Back to 1978

Chapter 184: Hong Kong businessman Bao Ge

It was more than a month later when Yang Limin, Zhang Cheng, Feng Chunlai, and Han Hongbing came to Yanjing to pick up Xie Hushan.

At noon, the four people just walked out of Yanjing Railway Station under the scorching sun, and saw a young man in a shirt and vest, holding a pick-up sign with the four people's names on it, looking towards the exit with sweat on his forehead.

After they walked over and talked to him, the young man took the four people to the side of the road and pointed somewhere not far away.

There were two black Volga sedans parked on the side of the road. Xie Hushan was standing at the front of one of the cars, waving at them.

This guy was wearing blue jeans and a denim shirt which was rare in China. He had a pair of large frog-eye glasses on his face and an imported cigarette with a white cigarette holder in his mouth. He was shaking his legs and looked like he deserved a beating.

Zhang Cheng naturally could not tolerate his apprentice showing off in front of him. Seeing that there were many people leaving the station, he deliberately responded to Xie Hushan loudly in Yaoshan dialect:
"San'er, Erxi gave birth to your child, why did you hide it from her and steal the money from selling the house to go to Yanjing to squander money and show off! Come back to the team with me immediately and take care of you during the confinement period! You can't keep the child!"

People of this era still have a strong sense of justice and morality. When they heard Zhang Cheng's criticism of Xie Hushan, some elderly passers-by immediately spoke with disdain:
"He doesn't look like a good person! Stay away from him!"

"It's uncouth and disrespectful!"

Xie Hushan did not even dare to retort. He estimated that if he retaliated angrily, these passers-by who thought he was a fool would beat him up, thinking he was a fool who had abandoned his wife and children.

So he obediently took off his sunglasses, put out his cigarette, opened the passenger door and got in, avoiding everyone's unfriendly looks.

After Zhang Cheng and Yang Limin got on the back seat of the car, Xie Hushan told the driver to drive, and then said to Zhang Cheng:
"Master, the commune doesn't want to drive my car anymore. If you continue to damage my reputation, I will smash the car and sell it for scrap metal instead of lending it to the commune."

When Zhang Cheng heard his apprentice mention the car, his tone became even more dissatisfied: "If you hadn't mentioned it, I would have forgotten about it. Who in the commune would dare to lend you that car now? Good fellow, you're just like the old usurers in the old society, aren't you immoral? Cao Ma is a very conscientious guy. The day Secretary Yin borrowed the car, he went to collect the debt. He crawled under the car with a broken wrench and said that the car was broken and needed to be repaired. It must be impossible to repair it without 35 kilograms of white flour. Who uses white flour to repair a car? You burn white flour for your broken car?"

"I'll give this kid a raise when I get back." Xie Hushan said with a laugh.

"Where did you get these two cars? They're the Russian Volga sedans. At that time in the army, only army commanders and above were qualified to ride in them." Zhang Cheng pressed the seat hard with his buttocks and asked while looking around the interior of the car.

Xie Hushan said:
"The Xinqiao Hotel's limousines, which are used to pick up guests, charge a fee of HK$150 per person. It's the same price whether you're picking someone up at the train station or the airport. They only accept foreign currency, not RMB."

As he spoke, he turned his head to look at Yang Limin, who had gotten into the car without saying anything. Yang Limin noticed Xie Hushan's gaze and smiled, "It's okay. I've taken care of everything."

"Looking at your expression, I thought you were going to get rid of me." Xie Hushan asked Yang Liming.

I haven't seen the pretty boy for more than a month, and I feel that his temperament has matured a lot.

Two hotel shuttles took the five people to the Xinqiao Hotel in Dongjiaominxiang. Zhang Cheng looked curiously at the Xinqiao Hotel in front of him, which was a bit gray in color, and muttered:

"It doesn't look as grand as the Friendship Restaurant where the steel mill guys invited us to dinner last time. Shouldn't we clean up this wall? Let's find someone to paint it."

