2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 708 The Flash Gene on the Spring Festival Gala

The continuous rain stopped during the Spring Festival, and the sun shone brightly in the sky over Ningbo, a rare sight indeed.

According to Tan Jincheng's impression of the weather, apart from the fact that there are more typhoons and it's not very hot at night, Ningbo and his hometown Yicheng seem to be quite similar.

It rains in Ningbo, and it also rains in Yicheng most of the time.

The only difference is that Yicheng experiences more snowfall in winter than Ningbo.

Oh, by the way, there don't seem to be any mosquitoes in Ningbo. In fact, Tan Jincheng rarely gets bitten by mosquitoes in the summer.

Of course, it may be related to his living conditions.

"Uncle Li, Xiao Ning and I hung the lantern crookedly, can you come and help me?"

"Alright, alright, I'm coming right now. You two, stop hanging up. If you fall, you won't be able to celebrate the New Year properly."

"Okay, let's go play with fireworks then."

"Go ahead, go ahead, but remember to call your brother too. It's not safe for little kids to set off fireworks by themselves."

"Hmph, I'm not a child anymore."

Lai Yiu-fai laughed heartily, and Tan Li-hua, who was putting up couplets with him, also laughed happily: "Ignore them, hurry up and finish putting up these. Your partner is probably getting impatient. I already said you don't need to come."

"It's okay, my parents are home, it'll only be a little while."

Tan Jincheng was too busy. His social engagements didn't stop before and after the Spring Festival. Right now, he was entertaining guests in the study of the villa. In addition, he seemed to have no interest in the New Year. For the past two years, Li Yaohui had been helping Old Tan put up couplets and such.

This year was no exception; his second son also came along. The little guy had just turned three and was still unsteady on his feet. Little Tan Jinyue immediately found the joy of being the big sister.

What kind of lantern should Li Ning hang with her crooked and shaky clothes? Actually, it's just hanging the lantern on the osmanthus tree in the yard.

Lai Ning was born in Ningbo, so Lai Yiu-fai simply named her Ning, which is simple and has a good meaning.

"Speaking of which, your parents have been in Ningbo for quite some time now, but I haven't met them many times. Are they still settling in comfortably?"

"It's almost manageable. I wasn't used to it when I first arrived, but now I can go out and do square dancing. It's just that the language barrier is a bit of a problem."

"Haha, that's true. I can't understand the language here either, and I wasn't used to it when I first arrived."

"Yes, I still haven't learned the Ningbo dialect. I really admire our boss. I heard from General Manager Zhang that he could speak the Ningbo dialect fluently when he first came here."

Tan Lihua laughed and said, "This kid does have a talent for languages. He could understand a lot of local dialects when he was a child."

With Lai Yiu-fai's help, the couplets were quickly put up. Lai Yiu-fai took his youngest son home to continue working on the couplets for his own family. Lai Ning was having a great time, but was still a little unhappy.

Tan Jinyue was also a little unhappy, as she had finally met someone younger than her at home.

"Xiao Ning will come over to play with you again tomorrow. Jin Yue, take me to find your brother. See what he's busy with and he won't play with fireworks with you."

There weren't any important people in the office, but they hadn't left even after the couplets had been put up for half a day. I guess the boss thought it wouldn't be good to kick them out during the Lunar New Year, so Lai Yiu-fai, as the boss's confidant, had to do that.

"Okay, then Uncle Li must bring Xiao Ning over tomorrow."

The terminology is confusing, but everyone's used to it.

The person in Tan Jincheng's office is a supplier of Weilai Automobile. They had previously lost many orders due to quality issues. It's unclear what connections they used or how they managed to get into the villa area.

Both sides are still cooperating, and Tan Jincheng can't just kick him out directly, just as Li Yaohui thought, it's the Lunar New Year.

Weilai Auto has very strict requirements for its suppliers. Although it is a new company, Weilai Auto still has very strict requirements for its supply chain.

With the experience of FlashTech's supply chain and the professional team brought by Zhang Yong, Weilai Auto has accumulated a lot of experience in supplier selection.

With the strong sales of the Yuechi A1 and the attractive payment terms, Weilai Auto has gained more and more autonomy in choosing its suppliers, so it's not surprising that it encounters order cancellations due to substandard quality.

Order cancellation isn't actually the worst thing, because as long as the quality of subsequent orders is up to standard, you can still place additional orders.

The real headache would be if they just replaced him. This boss knew all too well that staying at someone's house during the Chinese New Year was annoying, but he had no choice but to resort to this tactic in order to keep an important client.

They chatted intermittently until Lai Yiu-fai knocked on the door.

"Boss, the couplets are up. If there's nothing else, I'll head back now."

After pushing open the door while holding his son, Lai Yiu-fai nodded to the unfamiliar boss. Behind him followed Tan Kam-yuet, who was holding fireworks.

If this boss still doesn't understand this situation, then he's really asking for trouble.

"In that case, I'll be going now, so as not to keep Mr. Tan from spending the Spring Festival with his family."

Tan Jincheng didn't bother with formalities and simply stood up to see the guest out: "I also wish President Li and his family a happy Spring Festival."

"Okay, thank you, Mr. Tan."

As he was leaving, Mr. Li took out a red envelope from his bag and stuffed it into Tan Jinyue's pocket, chuckling as he muttered, "This must be President Tan's sister, right? She's so cute."

Mr. Li had obviously done his homework, but he didn't do it well enough, or perhaps he didn't pay enough attention to some small details in his daily life.

