Chapter 187 The Magical Use of Foreign Exchange Certificates
That morning, after Lin Weimin went to work, Meng Weizai found him.
The old comrade tried to avoid the question at first, but Lin Weimin realized that he must have something to ask of him.
What could an editor like him do that was worthy of the director's request? It was definitely not within the scope of the old comrade's duties. Lin Weimin first thought of foreign exchange certificates.
Ever since he exchanged the royalties from the publication of Farewell My Concubine for foreign exchange coupons, everyone in the company knew that he had a huge amount of foreign exchange coupons.
In this era, foreign exchange coupons are a hard currency in the country that is comparable to rice and knives.
The story of the rise of foreign exchange coupons starts with the supply situation at the Friendship Stores.
When the Friendship Stores first implemented commodity supply in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the supply varieties were mainly some unified marketing commodities and high-end commodities in short supply in the market, such as grain, cooking oil, sugar, pork, poultry, kerosene, cotton cloth, watches, bicycles, sewing machines, etc. Both the supply varieties and the supply volume were at a relatively low level.
During the movement, the development of Friendship Stores was basically stagnant.
After 1976, the variety of goods supplied by Friendship Stores began to gradually increase, and many commodities that were in short supply in the market began to be supplied, such as table fans, watches, black and white TVs, cameras, etc.
Because Yanjing was the capital, it had the largest number of foreign friends and overseas Chinese, and the variety of goods supplied was also the richest, including local specialties, handicrafts, four treasures of the study, famous paintings and calligraphy, craft ceramics, jade carvings, drawnwork embroidery, silk products, etc.
Such a rich supply of goods is much more than what ordinary people can buy in general department stores at that time, and the things here only require foreign exchange coupons, unlike outside where you need both money and tickets.
Therefore, many of the products in Friendship Store have become popular among ordinary people of that era.
"Leader, do you need foreign exchange coupons?" Lin Weimin asked.
After his thoughts were revealed by him, Meng Weizai showed a rare look of embarrassment on his face.
He nodded and said, "My granddaughter wants to learn piano. She is doing well in the Children's Palace. My son and daughter-in-law want her to follow this path in the future, so they plan to buy her a Xinghai brand piano."
"This is a good thing. How much do you need? It's just a matter of your words." Lin Weimin said proudly.
Meng Weizai gestured, "Four thousand yuan."
The four thousand yuan should refer to foreign exchange coupons. If it was RMB, it would be even more.
For an average working-class family in Yanjing, it might take more than ten years to come up with that much money.
The fact that Meng Weizai could come up with this number shows that his family is extremely wealthy, and his son and daughter-in-law are probably not ordinary people either.
"No problem. I'll go with you to get it this afternoon."
Lin Weimin did not mention the money, Meng Weizai said: "Don't worry, don't worry, I'll ask my family to collect the money when I go back today."
"It's okay, I'll take the money out first."
Before leaving get off work in the afternoon, Lin Weimin left home early and went to the People's Bank to withdraw 4,000 foreign exchange certificates.
The more than 2,000 foreign exchange coupons he had in his hands had been taken away by his colleagues in the unit during this period of time, and he earned 5,000 yuan in RMB.
There is a line of small words printed on the foreign exchange certificate: This certificate is equivalent to the RMB.
If there is any bill that requires such words to be written on it, the value of the two must be unequal.
These days, if a foreign student from Africa goes to the Friendship Store and buys two packs of Greater China cigarettes, he can earn enough for his living expenses for a month by reselling them. However, the country basically receives no foreign exchange.
They took advantage of this loophole and took advantage of the preferential treatment the country gave to foreigners at that time.
Suppose a foreign student exchanges 100 US dollars for 150 yuan of foreign exchange coupons at the official exchange rate of 1:1.5, and then uses the 150 yuan of foreign exchange coupons to buy popular goods that are difficult to buy elsewhere at the Friendship Store.
After leaving the store, he sold the goods for RMB 250.
Then he spent 100 RMB on food, drink and entertainment, and when he left China he exchanged the remaining 150 RMB back into Midao, so he still had 100 Midao in his hand.
Foreigners are making a lot of money, but the government is the one that suffers.
Not only did the country not retain any foreign exchange, but it also lost dozens of dollars in foreign exchange.
