1982 Started from Hong Kong

Chapter 217 A grain of sand in the times
“I never thought I’d meet you in the Mainland.”

In an old teahouse in Dongdan.

A pair of crosstalk artists were performing hard on the stage, and two Hong Kong people were sitting by the window below.

Zhai Yuan looked at Xue Wanen's delicate face without makeup and asked with a smile, "When did you come?"

Xue Wan'en took a sip of jasmine tea, and her mouth seemed to be filled with the fresh floral scent as she spoke.

She still spoke very little: "It arrived last month."

Zhai Yuan asked: "Earlier than me? I also stayed at the Foreign Guest Hotel, so why didn't I meet you?"

The crosstalk artist on the stage happened to say at this time: "You left early, and I came back late, so we have to pay respect to the neighbors."

Being interrupted like this, both of them couldn't help but smile.

Xue Wan'en said: "I live in the Friendship Hotel."

Zhai Yuan was startled: "Excuse me."

Although they are both fellow Hong Kong people, they are treated differently. Zhai Yuan definitely cannot live at No. 1 South Street now.

As expected, she is the woman sitting in the third row.

Seeing his pretended embarrassment, Xue Wan'en smiled a little more: "I rely on my family's connections, and you rely on your own efforts. There is a big difference between the two."

Zhai Yuan thought so too. This man's family has an electricity tycoon, and Hong Kong is not yet divided between CLP and HK Electric.

The two chatted for a while.

Xue Wan'en looked at Zhai Yuan and suddenly asked, "Besides working with you on the gambling boat, have you participated in Ye Zhiming's project to develop the islands in Saigon?"

Zhai Yuan was stunned for a moment: "You know I run a gambling ship?"

Xue Wan'en smoothed her hair and said calmly, "It's written in the newspaper."

This was the third time she and Zhai Yuan met.

When we first met two years ago, Zhai Yuan was still a middle school student who was being collected protection money by a gangster. The second time we met, he had transformed into a small director. He also abducted his junior sister Pang Jiayan to direct the film and wrote a few very good songs by the way.

Later, Xue Wan'en was busy with work, and her curiosity about Zhai Yuan gradually faded. However, when she was reading newspapers, she began to frequently and passively receive news about him, such as "having a quarrel with the Freedom Association today", "confronting with two major cinema chains tomorrow", and "starting a gambling boat with a partner the day after tomorrow".

In this way, we witnessed Zhai Yuan's journey from a secondary school student in a housing estate to climbing higher and higher in two years.

I have developed a habit of opening the entertainment page first when I get the newspaper every day.

Xue Wanen felt strangely guilty for prying into other people's privacy.

Zhai Yuan knew nothing about this, but when Xue Wan'en mentioned it, he didn't hide anything.

He smiled and said, "I am not interested in real estate speculation for the time being. I have no part in Ye Zhiming's offshore island business."

Xue Wan'en nodded after hearing this and pondered for a moment.

Zhai Yuan raised his eyebrows: "What's wrong?"

"I've been discussing some business recently, and the people I've met are quite diverse, and I've also heard some rumors."

Xue Wan'en said after careful consideration: "It is said that some people are planning to jointly raise the land prices in the urban area and suppress remote areas such as the outlying islands. If this is true, the funds Ye Zhiming has invested in the development of the outlying islands now will probably be difficult to recover by then."

After hearing this, Zhai Yuan hummed softly, looked up and smiled at Xue Wanen, "Thank you."

He was not optimistic about the prospect of developing offshore islands, and now Xue Wanen also said so, it seemed that Ye Zhiming was doomed to return in defeat.

Xue Wan'en saw Zhai Yuan's thoughtful expression and smiled: "My source of information may not be accurate. Besides, you were not involved, so just listen to my story."

Zhai Yuan nodded and asked Xue Wanen: "Ms. Xue is coming to the mainland to discuss business?"

Xue Wan-yan said: "Now some mainland manufacturers have their own brands and hope to set up a few booths in my Hua En Department Store to sell their products and make a name for themselves in Hong Kong."

Zhai Yuan asked: "How was the talk?"

Xue Wanen smiled bitterly and shook her head: "The quality is still not as good as overseas brands. Some manufacturers are trying to be clever and use good products for samples and defective products for delivery. It's really hard to help them."

After hearing this, Zhai Yuan also felt that it was a headache to encounter such a thing, but from a business perspective, Xue Wanen's approach was impeccable.

He thought for a moment and said, "I have a factory in Yuen Long and I am currently developing new products. If there is a chance, I can cooperate with Ms. Xue's department store."

Xue Wan'en became interested and asked, "What is the new product?"

Zhai Yuan briefly chatted with her about VCDs and optical discs.

Xue Wan'en's eyes became more and more interested as she listened. She tapped the table with her slender fingers and said, "If you can make these two products, I can take over your retail market in Hong Kong. The agency fee will be higher than other companies."

Under the management of Xue Wanen, Huaen Department Store has become quite competitive among the medium-sized department stores in Hong Kong.

Especially in the past two years, she changed her business strategy, using electronic products, trendy toys and popular clothing as main selling points, attracting a large number of young fans.

But there is still a long way to go to catch up with time-honored brands like Sincerely and Wing On.

Xue Wanen feels that if the department store business wants to go further, in addition to setting up its own factory and establishing its own brand, it must also become a leader in a certain field.

For example, Sincerely used the brand of Worldwide Department Store to distribute high-end foreign goods as an exclusive agent overseas, and its position in Hong Kong has always been solid.

This is also the reason why she came to the mainland to look for cooperative manufacturers.

