Chapter 1785: Day 1

After strolling for half the morning, the two were exhausted. After returning, they didn't want to move or exert themselves.

Ye Yaodong flopped directly onto the bed. "I'm old, I feel like my legs and feet aren't working."

"Only walked for half the morning and you're done for? If I drag you out to stroll in the afternoon, won't you be completely limp?"

"Where else to go in the afternoon?"

"Let's stroll around some more. It took two days on the train to get here, we can't just stroll for half a day. I'd rather be a bit tired and stroll enough to make it worth it, so as not to waste this long trip."

Ye Yaodong buried his head in the pillow. "Alright."

As usual, before going out, the two went to the exhibition hall for a turn, saw that there were still people guarding it, and only then went out to stroll again.

Others were the same; except for those on rotation, everyone was strolling outside.

Ye Yaodong also brought a camera on this trip, so the couple treated it as a vacation, taking photos wherever they walked in the afternoon.

Furthermore, he unexpectedly bought the golden curly wig he had been talking about in the morning. Anyway, regardless of whether it was useful or not, since he saw it, he bought it first.

The two strolled happily for the whole afternoon and only returned to the guesthouse before dark.

At dinner, they counted heads again to ensure everyone had returned before feeling relieved.

Everyone seemed to have gained something; every face wore an excited smile, and they were discussing in twos and threes what they had bought, how good and cheap the things were, and those who didn't bring enough money were borrowing from each other.

"Looks like the harvest is not bad!"

Ye Yaodong smiled and rubbed his hands, then started painting a picture of the future. "Strolled happily today too, so perk up tomorrow; the time to pick up money has arrived!"

"Your performance this year depends on tomorrow. Whether it's big fish and meat or steamed buns and pickles, you decide for yourselves, ha! And there's a big house beckoning to you!"

"My family quarters have hundreds of houses—100 square meters, 89 square meters, 70 square meters, all available. It depends on your ability. Others don't have such a good opportunity; many key staff in the factory haven't had the chance yet and still have to work hard for a few years."

"You are different; you are the sales representatives on the front line. If you can sign a few big orders this year, or if your cumulative sales reach the standard, not only can you get high commissions, but you also have the opportunity to be allocated housing at a price lower than the market rate."

"All of this depends on yourselves. Keep it up! The factory won't treat you unfairly."

"Bought two golden wigs back. Tomorrow, two female comrades will wear them, and we'll put on an act to earn some attention and attract traffic. It's also a good time to train you newcomers who know English when there's no one around."

"Rest early tonight. Don't know what the situation will be tomorrow, anyway, get up early the day after tomorrow morning, take a big group photo at the venue entrance to commemorate our factory's first participation in the Canton Fair!"

"Alright, I'm done talking. Disperse and go back to your rooms to rest."

Everyone responded with full vigor, applauded, and then happily dispersed in twos and threes.

Early the next morning, everyone got up early, dressed spiritedly, had breakfast, and marched toward the exhibition hall with high spirits.

However, they arrived a bit early, before the exhibition hall was open. There were already many exhibitors waiting at the entrance, all with badges hanging on their chests, waiting to enter.

When the big doors opened, everyone swarmed in and walked toward their respective booths.

At this time, no procurement agents had come yet, and everyone was chatting relaxedly as they walked, except for Ye Yaodong and his team, who were attending for the first time.

As soon as they entered the exhibition hall, they started to feel a bit nervous. Although some had attended domestic sales exhibitions, this was communicating with foreigners. Looking at their facial features, which were different from those of their countrymen, there was always psychological pressure. With their broken English, they definitely couldn't talk and laugh freely.

Ye Yaodong also saw this. "Relax a bit, don't worry. Those foreigners will definitely bring translators, and there will definitely be people who understand Chinese around them. They are definitely also afraid that they won't be able to communicate with us."

Everyone relaxed a bit for the time being, but after they arrived at their own exhibition booth, turned on the lights, and sat down, they couldn't help but feel nervous again.

