Chapter 84: Family Matters

Xia Qide is 59 years old this year and has reached the age of impending retirement. Although he still holds the title of Workshop Director, he no longer manages much, and every day at work he only does three things: drink tea, read the newspaper, and play Chinese chess.

On the morning of March 2nd, Xia Qide brewed a cup of tea in his office and spread out the *Jinling Daily*. Just as he finished reading the headlines, Xia Jianwu called to say he agreed to cooperate with Panda Electronics to develop a VCD Player together.

Xia Qide's feelings for Panda Electronics are far deeper than Xia Jianwu's. Recently, the father and son have argued quite a bit over this matter. Now that he heard he had agreed, he was very happy and asked, "Was it Di Ye's suggestion?"

"He is as slippery as an eel and didn't give any suggestions at all, always telling me to get everything ready before going to find him."

Xia Jianwu complained indignantly for a moment, then said, "Dad, I'm going to have Di Ye come over to the house for a meal tonight, do you think that's okay?"

Xia Qide was slightly taken aback and hesitated, "Fangfei hasn't returned; wouldn't it be inappropriate to invite him to eat at home?"

"Little sister's heart has long been tied to him, so what difference does it make whether she returns or not? Besides, for this joint venture, Di Ye is investing at least two or three million, so he can be considered half a member of the family."

"Alright then, call your older brother and sister-in-law over tonight as well."

"I know."

After finishing the call with Xia Jianwu, Xia Qide felt somewhat restless and couldn't keep reading the newspaper. He took a miniature notebook out of his work uniform pocket, flipped to the phone number Xia Fangfei had given him a few days ago, dialed it, and mentioned his plan to invite Di Ye to dinner at home that evening.

"Dad, don't force Di Ye to drink; his alcohol tolerance isn't good, and he doesn't like to drink, especially white spirits. Also, he doesn't like food that is too spicy or too sweet, and he doesn't like cilantro..."

Xia Qide felt a sense of emptiness and interrupted his daughter's instructions, complaining grumpily, "I've raised you for over 20 years, and you don't even know what I like to eat. Now that you've been following this brat for just over a month, you remember his preferences clearly. It was truly a waste raising you."

"Of course I know what you like to eat. I'll call Di Ye in a bit and have him bring you a few dozen catties of pig head meat tonight."

"Nonsense! Who could eat a few dozen catties of pig head meat..."

Xia Qide chatted with his daughter for a while. Listening to her cheerful, laughing voice, although he still felt empty inside, his mood gradually became more relaxed, and he inquired, "Is Di Ye good to you?"

"He's very good; he goes along with me in everything."

"Did you stay at his older sister's house for a period of time before?"

"Yes, I stayed for over ten days. Sister Yan was especially good to me and gave me a very expensive piece of Jade jewelry as a first-meeting gift."

Hearing his daughter say this, Xia Qide felt that inviting Di Ye to eat at home that night was not abrupt, so he hung up the phone, went to the factory gate to meet up with Xia Jianwu, and went together to find the leaders of Panda Electronics to discuss how to cooperate.

At 4:00 PM that day, when Xia Jianwu came to Jinling University to pick up Di Ye, he reported immediately, "My father and I have communicated with several key leaders of Panda Electronics. After holding a meeting in a few days to go through the formalities, it should be about settled. We exchanged 25% of the shares for 5 years of brand licensing plus 1 million in parts."

Brand licensing is a common occurrence in later generations, such as Nanjiren or Philips, but in 1995, it seemed no company in the country played like this. Moreover, with the current influence of the "Panda" brand, a licensing fee of 300,000 a year is almost like giving it away. Brother Di was very surprised and praised, "You have quite a lot of ideas; to think you would play it this way."

"When I went to Dongying for an inspection last year, I studied this kind of business model of brand licensing. Those leaders know nothing about the VCD market and feel that getting 25% of the shares without spending a penny is quite cost-effective, and it can also take care of the circuit board factory and several other branch factories' business..."

Di Ye was not interested in how Xia Jianwu managed to handle the leaders of Panda Electronics. After he finished introducing it excitedly, he pointed to the Electronic Watch on his left wrist and asked a question he had wanted to ask for a long time: "Fangfei said this watch was bought when you went to Dongying for an inspection last year?"

"Yeah, I bought 10 of them from a specialty store in Tokyo, but only sold 6, losing several hundred yuan. Later, I just gave them away. This one of yours was snatched away by little sister."

