Chapter 37: Business Trip

Di Ye originally came up with the idea of modifying CD players into VCD Players just to find Di Yongchang some side work, so he didn't pay much attention to it; other than going to Pengcheng to buy MPEG Decompression Cards, he didn't care about anything else, and didn't even know how many units could be produced each day.

Now that he had decided to start his own business, he felt he didn't have enough money, so he decided to play a big game and strive to raise enough capital before February 23rd. He walked into the living room and asked, "Dad, how many VCDs can you all produce in a day now?"

"Lao Zhou and I can turn out about 20 a day. The others aren't very skilled yet and can only turn out thirteen or fourteen."

Di Yongchang had been obsessed with modifying CD players these past few days and was already hooked. While busy with a screwdriver in hand, he said, "Xiaoye, at the current production speed, the Decompression Cards will be used up by the fifth day of the Lunar New Year at the latest. You should have Bi Wanxi purchase some more from Guangdong Province so we don't run out of stock."

Di Ye shook his head and said, "The problem isn't the Decompression Cards, it's the CD players. After the 600 Decompression Cards I bought previously are used up, I reckon there won't be many smuggled home CD players left in Yuncheng for you to modify. After all, this thing is very niche in the country and far less popular than Portable CD Players."

Di Yongchang only then realized this and hurriedly asked, "Then what should we do?"

"I'll ask someone to see if we can purchase some from Jinling."

"You go quickly."

Di Ye gave a hum, returned to his bedroom, sat on a chair and thought for a moment, then picked up the receiver and dialed the phone number of Xia Fangfei's home—based on the management model of the 90s where state-owned enterprises pursued comprehensiveness everywhere but were a mess everywhere, there must be many people among Panda Electronics' employees or their family members who were doing business reselling home appliance products.

The phone was answered by a man with a slightly weary voice, who announced himself: "Hello, I am Xia Qide."

Di Ye didn't expect it to be Xia Fangfei's own father who answered the phone. Feeling a bit guilty, he rubbed his forehead with his left hand, softened his tone, and said, "Uncle Xia, Happy New Year. I am Xia Fangfei's university classmate. May I ask if she is at home?"

"She went out shopping and isn't home. What do you want with her?"

"I heard from Xia Fangfei that she has an older brother who is a technician at Panda Electronics with a very high level of skill, so I wanted to consult him about some issues regarding VCD Players."

Xia Qide let out a hearty laugh and said, "Fangfei would actually praise Jianwu? Wait a moment, her brother is at home, I'll go call him."

After about ten seconds or so, Xia Fangfei's second older brother, Xia Jianwu, answered the phone and teased with a smile in his voice: "Di Ye, calling me on the first day of the Lunar New Year to consult about VCD Players, I have to hand it to you for coming up with such an outrageous excuse."

"Reality is just that outrageous. I am truly looking for you to consult on matters regarding VCD Player production."

When Di Ye had previously spent time on the phone with Xia Fangfei, there were several times when Xia Jianwu had helped call her and provided cover, so although they hadn't met yet, they were quite familiar. Knowing he was in the business of modifying CD players into VCD Players, he asked upon hearing this: "What, do you want to trade your bird gun for a cannon and produce video disc players on a large scale?"

"I wouldn't call it large-scale, maybe small-scale."

"How small?"

"Around 3,000 units a month."

Xia Jianwu clicked his tongue in wonder, saying half-mockingly and half-amazed: "3,000 units a month is still small-scale? Your ambition is big enough!"

"It's not big, just a small goal."

The sales volume of VCD Players was neither growing linearly nor exponentially, but explosively. In just one year, it surged from less than 20,000 units in 1994 to nearly 1 million units in 1995, so a production scale of 3,000 units a month really wasn't considered large.

Di Ye explained the current predicament of lacking CD players to Xia Jianwu and asked, "Brother Jianwu, do you have any connections in this area?"

"If you must have smuggled CD players, I can only get you 300 at most. Don't even think about 3,000; there might not even be that many in all of Jinling."

Di Ye heard the implication in his words and changed his tune: "As long as the price is cheap, it doesn't matter if it's smuggled or not."

Xia Jianwu's personality was a bit like Xia Fangfei's, both being the cheerful and lively type. He played coy and said, "Since that's the case, I do have a connection, but I don't know if you have the sincerity."

"I lack many things, but sincerity is not one of them. Go ahead, Brother Jianwu."

Xia Jianwu chuckled twice and said, "Our group has a CD player production line that does OEM work for foreign brands. As long as you are willing to pay a sincere amount of overtime pay, I can find some employees to use their off-hours to help you produce 3,000 units."

