1978: Female educated youth, don’t want an illiterate husband

Aunt Gu Qiuna paused for a moment, as if keeping someone in suspense, tapped her fingertips on her black leather bag, and glanced at the expectant faces in the room before slowly unzipping it and pulling out a thick leather envelope.

The envelope had gold foil embossed on the edges, clearly indicating it wasn't an ordinary item. She held the envelope by the edge, slammed it onto the coffee table, and said, "See for yourselves!"

"I took Xuemin's 'Yesterday Once More' to the United States, and it was officially released and started its chart run on New Year's Day!"

"It stayed on the North American Billboard Popularity Chart for more than a month, reaching number one at its peak, and it has remained at the top of the chart ever since!"

"The record sold 2.3 million copies. Here's your share, 1.2 million US dollars. I exchanged the check at HSBC in Hong Kong; it can be deposited directly into ICBC."

Cheng Xuemin reached out and picked up the envelope. Inside lay a light blue check with "1200000.00 USD" printed on it in English letters. The signature was written in a neat hand, and there was a red bank stamp next to it.

His heart skipped a beat!
Although I knew this song would be a hit, I never imagined it would earn so much money—that's 1.2 million US dollars in foreign exchange!

"One...one million two hundred thousand US dollars?" Father-in-law Feng leaned closer, his fingers lightly touching the check as if afraid of damaging it; his voice trembled slightly as he asked.

"Xuemin, this... this one song made so much money? That's more lucrative than making movies!"

Mother-in-law Feng covered her mouth, her eyes wide with surprise, and exclaimed, "My God, 1.2 million US dollars in foreign exchange? Is it really that easy to make money in those foreign devils' foreign exchange?!"

Cheng Xuemin's wife, Feng Jiayou, also leaned closer to him and whispered, "Is this money real? Can we deposit it directly in the bank? Won't there be any problems?"

She wasn't greedy; she was just afraid the money was ill-gotten and would cause trouble for her family.

Aunt Gu Qiuna smiled and waved her hand, saying, "Don't worry, it's all legitimate money! The distribution company I found in North America is Voice of North America. We signed a formal contract, deducted royalties and promotional fees, and only the remainder was distributed to us."

This check can be cashed worldwide; I'll have Xuemin deposit it at the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China tomorrow!

Then her aunt added, "I originally wanted to exchange it for US dollars and bring it back, but 1.2 million US dollars is just too heavy, I really can't carry it!"

It made the whole family laugh on the spot!
Upon hearing this, Mr. Feng, who had been quite serious, smiled and said, "Bringing US dollars in cash is unrealistic; customs won't let you out!"

The father-in-law is right. If you can bring tens of thousands of US dollars in cash on the plane, then you can.

However, it is obviously impossible and unrealistic to bring more than one million US dollars in cash onto a plane into China.

Are their customs checks just as strict?!
After a smile, Mr. Feng asked seriously, "Xuemin, your aunt helped you earn so much US dollars in foreign exchange. What are you thinking? Are you going to put it directly into the Eastern Depot's public account and count it as foreign exchange earnings?!"

"Go into the public account?" Cheng Xuemin was taken aback, and was indeed reassured, because he hadn't really started thinking about this issue.

"Dad! This is the US dollar foreign exchange that my brother-in-law earned by writing foreign songs on his own merits. Why should it go into the public account of the state-owned enterprise?" Before Cheng Xuemin and Feng Jiayou could speak, Feng Jiamo, the sister-in-law, said protectively from the side.

Because this was the US dollar foreign exchange earned by her brother-in-law through his own talent in writing songs, unlike the previous Tai Chi, which earned US dollars foreign exchange for the country.

All the US dollars and foreign exchange earned by Tai Chi must go into the public treasury and have nothing to do with her brother-in-law.

At most, she might give her brother-in-law an award or a promotion!

But the $1.2 million that her aunt brought back was foreign exchange earned by her brother-in-law from writing songs. Why should it go into the public account and be added to the national treasury?

Why not keep it for yourself and spend it yourself?
After hearing what her youngest daughter said, Feng's mother did agree to some extent. Wouldn't it be better to keep the money in their own home and let Jiayou save it?

My husband is really something, of all things to bring up, he has to bring this up!
Now that he's in the lake, everyone's awareness of earning foreign exchange has increased, right?
She actually thought that handing over all of the more than one million US dollars her son-in-law earned to replenish the national treasury's foreign exchange reserves would be a good idea?
But when she was about to express her agreement, her sense of duty as a member of the organization made her swallow her words back.

“Yes, brother-in-law, why do we have to hand over these US dollars to the national treasury? Isn’t everything liberalized now? Why are we still doing that old system of equal distribution of wealth?” Aunt Gu Qiuna said, equally indignant, after hearing her brother-in-law Feng’s words. “These US dollars are all earned by Xue Min himself from writing foreign pop songs!”

