Volume 8 Final Chapter Chapter 1099 Namo Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva
The Spring Festival in 1997 was the same as usual, with nothing new.
To be honest, there is a little bit. When karaoke was almost out of fashion, Yi Jinru became addicted to it. It is said that she would hum a few songs every night. During the first month of the lunar year, when someone came to visit her to wish her a happy new year, she would not miss out and would drag them to sing and dance.
The New Year's greetings were the same as usual. Nan Yi and Liu Zhen were very busy. They visited two families one day and made a trip every other day, alternating between greeting and entertaining. Before the festive month of the first lunar month was over, they put on black clothes, pinned white flowers, held portraits in their hands and joined the stream of people paying their respects on Chang'an Street.
By the time things calmed down, the Lantern Festival was over.
Nan Yi stays at home and rarely goes out. He surfs the Internet, reads newspapers, and carefully prepares diet meals for Liu Zhen.
The newspapers are very lively. Qin Chi, which had just become famous a few years ago, was involved in a "white wine blending" scandal. It is estimated that it has been targeted by someone, otherwise it would not be a big deal. The production links of all common white wines are similar. The only difference is the blending. Most of the raw wines in the world come from Sichuan. In a few years, most of the white wines on the market will have Sichuan blood.
Shi Baijin was also having a hard time. There were many reports in the newspapers about creditors blocking his door to demand money. The "idol of the times" created by the media was showing signs of collapse.
Sanzhu, a dominant company in the healthcare product field, previously implemented the strategy of "blossoming in the city center and surrounding the city with the countryside". Wherever there was a wall, there were advertisements for Sanzhu, which boosted its annual sales to billions. But now it is showing signs of decline, with people suing it for false advertising one after another. It is said that its sales have slightly declined by only a few hundred million.
It is not surprising that Sanzhu would be sued. It is obviously a health product, but it is touted to have the effect of curing all diseases. After all, not all consumers are women, and "guaranteed" cannot cure everyone.
In 1993, Sun God began to change its corporate strategy of "focusing on vertical development and supplemented by horizontal development" that it had adhered to for many years, and changed it to "vertical and horizontal development go hand in hand". Within a year, it launched 20 projects including oil, real estate, cosmetics, computers, border trade, and the hotel industry. It also established "Economic Development Corporations" in many places in the country and carried out large-scale acquisition and investment activities.
Sun God had high hopes for these projects, and even made a bold statement that "the bolder the people, the more productive the land." In the following two years, Sun God invested 340 million yuan in these projects. Unfortunately, none of these projects succeeded, but they exhausted Sun God's funds and energy.
Last year, Sunstar suffered a loss of tens of millions, and its shares listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange were almost reduced to penny stocks.
Another well-known health care product company, Fengtian Feilong, is also not having a good time. Last year, its president published a 10,000-word self-reflection entitled "My Mistakes," listing the "20 biggest mistakes of the president." After it was published, it was widely reprinted by domestic media. For a time, all kinds of rumors about Feilong spread.
In the article, President Feilong criticized himself in a romantic tone: "The president is often in an impatient, panicked and unbalanced state of mind, which causes all cadres to be in a state of mind like a frightened bird. In this top-down state of mind, there are one-sided decisions, wrong decisions, and dangerous decisions."
This guy is quite straightforward and is not afraid to confess his mistakes to the public, but he probably hasn't woken up from the big pot and planned economy, and still thinks that he still has a stable job. Little do they know that the onlookers are thinking this way: since the managers can't take responsibility, such a company is not trustworthy, and its products are even less trustworthy, so it should just go bankrupt as soon as possible.
1996 was generally a good year. Except for the health care product industry which showed signs of decline, other industries presented a thriving picture. In particular, in the field of science and technology, both Nan Hua Yao and Bei Hua Yi had good development. Moreover, the development strategies of the two companies were quite similar, both focusing on R&D and public relations of institutions.
The two companies currently have similar problems. Their sales channels are relatively single. If they fail to get orders from public institutions, they can't even afford rice bran and have to beg on the streets. Going global and participating in international competition is the top priority for the two companies in the next step.
