Chapter 230

A Yanjing local, from a military family, similar age, tall? High school education, gentle temper, looks refined, eloquent, and knows how to make money.

Mei Wenhua perfectly met Wei Ming's grandmother's requirements for a grandson-in-law, even far exceeding expectations.

Following Mei Wenhua's impulsive "Second Aunt, Grandmother," Yunyun covered her face and ran into the bedroom in shyness, and the relationship between the two was settled just like that.

Mei Wenhua hadn't even formally confessed to Yunyun before, but she knew that this day would come sooner or later, and she was already prepared to accept.

Mei Wenhua was also kept for dinner that evening. Although he couldn't cook, he busied himself in and out, looking like he was constantly working.

At the dinner table, Wei Ming's grandmother asked if they should meet Mei's family before leaving Yanjing to discuss the wedding of the two children.

This speed left Wei Hong speechless. She had only been gone for three days—had the world changed this much?

Mei Wenhua was surprised but carried a hint of joy; he hadn't expected the old lady to be so straightforward. Wei Ming tried to stop her but failed.

Little Mei indicated it was no problem; he would tell his family in the next few days and said he would come to pick up Yunyun for work the next day.

Wei Ming immediately criticized: "Grandmother has come to Yanjing; shouldn't you give Yunyun a day off so she can accompany the elder?"

Mei Wenhua hurriedly self-criticized: "Yes, yes, yes, it was my lack of consideration. But tomorrow is payday, so should I give her the money privately?"

Hearing that it was payday, Yunyun and Little Hong immediately came out of the room, indicating they would be at work on time tomorrow.

That night, Wei Hong, who was in the same quilt as Yunyun, interrogated her cousin, asking what they had done in those three days and to be specific.

"It was just going to work, getting off work, eating, and working together." Yunyun felt there was nothing special, but because Little Hong was missing, the atmosphere between the two was completely different.

"Then did you, did you do things you shouldn't have?" Wei Hong thought of the kiss between the male and female leads in 'Lushan Romance', and those things in her brother's novel 'The Tale of Two Donkeys'—that was even more serious.

"How could that be? Nothing of the sort, don't talk nonsense." Yunyun denied it firmly, but seemed to have some expectations.

On the other side, Wei Ming was in the study opening Old Wei's letter. The letter spoke of the grand occasion of the 'Haolilai' shop opening and said that he would return the Hong Kong dollars he borrowed from him in full before long.

Additionally, he mentioned the defection of Uncle Liu Bin, Dragon's father.

"He is a university student and understands foreign languages; he is exactly the talent we need. I decided to earn his partnership; he can be responsible for the financial side."

Wei Ming immediately began writing a reply: "With Uncle Liu there, I am at ease. I was worried he would go astray again after getting out. As for that money, you don't need to worry about it; just consider it your grandson's filial piety."

He still had foreign exchange in HSBC, so he didn't care about those few thousand Hong Kong dollars, let alone the cash cow that was Oriental Dongfang Xintiandi; he had so much money he didn't know where to spend it.

However, Wei Ming didn't let this diminish his passion for writing. Business has its wins and losses; these words printed on paper were his final insurance policy.

Afterward, Wei Ming reported the news of Little Hong being the provincial top scorer in high school. With such a grandson and granddaughter, he could just secretly be happy.

The next day when Wei Ming got up, Wei Hong was on the phone; it was Uncle Ping'an calling to congratulate her.

The two Peking University alumni were chatting and laughing; Wei Ming waited until the end to chat with Uncle Ping'an for a few words.

Because Little Hong and Yunyun were going to work to collect their wages today, Wei Ming prepared to take his grandmother and mother to see the courtyard house and get to know their second home.

Knowing that her grandson had another house in Yanjing, the grandmother exclaimed that her grandson had great prospects.

Wei Ming rarely said a good word about Mei Wenhua: "Grandmother, Little Mei is also preparing to buy one, to be used as their new home with Yunyun."

Hearing her cousin tease her, Yunyun was so shy she couldn't lift her head, while the grandmother smiled from ear to ear.

This time Wei Ming didn't ride his motorcycle; he accompanied the two elders on the bus for a trip, so that his mother could take the bus herself if she wanted to go in the future.

"Is that the Forbidden City over there?" Xu Shufen asked in surprise.

"Yes, it's not far from the Forbidden City, separated by a moat."