Lin Xiuqing held the two wigs in her hands. "Should we wear them? Should we put on an act now?"

"Wait, there's no one around right now."

Their exhibition booth location was also divided into sections according to product categories. Naturally, the surrounding area was also full of various seafood products or canned fish packaging goods, mostly canned fish. He had already investigated this yesterday.

At the same time, he was also pondering in his heart that perhaps next year, he could let Hong Wenle from his hometown also apply for import and export rights and apply to attend the Canton Fair. This way, maybe he could even extend the life of the factory.

It looked prosperous now, but he knew that after the millennium, it would slowly start to go downhill.

If it could really extend its life, he could also keep holding shares and collecting money.

"Coming, coming, there are foreigners!"

The deputy factory director was so excited that he pulled his clothes directly, almost pulling him down, and his own glasses fell to the ground.

Ye Yaodong laughed. "Don't be excited, don't be excited. You can see one or two now; later you'll see a whole group, and then they'll all come here to queue."

Everyone looked at the foreigners with full expectation, then they entered other people's exhibition booths, stretching their necks and looking forward to it.

Watching foreigners enter and exit the surrounding booths one after another, and a white foreigner also walked in front of their booth. Everyone greeted them enthusiastically, but the foreigner smiled, their gaze lingered for a moment, and then they moved away.

The smiles on everyone's faces stiffened; it was inevitable to feel a bit awkward the first time.

Ye Yaodong took the wigs from Lin Xiuqing's backpack and handed them to the two female sales representatives.

"Xiao Zhang, Xiao Liu, you two put them on."

"Hahaha..."

The two girls were a bit embarrassed.

"What are you afraid of! Keep your heads down, pretend to look at the products, use the calculator to press numbers, don't talk!"

Ye Yaodong directed, "Xiao Juan, you go over, pretend to talk to them in English, speak louder!"

Their team had 15 people, but only three knew English—two women and one man, who were also recruited from Shanghai with great difficulty.

They were previously assistants in foreign trade companies and also temporary workers. Seeing no hope of becoming permanent staff, they came to try when they saw they were recruiting foreign trade sales representatives with high salaries. Although it was a private unit, the salary was high.

The two "foreigners" wearing golden wigs were at their booth, looking at the shelves, holding a bag of shredded squid, and seriously pressing the calculator randomly.

A-Juan on the side used accented English to loudly ask and answer herself: "Hello! This is our best quality! How many you want? One container? Good..."

This carefully planned "double act" immediately produced miraculous effects.

The herd mentality is universally applicable, let alone for a big order of a whole container!

Passing real foreign merchants and domestic procurement agents saw that there were people enthusiastically negotiating here, and they opened their mouths to talk about a whole container, so they couldn't help but feel curious.

Others held back their laughter, watching them pretend to talk there while staring at the foreigners who came over, and then greeted them enthusiastically.

False prosperity quickly brought real attention.

In an instant, someone was attracted, and the other two sales representatives who knew English quickly went up to strike up a conversation.

And the two impostors went to the corner to secretly take off the wigs, and then went to greet guests as if nothing had happened.

Ye Yaodong's eyes lit up. He winked at Lin Xiuqing and leaned into her ear to whisper, "Am I awesome? This works too?"

Lin Xiuqing giggled and gave him a thumbs up. "Awesome!"

"Hurry up and help pour tea and hand water..."

Everything is difficult at the beginning. Once there is popularity, naturally, people will slowly be attracted.

The sales representatives started to get busy. The two of them, as the boss and boss's wife, didn't understand anything, so they could only follow on the side to pour tea, hand water, hand out samples, and hand out pens and business cards.

An hour passed, and their exhibition booth was also full of people. Everyone forgot their nervousness. After the guests on hand tasted the samples and exchanged business cards and left, they immediately hurried to greet new guests.

Although no orders had been opened yet, having popularity and being busy was a good thing. Everyone was busy greeting guests, and no one had time to feel discouraged.

