96: Chapter 96 Trip to Guangzhou

On October 18th, the arrival hall of Guangzhou Baiyun Airport was smaller than Shanghai Pudong, but the crowd was no less dense.

As Chairman Wang Shunyi stepped out of the exit, a blast of humid, hot air hit him in the face—a completely different world from the dry autumn of Seoul.

In Seoul, one would need a light jacket in October, but here, short sleeves were still the norm.

He took off his suit jacket, draped it over his arm, and rolled his shirt sleeves up to his forearms.

Park Min-ji followed behind him, holding her sunglasses instead of wearing them, her hair slightly tousled by the wind. She stood at the hall entrance, looked around, and remarked,

"It's even hotter than Shanghai."

The car was already waiting in the parking lot. Kim Sang-woo put the luggage in the trunk, and Lee Jung-hoon pulled open the rear door.

Chairman Wang Shunyi and Park Min-ji got inside, and the car drove out of the airport and onto the highway.

On both sides of the road were vast stretches of green—not the neatly trimmed green belts of Seoul, but a wild, rampant green, saturated with the vibrant hues unique to the South.

Broad banana leaves flashed past the window. Minji remarked that it looked like Southeast Asia, but Chairman Wang Shunyi said this was simply the South.

The hotel was in the Tianhe District, Zhujiang New Town. Chairman Wang Shunyi's room was on the 62nd floor, and right outside the floor-to-ceiling windows was the Canton Tower. Its spire pierced the low-hanging clouds, looking as if it were about to rain, though it never did.

Minji stood by the window for a long time, saying the tower would light up at night and look very beautiful.

She had looked up travel guides before coming; Chairman Wang Shunyi hadn't. He had researched land prices and tax incentives for the Guangzhou Food Industrial Park.

At two in the afternoon, the conference room was packed. Deputy Director Chen of the Investment Promotion Bureau sat across from Chairman Wang Shunyi, wearing a gray suit with meticulously combed hair, holding a thick investment guide.

Behind him sat the head of the Guangzhou Food Industrial Park, a man named Li Zhi. In his early forties, wearing a blue jacket and no tie, he looked less like a government official and more like a production manager from a factory.

When Deputy Director Chen introduced Li Zhi, Li Zhi stood up and gave a slight, earnest bow.

Deputy Director Chen spoke very clearly. He first introduced the basic situation of Guangzhou: population, GDP, consumer market, and transportation hubs.

His PPT was beautifully made, featuring bar charts, pie charts, and map annotations, with photos on every page.

"We have a unique industrial chain advantage. Factories for Master Kong, Uni-President, Dali Foods, Nestlé, and Kraft are all within the park's directory."

"If Shunyi Foods moves in, raw material suppliers, packaging material suppliers, and logistics companies are all within a half-hour drive. Procurement costs can drop, and logistics costs can drop as well."

Chairman Wang Shunyi flipped through the investment guide until he reached the page on industrial land prices.

One thousand five hundred to two thousand RMB per square meter, which converted to 240,000 to 320,000 Korean Won.

He read it twice, put it down, looked up, and asked,

"Director Chen, is this price negotiable?"

Deputy Director Chen did not hesitate.

"If the scale of investment is large, it can be discussed. If Shunyi Foods' investment exceeds 500 million RMB, we can offer a preferential price, and some land could even be used for free."

"How much land would a 500 million RMB investment get us?"

"Starting at 50,000 square meters. The specific area depends on the project."

Chairman Wang Shunyi glanced at Kim Sang-woo. Kim Sang-woo was taking notes rapidly, his pen tip nearly piercing the paper.

Fifty thousand square meters was equivalent to three times the total area of all Sunyi's factories in Korea. Kim Sang-woo was doing the math in his head, but he didn't interrupt.

Chairman Wang Shunyi turned his gaze toward Li Zhi.

"Director Li, what is the current status of the park's supporting facilities?"

Li Zhi opened the document in front of him, his voice low but steady.

"The park has already built a unified sewage treatment plant with a daily capacity of 50,000 tons. Steam pipes have been laid to the boundary line of every plot. Tap water and electricity go without saying. The logistics center is operational, with Deppon and SF Express already moved in. As for the testing center, SGS and Intertek both have stations there; companies don't need to build their own labs, they can just send samples over."

