Tackling the Problem from the Children

Fang Bai rested for a while at his rental, then headed back to school for afternoon classes. After school let out, he left campus, had dinner with his younger sister, and continued reviewing in the evening, occasionally going to the school track to run or play ball.

Chinese wasn't easy to improve, so Fang Bai focused on memorizing poems and short passages that might appear on the exam. For now, he was just compiling what needed to be memorized, planning to cram it all right before the college entrance exam.

English couldn't be boosted overnight—it required building up vocabulary and sentences through daily review. At the same time, he pushed himself to speak it, knowing he'd put it to use in the near future.

Chemistry mainly involved categorizing and summarizing reaction equations, which came down to memorization. Physics and math relied on grinding through practice problems, while politics and biology were all about rote memorization—hard to make big leaps.

Fang Bai had been reborn for a while now, but he'd only actually studied for about ten days. During that time, he focused on English, sticking to memorizing at least thirty new words and common sentences each day. He could feel his English scores improving significantly.

Back then, high school English vocabulary was only around two to three thousand words. Fang Bai planned to master all of them within two months.

Of course, knowing the words was one thing; using them fluently was another. Some students understood every word's meaning, but when strung into sentences...

Heh, heaven only knew.

From 1990 to 1992, the national unified exam had a total score of 710 (600 in Shen City). Chinese and math were 120 each, English, physics, chemistry, and politics were 100 each, and biology was 70, for a total of 710.

Fang Bai scored 59 on English—barely failing.

Chinese: 96, Math: 106, Physics: the worst at 55, Chemistry: 68, Politics: 60, Biology: 50, total: 484.

The teacher's overall assessment was: "All subjects are fairly balanced—no lopsidedness!"

Of course, none were particularly strong either; the fundamentals weren't solid.

After two and a half days of classes, Fang Bai finished two afternoon lessons, requested leave from school, and headed back to the Jiayu Processing Plant.

Qin Donghai saw him arrive and said warmly, "Mr. Fang, we just finished another company's order. Started processing Hengli Company's this morning—efficiency's high. I reckon we'll finish those five hundred pieces in eight days."

Fang Bai understood his father-in-law's concern—he was worried there'd be no orders after this batch of five hundred.

"Don't worry, orders will come. You'll probably need to hire more people and work overtime."

"Haha, that'd be the best."

Fang Bai watched for a while, then left the workshop. There hadn't been any suitable secondhand equipment to buy lately.

He'd also visited the used equipment market and checked out plenty of machines, only to find that snagging a bargain wasn't easy. So he'd given up on that hope.

In fact, he'd calculated the time-cost trade-off.

Completing the Hengli Company order would net him about three thousand yuan. The time spent—including finding the order, negotiating, collecting payment, and designing tooling and fixtures—was roughly a day or so.

His father-in-law's profit would also be around three thousand, not counting his own processing fees.

In this early capital-accumulation phase, Fang Bai could accept that time cost.

Back at his rental, Fang Bai changed into formal wear, grabbed his briefcase, stuffed it with custom-printed business cards, and got ready to go out and find orders.

He'd worked in this industry in his past life, so he knew all the major valve factories in Wen City—which ones could take on orders.

His target was the Boli Valve Company, founded in 1985 and larger than Hengli Company. Its main products were forged steel valves and gate and globe valves.

The owner usually didn't handle internal affairs; outsourcing and production management were handled by production director Hua Feng. Fang Bai had dealt with Hua Feng in his past life, had long-term collaborations with him, and knew him and his family well.

Hua Feng was greedy but had principles. He knew that poor-quality outsourced products would ultimately screw himself over.

He didn't smoke, drink, or chase women, but he loved green tea. Most sales reps found him hard to crack.

If Fang Bai went straight to the boss for a deal, he'd likely offend Hua Feng, who'd nitpick everything, and the partnership wouldn't last. So finding the right person was key—and catering to their tastes.

