From Evil Sect Leader to Doctor

Chapter 742 - 712: Rising Popularity

Xu Chunliang’s trip to Nanjiang this time was not just to accompany Fan Lidada to a meeting; he was also supposed to do an exclusive interview with the Provincial Satellite TV, which Su Qing had arranged to mainly promote Dongzhou’s food culture and boost their tourism promotion efforts.Su Qing had put a lot of effort into this, so Xu Chunliang certainly couldn’t refuse. After meeting Fan Lidada at the high-speed railway station, Fan Lidada started talking about lining up with Fu Guomin for dinner yesterday, sighing: "You should have seen the scene, the line stretched for over a hundred meters. Those who knew were there for barbecue, but anyone else would’ve thought some superstar was having a meet-and-greet."

Xu Chunliang said, "Do you believe now in the power of internet celebrities?"

Fan Lidada nodded, mentioning how today it was even harder to get a taxi than before. He didn’t use the unit’s car and took a taxi, arriving later than Xu Chunliang even though he had left much earlier.

Xu Chunliang noted that there were noticeably more people on the subway, presumably because many tourists inspired by Three Two Three’s videos had come to Dongzhou to experience everyday life culture.

Fan Lidada said, "Do you think this hype can last a week?"

Xu Chunliang said, "If it lasts a week, it’ll be May Day, and then we can push for another wave to boost Dongzhou’s holiday tourism revenue, aiming to rank in the top three in the province."

Fan Lidada laughed, "Dream on, have you considered the gap between us and them? Dongzhou ranked ninth in the province’s tourism revenue last year, just over 30 billion, while the top four were over 100 billion."

Xu Chunliang said, "We’re not competing annually. Let’s leverage this hype to focus on the May Day holiday. If we don’t aim for the top three with this traffic, it would be a waste."

At that point, the ticket check began, and Xu Chunliang’s phone rang. Fan Lidada helped him with his suitcase. Despite Xu Chunliang being just a junior sub-department level, Fan Lidada, a deputy division-level cadre, was willing to help him with his luggage because he owed Xu Chunliang a huge favor, and without Xu Chunliang’s help, he would not be where he is today.

The call was from Three Two Three, telling Xu Chunliang that the initial launch went well. He planned to organize several internet celebrity influencers to visit stores in succession to maintain the momentum. However, he discovered a problem: the cultural tourism bureau’s preparation was still insufficient. Their video channel hadn’t even released its first video yet, lagging more than a step behind.

After sitting down, Xu Chunliang summarized several reasonable suggestions from Three Two Three and forwarded them to Fu Guomin.

On Fu Guomin’s end, he was actually quite troubled. As the head of the cultural and tourism bureau, tasks within his purview were manageable, but matters beyond his authority required him to seek guidance from higher-ups to get other departments to cooperate.

The internet celebrity economy strategy that Xu Chunliang and Three Two Three proposed was deemed feasible by Fu Guomin. However, several city leaders thought that the internet celebrity economy could never become mainstream and would never replace the physical economy. While they supported it, they doubted that a few short videos would significantly boost Dongzhou’s tourism.

The leaders still leaned towards a traditional mindset, fearing that if the entire city mobilized for internet celebrity hype, they would become a laughingstock, seeming to give up the essential for the trifling in the eyes of outsiders.

Fu Guomin couldn’t speak freely over the phone and only promised to do his best to handle it.

But upon seeing the suggestions Xu Chunliang sent, he immediately felt overwhelmed.

First was the market oversight mechanism to ensure that merchants weren’t short-term profit-driven by skimping on quality and weight or inflating prices. This required coordination with the market oversight and pricing departments.

Food hygiene standards had to be stringent to avoid adulteration or counterfeiting, involving both the food safety and health epidemic prevention departments.

With increased foot traffic, security issues were inevitable, necessitating early preparation to prevent potential problems.

...

Xu Chunliang sent him a hefty list of eight recommendations in total. After reading through them, Fu Guomin sat there in silence for quite some time, realizing that if anyone could handle this in Dongzhou, it would only be Secretary Zhou. Fu Guomin was self-aware enough to know that as a newly appointed tourism bureau chief, he couldn’t even ensure unity within his own bureau, let alone coordinate with so many other departments.

If he forwarded Xu Chunliang’s entire list of suggestions to Secretary Zhou, wouldn’t Secretary Zhou think he was instructing him on how to do his job?

To verify Xu Chunliang’s claims, Fu Guomin purposely took a subway ride to visit a few of Dongzhou’s long-established shops. What he saw was an overnight spike in tourists; it was already 10:30 AM, and there were long lines at the Horse Market Street soup store, with many tourists carrying suitcases, clearly from out of town, heading straight there from the train station to sample the "World’s Best Soup."

