Responding to Cheng Su’s invitation, Old Zhou and his wife visited Cheng Su’s home the following evening for a casual chat.
Cheng Su sliced some watermelon, prepared some fine Pu’er tea, and put out a plate of fried peanuts and sunflower seeds, while they all gathered around the small tea table to talk.
"What are your plans for the future? You’ve got your house allotted to you, so you can continue living there even if you retire from the military, right?" Cheng Su asked.
Sister-in-law Zhou looked at her husband and said, "It’s up to him. Our Xiao Dong will graduate from university in two years. He’s currently boarding at school. If we don’t go back to our hometown soon, we might as well stay here a little longer."
Old Zhou’s hometown was in Shandong, and their son, Zhou Xiaodong, was attending university in a neighboring city.
"Will you be able to adjust to life back home?" Qi Taiguo looked at Old Zhou and suggested, "Why not pull some strings and find something to do here?"
"No worries, it’s also fine to rest for a while before deciding." Old Zhou seemed quite open-minded. "Nowadays, it’s not easy to pull strings. Obligations are heavier than mountains, and it’s not easy."
Sister-in-law Zhou bit her tongue and, seeing her husband didn’t speak, she swallowed her words.
Cheng Su cracked a couple of seeds and, hearing this, looked up at Old Zhou and suggested, "Commander Zhou, why don’t you consider ’going into business’ yourself?"
"Going into business?" Everyone turned to look at her.
Cheng Su nodded and explained, "Grandpa Xiao Ping is currently pushing for economic reform and opening up, isn’t he? It’s a good opportunity to ’go into business’ now, and who knows, you might make a big success of it."
"Stop talking nonsense," Qi Taiguo glared at her, then said to Old Zhou, "Don’t listen to her, she’s just rambling."
Commander Zhou took a sip of tea and said, "No, I want to hear what my sister-in-law has to say."
In his view, since Cheng Su managed to establish such a successful small restaurant by herself, she was surely not someone who would speak without thinking.
Besides, it did no harm to listen to others’ opinions.
"Our national leaders are currently focusing on the economy; a strong economy is essential for a strong nation. Right now, as economic development has only recently begun, many industries may be open but only a few are thriving. If you ’go into business’ at this time and can persist, by accumulating capital, your future might be no worse than your military career," Cheng Su said earnestly, seeing that he was truly interested.
"Since ancient times, officials and merchants have been intertwined. Now we don’t just talk about merchants; we use a more modern term, entrepreneurs. If you make a success of a business and with your military background, if in the future you want to take up politics, you may not be without opportunities," Cheng Su said with shining eyes.
In the twenty-first century of his previous life, it was common for enterprise CEOs to take positions in government agencies, and for officials to be placed in charge of enterprises. Of course, this would certainly depend on one’s achievements.
Take, for example, one of Cheng Su’s customers, who came from the Air Force, later went into politics, and after some years, took up a CEO position in a business, only to return to a leadership role in a government agency.
What mattered most now was that Old Zhou’s family could build up a business; whether or not to enter politics in the future was something they could decide later.
And going into business now was undoubtedly an excellent opportunity.
"Listening to my sister-in-law, it does sound quite appealing," Old Zhou pondered for a moment and said, "But I’ve always been in the military, and I know nothing about doing business. I’m afraid I might mess it up."
"Who is born knowing everything? A baby doesn’t start speaking as soon as it’s born, does it? To start a business, everyone has to struggle and learn. Making it big is not easy, you may take losses, be taken advantage of, even go bankrupt. But if you’re afraid, you’ll never accomplish anything. It’s all about whether you dare to take the risk or not," Cheng Su chuckled.