"If you're so enlightened that you want Xuemin to hand over this US dollar, then it would be better if... better if I opened an account for Xuemin abroad and deposited the money overseas for them!"

"I'll open an account for Xuemin and Jiayou at a Swiss bank later. Once the next batch of record sales profits comes in, I won't bother bringing it back to China. I'll just deposit it in a Swiss bank for them. Is that alright?"

"Qiu Na, don't talk nonsense!" Upon hearing his sister-in-law Gu Qiu Na's words, Mr. Feng's face darkened immediately. He said, "Your thinking is very dangerous. Don't open any random accounts with Xue Min outside, or you'll ruin him!"

His son-in-law is the head of a pilot unit specifically for generating foreign exchange for the country. If it were discovered that he had international accounts, that would be extremely dangerous.

Will his son-in-law, Cheng Xuemin, continue to advance his career?

"As for it?"

"Brother-in-law, how did I ruin your son-in-law?" Aunt Gu Qiuna was immediately displeased upon hearing this.

She did such a great thing for the Feng family, yet they turned around and blamed her for trying to harm their son-in-law.

What kind of talk is that?!

"I didn't say you ruined Xuemin. I meant... you've just come back and don't quite understand the political climate in China yet. Don't give him advice based on foreign policies!"

Seeing that his sister-in-law was still anxious, Mr. Feng's face darkened as he emphasized his explanation.

"Fine, fine, I don't understand, I'm not familiar with the situation. Anyway, the cash and check are right here, do whatever you want with them!"

"I don't care anymore!"

Aunt Gu Qiuna was also annoyed. She handed the cash check to Cheng Xuemin and pouted as she spoke.

"I..." Mr. Feng was about to say something more!
Feng's mother stopped her, saying to her sister Gu Qiuna, "Look at you, you're getting impatient again!"

"Alright, alright, hurry up and come inside to warm up! Your parents are in the backyard, they've been waiting for you to come home for the New Year!"

Following this, Feng's mother led her aunt to the backyard to meet her maternal grandparents.

When her grandparents in the backyard saw their youngest daughter return, they burst into tears again, heartbroken.

"How are your brother and your eldest sister doing out there? I haven't seen them come back with you for the New Year!" Seeing her youngest daughter, the old woman was also thinking about her eldest son and eldest daughter.

Now it's just the two siblings outside, and they haven't been seen coming back yet.

"Mom! You know!" "My older brother and sister used to be from that area. Even though the policies are better now, they're still hesitant to come back easily!"

"But I told you to keep in mind that they're no longer in Kinmen or Matsu; they've all settled and developed their lives in the United States!"

"Anyway, once the situation stabilizes a bit, they'll definitely come back to see you, Mom and Dad!"

Aunt Gu Qiuna's words brought tears to the eyes of the grandparents.

Their two eldest sons and daughters both joined the Kuomintang army in 1949 and eventually followed the bald man to Kinmen and Matsu after their defeat.

I don't know if I'll ever see them again in my lifetime.

The three of them—Feng's mother, aunt, and grandmother—cried and hugged each other again.

Seeing that all the women in the family were crying together, Mr. Feng's emotions were also disturbed. He called Cheng Xuemin over and asked his son-in-law what his plans were!

After much deliberation, Cheng Xuemin finally spoke to his father-in-law about his thoughts.

In fact, he had ideas and plans for the 1.2 million US dollar check, as well as the US dollar foreign exchange that his aunt would mail in later!
"What? Xuemin, you plan to have Qiuna take all of this 1.2 million US dollars back to America?"

When Mr. Feng, the father-in-law, heard what his son-in-law Cheng Xuemin said, his face was filled with utter astonishment and confusion.

Everyone is contributing to foreign exchange earnings!

The son-in-law, Cheng Xuemin, was a nationally appointed pioneer in the pilot program for foreign exchange earnings. Now that more than one million US dollars in foreign exchange had come in, he actually wanted to have his aunt, Gu Qiuna, take it back untouched.

What is the son-in-law Xuemin really thinking?

"Dad, this is actually what I'm thinking!" Knowing his father-in-law would be surprised and not understand, Cheng Xuemin continued, "Our Eastern Depot's foreign exchange earnings target for next year is actually quite heavy. If we rely solely on selling copy rights, we might not be able to complete it!"

"So I plan to have my aunt take this US dollar foreign exchange and help us expand our territory in North America!"

Upon hearing this, Mr. Feng's expression turned puzzled again, and he asked, "Expanding territory? How do we do that?"

