Chapter 56: Business Talk

While selling fried chicken, Jiang Liyun updated Feng Yi about the situation at the new shop. She said, “Feng Yi, for the next few days, I won’t be going home for lunch. I’ll be staying at the shop. I’m paying the carpenter per piece for making the tables and chairs. He’ll work fast, and I’m afraid it won’t take many days to finish. Tomorrow, I’ll buy some paint and give all the furniture he makes a coat.”

She planned to practice on the table legs first and then paint the table surface. She wasn’t aiming for perfection in the furniture’s appearance, as it was just for use in the shop without needing to be too sophisticated.

“Li Yun Jie, I’ll join you,” Feng Yi suggested.

Jiang Liyun considered it and agreed, “Sure, then you can ride the tricycle home every noon, bring the slaughtered chickens to town, and also get some food for us.”

She had a coal stove for the stall and could cook in the shop, but it was time-consuming. She wanted to finish setting up the shop quickly and didn’t want to spend much time cooking.

“Alright,” Feng Yi agreed.

That day, Jiang Liyun was very busy.

On the other hand, Sun Jinshan, wearing yesterday’s suit and a new hairstyle, accompanied by Jiang Lihai, who had changed into new clothes and held pen and paper, walked to the food factory in town early in the morning.

Sun Jinshan had already inquired that the town’s food factory was state-owned, storing frozen pork and other items in the cold storage for emergencies. However, there was still some available space, and in the summer, the factory made and sold ice pops, utilising that space.

“Do we really have to negotiate business with the factory manager? Will it work?” Jiang Lihai expressed concern.

He was supposed to be at work today, but Sun Jinshan had come to the Jiang family early in the morning, asking him to take the day off.

“If it works, it works. What’s there to be afraid of?” Sun Jinshan countered.

If they couldn’t rent the cold storage, they would just have to sell live chickens instead of pre-cut ones. It wasn’t a big deal.

“This is a state-owned factory,” Jiang Lihai said.

He always felt that people working inside must be very capable. He remembered when he came to town as a child, watching the factory workers buy sugarcane and discard the part that wasn’t sweet. He was amazed. He used to chew even slightly sweet cornstalks. These people were willing to throw away a piece of sugarcane.

He recalled how he used to crave those sugarcanes and how Jiang Liping dragged him to pick up the discarded ones. They ate the sweet part, and the upper part with leaves was dried and used as firewood.

Wu Xiaochun even praised him for being sensible.

Later, he often went to the town to pick up things and bring them home until he was in junior high school, and his classmates said he was picking up junk, so he stopped doing it.

But the workers in the state-owned factory were always very powerful in his memory.

“It’s just a small factory, compared to those in Shanghai!” Sun Jinshan said.

Jiang Lihai thought about it and realised it was true.

The food factory was really small and very old.

Jiang Lihai wasn’t as afraid anymore.

Sun Jinshan said to Jiang Lihai, “Later, pretend to be my secretary; remember to bring the notebook and pen.”

Previously, when Sun Jinshan took Jiang Lihai to the village to discuss things, the cadres in the village thought Jiang Lihai was the one in charge.

Sun Jinshan was very angry at the time, and he realised the problem.

Big bosses don’t dress like him!

So, when he was in Shanghai before, he spent more than three hundred yuan to buy a suit, which is what he is wearing now.

He also changed his hairstyle from a middle part to a big back!

Yesterday, he went to see Jiang Liyun like this, and Jiang Liyun highly praised his dress, so he dressed like this when negotiating business.

That’s why he came like this!

Thinking about how big bosses on TV often have a secretary by their side… He brought Jiang Lihai along.

The two arrived at the entrance of the food factory and were stopped by the gatekeeper.

Jiang Lihai was afraid when he saw the gatekeeper. After all, he used to come here to pick up junk when he was a child, and this gatekeeper would scold him and drive him away.

However, today, the gatekeeper’s attitude was particularly good: “Who are you?”

Sun Jinshan took out a pack of cigarettes and gave one to the gatekeeper: “We’re here to discuss business, looking for your factory manager!”

Jiang Lihai felt it wasn’t good to go straight to the factory manager, but the gatekeeper had already let them in and even pointed them to the office: “The factory manager’s office is over there.”

Sun Jinshan brought him like this, swaggering into the factory manager’s office.

The pack of cigarettes Sun Jinshan gave to the gatekeeper earlier was a pack of cigarettes that cost more than a yuan. This time, when he saw the factory manager, he took out the cigarettes that were given to him by foreigners when he went to Shanghai and dropped them in the chicken coop. It took him a long time to find them later.

