Chapter 23: Arrangements

In the 1980s, the Yuncheng Radio Factory No. 3 enjoyed a period of glory, with its radios and black-and-white televisions in short supply; however, its management was extremely chaotic, leading to a gathering of underground vendors selling raw materials and spare parts along Huashan Road near the factory grounds.

After the Radio Factory No. 3 went under in the early 90s, these vendors pivoted to selling color TVs, refrigerators, and computers, gradually forming Yuncheng's famous "Home Appliance Street." Among them was a two-story shopping mall that primarily sold various computer accessories and pirated software, commonly known as Computer City.

It would take several days to return from purchasing MPEG Decompression Cards in Guangdong Province, so Di Ye withdrew 3,000 yuan that morning, intending to buy a few cards at Computer City for an emergency. As it turned out, he wasted 1,000 yuan on Huang Ya's mother before he even bought the cards.

Computer City was only a few hundred meters away from the Radio Factory No. 3. As Di Ye walked there, he explained the VCD Player business to Huang Ya, finally concluding, "My father and Zhou are not the type to talk glibly, and they are getting on in years and don't understand the film market, so I need your help with the sales."

Huang Ya was a film buff and very interested in this business. Eager to try, she said, "I know several video hall owners by the west gate of Yun University; I'll go find them this afternoon and try to pitch it."

"No need to rush. I'll give you some training today first to improve your sales techniques."

After Huang Ya left her home, she quickly returned to her energetic self. Squinting at Di Ye, she said with disdain, "You, a computer major, want to train me, a business management major, in sales techniques?"

Business management was one of the most popular majors in the 90s, but it lacked excellent teachers, and the textbooks were copied entirely from Europe and America, making them disconnected from reality and difficult to apply. Di Ye, speaking from the perspective of someone from the future, said, "Business management is a hodgepodge; you learn everything but master nothing. You shouldn't have chosen this major in the first place, and your personality is too soft; you aren't suited for management either."

Huang Ya fell silent at this. After a while, she explained, "My father thought that if I studied business management, I could sit in an office and be a leader. He's been a worker his whole life and doesn't want me to suffer in the workshop."

Hearing her say this, Di Ye felt it was a bit abrupt, so he changed the subject and asked, "Do you have any money on you?"

"I do. I saved over 200 yuan from tutoring."

Huang Ya took a plastic-covered diary out of her old army-green schoolbag, pulled a Bank Card from the lining of the cover, and said, "You just gave my mother 1,000, so I'll go withdraw 100 to give to you later, and I'll pay back the rest slowly."

Di Ye didn't care about that bit of money at all. He glanced at the schoolbag and saw only a set of clean underwear inside and nothing else. Frowning, he asked, "Where are your sweaters and coats?"

"Those are all in the school dormitory. I don't have any at home; I'll go get them this afternoon."

"Those are all old clothes, don't bother. I'll take you to buy two sets of work clothes later. A salesperson must dress decently, otherwise, it's easy for people to look down on you."

"Hehehe... You've become so wealthy lately, have you been kept by some rich woman?"

Di Ye ignored Huang Ya's deliberate banter, pointed at the Bank Card in her hand, and said, "Keep this card hidden well; don't let your mother find it. When the winter break ends, I'll deposit your commissions and bonuses into this card for you to keep and use."

"Are there really commissions and bonuses?"

"Of course. For every VCD Player sold, you get a 30-yuan commission. For every customer you bring to the shop to have a CD Player modified, you get a 20-yuan commission. If you can sell 500 units by the end of winter break, I'll give you an extra 1,000-yuan bonus."

"Wow! Di Ye, you have the air of a real boss. I'll follow your lead from now on."

"Sure, you can be my little secretary, serving tea and water, and washing and folding my laundry every day."

"Do you think you're Tang Bohu?"

There happened to be a Bank of China branch next to Computer City. Di Ye went in to withdraw another 1,000 yuan, then took Huang Ya around Computer City for a while. They found a shop with the lowest prices and bought 10 brand-new MPEG Decompression Cards.

In 1995, the domestic computer market was still relatively small. Computer City was full of small-time operators who couldn't even produce 10 Decompression Cards at once and had to source them from peers.

While waiting for the boss to source the goods, Di Ye picked up a computer configuration sheet and drew the working principle of the MPEG Decompression Card on the back. He explained to Huang Ya, "The four letters M-P-E-G are an abbreviation for Moving Picture Experts Group. In Chinese, it's called the 'Dynamic Image Expert Group.' In 1991, they released MPEG-1, which is a lossy compression standard for video and audio. VCDs use this..."

"VCD video is compressed and burned onto a disc. It needs to be decompressed during playback. The Pentium—that is, the 586—the CPUs before the 586 have limited performance and can't handle it, so they need an external chip specifically for decompression. That's the MPEG Decompression Card we just bought, or 'Decompression Card' for short..."