This time, Fang Bai wasn't going straight to Boli Company to see Hua Feng. Instead, he planned to visit his home.

At the office, Hua Feng was very sensitive about taking bribes, afraid the boss would find out.

Fang Bai went to a supply-and-marketing cooperative and bought a primary school backpack and a box of green tea leaves, then stopped at a fruit stand for a few pounds of apples.

Carrying the gifts, he arrived at the Tube Building he remembered. On the second floor were over a dozen rooms, with the easternmost three housing Hua Feng and his family of three.

Fang Bai climbed to the second floor and saw the iron gate at the hallway was locked, so he couldn't get in. But he could see all three doors were closed, and no sound came from inside—probably no one was home.

He checked the time: it was already five in the afternoon. After waiting a few minutes, a woman around thirty came up from the first floor with a little boy. She looked curiously at Fang Bai standing outside their iron gate.

Fang Bai smiled warmly and spoke first: "Sister-in-law, hello. I'm a business associate of Mr. Hua's, name's Fang Bai. I came specifically to visit him."

"Xiao Yang's in first grade now, right? I can tell he's smart and adorable. Uncle's giving you a backpack—hope your studies get better and better."

With that, he handed the new backpack to the child. The little boy, delighted to receive a gift from an uncle, took it curiously.

The woman gave Fang Bai a quick once-over. Seeing his formal attire and sunny smile, he didn't seem like a bad sort. Hearing her son praised and given a gift, and noticing the presents in his hands, she felt pleased that her son liked the backpack and didn't refuse:

"Hello. Hua Feng should be home soon. Come in and sit for a while."

She told the boy to thank Fang Bai, then unlocked the iron gate.

Fang Bai acted like an old friend, chatting with the little boy, asking about his classmates, his teacher, and whether he had any girl classmates he liked.

The kid, enjoying the topics and seeing the uncle's gentle face, eagerly joined in.

Fang Bai sat in the living room talking with the boy, occasionally chiming in with the woman.

Seeing her son so happy chatting, she was happy too.

After about ten minutes, Hua Feng, in his thirties, rode his bike back from the company.

Hearing the bicycle downstairs, the woman stepped out onto the balcony, peeked down, and saw it was her husband. She went downstairs and said quietly, "There's a guest at home. Says he's your friend, named Fang something. He bought our son a backpack, plus a box of tea and fruit. Very generous."

Hua Feng frowned. "I don't have any friend named Fang."

"That's strange, but he looks like an educated man, pretty young."

Hua Feng hurried upstairs. Before he even reached the living room, he heard children's laughter coming from inside and immediately felt relieved.

When he walked in, he was stunned to see a young man teaching the kids the ABC song. He really didn't know this young man!

Fang Bai saw Hua Feng return, stood up, and pulled a business card from his pants pocket. With a smile on his face, he handed it over with both hands. "Mr. Hua, nice to meet you. I'm Fang Bai. I'm also in the valve industry."

Hearing this, the young woman realized the two weren't familiar friends.

Hua Feng took the card and glanced at the front. It only had one name, "Fang Bai." On the back was a line of text: "Professional one-stop dedicated service, proficient in valves and mechanical equipment."

Once Hua Feng had looked it over, Fang Bai extended his left hand. Hua Feng shook it with a smile. "Hello, Mr. Fang."

Fang Bai lowered his posture and smiled humbly. "Mr. Hua, I apologize for the intrusion on my first visit. I came mainly to help Mr. Hua solve the production issues at Boli Company."

"Oh, is that so? Let's hear it." Hua Feng said, while signaling his wife to take the children away.

The young woman understood they might need to discuss business, so she led the kids out. But the children threw a fuss, insisting on hearing Uncle sing the ABC song, so she had to carry them out by force.

Regarding the total score for the college entrance exam, there was a mistake earlier. If any individual subject scores haven't been corrected, please remind me. Thank you.