Di Ye had many guesses about the origin of the Electronic Watch, but he never thought the answer would be like this. He immediately lost interest in asking further, took the Notebook Computer out of his backpack, placed it on the back seat of the car, and said, "There is a Bank branch ahead, stop the car there, I'm going to withdraw some money."

"What are you withdrawing money for?"

"To give gifts. Seeing my father-in-law and brother-in-law for the first time, I can't go empty-handed, right?"

Xia Jianwu understood the meaning in his words and said in surprise, "You are giving money directly to my father and my older brother?"

Di Ye laughed and said, "Providing help in a time of need is the highest realm of gift-giving. You probably emptied your father's life savings to start this company, so I'll help fill the deficit. Your brother is henpecked, so I'll give him some private money to keep him from losing his authority as a husband."

Xia Jianwu was silent. After a while, he said, "What you're doing makes me feel a sense of guilt."

Di Ye also heard the meaning in his words and explained with a smile, "I don't mean to buy your sister. She is a priceless treasure, at least starting at 1 billion USD, and I can't afford that yet."

"If she weren't willing herself, you wouldn't be able to buy her even with 10 billion USD."

Xia Jianwu found a Bank branch nearby, sat in the car and smoked a cigarette. After waiting for more than ten minutes, Di Ye returned to the car carrying the computer bag that looked unchanged, and said, "This branch is too small, I can only withdraw 50,000 yuan at most."

"My older brother went to his father-in-law's house for the first time, and it was already very impressive to bring two bottles of Moutai and a few cartons of Chunghwa cigarettes. You come along and give 50,000 right away; how am I supposed to find a wife in the future?"

Compared to money that is easily obtained, Di Ye cares more about the stability of his harem, so he didn't feel any heartache spending it. He took two stacks of money out of his backpack, tossed them to Xia Jianwu, and said, "The 50,000 is for you and your older brother. He gets 30,000, you get 20,000."

"Hey, hey, hey, why does my older brother get ten thousand more than me?"

"Then you each get 25,000?"

"Forget it, twenty thousand is twenty thousand."

Xia Jianwu stuffed the two stacks of money into his pocket, looking like he had given up on everything, and said with a thick face, "I'll take you to find another branch to withdraw some money for my father."

Di Ye took out the Bank Card he used when donating at Jinling University yesterday and said, "No need. I'll just give this card to your father in a bit; there are 100,000 yuan saved in it as his pension."

"Damn! How could little sister run into someone like you."

Under the offensive of money, Di Ye received VIP-level hospitality at the Xia house that evening, especially from the older brother, Xia Jianwen, whose attitude was enthusiastic to the point of being nauseating. As a result, it gave Di Ye a very bad impression of him, feeling that this person was profit-seeking and unprincipled, pandering deliberately, and was simply not suitable for the officialdom.

After the dinner party ended, on the way back to the hotel, Di Ye summoned Xiao Honghua, searched for memory information related to the Jinling officialdom, and asked Xia Jianwu, "When your older brother and sister-in-law were dating back then, who pursued whom?"

"Older brother pursued sister-in-law."

"Did sister-in-law's parents oppose their marriage?"

Xia Jianwu tilted his head to look at Di Ye and said strangely, "Why are you asking about this?"

"Your older brother is handsome and has a good appearance, but sister-in-law is not only plain-looking, her personality is also somewhat overbearing. If her father wasn't the Vice Chairman of the Municipal CPPCC, would your older brother have taken the initiative to pursue her? If even I can see your older brother's intentions, wouldn't sister-in-law's parents be able to see it?"

Xia Jianwu did not defend Xia Jianwen and admitted, "Back then, sister-in-law's parents did indeed oppose it, but sister-in-law insisted on marrying older brother, so it just ended up that way."

"After getting married, your older brother transferred from Panda Electronics to the Municipal Government to be a secretary?"

"Yeah."

Di Ye stopped asking and said straightforwardly, "I don't think your older brother is suitable to be a civil servant. It's best to find a way to get him to resign, otherwise, he might drag you down in the future."

Xia Jianwu was not surprised by this suggestion. After being silent for a while, he said, "I also think he is not suitable to be a civil servant, but he himself is very keen on it, drilling everywhere, always thinking about getting ahead, and no one can persuade him."

"Then when you are running the company, try to keep your distance from him."