Hearing this, Xu Shufen sighed: "Being neighbors with the Emperor—if your father knew, his tail would probably be wagging to the sky."

On the other side, at Oriental Dongfang Xintiandi, before officially opening for business, Mei Wenhua distributed the wages and bonuses for the half-month of July to the five regular employees and Little Hong.

Among them, the one with the highest wage was Huang Ying, the top salesperson Mei Wenhua favored. He also intended to cultivate this girl to be a manager. In 15 days, she received a total of 45 yuan, which was enough to equal her father's monthly salary.

Second place was Xu Yunyun, whose sales were second only to Huang Ying. Mei Wenhua was still very fair and didn't practice favoritism just because Yunyun was now his girlfriend.

Yunyun received 41 yuan. She had already planned it out: send 30 yuan home; 11 yuan was enough for her expenses until next month.

Little Hong received 38 yuan due to reasons like taking leave, but she was quite satisfied herself. This was the first time she had earned money, and she wanted to use this money to buy something for her brother, parents, and grandmother to show her filial piety.

Even the income of the few shopping guides who joined later was nearly 30 yuan. This income surprised them very much and solidified their determination to stay.

It was said to be 30 yuan a month, but if you count the bonuses, you could have sixty or even more in a month!

However, labor costs were truly negligible costs in Mei Wenhua's view. Even if you count the wages and meal expenses for the six employees for the whole month, it wouldn't exceed 1000 yuan.

If he wasn't worried about being too shocking, he would definitely want to raise the wages by a notch. After all, he was a youth born under the red flag, and he was still a bit unaccustomed to exploiting people.

But he was also trying hard to adapt to his new identity.

Next, Mei Wenhua talked about his newly perfected rules and regulations, including rules for time off, leave, and commissions.

While ensuring that everyone could have sufficient rest and private time, he also had to mobilize their work enthusiasm to the maximum, making the operation of Oriental Dongfang Xintiandi more and more standardized.

When they opened for business, even on weekdays, there were still a large number of customers coming by reputation, especially female consumers, and the best-selling items were the ones worn by Gong Xue and Zhu Lin on the posters.

The two big sisters were definitely top-tier influencers.

At this time, the arrival of a male customer caught Mei Wenhua's attention. He smelled an aura similar to Yang Hao's from this person; could this be a reporter?

"Hello, may I ask if you are the person in charge of this shop? I am a reporter from the 'Yanjing Xin Xin Wan Bao'. May I ask a few questions?"

Late in the afternoon, when they were about to get off work, Wei Ming rode his motorcycle over. He brought a few fashion magazines.

"Little Mei, come here, take this." He shoved the magazines together with the bag to him. They were all in traditional Chinese characters and shouldn't be seen by others.

At noon, he received a package from A Min. This little girl was truly surprising.

After he mentioned opening a clothing store, she actually bought a few Hong Kong fashion magazines and mailed them to him.

"Give these to Auntie Biao, and let her choose some suitable clothes to imitate. Our clothes also need to update their styles, otherwise, the customers won't have a sense of freshness."

"Actually, I wanted to talk about this too. Now some state-run garment stores have started to imitate our styles. These magazines came just in time!" Mei Wenhua carefully put them away.

"I also have something to tell you," Mei Wenhua whispered immediately, "Today a reporter from the 'Yanjing Xin Xin Wan Bao' came to our shop and even interviewed me."

Wei Ming's expression became serious: "Did he ask about our revenue?"

"More than that, he even asked directly how much we earned last month. I could only be vague, and then I brought up how opening a shop can make one self-sufficient while solving employment, and I also focused on introducing Sister Qin's story."

Mei Wenhua had no experience dealing with the media; being able to do this was already quite good. It was just that he didn't know what the 'Yanjing Xin Xin Wan Bao' would say, and how much attention it would eventually attract.

However, Wei Ming knew that at least during this period, the relevant policies were in a "relaxed" state. Several individual merchants of different types in Yanjing emerged during this period.

Wei Ming glanced at the busy Little Hong and Yunyun: "I have something else to do, I'm leaving first."

Mei Wenhua: "There's one more thing. Can Auntie Biao and I go to your courtyard house tonight? Let's split the money."

After paying the employees' wages, the next step was, of course, for the bosses to split the money.

"It's not very convenient. Let's go to Seeing Biaozi's house instead." Wei Ming refused decisively.

