2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 206 "Old Deng, is it safe for me to park my will-o'-the-wisp downstairs?"

Large factories typically organize minibuses or even charter a train to transport employees around the Lunar New Year, but FlashTech does not yet have that capability.

The only thing we can do right now is to have the administrative departments help employees who need to buy train tickets purchase tickets collectively in advance.

As for the employees who take minibuses home, they can only find their own way to do so, as the company's manpower is limited.

After the lively annual meeting, the employees were hardly in the mood to work properly anymore, but that didn't matter anymore. After more than a month and a half of intensive work to catch up on orders, the stock for February was temporarily sufficient.

Currently, FlashTech does not have much inventory pressure. Electric vehicles produced in December were basically delivered in January. With the dealer system, FlashTech's distribution system in the market is much easier.

At least in terms of logistics, it solved a huge problem for FlashTech; otherwise, nationwide distribution would have required building its own logistics system.

Before the Spring Festival, the main distribution areas for the Flash and Wind series were third-tier cities and some small counties. Migrant workers returning home, getting married and engaged all concentrated around the Spring Festival, which is a peak consumption period for small counties and rural areas.

After the Lunar New Year, the main distribution of electric vehicles will be concentrated in cities with many factories. As migrant workers move to these cities for work, they will need convenient transportation, which will also bring a small peak in the sales of electric vehicles.

However, these are things we don't need to worry about for now.

January 23th, the 1th day of the twelfth lunar month.

In the morning, after arranging the list of staff to stay at the company during the Spring Festival, Tan Jincheng left the company directly. The group of three cars embarked on the journey back. Among them was Zhang Xupeng, whose car carried his cousin Zhang Xuhui and Zhang Qingliang and his wife.

The BMW 3 Series was driven by Lin Yumin, with Wu Zhenping and Qin Junchao of Jinyi Industry in the car. Qin Junchao was also from Yicheng, while Wu Zhenping, although from Wuhu, had settled in Yicheng, where his wife and children lived. Naturally, he would go back to Yicheng first when he returned home.

Gu Qingqing was sitting in Tan Jincheng's car. Naturally, Gu Qingqing would not go home with Tan Jincheng for the New Year. Even if Tan Jincheng wanted to, Gu Qingqing's parents would not agree.

So this time when he goes home, Tan Jincheng will make a detour to Yiwu to take Gu Qingqing home and meet her parents.

To make it easier for the young couple to talk, Zhang Qingliang and his wife voluntarily sat in Zhang Xupeng's car, and would switch back after dropping Gu Qingqing off in Yiwu.

The group was carrying large bags and small packages. Tan Jincheng's car, in particular, was completely full. Zhang Qingliang and his wife couldn't fit everything they wanted to take home, so they even had to put some of it in Zhang Xupeng's car.

"I'm a little nervous, what should I do?" Tan Jincheng said to Gu Qingqing with a smile.

"You're nervous? I didn't see you nervous at all on stage yesterday," Gu Qingqing said with a light laugh.

In Gu Qingqing's eyes, Tan Jincheng was shining brightly yesterday. His confident demeanor on stage before dinner, the lucky draw during the event, and his speech when awarding outstanding employees all captivated her.

Gu Qingqing had rarely seen Tan Jincheng speak in public. Their interactions were mostly limited to their daily lives and private work environments. In her opinion, her brother was a very low-key person and was quite resistant to public appearances.

Unexpectedly, despite his low-key demeanor, he wasn't intimidated at all. There were six or seven hundred people sitting below, a huge, dense crowd. If it were me, I would feel a bit intimidated just looking at that.

“That’s different. Yesterday I could talk nonsense and I didn’t care what the people below thought, but today I’m meeting my father-in-law,” Tan Jincheng said with emotion.

"Who's your father-in-law? My dad doesn't even know if he acknowledges you," Gu Qingqing said, blushing.

She went out to meet her boyfriend secretly right before the Chinese New Year, and then brought him home when she returned. I can pretend I don't know anything if I don't mention it, but I always feel a little ashamed when I do.

"Whether we acknowledge it or not, we have to accept it. Anyway, his daughter is already with me. This is called acting first and asking questions later, hehe."

Okay, that seems to be the case.

At the beginning of the century, ordinary girls were relatively conservative about sex. Although they were not like people in ancient times who would marry anyone else after having sex, they would usually only have sex if they were sure that the other person was the right person.

It's not uncommon for both men and women to be inexperienced before marriage; it's hard to believe that relationships between men and women have become so casual.

More than three hours later, Tan Jincheng stopped his car in front of a teahouse near the Yiwu Trade City. Zhang Xupeng and Lin Yumin, who were following closely behind, also parked their cars nearby.

"Uncle, should we go in and secretly observe how Xiao Tan meets her father-in-law?" Zhang Xupeng chuckled at Zhang Qingliang.

"Stop causing trouble, let's find a place to eat and wait for him," Zhang Qingliang said, pursing his lips.

If it were any ordinary nephew, Zhang Qingliang wouldn't mind secretly going in to check on him. But this nephew was too extraordinary. He hadn't even reached the legal marriage age yet, but he had already amassed a fortune of over 100 million yuan. He really didn't dare to follow Zhang Xupeng's reckless behavior.

