The Grandmother in the Siheyuan

Chapter 434 A-San
The gifts weren't anything valuable, just local specialties, but they were small gifts with great sentiment, showing that the Ministry of Commerce had put a lot of thought into them.

The director didn't linger. The business department was extremely busy. Executive Humen had just achieved a strategic victory, and there were too many things that needed to be planned and arranged in advance.

The director wanted to talk to Liu Hua about what he needed to be aware of after joining the WTO, but this stumped Liu Hua. How would he know? He wasn't in business in his past life.

I could only feign ignorance when asked, but the director didn't seem to mind, simply assuming it was a matter of being completely unfamiliar with the field.

Most domestic entrepreneurs are celebrating, and many are eager to join the ranks of world trade and show businessmen around the world what Chinese commerce is all about.

However, many people don't know that in the world of free trade, not everyone is a gentleman.

Liu Hua has now encountered a classic case, which, to be honest, caught him somewhat off guard. He was not prepared to deal with his third brother's family.

His contract with Kotoyo has ended, and he can now sell his motorcycle engines all over the world.

He didn't know about it at first, but recently when he went to the factory to handle some documents, the deputy factory director told him that they were in contact with a businessman from the third brother's family.

Liu Hua's hand trembled involuntarily as he signed the document. Although he had never done business in his previous life, he had dealt with many machine processing merchants.

I've heard these people complain more than once that the Third Brother's family likes to use a certain tactic to get you to order a product that is very different from what you'd expect.

Because it is different from ordinary products and has too many differences, it needs to be specially customized. As a result, after you have finished producing this batch of products...

The third brother's businessmen suddenly preferred to pay the penalty for breach of contract rather than complete the order. However, the prepayment and deposit were pitifully small. This batch of already processed and highly differentiated parts was now stuck in their hands.

Because of their significant differences from ordinary parts, no one would take these parts; they would be scrapped.

Just when these merchants were preparing to suffer a loss and dispose of the parts as scrap, another Indian trading company would contact them.

They are prepared to accept the batch of parts at a very low price. Now the company has two choices: either dispose of them as scrap or sell them to them, which would also result in a loss.

So Liu Hua put down his pen and asked, "Is the motorcycle engine they requested different from the mainstream engines?"

“That’s right.” The deputy factory manager said with a smile, “I didn’t expect that the Third Brother’s family also knew how powerful our motorcycle engines were, and they came to us specifically to place an order.”

"You're happy that you're about to fall for their trick?"

The deputy factory director was taken aback: "Being tricked? That can't be right. I felt that my negotiations with him went quite smoothly."

"How can you let your guard down if things aren't going well?" Liu Hua retorted. "Who else but them would want such a differentiated motorcycle engine?"

The deputy factory director immediately understood what was going on, and frowned, saying, "You mean, he might change his mind?"

"One hundred percent."

"Then let's quickly cut off the negotiations. Fortunately, we're still in the negotiation stage and haven't signed a contract yet."

Liu Hua waved his hand: "Let's continue negotiating. Seventy percent deposit, plus an exorbitant penalty for breach of contract."

“No way,” the deputy factory manager shook his head. “Doing business is all about sincerity. There’s no precedent for us asking for such a high deposit and penalty for breach of contract.” “We’ve never received an order for such a differentiated product before.”

The representative of the trading company owned by my third brother is staying in a three-star hotel. He's secretly pleased with himself, thinking he's about to make a fortune again.

The service at this three-star hotel I stayed at was definitely much better than that of five-star hotels in China. Even so, the old man still found fault with everything, making the hotel staff frown whenever they saw him.

The old man continued negotiating with Taiyi Heavy Industry the next day. They had almost finalized a contract, but unexpectedly, Taiyi Heavy Industry changed its tune the next day and demanded a 70% deposit and a high penalty for breach of contract.

This hit him right where it hurts. If they negotiated like this, he wouldn't make any money at all. Actually, it's not that he wouldn't make any money, it's just that he wouldn't make as much as he expected.

Thus, the negotiations ended in discord.

The guy walked out of Taiyi Heavy Industry cursing. Coincidentally, there was a reporter right at the door. This guy had his eye on Taiyi Group and wanted to dig up some big news about it.

He heard the third brother cursing in English, though he couldn't quite understand it, since the third brother's English was unique.

This guy had a keen sense that this might be big news, so he went up to the third brother and started chatting with him.

He invited this third brother for coffee, wanting to have a detailed discussion with him about the third brother's cooperation with Taiyi Group.

This third brother's character is quite evident. Not only did he nitpick and find fault in the coffee shop, he was always stirring up trouble.

The coffee shop waiter reluctantly served this customer, then went back and complained to the manager. The manager saw it all and could only sigh, since they were just employees.

After getting down to business, the third brother embellished the story of how Taiyi Group didn't follow the usual practice of international cooperation.

The reporter immediately felt he had uncovered a major story and readily agreed to help Third Brother thoroughly criticize Taiyi Group.

The next day, the newspaper published an article about Taiyi Group's disregard for international norms and its undermining of our promising prospects for joining the WTO.

Immediately, various discussions arose, and Taiyi Group faced a barrage of criticism.

That third brother was also a shrewd man. He didn't terminate the cooperation directly, but waited for the matter to become a hot topic before returning to put pressure on Taiyi Group and then achieve the cooperation he envisioned.

Unfortunately, he didn't expect that this matter would escalate so much that even higher authorities were talking to Liu Hua. The implication was that now that they had finally joined this trade system, it was best not to do anything that would undermine unity.

In order to explain to the public, Liu Hua had no choice but to hold a press conference.

At that time, more than 100 domestic and foreign media outlets came to the scene. After all, our country had just successfully negotiated the agreement, and many foreign media wanted to see our views on the WTO.

At the request of higher authorities, Liu Hua personally attended and provided an explanation.

As soon as Liu Hua stepped onto the center of the stage, the flashbulbs started clicking incessantly.

(End of this chapter)