Chapter 1 The Dubai Trip

Ye Tao finally stayed in Dubai until after the Samir Kingdom's founding ceremony before setting off to return to Yicheng. He and Tan Weixin received the highest standard of hospitality from the Samir family, and Ye Tao's camera captured a vast number of images of Dubai and the surrounding areas. It was at this time that Ye Tao realized that Guan Haishan had left Dubai with more than just a twin tower and a huge craftsman team in the style of the Ye Family Workshop, but also the deep affection of the entire Dubai for the Central Earth Continent, for Dongping, for the Ye Family Workshop, for Guan Haishan, and for Ye Tao himself. Guan Haishan had once planned the entire Dubai port, but the Samir family had been too busy preparing for war to implement it. Now, this plan, combined with the urban construction technology, public facilities, and public management technology already developed in Dongping, has become the plan that the Samir family most hopes to complete. Dubai will become a beautiful, magnificent, and promising new city, a symbol of the prosperity of the Samir Kingdom.

Ye Tao, Qi Zhentao, and Guan Haishan were even listed as heroes in the Samir family's seventeen founding heroes. Their bronze statues will be placed in Dubai's future central square for people to admire and worship. In this vast area surrounding the entire bay, heroes and gods are usually equated. Regarding this treatment, Ye Tao didn't say much. He accepted it calmly after a few modest words. Anyway, there was no point in being modest, it was better to be generous.

This time, Ye Tao set off from Yunzhou and experienced a series of events such as transformation, opening a shop, adventure, kidnapping, escape, leading troops in battle, victory, and becoming a hero, which greatly exceeded his original expectations and was extremely exciting. And now, Ye Tao was finally going back to Yunzhou. When leading troops in battle, when planning for his own and others' future, when he was busy, he could not think about the things in Yunzhou, but he had been away for too long. Thinking that his two sons could definitely call out to people, crawl, and walk, his desire to return home became even more urgent. Departing from Dubai Port, he headed straight for Hengbo Port, stayed for a day, and then set off again, arriving smoothly in Yicheng in fourteen days. In Yicheng, he and Tan Weixin, only accompanied by a few people such as Liu Yong, Guan Huan, and Jin Ze, boarded a new type of airship and left the main force to rush to Yunzhou, even flying over Northern Liao territory for a long distance. Ye Tao was fearless that entire day, but the airship captain and crew were on high alert, fearing something would go wrong. Fortunately, the day went smoothly. They set off in the morning and rendezvoused with the escort airship team from Yunzhou in the evening. Under carefully arranged ground guidance, they landed at the airship mooring field in the easternmost part of Yunzhou late that night. Waiting for Ye Tao there was his entire family and all the important figures in the Yunzhou governance system, who had been waiting anxiously.

Unexpectedly, neither Tan Weishi, Dai Yun, Dai Qiuyan, nor Sophie held any grudges against Ye Tao and Tan Weixin. The two of them had inexplicably left Yunzhou for so long, and although the things they had arranged outside were quite interesting and had achieved some results, they were far from Tan Weixin's initial expectations. This was really not in line with the style of these two miracle creators. Of course, the people in Ye Tao's family would not consider such unpleasant things first. For them, what was more important was that Ye Tao had been away for so long and had missed the vigorous growth and wireless fun of the children in this year. To be sure, they had indeed had some complaints at the beginning, but later, Guan Huan, who attached great importance to helping Ye Tao fill in the gaps and maintain a good family atmosphere, yet didn't have Liu Yong and Jin Ze's 100% secrecy for their master, sent a lengthy letter from Yazhou to Yunzhou, pointing out that Ye Tao and Tan Weixin had already had normal conjugal relations, and all the women in Ye Tao's family suddenly understood. At that time, this group of women who got along well and had very cheerful personalities burst out laughing for a good half an hour. They understood that Ye Tao must have been unaware of it beforehand, and they also understood what Tan Weixin had gone to so much trouble to run out for. And since this was the case, they could naturally understand. Both Ye Tao and Tan Weixin spent too much time and energy serving others and creating miracles.

But unexpectedly, although Ye Tao was covered in dust from his journey, Ye Wenxuan and Ye Wenji, the two little fellows who were usually a little annoyed by strangers approaching, had no reaction at all. When Ye Tao gently pulled Ye Wenxuan's little hand and felt the soft touch, Ye Wenxuan's eyes opened a little, and he glanced vaguely at the guy in front of him who was definitely very strange to him, then grabbed Ye Tao's finger and continued to sleep with his eyes closed, just like he was usually cared for by the several mothers and maids around him. And Ye Wenji, the little fellow who would be alert to any disturbance around him, continued to sleep soundly. This situation could not help but make everyone sigh, after all, blood is thicker than water.

"It's good that you got the camera out, otherwise, I guess you would regret it even more." Dai Yun chuckled and sat beside Ye Tao. Although she was laughing and looked relaxed, Ye Tao could clearly feel Dai Yun's body trembling slightly, extremely excited. A female general who was a leader of her generation could become like this for him, and Ye Tao's heart was also full of warmth and emotion.