At this time, an elderly Hong Kong trader walked up, pointed at the shredded squid for tasting, and asked for the price. The surrounding sales representatives all had guests to greet. Ye Yaodong looked left and right, and went into action himself. Although the other party's Hong Kong-accented Mandarin was a bit broken, he could understand it.

He also knew some of the rough trade quotes. When they had meetings, the sales representatives had talked about it, and he also understood. Anyway, it was just FOB price and CIF price, and they had also organized how to quote the bottom price.

However, after the other party heard the quote, they nodded before, said they would look again, and after exchanging business cards, they left again.

Lin Xiuqing listened to the whole thing on the side. "These people are all asking and leaving; are they going to compare?"

"Should be. It's fine, anyway, the hall just opened, it's normal not to place an order immediately."

He scanned the surroundings; some booths were already opening orders, but there were no long queues. He felt a bit more at ease in his heart, comforting himself that the hall had just opened, it was early morning, and there was still a long time left.

Half an hour later, a pot-bellied Italian merchant, Mr. Giovanni, was attracted.

He showed great interest in the barbecue-flavored roasted baby squid.

Through half-baked English and rich body language, Ye Yaodong and the sales representative beside him understood that the other party wanted to modify the packaging design and add Italian labels.

Facing this request, Ye Yaodong only hesitated for three seconds before firmly making the decision: "No problem! We can do it! Don't talk about Italian, we can even do ghost-drawn symbols for him!"

Xiao Zhang smiled and translated, "No problem! We can do!"

This promise brought him a trial order of 50,000 US dollars, but the other party required the payment method to be a letter of credit.

He hurriedly called Lin Xiaojuan over and asked her to guide Xiao Zhang to help the guest make a letter of credit order; she was the one who understood this the most here.

A 50,000 US dollar order was a small order for these foreigners, but for their factory, it was a big order that boosted morale!

Currently, our country is in a critical period of exchange rate system reform, implementing a dual-track system where the "foreign exchange adjustment market" and the "official exchange rate" coexist.

The official exchange rate is about 1 US dollar ≈ 5.76 RMB, but the foreign exchange adjustment market exchange rate is different.

Currently, import demand is strong, and foreign exchange is in short supply, leading to the exchange rate in the adjustment market being far higher than the official exchange rate.

The current exchange rate in the foreign exchange adjustment market fluctuates at about 1 US dollar ≈ 8.0-8.7 RMB.

Ye Yaodong was also attending the Canton Fair, so he was given a crash course in this type of knowledge, and only then did he know these things he hadn't been exposed to before.

What does this mean for him?

It means the settlement method directly determines their profit.

And it is very likely that their export income is allowed to enter the foreign exchange adjustment market and be settled at the market exchange rate, for example, 8.5. Then the 50,000 US dollar order could bring him sales.

This is a veritable huge sum of money, much larger than the profit from domestic sales.

If settled according to the official exchange rate, then it would only be 【that much】, and the difference is not just a little bit.

In order to encourage exports, the state is gradually expanding the proportion of foreign exchange retained by enterprises and entering the adjustment market, so he also has a great possibility of striving for settlement at the market exchange rate.

Ye Yaodong stared at this order without missing a beat. After the contract was signed and the deposit was received, he let out a sigh of relief, and others' eyes also shone.

Even though everyone had other customers to greet, they were all pricking up their ears to listen to the movement of signing the order over there.

"Yeah~"

"Success~"

Two sales representatives cheered excitedly with the order in their hands, not caring that others were present, and were so excited they were almost in tears.

Signing this order, they could get a commission twice their salary.

Ye Yaodong smiled and said, "Originally, this order was Xiao Zhang's, but Xiao Juan also contributed. For the first order, you both have a share. Xiao Zhang's commission remains unchanged, and at the same time, Xiao Juan also gets a share of the commission!"