In the Lingnan area, the VCD industry is booming. Aido VCD, which gained popularity through word puzzle advertisements and consolidated its reputation with "Sincerely, Aido VCD", is a rising star. It has shown strong aggressiveness. Last summer, it shot a new advertisement, invited a kung fu superstar to be its spokesperson, and changed the slogan to "Aido VCD, good kung fu".
Before Aido emerged, competition in the VCD industry was already very fierce, but everyone remained restrained and their competition methods were relatively regular. You punch, I dodge, I kick, you dodge, and everyone was fighting back and forth. But when Aido came out, it was no longer a good match. It didn't the hard-core kung fu, but drunken boxing every time it attacked, staggering left and right, making it difficult for people to understand.
When Aido used the price-cutting trick that was as powerful as the waves, everyone finally understood: what a bastard, here comes a bastard, if he is so good at cutting prices, why doesn’t he just make color TVs!
Aido's price war is good news for Erdong Electronics. Taking advantage of the good market, it has split off its VCD business and sold it off, focusing on the agency business of decoding chips. Last year, the national VCD sales volume was nearly 7 million units, of which 75% were supplied by Erdong Electronics. Erdong Electronics can get a sales share of 35 yuan for each chip, totaling about 180 million yuan.
Whether it is Aido, Wanshengda, or Xinke, as long as consumers still buy VCDs, Erdong Electronics will not worry about making money.
However, the days of making money without doing anything will not last long. In the second half of this year, we should also consider selling the chip agency rights and say goodbye to VCD completely. In this way, the person who takes over the agency rights can still live a good life for one or two years. Of course, there is also the possibility that foreign suppliers will raise prices.
Nan Yi calculated with his fingers and thought it was okay, not too much, it would only increase by one dollar.
Nan Yi's title of fortune teller is not undeserved. If he says one dollar, it must be one dollar, because he just replied to Milu's email, and the one dollar price increase was set by him.
You should be considerate to your own people and not set the price too high, but you don't have to be so to outsiders. Business is business, and if you feel that the profit is getting smaller, you can just follow the market. In addition, in order to extend the life of VCD products, Milu is about to launch an upgraded version of the chip and put forward the concept of SuperVCD, referred to as SVCD, which has a super error correction function and can make the picture clearer.
…
At the end of the first month of the lunar year, Zhao Yu came to visit and brought Nan Yi an invitation letter, inviting him to work in Hongrun Group. As long as he was a person like him, without any other attached conditions, he could take any position as a director-level manager. He also hinted that as long as he achieved results and kept to the red line, he could be promoted.
Nan Yi declined politely, saying that he had too many things to do and had no time to take care of anything else.
Zhao Yu left after saying that the invitation was valid for a long time.
Nan Yi is not interested in working for others now. Moreover, he can guess that once he starts working, he will either be assigned to Happy Water or Lemon Tree, which is like taking off his pants to fart.
He had an idea to work at a postdoctoral mobile station after obtaining his doctoral degree, then find a job at a foreign university, take elective courses, gain two years of experience, and then jump back to a domestic university to become a full/associate professor and join the ranks of experts.
During this period, he also plans to "pursue" a doctorate program in public economics at the University of Durham and a doctorate program in international trade at the National University of Laos, so that he can have three doctoral degrees. Once Lincoln University in New York obtains the qualification to offer doctoral programs, he can also get a fourth one.
If you don't have three or four doctoral hats, how can you call yourself an expert?
"What are you grinning about?"
Just when Nan Yi was intoxicated with himself, Liu Zhen came back.
"Nothing, Dr. Liu, why are you back so early today?"
Liu Zhen came to sit next to Nan Yi and said unhappily, "I'm hungry and don't have the energy to work."
"Don't complain. Have you heard the old saying? There is a limit to how much food a person can eat in his lifetime. The faster you eat, the sooner you die. If you don't eat less, you won't have many years left to live."
"Bah, stop cursing at me and hurry up and cook."
"It's not time yet. The steak will be ready in two or three minutes. Don't worry."
"I don't want steak. I want to eat mutton hotpot." Liu Zhen said with disdain.
"Forget about hot pot mutton. As long as I'm here, you'll have to eat steak. Chicken breast is also fine. Boiled chicken."
"When are you leaving?"
"Next May."
"Tsk." Liu Zhen spat, "If you can stay until next May, I will eat grass every day."
"Don't provoke me."
