Mundane Matters

He practiced swordsmanship for two hours as usual.

Afterward, Zhou Qi searched online for Chinese-language textbooks for Japanese learners, picked out several highly rated ones, and placed an order.

But forcing a melon off the vine never makes it sweet. Using knowledge to make them learn Chinese feels a little coercive. I still need to find a way to make them want to learn Chinese on their own... Zhou Qi thought about it. China had Confucius Institutes abroad for this purpose, but their results clearly could not compare to Genshin Impact.

Thinking about himself, his desire to learn english had started with english songs, while his desire to learn Japanese had started with Japanese films and anime.

Maybe I can follow that model, starting with Chinese songs, then films and animation. Make them admire China after watching movies, make them want to learn Chinese and become Chinese...

Cultural export was not a spur-of-the-moment notion. Zhou Qi might travel to many worlds, and unless he intended to keep those worlds disconnected forever, he had to promote Chinese culture.

Otherwise, when people from other worlds came over and found that he spoke Japanese, would they feel a stronger sense of belonging toward Japan or China?

Besides, Zhou Qi was not used to staying somewhere people spoke an unfamiliar language.

Songs are easy enough to choose. Teresa Teng alone can carry things for at least ten years. But there don't seem to be many films or anime suitable for exporting...

Zhou Qi opened his laptop and searched Douban's rankings.

The highest-ranked Chinese-language film was Farewell My Concubine, but it was rather weighty. Without knowing Chinese history, people might not understand it.

Further down was Infernal Affairs?

That did not seem appropriate either. People here did not know what Morse code was, nor did they know about drugs.

Besides, Zhou Qi did not want anything too advanced to appear here. After all, someone named Vegapunk lived in this world.

One Piece World's technology was actually quite advanced. It only looked less advanced than Earth because it depended on whether Vegapunk had thought of something yet.

Zhou Qi would have to be out of his mind to remind him.

He kept scrolling.

A Chinese Odyssey Part Two: Cinderella would require bringing over Journey to the West first.

I don't even like watching The Last Emperor.

To Live, never seen it.

Dying to Survive is too technologically advanced, and it would make people feel miserable after watching it.

Devils on the Doorstep and Let the Bullets Fly—War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression films could only be brought over after Chinese history had been popularized, or people would not understand them.

Havoc in Heaven could work. Even people who had never seen Journey to the West could understand it.

Eat Drink Man Woman, never seen it.

Happy Together, King of Comedy, Kung Fu Hustle...

As he worked his way down the rankings one film at a time, Zhou Qi realized something.

Why were there so few of our films suitable for cultural export in One Piece World?

He searched for ages and found only Havoc in Heaven, a work from 1961?

Anything too advanced could not be shown, and works depicting domestic suffering were unsuitable too. He was not going abroad to win awards.

Were all the works that simply reflected truth, kindness, and beauty actually animated films?

I can't exactly bring over Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf, can I? It isn't even popular in today's anime-rich era, let alone in One Piece World, where films have not even appeared yet.

That art form was still too early for people here, and the protagonists were not even human. How could it reflect the kindness and beauty of Chinese people?

"Damn it, what have those directors been doing?" Zhou Qi scratched his head. Chinese film and television had been making cultural exports these years too. For instance, Africans really liked watching Ashes of Love.

But bringing costume dramas to One Piece World, whose level of civilization was close to the modern age?

Scratching his head, Zhou Qi started over from the top of the rankings. This time, he no longer limited himself to Chinese-language films, and he immediately found far more options.

For example, Spirited Away, The Legend of 1900, The Pursuit of Happyness, Flipped, My Neighbor Totoro, Coco, Up, Dangal, Howl's Moving Castle, Castle in the Sky, Heidi, as well as a whole bunch of Disney princess stories.

They're all great movies! Zhou Qi practically drooled as he looked through them, but unfortunately, none of them were Chinese.

Translating them into Chinese would not help. The settings in animated films were foreign, and the live-action actors were foreigners too...

Unless...

He made localized Chinese versions himself.

Shaking his head, Zhou Qi had no idea what to do.

Forget it. He would set it aside for now. Once his strategist arrived, he could let her decide what to do.

He should deal with real-world matters first.

Zhou Qi took out his phone and opened WeChat, only to discover that he had somehow been added to two groups.

One was called [Morning Star Pharmaceutical Executive Group], and the other was [Morning Star Linlang Exchange Group].

Both groups already had quite a few messages.

Zhou Qi first looked through the executive group and found that most of the messages were from subordinates asking Brother Bing to handle matters. Brother Bing had also @'d him, but he had not opened a portal, and his phone had received no signal.

"The drivers actually went on strike together and even blocked the gates with their trucks?" Starting from the earliest messages, he saw that the security department had posted photos. Seven or eight drivers and their assistants had heard they were being laid off, so they had driven trucks to block the factory gates.

