In 1982, after graduating, Zhan Chunlan successfully entered the Ministry of Foreign Trade and became a newcomer in foreign trade.

Not long after joining the company, the ministry was about to pilot the "export of industrial and mining products," selling dark gray industrial silicon (then called "metallic silicon") to aluminum plants in energy-scarce island nations.

Zhan Chunlan worked through the night to hand-copy the "English-Chinese Metallurgical Glossary" into a pocket booklet and translated the technical parameters of the two grades of industrial silicon 553/441 into English cards. In this way, she mastered the professional terminology in a short period of time.

Afterwards, in the meeting room where the two sides discussed the matter, a 15-minute English presentation explained that "Chinese silicon = low boron and low phosphorus," raising the Japanese side's target price from $98/ton to $114/ton. A transaction of 5,000 tons was completed, generating an additional $80,000 in foreign exchange for the country.

In July 1983, the ministry prepared to bid for the EPC project in the Middle East for the first time, but no one had ever seen the international bidding documents.

Using her off-get off work hours, Zhan Chunlan, through teachers she knew at school, translated the United Nations' "Guidelines for Contracted Projects in Developing Countries" into a 110,000-word Chinese manuscript, printing 300 copies, which became the only textbook for the national "Training Course for Cadres in International Economic Cooperation" in 1983-84. The translation was the first to establish standard Chinese translations for "bidding documents," "performance bond," and "Advance payment Guarantee," which are still in use today.

When Sino-US trade was just starting, some colleagues were unfamiliar with the US HS coding system, which led to frequent errors in customs declaration documents and delays in shipping schedules.

Leveraging her foreign language and professional expertise, Zhan Chunlan stayed up all night translating the U.S. Customs Tariff, creating a handbook that maps China's major export commodities (such as textiles, handicrafts, and agricultural products) to U.S. tariff codes, and included tips on common mistakes.

This booklet circulated among some departments and bureaus, significantly improving the efficiency and accuracy of documentation. As a result, she once again came into the leadership's view and was praised as a "newcomer capable of great things." With her around, there was no problem that couldn't be solved.

Some companies would come to her with problems they couldn't solve. For example, the Beijing No. 1 Machinery Factory urgently needed to import CNC machine tools, but its foreign exchange quota was severely insufficient.

She overruled objections and proposed a "compensation trade" plan: using some of the parts produced by the machine tool to repay the equipment cost in installments. She also led the feasibility study, negotiations, and contract drafting, resolving core issues such as the pace of foreign exchange repayment, product quality standards, and default clauses.

The project was successfully implemented, becoming the first classic case within the system. Subsequently, a "Guideline for Compensation Trade Operations" was written and used directly as a foreign trade training textbook.

At that time, export pricing relied on the "cost-plus method," completely disregarding international market conditions, which often resulted in either excessively high prices leading to lost customers or excessively low prices subjecting anti-dumping measures.

Zhan Chunlan designed a comprehensive calculation model that includes domestic raw material costs, energy consumption, international freight, target market profit margins, and competitor prices.

The model was first tested at the Light Industry and Crafts Department, and successfully guided products such as bamboo weaving to win foreign trade orders at more competitive prices.

Some economists have commented that this move is a silent revolution in introducing market economics into the planned pricing system, demonstrating their outstanding economic literacy.

With the country's development, private enterprises have sprung up like mushrooms after rain. While the national economy is developing, domestic enterprises are caught in a situation of low-price competition and meager profits in order to export.

Zhan Chunlan systematically studied the export upgrading paths of K country and island countries, and proposed a strategy to shift from "winning by quantity" to "winning by quality". The core of this strategy was to promote international standard certification, cultivate independent brands, and develop cross-border e-commerce (which was mainly consignment trade at the time).

The report received high attention from the ministry leadership, and many of its recommendations were included in the discussion documents of the National Foreign Trade Work Conference.

Li Xiuxiu and Fan Hongying were very supportive of her in this regard.

Li Xiuxiu strictly followed the route set by Zhan Chunlan, starting with wholesale. After accumulating a certain amount of capital and customers, she directly opened a factory in Jiangcheng, using patterns from Guangcheng and Gangcheng to produce clothing. Once she developed a certain fashion sense and cultivated some design talents, she began to try independent design, keeping up with international trends. She divided the factory into three production lines: high, medium, and low-end, to meet the consumption needs of different groups.

In this process, she did not blindly pursue international trends, but instead tried her best to incorporate traditional elements into each design, including various classical patterns, embroidery techniques, and even weaving techniques.

Her clothing company grew step by step from a small workshop to a large company, eventually even holding its own clothing exhibitions. The models in the exhibitions were all Chinese, each wearing clothes that suited their body shape, showcasing the beauty and culture of Chinese clothing.