"You don't understand, Master? This color looks solemn and dignified. The Friendship Restaurant is full of Iron Boss and Steel Boss. It's like home. It looks intimidating. Can they prepare more than a dozen imported cars to pick up guests at the train station at any time?" Xie Hushan introduced to Zhang Cheng:

"Besides, this place is not only for ordinary people, but even if leaders below the senior level want to live here, they have to send their secretaries to find connections like me, otherwise they can't live here. This place only welcomes international friends and overseas Chinese."

This is not Xie Hushan bragging. The country has spent a lot of money to earn some foreign exchange. In order to ensure that wealthy foreign friends feel at home, there are more than 300 guest rooms in total, and they want to move the Forbidden City into them. Each guest room has several historical handicrafts. In the guest room where he is staying now, there is an ivory carving from the Qing Dynasty placed in the alcove of the living room.

Xie Hushan couldn't help but worry about the hotel before he went to bed every day. What if such valuable handicrafts were stolen by some knowledgeable and greedy foreigner?

"I booked a private room two days ago to treat you to a meal." Xie Hushan followed the waiter who led him to the table and said:

"The western restaurant here is open to the public, and ordinary people can come and have a meal. It is said that it is known as the best western restaurant in Yanjing together with the Moscow Restaurant. There is Xinqiao in the south and Lao Mo in the north, but the customers are different. Most of the customers at Lao Mo are poor people who pretend to be rich, while those who come to Xinqiao must be really rich, because pretending to be rich and powerful is easy to be exposed. However, we eat more high-end Chinese food that is not open to the public."

"You talk so nonsense. How did you, a director of a rural steel rolling mill, get in? Did you pretend to be a foreign guest or an overseas Chinese?" Han Hongbing asked curiously as he looked at the various photos and paintings of foreign guests hanging in the corridor.

At this time, the waiter led the five people to a private room in the restaurant, knocked on the door twice, and then slowly pushed it open.

Xie Hushan tilted his head and motioned Han Hongbing to go in: "Once you go in, you will understand how I can live here."

Han Hongbing looked at Xie Hushan who was pretending to be mysterious, and then stepped into the box first, and then he said:
"Fuck! Isn't this the big brother that Hong Kong Island recognizes, Brother Bao?"

In the huge, antique Chinese-style box, Cao Tianbao, a former member of the Hong Kong Island Changle Society and now a returned overseas Chinese from Pengcheng, was standing in a suit and wearing a pair of plain glasses. He looked a little restrained as he looked at a treasure pavilion filled with works of art.

Seeing the door being pushed open and Han Hongbing walking in from outside, A Bao also smiled, walked up to Han Hongbing and hugged him tightly, almost crying:
"Second brother, you finally showed up. I really couldn't stand it if you didn't show up again!"

"How come you're so moved that you want to cry when we meet? What's wrong? Can't make it in Pengcheng stealing cars, so you run to Yanjing?" Han Hongbing asked curiously, looking at the excited Cao Tianbao.

Cao Tianbao calmed down and said to Han Hongbing in broken Mandarin:

"Of course not. Brother Shan sent a telegram to Miss Zhu, saying that he wanted me to do something and asked me to come to Yanjing immediately. During this time, I will help Brother Shan run errands."

"You come alone, my big brother... Fuck, Commander Xie, what's the name of our big brother?" Han Hongbing hadn't seen him for a long time and forgot the name of the other big brother for a moment.

At this time, Xie Hushan walked in with Zhang Cheng and others and said, "Xuanzi."

"Yes, yes, yes, where is my brother Xuanzai?" Han Hongbing pulled Cao Tianbao to sit at the dining table and asked affectionately:

"Brother Xuan is good. Last time when we were using the Elm Cannon to deal with those hooligans in Hong Kong Island, he did whatever I asked him to do and was obedient."

Zhang Cheng was puzzled and looked at Xie Hushan: "Is Han Laoer praising his adopted elder brother or his adopted Dahei?"