As he finished handing over the red envelope and spoke, before Tan Jincheng could react, he patted Tan Jinyue's head.

Tan Jincheng's face showed a hint of displeasure, and Li Yaohui's expression also changed, and he immediately secretly sized up his boss.

"really."

Sigh, Lai Yiu-fai couldn't help but sigh inwardly. Now he was going to be in trouble too. It wasn't a big deal originally, and the boss wouldn't care much during the Lunar New Year, but now it was hard to say. The boss was very protective of Xiao Jin Yue. Strangers or unfamiliar people could tease Xiao Jin Yue, but physical contact was strictly prohibited, especially with a man.

Lai Yiu-fai forced a smile and said, "I'll go see them off."

Tan Jincheng didn't speak, he just nodded. Xiao Jinyue was a worldly person. She had received a lot of red envelopes in the past few days, but she could only remember a few faces.

Unlike other children, this little one lives a comfortable life and doesn't yet have much of a concept of money. She's too lazy to even open the red envelopes given to her.

"Brother, let's go set off fireworks."

Little Tan Jinyue only has eyes for fireworks now.

"It's not fun during the day either, and you can't see clearly. It's more fun to play at night."

"Want to play now? We can play big fireworks tonight."

"Alright, alright, your brother will take you to play; come on, let's call your sister to come along."

Helpless, Boss Tan took Tan Jinyue's small hand and said, "Jinyue, remember this: next time a stranger touches your head, you must dodge, okay? A girl's head shouldn't be touched by just anyone."

"Okay, I remember."

Gu Qingqing is three and a half months pregnant, but she wears a lot of clothes in winter, so her pregnancy isn't showing yet. She doesn't need to prepare anything for the New Year's Eve dinner. She was just reading in her room.

Lai Yiu-fai returned and waited in the courtyard.

When Tan Jincheng and his two companions came downstairs to the courtyard, they saw him.

"Brother Li, go back. We can talk about it after the New Year."

Tan Jincheng knew exactly what he was thinking. He didn't know how this guy had gotten in, but no matter what, the security at home needed to be readjusted.

In peacetime, Tan Jincheng was not too worried about the safety of his family, but he also did not want to leave any potential dangers.

Lai Yiu-fai nodded, said nothing, and left with the child in his arms.

Tan Jincheng spends the most time with Li Yaohui every day. Just as Li Yaohui understands his thoughts, he also understands Li Yaohui's thoughts. This matter is indeed a bit annoying, but it is not enough to make Tan Jincheng get angry at Li Yaohui.

To be honest, it didn't really have much to do with him; it was just that the people below him had become a bit lax.

"It's Chinese New Year, so I can understand."

Gu Qingqing squeezed Tan Jincheng's hand and comforted him.

Yes, it's Chinese New Year. They want to celebrate, and so do everyone else.

Forget it.

The Spring Festival Gala appears on time every year, starting with two dances followed by a crosstalk performance.

"This year's Spring Festival Gala has a strong internet influence."

Gu Yanning and her brother both brought their boyfriends or girlfriends home for the Chinese New Year this year. Gu Hongshun and his wife didn't want to go and join in the fun, so Gu Qingqing simply had her parents come here for the New Year.

There weren't many people from the two families together, and they were all from out of town, so they didn't need to worry about any customs; they just wanted to have a good time.

After the New Year's Eve dinner, the family watched the gala together as usual. Tan Jincheng didn't dare to wander around, as he estimated that many people would come to offer New Year's greetings later.

Zhang Xupeng and his family won't be coming this year. The young man is having a banquet in his hometown during the first month of the lunar calendar, so he's going back home for the New Year.

"That's right, Baidu sponsored the New Year's list, and hundreds of websites broadcast it live simultaneously."

Kaixin.com and Orange Live both broadcast the Spring Festival Gala live. It's unknown how many people watched it, but in short, there were many more internet-related factors this year.

Sponsors for the Spring Festival Gala are not cheap. In most cases, the companies that can secure various naming rights are those that were very successful that year, which to some extent reflects the current economic trend.

The increasing influence of the internet indicates that another internet era is on the horizon.

"I heard that Wei Lai is making quite a splash at the Spring Festival Gala this year? Is that sky-high advertising price really true?"

The father-in-law, Gu Hongshun, asked with some curiosity. He rarely talked to his son-in-law about his company, but that didn't mean he didn't pay attention. Weilai Auto had won the midnight advertising slot for a sky-high price of 4800 million yuan.

This news had been circulating for a few days, and now, looking at the Yuechi A1 model in the audience, Gu Hongshun was quite curious.

"It's true, it actually cost more than that."

The money spent on bribery, bidding, and other miscellaneous expenses far exceeded the published figures, but it was worth it, as the ritualistic feel of the midnight countdown resulted in very high viewership ratings.

This time, we used the Yuechi A1 brand to promote the Yuechi A1.

The seventh program is Jay Chou. Tan Jincheng doesn't even remember how many times he's appeared on the Spring Festival Gala. This year's program is "Compendium of Materia Medica," a pure Chinese-style rap.

"This rap is really awesome."

After listening to the entire song, Tan Jincheng sighed and said that the Compendium of Materia Medica had a great significance in promoting culture. A few years later, when Fatty Zhou shouted "Chinese pop culture is the coolest," it was largely related to this song.

It was around that time that the Korean wave gradually withdrew from the domestic entertainment market.

Times are really changing.

(End of this chapter)