Five years of marriage, always separated [1970s]

Apart from cars, clothing and leather shoes, Ye Fan couldn't think of any other glamorous industries that needed advertising: "Maybe. But there are many who want to advertise, but only a few are willing to spend money on advertising on TV stations."

"That's it?" Erbao felt sorry for his brother.

Ye Fan: "Maybe, but mom didn't notice it."

Erbao asked: "Mom, are you sleepy? Mom, you should take a nap first."

There were no security gates these days, and the train station had a large passenger flow, so it was impossible to check bags one by one, so knives and guns could be brought on board. Also, because there was no surveillance, people who committed crimes could hide in the woods, and the police had no way to check them, so bag snatchers were rampant.

Ye Fan had to be alert in the car, and once he got off the car he had to keep an eye out for people with bad intentions, so he was mentally exhausted and had no mood to chat with his daughter.

Ye Fan put a pillowcase on the pillow, lay down peacefully, and slept until lunch was ready. Ye Fan woke up, took off the pillowcase and threw it with her clothes, put on a clean coat and pants, ate something, and went to take a shower.

When Ye Fan came out of the bathroom, Erbao had already washed the clothes that she disliked and hung them on the drying line.

Erbao took the basin from his mother: "Mom, I'll wash it, you sit down and rest for a while."

Yu Wentao handed Ye Fan a small stool under the eaves. Ye Fan sat down, and Erbao picked out the hand-washed clothes and threw the rest into the washing machine. As the washing machine stopped, Erbao also cleaned up the dirty clothes that his mother brought back.

Ye Fan saw several clothes that were supposed to be in the suitcase hanging on the rope and asked, "Erbao, have you opened Mom's suitcase?"

Erbao remembered something and smiled unnaturally: "Mom, I'm going to read a book." Without waiting for Ye Fan to speak, he ran to the back.

Seeing that Ye Fan no longer yawned so frequently, Yu Wentao asked her what she thought of Yan Weining.

Ye Fan: "Hui Hui has never been in a relationship, let's talk about it first. If Yan's parents are friendly on the surface but mean in private, I have a way to make Hui Hui break up."

"Is it the same as the time with Xiaoqin?"

Ye Fan shook his head slightly: "No need to bother. When my elder brother comes back to attend the two sessions next year, please ask him to talk to Yan Weining's parents. Hey, I didn't notice before that his name also has a Ning in it?"

Yu Wentao thought something was wrong with her, "That's it? There were so many people where we used to live, I don't know how many people have the same name. Take the 'Qin' in Xiaoqin, for example. Some people pronounce it as 'Qin', like celery, and some as 'Qin', like playing the piano, but they sound the same. And the 'Jun' in Zhang Xiaojun, some pronounce it as 'Lu Jun', some pronounce it as 'Hong Jun', and there are 'Jian Guo', 'Jian Hua', 'Wei Guo', 'Tuan Ye', 'Jian Ye', and so on. If you don't like the name Hui Hui, you don't have to get married." After a pause, "The third child's name is hard to pronounce, I don't know who gave it to him."

Ye Fan smiled and said, "Just don't mind."

"Why should I care?" Yu Wentao said, "The granddaughter of the old professor next door is called Ningning. It's not like Liu Ning is the only one who can use her."

Seeing that she really didn't care, Ye Fan skipped the matter and asked, "How do you know her name is Ningning?"

"A few days ago, Erbao was playing the flute in the yard, and the old professor couldn't help but come over and ask if it was ours. I thought I disturbed his rest, so I apologized to him. He said it wasn't, and that it sounded nice, but he just asked me not to play the same song all the time."

Ye Fan was happy: "Is Erbao obsessed with that song?"

"Yes. She blew it four or five times and she didn't get tired of it. His little granddaughter was lying on her back by the gate of our house looking in. Erbao called her in and asked her what her name was. That's when I found out." Yu Wentao said, "The little girl likes Dabao. Before you came, she came to play with Erbao and looked around as soon as she entered the door. I thought the child was curious about our house, and before I asked her what she wanted, she asked, 'Is Dabao brother not up yet?' We were all stunned by her question. Or Huihui thought the little girl might like him, so she said Dabao went shopping with his girlfriend."