He finished speaking, closed the document, and looked up, waiting for Chairman Wang Shunyi's next question.

"Among the companies already established here, are there any that overlap with our product line?"

"In terms of convenience foods, currently only Master Kong and Uni-President. They make noodles, and you make noodles. But your positioning is different; their prices are low, while yours are high. It's not direct competition."

Li Zhi paused, "Furthermore, the park's logic is not exclusivity. Companies compete with each other, but they also learn from each other."

Chairman Wang Shunyi nodded and asked about several other items: the price of steam, the tiered electricity rates for industrial use, the distance from the park to Nansha Port, and so on.

Li Zhi answered every single one, flipping his documents open and shut repeatedly. All answers were concrete, with no room for ambiguity.

After the meeting ended, Li Zhi came over to shake hands and said, "The car is ready; we can go see the plots at any time."

Chairman Wang Shunyi replied, "Tomorrow morning at nine."

At past eight in the evening, Park Min-ji was scrolling through her phone on the sofa in the hotel suite.

She was wearing a hotel bathrobe, her hair still wet. Outside the window, the Canton Tower glowed with pinkish-purple lights, the entire tower illuminated evenly from bottom to top like a giant fluorescent torch, its beam slowly sweeping across the low sky.

Chairman Wang Shunyi came out of the bathroom, having changed into a black T-shirt. The Guangzhou weather made him feel that all the shirts he had brought were unsuitable—too thick.

"Going to see the land tomorrow?"

She didn't even look up.

"At nine in the morning. Li Zhi will take us to the park. There are four plots; we'll decide after seeing them all."

"Do you have a preference yet?"

"No. I'll see first."

She put down her phone, walked to the window, and looked at the Canton Tower. The pinkish-purple light reflected on her face, softening her profile.

"Shunyi, you said that within five years you want Sunyi to become a leading food group in Asia. Is this Guangzhou factory a very important step?"

"It's not just important. It's necessary."

He walked over to her side and also looked at the tower. It was so tall that even standing on the 62nd floor, one had to look up.

"The scale of the Chinese market is twenty times that of Korea. We've reached number one in Korea, but our annual revenue is only a little over one trillion Won. In China, even if we only achieve one-tenth of that, it would be equal to two Sunyis. This game of chess is one we cannot afford to lose."

She turned her head to look at him and said with a gentle smile, "You won't lose."

He didn't answer, responding only with a smile as he gently kissed Park Min-ji.

The lights of the Canton Tower changed color from pink-purple to blue-green, the beam shooting from the spire into the night sky, casting a spot of light on the low clouds.

The two stood there for a while, neither mentioning the factory construction again. She leaned on his shoulder, and he stood still.

The air conditioning vent hissed. The Guangzhou night was hot, and standing so close, their combined body heat made it even hotter.

But she didn't move away, and he didn't move either.

The next morning at nine, in the hotel lobby. Li Zhi arrived fifteen minutes early, wearing a light blue polo shirt, dark trousers, and sneakers.

He explained that they would be walking a lot in the park, and leather shoes would be inconvenient.

Chairman Wang Shunyi wore a shirt and dark casual pants, no tie, and on his feet were the same black leather shoes from yesterday—the kind that would make one wince to step in mud with.

Kim Sang-woo came out of the elevator, carrying two tablets and a bottle of mineral water.

The car set off from Zhujiang New Town, crossed the Panyu Bridge, and drove south for over forty minutes.

The view outside the window changed from high-rises to factories, then to farmland. Li Zhi introduced the history of Panyu in the car, but Chairman Wang Shunyi wasn't listening.

He looked out the window, his mind busy calculating costs: the construction cost per square meter, customs duties and VAT on imported equipment, and how many days could be saved by shipping from Guangzhou to Shanghai compared to shipping from Korea.

The first plot was on the eastern side of the park, adjacent to the main road. The land had already been leveled and was covered in wild grass, some as tall as a person.

Li Zhi said this was the largest plot, capable of accommodating a 60,000-square-meter factory.

Chairman Wang Shunyi stood at the edge of the field, his leather shoes sinking slightly into the soil. He walked around, observing the surrounding terrain.

"No issues with drainage?"