When he first found the cigarettes, they were covered in chicken droppings, but because the cigarette packaging was tightly sealed with plastic film, after washing them, you couldn’t tell at all.

Sun Jinshan sniffed them and confirmed that they didn’t have any strange smells.

At first, the boss of the food factory didn’t take Sun Jinshan and Jiang Lihai, these two young people, seriously.

But Sun Jinshan was too calm.

The style of the suit he wore was not available here, and the cigarettes he took out were something he had never seen before.

The characters on the cigarette box seemed to be foreign. Could this be foreign goods?

The boss of the food factory suddenly started to take Sun Jinshan seriously.

He heard that Sun Jinshan planned to open a small company here and might need to rent cold storage, so he asked if he could rent it. He immediately said it was available for rent.

In recent years, due to private factories snatching business and the poor management and low productivity of state-owned or collective factories, many of them are not performing well.

In the past, he would never rent the cold storage to individuals, but now the situation is special. Many factories like his are seeking reform, and newspapers even praise factories that have successfully undergone reform. So, he agreed to rent the cold storage to Sun Jinshan.

This could bring additional income to the factory, which is good!

Sun Jinshan didn’t immediately sign a contract with the food factory. He said he needed to go back for a meeting, draft a contract, and then come back to see the factory manager.

The factory manager of the food factory, hearing this, felt that Sun Jinshan was even more extraordinary and warmly invited the two to a restaurant.

Anyway, the money spent on treating clients to meals can be reimbursed by the factory.

Jiang Lihai felt awkward. They hadn’t actually started a company yet, and the business wasn’t finalized. It felt inappropriate for the other party to treat them to a meal at this point.

But Sun Jinshan remained calm. He became friendly with the factory manager, and they went to the restaurant together, where Sun Jinshan spoke a lot about his experiences in Shanghai, bragging all the way.

Based on what Sun Jinshan said, those who didn’t know his background would think he was doing big business in Shanghai all the time.

In reality, he was just an ordinary employee on the brick factory transport team.

Jiang Lihai couldn’t understand; he was greatly shocked.

The only thing he could do was take out a pen and paper and record the information about the food factory that the factory owner revealed.

Seeing this scene, the food factory owner became even more enthusiastic.

After chatting with Sun Jinshan, he felt Sun Jinshan was extraordinary, but he also noticed that Sun Jinshan occasionally revealed his ignorance. In any case, Sun Jinshan looked like a nouveau riche who hadn’t read many books.

But this nouveau riche was a smart person, bringing along a seemingly cultured and intelligent secretary!

This nouveau riche treated the secretary fairly, and the secretary seemed capable of influencing him. Such a person couldn’t be easily fooled!

In summary, both parties had a pleasant conversation. After finishing the meal, they left the restaurant together.

Jiang Liping went home for lunch and took a nap before riding her bicycle to work. To her surprise, she saw her brother and the boss of the town’s food factory coming out of the restaurant together.

Jiang Liping almost bumped into a utility pole.

Her brother, just an ordinary worker in a brick factory, was leaving a restaurant with the factory manager of the food factory.

She instinctively wanted to go up and talk but thought better of it. They seemed to be discussing business, and it wouldn’t be appropriate for her to interrupt. It would be better to ask Jiang Lihai about it later in the evening.

Jiang Lihai didn’t notice Jiang Liping. Feeling guilty for having a free meal, he looked at Sun Jinshan and said, “Let’s go; we’ll talk to the feed seller!”

Jiang Liyun had instructed him to discuss with the food factory, the feed seller, and the seller of chicks. Once they had some approximate results, they would make another trip to Shanghai to secure sales channels.

As for the chicken farmers in the village, they were relatively easy to persuade. For farmers without a stable income or job, if someone offered a reasonable price for their chickens, they would gladly start chicken farming.

Sun Jinshan eagerly wanted to get the business going, so he quickly moved on to the next target. However, the feed seller wasn’t the owner of a feed mill; the feed mill was actually located in the county town. The same applied to the chick hatchery.

Today, they wouldn’t have time to discuss it with them, but they could plan a visit for tomorrow.

Looking at the sky, Sun Jinshan said to Jiang Lihai, “Let’s go; have dinner at your place!”

So, when Jiang Liyun returned home after selling fried chicken that day, she once again saw Sun Jinshan.

Sun Jinshan looked smug, as if he had successfully accomplished something.