He didn't know when Xue Jie would return to Shanghai, and he was also going to Shandong and Sichuan next, so he had a date with Xue Jie today. Didn't you see he had already changed the watch on his wrist? And the date location was at the courtyard house.

When Gong Xue came to the courtyard house again, she asked: "Is the renovation finished now?"

She thought of the panic of the two of them that morning again.

"It's finished, the locks have all been changed," Wei Ming shook the lock, and then he hugged Gong Xue's waist. "It seems like big sister doesn't want to leave tonight either."

"Not at all. You have to be responsible for sending me back after letting me see your treasures."

Wei Ming locked the courtyard gate from the inside; we'll talk about that later.

They didn't enter the bedroom, but went into the study Wei Ming used for creation, which was connected to the bedroom.

Hanging inside was the 'Qi Baishi Ye Yin Wen Sheng Flower and Insect Album' that Wei Ming had just brought over today.

There were eighteen paintings in total, three in one frame. Wei Ming brought three frames over, and left half at the Overseas Chinese Apartment.

These nine paintings were enough for Xue Jie to look at.

"Here." Wei Ming also thoughtfully prepared a magnifying glass—the same one he had played with with Sister Lin.

"Masterpiece!" Gong Xue used the magnifying glass to stare at the wings of a cicada. At this moment, the sound of cicadas rang out fittingly outside the house, and Wei Ming wanted to eat fried cicada nymphs again.

No cicada nymphs to eat, eating a small meat bun would do too.

"Ah, stop it~" Gong Xue was watching intently, but was ambushed by someone, a pair of big hands making mischief everywhere.

However, when Wei Ming said: "I'm going to Shandong the day after tomorrow."

Hearing his pitiful tone, Xue Jie let him be. Let him touch the top if he wanted, but absolutely not the bottom, otherwise she wouldn't be able to stand steady.

How could she appreciate these paintings if she couldn't stand steady?

Wei Ming agreed nicely at first, but things became increasingly wrong. Gong Xue had only finished looking at two paintings before she had no heart to appreciate them anymore.

Wei Ming, who had been behind her just a moment ago, was now in front, his head buried deep within.

Gong Xue placed the magnifying glass on the table and hugged his head tightly.

"Little Wei, we will make a mistake if we do this..."

Wei Ming: "It's not like we haven't made mistakes before."

He had already picked up the petite Xue Jie and walked toward the bedroom.

Xue Jie bargained: "Let's use our hands instead."

She didn't know why, but looking at her deer-like, weak eyes, Wei Ming couldn't bring himself to be cruel. He had originally thought about letting her catch up to Sister Lin's progress today, but when the tough words reached his lips, they finally turned into: "Then we won't cover ourselves with the quilt today."

He wanted her to watch.

Xue Jie agreed shyly.

Finally, Wei Ming sent Xue Jie back to their unit dormitory. It was still early; if she didn't leave now, once he recovered, she might not be able to leave. With her small frame, she might not even be able to walk tomorrow. When Wei Ming slipped into a large courtyard near Houhai, Mei Wenhua and Auntie Biao had already been waiting for a while; it was just the two of them.

Seeing Biaozi was not from a single-parent family, but Biao's father was supporting the Third Front construction and couldn't return even once in several years. The last time he came home was three years ago. If it weren't for the regular wages and letters, Seeing Biaozi would have thought he had lost his father.

But this time, Seeing Biaozi might be able to see his old man when he goes to Sichuan to film.

Mei Wenhua said: "You finally came. Auntie has already checked the account book; you should verify it again."

Wei Ming scanned it simply; after all, he had done business before, so he could still read an account book.

However, this thing was too mentally taxing, so he just looked at it roughly, and it was fine as long as he confirmed there were no problems with the taxes.

"Yo, after deducting the rent for one year and other costs, we made a net profit of over 15,000 in one month!"

Mei Wenhua said proudly: "We have already earned back our initial costs. If people knew about this, how many would be green with envy."

Wei Ming asked: "Then how much do you plan to split?"

Auntie Biao said: "We discussed it before you came. Since you think it's best not to expand now, let's split 10,000; we don't need to keep too much in the account."

"That works, splitting it like this is simple."

!

Thus, Wei Ming received 5100 yuan, Mei Wenhua 2500, and Auntie Biao 2400 yuan.

