Chapter 120
The companion looked at Xia Juhua thoughtfully, and asked Chief Zheng worriedly: "In front of so many people, what if Sister Xia can't make up the story or is too slow and they get annoyed?"
Section Chief Zheng said confidently: "Captain Xia's craftsmanship is the best in Pingan Village, there will definitely be no problems."
The colleague felt that his kindness was misunderstood and wanted to have a good talk with Section Chief Zheng, but then he remembered what Deputy Director Gu said last night and had to swallow his words back, thinking to himself: He will talk again when Xia Juhua can no longer make up stories.
Just as I was thinking about it, several people came hurriedly to the L Province booth and started talking to everyone. One person even reached out his hand directly to the rooster on the summer chrysanthemum stand, looked at it carefully for a few seconds, then jumped up, looking very happy.
The people in Province L were stunned. Suddenly, a group of people who were obviously not Chinese came and took things with their own hands. Should they take the things back or let them take them away?
"Xia Tongji, it's Lei." Someone came over breathlessly and was about to talk to the group of foreigners when he recognized Xia Juhua at a glance and greeted her first.
Xia Juhua and the others recognized the reporter who had just got off the train to interview Xia Juhua that day. Section Chief Zheng quickly asked, "Reporter, what's going on with these people?"
The reporter took a look at the excited international friends holding textiles, and said to Xia Juhua and the others helplessly: "These are friends from Country G. As soon as they came to the expo, they mentioned Chinese textiles. They said that they bought them back from the last expo and they were very popular. They hope to see them again this time. And they remembered Province L, so they came directly to your booth." Fortunately, Province L still brought textiles this time, otherwise the international friends would be disappointed.
That's how it was. Section Chief Zheng and Xia Juhua both breathed a sigh of relief - it was good that they weren't here to cause trouble, and it was even better that they liked the woven products of Ping An Village. The other people's eyes on Xia Juhua changed, and the person who knew Cantonese said to Xia Juhua, "Sister Xia, since international friends like your woven products, why don't you introduce them to them?"
Xia Juhua was in a dilemma: "I don't speak their language either. Will they understand if I introduce it in our language?"
The reporter laughed: "Xia Tongji Lei can introduce me, I can be Lei's interpreter."
Come on, you need someone to translate for me, can you understand what I say? The reporter didn't care about that. After asking, he said that these textiles were brought by Xia Juhua and her friends, and then he introduced Xia Juhua to the international friends.
When the international friends heard that the woven products were made by Xia Juhua, they put down what they were holding and applauded. Some even picked up the things they had just put down and handed them to Xia Juhua, asking questions.
After the reporter translated it and her companions explained it to Xia Juhua, Xia Juhua understood that what the international friend was asking was whether the animal in his hand was a dog and why it was placed together with the rooster.
Xia Juhua picked up a mouse from the stand and started by talking about the Chinese zodiac, explaining which twelve animals were included. She then arranged the twelve animals in order and pointed them out to the international friends.
The twelve zodiac animals woven into a yarn by Qi Nai are very cute because of their small size. As Xia Juhua introduced them, the international friends took one by one and finally took all the twelve zodiac animals.
Xia Juhua helplessly asked the reporter to tell international friends that the twelve zodiac signs are a loving family and cannot be sold separately. If you want to buy, you can only buy one set. I don't know if there is a problem with the reporter's translation, but the friends applauded again, and some people wanted to hug Xia Juhua, which scared her and she pushed Chief Zheng out.
It wasn't that Xia Juhua was not kind enough to let Chief Zheng take the blame. It was just that the friend was tall and strong, with dark skin. The reason why Xia Juhua didn't scream because of his white teeth was that she had seen many people like him on TV in her previous life.
The friend who hugged Chief Zheng talked a lot to the reporter, and the person who was with him told Xia Juhua: The friend said that not only the twelve zodiac signs are a loving family, but the people of China and Country G are also a loving family.
Then the friend insisted on shaking hands with Xia Juhua, and there was no way to avoid it, so Xia Juhua had to shake hands with him reluctantly and quickly hid her hands behind her back.
Seeing her reaction, the friend laughed happily and talked to the reporter. The reporter showed a surprised expression on his face and asked the friend a few questions, and then a companion translated it to Xia Juhua: The friend said that if possible, he would like to go to the magical place where these woven products can be produced to see how these things are woven.
Section Chief Zheng whispered to Xia Juhua, "Captain Xia, show them how to do it now, and remember to ask them to place an order."
The reed bark had already been brought, so of course she had to show off her craftsmanship. Xia Juhua asked the reporter to tell her friends that she was one of the people who wove these products. The exclamations of her friends attracted more people to come over.