"It's about having my aunt take these US dollars to North America so she can invest in some struggling movie theaters!" Cheng Xuemin continued, explaining to his father-in-law, "I plan to have my aunt act as our family's investment agent. She has a certain network of contacts in North America and should be able to secure investments in some movie theaters!"

"In that case, once our East Depot's foreign exchange-generating film 'Shaolin Temple' is finished next year, we can release it directly in North America, without having to go through the one-off foreign exchange business of selling the copyright!"

Actually, there was something Cheng Xuemin didn't say!
The goal was to make his aunt his personal global investment agent, Cheng Xuemin, and to use the US dollars earned from the song "Yesterday Once More" to invest in North American film theaters.

I don't need a lot!
If they can own a single cinema chain in a North American city, they have essentially opened the door to the entire North American film market.

Afterwards, Cheng Xuemin could have continued writing popular songs in foreign languages, continued releasing them in North America to earn US dollars, and continued making reverse investments.

Moreover, investments can extend beyond cinemas; they can also be made in music record distribution companies, aiming for global distribution.

In that case, controlling the two major channels of global cinema chains and popular song distribution would be enough for the Feng and Cheng families to live off for generations.

After hearing Cheng Xuemin's words, Mr. Feng's cigarette pack fell to the coffee table with a thud. He bent down to pick it up, his fingers trembling, and he couldn't smoke a single cigarette for a long time.

"Xuemin, are you saying... are you saying you want your aunt to take this $1.2 million out again and invest it in North American theaters?"

His voice was slightly distorted as he continued, "Xuemin, do you know that the whole country is now focused on generating foreign exchange earnings? Countless organizations are scrambling to find ways to earn a little bit of US dollars."

"And you actually want to send away the US dollars you've already got? If the higher-ups find out, they'll think you've gone mad!"

Cheng Xuemin quickly helped Mr. Feng sit down, poured him a cup of hot water, and said, "Dad, don't rush, let me explain slowly!"

"I'm not just messing around; I've done the math. Right now, when we sell film rights, whether to Southeast Asia or North America, we can only get a maximum of 20% of the box office revenue. The bulk of the profits go to the distributors and theaters."

Just like with "Tai Chi" in Bolin, we only got 20 million US dollars from selling the copyright, but how much did the theaters ultimately make?
"At least fifty million!"

He picked up the paper and pen on the table and said while drawing, "If we had our own theater chains in North America, even just a few small theaters, we could distribute 'Shaolin Temple' ourselves when it was released, and all the box office revenue would be ours!"

Furthermore, we can use these few smaller theater chains as a springboard to gain support from other well-known and established theater chains in North America, show them the quality of our films, and then we'll have the leverage to renegotiate box office revenue sharing with them!

"Once we open up the North American market, all our films, whether they are from our East Factory or other good films from mainland factories, can be exported through our theaters without having to depend on others. In the long run, we will earn more than ten times the amount of US dollars we do now!"

Mr. Feng stared at the numbers on the paper, his brows slowly relaxing, but he was still a little worried. He said, "But the situation in North America is complicated. Can your aunt handle it all by herself?"

"What if the money is invested, the theater chain fails, and the money is wasted? Who will take responsibility?"

Cheng Xuemin nodded and said to his father-in-law, "I'll talk to my aunt about it later! Besides, I'm now the head of the pilot unit of the Eastern Depot, so it will be very convenient for me to go to Hong Kong or Hollywood in North America!"

"At that time, I can go to North America first and help my aunt set up the framework for our cinema investment!"

"Moreover, when I was in Bolin before, I talked to my aunt, and she knows a lot of Chinese businessmen and people in the film industry in North America."

When I was promoting "Yesterday Once More," I had dinner with the owners of several art-house cinema chains that were on the verge of bankruptcy. Those owners were desperate for investment, so we took advantage of the opportunity to get in—low cost, and we could even acquire controlling stake.

Cheng Xuemin continued, "Moreover, I had my aunt find a lawyer, and all the risks will be clearly written out when the contract is signed to ensure the safety of the funds."

Even if things go wrong, we'll only invest this initial 1.2 million. Any follow-up investment will simply involve writing a few more popular English songs like "Yesterday Once More." We won't let the country spend a single penny of foreign exchange!

After a long silence, Mr. Feng lit a cigarette, took a deep drag, and smoke rings billowed from his nostrils. He looked at Cheng Xuemin, nodded, and said, "Xuemin, you're quick-witted. I've spent my whole life in the system, only knowing how to save foreign exchange; I never imagined it could be used like this..."

"Okay, you can do it if you want, but you have to report to Old Wu. You can't make decisions on your own; that's the rule."

Cheng Xuemin nodded: "I know. I'll go to the ministry to find Old Wu first thing tomorrow morning and explain the situation clearly."

……

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