Judging from the way Han Hongbing talked with this man who looked like an overseas Chinese from Hong Kong Island, as well as the way they sat, the other party could not possibly be Han Hongbing's elder brother. Instead, Han Hongbing seemed like the other party's elder brother.

Since there was no need for the waiter to help pour tea, the other party was already very attentive and picked up the teapot to help Han Hongbing pour water.

After helping Han Hongbing pour the tea, overseas Chinese Cao Tianbao insisted on pouring a cup for Xie Hushan, Zhang Cheng, Feng Chunlai, and Yang Liming, which made Zhang Cheng and the other two very uncomfortable.

Wow, he even asked the overseas Chinese to help him stand up, greet people and pour him tea, which was enough for him to brag to the county magistrate when he returned.

Cao Tianbao finally sat back next to Han Hongbing and continued:
"Second brother, you should have come a few days earlier. Xuanzi just took a plane back to Pengcheng with Sister Julie a few days ago."

"Who is Sister Zhu Li?" Han Hongbing was confused.

Cao Tianbao slapped his forehead and said, "That's... Translator Lin, now she's called Julie-Lin, it's popular to use English names."

"Why change the name to an English one? Isn't Lin the Translator a nice name? Commander Xie, Staff Officer Han, Lin the Translator, Comrade Zhu. It's easy to tell that you're all from the same team. Now you're called Zhu Li, which is obviously betrayal of the revolution." When Han Hongbing heard the name Lin the Translator again, his face didn't change much. He just smiled and sighed, then switched back to teasing:

"Brother, you and Xuanzi should hurry up and go to Zhongping. Ever since I told you about Hong Kong Island, a lot of people in our team have been eager to join you. You don't have to pay them 3,666 each. If you pay them 360, they will be loyal to you."

After Cao Tianbao and Han Hongbing finished reminiscing about the past, Xie Hushan introduced Cao Tianbao to Zhang Cheng, Feng Chunlai, and Yang Limin:
"Comrade Cao Tianbao, a patriotic overseas Chinese, is currently the general manager of Hong Kong Island Dadi Printing Company. The last time I went to Hong Kong Island, it was this comrade Cao Tianbao who took care of the two of us and donated the money."

"Brother Bao, these three are our senior leaders in Zhongping, the masters who taught me and Han Laoer, Zhang Cheng, the Minister of Armed Forces, Feng Chunlai, the Special Commissioner of Public Security, and Yang Limin, the Secretary of the Youth League Committee."

Cao Tianbao stood up and shook hands vigorously with the three people in turn: "I have heard of your name for a long time, Minister Zhang, Director Feng, Secretary Yang, just call me Abao."

Then he took out his Winston cigarettes, handed them to everyone in turn, and helped to light them up. This performance made Zhang Cheng and Feng Chunlai look at each other. The two had never seen foreign guests and overseas Chinese, and they had heard from Yaoshan's friends that after all, Yaoshan was a heavy industrial city, and many factories were equipped with imported equipment, and they often dealt with foreign engineers. They had never heard of overseas Chinese or foreign guests being so humble to Chinese people. "What's the situation? I said you have to make trouble, or you will go back obediently. They have to pick you up, and they want to show off and pay attention to you. It's because you invited such a Hong Kong compatriot." Yang Limin shook hands with Cao Tianbao, sat down, and whispered to Xie Hushan with a smile:

"You're not going to donate another 100,000 in his name, are you?"

"Are you dreaming?" Xie Hushan glanced at Yang Limin with disdain. "I have money but nowhere to spend it? I'm not saying anything to you, but I told you not to come and pick me up in a grand manner. If Secretary Yin doesn't come, then you can have more deputy secretaries, directors, etc."

"We are preparing for the autumn harvest, so we don't have time to pick you up. We are lucky to be here." Yang Limin said, "Where are the two railway friends who came with you?"

