Chapter 27

Chapter 28

"XX Specialist Hospital outpatient clinic, specialists available. Treating prolonged infertility, epilepsy, seizures, incoherent speech, violent and destructive behavior, facial paralysis, crooked necks, stuttering..."

Listening to the broadcast, I felt such a sense of familiarity. An advertisement unchanged for fifty years-I had heard it since childhood, and they had never even changed the wording.

It was Sunday afternoon. Guo Zhen and I had just returned from the secondhand market and were idly fiddling with a used dual-cassette radio. All I needed was to imitate countless girls online and moan, "I'm so bored," and I could enter the internet age and the twenty-first century ahead of schedule. Guo Zhen carefully flipped through the tapes I had brought. "Beyond. What a strange band."

Wong Ka Kui had died in Japan in June 1993, almost a year ago now, and pirated "B An Band" and "Glorious Years" tapes were starting to appear all over the mainland. Seeing that Guo Zhen liked music, I had brought him two. I personally wasn't especially fond of Beyond's work, but I found their Cantonese lyrics very moving. Lyrics like those of "Farmers," in particular, filled me with wistfulness every time I listened. I had also found Guo Zhen some work by Wong Jim and Luo Dayou. Whatever anyone said, I insisted that rock was a niche thing. When large numbers of people identified with it or accepted it, that spelled both its own destruction and the destruction of society's moral baseline. Anyone with any impression of Woodstock (note 1) knew that rock was an auditory culture with destructive power. When it shifted its expression to the visual, the force it created was immeasurable.

Woodstock was being held again this year, twenty-five years after 1969. It wasn't midsummer yet, and I couldn't get much information about the rock festival. I could only vaguely promise Guo Zhen that I would show him a video recording of the entire event when the time came. Unfortunately, I hadn't yet met Shao Ke and Wang Yi, or I could have invited them to watch too.

On the whole, Guo Zhen leaned more toward pop, so the works I showed him also leaned that way. Wong Jim and Luo Dayou were among the very best in Chinese-language lyric writing. Wong Jim's martial-arts world and Luo Dayou's world-weary feeling could both stir emotions that went straight to the heart among Chinese speakers.

If I were dealing with Shao Ke and Wang Yi, I would certainly have offered something else.

Guo Zhen started listening to Beyond. As the piano introduction to "Boundless Oceans, Vast Skies" played, I was wondering whether I should meet the others ahead of time when the phone rang.

Zhang Xiaotong had paid to have this telephone installed in our home. My younger aunt knew a little about how Zhang Xiaotong spent money on my parents whenever she had the chance, but she and Mom were as close as sisters, so she didn't particularly mind. My eldest uncle's wife and the others had received quite a few favors from Zhang Xiaotong before, so they couldn't really say anything either. Thinking about these delicate family relationships always gave me a headache. This was what I was worst at handling.

The call was from Zhang Xiaotong, asking me to come over to Lu Wei's.

When Sister Xiaotong gave an order, I had to obey. I gave Guo Zhen a pat. "Hey, buddy, let's go out. My sister wants me."

Guo Zhen held Zhang Xiaotong in great affection and respect. Without wasting words, he grabbed the tapes and went out with me.

After dropping Guo Zhen off at the pool hall, I hurried to Sun Electric Appliance City. The entrance gave me a fright. Business really was good on weekend afternoons... Looking at this, there was no way I could squeeze inside without a struggle. The security guard's professional smile was somewhat distorted; he probably felt that his supposed job of maintaining order was a joke in a scene like this. Looking at the tide of people before me, I gritted my teeth and forced my way in.

The crowd nearly squeezed me into being reborn all over again. Practically carried along by the adults, my feet barely touching the ground, I finally reached the elevator. I saw Zhang Xiaotong looking distressed as she prepared to head outside.

"You came out to wait for me again..." I would have been lying if I said I wasn't pleased. Leaning against the wall, carefully dressed and made up, Zhang Xiaotong looked absolutely captivating. I nearly drooled at the sight. "Let's talk upstairs."

In the top-floor office, Lu Wei was reading something without looking up. Sitting beside her was a woman with large eyes and an oval face, wearing an unseasonable short outfit more suited to summer. It was none other than the great beauty Cai Qing, who had Liu Mingyao utterly bewitched.