Li Zhi pointed into the distance, saying the park's underground pipe network was already laid.

The second plot was on the west side; it was smaller but closer to the employee dormitory area, a ten-minute walk away.

The third plot was on the south side, the most remote, but only two kilometers from the highway exit.

The fourth plot was on the north side, medium in size, with three food factories already nearby.

Chairman Wang Shunyi stood on each plot for a while—no more, no less than the time it took to smoke one cigarette.

He flicked the ashes onto the ground, where the wind scattered them.

Kim Sang-woo followed behind, taking photos of each plot with his tablet. A large patch of Li Zhi's jacket was soaked with sweat.

Park Min-ji hadn't come; she stayed at the hotel to organize the materials from yesterday's meeting. However, as Chairman Wang Shunyi was about to leave, she had remarked,

"I won't care if you get a tan."

"Haha, I'll still recognize you even if you're tanned." Chairman Wang Shunyi smiled.

Back in the car, Li Zhi unscrewed a bottle of mineral water and drank half of it in one go, wiping the sweat from his neck with a towel.

"Chairman Wang, we've seen all four plots. Which one do you think is suitable?"

Chairman Wang Shunyi tapped the dirt off his leather shoes against the car doorsill, the clumps falling and crumbling into powder on the ground.

"The second one. It's close to the employee dormitories, making it convenient for workers. Food factories require a large workforce, and workers don't want to spend time on the road. Every minute closer to the dormitory makes recruitment that much easier."

Li Zhi noted it down in his book, nodded, and asked a follow-up question.

Chairman Wang Shunyi said, "The project's investment scale is around 80 billion Won, which converts to just over 400 million RMB at the current exchange rate. It might not reach the 500 million threshold for the discount."

"We can communicate further with the district regarding policy; the investment amount isn't a hard threshold, and there's flexibility for South Korean enterprises," Li Zhi replied.

Chairman Wang Shunyi glanced at him and told him to submit a proposal first; if the conditions were right, they would move forward.

On the way back to the hotel, Kim Sang-woo turned around from the front passenger seat.

"The park's conditions are better than expected, and the land price is much cheaper than Shanghai. If we can sign the contract by the end of the year, the factory could be in production by the end of next year."

"Let's not rush. When we get back to Korea, have legal and finance review the terms. We'll push this project forward simultaneously once the Wuhan Warehouse is settled."

At past four that afternoon, Chairman Wang Shunyi's group returned to the hotel. Park Min-ji was in the room with her laptop open, the screen displaying a dense Excel spreadsheet.

She had spent the entire afternoon making detailed comparisons of land prices, tax incentives, logistics costs, and labor costs for the four plots, marking the optimal choices in red.

"You didn't need to be this detailed."

"A bit more preparation before a decision means a bit less regret after."

He sat across from her and watched her for a moment. There were two faint marks on the bridge of her nose left by her glasses frame.

She didn't usually wear glasses, only when reading small print.

"I plan to move forward with the Guangzhou project."

"I know. You stood on the second plot longer than the others, and you smoked more cigarettes there too."

At eight the next morning, the plane took off from Guangzhou Baiyun Airport. Park Min-ji was by the window, wearing a U-shaped pillow, and fell asleep shortly after takeoff.

Chairman Wang Shunyi sat in the middle seat, with Kim Sang-woo across the aisle. Outside the porthole were thick layers of clouds, very white, with dazzling sunlight.

Chairman Wang Shunyi pulled down the shade. He was now sitting on the plane from Guangzhou back to Shanghai, with a sea of clouds at ten thousand meters outside the window and a letter of intent for the Guangzhou Food Industrial Park in his pocket.

He didn't fall asleep, keeping his eyes open and watching the light leaking through the gaps in the window shade.

When the plane landed in Shanghai, Minji woke up just in time, a lock of her hair sticking up from being pressed by the U-shaped pillow, refusing to stay down no matter how she pressed it. He tried to help her press it twice, but she complained his hands were too heavy and tried herself, but it still stuck up.

"It's your fault."

"My fault?"

"The pillow you bought isn't good."

He didn't argue. She walked through the arrival hall of Pudong Airport with that lock of hair sticking up. No one passing by looked at her, but he took a glance and snapped a photo of her. She told him to delete it.

He didn't delete it.