Ye Fan opened his mouth: "No, no, no, how old is she?" From what her mother-in-law said, it seemed that Ningning was not that old.

"Ten years old."

Ye Fan was choked by his saliva: "How much?"

"There are more TV dramas now than before, and children understand more than before after watching them. They know what it means to like something."

Ye Fan wanted to say that I was a TV kid in my previous life and didn’t understand love at the age of ten: “Then ask Dabao to invite his junior brothers and sisters to dinner at home. Remind them again, no matter who asks, tell them that Dabao has a girlfriend who is excellent in every aspect.”

"Will it delay Dabao's search for a partner?"

Ye Fan: "He still has a year or two before graduation, why would he look for a partner? Study is more important! You have time to worry about Dabao, why not worry about Sen Sen? He used to go on blind dates every week. He hasn't come back since the weekend, is he going out again?"

Yu Wentao: "With Dabao."

"What is he going to do?" Ye Fan asked curiously.

Yu Wentao: "He was puzzled. He was not ugly and had more roles than Dabao, so why didn't anyone ask him to shoot commercials? So he went to ask people in the industry why."

"Idle!" Ye Fan was speechless: "He only made a few cameo appearances, and he was a thankless teacher. It would be better to ask him to play the villain."

Yu Wentao couldn't help but say, "Yes, the boss of the film and television company who came to pick up Dabao today asked Sen Sen if he wanted to make some extra money."

"What did Sen Sen say?"

Yu Wentao: "He has no winter or summer vacations, and can only shoot one day on the weekend. He doesn't get much money for a cameo, not even as much as Xiao Chang pays."

Chang Guangrong's company asked Geng Sensen for help with tax issues, and he was paid fifty yuan per time. Geng Sensen could only make twenty yuan a day as a guest, so he might as well be free in Chang Guangrong's factory.

Ye Fan: "Why didn't you go on a blind date?"

"The leader thinks he has high standards and doesn't want to pay attention to him."

Ye Fan asked curiously: "His leader doesn't know who his father is?"

Coincidentally, Yu Wentao also asked Sen Sen.

The place where Geng's eldest son works now is too far from the capital. Yang Mengxia was worried that it would be inconvenient for his son to go there to get household registration certificates and other materials, so he pulled out the household registration of his two sons a few years ago. The files show the addresses of their respective houses. Although Geng Sen Sen's parents' names are on his household registration page, as Yu Wentao said before, there are many people with the same name, and the "Hua" in Geng Zhihua is too common, and "Geng" is not a rare surname, so his leader did not expect that his father was a provincial governor.

If Geng Sensen was admitted to the unit, the unit's political review might have found out about his parents' situation. However, Geng Sensen was assigned by the school, and when he joined the company, the leaders did not look at his basic situation, but only cared about his performance in school.

Seeing her shaking her head, Ye Fan asked, "If you don't know, why did you introduce someone to Sen Sen before?"

"Huihui said that Sensen has a house, graduated from a good school, works in a good company, his parents have stable jobs, and they have respectable jobs. Even if your eldest brother is a street director, he is still popular in the company."

Ye Fan: "The leader must have asked Sen Sen what his parents do. What did Sen Sen say?"

Yu Wentao: "Sensen said his father was the director of a supply and marketing cooperative, his mother was a middle school teacher, and his brother worked in a scientific research unit."

Ye Fan opened his mouth, not knowing what to say for a moment.

Why are these little ones in her family more talkative than the others?

Ye Fan: "If Sen Sen is good at this, the leader will think he is good. The leader thinks that Sen Sen has high standards, but in the leader's opinion, his conditions are not worth the leader's efforts."

"Huihui also said that his conditions are not worthy of the leader's investment." Yu Wentao frowned when talking about this, "How can introducing a partner become an investment?"