Seeing me come up, Cai Qing teased, "Oh, President Zhou has arrived."

"Why, it's Beauty Cai. Long time no see. I've missed you terribly, haha..." I cupped my hands in greeting and laughed it off.

"Handsome Zhou is looking as dashing as ever too." Cai Qing's smile was very foxlike. "Have you been well?"

I didn't need to turn around to know that Zhang Xiaotong's gaze was changing. I gave a dry cough. "Enough, enough of that. Let's get down to business."

Cai Qing tossed her hair. "I went to Stanford."

My jaw dropped to my feet. "You-you did? So soon?"

"Naturally, Young Master Zhou's instructions had to be carried out immediately. I count as half an interpreter, after all," Cai Qing said. "As you said, quite a few people hope to start businesses using internet technology. I brought back some materials. You can decide whom to invest in."

Taking the materials Cai Qing handed me, I plopped down on the sofa. They were divided into several files, each headed by a photograph of the technology's owner, a personal profile, and an investment assessment. I skimmed through them. Both of Stanford's famous duos were included-the internet's greatest miracles over the next few years.

After reading the assessments, I asked Zhang Xiaotong, "How much money can the company put up right now?"

Without batting an eyelid, Zhang Xiaotong leaned close to my ear and whispered, "About 300 million."

I jumped. "That much?"

Zhang Xiaotong smiled. "I've already suggested that they invest in constructing a building on Sanhao Street. What do you think?"

Zhang Xiaotong really had grown up, enough to become a good partner in my work. I nodded. "All right. Keep the investment below thirty million, and drive down the valuation of the land they're contributing as equity as hard as you can. Once the building is finished, sign agreements with all the business tenants requiring them to give us all their printing work."

Lu Wei was puzzled. "What good would an agreement like that do?"

"You won't see results now, but you'll gradually see the effect," I explained. "The computer market is heating up, and everyone is looking to make money by selling things. Sun Electronics is already wholesaling. We should gradually let go of the retail market and shift our focus to manufacturing and processing. My suggestion is about picking up small profits; it's just meant to broaden your thinking. Think about how many flyers the computer markets print now, and what proportion of the paper can be recycled. Why wouldn't we keep such a worthwhile business in our own hands?"

"That's how markets work. Once there are huge profits, everyone piles in. Competition turns huge profits into thin margins, then thin margins into no profit. Once enough businesses have died, huge profits return." I rambled through examples of competition I had seen over the past few years. "Have you seen the final stage of tadpoles turning into frogs? The pond dries up, and they eat each other. Those that survive are the strong ones. It's utterly unreasonable, yet it's the ultimate philosophy of competition."

The three beauties in the office were absorbed by my words as I continued, "You all know that the computer industry's current huge profits will lead to vicious competition in the near future. As distributors, we'll have to pay a price for that. We've already done very well in agency distribution. What comes next is simply applying the practices of e-commerce and planning firms. But the bulk of our money currently comes from sales-or rather, it has already shifted to manufacturing and processing. Cai Qing, you know we've made quite a lot from memory processing since the start of this year, right?"

Cai Qing nodded seriously. "The growth in profits has been staggering."

"See? That's more or less what I mean," I said. "It isn't like a few years ago, when few people had money. These days, if you can do a business, so can I. There's no shortage of talent, the technology isn't cutting-edge, and nobody is short of money. Why should you be the one making the profits? Just because you currently control the flow of goods and have the distributors in hand? Suppose a group came along who could offer distributors higher margins. See whether those people would still recognize us."

"So-called vicious competition is nothing more than trying to squeeze the other side out and monopolize the market. At our current scale, it isn't impossible for us to establish a monopoly, but we can't do that. We might not beat others in a contest of money, and once we seized the market, we'd have to take responsibility for everything-for example, dealing with the government, or bearing the full burden of changes in the industry. We don't need a monopoly, and we don't want one. At least, we don't need one in electronics."

The three beauties stared at me with six lovely eyes, as though I were a rare treasure. When I paused, Lu Wei was the first to ask, "If we aren't building a monopoly, what are we doing?"

