This article is dedicated to commemorating the 25th anniversary of the promulgation of the Administrative Procedure Law and its first major revision! Part One: "Tycoon" Guo Moumou and His "Sea Palace" 6. Dream Come True After solving technical difficulties and legally addressing identity issues through flexible means, Guo Moumou rolled up his sleeves and exerted all his efforts to make great strides in the beautiful Dongshan Bay waters. The massive investment of manpower, material resources, and financial resources goes without saying. More importantly, Guo Moumou, driven by his dream, forgot to eat and sleep, working tirelessly, continuously infusing his artistic inspiration into the design and construction of the floating island at sea, because what he aimed to create was not only a technological miracle but also an artistic masterpiece. One detail suffices to prove Guo Moumou's painstaking efforts: to embody the characteristics of a Chinese courtyard in the floating sea structure and create the effect of a green home at sea, Guo Moumou experimented with planting over a hundred varieties before finally selecting a dozen ideal ornamental green plants resistant to sea winds for the floating island. Hard work pays off, and the results of Guo Moumou's years of unremitting efforts were nearly perfect: technologically, the floating island performed excellently in resisting typhoons and corrosion; artistically, the island and its superstructure showcased symmetry and balance in architectural aesthetics, combined with the use of lightweight materials and Balinese-style decorations, giving this floating sea structure an unprecedented visual appeal (Figures 18-23). Figure 18: Aerial view of Guo Moumou's floating island overall structure (Source: Internet) Figure 19: Floating island structure at dusk (Source: Internet) Figure 20: Balinese-style decorative details of the floating island structure (Source: Internet) Figure 21: Swimming pool decorative details reflecting Guo Moumou's artistic care (Source: Internet) Figure 22: Spring garden effect created by the dozen wind-resistant ornamental plants selected from over 100 varieties by Guo Moumou (Source: Internet) Figure 23: Interior decoration style of the floating island structure (Source: Internet) Looking back now at the floating island structure designed and built by Guo Moumou through years of painstaking effort, objectively speaking, as a novelty, it was too perfect and too luxurious. But perfection was not Guo Moumou's fault; it was a natural expression of his artistic temperament and sentiment, which had already been evident in the decorative design of the entrance to his first influential commercial real estate project—the Taiyuan Street Fashion Underground Street in Shenyang! Luxury was not Guo Moumou's sin either; this decorative luxury was related to his initial business plan targeting high-end tourism, and this positioning itself was in line with economic laws. As we can see, in the development of modern market economies, any goods and services were initially luxuries at their inception. For example, the flush toilet, now common in every household, was a luxury even in developed Western countries over a hundred years ago, and the mobile phones that everyone now has one or even several were just "big brothers" in the hands of the wealthy a decade ago! Producers and providers of innovative goods and services must charge high prices to compensate for the enormous costs and risks they bear for innovation, and high profits attract imitation and competition, driving continuous technological progress, quality improvement, and price reduction, eventually turning them into ordinary consumer goods, benefiting the entire society. Unfortunately, due to severe wealth inequality, social injustice, and polarization caused by corruption and monopoly, a strong atmosphere of resentment against the rich pervades current Chinese society. In the eyes of those who resent the rich, perfection may be a mistake, and luxury is even more likely a sin! After years of arduous exploration and investment of hundreds of millions of yuan, the floating island structure was completed, nearly perfect and arguably luxurious, but Guo Moumou did not rush to officially open it to the public to recover investment and earn profits. If we were to speculate with a petty mind, perhaps Guo Moumou did so out of "selfishness." The floating island was a technological miracle and artistic masterpiece condensed from years of effort, the best meeting point of his artistic sentiment and entrepreneurial spirit, and a spiritual home he built for himself after achieving success as an entrepreneur to revisit his artist dreams. Guo Moumou once considered developing the floating island into a venue exclusively for elite gatherings and socializing, even coming up with a high-end name, "Jiangshan Club," but this plan was never formally implemented. Therefore, for a long time after the completion of the floating island structure, besides serving as a temporary retreat from worldly affairs, Guo Moumou also enjoyed bringing close friends from his circle for small gatherings, discussing ideals and life, sharing business opportunities, and exchanging creative ideas. We can imagine life on the floating island: blue water and sky, tides ebbing and flowing, green trees and red flowers, birds flying and fish leaping; tasting seafood delicacies, admiring masterpieces; greeting the sunrise over the blue sea at dawn and seeing off the sunset dyeing the clouds at dusk; conversing with scholars, no commoners in sight. For someone born an artist, what more could one ask for in life? But Guo Moumou was also an entrepreneur, and he acted out of a certain "economic rationality": since his floating island project was unique domestically and even globally, despite weathering several storms and strong typhoons, the time was too short. If fully opened to the public, any public safety incident would be an unbearable burden for both himself and the fashion enterprise group he founded. A peach tree does not speak, yet a path forms beneath it. Even with this low-key, informal operation, Guo Moumou's floating island project had a strong radiating effect on the Dongshan Bay area. Especially due to its bold creativity and unique artistic charm, it became increasingly known to local residents. Through word of mouth, more and more tourists were attracted to Dongshan Bay to visit the floating island, boosting local popularity, and the hotels and restaurants in the Dongshan Bay area gradually