2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 462 The Strange Reputation of FlashDrive Employees
P.S.: Slightly slice-of-life.

“I recently heard that you had Zeng bring people from the S1 lab to the city for fun. Isn’t that a bit much? If the district takes any action or someone reports it, it will be a huge scandal.”

Back home, Gu Qingqing pulled Tan Jincheng aside and whispered a question.

Tan Jinjin chuckled, "Hmm? You've heard about this? Looks like we'll have to reduce the frequency. But it's okay, Zeng knows what he's doing. It's just washing feet and singing a few songs."

Could it be that Zeng Jixiang is the one who wants to go there, and often brings these lonely souls to these places? Otherwise, he wouldn't be doing it so frequently that even Gu Qingqing knows about it.

"Be mindful of the impact. We can't control what they do privately, but it's a headache for someone like you who's involved in organized crime to be targeted by those with ulterior motives."

Gu Qingqing watched Tan Jincheng build his business step by step. In addition, his father was also a businessman. Although she had never met him, she had heard a lot of her parents’ private conversations.

Although she couldn't accept this slightly risqué project, she knew there was nothing she could do to stop it. As the CEO, she was well aware that Orange Technology's employees were notorious for their love of pornography.

Gu Qingqing knew that Tan Jincheng had frequented such places before, but after several years of understanding, she believed that Tan Jincheng had never had any relationships with people from such places.

Xiao Tan's brother knows a lot about this matter, but he seems a bit arrogant and afraid of death, so he doesn't dare to provoke these people. This is somewhat comforting to Gu Qingqing.

As she got involved in more business, she couldn't avoid many of the gray areas of society, which was the most painful thing for her. It was already a great achievement that she could hold onto her principles.

To say that Gu Qingqing is mercenary is an understatement; it's more of a compromise with social rules. Unless he's willing to find a particularly honest person who stays home cooking every day, he might still be secretly flirting.

In addition, she started getting to know Tan Jincheng in her freshman year, so it was basically impossible for ordinary boys to catch her eye anymore.

Young people who encounter amazing people will regret it for the rest of their lives if the encounter doesn't end well.

Like all internet companies, Orange Technology's employees are mainly single men. After several rounds of financing, most employees have received equity or stock options. Although they cannot be cashed out yet, once the company goes public, their net worth will range from hundreds of thousands to tens of millions.

Besides the anticipated equity and stock options, their salary level is among the top in the entire North Warehouse, even surpassing the renowned Flash Group, which is known for its excellent benefits. Apart from the need to work overtime, their compensation is comparable to that of civil servants.

What do young men with money and boundless energy like to do most? These days, there's not much live streaming with tipping, and besides playing games, there aren't many other consumption channels. It's arguably the golden age of offline entertainment.

The price is reasonable and the quality is excellent. This is a large part of the reason why the programmers at Orange Technology are able to stay and work in this internet wasteland in Beicang.

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that they were so happy they forgot about home. Apart from Orange Technology, the income of employees at Flash Group, even the most junior employees, is much higher than that of their peers. They can make several trips a month by saving a little money.

It can be said that Tan Jincheng contributed to the entertainment industry in Beicang. Although it was not a serious matter, it was not a particularly unusual thing in an era of great development. Generally, as long as it was not taken too far, the locals would turn a blind eye if it was just for fun.

After all, it's an important project that can stimulate consumption.

The reputation of employees from Flash Group and Orange Technology is well-known, which is basically an open secret in Beicang District. Tan Jincheng and Gu Qingqing both know this, and it's quite a headache for them.

He also frequently gives orders to the management at the company, telling them to restrain their employees and not go too far. If they really have nowhere to spend their money, they should just spend some money to rent a house and support themselves, which would be safer.

However, it's all for naught. Even Tan Jincheng can't guarantee he can control his lower body, let alone others. The only thing he can do is occasionally donate some money or cars to the relevant management departments.

It would save us from having to rely on Flash and Orange employees to collect things every time something happens, which would be truly embarrassing.

The district wasn't entirely unaware of these messy affairs; in fact, many companies were aware of them. However, using this to deal with Tan Jincheng was a bit ridiculous. Essentially, it was just the employee's personal behavior, simply because he had too much money in his pocket.

To be honest, the district should give Tan Jincheng an award. It's not that the employees are treated too well, that they dare to spend money in places like this.
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With the National Day holiday over, the last wave of the lingering summer heat in Ningbo has ended, and it's time to wear a light jacket. This is probably the most comfortable time of year in Ningbo.

It's neither too hot nor too cold, there's not much rain, and there are no typhoons.

During this rare best season of the year, which is also very short for Ningbo, it's time to come back and enjoy the plump swimming crabs and other seafood.