"Lu Wei, did you hear this story when you were at school?" I asked her. "A toothpaste factory was about to shut down and couldn't find a solution. An employee suggested widening the opening by one millimeter. The factory recovered, and the employee received a bonus of a hundred thousand."

"Yes."

"All we need to do is realize before everyone else that toothpaste can be sold that way." I smiled at their three pretty faces. "We don't want to build a monopoly. We want to be the first to make money, then leave the vicious competition to others once we've made enough. When we've gone through the industries we can work in and accumulated enough capital, then we can talk about monopolies."

Remembering how I had asked her to sell the cake shop, Zhang Xiaotong suddenly understood. "You're planning to sell Sun Electronics?"

"I don't have that much nerve," I said with a wry smile. "I just want everyone to understand that we should stick to processing and wholesaling. Once the time is right, we can give up the computer sales division."

Cai Qing rolled her eyes with a seemingly crafty look. "Do you know what other industries can make money?"

I shook my head. "Not for now, but I'm sure I'll know soon."

Everyone's gaze settled on the two files in my hands.

"Set up a venture capital fund and give each of them two million US dollars in venture capital. If they ask for further investment, keep adding to it." I looked at the two files as though they were diamonds. "Send over two managers with some genuine ability to help them, and give them as much time and space as possible to research their technology. Cap the total investment at twenty million US dollars. If they need more, let them raise it locally."

Twenty million US dollars was 160 million yuan. Investing that sum in domestic real estate could earn enough to make you laugh in your dreams. I had casually decided to give it to four students, yet nobody seemed to find anything wrong with it.

"What's wrong with you all?" I looked around. "Were there poisonous mushrooms in your lunch?"

Zhang Xiaotong looked at me with a smile. "When have we ever opposed a decision you made? We'll just do it."

I smiled. In a few years, this would mean returns of tens of billions of dollars.

"Trust me. You can't go wrong."

I struck a James Bond pose and borrowed an advertising slogan from years in the future, adding a wicked smile that had the ladies doubled over with laughter.

Once everyone had laughed enough, I asked Cai Qing, "President Cai, you didn't come all this way just for those square-faced Stanford students, did you?"

Cai Qing finally managed to stop laughing. "Of course not. I also went to Sichuan as you instructed, President Zhou, and bought an abandoned military factory. The price was quite cheap."

"Oh? How much?"

"Nine million."

"...That is cheap." I rubbed my head. "Convert it into a chip-processing factory. Get friendly with Intel while you're at it. They're actually quite interested in Sichuan's cheap labor and industrial infrastructure too. Cooperation would be best, but if that doesn't work, getting a couple of technical people from them would do. You and Liu Mingyao should both know this routine by now. Be sparing with the money. What the company has isn't enough either... Look, my sister and I won't even splurge on ice cream..."

That wasn't a joke. I really did have grounds to boast about my self-discipline and thrift. Apart from possibly taking taxis to and from school or going out with friends, I basically spent no money, and neither did Zhang Xiaotong. Even Lu Wei had a car to get around in. By comparison, we siblings really were remarkably modest.

Cai Qing laughed. "Hearing you say that makes me feel ashamed... We'll save as much as possible and try to finish the conversion and hiring before the summer vacation in mid-July."

"Mm. Have you spoken to the local government?"

"Yes."

"Are you going to Sichuan again soon?"

"Yes. I leave next week."

"Find someone for me." As I spoke, I borrowed a pen from Lu Wei and started drawing his face on the back of one of the documents. Only when I finished did Lu Wei give a soft exclamation. Clearly, my drawing ability exceeded her expectations.

I laughed to myself. I once dreamed of becoming a comic artist, after all. I still have this much skill.

"This is him. His name is Fu Xiaofei. Right now, he's probably... two years older than me, in junior high, I suppose. Whatever it takes, please get me a way to keep in touch with him long-term. Any method will do. He's from Mianyang, Sichuan. I don't quite remember which middle school he attends." My instructions were vague, but Cai Qing readily agreed and quickly wrote them down.

"What do you want him for?"

"Making games." I smiled faintly. "Oh, right. Has the Japanese side started making trouble for us?"

"Yes. They claim Sunsoft is their well-known brand and are demanding compensation and a name change."

"They can't win," Lu Wei interjected. "Our actual registered name is 'TaiYangElectric.' They have no grounds to sue."

