mouth, her tone was interrogative. There was a hint of dissatisfaction in her voice, as if a teacher was interrogating a student who didn't come to school.
Li Rui was very puzzled. "I'm leading a team to Beijing to participate in the provincial investment fair. Didn't I tell you last week?"
Bo Yubing coldly said, "You did tell me, but did you mention the specific day? Also, as the Deputy County Head, why didn't you report to me, the County Head, in advance when you went on a business trip? Don't you have any sense of organization and discipline? If you didn't report in time, and there was a mistake in the work you were responsible for without me knowing, who would take the responsibility? "
Li Rui was inexplicably angered by her bureaucratic tone. He regretted saving her last night and letting her be bullied and played by Liao Sanqiang. A woman with this kind of character wasn't worth paying attention to. He forcefully suppressed the anger in his heart and said calmly, "Okay, I was wrong. I'll be more careful next time. Is there anything else?"
Bo Yubing saw that he lowered his head and admitted his mistake. She was slightly satisfied and asked, "When are you coming back?"
Li Rui thought for a moment and said, "I'll probably go the day after tomorrow in the morning."
Bo Yubing continued to ask, "Before you left, who did you give your work to?"
Li Rui said in a neither servile nor overbearing tone, "I didn't give it to anyone because I don't have any important work on hand right now. The only thing I'm working on is the investment fair. The investment fair is already progressing according to plan. I don't have anything to do for the next three weeks!"
When Bo Yubing heard this, she didn't ask about his work and said, "Is there any progress on the case last night? Did you get the money back? "
Li Rui thought to himself that the main purpose of her call should be to ask about this matter. However, she was worried that he would laugh at her if she went straight to the point, so she first used the excuse of not going to work to suppress him. This made him feel depressed and naturally, he wouldn't be in the mood to laugh at her. If she really thought that way, this woman was too hateful. Since that was the case, he might as well scare her. He said, "There is progress. The background of the two swindlers has been completely clarified. However, the one million yuan has already been transferred by their accomplice. It won't be that easy to get it back."
Bo Yubing was indeed frightened. She said in surprise, "They have accomplices?"
Li Rui said, "Nonsense, who do you think Liao Ling is? She's their accomplice! "
Bo Yubing was stunned for a moment and suddenly said angrily, "You told me last night that Political Commissar Gao was steady and reliable. Is he that steady and reliable? He can't even get the money back? "
Li Rui sneered and said, "What does this have to do with Political Commissar Gao? You took the initiative to transfer the money to the swindler, and now it has been transferred by the swindler's accomplice. Even if Political Commissar Gao is possessed by the Monkey King, he won't be able to find the other party in a short time, let alone get the money back. I remind you that you'd better be prepared to lose money. The usual style of this group of swindlers is to spend all the money they have cheated within three days. I reckon that by the time Political Commissar Gao finds them, the money will have been squandered away. "
Bo Yubing exclaimed, "No … then … then I … no, you … you call Political Commissar Gao immediately and urge him to get the money back as soon as possible at all costs. Even if the swindler has already spent part of it, he must get the rest of the money back. I … I'm just a civil servant. How can I have so much money to pay for such a big hole? "
Li Rui saw that she was scared out of her wits and couldn't help but laugh. He felt a sense of joy from taking revenge and said, "Okay, I'll call. I'll call right away. Talk to you later." After saying that, he hung up the phone, laughed, put away his phone, and went back to the restaurant.
Before three in the afternoon, Li Rui followed Gu Yingtong and the others to the location of the expo, an international exhibition hall located in the Yizhuang Development Zone in Jingnan. This exhibition hall was very large and covered an area of more than a thousand acres. Just the square alone was the size of a school. It was divided into eight sections, such as ABCDE, DEFGH, and so on. The area of each section's exhibition hall was comparable to an indoor stadium. The Provincial Investment Promotion Expo held by Shannan Province was located in Section D, which was a little further in. It was not easy for the majority of visitors to find it. However, inside and outside the exhibition hall, including the roadside, there were promotional columns, balloons, ribbons, flags, banners, light boxes … all the promotional spots that could be thought of had been placed. It was believed that the merchants who were interested in Shannan would find it.
When they entered the Section D exhibition hall, the first thing they saw was a huge banner. The full name of the exhibition was written on it, "Shannan Province's Sixth International Investment Promotion Expo." With the word "international," the name of the expo seemed a lot more impressive. Of course, these two words were not added to exaggerate the name. Shannan Province sincerely hoped to attract foreign investors. The projects invested by foreign investors were generally high-tech industries, which was what Shannan Province, a major agricultural province, urgently needed to transform its economic and industrial structure. In addition, the investment amount of foreign investors was also much higher than domestic investors. It was no exaggeration to say that the investment of a foreign company was equivalent to that of three to five domestic companies. This was also the reason why the local government preferred foreign investment.
Below the banner was the main booth of the expo, which was set up by the Provincial Investment Promotion Agency. There were four young and beautiful female receptionists in office lady uniforms, and they were listening to the leaders' instructions. Behind the main booth was a large room that looked like a multi-purpose hall. Seven to eight staff members were busy setting up the room. A huge multimedia LCD screen was set up, and the official website of the expo was displayed on it. Visiting merchants could use the display screen to learn all the information related to the Expo.
Gu Yingtong and the rest stopped at the entrance to take a look at the website. Li Rui followed suit. When he reached the display screen, he noticed the theme of this year's Expo at the top of the website's homepage: "Accepting all rivers into the sea, being tolerant is being big; making friends with the world, gathering the virtuous." He nodded after reading it. This theme was rather stable and didn't seem stingy, but it also didn't seem to be sensationalist. The Expo's management team was really thoughtful.
The group quickly walked out of the multi-purpose hall and walked around the venue along the aisle. They found that the investment promotion teams from other cities were busy setting up their exhibition booths. Some cities that had arrived early had almost finished setting up their exhibition booths. The styles of the exhibition booths were also different. Some focused on the international style, some focused on the Chinese style, and there were also some that were not outstanding. Gu Yingtong and the rest saw the booths and felt they are lagging behind. They quickly returned to Qingyang's booth to set up their booths.
Li Rui had nothing to do, so he brought Lin Ziyan and Chen Yang to help them. After all, the three of them will be working at this booth for the next two days, and it's only right for them to help.
After being busy for more than two hours, Li Rui felt the urge to urinate. He walked out of Zone D and went to the washroom outside. However, not long after he walked out of the door, he heard a mess of voices not far away from him.
He looked in the direction of the sound and saw that the exhibition hall of Area C was in front of him on the right. There was a group of people gathered at the entrance of the six gates of Area C. There were men and women, old and young, and it was a mess. It looked like people at a temple fair gathering to watch a magic show.
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