thrived, all of which promoted local economic development. On the other hand, the fragrance of flowers inside the wall spreads outside; Guo Moumou's high-end tourism model also attracted attention from government departments in other regions eager to develop marine tourism economies, and visits to learn from it occurred frequently. Later, when caught in a storm of public opinion, besieged and attacked, and facing the unfavorable situation of forced demolition by the Shenzhen local government, many marine tourism attractions and local governments extended olive branches to Guo Moumou's floating island: "Just tow it over here and park it!" That is a story for later, to be set aside for now. Perfection and luxury, combined with a non-open operational model, shrouded Guo Moumou's floating island structure in mystery for ordinary people. In a social environment filled with resentment against the rich, this layer of mystery inevitably reflected wealth, power, and corruption in people's eyes. On the other hand, the island owner Guo Moumou's consistent artistic temperament and unconventional, free-spirited, and unruly behavior, along with long-term estrangement from officials, media, and the general public, made him an easy target for envy, jealousy, and hatred. All this laid the groundwork for the floating island to be later sensationalized by meddlesome media reporters, labeled as a private club and branded with the "infamous name" of "Sea Palace," suddenly gaining notoriety and becoming a target of public criticism. Extended Topic: Rational View of the Merits and Demerits of "Private Clubs" During the drafting and preparation of this book, coinciding with the new central leadership led by General Secretary Xi Jinping advocating frugality, carrying out the Party's mass line education practice, and cracking down on corruption with a firm hand, the entire political landscape and social atmosphere in China have taken on a renewed look. In this process, "private clubs" unfortunately became a completely negative concept, synonymous with corruption involving power and money. Of course, private clubs encroaching on public resources such as parks, historical sites, and even revolutionary memorial sites are indeed inappropriate and infuriating, and government officials frequenting private clubs, which can easily lead to power-for-money deals and breed corruption, should be strictly prohibited. However, private clubs, as a form of leisure and lifestyle for the wealthy class in society, like luxury villas, Mercedes-Benz and BMW cars, and luxury watches and bags, have their own reasons and logic for existing in a market economy and should not be outright denied and rejected as if they were a scourge, otherwise, we risk falling back into the quagmire of past leftist ideology. In this regard, we do not need to use profound modern economic theories and methods to argue; our ancients have already set an example for us. Fan Zhongyan, who said, "Be the first to worry about the world's troubles and the last to enjoy its pleasures," lived a thousand years ago in the Song Dynasty but can still serve as a model for all government officials today who adhere to the concept of governing for the people, not only for his ideological realm but more importantly for his pragmatic style respecting the laws of the market economy. In Shen Kuo's "Dream Pool Essays: Official Administration I," there is such a record: "In the second year of the Huangyou era (1050 AD), there was a great famine in Wuzhong (now the Jiangsu and Zhejiang area), with corpses of the starved lying on the roads. At that time, Fan Zhongyan was the governor of Zhexi. He distributed grain from state granaries and raised funds from the people to relieve the famine, with very comprehensive measures. The people of Wu were fond of boat racing and Buddhist activities. Fan Zhongyan then encouraged the people to hold races, and the governor himself went out daily to feast and drink on the lake. From spring to summer, the city's residents emptied the streets to go out and enjoy themselves. He also summoned the abbots of various temples and told them: 'In famine years, labor wages are extremely low, so this is a good time to undertake large-scale construction projects.' Thus, construction work in various temples flourished, and he also ordered the renovation of granaries and government offices, employing thousands of laborers daily. The supervisory officials impeached him for not caring about famine relief, indulging in excessive entertainment, and causing public and private construction to waste people's labor. Fan Zhongyan then submitted a memorial explaining that the feasting and construction were all intended to mobilize surplus wealth to benefit the poor. Those engaged in trade, catering, and crafts, who depended on public and private employment, numbered tens of thousands daily. No famine relief measure was greater than this. That year, only Hangzhou in the Liangzhe circuit remained stable without refugees, all thanks to Fan Zhongyan's benevolence. In famine years, distributing grain from the state granaries and mobilizing private funds for public benefit has recently been established as a law. This measure both relieved the famine and took advantage of the famine to benefit the people, which is the legacy of the ancient kings." The most common government disaster relief practice (and one consistent with conventional thinking) is for officials to tighten their belts and distribute as much relief as possible (free relief supplies to victims). However, ancient Chinese officials already understood that in famine years, it was best to implement an "active fiscal policy," undertaking large-scale construction and infrastructure projects to stimulate consumption, promote employment, and increase income, achieving two goals at once: solving the victims' livelihoods and improving infrastructure. If one does not understand this principle, then in a year of great disaster, the local official Fan Zhongyan, instead of leading by example in frugality, led the way in sightseeing and building lavish buildings. Even today, he would be drowned in the saliva of online public opinion, and those "righteous gentlemen" who think they occupy the moral high ground would say: He deserved it, and even death would not be enough! But this pseudo-morality that violates the laws of the market economy is not only incompatible with modern economic theory but also far behind the knowledge and level of the ancients a thousand years ago. (To be continued)