Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Moving on from Liu Mingyao to the beverage factory run by Yu Chunrong, we found a very different scene from Liu Mingyao's office.

A row of benches stood outside the factory director's office. A group of people, some in suits and polished shoes, others casually dressed, sat obediently on them, their eyes fixed on the office door, hardly daring to breathe. Even looking through your belly button, you could tell these were sales reps from all over the country who had come to secure stock. Demand was probably outstripping supply so badly that Yu Chunrong had started putting on airs.

Skirting these eager-faced sales reps, we finally found Director Yu, drenched in sweat and surrounded on all sides. Inside his office, Yu Chunrong was frantically hanging up calls amid a crowd of people. At the sight of us, he let out a great sigh of relief. "I thought you two had disappeared. You're finally here." He waved for the people besieging him from every quarter to leave for the moment. They were obliging enough; in no time, only the three of us remained in the office.

Zhang Xiaotong waved the phone in her hand. "Why didn't you call me?"

Yu Chunrong spread his hands helplessly. "Lu Wei told me you were coming, so I didn't call. The summer sales rush started these past few days, and we're having a bit of trouble keeping up..."

Zhang Xiaotong smiled faintly. "Well, aren't we here to offer Director Yu some ideas?"

After several rounds of decision-making, Yu Chunrong had come to trust my and Zhang Xiaotong's advice considerably. It wasn't that he lacked ability himself. Mainly, our ability to accurately gauge market demand and its cycles without even looking much at the reports had left him thoroughly overshadowed. He was actually very capable, but we had already trained him into the habit of asking our opinion before every decision.

With Sun Red Tea selling so well, the era of tea beverages had arrived six months early. We had come this time to give Yu Chunrong some advance warning. As I remembered it, neither of the two Taiwanese companies with over thirty years of experience making tea beverages was easy to deal with. Within two years, they had swept through the mainland market. In terms of corporate culture and teams, we couldn't match them in either quantity or quality. We were riding high now because we had seized the initiative; once all-out war began, we could only lose.

The "new move" Yu Chunrong was eagerly awaiting was, frankly, quite simple. My advice was to bring at least six different flavors of tea beverage to market within the year and increase production, even if costs rose. I expected that by early 1995, we could gradually settle into holding our market and wait for a drawn-out battle with the Taiwanese brands. To be honest, I was very wary of Uni-President. In both publicity and promotion, it ranked among the very best. Of all the advertisements I had seen, among the finest from the ten years between 1991 and 2001, two of the three that moved me most belonged to the Uni-President Group. Against an opponent like that, I had to add a few extra weights to its side of the scales when assessing our chances.

In 1994, the orchards in the surrounding counties still had some attitude. By the end of 1995, with serious payment arrears, rising layoffs, increased fruit production, and other factors converging, those nearby orchards would all be crying for help. That would be our chance to shift into fruit juice beverages.

Before we came to the beverage factory, Zhang Xiaotong had mocked me for breaking my word. I had said I intended to let go of everything this year. She quoted the line from Qian Zhongshu's preface to Fortress Besieged, "like a magician's flying knives, released but never out of his hands," leaving me with nothing to say. People were like that, really: once they picked something up, they couldn't put it down. So everyone found excuses for themselves with sayings like, "Once you're caught up in the world, your choices are no longer your own."

The beverage factory's current problem was also simple: keep pouring money into it. Yu Chunrong had probably already worked out what to do and was mainly waiting for Zhang Xiaotong and me to make the final decision. I reckoned that once we gave our approval, he intended to go all out. I didn't actually approve of that approach-throwing money in just because things looked good, then being left dumbfounded when all that burning cash produced nothing. Still, given the special circumstances at this stage, we had to provide the money. We also needed Yu Chunrong to spare no expense in building the image of a model enterprise, to bow and scrape and keep everyone at both the municipal and provincial levels happy. Every Spring Festival, National Day, Labor Day, Mid-Autumn Festival, New Year's Day, or fundraising gala, he had to show up and contribute money as a gesture. We would be relying on these people to get things done later...

Compared with the others, Yu Chunrong was the defensive type. He valued stability and practical results, and he liked dealing with people of the old school. I felt that having him make small talk in government offices was better than sending lovely young women like Lu Wei and Cai Qing among the wolves. After all, in my heart, I still considered these people my own core troops, deserving special protection. Yu Chunrong was an aging bachelor, and he wouldn't lose out either way. If some female bureau chief took a fancy to him, that would be a fine thing too. Ha ha...

While I was thinking this, Zhang Xiaotong glanced sideways at my wicked grin and knew I was up to no good again. She secretly pinched me. "What are you thinking about? Grinning like a crab with a crooked mouth."

"Ha ha, nothing, nothing..." I deliberately turned away from Zhang Xiaotong, my expression instantly becoming serious as I addressed Yu Chunrong. "Mr. Yu, oh, Mr. Yu, thank you for all your hard work lately. I think you should find a couple of secretaries to help read your documents and deal with that pack of wolves outside demanding stock. Stop doing everything yourself. I imagine you've missed quite a few dinner engagements because of factory business?"

Yu Chunrong looked at me with some embarrassment. "I'm not much of a drinker, but turning down certain dinners leaves a bad impression. It really is a bit much for one person..."

Looking at him, I felt rather moved. The friends Dong Qinghua had known in his early years were all far too conscientious. A few years later, he would no longer have people like this around him. Yu Chunrong was extremely frugal and dedicated at work. Despite the considerable income from the black tea beverage business, he still counted every penny over hiring even one or two extra people. Given how busy things were now, we wouldn't have said anything if he had hired a few more people, but he insisted on waiting for us before deciding. That showed his principles.