"Wow~ Thank you, boss~"

The young girl cheered excitedly, and everyone in the whole hall couldn't help but reveal a knowing smile.

At the same time, after having this order, it was like knocking down the first domino. Following Giovanni's signing, other customers who had been consulting and watching also acted one after another.

A Singaporean merchant had been consulting for half an hour and finally made up their mind to order a container of fish powder.

A huge order of over 100,000 US dollars!

Everyone was instantly full of enthusiasm again, as if they had been injected with chicken blood. A good start had already been made, and the next step depended on their ability.

Then another American merchant became interested in their filefish fillets and also placed an order for 20,000 US dollars.

Merchants placed orders one after another, and everyone radiated unparalleled enthusiasm, and their booth was also full of a joyful atmosphere.

Sometimes, when the atmosphere is good, it is more attractive.

From the moment they opened the first order, they didn't stop, and orders kept coming one after another—some as small as a few thousand US dollars, and some as large as over 100,000.

By the afternoon, there were even more foreign merchants coming to consult. Their manpower was clearly a bit overwhelmed, and even Ye Yaodong and Lin Xiuqing had to bite the bullet and communicate along.

Although they couldn't understand, they had calculators, and they could communicate by bargaining with calculators.

When the closing bell rang and the surging crowd gradually receded, Ye Yaodong and the team members were almost exhausted, but every face was overflowing with uncontrollable excitement and a rosy glow.

They counted the fruits of their battle and received a thick stack of business cards from over a dozen countries, including Hong Kong, Singapore, the UK, the US, and even as far away as the Netherlands.

And they reached over twenty orders, worth 700,000 to 800,000 US dollars of goods.

When Lin Xiuqing held the list and calculated the amount with a calculator, all heads were gathered around, looking at the numbers on the calculator, and mouths were all opened into an "O" shape.

Ye Yaodong quickly converted in his mind. Calculated at the highest exchange rate of over eight, the orders created by working hard for one day today were already worth over 6 million!

This was just one day, and it had already created the revenue of the second half of last year.

There were still two days left, and as far as he knew, the peak period was the second day.

"This... how much money is this? Over 6 million?"

Lin Xiuqing was also full of excitement. "Yes, that's right. We created sales of over 6 million in just one day today, which is equivalent to you being able to get a commission of over 6,000 today. There are still two days left."

"As long as you work for two more days, your commission will be higher than a year's salary. And it's only the first half of the year now; there's still the Canton Fair in the second half of the year, and you'll definitely earn more then. Earning 10,000 this year is definitely not a problem."

"After all, today is only our first day of exhibition, and there are no old customers. In the second half of the year, there will be old customers."

"You can maintain the customers well and strive for customers to continue returning orders. After the first time, people will know our quality, and they will definitely place larger orders later."

The sales representatives were all excited. The commission was higher than the salary, and this was only one day.

Ye Yaodong continued to encourage, "Keep it up, tomorrow's orders will definitely be more. Didn't I tell you all? Our factory has plenty of opportunities. In those state-run units, you are nothing and can only be assistants, but here with me, you can shine."

"Today is just a start; there are more opportunities later. Work hard, and when the exhibition ends, I'll give each of you a big red envelope. Now, prepare to disperse!"

Everyone cheered, "Roar~"

"Thank you, boss! Thank you, boss's wife!"

"Hurry up and clean up, the hall is about to close. I'll take you to have a good meal in a while."

"Okay!" everyone roared with full vigor.

Their passionate team also attracted the attention of people around. Ye Yaodong showed a full face of smiles to everyone and said politely, "Sorry, sorry to bother you, it's our first time attending the Canton Fair, a bit excited."

People around also smiled kindly.

He put away the orders and a schoolbag of US dollars and carried them on his back.

Each of them carried an identical schoolbag in front of them. Although it was quite conspicuous, since they were all identical, it didn't matter, and it just happened to show that they were a team.