"What can I do if I provoke you?" Liu Zhen hugged Nan Yi's arm and said coquettishly, "Hubby, let's go out and eat mutton hotpot."
Nan Yi shuddered when he heard that, "No, don't call me husband, I get goose bumps all over my body."
"Mr. Nan, are you going to leave or not?"
"Haha, I feel relieved. A real man should not leave if he says he won't leave."
“…”
The two of them argued for a while, but Nan Yi still did not agree to go out for dinner with Liu Zhen, so he prepared the usual three dishes for her: steak, blanched broccoli, and salad. He ate the same things as her, without making any distinction.
After dinner and a short rest, Nan Yi took Liu Zhen to the second house allocated by her unit.
Some items were added to the living room of the house, transforming it into a place for fitness. Liu Zhen can do aerobics there in the evening with the teacher hired by Nan Yi for her.
Nan Yi and his companion arrived downstairs and saw a tall girl stamping her feet and rubbing her hands beside the gate of the apartment building. She looked very cold.
The girl's name is Rui Xiaodan, a sophomore student at Beijing Film Academy. Her acting contract has been signed with a celebrity company. When Nan Yi was selecting a fitness coach for Liu Zhen, he chose her because she had been a gymnast for eight years.
The reason for choosing Rui Xiaodan is very simple. Star companies are more cautious in signing people. They do not adopt the strategy of casting a wide net, but rather carefully select the best of the best. The contract term will be relatively long, starting from ten years and up to twenty years. Once signed, resources will be focused on. If too many people are signed, there will not be enough resources to go around.
With more effort, there will naturally be more restrictions on the artists. The artist contracts of celebrity companies are carefully designed. The terms are not excessive, but very detailed. Under the premise that the celebrity company is in the right, if there is a dispute, the artists will only suffer.
Rui Xiaodan signed a 20-year contract. Although the details of the contract included clauses such as having to participate in a certain number of films with a certain investment or being a certain female lead within a certain number of years, there were ways to circumvent them.
For example, a TV series on antiques with an investment of 10 million yuan could have spent 8.88 million yuan on set design and props, buying real antiques for filming. This is called respect for art. And then, you could invite a well-known antique shop owner to play the leading male role with a salary of 1 million yuan, a top person in the industry. This is called being responsible for the TV series.
There are still 120,000 left, so go ahead and take the photo, and make sure it is a masterpiece.
In short, Nan Yi can control Rui Xiaodan and doesn't have to worry about her saying anything she shouldn't.
Although Rui Xiaodan was wrapped very tightly at this time, the cold wind still blew on her face and hands. Fortunately, she thought that good luck had come and she had received a good job, so she managed to resist the cold.
She recalled what Manager Wang said to her yesterday, "Xiao Dan, someone wants to hire you to be a fitness coach for his wife. The remuneration will be very high, but money is not the point. If the person who hires you is willing to say a word for you, you will be very lucky."
Rui Xiaodan thought again about how when she asked who it was, Manager Wang did not answer but just told her to keep her mouth shut, acting very mysterious. She was very curious about what kind of person he was.
She blew a few breaths of hot air into her palms and rubbed her hands. Rui Xiaodan saw a tall man walking towards her with his arm around a fat, oh no, wealthy woman. She guessed that these two might be the ones she was waiting for.
She looked intently and saw the man walking straight towards her.
"Rui Xiaodan?"
"Ah...I am."
"You must be freezing. You came fifteen minutes earlier. You should have come on time to avoid freezing. Come on up."
Rui Xiaodan was attracted by Nan Yi's magnetic voice and was stunned for a moment before she reacted, "Ah...Oh!"
She followed Nan Yi and the other person upstairs, turned seven corners, walked up six stairs, and came to the door of a unit. She didn't see anyone using a key, but the door was opened directly. A stream of warm air ran out of the room and penetrated into her clothes like a cold wind, making her feel very warm.
"It's so comfortable!" she couldn't help but sigh in her heart.
She followed the footsteps into the house and glanced at the slightly empty furnishings. Wherever she looked, she saw another woman. At first glance, she discovered the beauty of the woman from her unkempt appearance.
"Goddess, watch her and let her dance for an hour and a half. If that's not enough time, throw her out of the window."
"Nan, how dare you!"