Fan Hongying also transitioned from selling small appliances to selling large appliances, initially relying entirely on imports. Following a suggestion from Zhan Chunlan, she united all the appliance importers to formulate import terms, requiring that foreign brands treat the domestic market equally and not differentiate between A and B versions.

When it was first proposed, foreign companies did not accept it.

However, Fan Hongying was not discouraged. Instead, she took advantage of the opportunity to vigorously develop domestic home appliance companies. She took over a company that was struggling to survive due to the squeeze from foreign home appliance companies. Using Zhan Chunlan's information, she recruited technical talents and developed her own brand in a short period of time by disassembling other products and conducting independent research and development.

We will take advantage of this opportunity to quickly expand into the market.

While foreign companies thought China would eventually compromise, Fan Hongying had already made her home appliance brand famous in thousands of households.

Foreign companies started to panic and wanted to re-enter the Chinese market, but they had to ensure their quality and avoid bizarre incidents like "the refrigerator door couldn't be closed".

There was no other way; they couldn't afford to lose such a large market as China, so they had no choice but to reluctantly agree.

Fan Hongying became a well-known female entrepreneur in China, enabling Chinese people to use high-quality products with guaranteed quality.

Li Xiuxiu became a fashion icon in China, taking clothing full of Chinese elements abroad and making the body shape and physique of Chinese people a factor that many foreign brands must consider at the beginning of their designs.

Seeing Li Xiuxiu and Fan Hongying make a fortune just by bringing back some things from Guangcheng, Zhan Hongyu's eyes turned red with envy. He also heard that his third sister was doing very well in Beijing and was a real state cadre. They all shared the same blood, so if they could do it, why couldn't he?

Without informing his family, he sold his job and boarded a train heading south with the money.

He thought the South was full of money, and that as long as he could bend down, he could pick up a lot.

As a result, his money was stolen on the train. But he didn't give up. He believed that with his abilities, as long as he could get the goods, he would definitely be able to make a lot of money.

He begged in Guangcheng while saving money; once he had saved money, he would go to the wholesale market to buy goods and then set up a stall.

It's true what they say, as long as you have perseverance, you can succeed at anything. He really did turn his life around, and by setting up a stall, he earned enough money to buy goods to take back to Jiangcheng.

Unexpectedly, when he went to buy goods with the money, he encountered a swindler who ran off with all his hard-earned savings and disappeared without a trace. Helpless, he went to the police station to report the case. The police simply registered the report and told him to go home and wait for news. They also told him that similar incidents were common recently, with dozens of people being swindled out of everything, and that he should be careful in the future, as the chances of getting his money back were very low.

Zhan Hongyu did not give up and returned to begging, but this time he was not as lucky as before. His daily begging was only enough to fill his stomach.

Moreover, this time he found that there were more and more peers around him, many of whom came here with the same dream of getting rich quick, only to become beggars. Then, Zhan Hongyu saw some people disappear after a short time. He didn't know where they went, but their disappearance frightened him.

One night, after witnessing yet another beggar being quietly dragged away, he didn't dare close his eyes and left as soon as it was light.

More than half a year later, Zhan Zhiqiang and Xu Lixia ate numbly. Their daughter had gotten married and their son was missing. This made them lose their spirits and lose interest in their work. They were like walking corpses every day.

"Thump! Thump!"

Hearing the knock on the door, Xu Lixia didn't react. She just silently went to open the door, then came back to eat, without even glancing at the door.

Zhan Hongyu had been begging his way here; his clothes were tattered and smelled bad.

A neighbor passing by saw this and shouted, "Who are you? Go away, don't loiter around here!"

Zhan Hongyu ignored him, only looking at the people inside the room, and cried out loudly, "Dad! Mom!"

Upon hearing his voice, the two finally snapped out of their daze, staring intently at the beggar before them. After observing him closely for a long time, they excitedly rushed forward and embraced him, exclaiming, "My son, where have you been? Why didn't you say a word?"

The capital city.

Today, taking a rare day off, Zhan Chunlan took Zhan Xiaoman for a walk outside.

After graduating from university, Zhan Chunlan stayed in Beijing to work, and Wang Wenfeng had no objection to this, because he had also worked hard in the past few years and successfully transferred from Haicheng to a hospital in Beijing, so the family no longer had to be separated.

Ms. Fang Li helped them raise some money so she could buy a two-courtyard siheyuan (traditional courtyard house). The siheyuan retained its exterior appearance, but the interior was renovated according to modern living habits, making it both classic and convenient; the family could live together, which was both lively and provided each person with their own private space.

Everything is gradually moving in a positive direction.