The solution had been simple: call the police and have them taken away.

Their dismissal procedures had been completely lawful, and the compensation had been fully paid. Morning Star Pharmaceutical would be in the right no matter where they took the matter.

Zhou Qi shook his head. He sympathized with the drivers' situation, but there was nothing he could do. There were few college graduates in the Zhou family, but they certainly had plenty of drivers. If he did not lay them off, how would he make room for others?

He could not keep people around without giving them work.

Besides, those drivers had used all sorts of tricks to swindle Luo Baofeng before. Not a single one of them was truly honest.

Next, the family of a pedestrian Luo Baofeng's son had hit came to the factory gates and held up banners. Brother Bing came forward and said the factory had been sold and Luo Baofeng was no longer the Factory Director, but the family refused to believe him.

They shouted there all morning, and in the end, the police were called to take them away.

Some people from the sales department had indeed resigned along with their clients. Brother Bing was not sure whether Zhou Qi really had clients, so he told them to wait a month before leaving.

Leaders from the Nanan City Science and Technology Department had also come once. Zhao Fangquan had gone to complain to them, so they came to learn about the situation.

Brother Bing gave the leaders a record of the funds Zhao Fangquan had received over the years, the projects he had submitted, and the final results. The leaders' mouths twitched as they read it, then they stopped interfering.

"So much happened in just a few days?" Zhou Qi said in the group.

"...You've got the nerve to say that? You bought the factory and then ignored it, didn't you? You hands-off boss!" Yining suddenly popped up and said.

"Oh, Ningning is there already? How does the work feel? Is there anything you're not used to?" Zhou Qi asked.

"It's pretty good. I flew here and arrived yesterday afternoon..." Yining thought for a moment, then sent him a private message.

"Um, Brother Qi, isn't it a little inappropriate to fill the whole factory with our family members?"

"What's inappropriate about it?" Zhou Qi asked.

"Wouldn't that make it a family business? This is the era of the market economy..." Yining said. "And those people look really pitiful. That cafeteria owner actually knelt down and begged me!"

"Heh." Zhou Qi was speechless. "If you had read Baofeng's financial audit report, you wouldn't think that way. That owner contracted the factory cafeteria for an annual fee of 420,000 yuan. According to the contract, each meal was supposed to cost 8 yuan, and the selling price could not exceed cost by more than 30%. But the meals they served ordinary workers cost less than 3 yuan, yet they dared to charge 15 or 20!"

"He makes more than ten million yuan a year off that cafeteria! He knelt before you because I cut off their way of swindling money, not because they're pitiful!"

"This..."

"Besides, they're pitiful, but aren't we? Ask around the family—whose household earns ten million yuan a year?"

Yining fell silent. Ten million yuan a year?

Not even one household earned a million.

"My grandmother is already over eighty, yet she still has to pick mung beans in the scorching heat. My eldest uncle is over sixty, and he is still herding sheep in the mountains!"

Zhou Qi typed out that line, paused, then added, "I know you're kindhearted, but you need to direct that kindness to the right place. We have to make ourselves prosperous first before we can help the world, understand...?"

"Or if you can't handle it, I can talk to your brother and transfer you to manage the supermarket. That way, you won't have to face these bothersome matters. How about it?"

"Brother Qi, I understand!" Yining understood the principle too. She had spoken with her brother Yibing about it before, only to be scolded by him. She had wanted to complain to Zhou Qi, but ended up getting lectured again...

"Of course, I'm not telling you to be utterly indifferent to outsiders. We just need to look after our own family first!"

"Mm-hmm, I understand. Only when there is a small family can there be a greater one," Yining responded.

Zhou Qi nodded, hoping Yining truly understood.

His understanding of Yining was still stuck more than ten years in the past. He did not know whether her personality had changed over the years.

Switching to the Linlang exchange group, he scrolled upward and found that Brother Bing had been asking Yan Yun about the company structure and salary adjustments. He had also asked Yan Yun to recommend several books on corporate management.

It seemed he intended to start learning again.

"Not bad..." Having ambition was a good thing. The benefits of one world might be vast, but they still could not withstand his family slacking off.

Zhou Qi opened another message. The sender was named Cao Song.

"Cao Song, Cao Song from Tongfu Hall?" Zhou Qi remembered. This was where he had earned his first sum of money.

The manager of Tongfu Hall's Nanhai branch.

"Hello, Mr. Zhou. I am Cao Song from Tongfu Hall. Do you remember me?"

"You previously sold us a batch of medicinal herbs. Do you have any more herbs from the same batch or the same place of origin available for sale?"

"The price is not a problem!"

Zhou Qi's eyes instantly darkened.