Lin Weimin is just an ordinary citizen and he has no right to interfere in such national affairs.
His colleagues needed foreign exchange coupons and he happened to have some, so he couldn't easily refuse them as that would be too offensive.
Anyway, he didn't suffer any loss, as everyone came to him to exchange foreign exchange certificates at the market price.
At this time, the value of foreign exchange coupons was actually very confusing. Some people could take advantage of loopholes and easily earn a difference of four or five times by using high-end consumer goods such as cigarettes and alcohol.
But doing so would be outright speculation, and Lin Weimin would never do such a thing. Usually, when his colleagues asked him to return the foreign exchange certificates, the exchange rate would fluctuate according to the market increase of 50% to 60%. Generally, if they exchanged 100 foreign exchange certificates, they would give Lin Weimin 160 yuan.
The next day, Lin Weimin and Meng Weizai came to the entrance of the Friendship Store. When the old comrade went to work in the morning, he told his son to let them meet here. It was a good opportunity to exchange foreign exchange coupons and go directly into the store to buy a piano to avoid any further trouble.
After waiting for a while at the Friendship Store, Lin Weimin met Meng Weizai's son. Today, not only his son came, but also his daughter-in-law and granddaughter came together. Counting Meng Weizai, the whole family came together.
Meng Weizai asked, "Why did Yanni come along as well?"
"As soon as she heard that she could buy a piano, she couldn't stay at home and pestered me to come." Meng Weizai's daughter-in-law looked at her daughter lovingly and said.
Meng Weizai introduced both parties.
When Lin Weimin was introduced, Meng Weizai's son and his wife were very enthusiastic and shook Lin Weimin's hand to express their gratitude.
Granddaughter Meng Yanni, who is about fourteen or fifteen years old this year, had sparkling eyes when she looked at the tall and handsome Lin Weimin, who is now the most famous young writer.
After saying hello, Lin Weimin took out the 4,000 yuan foreign exchange coupons.
"Brother Meng, you two should order a few words."
Meng Weizai's son also took out a bag from his bag. Lin Weimin took a look and saw that the money was tied up in advance.
The largest denomination of the third edition of RMB in circulation is ten yuan, and one stack is one thousand yuan. Meng Weizai's son and his wife gave him six and a half stacks of RMB. Lin Weimin knew without counting that there must be six thousand four hundred yuan.
After Meng Weizai's son finished counting the foreign exchange certificates, he asked, "Weimin, don't you count?"
Lin Weimin smiled and said, "No need, it will only be more, not less."
The trust he showed made the other party feel at ease, and he gave Lin Weimin a friendly smile.
"Okay, we have the foreign exchange coupons, let's go in and buy a piano." Meng Weizai urged.
The couple looked at each other, then said to Meng Weizai, "Dad, let's go in and buy a piano first."
Meng Weizai nodded and watched his son and his family walk into the Friendship Store. The back of his granddaughter Meng Yanni was full of excitement, as if she was about to fly.
"Leader, why don't you go in and take a look?"
Meng Weizai said, "What are you looking at? I didn't buy the piano for you, let them look at it themselves."
Lin Weimin knew that of the more than 6,000 yuan he received today, a part, or even most of it, must have been taken by Meng Wei, and he couldn't help but sigh in his heart.
How pitiful are the parents in the world!
Meng Weizai turned around and said sincerely: "Weimin, thank you so much this time."
"Look at what you said. Why should we be so polite to each other?"
Meng Weizai put his hands behind his back and smiled, "Okay, you're welcome."
After helping Meng Weizai, Lin Weimin still had 16,000 yuan in foreign exchange coupons left, and his bank deposits had reached 40,000 yuan.
Foreign exchange coupons are still okay, but this money is becoming more and more worthless the more you release it!
It's not that he doesn't want to buy antiques, Liulichang is in Yanjing, but the problem is that he knows nothing about these things, and he will be ripped off if he goes there.
By the way, what was Ma Dudu doing at this time?
Lin Weimin thought about it and remembered that he had published a novel "The Moon Is Full Tonight" in a whole page in China Youth Daily last year. He might as well make friends with him when he has time. He didn't plan to learn any knowledge about antiques, so it would be a good idea to find an opportunity to let this guy collect some old items for him.
I have to build two houses when I have time, even if they are not formal courtyard houses.