Tan Jincheng didn't take his family on a trip during the National Day holiday. He generally doesn't like going out during large holidays when there are many people. Tan Lihua also enjoyed a rare long holiday, coming to Ningbo to reunite with his family. Speaking of Tan Lihua, he is probably the one who has had the hardest time since Tan Jincheng started his business. He became a left-behind person in his hometown of Yicheng, all alone in Yicheng. If it weren't for his cooking skills from before, he would have to eat in the canteen all the time.

These days, food delivery isn't that developed. As for eating out, in Tan Lihua's consumption philosophy, they only eat out when there's a joyous occasion or something particularly happy at home; they don't usually eat out.

Tan Lihua doesn't usually eat out. He has many people who invite him to meals, but he always remembers his son's advice: he can eat, but he doesn't have to eat at just anyone's restaurant.

Nowadays in Yicheng, there are many people who want to invite Tan Lihua to dinner. There are a lot of township cadres from his hometown of Wangjiang, as well as many leaders from various departments in the county and the city.

In addition, there are some businessmen who want to do business with Flash. If we're talking about eating alone, Tan Lihua could eat eight meals a day. In reality, it wouldn't cause any problems. He could just deny it later, since it's not his business.

However, Tan Lihua obviously wouldn't do such a thing. Putting aside the damage to his reputation, his personality wouldn't allow him to do it.

How would you describe Tan Lihua? Having worked in a state-owned enterprise for so many years, he is certainly not an innocent naiveté. He understands the rules of society to some extent, but due to his social standing and educational background, he can only be considered an honest person.

In terms of shamelessness, he was no match for his son, so he could only follow his son's instructions and try to live a secluded life.

Normally, he would just go to Zhang Xupeng's parents' place, his old boss Li Shiqi, whom he was already very familiar with, and Tan Lixin, who lived in Yicheng, to have a meal.

These are all very familiar people. Li Shiqi is about to retire and doesn't have any big demands on Tan Jincheng. At most, he just wants Tan Jincheng to take care of the younger generation of their family if possible.

However, not all the younger members of the family will help someone who is capable of being a leader. It also depends on whether the younger members are capable enough. The person who asked last time was not capable enough. He really wouldn't have asked if it weren't for his nephew.

As for his own son and daughter, Tan Jincheng didn't need to worry about that at all; it had already been arranged long ago.

This can be considered as having no desires or wants. As for the Zhang Guolong couple, there's no need to mention them. Their son is Tan Jincheng's business partner and a well-known figure with a net worth of hundreds of millions. He himself has the same troubles as Tan Lihua.

As for Tan Lixin, he's a brother in the family. Whether you eat or not, you can't escape his demands, so there's nothing to be afraid of.

"It's still more comfortable living here, with no one to bother us; sigh, I used to think time went by too fast, but now I feel like time is going by too slowly."

During his stay in Beicang, Tan Lihua often made such remarks.

He works in the chemical industry. Normally, he could take sick leave or early retirement at 55 or even 50, but even at the highest age of 50, it would still take three years.

In other words, he still has to endure three more years, until the end of 2010, before he can end his life as a "lonely old man". By then, his daughter will be six years old and old enough to go to primary school. She will really not be close to her father at all.

He wasn't afraid of loneliness, but the fact that he wasn't close to his daughter was a real headache. His little daughter was indeed too attached to her brother; she would stay by his side to sleep at night and would never go back to her mother's to sleep until she had heard the whole story.

In the beginning, the little sister even stayed in Tan Jincheng's room and wouldn't leave, sandwiched between him and Gu Qingqing, seriously affecting their private lives, which was both funny and exasperating.

After much coaxing, and with age and increased understanding, Tan Jincheng no longer dared to keep her at night.

During the seven-day National Day holiday, Tan Lihua took a few more days off and stayed in Beicang for almost half a month. During that time, Tan Lihua focused on building a good relationship with his daughter. Since they were blood relatives, it was easy for them to get to know each other quickly.

It was during this two-week period that the strange reputation of Flash employees reached Tan Lihua's ears. Zhang Qingliang told him about it unintentionally, and Tan Lihua was dumbfounded at the time.

"This is the first time I've heard of a company that can boost the entertainment industry because of its high salaries and benefits. It really is a big city."

"Who says otherwise? Brother-in-law, you don't know, but in the past year or so, I haven't seen many other industries open up, but KTVs in Beicang have really been opening one after another. The entry barrier is almost as high as that of opening a restaurant. I have to say that Jincheng deserves a lot of credit, haha."

Zhang Qingliang, who has lived in Beicang for almost two years, has been working in the paint shop of FlashTech. Now that he is familiar with the process, he has become a junior manager. He also bought a house ahead of schedule with the help of his sister Zhang Suzhi.

In addition, the child's household registration has been transferred to Beicang, and the school enrollment problem has been solved by his nephew. Zhang Qingliang, who is now in high spirits, is no longer the somewhat timid migrant worker he was when he first came to Beicang.

(End of this chapter)