"This, make up this." The friend who first picked up the rooster suddenly spoke in stiff Chinese. Not only did he speak, he also kept passing the rooster in front of Xia Juhua, fearing that Xia Juhua would not understand what he meant.
It is not difficult to weave a rooster. Xia Juhua asked the reporter to tell her friends that she could do it, but it would take a longer time. Her friends could first take a look at other products in L Province.
When the reporter told Xia Juhua what she said, the friends began to exclaim in amazement again. No one wanted to leave to look at other exhibits. They all wanted to see how Xia Juhua weaved reed barks into a colorful and lively rooster.
As soon as she picked up the reed skin, Xia Juhua lost her reservedness of meeting international friends for the first time, and her whole body radiated confidence. Her movements were very fast, and before others could see clearly how her hands moved, several rooster tail feathers had already taken shape. Soon she changed to yellow reed skin and began to weave the chicken's belly. The connection of several colors was very natural. It was clear that the connection was still a different color in the previous second, and it was connected by yellow reed skin in the next second. No one could see clearly how Xia Juhua did it.
"Wow--" The friends who arrived first applauded again and did not disturb Xia Juhua's progress. It seemed that at this moment, all she had in her eyes were the reed skin and the semi-finished product in her hands, and nothing in the outside world could interfere with her.
In fact, Xia Juhua could hear the applause and feel the eyes on her - when the women of Ping'an Village were weaving in the yard, they would often tell gossip and interesting stories to relieve boredom and never interfere with what they were saying.
But Xia Juhua didn't understand what they said, and she was afraid that they would ask her questions that were difficult to answer, so she just pretended not to hear them and didn't care. She didn't expect that her behavior would be seen as she being single-minded and having great ambitions in the eyes of others.
Xia Juhua, who was packed with a bunch of things, spent nearly three hours to finally weave a rooster, but it was snatched away by the friend who took the rooster first. Xia Juhua had to ask the reporter to tell him that the rooster's wife and children were also here, and they should not be separated either.
Such words were obviously to the friends' taste. After they admired the rooster family again, Xia Juhua told them that not only these two items were made of reed bark, but also the small pendants, small baskets, and pen holders were made of reed bark, which caused another round of exclamations and cheers.
Xia Juhua took the opportunity to say that she brought these textiles to the expo in order to help her friends better understand Chinese culture and recognize the wisdom of the Chinese people, so that they can bring the friendship of the Chinese people back to their own countries.
How to bring it? On behalf of Xia Juhua, Chief Zheng said that if one order could not express the friendship between the people of the two countries, then another one would be enough. After the translator told his friends what he said, they burst into laughter: since they came to China, they had not met anyone who expressed his wishes as directly as Chief Zheng.
Section Chief Zheng finished speaking with beating heart. After he finished speaking, he glanced at Xia Juhua. When he saw her nod and heard the laughter of his friends, he finally felt relieved - Xia Juhua was too timid and actually let him negotiate the order directly with his friends. What if it caused a diplomatic incident?
There is no chance of an accident. L Province also brought a translator this time, but they did not expect that someone would place an order on the first day of the Expo, so the translator did not respond immediately, which is why the reporter from Yangcheng Daily has been doing the translation. When Xia Juhua was editing, the translator had already come to his senses and naturally would not miss this good opportunity to show his skills. The words just now by Section Chief Zheng were translated by L Province's own translator, and the effect was not bad.
When the friends received the orders carrying Chinese friendship with satisfaction, Xia Juhua called the translator, picked up the special products of Chengping area, and smiled at her friends.
Section Chief Zheng looked at Xia Juhua's smile and had a strange feeling in his heart, as if he had seen Grandma Wolf smiling at Little Red Riding Hood. After listening to Xia Juhua's words, this feeling deepened: "Friends from friendly countries, our Chengping area in L Province not only has beautiful textiles, but also other things that are very good..."
The international friends had already been astounded by Xia Juhua's amazing knitting skills. When they heard what she had to say, they stretched their necks to try to understand. Those who knew a few words of Chinese heard a little bit, while those who didn't understand had their own translators, the reporter from Yangcheng Daily, and the translator from L Province help, quickly translating Xia Juhua's words into a language they could understand, which was:
Chengping not only has good textiles, but also other specialties. The food tastes good and has good effects, the things used are strong and durable, and the style of the clothes can be ignored, but its patterns and colors have Chinese characteristics, which is the only choice for friendly countries to show the friendship between the two countries to their people.
When the international friends heard the translated introduction, they were excited again. They picked up the products pointed out by Xia Juhua and looked at them again and again. They came to the expo, so of course they wanted to buy things. To be honest, the booths of various provinces in China were not much different at that time. Food, drink and clothing covered most of the content of the exhibition, and there were only a few machine products.