"What is the approximate material cost for one CD player?"

"It depends on what kind of quality you need. Low-end ones only cost five or six hundred, while high-end ones cost one or two thousand."

Di Ye pondered for a moment, then decisively said, "Brother Jianwu, I'll come to Jinling to find you tomorrow, let's talk in person."

"Hey, hey, hey, if you talk like that, if my sister hears it, she'll definitely make a scene with me again."

"Alright then, Brother Jianwu, please tell your sister that I'm going to Jinling tomorrow to find her."

"Hey, hey, hey, if you talk like that, if my dad hears it..."

"To prevent your dad from hearing it, I'm hanging up now. See you tomorrow!"

Di Ye's style of doing things was either not to do them at all, or to finish them as quickly as possible. After ending the call with Xia Jianwu, he didn't even put the receiver down before dialing Fan Dazhi's Big Brother, asking how the talks with Computer City were going. It turned out he was at home playing mahjong with relatives and said he would go talk in a couple of days.

"Uncle Fan, you have many relatives and many friends, and you must be busy visiting people for the New Year these days. Why not let me go talk to the people at Computer City? If the talks don't go well, then you can step in yourself."

"If you go talk... don't move, I'll pong the nine-dot tile!"

Seeing Fan Dazhi so distracted, Di Ye took the opportunity to lay the groundwork for misappropriating funds later, saying: "Uncle Fan, we've pressed the price very hard, so Computer City probably won't agree to credit. If the talks go well, I'll need to take some funds from the video disc players and the disc rental shop for emergencies."

"Fine, go find Huang Ya for that when the time comes."

In the evening, after his parents had gone to sleep, Di Ye snuck off to find Huang Ya to study the art of stamping, and incidentally mentioned the trip to Jinling. After hearing it, Huang Ya sighed: "You really are shameless, actually discussing using Xia Fangfei's brother while holding me and stamping."

"It's clearly mutual cooperation, making money together, how can you call it using?"

"Then when you see Xia Fangfei, don't you feel guilty?"

"Why should I feel guilty? I told her a long time ago that I'm a fickle person, I didn't lie to her."

Huang Ya snuggled into Di Ye's arms, and after a moment of silence, said, "I wish I could be as shameless as you."

The straight-line distance from Yuncheng to Jinling was only a little over 150 kilometers, and most of the route was highway, making travel quite convenient. Di Ye arrived in Jinling at 9 o'clock the next morning and saw Xia Fangfei and Xia Jianwu at the exit of the bus station.

"Confess honestly, are you here to find me, or to find my second brother?"

"I was originally here to find your second brother, but the moment I saw you, I forgot who your second brother was."

Xia Fangfei was very satisfied with this answer, stepped forward to hook her arm around Di Ye's, and showed off with a beaming smile: "Second brother, heard that? Who are you?"

"I'm a green onion, he's a scallion, and you're the chopped green onion. We're all onions, so let's not distinguish between each other."

Xia Jianwu teased everyone with a humorous tone, then extended his right hand and said, "Di Ye, we've finally met. Welcome to Jinling."

Di Ye felt that this guy had the highest emotional intelligence of anyone he had met since transmigrating. He hurriedly put down his suitcase, shook his hand solemnly, and climbed up the pole to change his address: "Second brother, Happy New Year."

Xia Jianwu glanced at Xia Fangfei, who was clinging to him, and nodded with a smile in response: "Happy New Year to you too."

"You two, stop being so mushy. It's going to rain, let's go."

Jinling's economy was more prosperous than Yuncheng's, and the population was larger. By the second day of the Lunar New Year, there were already many taxis on the street, mostly red Xialis. Xia Jianwu waved one down on the side of the road and took Di Ye to the Panda Electronics headquarters located on Zhongshan East Road in Qinhuai District.

"Your Panda Electronics really has a large family and a big business, actually using 150 mu of land in the city center as a factory area."

Xia Fangfei was very proud, but Xia Jianwu was a bit dejected and complained: "It's just strong on the outside but weak on the inside. No matter how good the family assets are, they can't withstand repeated reckless tossing. If the management doesn't do anything, Panda Electronics will go bankrupt sooner or later. By then, I don't know who this piece of prime land will benefit."

Hearing this, Di Ye looked at Xia Jianwu with new respect, because he was right. In 1996, Panda Electronics was soundly defeated in the television price war, and in 2005, it stumbled again in the mobile phone business. It was acquired and reorganized by China Electronics, and this piece of prime land was also converted into a commercial real estate project.