Ye Fan said: "It is what it is."

"Your Aunt Li is not one of them."

Ye Fan: "Aunt Li loves to be a matchmaker. If she stays at home every day, she will collapse. This is her hobby, just like Erbao has recently become fascinated with playing the flute, which is a special case."

"You introduced Xiaoqin to me before?"

Ye Fan said, "I didn't introduce her to anyone. She met the first guy on her own, and Chang Guangrong introduced her to the second one. I just advised her to meet him."

"Yes." Yu Wentao remembered that at that time, neither she nor Xiaoqin disliked Sun Laifu, so Ye Fan arranged for them to meet.

Ye Fan looked at the sky, it was already five o'clock: "Dabao didn't come back at noon?"

Yu Wentao: "The boss who picked him up said it would take a long time to finish the shoot. He said he had to shoot commercials, take photos, and change many sets of clothes and shoes."

"Is he a friend of Chang Guangrong?"

Yu Wentao nodded: "He called a few times before the New Year, and I heard it was him. Dabao calls him uncle, so it must be him."

Chang Guangrong's friends knew his family situation and did not dare to take Dabao to messy places. Ye Fan felt relieved and took the box to the study room which was converted into an ear room.

As soon as Ye Fan opened the small north-facing window, Erbao appeared by the window and asked in a low voice, "Mom, is there all money in there?"

"I can tell you've opened it by looking at your expression." Ye Fan opened it.

Erbao asked quietly, "Why are there so many?"

Ye Fan: "My goods alone are worth hundreds of thousands. You can calculate it based on five times the net profit."

Erbao exclaimed: "Can you earn so much by finding a middleman?"

Ye Fan: "They are busy demarcating territory over there now. It's too chaotic. The lack of light industrial products is similar to our lack of food in the early years."

"Mom, am I a rich lady?"

Ye Fan laughed: "Who would praise themselves like this? Besides, a rich lady is not as valuable as a general's daughter."

"Isn't Dad a colonel?"

Ye Fan: "Yes, I used to. I haven't asked your dad in the past two years. If he hadn't been allowed to retire, he would have definitely been a major general before you graduated from college."

"I definitely won't ask him to retire. Dad has never offended the chief. Besides, if the chief of the navy knew that the person they had their eyes on was snatched away by the army and asked to retire after only a few years of service, the chief of the navy would slam the table in front of the army."

Ye Fan nodded: "That's why mom said that no one is as valuable as a general's daughter."

Erbao: "The general's granddaughter is also valuable." Ye Fan laughed: "That's because your grandfather is still alive. Once he dies, you and Jingjing will be worthless."

Erbao suddenly understood: "So Sen Sen's uncle and Ben Ben's uncle are both afraid that the elderly in their family will die?"

Ye Fan: "Yes. Mom told me that before, but you were too young to understand then, so you must have forgotten it long ago."

Erbao wanted to say something, but when he saw her actions, he said, "Mom, why did you take out the money?"

Ye Fan: "I need to settle the bill. I'll take Jianshe and Xiaoming to the bank."

"Exchange?"

Ye Fan shook his head slightly: "No. There are many things in my mother's computer that need to be bought from outsiders, and it is more convenient to trade in US dollars."

“But isn’t it costly?”

Ye Fan: "It's expensive to buy a whole computer. It's cheaper to buy directly from the manufacturer of components. For example, it's expensive to buy sportswear from Chang Guangrong, but it's cheaper to get the cloth from the weaving factory in Hangzhou. It's cheaper to make it ourselves."

"Aren't there any in China?"

Ye Fan: "Yes, but the quantity is small. We can ask them for the time being. In two years, my mother will advertise on TV. If more people buy computers, we will have to buy them from outside."

“Can’t they expand production?”

Ye Fan nodded: "That's fine. But we need to buy foreign machines. However, they are not easy to buy. They only have two machines now. I wanted to make a few machines based on those two, but we can't process many of the parts inside. The engraving machine can't reach that kind of precision."

