Chapter 19

Chapter 20

"Buy a factory?"

"Yes. To be precise, there's a production line there I've got my eye on, so I might as well buy the whole factory. I'll lease it for six months first, then buy it outright." I caught a lock of her hair and slowly toyed with it. "Have you heard of chicken bouillon?"

"Yes. There are already quite a few manufacturers in China, aren't there?"

"I want to try making some, but the target will be the same as before: the youth market."

Zhang Xiaotong frowned. "How do you target young people with that?"

I perked up, sat up, and took Zhang Xiaotong's hand, talking so excitedly that spit flew. "Of course we have to target young people. Think about it. Now that parents have a little money, who are they most willing to spend it on? Sun Electronics has already begun establishing its corporate image as a company that cares about young people's development. We can build on that, launch a 'green food' initiative, and care for young people's health-you know, assessments of MSG have been causing a huge stir over the last twenty years. The advantage of this era is that people can get information, but they don't understand it thoroughly enough. We can play a little switcheroo with the idea that eating MSG makes children stupid, step up publicity about MSG's dangers and potential threats, and promote our green food and environmental protection initiative. Parents these days all want their children to succeed. Are you still worried they won't pay?"

Zhang Xiaotong nodded thoughtfully. "That's not bad, but can we get the publicity out effectively?"

I chuckled. "Have you forgotten that we just launched a magazine?"

"Oh..." Only then did Zhang Xiaotong remember that she was now its editor-in-chief in name. She smiled and pinched me. "So you had it all planned out..."

I grinned foolishly. "No, I just thought of it. Having a publicity platform simply makes everything a little easier."

No matter how much I cursed, swore, begged, or prayed, summer vacation finally ended. After the opening ceremony's double torture of the principal's speech and the teachers' congratulatory remarks, I returned to school and discovered that Zhang Xin and Xu Jiajia seemed to have aged several years in the month and a half since I had last seen them. Girls generally developed earlier, and the girls in our class were no longer that ridiculous bunch of snot-nosed little brats they had once been.

A few days into the new term, someone came to our school to solicit subscriptions to Crimson Youth from the fifth and sixth grades. Not many people in class knew that my sister was Zhang Xiaotong. I pretended not to know anything and even subscribed myself. I heard the magazine had already been promoted to major secondary schools outside the province. I reckoned demand for the first issue ought to exceed supply, at least.

In fact, the first issue had a print run of 200,000 and actual sales of 175,000. I was already extremely satisfied with those results. After all, in China after the start of the nineties, producing a magazine with an initial print run of over 150,000 could already be considered a miracle, especially since we had barely put any effort into publicity. Most of the promotional work had been done by others through our clever shortcuts.

The first issue had only just gone on sale, and the editors were still admiring their firstborn with smug delight, when the calls came in. The two guys Dong Qinghua had recruited for the advertising department began racing around without a break. Because the first issue had performed so well, there were too many advertisers, and I had no choice but to suggest splitting the magazine into two booklets, one large and one small. The large one would contain information, the small one literature and arts, with each taking half the ads. Officially, the smaller booklet would be a free supplement to the larger one. We would keep the price unchanged and add color pages.

Before we had finished dealing with the first batch of advertisers, the loan was approved. Without missing a beat, I had Lu Wei hand over her work at the electronics mall to deputy manager Wang Xiaoyan, while she went to secure government approval for my land development projects.

By 1993, construction projects were already springing up everywhere, and securing a good plot was no easy task. Luckily, Dong Qinghua had put in a few words beforehand, and Lu Wei had signed an investment agreement with the municipal government. I picked out two sites in Beiguan City that would become the most expensive locations in the future and had them developed simultaneously. One would become an upscale residential complex, while the other would have commercial buildings around the perimeter and luxury apartments inside. Development costs were about the same for both, with the initial phase of each requiring over sixteen million, for a total of roughly thirty-three million.

Choosing construction crews was rather troublesome. Zhang Xiaotong and I were at a loss in front of a huge pile of documents. In the end, I chose the father of someone who would later be my high school classmate, while Dong Qinghua secured a spot for a friend of his. Everyone agreed in advance that we would put up ten million to start construction and discuss the rest later.

Once construction began, things became easier. Using the properties under development at both sites as collateral, Lu Wei obtained nearly 120 million in low-interest loans. When Zhang Xiaotong saw the figure, she nearly collapsed against me. "W-we have this much money?"

I smiled with a show of composure, though my own heart was pounding. "Don't worry. There'll be more in the future."

Zhang Xiaotong looked at me and murmured, "You really do like surprising people..."

With the 120 million in hand, Sun Electronics effectively had even more working capital. The electronics mall could expand, work on both construction sites could speed up, and the purchase and conversion of the MSG factory could begin immediately. I reckoned there was little chance of having any free time that winter, so I distributed the various heavy responsibilities among Liu Mingyao and the others.

Liu Mingyao's first assignment was to set up Sun Electronics branches in Guangzhou, Shanghai, Tianjin, Beijing, Chongqing, Wuhan, Hangzhou, Shenzhen, and other cities, establishing a unified brand and corporate image. We could not abandon our current youth and business markets, but needed to add more to them. Thinking that 1994 was almost here, I suggested that Liu Mingyao get into cheap assembled computers, achieve a price monopoly in as many places as possible, and consolidate our position as a second-tier wholesaler of components.