Next month's profit wouldn't have rent or renovation costs, and it would be a full month, so the split would at least double. Everyone saw a beautiful future.

However, the sense of achievement from making money in business was not quite the same as making money from writing. A while ago, 'The Lion King' brought Wei Ming a manuscript fee of 400 yuan, and that excitement was even above this 5000.

Late at night, Wei Ming was a bit nervous riding his motorcycle in the alley with a cloth bag containing fifty-one bundles of ten-yuan banknotes.

Mei Wenhua was the same, so Wei Ming sent him home first before returning to the Overseas Chinese Apartment.

Although it was a bit late, his mother was still waiting for him.

"Why are you only back now?" she asked worriedly.

Wei Ming: "Haha, we held a shareholders' meeting."

Wei Hong poked her head out of the room: "You split the money!"

"Don't ask, just be your little worker."

Wei Hong: "Then someone called you today, do you want to hear it?"

"Hmm, who?"

Wei Hong told him: "After I came back, I received a call from Sister Zhu Lin, looking for you. She heard you weren't there and hung up."

Xu Shufen asked: "Little Ming, who is this Comrade Zhu Lin? I was the one who answered the phone at first."

She felt the girl on the other end of the phone was quite nervous, especially when she learned that she was Wei Ming's mother.

Little Hong teased: "Sister Zhu Lin is a great beauty!"

Wei Ming: "A friend. Mother, you can go to our shop tomorrow to see, and then you'll know."

After saying this, Wei Ming went into his room. He didn't plan to deposit the money in the bank; he just put it under the bed.

A while ago, he was worried about not having enough RMB on hand and even went to the black market to exchange some for US dollars. Now he wasn't worried; this money could be used to collect some junk—furniture, calligraphy, and paintings, etc. The courtyard house still had several empty rooms.

Sister Lin calling him was probably because there was progress on the casting for 'Regret for the Past'.

So the next day, after Little Hong took her grandmother and mother out, Wei Ming called Zhu Lin's unit for the first time.

He waited for a while before he got Zhu Lin.

Her tone carried pride: "I am currently asking for long-term leave from my unit."

"Oh, are you joining a crew to film?"

"Hmm! First, I'll train for a period of time; the official filming might have to wait a month or two."

Wei Ming breathed a sigh of relief: "Congratulations, Comrade Zhu Lin!"

This was a role Sister Lin obtained through her own efforts and characteristics, and Wei Ming was sincerely happy for her.

"I also have to thank Teacher Wei for his excellent guidance~" Zhu Lin also had one more sentence: It would be even better if he didn't do bad things when teaching her.

Afterward, Wei Ming made an appointment to find her at noon to celebrate, and then talk in detail. Immediately, he changed the watch on his wrist.

At noon, Wei Ming learned that Director Shui Hua had given up on Wang Xingang and decided to replace him with a younger male lead.

"Who did you decide on?" he asked.

"Not yet decided, they said they want to find a male actor born in the 40s," Zhu Lin said, "but it doesn't matter to me who comes. It's just that the leaders of my unit are not very happy; I haven't even stayed in the unit for a few months this year."

Wei Ming laughed: "It seems like this job of yours won't last long. You can consider the major film studios and drama troupes."

Zhu Lin pondered: "I don't know if the Beijing Er Yingchang wants me."

Wei Ming: "The Beijing Er Yingchang is not short of excellent actresses now—Li Xiuming, Liu Xiaoqing, Zhang Jinling. If you get in, that would be the Four Great Beauties."

Zhu Lin: "Then which flower do you think is the most beautiful?"

"Of course it's you. In terms of acting, you are definitely not as good as the three of them, but in terms of looks, they can't compare to you."

Actually, during this period, those three were all of the so-called 'peace and prosperity' look, which was very likable. Zhu Lin felt that Wei Ming saying these words was purely 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder', and her heart was naturally as sweet as honey.

Plus, Wei Ming said: "I'm leaving tomorrow."

Zhu Lin immediately asked in a low voice: "Then is it convenient to go to your house now?"

Wei Ming thought for a moment and shook his head. Little Hong wasn't at work today, and his mother and grandmother could come back at any time. The Overseas Chinese Apartment home was too dangerous.

They wouldn't easily go to the courtyard house, but there were many traces of Xue Jie's existence there, which was also very inappropriate.