Erbao: "Mom, what you mean is that our people know how to make it, but the craftsmanship is not up to par?"

"Yes. It's like giving you a copybook. You know the words will look good after you finish writing on it, but you still have to write bit by bit." Ye Fan had expected this when he bought the two machines.

The research institute did not expect that after they drew the blueprints, the machine could not carve the parts they wanted, and they only realized this after that.

The leader found Ye Fan and hoped that she could provide R&D funds. The R&D funds were no problem, and the scientific research results would be hers. Of course, the leader was unwilling, so Ye Fan tore up the contract and asked them to return the machine.

Ordinary businessmen would not dare to be so tough. Ye Fan was extraordinary and dared to challenge them. In the end, they had to sign another contract. Starting from January 1, 1992, Ye Fan would take out 5% of the net profit every year as research and development funds.

The research unit wanted Ye Fan to contribute 10%, but Ye Fan did not break the contract this time. She said she could find someone else, and the teachers and students of the university would definitely be happy to agree.

The university that Ye Fan mentioned is not in the capital, but it is not far from the Yangtze River. Ye Fan will definitely have to build a factory there when she expands overseas in the future. Her bringing it up now is not considered as deliberately scaring them.

The research institute that cooperated with Ye Fan naturally did not want to lose her as a money bag - Ye Fan had less work to do, more money and wider connections, and it would be their loss not to cooperate with Ye Fan.

Ye Fan took the opportunity to add a clause that her accountant would review the actual expenditure on this project every year. The head of the research institute agreed, and after Ye Fan signed the contract, he said leisurely, "My nephew's study at the College of Finance and Economics was not in vain."

The leader couldn't help but ask which finance and economics college it was.

Ye Fan answered directly, the best financial university in the capital.

The leader had a complicated look on his face, but Ye Fan didn't care what he was thinking. He took the contract and left leisurely.

Erbao said, "Uncle Yu said you don't have much money, doesn't he know how much money you have?"

Ye Fan: "They think I earn more and spend more, which is true. But they forget that I spend all the money I earn from trade, and my mother still has some money."

Erbao’s face was filled with “How is this possible?”

Ye Fanxiao reminded: "Chang Guangrong!"

Erbao suddenly realized: "I forgot."

"His business has been very good in the past six months." Ye Fan said.

Erbao: "But aren't there enough to sell?"

"That's enough now."

As soon as Chang Guangrong heard that someone sent Huihui a gift, he realized that the drama was going to be popular, so he once again pulled Wei Jianye and two friends to the gate of the state-owned unit to snatch people.

Chang Guangrong once again put forward the slogan of "the more you work, the more you get", and people still did not dare to resign. However, since there was not much work in the factory, they asked for long vacation without pay. Of course, the factory director was happy to approve the vacation without pay.

Chang Guangrong found more than a dozen skilled workers a day, and asked his father-in-law, mother-in-law and people who came to him to buy goods to keep an eye out. He started work on the fourth day of the New Year, and there were thirty or forty more skilled workers.

There was no dividend at the end of last year, so Chang Guangrong, his two friends and Ye Fan agreed to use all the dividends to buy machines.

Now Chang Guangrong's factory is already a large private enterprise. The leader of his street hopes that he can provide some jobs for the street. He is very supportive of Chang Guangrong and took the initiative to ask Chang Guangrong if he wants land.

Chang Guangrong still had two plots of land in the factory area, and he answered that he didn't need it for the time being. In fact, he realized that it was inconvenient to get cloth from the south, and planned to build a branch factory in the south when he had to expand - the freight alone could save a lot a year. Another point is that there are many factories in the south, and the government can't protect them all. If he set up a factory in the south, he wouldn't have to go to the leaders for drinks and meals every few days.

Chang Guangrong originally thought that he had to hire a leader no matter where he set up a factory. After dealing with Su Yuanhang several times, he realized that it was not necessary at all. Businessmen only needed activity funds if they wanted to hold a position in certain units, such as a committee member or representative.