Liu Mingyao thoroughly indulged himself in recruiting staff and negotiating from a position of superiority. In his own words, "I, Liu Mingyao, have never been this fucking awesome in my entire life."

Of course you're fucking awesome, I thought. I've thrown in nearly thirty million for you to burn through all over the country. It would be strange if people didn't treat you like their granddaddy.

Before launching our all-out campaign, I had worked out Sun Electronics' budget. Because sales had been so good over the past year, we could now produce and supply the Young Dreamer product line ourselves, while the companies whose products we distributed were offering us increasingly favorable terms, greatly reducing expenses in those areas. All I needed to calculate were a few incidental expenses. Also, since we were going nationwide, we could not skimp on publicity.

Sun Electronics offered excellent pay and benefits, so recruitment went fairly well. A few days later, the successful candidates headed off to the major cities to begin establishing their branches... Actually, I felt that with such wholehearted support from headquarters, combined with how easy the electronics business was in this era, they would not face much difficulty.

As we expanded outward, business at the electronics mall began picking up. The main reason was that more and more people had money and placed increasing importance on the comforts of household appliances. The losses we had expected in the first month never materialized; instead, we made a substantial profit. At its peak, daily turnover reached as much as 300,000, which left me marveling. So Chinese people had such strong purchasing power too...

Liu Mingyao was so busy he hardly knew whether he was in heaven or hell, and naturally Lu Wei was no better off. She went with Zhang Xiaotong and me to the MSG factory in Yulin County to discuss leasing its premises and equipment. Yulin County was a county under Beiguan City's jurisdiction, with a population of 120,000. It was rich in several rare metals, so there were especially many people in the ore business. The MSG factory received little attention there, and its sales methods probably had problems too. After the reforms, it had gradually gone downhill. The factory director had already been replaced twice, yet there was still little improvement. When he heard that someone wanted to pay a high price to lease the premises and hire the workers, the director, who had been in office for only two months and was already shedding hair by the handful, reacted strongly. "Who? Who wants to lease it? As long as he pays the workers, I'll let him have it rent-free!"

Long before coming, I had already asked Guo Zhen to have someone investigate everything here. Guo Zhen's Third Brother, the so-called number three in the local gang, had several very close buddies in Yulin County. These men could fight and eat, and had friends everywhere. Finding out this little bit of information was child's play for them.

To thank Guo Zhen, I slipped him 3,000 yuan and told him to give Third Brother 2,000 as a small token. Naturally, this "token" meant that I would seek his help again in the future. Guo Zhen thought it over, did not refuse, and took the money.

The MSG factory director's surname was Xu. He had originally been deputy director of a shoe factory, but because he did his job well and was not particularly skilled at such underhanded arts as treating people to meals and giving gifts, he had been "entrusted with a mission in a time of crisis" and sent to the MSG factory to "solve its problems." Judging by the situation now, the problems would probably finish him off before he could finish solving them.

Director Xu was indeed a decent man. When he heard that Sun Electronics would not only pay the workers their original wages during the lease period, but would even help the MSG factory pay some of its wage arrears, he was so moved that he did not know what to say. A grown man in his thirties stood before us sobbing too hard to speak. I could understand that feeling. When so many people's livelihoods became his responsibility, the pressure he personally bore was clearly beyond what an ordinary person could imagine.

Lu Wei promised Director Xu Jun that we would not only compensate the current workers through their wages, but also pay a proportionate rental fee based on how long we used the factory. The condition, however, was that Xu Bin had to assist with management. There were two considerations behind this. First, sending someone of our own to manage it would require a period of adjustment, and time waited for no one. Second, we did not want the arrival of new people handing out money to undermine Xu Jun's authority. After all, the factory might still be returned to him.

That afternoon, the accountants Lu Wei had summoned by phone distributed the money. Xu Jun announced the recent changes and promised everyone that their wages would no longer fall into arrears. I gave the factory's technical staff a chicken bouillon formula I remembered seeing when I had helped launch someone's product at the consulting firm, and told them to make a finished product according to it first. By my estimate, our trademark and packaging designs should be completed around the same time as the finished product.

By the time I handed the designs to Lu Wei and saw admiration in her eyes for the umpteenth time, another October holiday had arrived.

Lu Wei had countless things waiting to be done and left first. Rubbing my aching shoulders, I asked Zhang Xiaotong, "Would you call this child labor abuse? I don't remember being this tired even when all the students in the city signed that declaration saying goodbye to arcades..."

Zhang Xiaotong understood what I meant. She pulled me over to the sofa and had me sit on the carpet, then sat on the sofa and gently kneaded my shoulders. "My dear Young Master Zhou, thank you for all your hard work. Would you like your humble servant to pour you some tea?"

"Tea?"

"Yes. Would you like some?"

Something suddenly occurred to me. I jumped up and threw my arms around Zhang Xiaotong. "Sis! You really are my wonderful sister!"

Zhang Xiaotong was bewildered, with no idea that a single remark of hers had redefined drinking tea.