Chapter 729: The Son Ventures into the Business World, the Father Looks On Coldly

He Yuzhu glared at him and lowered his voice significantly: "There are so many people in the courtyard, don't talk nonsense."

He Yushui only then realized what was happening; she blinked, leaned in, and whispered: "Brother, I just love this style with a Peking Opera flavor. Can you get me a few tracks too?"

He Yuzhu nodded: "Sure."

No sooner had he finished speaking than Xiaomi, Dahua, and Xiaoqi all stood up together and said: "We're going to pick up the teacher, and we'll eat dumplings when we get back!"

The group of them swarmed out the door in a flurry.

He Yuzhu didn't budge.

Chen Xueru kicked him and said in a low voice: "You should go with them."

Only then did He Yuzhu stand up and follow them.

He Yushui drove a car, carrying Xiaomi, Dahua, and Xiaoqi. He Yuzhu drove a car himself, following behind at a leisurely pace.

After picking up Zhang Shuying, He Yuzhu took a bouquet of flowers from the car and handed them over. Zhang Shuying's eyes turned red instantly; she stepped forward and hugged He Yuzhu tightly.

He Yushui chimed in from the side: "Oh my, someone saw that! It'll be in the newspapers tomorrow for sure!"

Zhang Shuying quickly let go and separated from He Yuzhu. He Yushui also handed over the flowers she had prepared in advance and said with a smile: "Teacher, you sang really well."

Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, it was the tenth day of the first lunar month.

Yan Jiekuang and Wang Fang were hiding in a small room, opening two boxes—inside were four tape recorders, a pile of headphones, and a full load of cassette tapes. Among these tapes, there was actually one containing the two songs Zhang Shuying had sung at the Spring Festival Gala.

Wang Fang unwrapped one, inserted it into a tape recorder, put on the headphones, and listened for a while. She was completely shocked: "Yan Jiekuang, these people have really deep connections! They managed to make a bootleg of a song that was just sung at the gala, and the sound quality is exceptionally good. Someone must have recorded it on-site using professional equipment."

Yan Jiekuang hurriedly snatched it over to listen carefully; after finishing, he was speechless for a long time.

"This... this was indeed recorded at the gala venue."

Wang Fang tentatively asked: "His father, tomorrow is the Ditan Temple Fair. If we take them there to sell, do you think it will work?"

"If we sell them at the temple fair, will we get caught?" Yan Jiekuang was still a bit worried. "If they get confiscated, that's two or three thousand yuan!"

Wang Fang disagreed: "If someone checks, we'll just pack up and run! I'll have my brother keep a lookout from a distance."

Yan Jiekuang laughed and nodded: "That's a good plan. I just feel like you're getting bolder and bolder."

Wang Fang shook her head: "It's just that I'm afraid of being poor. Opportunities to make money are always so fleeting. If I hadn't come up with this way to sell bootlegs, where would I go to earn those tens of thousands of yuan? I couldn't earn that much even after working for a lifetime."

Yan Jiekuang agreed deeply: "Look at my second brother; when he was young, he was a pickpocket, which was quite shameful. But it was precisely because of that that he saved up a lot of money. If he were a pauper, Xiaomei would never have taken a fancy to him, and he wouldn't be where he is today."

Wang Fang nodded: "But we must remain as low-key as ever; we absolutely cannot let people in the courtyard know what we are doing."

On the other side, He Yushui, Xiaomi, Dahua, and Xiaoqi were discussing starting a company with Zhang Shuying.

He Yushui frowned: "Sister-in-law, those two songs you sang at the Spring Festival Gala have been bootlegged. I went to the temple fair and saw the third son of the Yan family and his wife selling bootleg tapes there! They've made it quite professional—they have four tape recorders and headphones, and those tapes include your two songs."

Zhang Shuying said indifferently: "Your brother said that their bootlegging actually helps increase my popularity, so let them sell them for now."