"So his last name is Nan." Rui Xiaodan muttered to herself.
Nan Yi ignored Liu Zhen and came to Rui Xiaodan, who had already untied the restraints on her face. "Teacher Rui, I'm leaving her in your care. Be strict. If she doesn't obey, beat her to death. As long as you don't hit her face, breaking her legs is fine."
Nan Yi's words made Rui Xiaodan not know how to respond, and she could only stammer.
"It's okay. You are the teacher and she is the student, so you should be stricter. Only a strict teacher can produce a good student. I'll leave her in your care." Nan Yi consoled her and added, "When you come here in the future, take a taxi back and forth instead of a minibus. I'll reimburse you. It's not safe for a girl to go out at night."
"Ah...oh, thank you!"
Rui Xiaodan felt very shy and annoyed by her incoherent speech.
Nan Yi was a little surprised by Rui Xiaodan's reaction. How could a sophomore at Beijing Film Academy and someone who wanted to be an actor in the future be so shy?
However, he did not make any other moves, just nodded to Rui Xiaodan, said hello to Liu Zhen and left. Dinner was tasteless, he didn't eat much, he had to find a place to eat more.
Ling, Leng Yan opened a bar and asked Nan Yi for 1.7 million yuan. He was considered half the boss.
Nan Yi arrived at the door of the bar and saw the word "Ling" on the sign. He couldn't help but complain in his heart: "There is only one word "Ling". It's not called Lingnan, Lengnan, or Nanleng. There is no mark of the old man at all. I wasted my money. "
After entering the bar, Nan Yi negotiated with the bartender for a few words and was then directed to a private room. Leng Yan was sitting alone inside, and there were a lot of grilled skewers on the table .
Nan Yi walked over and sat down next to her. He picked up a few skewers and put them in his mouth. After he ate a little and felt full, he said, "Why are you alone? Where's your man?"
"I went bowling."
"Oh, bring me the account book. I'll check it. Last year, you only gave me 250,000 yuan in dividends."
Leng Yan said disdainfully: "I would still be greedy for your money. The wine in the bar is real. It's not bad to make 500,000 a year."
Nan Yi smacked his lips, "Well, it takes seven years to make back the investment, this business is so bad. If it doesn't work, buy a batch of ten-dollar Remy Martin. Anyway, nine out of ten people who drink this stuff can't tell the real thing from the fake. If you are unlucky enough to meet someone who knows the business, just admit defeat, give him the real wine for free, and call him master again."
Leng Yan knew that Nan Yi was joking, so she just rolled her eyes and ignored him.
Nan Yi saw that there was no turning back, so he simply ate the skewers, only choosing the vegetarian ones and not touching the meat at all. This was the trouble of being too knowledgeable. Since last year, he didn't dare to eat skewers outside, and only ate vegetarian ones occasionally.
The Kenzhi Group has both meat supply business and cold chain business. Last year, the sales of meat supply did not increase much. When reviewing the reasons, one reason was that the competition became more intense. A group of suppliers emerged in the market whose wholesale prices were 30% lower than the cost price of the Kenzhi Group. The Kenzhi Group could not compete and had to admit defeat.
After a while, Leng Yan saw Nan Yi finish the vegetarian food and didn't touch the meat at all, so she asked, "You don't eat meat?"
Nan Yi shook his head. "No, there was a breakthrough in water injection technology on the market last year. It started to be subdivided. There are water injections before slaughtering and water injections after slaughtering. There are also specific requirements for which artery to inject water through. There are already veterans who have practiced the technology to perfection. You can't tell unless you try it."
Some things are boring to say out loud, so Nan Yi chose the lightest one to say.
"Water injection means less weight, what does it have to do with eating?"
"It's a big deal. It's filled with water. Do you still expect to be given boiling water? It should be tap water, but who knows what kind of water. Eat less meat skewers from the stalls in the future. Pinch them before grilling. Don't eat them if they are not greasy. It works in the summer, but not in the winter. They are frozen and thawed, and the water has already seeped into the meat and you can't tell it apart."
"Damn it, why didn't you tell me earlier." Leng Yan frowned and threw the skewers in her hand back on the table.
Nan Yi glanced at Leng Yan and said, "Don't panic. You have been luckier than others since you were a child. Don't worry, it won't be your turn to be the one who wins the lottery."