Xie Hushan took a puff of his cigarette and said, "It's been almost half a month since I went back. They have a lot of cases on the railway, all of which are public security cases such as theft. The leader asked them to go back and catch the thieves quickly."

"So what's going on with our fellow Hong Kong Islanders?" Yang Limin stared at Xie Hushan and said:
"You'd better think about it. I've wiped your ass enough times in the past month."

At this time, everyone else also looked at Xie Hushan. Xie Hushan hesitated and looked at a few people:
"How about we eat first? I was hoping that the leaders from Zhongping would take the time to come over. Brother Bao has invested a lot of money this time, using the money he saved for several months to treat the leaders to a meal. They won't be able to enjoy it."

"Brother Bao is really good to his brothers." Han Hongbing looked at Cao Tianbao who had a sad face and said, "Cheer up a bit. How much can a meal cost? It shouldn't be that much..."

While Han Hongbing was trying to comfort Cao Tianbao, the waiters had already started serving several exquisitely shaped cold dishes. Then a chef wearing a snow-white chef hat came in from outside and personally served the hot dishes to the guests one by one. Every time he opened a dish, he introduced the name, and a beautiful waitress next to him repeated it in Cantonese.

Just by hearing the names of the dishes announced by the chef, no one dared to raise their chopsticks.

"Meng Shanjun."

"Burning bear paws."

"Stew flying dragon."

"Stewed sand goose."

"Rolling monkey brain."

"Stewed roe deer."

“Steamed yellow croaker.”

"Suckling pig."

Leaders of Zhongping like Zhang Cheng and Feng Chunlai were dumbfounded. They had never seen so many living animals before, and yet here the chef served them on a plate?

"Is this something that ordinary people like us can eat?" Feng Chunlai looked at Xie Hushan, a little hesitant:

"Can't you just go to a restaurant to eat alone? The roast duck or something? There are so many of these things, it's hard to even put down your chopsticks when you hear them."

Xie Hushan flicked the ash off his cigarette and said to Feng Chun:

"You can see that the country is willing to invest a lot of money to earn some foreign exchange, right? Don't worry, eat, this Hong Kong businessman, Brother Bao, has already paid for the meal."

It is not illegal to eat wild game now, and friends or overseas Chinese returning from Hong Kong and Southeast Asia like to eat some rare wild game. In order to satisfy these people's tastes and also to earn more foreign exchange from them, the country gets some wild game and sends it almost all to foreign-related hotels in several major cities.

Perhaps the government feels that the price of such a wild game banquet is a bit unreasonable, so it specifically reminds guests that if they book such a table of wild game, various drinks will be provided free of charge.

Xie Hushan didn't think it was expensive at all. The country still had to save face and it was not right to ask for too much. This full table of dishes only cost 4,800 Hong Kong dollars, which is just over 1,000 yuan when converted into RMB.

To be honest, in Hong Kong Island, let alone eating this kind of wild game, even if you go to a big restaurant and get some bird's nest, abalone, shark's fin and sea cucumber that look good, it may cost more than this table of dishes, and the drinks are not included.

"It's a good thing that Secretary Yin and Secretary Han didn't come. If they had, I would have been so angry... This Hong Kong businessman is such a spendthrift." Zhang Cheng sighed as he looked at the table full of dishes.

"How about we just try a few bites and have them pack the rest of the food into lunch boxes so we can take it back and let everyone taste it?"

"This is all the emperor ate in the past, right? Delicacies from land and sea." Han Hongbing heard Xie Hushan say that Cao Tianbao paid for the meal, and said to Brother Bao with a sly smile:
"Brother, in order to sincerely treat us to a meal, you sold your house, right?"

"This meal costs 4,800 Hong Kong dollars." Cao Tianbao said with a pained look on his face while gritting his teeth:

"The money I saved for a long time was all spent by Brother Shan in the past few days."

Han Hongbing said: "No wonder when you saw me, you felt the same as the one in the song "Ying Shan Hong" who was looking forward to the Red Army."