He Yushui tugged on Zhang Shuying's arm and shook it: "Sister-in-law, I also want to record those two songs you sang at the gala, do you think that's okay? I want to make a whole album with a theatrical style. I told my brother, and he said he would help me."

Zhang Shuying smiled: "Alright, let's record together. I'll release my version in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia, and you can record the mainland version."

He Yushui nodded vigorously.

The sign for the Global Trading Company was officially hung at the courtyard entrance.

It was He Yuzhu who provided his son He Zheng with this courtyard and one hundred thousand yuan; as for how they messed around or who they hired, he didn't care at all.

He Zheng, Bang Geng, and Yi Xiaotian sat in the conference room, pondering their next steps together.

Bang Geng spoke first: "He Zheng, do you have any idea what kind of trade we should do next?"

He Zheng shook his head: "No idea. I asked my mother, and she seems to only understand clothing; she doesn't know anything else. Perhaps she and my father are in cahoots and don't want to manage me."

Yi Xiaotian said: "I think your father is testing you. He might not want you to do business and wants you to keep working; he probably expects you to go back once you've lost all the money."

Bang Geng shook his head: "I don't think Siqiang is that kind of person. He just wants to train us to see if the three of us are cut out for business. If we are, he'll definitely help us; if we aren't, then we'll just have to break up."

He Zheng nodded: "Bang Geng's take is more plausible. However, just because we don't know how to do business now doesn't mean we won't in the future. I don't think we should just sit here and talk; we need to go to the market to see what's missing here and what we can export..."

He Zheng spoke eloquently, but Bang Geng disagreed, saying: "In my opinion, we should still look for connections. Finding the right connections can save us a lot of trouble. Why don't we go to Liushi Trading Company to investigate?"

He Zheng shook his head: "I'm not familiar with the people there. The only one who contacts them is my father; even my mother only gets orders and ships goods through them, it's that simple. It wouldn't be good for us to go to their company to pry for secrets."

"Then let's go find Aunt Xiao E. She spent so many years in Hong Kong; she must know how to do trade," Bang Geng reminded him again.

He Zheng still shook his head: "My mother won't even tell me, so Aunt Xiao E is even less likely to tell us anything useful."

Bang Geng frowned: "Then what should we do?"

Yi Xiaotian said: "I think we can go find people from state-owned foreign trade companies; we can give them money and have them provide us with information."

He Zheng nodded: "Alright. Xiaotian, you start from that angle. Brother Jia, you handle it your way. I'll go to various markets to conduct a survey."

No. 95 Courtyard, East Cross Courtyard.

Chen Xueru and Lou Xiao'e were "besieging" He Yuzhu together.

Chen Xueru said: "Zhuzi, aren't you going too far? You opened a company for your son and gave him one hundred thousand yuan, and then you just let him go? He's never done business before; won't he lose every cent?"

He Yuzhu laughed: "I actually hope he loses every cent. I think his personality is too soft; he's not suited for business."

Lou Xiao'e retorted: "Zhuzi, the world has changed now; it's not like a few decades ago where you had to fight and kill to do business. Besides, who is born knowing how to do business? Before I went to Hong Kong, I didn't know anything either, and aren't I doing quite well now?"

He Yuzhu thought to himself: You call that doing business well? It was all because I was guiding you from behind. However, he couldn't say that out loud.

"There's no point in the three of us sitting here talking," He Yuzhu said. "If He Zheng loses all one hundred thousand yuan and achieves nothing, it just proves he's not cut out for business. In the future, I'll just let him go back to work at the Electronics Factory; after all, I arranged for him to keep his position while on leave."

Chen Xueru said: "It would be so much better to let him do business with me; why do you insist on him doing it on his own? What exactly are you thinking?"

He Yuzhu said: "If you don't test whether he's cut out for business now, and you hand a large company over to him in the future, he'll lose it all for you in less than eight or ten years."