We had come precisely to solve problems like this. I told Yu Chunrong, "How about this? Hire ten people. Find two specifically to take turns accompanying you to social engagements, preferably people who can drink and know how to talk. Keep the rest at the factory to help you fend these people off. Check the orders once a day, and they won't be able to pull anything behind your back. If you think output isn't enough, add production lines. If you think it's right, then it's right. We all trust you."

Yu Chunrong wore a look that said, "Long live understanding!" "Good, good. You two always know what I need... Is there anything else to do?"

"Yes." I pointed at the provincial map on the office wall. "Build good relationships with these nearby fruit growers. Tell them we want to expand our fruit-flavored tea beverages. Starting next year, we'll shift into natural fruit juice beverages."

"Natural fruit juice beverages?" Yu Chunrong hesitated. "Can domestic consumers afford those? The costs are high..."

I smiled. "Export them, Mr. Yu... By then, we won't be competing with them for the domestic market. It's true that China's beverage market has enormous potential, but it also has more bottlenecks than other markets, things like a low growth ceiling and limited variety in consumption... We should retreat when it's time to retreat."

Yu Chunrong thought it over carefully, then smiled along with me. Buying third-grade fruit, pressing it into juice, and exporting it to earn foreign currency would bring both money and prestige. The government would be happy, ordinary people would be happy, and we wouldn't even have to worry about competitive pressure in the domestic market. Where else could you find a deal like that?

I shrugged. "If there's nothing else, we'll get going. Looking at those packs of ravenous wolves outside... Where have all the salespeople gone?"

Yu Chunrong smiled bitterly. "Demand exceeds supply. Nobody else can make the decisions, so they all come to pester me."

I grinned wickedly. "Then let them keep pestering you... Let's have a meeting at the electronics mall at the end of August and review our results from these two months. Until then, I'll leave everything that needs doing in your hands."

Yu Chunrong nodded and called over a secretary temporarily transferred from the workshop to see us out.

When we left the beverage factory, a remedial class at the nearby elementary school had just ended. Students emerged from the gates in twos and threes. Some crowded around the little shop beside the gate to buy snacks, while an old woman with a pushcart blew sugar figurines with her toothless mouth. At the sight, nostalgia scattered through my heart like shattering glass, and I pulled Zhang Xiaotong over at a run.

Anyone born in the late seventies or early eighties probably remembered these things: fig snacks, sour plum powder, malt syrup, dried apricot flesh, World's Best plums, rock candy, milk tablets, chewy sesame candy, peanut candy, Dada bubble gum, fizzy candy, honeycomb candy, hawthorn rolls, ice pops, cotton candy, hawthorn slices, puffed corn sticks, little packets of roasted fish slices... Those memories lingering on the tongue, those experiences encompassing color, aroma, and taste-could you ever forget them in a lifetime? I remembered that when I spent my days on forums in 2001, almost every week several people would pop up to reminisce about these things and try to find those remembered foods as their outlook grew increasingly old.

Every one of their searches ended in failure. Whether they found those foods or not, the times had changed, and idealized memories could sustain only wishful fantasies. Without that era, that setting, those circumstances, no amount of eating could bring back how they had felt then.

Roasted fish slices came in large packets, fizzy candy cost several times as much, World's Best plums disappeared, cotton candy grew increasingly tasteless, housewives used rock candy in soups, and hawthorn rolls began to be sold in bundles. With changes like these, in an era like this, how could those people possibly find their childhood again in these things?

Unlike them, I was lucky. I got to live through the era I missed all over again and taste all those childhood treats remembered with such longing. For that reason, Zhang Xiaotong, who stuck to me all day, had also become a thorough little glutton. We often traveled between the city's schools, searching for the treats and amusements I remembered.

The most distinctive thing outside this school was a spicy skewer stall. These spicy skewers were nothing more than softened, soaked tofu skin threaded onto bamboo skewers and brushed with a specially mixed chili sauce. At ten cents each, buying a big handful made for a thoroughly satisfying snack. Some enterprising vendors alternated pieces of chopped ham sausage with the tofu skin. Those cost a little more, but even more people liked them.

I had loved this stuff as a child and always ate until my stomach hurt. I hadn't expected to find a stall selling spicy ham sausage and tofu skin skewers here. Looking at Zhang Xiaotong beside me, so much taller than I was, then at the spicy skewer stall, I felt life could hardly be happier or more complete.

Zhang Xiaotong loved these snacks, but she ate far more demurely than I did. After joining me for a few skewers, she paused and asked, "You seem to have always liked this stuff?"

My mouth was stuffed with a mixture of tofu skin and cheap ham sausage, and I answered indistinctly, "Yesh, I'm not a pershun with refined tashte..."

Zhang Xiaotong giggled a few times. "Swallow before you talk. Don't choke."

I chuckled foolishly and noisily swallowed everything in my mouth. Once I felt my vocal cords could produce normal sounds again, I said, "Actually, I think that once our generation grows up, we'll all feel a deep attachment to these things that are certain to disappear-please don't mind me sounding so pretentiously literary. What I mean is, now is the time to eat snacks. Eating them now is what makes us happy. If we wait until we really grow up before wanting them again, it'll be too late. It's like adults always telling children, 'Once you grow up, you can play however you want.' I just don't understand whether the people saying that have thought it through. Once those children grow up, what will they know how to do besides sing karaoke, drink, and hire hostesses? Can they still play marbles, slap picture cards, or roll bicycle tires after they grow up? Even if they do, won't it just be a clumsy imitation? If something is missing from a person's life, it's missing. Nothing they do later can make up for it."

Zhang Xiaotong nodded thoughtfully and was about to say something when her phone rang.

After answering and murmuring agreement three or four times, Zhang Xiaotong covered the phone and told me, "Third Brother's coming back. He'll arrive at four thirty this afternoon."