"If you had come to pick him up a few days later, I wouldn't know where to borrow money to help him pay the bills. All expenses here have to be paid in Hong Kong dollars. I'm going to go back to my old business and ask if there's anyone in Yanjing City who lends money at high interest rates," said Cao Tianbao.

After tasting a few dishes, Xie Hushan told Yang Liming and the other two about his experiences during this period.

He had previously asked Cheng Yunfei to get some calendar business, and this big brother actually did it.

Two days after they had a drink that day, Cheng Yunfei found him and said that he had asked his serious friends, and some of them were very supportive, and currently they had finalized the order for 40,000 calendars.

When Xie Hushan heard the number of 40,000 copies, he felt that it was not a large number. He even suspected that Cheng Yunfei had gotten the information from him. Maybe he was just bragging like Old Yanjing.

They talked about so many splendors, but in the end, only 40,000 sets were ordered?
The factory that gave the speech at the report meeting costs 5.5 yuan to produce a set of calendars, and the retail price is 8 yuan, which means one book only costs 2.5 yuan.

Calendars are only ordered once a year, and the annual sales are 40,000 sets, which means the annual profit is only 100,000 yuan. It is not worth setting up a factory and wasting energy. It would be better to contract it out to other factories for processing.

Xie Hushan felt that there was no point in doing this and it was not worth thinking about it any further. However, he did not know that Cheng Yunfei's understanding of the order was different from Xie Hushan's.

Regarding the order of 40,000 calendars that Cheng Yunfei mentioned, his friends didn't ask any questions, didn't even mention whether to sign the contract or not, but just wanted to pay on the spot after listening to it.

Others who wanted to see what the calendar looked like before paying were not taken into account by Cheng Yunfei.

It's like Cheng Dahuazi doesn't even have a calendar, but he can get 320,000 yuan in payment for goods from his friends' units just by showing his face. If the other units didn't need public-to-public transactions, Cheng Yunfei would have been able to carry the cash to Xie Hushan.

Cheng Yunfei came to Xie Hushan to ask for the public account for collecting the money, but Xie Hushan didn't have it because the money couldn't be collected through the steel rolling mill's account.

So he sent a telegram to Zhu Youjun in Hong Kong Island, asking Zhu Youjun, who was dealing in second-hand home appliances there, to arrange for a lawyer to introduce him to a Hong Kong printing company using Xie Hushan's own Hong Kong ID card.

Then he sent Cao Tianbao over and opened an office in Yanjing in the name of the Hong Kong Island Company and a mainland account. He received the money into the account and was planning to use the money to buy some second-hand color printing equipment in Hong Kong Island and set up a calendar factory in Zhongping.

"I'd better go back and bring Secretary Yin and the others here. If you can explain it clearly on the phone, I won't have to make another trip. This matter is worth making a big fuss about." After listening to this, Yang Limin decisively said to Xie Hushan:
"It just so happens that you brought back a Hong Kong businessman who invested in a factory to suppress the heat of the matter of dealing with Director Li. Even if the county leaders are dissatisfied with you and Zhongping bullying Director Li and want to deal with you, they will have to think carefully about whether you have any connection with this."

Xie Hushan said, "I don't have any connections. The deputy director who was tricked here does have connections, but you have to find a way to solve one problem. Let the county sports department be bolder and secretly get a note to allow the establishment of a boxing training team or something like that. If you keep this person, I don't think the calendar factory will lack business in the future."

"If it works well, it would be like the country just introduced the joint venture law, and Zhongping responded to the call and jointly operated a calendar factory with Hong Kong businessmen. The calendar factory sold calendars to Hong Kong Island Company, and Hong Kong Island Company sold imported high-end calendars to Yanjing and other units as employee benefits. Not only can we make money, but we can also gain some honor."

Yang Limin said in a positive tone: "If you bring the Hong Kong businessmen back, the honor of the county will be assured."

(End of this chapter)