Chapter 20: Business

The Di family lived in a residential complex built by the City People's Hospital in the early 1990s through pooled funding. The layout was two bedrooms and one living room, with an area of about 90 square meters. Since there was no so-called shared area, every square meter was utilized, so the family of five could gather to eat without feeling crowded at all.

At the family gathering that evening, Feng Shijie became the hot topic of discussion. Di Yongchang angrily denounced the man's brutality, Zhang Xiuzhi lamented the victim's misfortune, Di Yan helped Di Ye fill in the gaps while concealing the existence of Xia Fangfei, and Lu Hanming was amazed by the twists and turns of the case, continuing to ask questions incessantly even after the meal.

"Brother-in-law, you are an editor at a publishing house; why not use this case as a prototype to write a novel? Once published, it might even be adapted into a TV series."

"I usually only write small essays like film reviews and music reviews to earn some cigarette money. I've never written a novel; let me think about it."

Di Yan thought writing a novel was a good idea and urged, "What's there to think about? Little brother has already told you the whole story; can't you just take a pen and write it down on paper?"

Lu Hanming had self-awareness and shook his head, saying, "Writing a novel isn't that easy. Turning language into text is an art; it requires a very high..."

"I think you're just lazy!"

Di Yan scolded him, then ran off to the kitchen in a huff to help Zhang Xiuzhi clear the dishes. Di Yongchang held his teacup, sitting upright on the living room sofa watching TV, turning a deaf ear to the daily bickering of the young couple.

Lu Hanming felt a bit awkward. He walked into Di Ye's bedroom, sat on the edge of the bed, lit a cigarette for himself, and smiled bitterly, "Your sister has such a fiery temper; only I can put up with it. If it were anyone else, they would have started a fight long ago."

Seeing that he only spoke of arguing and had no intention of divorce, it was clear that he had deep feelings for Di Yan. Di Ye helped mediate, "My sister has a sharp tongue but a soft heart. She was still thinking about you this afternoon and asked me to save the used phone cards for you."

"Of course I know your sister has a sharp tongue but a soft heart, so I yield to her in everything."

Lu Hanming's personality, to put it nicely, was carefree and broad-minded; to put it not so nicely, it was thoughtless. He quickly cast his troubles to the back of his mind and asked with great interest, "What kind of cards do you have? Take them out and let me see."

Di Ye had just discovered a business opportunity that afternoon and had only collected a few cards, which weren't much to look at. So, referring to articles from before his transmigration, he shared his collection insights with Lu Hanming using the perspective of a hindsight expert.

"Phone cards are an industrial product. If you want to collect them for appreciation, you need to consider three aspects: issuance volume, existing quantity, and demand."

"Among them, the issuance volume is public, which my sister can look up. As for the existing quantity, it can't be checked right now, but it can be roughly estimated. As for demand, I think it should depend on the subject matter; for example, Zodiac Cards, Celebrity Cards, and Holiday Commemorative Cards are definitely more popular than ordinary cards."

Lu Hanming was greatly inspired and nodded repeatedly, "That makes sense. When I collected phone cards before, I only cared about whether they looked good, not the quantity or subject matter. It seems I went off track."

"How many cards have you collected now?"

"Your sister holds the family's financial power; I can only collect them for fun with the pocket money I use for cigarettes. I only have about 200."

Di Ye was a bit disappointed upon hearing this and asked again, "Of these 200-plus cards, how many were issued by China Telecom? The kind with the CNT number."

"About 30 or so. Why, do you think those issued by China Telecom have more potential for appreciation?"

"Definitely. The quality of phone cards issued by various places is uneven, and it's hard to check their issuance volume and existing quantity."

Di Ye said this and revealed information that would only happen next year, saying, "China Telecom is about to operate independently. When that happens, they will take back the issuance rights for phone cards. In the future, there will only be phone cards with CNT numbers nationwide."

Lu Hanming had a flexible mind and reacted immediately, reasoning, "Many people still don't realize that phone cards have collection value and throw them away after using them, so the earlier the number, the fewer there are in existence, right?"

"Correct. Additionally, the earlier the number, the more commemorative significance it has, and the greater the demand."

Lu Hanming was very excited. He threw his cigarette butt into his teacup to extinguish it and said, "The day before yesterday, China Telecom just issued the Year of the Pig commemorative card. The number seems to be CNT-04. Let's collect more of this card."

"The previous cards should also be collected, especially those numbered 00 and 01."

"Of course."

Although Lu Hanming was not ambitious, he had a wide social circle. Di Ye felt he should make good use of this advantage and asked, "Brother-in-law, besides phone cards, do you collect stamps and commemorative coins?"

"I don't have money on hand, so I can't afford those two. Besides, I can't tell the real from the fake, so I only collect phone cards. Phone cards are cheap and have no fakes."

"Then do you know anyone who deals in these things?"

"I know many. If you want to get into it, I'll take you to see them sometime."

"Okay."