Considering safety issues, there were still exhibitions tomorrow and the day after, so they didn't dare to wander around and just had a good meal at a restaurant near the guesthouse.

"When we are away from home, safety comes first. If we can avoid exerting ourselves, we should exert ourselves less. Currently, prioritize the Canton Fair work. After it ends and we return to Zhoushan, we'll hold a celebration banquet for you then to reward you well."

Lin Xiuqing said, "Rest well tonight, get up early tomorrow, let's take a big group photo, and then get to work. Tomorrow will definitely be a big harvest day, with an even bigger harvest than today."

"Okay, I'm already full of confidence. The harvest of our trip to the Canton Fair will definitely exceed the turnover of last year!" the deputy factory director said confidently.

"Hope it can double tomorrow!"

"Hahaha, everyone keep it up!"

The whole team was full of confidence, and today's "opening red" also boosted everyone's morale.

Ye Yaodong smiled and said, "Tomorrow we will also follow today's model. When it looks about right, Xiao Zhang and Xiao Liu, you two put on the wigs again to attract traffic."

"Hahaha, the boss still has many ideas, and it really works."

Xiao Juan said excitedly, "Boss, how did you come up with this idea? It really works so well. Although I shouted loudly at the time, my toes were almost curling into the ground, and my face was red to the roots of my ears and neck. Fortunately, someone was really attracted. Otherwise, I really wouldn't dare to open my mouth again."

"Haha, so you are a meritorious official. The red envelopes for the three of you will have to be bigger then. Keep it up tomorrow."

"Must, definitely!"

Xiao Zhang said with a flushed face, "I was greeting guests all morning. For the first hour, there were only inquiries, and I didn't open for business. I was actually anxious to death in my heart."

"Me too. I happened to hear the sound of orders opening next door, and I was about to be anxious to death. Fortunately, I received a letter of credit."

"Was that Italian guy the only one who did a letter of credit all day today?"

Ye Yaodong said, "Don't call him an Italian guy. After all, he is our factory's first God of Wealth. His name is Giovanni, remember that. Xiao Zhang must also remember to maintain this guest well, your first guest."

Xiao Zhang patted his chest, "Must, this is my God of Wealth, I have to worship him."

"When you are free, learn more foreign trade terms. Knowing English alone is not enough; you can't always rely on Xiao Juan for help."

"That's for sure. Only the letter of credit is troublesome; I know the other quotes."

"Mm, everyone should learn more. Since we have started import and export business, English and foreign trade terminology are very important to us. You must continue to attend the night school you are currently attending."

Since the import and export rights application was approved, the company's sales representatives have also signed up for a foreign trade training and specifically went to night school.

Although they have only been attending for a month or so, and it is somewhat unsatisfactory, it is better than last year when they didn't understand anything at all. They have to continue attending and continue to improve themselves.

Everyone responded with a promise.

Without him saying it, everyone would actually continue to attend after going back. After all, they tasted the sweetness today, and for tomorrow, they have more confidence.

"Alright, you all drank a bit of wine just now, go back and rest early, don't go out anymore, it's too chaotic outside."

"Okay, understood."

"Let's go."

Today was considered quite satisfactory, exceeding their expectations.

They were attending for the first time, and it was the first time for a manufacturing enterprise to attend the Canton Fair. Having a revenue of 600,000 to 700,000 US dollars on the first day, Ye Yaodong was already very satisfied.

As soon as he returned to the guesthouse, he poured the US dollars he received all over the bed.

This was already their family's traditional program: counting money!

Lin Xiuqing excitedly pounced on it and lowered her voice, "Wow~ too much~ First time seeing US dollars, and also first time seeing so many strange banknotes!"

"It's hard for you, excited and wanting to cheer, but can only lower your voice and speak softly."

"Of course. After all, there are ears behind the walls in the guesthouse, and the soundproofing effect here is not good. We have to keep our movements small and speak softly, so as not to be overheard, let alone so much money."

"Let's count and see." ===== CHAPTER 1786 =====