Since there is not much difference, then it is not purchasing from any booth, so why not purchase the products that they approve of and that Xia Juhua introduced? So Chief Zheng became even busier, and the translation of L Province almost became the exclusive translation of Chief Zheng.
Exhibitors from other regions also wanted to take the opportunity to introduce the products of their own regions. Although there was no strict requirement for orders when participating in the expo, it would be a very embarrassing thing if there were no orders at all.
"Sister Xia," someone came up to Xia Juhua while she finally stopped to drink some water and tried to get close to her, "Can you help introduce the products in our area?"
Xia Juhua swallowed the water in her mouth, looked at the cloth handed to her with some embarrassment, and said with embarrassment: "But I am not familiar with your products at all, I don't know where to start introducing them."
The person delivering the fabric choked, and could not find any fault with Xia Juhua, so he had to retreat quietly. The other people who also wanted Xia Juhua to introduce the local products had to stay away from Xia Juhua and her friends. If they didn't stay away, they would block the way for their friends to communicate with Xia Juhua. They had already been pushed away several times by their impatient friends.
Deputy Director Gu had already received the news that the L Province booth was very popular, so he came over quietly to check out the situation. He found that although Xia Juhua seemed a little nervous, she spoke clearly and talked eloquently about the products of the Chengping area. He nodded secretly.
As the booth was always crowded with people, Xia Juhua had to find time to eat lunch. When she returned to the guesthouse in the evening, she felt her throat was sore: she had talked too much that day.
"Comrade Xia Juhua, please sit here." As soon as they entered the cafeteria, Deputy Director Gu waved to Xia Juhua, motioning her to sit next to him. Xia Juhua glanced at Section Chief Zheng, and the two of them came to Deputy Director Gu's table together.
"Director, do you have any instructions?" Section Chief Zheng did not sit down immediately, but waited for further instructions from Deputy Director Gu.
Deputy Director Gu smiled, pointed to the seat next to Xia Juhua and said, "You sit down too, and we can talk while we eat."
Section Chief Zheng sat down nervously, picked up the chopsticks and raised his hand slightly, but did not pick up the dishes - there were more than 20 people from L Province attending the Expo, and each table had 10 people from the regional supply and marketing cooperatives. Deputy Director Gu's table was all from the provincial supply and marketing cooperative. Although some people may not have a higher level than Section Chief Zheng, they are in the provincial supply and marketing cooperative, and the government office is bigger than the regional supply and marketing cooperative, so Section Chief Zheng has to be a little more low-key.
Deputy Director Gu was introducing it to Xia Juhua: "This fish fillet is different from the way it's prepared in L Province. People in Guangzhou like to eat light food. Do you like it?"
Xia Juhua took a bite and felt that what Deputy Director Gu said was right. Compared with the L Province's customary method of cooking fish fillets with thick oil and red sauce, Xia Juhua felt that the steamed fish fillet was indeed a bit bland.
However, each place has its own flavor, and Xia Juhua felt that she was not qualified to comment, so she stretched out her chopsticks to another chicken that looked like it was boiled in water. Deputy Director Gu introduced it, saying, "This is white-cut chicken. We rarely eat it in L Province. It needs to be dipped in some sauce to taste good."
He kept talking about our L Province, so Xia Juhua had to be cautious and only ate a few dishes that she was familiar with, and stopped exploring new areas. However, Deputy Director Gu's introduction did not stop there. Every time he introduced a dish, he would point out the difference between the cooking methods of L Province.
This meal was a bit tiring. After finishing a bowl of rice, Xia Juhua put down the bowl. If Deputy Director Gu hadn't kept introducing it, she would have wanted to have another bowl of rice. After all, Ping'an Village now produces a lot of wheat, but rice is only eaten a few times a year.
When Deputy Director Gu saw Xia Juhua putting down her chopsticks, he also put down his chopsticks. Section Chief Zheng and others also put down their chopsticks regardless of whether they were full or not, which made Xia Juhua sigh in amazement.
Fortunately, Deputy Director Gu simply put down his chopsticks and told Xia Juhua about his experiences of the day and did not leave the cafeteria. Otherwise, Xia Juhua had reason to believe that the other two tables of exhibitors from Province L would have gone hungry.
In this day and age, is it a sin to go hungry when you have a free meal? !
"Chief Zheng, how many orders have you signed in Chengping area today?" Deputy Director Gu asked Chief Zheng to sit at the same table with him, so there was no way he would not ask him the question that concerned him the most.
When Section Chief Zheng heard this question, his face lit up: "Ping An Zhuang received the most orders for woven products, a total of twelve orders, with a cumulative amount of 137,000 yuan. Other products received nine orders, with a cumulative amount of 112,000 yuan."
