"Saving money is not wrong, but no one asked you to live and eat at the newspaper office after you started working there, and even deal with your girlfriend's dates at the newspaper office, right?" Song Tianyao opened several plastic bags containing braised food and said to Hong Lai-sau with a smile.
With chopsticks in hand, Hong Lai-sau waited for Song Tianyao to open the plastic bag before quickly stuffing several pieces of turkey gizzard, duck tongue, and other meat into his mouth. Only after enjoying the meal did he speak, "You, as a big boss, pay me two hundred dollars a month to work, so of course I'll put my heart into it. But speaking of which, A-Yao, you make so much money from wigs, how did you come up with the idea of making this kind of free newspaper?"
"Of course it will be useful, so you don't need to save me money. The more newspapers you deliver, the better. Every shop, even every neighbor, should have a copy. It doesn't matter if they use it as toilet paper after reading it. And..." Song Tianyao paused before continuing to Hong Lai-sau, "Once I have a little extra money, we can consider turning this newspaper into a bi-weekly or daily publication, delivering it for free every day."
Hong Lai-sau coughed violently, looking at Song Tianyao: "We currently publish four issues a month, eight thousand copies each. Not counting my salary, or even other people's wages, rent, utilities, and other expenses, just considering the newspaper's printing costs, we lose over 1,100 dollars a month, which is nearly 300 Hong Kong dollars per issue. If it's a bi-weekly, that's 15 issues, losing 4,500 dollars; if it's a daily, 30 issues, losing 9,000 dollars. And if it's a bi-weekly or daily, we'll have to hire even more people, meaning the newspaper will lose over 10,000 dollars every month. Even if your business is profitable, you can't just burn that money, can you? Making things convenient for everyone while only losing money for yourself? If you really want to make things convenient for everyone, why don't you help fund the construction of more public toilets for the neighborhood?"
Song Tianyao picked up a piece of pig's ear. "I've hired several stockbrokers to write a lot of stock reviews. We plan to start publishing them in this newspaper once it has a circulation of over 10,000 copies. And these reviews will be revised to be more straightforward and easier for people to understand."
Chapter 278 The Deal Is Completed
When Xia Harry heard the news that a cargo ship Hong Kong India had been detained by the Medical and Health Department, Customs, and Marine Police before it even entered the port, Xia Harry had just hung up a phone call from Japan brother, Xia Zuoji had gone to Japan to buy second-hand garment sewing machines that were being replaced by Japan factories.
Upon receiving this news, Xia Harry hurriedly rushed to the dock. Standing on the dock, he saw the cargo ship carrying 200,000 Braids of the Xia family, which was anchored far away in the near sea and ordered not to dock. Several Marine Police boats and ordinary sampans were surrounding the cargo ship, and several sampans were transporting the workers on the ship to the dock.
"Sirs! What's going on? Is someone smuggling?" Xia Harry didn't care about anything else. He jumped onto a small boat and, with the boatman's help, reached the vicinity of the cargo ship. He shouted loudly to the Customs and Marine Police patrolling beside the cargo ship.
A dockside Customs officer who had dealt with Xia Zuoji before raised his tin megaphone and responded to the anxious Xia Harry: "Mr. Xia, don't worry, it's a routine inspection. It's not the Customs or Marine Police's business. There's an outbreak of cholera and plague in India, so the Medical and Health Department has asked our Customs and Marine Police to assist with the quarantine investigation. It should be fine in three to five days at most."
Xia Harry was afraid that Song Tianyao would resort to any means to deal with the other ten factories, bribing Customs and Marine Police to frame the cargo ship for smuggling and detain all the goods on board. After all, once smuggling is accused, it would take at least two or three months to get the goods back from Customs through normal channels.
Hearing that the Medical and Health Department was due to cholera and plague in India, Xia Harry breathed a heavy sigh of relief, but also had some doubts. Cholera and plague had been occurring in India for several years, and the Hong Kong Medical and Health Department had never stopped and detained every cargo ship from India for inspection before.
Suspicious, he directed the sampan to approach a customs patrol boat, jumped aboard, took out some loose change from his pocket to bribe the Customs officers and Marine Police on board, and asked in a low voice to one of the acquaintances, "India also had a cholera outbreak before, why didn't the Medical and Health Department investigate?"
The Customs officer, who had accepted Xia Harry's bribe, glanced around and lowered his voice, saying, "There's no cholera plague. I received information from above that there's a shipment of high-quality cashmere from India on board. A Hong Kong businessman has pulled some strings with the Medical and Health Department, planning to have the cashmere confiscated and destroyed under the pretext of contamination. Then..."
He didn't finish his last sentence, but instead gave Xia Harry a knowing look:
"So, Mr. Xia, don't worry, your goods will be inspected and released in three to five days at most."
"Please keep an eye on things for me, and let me know immediately if there's any news. I'll treat you all to a meal in a few days." Having received the inside information, Xia Harry felt much more at ease. He boarded his sampan and returned to the dock. Just as he jumped from the sampan onto the pier, amidst a group of chattering laborers watching the commotion, he heard a voice that made him stop in his tracks:
"Damn it! We went through all that trouble to bring our hair from Thailand, are we sure it won't be confiscated by Customs? I've heard that guy surnamed Song is ruthless, could he have tricked us into bringing the hair to Hong Kong and then deliberately had Customs confiscate our goods?"
"No way... someone surnamed Song..."
Hair?
Xia Harry looked up, searching for the source of the sound. Among the group of coolies huddled on the pier looking into the distance, three men stood out. Their clothes were clean and neat, quite different from the other coolies. They were standing together, and unlike the other coolies who seemed indifferent and just watching the show, the three men had some worries on their faces.
Xia Harry's eyes lit up, then he walked to the three men with a somewhat serious expression and said in a low voice, "Three brothers, how about we talk?"
The three men turned to look at Xia Harry, the India, then exchanged glances. The coolie who had spoken first said coldly, "Who are you? You've mistaken us for someone else? We don't know you, what's there to talk about?"
"There were 200,000 of my Braids on that ship, and now Song Tianyao has had them seized by Customs and the Marine Police." Xia Harry's words were full of frustration and resentment when he mentioned Song Tianyao.