Chang Guangrong saw many family workshops where everyone worked on their own business without being disturbed. When he saw Ye Fan, he sighed and decided that it would be more troublesome to set up a factory here.

Then again, Erbao heard that it was not necessary and asked, "Isn't it popular?"

“There are more workers.”

"But didn't you tell Uncle Chang that all the talented people are in state-owned enterprises? I remember you told Dad a few days ago that you could only promote the sales team leader to manager and the R&D team leader to director."

Ye Fan nodded: "If the salary is high, there will be people who will do it. But mom doesn't need to poach management talents from Gaoxin, because mom is not in a hurry and can give them time to gain experience."

"Won't the cost go up then?" Erbao frowned.

Ye Fan put down his abacus and said, "Erbao, the wool comes from the sheep."

Erbao doesn’t understand.

Ye Fan: "If you give them 70 or 80 yuan a month, they will definitely think it's too little. Now the host provides food and accommodation for live-in nannies, and they can earn that much a month. As for how much it costs to make a piece of clothing, they calculate their hand speed. If they work eight hours non-stop, they can make more than 100 yuan a month. If they work overtime, they can make 200 yuan a month, which is twice as much as in state-owned units, so more people are doing it."

"If you can make thirty pieces of clothing at 80 yuan a month, and ninety pieces at 200 yuan a month, does that mean Uncle Chang is still making money?"

Ye Fan nodded: "Yes."

“Will the workers find it hard?”

Ye Fan: "It's not hard if there's money to be made. Besides, Chang Guangrong is afraid of something going wrong. Even if there are people waiting for money, Chang Guangrong won't let her work overtime. Twelve hours a day at most."

Erbao calculated the time: "Three hours for eating, one hour for washing clothes and bathing, and eight hours for sleeping."

"Baby, do you have any questions? No problem, mom will settle the bill. Mom has made an appointment with your Uncle Wei and will pick him up at the store tomorrow morning."

Erbao closed the window: "Mom is busy."

Ye Fan thought it was finally quiet, but just as he put the abacus away, Dabao's voice came in. Ye Fan stuffed the money into the cabinet, threw the key into the drawer and left.

Dabao exclaimed: "Mom?"

Ye Fan looked at his son, his new clothes and shoes, and said, "I gave you the clothes and shoes for today's photo shoot?"

Dabao nodded. "I asked Guangming and Sensen to go with me. They were not happy at first. When we were shooting the poster, the director felt that my temperament was different from theirs, so he asked them to try on some clothes. The manager of the clothing factory and the director of the shoe factory saw that the effect was okay, so they temporarily gave them a graphic design contract." He turned to the two of them, "How are you going to thank me?"

Chu Guangming: "I'll take care of lunch for the next week."

Geng Sensen: "Next weekend I'll buy you a roast duck and you can hold it and eat it."

"Am I that poor?" Dabao glared at them. "Mom, am I smart?"

Ye Fan: "Is there any loophole in this temporary contract?"

Dabao shook his head: "No. They have a contract template. I don't think the judge can find any problems with it. I don't know who did it. Mom, I think you should find a legal advisor too."

Ye Fan: "I do."

"You have?!"

Ye Fan nodded: "Alumni. Mom asked him for her first contract. But I signed with him on an annual basis, so the price is still cheap. At least it's not as expensive as asking Sen Sen to look at the account books."

Geng Sensen touched his nose and said, "My clothes are too hot. I'll go change them."

The three boys went to the back, and Erbao followed them out of curiosity about the clothes in her brother's bag. In a flash, only Ye Fan and her mother-in-law were left in the yard.

Ye Fan: "The sun is about to set, Huihui hasn't come back yet?"

Yu Wentao said, "Don't worry, and don't blame Huihui and Xiaoyan when you come back. I'll remember it for Yan Weining. It's ok if he comes back before dark, but if he doesn't come back when he needs to turn on the lights more than three times, I'll ask Huihui to break up with him!"

(End of this chapter)