The comrades of the provincial supply and marketing system took a deep breath. Xia Juhua was thinking, when did Section Chief Zheng figure out the number? He had always been with her to receive international friends. So the saying "Don't judge a person by his appearance" is applicable everywhere.
Deputy Director Gu was very happy to hear this: "Have you noticed the completion time of these orders? Will they be completed without any problems? We can't be happy when we sign an order, only to encounter difficulties in completing it and have to pay compensation in the end."
Section Chief Zheng had noticed this when he signed, so he assured his leader that the delivery time had been staggered and there would be no problem of being fined for late delivery.
Deputy Director Gu was even more satisfied: "Well, on the first day of the Expo, Chengping District got off to a great start. This is an honor for Chengping District and also for our L Province."
If you don't say he is a leader, his ideological awareness is not comparable to that of Section Chief Zheng and Xia Juhua. Both of them lowered their heads in shame.
Deputy Director Gu has already stood up: "Everyone go back to the room and take a rest. We will have a brief summary in half an hour and adjust the focus of tomorrow's work."
As Xia Juhua expected, when Deputy Director Gu stood up, the diners at the other two tables in Province L also stood up and left the cafeteria together to wait for the summary in half an hour.
Although she was not very full, Xia Juhua did not return to her room, but walked around the guesthouse building with Section Chief Zheng. Section Chief Zheng was a little worried: "Captain Xia, do you think those people will complain to Deputy Director Gu during the summary?"
Xia Juhua felt that his worry was a little unnecessary: "What are they complaining about? We didn't stop them from speaking. With so many seniors around them, if they don't take the initiative to introduce others, how can they blame us?"
Section Chief Zheng thought to himself, even if they wanted to introduce it, they had to get their friends to listen, because they were all staring at what was in your hand.
Seeing that Section Chief Zheng still had a heavy face, Xia Juhua thought that instead of letting him worry about this, it would be better to worry about something else: "If you are worried, you should worry about our woven products. We sold 70 or 80 sets of each today. I'm afraid there will be nothing to sell in the remaining days."
The reason why Xia Juhua was so worried was that the samples from international friends at the expo were not given for free, but had to be paid for. The price was half higher than what Section Chief Zheng had paid with Ping An Zhuang. No wonder every region wanted to sell its products to international friends.
But it is not without disadvantages. As Xia Juhua said just now, Ping An Zhuang's textiles are too popular. At today's sales rate, they can only last for another four or five days at most. The exhibition lasts for seven days, and there will be nothing to show in the last three or two days. Without exhibits, people can't see the real thing, so how can they place orders?
Section Chief Zheng also had a headache when he heard this: "What can we do? We can't stop people from buying it."
Xia Juhua had an idea: "Why don't we tell people tomorrow that each person can only buy one set."
Although Section Chief Zheng wanted to sell the items as quickly as possible to prevent the regional supply and marketing cooperative from losing money, he was more worried that without exhibits, he would not receive orders in the next few days, which would result in greater losses, so he agreed to Xia Juhua's proposal.
Thanks to the two of them discussing it, when Deputy Director Gu raised this issue at the summary meeting, Section Chief Zheng was able to immediately express his idea and add one more thing, that is, this restriction can be lifted on the last day of the expo to avoid having to take away any textile products left over.
However, Deputy Director Gu still reminded Chief Zheng and Xia Juhua to pay attention to Ping'an Village's productivity when signing the order, especially the supply of raw materials. Although Deputy Director Gu did not know how the woven products were made, he knew that reeds could only grow near water, and there were not many rivers flowing through L Province.
Xia Juhua herself had considered this question, but she had to go back to Pinganzhuang to try it out before she could make a final confirmation, so she could only be vague about it. She wanted to be vague, but Deputy Director Gu was not going to let her off:
"Comrade Xia Juhua, the orders received by Chengping District today are more than those received by all other regions combined. You have made an indelible contribution to this."
Xia Juhua waved her hands quickly and said modestly: "I didn't do anything. I just made things here the same way I did in the village. Our international friends placed orders with us because they saw that these things were fresh. Chief Zheng negotiated with them for other things." So there's no need to put all the credit on me.
Deputy Director Gu smiled knowingly: "Section Chief Zheng has certainly done his job, but not as much as you have. Comrade Xia Juhua, our L Province is participating in the Expo as a whole. It is the responsibility of every participant to show all our L Province exhibits to international friends and gain their recognition. Don't you agree?"
Xia Juhua looked confused, but nodded frequently as Deputy Director Gu spoke. Deputy Director Gu had reason to believe that the more she nodded now, the more effort she would spare in introducing the products of the Chengping region tomorrow. As for the products of other regions, she would not mention them at all because she was not familiar with them.
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