Zhang Xupeng glanced at his cousin and Lin Yumin, and seeing no one respond, he said, "Alright, let's find a place to eat and wait for his notification." Inside the teahouse.

Tan Jincheng was meeting Gu Qingqing's parents for the first time. Gu Qingqing had introduced them before he came. Her father, Gu Hongshun, was born in 1962, and her mother, Li Jinzhen, was also born in the same year. They are both 44 years old this year.

I used to run a factory in Yiwu and did some small business. Later, due to demolition, the factory closed down. Now I mainly make a living by running 35 stalls in the trade city and occasionally doing some small business to get by.

Gu Qingqing's father, Gu Hongshun, is about the same height as Tan Jincheng. He has gained weight in middle age and has a beer belly, but judging from his face, one can vaguely tell that he must have been quite handsome when he was young. Gu Qingqing inherited more of his genes.

Gu's mother, Li Jinzhen, was about 1.6 meters tall. She was wearing the same long down jacket as Gu Qingqing. Tan Jincheng vaguely remembered these two down jackets; they looked like they were sold in his family's Taobao shop.

"Hello, Uncle and Aunt, it's nice to meet you for the first time." Tan Jincheng greeted them with a humble yet courteous attitude.

They also placed the gifts they brought on the table. Gu Hongshun received some cigarettes and alcohol, while Li Jinzhen received a set of imported cosmetics—all ordinary gifts.

It was Tan Jincheng who suggested meeting at the teahouse. On the one hand, since this wasn't a formal meeting, it would be inappropriate to go directly to his home. On the other hand, the two sides could communicate better in an unfamiliar environment, while also avoiding being watched by relatives.

"Xiao Tan, right? I've heard Qingqing mention you. Please sit down, please sit down," Li Jinzhen said with a smile.

Gu Hongshun just stared at Tan Jincheng without saying a word. Any father would be very unhappy if he tricked his daughter, who was not even 20 years old, into doing so.

Under Gu Hongshun's constant gaze, Tan Jincheng inexplicably thought of that question: "Old Deng, is it safe for me to stop my ghost fire downstairs?"

Okay, okay, I can't think about it anymore, or I'll burst out laughing.

After staring at him for a while, Gu Hongshun finally spoke: "I heard from Qingqing that you own a factory? I can understand young people wanting to do business, but why would you think of opening a factory? It's a very hard job."

Gu Hongshun certainly knew how Tan Jincheng made his fortune. He started with foreign trade and now he runs a factory. As for the current scale of Flash Technology, he didn't know. In fact, Gu Qingqing couldn't judge how large Flash Technology was either. He usually went to the old factory area and didn't know much about the new factory area.

She had no idea what Flashpoint Technology's annual revenue was, and only got a glimpse of it at this annual meeting.

Although she had some business acumen, Gu Qingqing was still a student at the moment, and apart from the large number of people, she didn't really understand what all these people meant.

Gu Hongshun had run a factory before and knew the difficulties involved, but he was also aware of the benefits of scaling up. He asked this question to hear Tan Jincheng's opinion, which was probably a test from his "father-in-law".

"Running a factory is indeed more arduous than simply doing foreign trade, and it's much harder to make money. However, the definitions of the two are different. If we really want to talk about it, then it's an ideal."

"Ideal? What do you mean?" Gu Hongshun asked, somewhat puzzled.

"Well, it's an ideal. I want to make something of myself, but I don't have a high level of education, so I can only try to make a breakthrough in the real economy," Tan Jincheng nodded.

Li Jinzhen, however, didn't care about these things and interrupted, asking, "Xiao Tan, what do your parents do? How many people are in your family?"

All the questions my husband asked were nonsense. When my daughter's boyfriend came over, shouldn't he be asking about his family background?

“My parents are state-owned enterprise workers, and I have a younger sister in my family.”

"You have a younger sister? How old is she?"

"Um, my little sister is a little over a year old, born in 04," Tan Jincheng said somewhat awkwardly.

Tan Jinyue's birth was largely due to his sudden disappearance for several months and the fact that he had a younger sister 18 years his junior. Anyone who heard this would be very curious and would definitely inquire about the reason, which was rather embarrassing for Tan Jincheng himself.

Sure enough, Li Jinzhen became interested as soon as she heard that Tan Jincheng had a little sister who was only a little over a year old, and she quickly asked about it.

Li Jinzhen didn't share Gu Hongshun's mindset. In her opinion, Xiao Tan was good-looking, capable, and came from a simple family, making him a suitable son-in-law. The only drawback was his low level of education, but education was never the most important factor in marriage.

My family isn't exactly a scholarly family, so what's the point of having such a high level of education?

Li Jinzhen would be happy to have a son-in-law who is rich, capable, good-looking, from a simple family, and whose parents have good jobs.

It has to be said that appearance is quite important. Coupled with the changes in his temperament over the past six months, Tan Jincheng has become increasingly gentle and refined. Li Jinzhen found him very pleasing to the eye the first time she saw him.

(End of this chapter)