At this time, Di Yan had finished cleaning the kitchen and came to call Lu Hanming home. After the two left, Di Ye went to the living room to accompany Di Yongchang in watching TV and asked in a casual tone, "Dad, business at the Chenghuang Temple is best during the Spring Festival. When do you plan to go to Guangdong Province to stock up?"

Di Yongchang didn't smoke, but he was addicted to drinking tea, especially very strong tea. He picked up the glass cup filled with tea leaves, took a gulp, and said, "I haven't gone to Guangdong Province to stock up for the past two years. If I'm short on stock, I just go to Fan to get it; he specializes in wholesale now."

An image of a pot-bellied fat man appeared in Di Ye's mind, and he asked, "When does Fan usually go to Guangdong Province?"

Di Yongchang tilted his head to look at him and asked, "Why, do you want to go to Guangdong Province for fun?"

Di Ye was an expert at lying and made up a high-sounding reason, saying, "Learning computers requires combining software and hardware. The electronics industry is very developed in Guangdong Province. I want to take advantage of the winter break to go and see, to broaden my horizons, so I won't be called a bookworm when I go to Jinling for graduate school later."

Di Yongchang accepted this reason and nodded, "Read ten thousand books, travel ten thousand miles. You're about to graduate from university and have never even left the province. It's good to go and see. Fan should be going to Yangcheng soon. I'll contact him tomorrow and have him take you along when he goes."

After finishing the talk about Guangdong Province, Di Ye remembered meeting Di Yongchang and someone discussing pirated VCD discs when he went to the Chenghuang Temple the day before yesterday, so he asked, "Dad, who was the person who asked you to pool money for the pirated VCD business last time?"

"That's Bi Wanxi, a famous spendthrift at the Chenghuang Temple. He always likes to get into some trendy things, losing money on every deal, to the point where he can't even come up with a few thousand yuan now."

Di Ye, however, thought this person had quite a good eye, because in the next few years, pirated VCD discs would sweep the country and be very profitable. It was said that many people could buy a Santana in 3 months.

However, what Di Yongchang said at the time was also correct. Although the VCD Player was invented in 1993, it wasn't until May 1994 that Wanyan officially commercialized it. Each unit cost as much as 4,995 yuan, which was ridiculously expensive. Throughout 1994, fewer than 20,000 units were sold. With such dismal sales, naturally, few people bought the discs.

Di Ye had a relatively strong sense of copyright, and he cherished his reputation; he didn't want to get involved in illegal business and had no interest in pirated VCD discs, but he did have some ideas about the VCD Player.

"Dad, how much is the cheapest home CD Player in your shop?"

"About 800 yuan."

"About how much is a second-hand VCD Player?"

"I don't know about that. There are only a few VCD Players at the Chenghuang Temple now, and they are all used as display models; there's a price but no market."

Upon hearing this, Di Ye felt there might be profit to be made and said, "The disc format and playback principle of CDs and VCDs are the same. There is something called an MPEG Decompression Card at Computer City. As long as you connect it to a CD Player, you can play VCDs."

Di Yongchang became interested and turned his head to ask, "How much is this Decompression Card?"

"About three or four hundred yuan."

Di Yongchang was a man of action. After pondering for a moment, he got up, took 1,000 yuan, gave it to Di Ye, and said, "Tomorrow, you go to Computer City to buy two Decompression Cards and send them to the shop. I'll study it with Zhou."

"Okay."

Di Yongchang used to be a technician at the Yuncheng Radio Factory No. 3. In the 70s and 80s, the factory mainly produced radios and black-and-white televisions. In the early 90s, due to poor management, it couldn't pay wages, so he simply resigned and went to the Chenghuang Temple to open a shop. The "Fan" and "Zhou" mentioned earlier were colleagues who resigned and went into business at the same time.

Connecting an MPEG Decompression Card and a CD Player to use as a VCD Player was a makeshift method Di Ye had seen while surfing the internet before, and he hadn't tried it himself. So, the next morning, he went to Computer City to buy two cheap second-hand Decompression Cards and sent them to the Chenghuang Temple for Di Yongchang to experiment with.

Di Yongchang and Lao Zhou fiddled with it for several hours and actually succeeded. When the MV for Liu Dehua's "Forget Love Water" appeared on the TV screen, Di Yongchang seemed to become 20 years younger all of a sudden. He patted the heavy casing of the TV and asked with a smile, "Lao Zhou, does this count as technological innovation for us?"

"Counts as crap, just piecing things together. We don't even understand the principle; we're just guessing blindly."

"I don't understand, but my son does."

Lao Zhou had four daughters and no son. Upon hearing this, his face darkened, and he retorted, "You're just dying for the whole world to know you have a good son!"

Di Ye picked up the remote control, pressed the pause button, and interrupted, "Dad, Uncle Zhou, do you think there's any potential in using this method to help people modify CD Players?"

"Definitely. At the current market rate, for every one modified, we can earn at least four or five hundred yuan."

"Then what are you two arguing about? Hurry up and perfect the craft, then call the client; if you're late, someone else might have already learned it."

"You brat are sharp enough, you have more of a future than your old man."