2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 218 Water-boiled Eggs

"Happy New Year."

Gu Qingqing looked Tan Jincheng up and down, and after a while she spoke: "Your hair is a bit long, but it does make you look a bit like Louis Koo."

"I forgot to get a haircut before the New Year, I'll get one after the first month of the lunar calendar," Tan Jincheng replied with a smile.

Although the belief that cutting one's hair during the first month of the lunar calendar will cause one's uncle to die is superstitious, Tan Jincheng, who has memories of his past life, is very superstitious about it. Therefore, even though his hair grows very quickly, Tan Jincheng has to wait until the end of the first month of the lunar calendar before cutting his hair.

"It's okay, it looks good like this. You usually have short hair, I really want to see what you look like with long hair."

"That kind of hairstyle that covers half of your face and dyes your hair blonde? Your dad would kick me out of the house."

"Who said it had to be like that? It's the kind of long, black hair parted in a 3/7 ratio."

"Okay, you can make the arrangements then."

"You're here quite early today. We initially thought you wouldn't arrive until the afternoon."

"Don't even mention it. My mom dragged me out of bed at six in the morning, saying that it was my first time visiting my father-in-law's house and I couldn't be too late."

"Nonsense. Your aunt might have told you to get up, but she certainly wouldn't have said that."

"How do you know not?"

The car drove into the residential area, which consisted of resettlement housing built after demolition. The environment wasn't particularly nice, but luxury cars were everywhere, with BMWs, Mercedes-Benzes, and Audis being commonplace. The area was also quite lively, with people constantly moving around.

"Your neighborhood is quite lively."

"Yes, they are mostly people from the village before, and everyone knows each other."

"It's similar to my old neighborhood. We're all workers from the same factory, and we've known each other for decades."

Is your home like this too?

"Yes, my family used to live in the factory's residential area, but we moved this year for the Spring Festival. The old house was a bit small, so whenever my grandparents from the countryside came to visit, I had to sleep in the living room."

The two-bedroom apartment had been like this for the past 18 years. In previous years, Tan Jincheng was young, Jinyue had not yet been born, and transportation was inconvenient, so whenever the grandparents or maternal grandparents came to the city, they would stay there for a period of time.

During this period, Tan Jincheng either stayed at Zhang Xupeng's house or slept in the living room.

For rural people in the last century, moving to the city was no less difficult than buying a house in later generations. Even if they were lucky enough to be allocated a house at a good time, the area would not be very large, and they would need to work very hard to get married, have children, or take care of their parents in the future.

Tan Lihua, the eldest son, went to the city while his other siblings stayed in the countryside. In fact, they initially had a very hard life, and their wages were basically used to support their parents and siblings back home.

Zhang Suzhi was the same. The Tan brothers were relatively reasonable. Although they would occasionally grumble about the eldest brother going to school, they all understood that it was their own fault for not being able to pass the exam.

After they each start their own families, they know to work hard to earn money and live their own lives well, instead of taking advantage of their older brother and causing chaos in the whole family. This is already very commendable.

The term "phoenix man" largely stems from the fact that these men, after leaving their small mountain villages, are unable to escape their original families and cannot refuse the endless demands of their families of origin, causing what was originally a positive term to become a negative one.

Now that Tan Jincheng has the ability, it's understandable that Tan Lihua wants to use that ability to help his brother as much as possible, since his family and younger siblings have never wronged him in the past.

Tan Jincheng and Gu Qingqing entered the door carrying large and small bags of things. Tan Jincheng was startled as soon as he entered.

"There are too many people. Why didn't you say so before?" Tan Jincheng said softly as he turned to the side.

"I was going to say it earlier, but I forgot while we were chatting," Gu Qingqing said, a little embarrassed.

The room was filled with people, including Gu Qingqing's parents, her grandparents, uncles, aunts, and aunts, as well as a few younger relatives who were looking at Tan Jincheng with strange eyes.

Gu Qingqing introduced Tan Jincheng to everyone. After some polite exchanges, Li Jinzhen smiled and said to Tan Jincheng, "Little Tan, you must be tired from driving. Let's eat first. Everyone is waiting for you."

"I'm so sorry to have kept you all waiting."

I felt flattered; they were actually waiting for me to have lunch together.

Gu Hongshun patted Tan Jincheng on the shoulder and said, "It's alright. Nobody's very hungry during the New Year. We get up late anyway, and we usually eat lunch around 12:30 to 1:00. Let's go to the restaurant."

Then he added, "You'll have to have a couple more drinks with me later." "Of course, but I'm not a big drinker. I'll try my best to satisfy Grandpa, Uncle, and my other uncles."

It seems I can't escape this drinking session today. Gu Qingqing's house is very large, with four bedrooms and two living rooms. At this moment, there is a large round table in the dining room that can seat nearly 20 people, which looks very impressive.

From the outside, the neighborhood doesn't look like much, but every house, like Gu Qingqing's, has its own hidden charm. Her uncles and aunts all live in the same neighborhood.

Yiwu is located in central Zhejiang Province. It is a county-level city with an area nearly twice that of Beicang District. In 2005, its GDP exceeded 300 billion yuan for the first time. Its tertiary industry is particularly developed, and its permanent population exceeds one million.

