On the way, Wang Shouren learned from Yuan Wai why the two men had appeared in Hong Kong.
Originally, he got the motorcycle from Wang Shouren and planned to sell it here. Selling it would be easy, but the price was really low. Moreover, they were all acquaintances, and also from his own affiliated workplace. He really couldn't afford to overcharge them.
"Why don't you sell them in Shenzhen? Aren't the policies there more open?"
“It’s open, but there’s no money over there!” Yuan Wai was also troubled. He said, “Don’t be fooled by the fact that the policy has been opened and the higher-ups are doing investment promotion. In reality, the local people haven’t really benefited yet. Look, it takes time to build a factory, and it takes time to pay wages. Besides, it’s only been a little over a year. Who can save up that much money?”
"The local officials did suggest we set up a branch there, but the problem was there wasn't much money to be made. We thought, Hong Kong has money, right? We might as well give it a try."
"Then how did you transport them out?"
Hong Kong is still a colony, meaning that, in terms of ownership, it doesn't belong to China. This is essentially an export.
"It was Qin Shou who arranged it. It seems like he has connections in the Chaoshan area. We used a motorcycle to get the goods transported directly to us. Once we got here, we made some arrangements and got the goods without any problems."
Wang Shouren understood.
"So how did you encounter my moth?"
"Well, this is a long story—it's about a child without a mother."
"Then let's get straight to the point!"
"Hi, when we first got here..."
They did unload their goods, but they didn't know how to sell them. You could say they were recklessly bold; they only thought about coming here to sell to Hong Kong people for a good price, but they didn't consider how to actually sell them.
“You’re a seasoned veteran, how could you make such a mistake?” Wang Shouren frowned.
Yuan Wai said somewhat embarrassedly, "It's all my fault. I got carried away back then. You wouldn't believe it, we planned to come to Hong Kong to sell motorcycles, but we didn't actually intend to come here ourselves. After all, quite a few people from there do business here. But those bastards are really cunning. Guess what? They offered to exchange Hong Kong dollars with us at a ratio of 2:1. Tell me, how could I tolerate that?"
In 1980, 1 RMB was equivalent to approximately 7.685 Hong Kong dollars.
Hong Kong dollars aren't currency; they're a type of voucher that can be directly exchanged for US dollars. Therefore, the official exchange rate and the unofficial rate are completely different. Yuan Wai wasn't aware of this intricacies. He figured it would be better to just haul them over and sell them. Moreover, they planned to sell them directly in Hong Kong dollars—a motorcycle for 30,000 to 50,000—and see if they'd still try to bully people.
So they used the small yellow fish as bait to open a shop and started selling their motorcycles.
The price of each motorcycle is also quite high.
"We originally just wanted to drive it around to vent our anger, but guess what? People actually bought it!"
"No, didn't you guys do any market research?" Wang Shouren was starting to doubt himself.
What does it mean to have conducted market research?
"It's just to see how much others are selling it for," Wang Ruiming interjected from the side.
“Oh, no, back then, I didn’t know anyone in the area, how would I know where to investigate? Besides, the people here either spoke in a lot of ‘meya meya’ or spoke in a foreign language, making communication a problem. When we asked them, they wouldn’t tell us.”
Well, I guess I was discriminated against.
Actually, there's nothing wrong with Yuan Wai's pricing.
In this era, motorcycles are priced like this, ranging from approximately 20,000 to 60,000 yuan depending on the model and brand.
According to Wang Shouren, the price was actually quite cheap. After all, his motorcycles are very capable.
"So no one's causing you trouble?"
"Hey boss, you're amazing! You even know this."
Wang Shouren: ...
Nonsense. Hong Kong these days is in complete chaos. Apart from the shops run by the British and those run by the big shots, who else wouldn't dare to touch them?
"Someone actually came to our door, and the first thing they asked for was 30% of our revenue. Damn it, do you think we can tolerate this?"
"So you ended up fighting with them?"
"No, we agreed on the surface, but we planned to leave that night. Anyway, we'd sold almost all of them, and there were only a few left. We planned to take them and dump them into the sea. Boss, do you think I'm stupid? We can't beat them on their turf. If we don't run, are we just going to stay and die?"
To be fair, Yuan Wai mastered the art of running away perfectly. Oh, you can't call it running away; it's called a strategic retreat.
"Then, just as we were about to leave, we saw the young lady."
Kui Datou, Yuan Li, and Yuan Wai were originally under Lou Xiao'e's command, so they immediately recognized each other.
Actually, it's Yuan Wai's fault for not thinking about this. If he had really thought about it, he would have known that Lou Xiao'e was in Hong Kong and could have gone there to ask her. At least he wouldn't have been harassed by the local bullies.
"The young lady was also surprised to run into me here. After asking, I learned that she had gone back home, and the young master had to go to school, so she came back..."
"No, how come this relationship has become so complicated in your mouth? She's the young lady, and I'm the boss? You call my son 'Little Young Master'? What? Aren't you going to call me 'Master'?"
“That won’t do.” Yuan Wai said seriously, “Sir, that belongs to Master Lou, not you. This relationship is not to be confused.”
"Hey, you're really something. So, she sorted things out for you guys?"
"Yes, it's all settled. They even helped us tidy up the shop and asked us how we got the stuff over here. After they found out it was because of Qin Shou, the two of them talked privately and finalized the deal."
"What is it?"
"It's about opening a shop here."
Wang Shouren: ...
Good grief, I told you I'd give you the South China region, and you drove straight to Hong Kong. So, Hong Kong belongs to South China now, huh?
“Young man,” Professor Zhuge, who had been mostly silent, spoke up: “You just said that you sold our motorcycles here.”
"Ah, yes."
"So how did they react? What about the price? Did they think it was too expensive? Or that the quality wasn't very good?"
“You must answer Professor Zhuge’s questions carefully. He is our factory’s chief technical engineer. If you have any questions, please ask them now,” Wang Shouren immediately added.
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