It was rare for Zhai Yuan to see her emotions fluctuate so much, so he smiled and said, "Let me pour a bucket of cold water on you first. The research and development time for this new product will be very long, and perhaps it will be developed overseas in advance. I am still working on overcoming the simple technical problems in the eyes of the other party."

Xue Wanen asked: "How can I help you?"

Zhai Yuan thought of a line from the movie "The Godfather" and said half-jokingly: "One day, maybe this day will never come, I will ask you to do something for me."…………

In the early 1980s, the mainland tried to implement a "grant-to-loan" plan, changing the free grants to enterprises into bank loans, in order to enhance their sense of economic responsibility and improve their enthusiasm.

After the trial run of the plan, the Academy of Sciences was also affected. Many experimental projects were difficult to commercialize in the short term and lost funding support, so they had to be temporarily suspended.

It was in this environment that Tao Zongyi's team withdrew from the Academy of Sciences' research on a certain type of precision instrument.

Qingbei University.

After Tao Zongyi finished explaining the topic to several of his graduate students, he paced back to the staff dormitory assigned by the school, looking worried all the way.

Dormitory door.

His wife Ding Hui was holding a wooden basin and hanging the washed clothes in the basin on the clothesline.

Seeing her husband walking to the door of the house and passing by her absent-mindedly, Ding Hui cried out twice.

"Lao Tao, are you lost?"

Tao Zongyi was awakened by this, and with an embarrassed smile, he reached out to take the wooden basin in his wife's arms and said, "Let me do it."

"Go away! Don't come and make trouble!" Ding Hui waved her hand and said, "Hurry up and take out the two bags of non-staple food from under the bed. I'll drive the tricycle over later and we'll continue setting up the stall tonight."

"okay."

Tao Zongyi agreed and went back to the dormitory and dragged out two sacks full of supplementary food as his wife had asked.

He sat at the door for a while and fell into deep thought again.

After hanging up the clothes, Ding Hui looked back at Tao Zongyi who was frowning again, and smiled and shook her head.

"Thinking about your high-tech stuff again?"

"Hui Er, if we mortgage our house, can the school finance department help us get a bank loan?"

Tao Zongyi looked up and asked.

Ding Hui looked at him like a fool, pointed at the dormitory door and said, "Is this your house? Banks require real estate for loans. You have no common sense at all, and you are Professor Tao!"

Tao Zongyi drew out an "oh" and added, "That's true. Even if this house is mine, it's not worth three hundred thousand."

Three hundred thousand is the research and development fund that he is currently short of. After the school stops allocating funds, this amount of money will be an astronomical figure for ordinary people.

He is a professor at Peking University and Tsinghua University, with a monthly salary of 270 yuan. His wife Ding Hui works in a hospital and has a monthly salary of 120 yuan.

On the contrary, he has made a small profit by setting up stalls outside recently, earning more than ten yuan a day. This has made Tao Zongyi clearly realize the meaning of the saying "the one who makes atomic bombs is not as good as the one who sells tea eggs."

But to raise 300,000 yuan is still a fantasy.

Tao Zongyi said: "By the way, if you are talking about real estate, my parents left me a small courtyard in Pangge Village."

"Come on! That place has been ploughed all the way to Hebei." Ding Hui rolled her eyes at him and said, "Wait a minute."

After saying that, he wiped his hands on his clothes, carried the wooden basin back to the room, and came out after a while with the passbook.

Ding Hui threw the bankbook into Tao Zongyi's arms and said, "I don't have 300,000 yuan, but here are 4,000 yuan. Take it or not."

Tao Zongyi opened the passbook and saw 4122.5 yuan in it, with some small changes.

He asked, "Where did you get so much money?"

Ding Hui said: "I have gone through all my relatives' trouble and have taken out my parents' retirement savings. I have to pay this money back!"

Tao Zongyi rubbed the bald spot on his head and muttered, "This is not enough..."

Ding Hui must be unhappy, and she reached out to grab the passbook: "Don't give it back to me! You are still being picky."

"No, no, no!" Tao Zongyi quickly held the passbook to his chest and said with an apologetic smile: "We can save a little to make a lot, and set up a night stall for a while longer."

Ding Hui was so angry at his actions that she laughed: "Good behavior! Hurry up and wash your hands and eat."

The dishes on the table were simple, including egg custard, tofu with green onions and a hairtail soup.

Tao Zongyi scooped two spoonfuls of egg custard and poured it on the rice, stirred it and started to eat it with relish.

Ding Hui scooped up a piece of hairtail and put it in his bowl, saying, "Why don't you go to the south and have a look? I heard that there is a lot of money to be made in the sea now."

Tao Zongyi said: "What about my job?"

Ding Hui smiled and said, "You make 200 yuan a month now, but if you go to the south, you might make 2,000 yuan a month."

Tao Zongyi sneered: "Two thousand? Money is so easy to make, do you think it's robbing a bank?"

The couple chatted idly.

Just then, there was a knock on the door.

Ding Hui got up to open the door, and a middle-aged man rushed in panting.

"Lao Cao?" Ding Hui let the visitor in and said, "Have you eaten yet? I'll serve you a bowl of rice."

Lao Cao waved his hands at Ding Hui, took two deep breaths to steady himself, and said to Tao Zongyi, "Lao Tao, come with me! A big company in Hong Kong has come to our institute with the documents above to recruit professionals. Their research direction is exactly the same as yours."

(My sleep and rest schedule has been disrupted recently, so I'm thinking about taking Wuji Baifeng Pills... I'll update the second chapter later

(End of this chapter)