New Year's Eve, a Snake Swallows an Elephant
"A-Yao makes a good point." Tang Wenbao glared at his son with displeasure. "You're not a three-year-old anymore. Do you expect others to teach you everything when you're doing business?"
Tang Jingyuan gave an awkward smile, and when he resumed chatting with Song Tianyao, he naturally changed the subject.
After the banquet ended and they saw Chu Xiaoxin and Song Tianyao off, Tang Wenbao returned to the private room. Staring at the mess on the table, he remained silent. Tang Jingyuan, no longer showing the drunkenness he had displayed when seeing the two off downstairs, stared blankly for a moment before finally speaking to Tang Wenbao:
"Dad, Song Tianyao didn't agree to teach our workers first; he wants everyone to be taught together. He's not doing what Brother Qi wanted. What should we do?"
Tang Wenbao wiped his face and head with a hot towel brought by a colleague. "Song Tianyao wants everyone in this industry to remember his favor. Since he wants to teach them all together later to win people over, I think you should go and meet with the female workers on leave at his factory in the next couple of days. Offer them higher wages, and you should be able to recruit some interested workers. Then train them, and we can train others who want to do the wig business. Whoever gets this favor first will have enough prestige to make a name for themselves when the industry starts to take shape and a chamber of commerce needs to be established."
"If I do it... won't it look bad on Chu Xiaoxin's side?" Tang Jingyuan asked hesitantly.
Tang Wenbao covered his face with a towel, his voice ringing out clearly under the towel. "Even if Song Tianyao harbors resentment about poaching workers, he can't say anything. Workers, of course, go where they can earn the most. Chu Xiaoxin can't voice his opinion either; he'll just be a little cold when they meet later. Once Ah Qi returns to the United States and registers the company, you can help train other factories here. The Tang family will handle both Tang family and training. All factories in this industry will have to consider the Tang family's connections. Once the wig business grows and becomes the leader in the wig industry, new friends will naturally be waiting for you to meet."
"Besides, you're just young and reckless, and you made a mistake by not following the rules. Even if Song Tianyao is unhappy and it reaches Chu Yaozong's ears, I can pretend I don't know anything and smooth things over for you afterwards. Am I, at my age, supposed to step in and promise to poach Song Tianyao's workers? In this kind of thing, you're young, you say all the words, and you do all the mistakes. There are other businesses at home, and I can't show my face in public and make mistakes. As for Ah Qi, he's already in charge of registering the company in the United States. If we let him handle this kind of thing after he comes back from Hong Kong, how will you compete with him for a position in the future business partnership?"
Outside the restaurant, after Song Tianyao and Chu Xiaoxin got into the car, Chu Xiaoxin's driver Chen Xingfu, drove slowly. Song Tianyao lit a cigarette for Chu Xiaoxin, and Chu Xiaoxin, with the cigarette between his fingers, asked Song Tianyao:
"What exactly is Tang Wenbao trying to do with this meal? Ask him to help train the workers? Has he lost his mind? The person training him is stealing your business, how can he even bring himself to say that?"
Song Tianyao lowered his head, lit the cigarette in his mouth, looked out the window at the pedestrians, and said in a calm voice, "Stupid? The old man has a long-term vision. As the ancients said, 'Human hearts are not like water; they can stir up waves even on calm ground.'"
Chapter 260 On New Year's Eve, a snake swallows a giant elephant.
January 26, 1952, Lunar New Year's Eve.
The China person's attachment to the Spring Festival is deeply rooted. Whether rich or poor, everyone's face is filled with joy at this time. Wealthy families hang lanterns and paste New Year pictures in front of their doors, while poor families in Squatter Area will find a piece of red paper to write "Safe travels" and "May all your wishes come true" and paste them on their doors, hoping to bring good luck to their homes in the new year.
The sound of firecrackers started early, mostly as children exchanged the Red packet given to them by their elders for firecrackers at the grocery store. The sounds of firecrackers rang out in a cacophony of bangs and crashes. Occasionally, someone would set off some even bigger and thicker firecrackers than ordinary ones, with deafening explosions.
Although Hong Kong does not prohibit the setting off of firecrackers, except for Lunar Spring Festival's Eve, Lunar Lantern Festival, and Lantern Festival, on other dates, if you want to hold a wedding or open a shop and want to celebrate by setting off firecrackers, you need to go to the Police Station to pay a fee and obtain a permit to set off firecrackers on that day. Otherwise, if you set off firecrackers without a permit, you can expect the police to come to your door, impose a fine, and file a lawsuit.
Most poor families can't even afford to buy a permit to set off firecrackers for their weddings. When the day finally arrives when firecrackers can be set off without restrictions, the children, who have been holding back all year, naturally want to release all their pent-up expectations.
Therefore, on the morning of New Year's Eve, from Hong Kong Hong Kong Island to Kowloon, from one end of the street to the other, the air in Hong Kong was filled with the smell of burning gunpowder.
Early in the morning, on Tai Wo Street, Song Chunliang, dressed in new clothes, used a bamboo pole to hold up modified firecrackers high on the rooftop. Several long strings of firecrackers hung from the bamboo pole on the fourth-floor rooftop, with one end dangling down to the bluestone slabs on the street, a full ten meters long. Nine-Tattooed Dragon, Scribe Hui, and Zhao Wenye, a graduate of the police academy who had been assigned to the Mong Kok Police Station, were smoking cigarettes and looking up at Song Chunliang, waiting for him to set up the bamboo pole, ready to light them at any moment.
Led by Fu Xinniang, Shu Yan, and Shi Yin, Zhou Xiu'er stood far across the street. The girls were so nervous that they wished they could shrink into the wall, but their eyes were filled with both fear and anticipation as they watched the strings of firecrackers, waiting for Zhao Wenye, Nine-Tattooed Dragon, and Scribe Hui to light them. Many children and adults from the neighborhood also stood on the other side, eagerly watching the firecrackers and waiting to see the long strings of firecrackers explode.
"Alright!" Song Chunliang fixed all the bamboo poles in place, stood on the rooftop, waved his hand, and called out.
Zhao Wenye, Nine-Tattooed Dragon, and the Scribe Hui split up to use cigarettes to set the fuses for the firecrackers. When the firecrackers went off, the three of them covered their heads and ran into the pharmacy to hide.
Happy Chinese New Year!
Hearing the deafening sound of firecrackers outside, Zhao Meizhen sighed and said that last year during the Spring Festival, Zhao Meizhen remembered that her family of four only made vegetarian dumplings, the main dish on New Year's Eve was a small piece of cured meat, and they only bought a small bag of firecrackers as a symbolic gesture. They didn't even spend money to have someone write the Spring Festival couplets posted outside the Squatter Area; instead, they had their son, Song Tianyao, write them.
But this year, while Zhao Meizhen was busy packaging candies and preserves, her eyes were fixed on the living room, where Lou Fengyun, Sister Fen, Meng Wanqing, Song Wenwen, and her sister Zhao Meizhu who was helping her, along with the men and children outside setting off firecrackers—a total of more than a dozen people.