"Memorize this diagram and these technical terms. Show them to customers when you're selling. Tell them that VCD Players play images and sound mixed together, while our modified CD Players play images and sound separately, so the effect is better..."

Huang Ya only half-understood the technical terms, but she had high emotional intelligence and could hear the "hustle" in his tone. She asked, "Is the effect really better?"

"Do I look like the kind of person who tells the truth?"

Huang Ya understood instantly and asked with interest, "Do you have any other tricks?"

"I do. Later, when you're selling, say our technology was invented by a professor at Yun University... just use Professor Liu's name. Domestic consumers currently highly esteem home appliances from Dongying, and he happens to be a Ph. D. who studied abroad in Dongying."

"You actually dare to impersonate even your Thesis Advisor. Be careful, or you won't be able to graduate if he finds out."

"I'm not impersonating him. I happen to be going to see Professor Liu this afternoon; maybe I can invite him to be the brand ambassador for my father's shop for a few days."

"You are truly bold and utterly shameless."

"It's business, nothing to be ashamed of."

Just then, the shop owner came down from the second floor with several boxes. Di Ye stuffed the principle diagram filled with technical terms into Huang Ya's schoolbag and said, "Be a little careful when you're selling. Don't let anyone who knows their stuff see this diagram, or they'll immediately know what we're doing with these Decompression Cards."

Hearing this, Huang Ya felt a bit nervous. She hugged her schoolbag and asked, "Is the principle of this Decompression Card something only you know?"

"No, many people in this Computer City know the principle. It's just that Decompression Cards are usually used in computers, and they haven't thought of using them in CD Players yet."

After checking the goods and paying, Di Ye took a taxi to deliver the Decompression Cards to Chenghuang Temple. When he got off the street, he made an excuse to send Huang Ya away and went into the shop alone to tell Di Yongchang what had happened that morning.

Di Yongchang and Huang were friends of many years. After listening, he shook his head repeatedly and said, "That girl has it tough. Her mother is unreasonable, and her two younger brothers are good-for-nothings. You did the right thing; you should have gotten her out of that house a long time ago."

"I told her mother I'd provide room and board, but there's no empty room at home. How about I let her stay at my sister's place for a few days?"

"No need. Lao Wu, who lives across from us, had his daughter get married, so there's a ready-made empty room. I'll go talk to him later and rent it for Huang Ya to stay in for a month."

"That would be perfect."

There were thousands of small shops in Chenghuang Temple, at least half of which sold clothes. They were not only cheap but also had many styles; you could buy any design you wanted. At noon, Di Ye took Huang Ya around to look, letting her choose a few new outfits herself. Huang Ya didn't stand on ceremony; she bought whatever she liked, looking decisive and showing no mercy.

"Looking at you like this, are you planning to sell yourself to me?"

"I've already prepared myself mentally to work for you for free for three years after graduation."

"Then you're at a huge loss. If you'd said that earlier, I would have taken you to the Department Store Building to buy clothes. You're a fresh graduate from a key university, after all; the quality shouldn't be too low."

"Is that so? Then let's change it to working for free for 3 months."

"Forget I said anything just now."

It was already past 1:00 PM when they finished buying clothes. Di Ye prepared to go find Liu Shaosong. Since he needed a favor, he had to bring some gifts, so he returned to the shop and asked Di Yongchang, "What kind of cut-out discs does Professor Liu like to buy?"

Di Yongchang took a notebook from under the counter and said, "There should be records of that here. See for yourself."

"Dad, your service attitude is pretty good. You actually recorded so many customers' preferences."

"Your brother-in-law did this. I can't even recognize all the letters on the cut-out discs, let alone keep records."

Di Yongchang handed the notebook to Di Ye and sighed, "Your brother-in-law is very smart and learns everything quickly. He's proficient in singing and playing instruments, but he lacks patience in doing things—one minute he's doing this, the next he's doing that. These cut-out discs were originally bought from Pujiang by him to sell, but he found it troublesome after only a month and dumped them all on me."

"Brother-in-law has the temperament of a wealthy idler."

Di Ye found Liu Shaosong's name in the notebook and discovered he liked movie soundtracks and rock music. He chose a few suitable ones from the pile of cut-out discs, packed them into his backpack, and then found a toy store to buy a pig-shaped lantern, intending to give it to Liu Shaosong's daughter as a Spring Festival gift.

While buying the lantern, a gentle and quiet face suddenly flashed through Di Ye's mind. He was slightly stunned, then laughed at himself, muttering, "Di Ye, oh Di Ye, no wonder you don't like Xia Fangfei; it turns out you have a crush on your professor's wife. That really is a heinous crime."