Of course I knew. I had thought of that long ago. The Japanese were world-famous for lawsuits. They could even win cases over their own infringement of King Kong's image rights and claim compensation when a falling coconut tree killed someone. How could I take them head-on at this game? If I couldn't afford to provoke them, surely I could keep out of their way?

Cai Qing nodded in agreement with Lu Wei and took the opportunity to praise me. "Exactly. Nobody would even accept a case like that, especially here in China. You really thought of everything..."

I gave everyone a goofy grin. "You learn these things if you read enough in the library."

Zhang Xiaotong rolled her eyes at me. "We aren't like a certain someone who never forgets anything he reads."

Lu Wei and Cai Qing both laughed. They enjoyed watching us siblings bicker. I usually lost, and naturally everyone understood that I was letting Zhang Xiaotong win.

I coughed with mock solemnity. "Then I'll leave Sichuan to Beauty Cai. With Beauty Lu and Beauty Zhang holding the fort here, nothing major should go wrong. Any new developments with Handsome Liu?"

"Handsome Liu is so busy he curses you every day," Cai Qing said with a grin, probably recalling Liu Mingyao's disgruntled expression. "The new R&D team is still settling in and hasn't produced any results. It's currently the company's only highly paid department that isn't making a profit. Handsome Liu is so anxious his hair is practically falling out."

"There's no need to rush R&D too much, is there?" I said leisurely, hinting that Cai Qing should pass these words on to Liu Mingyao. "Didn't I write out the main directions for them? They can take their time. We'll gradually pull ahead technologically. Technical personnel and company administrators clash easily. Tell Liu Mingyao not to get too anxious and to sort out the relationships first. Results will come. He's only uncomfortable because everything went so smoothly before."

Thinking of how many companies in later years would dare to bet on new product launches and R&D even at the cost of losses for half a year or an entire fiscal year, things really had been going far too smoothly for us.

Cai Qing nodded, thoroughly convinced. My reassurance had worked well. I reckoned Liu Mingyao would no longer feel burdened.

Seeing that the conversation was nearly over, I asked Lu Wei, "Do you have a tape player here? There's a tape I'd like to play."

Like a magician, Lu Wei brought a Japanese-made "breadbox" player out from under her desk. "Will this do?"

"Of course, of course." I looked at the thing I had once loved desperately, but felt little now. I took out the tape I had brought from home earlier and put it in.

"What song?" Zhang Xiaotong asked. She was always rather interested in my interests.

"Wong Jim." I pressed play. "You've all heard it. I just want to reminisce."

The introduction to the theme song of The Smiling, Proud Wanderer began, like strings disturbing a pool of autumn water, ripples spreading outward. I said nothing, and the three women listened quietly too. In the singing, I could almost see those images of carefree, flashing swords, of people gathered around a fire: with wine today, they would drink today.

"A laugh across the vast sea

Tides surge along both shores

Rising and falling with the waves, remembering only today

The heavens laugh

At the surging tides of the world

Who loses, who prevails, heaven alone knows

Mountains and rivers laugh

Misty rain stretches far

Waves wash away worldly affairs and all their pride

The clear breeze laughs

Yet stirs loneliness

All that remains of bold passion

Is a robe filled with evening light

A laugh across the vast sea

Tides surge along both shores

Rising and falling with the waves, remembering only today

The heavens laugh

At the surging tides of the world

Who loses, who prevails, heaven alone knows

Mountains and rivers laugh

Misty rain stretches far

Waves wash away worldly affairs and all their pride

The people laugh

No longer lonely

Bold passion remains in their foolish laughter"

The voices of Samuel Hui, Cheung Wai Man, and Wong Jim brimmed with heroic spirit. Their singing gently brought back certain years and past events. Time moved quietly forward, and I vaguely felt that I was about to change some things completely.

Note 1: Woodstock, the largest rock music festival in the United States, was held in 1969, 1994, and 1999. It was renowned worldwide for its antiwar message and call for peace.

In memory of Uncle Jim. You gave so many people encouragement and companionship. As long as China has had someone like you, no one can dare say China has no original music.

A laugh across the vast sea, heaven and earth stretching into the distance, men striving to better themselves-where is your presence not to be found?