In addition to its 70 registered residents, Yiwu is home to hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs and workers from other places. As industrialization develops, this number will gradually increase, with people from Jiangxi Province making up the majority. As a result, people living in Yiwu often jokingly refer to their specialty food as "Jiangxi stir-fry".

In terms of food style, Yiwu and Yicheng are quite similar, mainly featuring chicken, duck, fish, beef and mutton. Even their flavors are somewhat similar, which is quite different from Beicang in Linhai.

"Is the food to your liking, Xiao Tan?" Li Jinzhen asked considerately.

The more she looked at Xiao Tan, the more satisfied she became. She was really good-looking, especially now that her hair had grown longer. It looked even better than her short hair in the previous photos. She thought it would be such a source of pride for her to have her as her son-in-law.

Her temperament is impeccable, and she is very polite. She prepared gifts for each family she visited. The fact that she was able to prepare so many gifts suggests that her parents are reasonable people, and her upbringing is undoubtedly excellent.

On the other hand, this young man is also very capable. Not only has he started several companies at a young age, but he has also managed to get his company's product advertisements aired on CCTV-1. Even on New Year's Eve, his company's advertisements were broadcast.

"If you're used to the food, Auntie, please don't be shy. I can serve myself."

"You're welcome, you're welcome. You must be very tired after driving for five or six hours. Eat something first, and then you can have a drink with your uncle later."

"Okay, thank you, Auntie." Tan Jincheng nodded.

I was indeed quite hungry. I ate around 6 PM, and in order to save time, I only stopped at the service area to use the restroom and get a cup of hot water.
Faced with a table full of delicious food, and surrounded by a group of people, Tan Jincheng didn't hold back at all; he was genuinely hungry.

"This young man is quite good. He's poised and confident, and none of the people at the table are intimidated by him. There's a reason why his business is so successful."

Seeing Tan Jincheng's poised yet polite demeanor, even Gu Hongshun, who had previously disliked him, secretly nodded in approval. In Gu Hongshun's opinion, Tan Jincheng's business success certainly owed to his vision, but luck also played a significant role.

As a native of Yiwu, he knew that this was a profitable business, and it wouldn't be surprising if people in other inland cities knew about it, but certainly not a young man like him who had just graduated from high school.

His choice of this industry may be related to his overseas experience. His ability to do well is due to his skills. As for his second successful venture, it seems to have an element of luck. Since our last meeting, he has also conducted a comprehensive analysis of Flashpoint Technology.

The reason why FlashTech was able to develop so quickly was largely due to advertising and its so-called "hunger marketing" strategy. It was lucky to select the most popular talent show champion of 2005 as its spokesperson, which immediately increased the product's brand awareness.

Subsequently, through television and online advertising coverage, and by using the principle of targeted city placement, the company effectively avoided the issue of insufficient production capacity, and also achieved the effect of scarcity marketing, creating the illusion that the product was in short supply.

His ability to leverage his strengths and avoid his weaknesses is commendable. His decisiveness lies in not being complacent after making money but quickly renting another factory to expand production capacity. However, the establishment of the industrial base involved an element of luck.

Gu Hongshun had no idea why the Beicang District government favored him, cooperated with him, and provided him with various forms of assistance. However, it was precisely the intervention of the Beicang District government that gave his Flash Technology the ability to expand once again.

Luck is by no means a derogatory term, especially for business people who are superstitious. On the contrary, they value luck highly.

With his foresight, strong execution, and good luck, it's hard for this guy not to succeed. But now that he's so successful, will he treat his daughter seriously in the future? Or will he be a womanizer?

In terms of career, he is already over 40 years old and doesn't have the energy to compete with this young man. His wealth may be unattainable for an average family, but he is not confident enough to use it to support his daughter.

Looking at his daughter sitting next to him with a loving expression, and his wife smiling broadly beside him, Gu Hongshun started to get angry again.

He couldn't help but wink at his two brothers, then smiled and picked up his wine glass: "Come on, Xiao Tan, don't just eat, have a drink to soothe your throat."

And so, Tan Jincheng was immediately drunk by several of Gu Qingqing's elders, ruining Gu Qingqing's original plan to take him to Yiwu city for a stroll and enjoy some time alone together.

"Looks like this kid wasn't lying, he really can't hold his liquor. How can he do business like this? Haha." Looking at Tan Jincheng lying on the bed in the guest room, Gu Hongshun finally breathed a sigh of relief and laughed heartily.

"Is this how you do things? This is Xiao Tan's first time visiting, and she drove for several hours. Drinking so much is bad for her health. Besides, now that she's drunk, I can't eat the boiled eggs I prepared," Li Jinzhen said with some dissatisfaction.

"I'll give it to Qingqing, and then prepare some for this kid tonight; damn it, I really don't want to give it to him, it's too good for him." Gu Hongshun said sullenly.

The so-called "water-boiled egg," also known as "son soup," is a custom in Yiwu for treating prospective sons-in-law. The shelled eggs are boiled in brown sugar water or soy sauce broth, which symbolize gold ingots.

If they like something, they'll give it to them to eat as a snack; if they don't, they'll just give them tea and won't accept any gifts.

(End of this chapter)