Seeing a hint of playfulness in everyone's understanding, Tan Weixin understood that everyone must have figured out what it was all about. Since this was the case, she simply became generous. Continuing Dai Yun's words, Tan Weixin said with a smile: "That's not necessarily true, I don't believe Qiuyan wouldn't leave behind paintings."

Tan Weishi chuckled and said, "There really aren't any. Sister Yun and I have to stay at home to take care of the children. There are still a large group of children to manage in the manor now. Sister Yun also has to manage a little of Yunzhou's military affairs, and I can't get away at all. Sophie has been supervising the project in Gondor almost all these days. Qiuyan is the one who handles all the affairs of the Ye mansion, especially those business matters. Qiuyan usually doesn't do anything, but now that she's taken over these things, she's doing a great job, and we're all taken aback."

Hearing Tan Weishi say this, both Ye Tao and Tan Weixin were stunned. It wasn't that they didn't think Dai Qiuyan had this ability, but because doing these things was really not in line with Dai Qiuyan's personality. Dai Qiuyan stuck out her tongue embarrassedly.

"Qiuyan, I've wronged you." Ye Tao took Dai Qiuyan's hand and said.

Dai Qiuyan abandoned her hobbies to be a housekeeper for a year and manage the business for a year, naturally because she would never watch the huge system that Ye Tao had worked so hard to build suffer any losses due to Ye Tao's temporary absence.

Although these were all very mentally exhausting jobs, Dai Qiuyan was originally a very focused and studious person, and she also had Liu Qing, Shi Wei, and other people who understood business to assist her. Even Lu Dan, who was now the governor of Zhenzhou, would occasionally tell Dai Qiuyan his experience and insights from those years. In fact, speaking of which, Lu Dan provided more help, after all, he had watched Ye Tao's businesses grow from scratch and had personally participated in them, so his understanding of the essence of these businesses was better than Liu Qing and Shi Wei. On the other hand, it was also because Lu Dan was now an important minister overseeing a region, and his understanding of the significance and role of the Ye family, a super group that had a major impact on the country's economy and people's livelihood, and how to combine it with local, military construction, and people's livelihood was more profound than others.

However, the same business had different approaches for different people. Ye Tao and Tan Weixin's business strategy prioritized expansion under the premise of balance, and they emphasized the efficiency of return on investment. But Dai Qiuyan was different. She was originally managing the business with the idea of maintaining the status quo, and she didn't have so many ideas about expansion. The research institute's plan was personally set by Ye Tao. Apart from regularly asking about the progress, allocating funds and delivering materials on time, and conducting internal audits and assessments from time to time, there was nothing she needed to worry about. The military production of the Ye Family Workshop was even more worry-free. They couldn't finish the orders. The Ye Family Workshop had a set of effective procedures for internally tapping production capacity and optimizing technology. The quality was jointly supervised by those stubborn old technicians who never let go of details and the military. Dai Qiuyan hardly ever asked about it, she only felt that military production made money so quickly. She put the most effort into those ordinary things related to people's livelihood. In this year, Dai Qiuyan, relying on her expertise, redesigned the Grey Goose Fine Wine and Balentine's packaging, making them more refined and beautiful. She also assisted the design team of the Ye Family Workshop in reconstructing the entire IKEA Home Furnishings product line, separating the customized home furnishings business of IKEA Home Furnishings, and picking a name from Ye Tao's notebook to establish "Yundian" Home Furnishings, while IKEA Home Furnishings focused on mass production and cost reduction. This measure rejuvenated IKEA Home Furnishings, which had been in a state of stagnation for many years and had been internally designated as a training ground for apprentices, and generated extremely considerable benefits. The biggest improvement and design project was the comprehensive adjustment of the clock products. Considering the gradual popularity of clocks, which had lost their novelty, she and the design department of Tissot Watch Shop collaborated to redesign the entire series of Tissot's low-end watch series, and launched them on the market after a substantial price reduction. Clocks have since entered middle-class wealthy families, and sales have been rising steadily. In the high-end watch market, she guided the design of a series of art designs using new techniques, such as metal surface drawing, sanding, etching, etc., and although the new products created have not yet been officially launched on the market, those who are qualified and have the friendship to see the new products of the Ye Family Workshop are full of praise. Now that the war in Nanyang has been settled, commercial activities will gradually be activated again, and opportunities to make money have come again.

In addition to business, although she had to manage the internal affairs of the Ye mansion, there were very few people in the Ye mansion who didn't know how to behave. Even those servants were either from the inner palace or from the Dai family, and knowing how to advance and retreat was the most basic skill. The internal finances of the mansion were managed by the chief accountant Wei Zhi, and the needs inside and outside the home were assisted by several old stewards from the inner palace and the Dai family who worked diligently. Especially Dai Shizong, the old family member who had been following Dai Yun all those years, assisted, so there was nothing to do except listen to reports a few times a month. For Dai Qiuyan, although this year was a bit hard, overall it was still quite fulfilling.

And now, seeing Ye Tao being so considerate, Dai Qiuyan felt that everything was fine, everything was worth it.