"Did I know you as a child?"
"We don't need to know each other since childhood. The fact that we can be classmates already shows that you are a lucky person. Otherwise, how could you meet a noble person like me?"
"Tsk!" Leng Yan spat and changed the subject, "I have more than 20 million idle funds in my account. I plan to acquire a few pharmaceutical factories."
Nan Yi took a few pieces of paper from the table and wiped his lips. "Wait a minute. The global economic environment is not right. It's better to keep some cash on hand at this time and try to see if there is a bonus issue."
Leng Yan retorted: "It is impossible to issue shares this year. The procedures cannot be followed up."
"Don't be so sure. Everything depends on human effort. Talk to a few major shareholders and allocate the old shares first and then the new ones. If there is an opportunity, you must act quickly. As long as the money is raised, the stock price will go wherever it wants."
Hearing Nan Yi say this, Leng Yan suddenly thought of a possibility, "Is an economic crisis coming?"
Nan Yi nodded and said, "That's about right. Give me authorization and I'll have someone withdraw 5 million Hong Kong dollars from your account."
"Buying stocks?"
"Oh my god, don't say that. If you say that, you'll be suspected of insider trading. Be careful that ICAC will call you for coffee."
"Does that count?"
"It's better to be careful. I won't waste my time with an old woman like you. I'm going to go out and find a little sister to chat with."
Nan Yi said as he walked out of the private room and found a good-looking female white-collar worker to chat with in a civilized manner. They just wanted to chat casually, without the intention of taking her away or bringing her into the toilet.
At that time, the term "white-collar worker" was not yet a joke. Although no one had a strict definition of it, often only office workers in foreign companies were recognized as white-collar workers, which basically meant that their income was not low.
The white-collar lady Susan in front of Nan Yi couldn't have a low income, because she said that she would go to Ling to sit after get off work every day.
Ling's consumption is not low. The cheapest bottle of beer is 30 yuan. Considering Susan's appearance, she will probably be treated to a few meals a month. Even taking this possibility into account, the alcohol cost at least several hundred yuan a month. Not everyone can afford it. What's more, she drinks red wine, which is sold by the bottle, starting at 198 yuan a bottle. The last two digits remain unchanged, but the first digit jumps up.
Nan Yi opened a bottle of 998 liquor and shared it with Susan, trying to find out from her some information about current female white-collar workers' consumption concepts, mate selection, where they live, what they eat, whether they often take taxis to and from get off work, and so on. All the liquor was turned into consulting fees, not a drop was wasted.
On the way home, Nan Yi wrote down the preliminary idea of a "white-collar apartment" project on paper. He would build apartments with hotel-style services. The rooms would be decorated in Western style. It would be basically impossible to cook, and at most the kitchen would be large enough to make noodles and salads. It would be equipped with German tableware, a refrigerator and a wine cabinet, so that parties could be held at any time.
The property is equipped with dry cleaning, a supermarket selling alcohol and side dishes that can deliver goods to your door, housekeeping services, and one-stop party services. Residents do not have to worry about anything, just inform the number of people, budget and time of the party. There is Shepherd's Coffee downstairs, which not only provides coffee, but also digital cameras and services of transferring information to computers and emails. If you want to print out a few photos and take them back to post, that is also possible.
We often organize social gatherings for the residents, and when two white-collar workers with high income and high consumption get together, it is time for them to consider buying a house. The Caishen Company can connect them and strongly recommend to them international residences with a down payment of 30% and a guarantee of ten years.
It doesn’t matter if you can’t raise the down payment. Caishen Company will solemnly recommend a wealth restructuring plan, which in layman’s terms is usury within the scope of legal recognition.
The purpose of white-collar apartments is to trap high-income white-collar workers and create a high-consumption white-collar style. No matter their salary is 3,000 or 5,000, there is always a way to turn them into people who live paycheck to paycheck, and then tempt them to start paying for their houses.
Thanks to the rising housing prices, the ugly business model has been transformed into the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, who saves all living beings. Those who listened to me settled down in Beijing and became wealthy. Ten years later, they looked back at the hardships they had to endure in order to afford housing. They were deeply moved and said, "There is justice in the world. There is a reward for every effort. We should thank White Collar Apartments."