Because the road in front of the restaurant was under repair, with no clear parking spaces, cars were parked haphazardly along the roadside — more than half of the plates were from out of town, as locals wouldn’t dare park like that.

Sure enough, a young traffic officer came over on a motorcycle, starting to take pictures and issue tickets.

Fu Guomin hurried over: "Comrade!"

The young officer looked at him sternly: "Is that your car?"

"No!"

"If it’s not yours, what do you want from me?"

Fu Guomin said: "These out-of-town cars are mainly here for tourism. I suggest you focus on warnings rather than fines."

The officer laughed: "Did I hear you right? Are you telling me how to enforce the law? I don’t care where they’re from. If everyone parks like that, Dongzhou’s traffic would be a mess. No rules, no standards. I don’t need to explain anything to you. You should mind your own business and not interfere with my duty."

Fu Guomin said: "Young man, that’s not right. Rules are rules, but in actual enforcement, you need to be flexible."

"What’s your problem? Do you have a car here?"

Seeing the officer unimpressed, Fu Guomin had no choice but to reveal his identity: "I’m from the tourism bureau. We’re actively promoting Dongzhou’s tourism, so we have to be flexible with visitors from out of town."

"Tourism bureau? Since when does tourism oversee traffic operations? Comrade, are you not busy enough with your job? Don’t interfere with mine. If I don’t enforce the rules, I’ll get reprimanded by my superiors."

Unable to stop the officer, Fu Guomin watched helplessly as the officer continued ticketing the cars. Frustrated, he could guarantee that those from out of town came with high spirits but would leave disappointed, possibly adding Dongzhou to their blacklist.

A short distance away was Zhuangyuan Street. As Fu Guomin walked there, he saw a traffic jam caused by a long line of vehicles — a rare sight given how few tourists typically visited this street.

Fu Guomin genuinely felt the overwhelming surge of tourists, knowing that without timely and effective management, it could backfire on Dongzhou tourism.

Determined, he first sent Secretary Zhou a few photos he had taken, then modified and resent the suggestions Xu Chunliang had sent him, quietly praying: Secretary Zhou, it’s not that I’m disturbing your rest, but these matters are beyond me. Without your directive, this could backfire.

Secretary Zhou was chatting with his elderly mother when he received the photos from Fu Guomin. His first thought was that Fu Guomin had sent them to the wrong person — but a closer look revealed that the crowd was actually in Dongzhou, which seemed to have turned into a May Day Golden Week scenario overnight.

Then, receiving Fu Guomin’s suggestions, Secretary Zhou knitted his brows.

Mrs. Zhou saw his frown and asked with concern, "Is there a problem at work? You don’t need to keep me company — take care of work first."

Secretary Zhou smiled, "It’s nothing, just some photos of the long line at Horse Market Street soup sent to me." He showed them to his mother.

Mrs. Zhou put on her glasses to look at the photos: "Why are there so many people?"

Secretary Zhou pointed out there were more to come.

Mrs. Zhou then flipped through two more pictures, all showing lines, which puzzled her: "Dongzhou isn’t usually this lively, is it? Crowds can lead to accidents. You should have the relevant departments strengthen management. Remember the news last year of a stampede in Seoul?"

What worried Mrs. Zhou wasn’t much else but mishaps, fearing that as a prominent local leader, her son would have to bear the consequences if anything went wrong.

Although Secretary Zhou knew his mother was overly concerned, she was not without reason.

Secretary Zhou then stepped into the courtyard to call Fu Guomin.

Upon receiving Secretary Zhou’s call, Fu Guomin was quite excited: "Secretary Zhou, I’m sorry to disturb your rest."

Secretary Zhou said, "With your efforts, how could I rest?"

Feeling a tad embarrassed, Fu Guomin laughed and recounted the situation he had just observed on-site, reiterating some suggestions he had already sent to Secretary Zhou.

Secretary Zhou patiently listened and first acknowledged Fu Guomin’s diligent and responsible work attitude. He certainly wished for significant progress in Dongzhou’s tourism but cautioned against blind optimism. Mere days of bustling activity meant little; they had done tourism for years without much improvement—banking on one influencer video alone felt like a fantasy.

Nonetheless, Secretary Zhou agreed to implement Fu Guomin’s suggestions, immediately arranging a multi-department coordination meeting. Regardless of how long the influencer-driven traffic lasted, preparation was always right. He delegated the task to Geng Wenjun, a newcomer to Dongzhou’s leadership team, instructing him to quickly gather leaders from tourism, public security, fire services, industry and commerce, taxation, health and epidemic prevention sectors for a meeting aimed at streamlining mutual department cooperation and ensuring no buck-passing or negligence.

The goal was to ensure that visitors to Dongzhou could leave with zero complaints, coming in high spirits and departing satisfied.