In April of the previous year, Yanjing City just issued the first local demolition regulation, "Yanjing City Capital Construction Demolition and Resettlement Interim Measures". With the continuous development of the economy in the future, Yanjing's first wave of demolition will soon come.
Although this first wave of demolition was heavily influenced by the planned economy, the houses should be distributed. In a place like Yanjing, if you have a house, do you still worry about not having money?
As August approaches, the weather in Yanjing is getting hotter day by day.
The writing of the modified "The Kite Runner" was not smooth. Lin Weimin was not familiar with life on the grassland, and there was no developed Internet like in later generations where everything could be checked.
If you want to get information related to writing, you either have to read a lot of materials or ask people around you who have experience living in Inner Mongolia. In short, it is troublesome.
These days, the People's Art Theatre's performance of "Farewell My Concubine" has officially ended, and they are preparing to go to Shanghai for the performance.
Lin Weimin had no intention of going with them, but Yi Shizhi from the National Theatre of China found him.
"Teacher Yu, what did you call me for?"
Yi Shizhi made a cup of tea for Lin Weimin and said, "Sit down and talk slowly."
"That's what happened. Isn't Farewell My Concubine going to be performed in Shanghai? Our entire crew is going to go there. You understand this opportunity, and everyone can take the opportunity to go out and have some fun. But now there is a problem..."
"What's the problem?"
Shi Zhi gave Lin Weimin an apologetic smile and said, "Didn't the Zhijiang Drama Troupe get the performance permit for The Intouchables from you? They contacted us these past two days and said that they have set up the crew and selected the roles. They said they hope someone can come and give some guidance, hoping to restore the performance style of Yanjing as much as possible."
Lin Weimin understood what Yi Shizhi meant and asked, "You can't find anyone, right?"
Yi Shizhi was a little embarrassed, "One is going to Shanghai, and the other is going to Zhijiang. The key is that we decided to go to Shanghai first. If we let anyone go to Zhijiang at this time, everyone will definitely feel uncomfortable."
"Weimin, I have to ask you for help this time. Teacher Ouyang and Teacher Lan are definitely going to Shanghai, and we have to take other people's opinions into consideration. That's why I thought of you. If you are willing to go, the hospital can provide a subsidy of five yuan a day, and Zhijiang will also have subsidies..."
Lin Weimin waved his hand and said, "Teacher Yu, this is not about money."
When Yi Shizhi heard this, he showed disappointment on his face. But before he could say anything, Lin Weimin said, "Since the hospital is short of people, I'll go there."
Yi Shizhi said happily: "Oh, Weimin, you helped me a lot."
"Teacher Yu, please don't say that."
Yi Shizhi shook his head and said, "You don't understand. This kind of thing involves interpersonal relationships, which is the most troublesome. This time, I am grateful for you."
After the matter was settled, Lin Weimin went to his unit to ask for leave.
When Meng Weizai heard that he wanted to take half a month off, he immediately frowned and asked, "What takes so long?"
"They are all special cases!" Lin Weimin explained the situation of the People's Art Theatre.
Meng Weizai was helpless. He had just asked Lin Weimin to do something for him, and it would be a bit unkind of him not to approve his leave at this moment. However, the leave was indeed a bit long.
Lin Weimin saw Meng Weizai's difficulties and said, "Well, leader. Actually, we have quite a few authors in Zhijiang for Contemporary Magazine. I can have a chance to communicate with you this time and see what difficulties you have in your creation. I can help you solve them and get the manuscripts sorted out at the same time."
Meng Weizai gave Lin Weimin a look and said, "You are really smart, boy."
"Oh, in this case, half a month might not be enough!" The excuse had been found, and Meng Weizai didn't mind doing Lin Weimin another favor.
"How about a month?"
Meng Weizai glared at Lin Weimin. He knew that he was asking for too much. "Then it'll be twenty days!"
"Okay, just twenty days!"
After the leave was approved, Lin Weimin continued to work happily.
In the afternoon, the news that he had asked for leave to go to Zhijiang spread throughout the office.
Zhu Changsheng asked: "Weimin, are you going to Zhijiang?"
"yes."
Zhu Changsheng looked gossipy, "The water town in the south of the Yangtze River is rich in beauties."
Lin Weimin said unhappily: "I'm going to do serious business!"
(End of this chapter)
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