Now Wei Ming realized that his homes were still not enough. He had promised 'a wily rabbit has three burrows', but he only had two—what kind of wily rabbit was he?

So today, the two of them were just going shopping, and Wei Ming also had to avoid Xidan and the vicinity of Xue Jie's unit.

While shopping, they arrived at a bookstore. Wei Ming asked, and the reprinted 'The Tale of the Heavenly Book' and the newly published 'Heroes Born in Youth' were both in stock. Additionally, he saw the newly arrived Shanghai 'Youth Literature'.

Wei Ming received a letter from the editor of 'Youth Literature'. Although August was a bit rushed, they still tried their best to facilitate 'The Lion King' meeting the young readers in the August issue.

Of course, only one-third of it was serialized, but it was displayed in bold in the table of contents, making it easy for young readers to discover.

When Wei Ming bought it, he saw a junior high school-looking little boy next to him who was pleasantly surprised when he flipped to the table of contents: "It's Wei Shenme, Wei Shenme has a new work!"

The classmate next to him hurriedly asked: "What is it about?"

"The Lion King, I want one!"

Hearing this conversation, Zhu Lin nudged Wei Ming and asked in a low voice: "Are you very proud?"

Wei Ming: "It's okay. This story is aimed at the overseas market. If domestic children can like it, of course, that's good. If they think it's boring, I can also accept it."

Hearing about the overseas market, Zhu Lin thought of Melinda in the UK. It seemed their bond could not be cut.

Everyone has an ex, why is it that his ex is the one who lingers like a ghost?

The next day, Wei Ming arrived at the train station, about to go to Shandong to visit the 'The Cow and Cow Two' crew.

At the station newsstand, he bought two newspapers.

One was the 'Yanjing Xin Xin Wan Bao', and one was the 'China Youth Daily'.

In this issue of the 'Yanjing Xin Xin Wan Bao', "Oriental Dongfang Xintiandi" appeared in the headline of a report.

This should be the reporter who interviewed Mei Wenhua. The article mainly introduced the brand-new business model and grand occasion of the individual shop "Oriental Dongfang Xintiandi".

In this newspaper, Wei Ming also saw reports about other individual merchants, but the length was not as good as Oriental Dongfang Xintiandi, and there were even pictures.

Although the attitude was completely encouraging and positive, it was also easy to attract attention. Next, other media would definitely take over to discuss this phenomenon. Maybe there were already reporters running to ask Mei Wenhua how much he earned, whether he was already a 'ten-thousand-yuan household', and other sharp questions.

Fortunately, he was the boss behind the scenes, so let Little Mei bear the headache.

Then he looked at the 'China Youth Daily' again. He bought this newspaper because he saw his pen name.

After Wei Shenme's new work 'The Lion King' was officially launched in the market, the 'China Youth Daily' reporter Zhu Wei also launched his second report about Wei Shenme, which he had prepared for a long time.

This time, it mainly talked about Melinda, another contributor to the overseas success of 'Jumanji', who was also his former foreign lover.

Being able to achieve success in the foreign market with a novel was already a very glorious thing for the country, but being able to date a foreign girlfriend made it even more amazing.

Especially for those middle school readers, Wei Shenme could probably become a literary idol and national hero in their hearts.

Just in these two days, Melinda, far away in London, received the manuscript of the new book Wei Ming mailed to her.

When she received the manuscript, Melinda was about to set off for the United States to participate in the North American promotion activities for 'Jumanji'.

So she brought the manuscript on the plane and almost finished reading this medium-length story about Africa, about nature, and inspired by 'Hamlet' during the few hours of the journey.

And Melinda's evaluation of this story was that its potential was far above 'Jumanji'.

Although this story was just a cliché of turning 'Hamlet' from humans into animals, and finally changing it into a bright ending where justice triumphs over evil, in terms of story novelty and twists, it was completely inferior to 'Jumanji'.

But don't forget they were doing children's books. For child readers, sometimes simplicity and ease were more important qualities, and Wei Ming wrote it very easily and fluently, as if making people feel like they were on the African land.

Especially since this novel also had a Shakespearean background, Melinda even thought about how to do the promotion when the time came.

Just by virtue of Shakespeare's appeal in the hearts of parents, Melinda had the confidence to make the sales of 'The Lion King' in the UK double on the basis of 'Jumanji'!

(Minimum two-in-one)

(End of chapter)