Chapter 156
Xia Juhua asked the secretary to rest assured that Qi Weidong and Liuxi could solve the problem of eating by themselves, and Director Yang could discuss it with her anytime he wanted. The secretary nodded and briefly introduced the nearby markets where Qi Weidong and Liuxi could buy things and the locations of state-owned hotels where they could eat before leaving.
Qi Weidong closed the door carefully, and then asked in a low voice: "Auntie, if you go with Director Yang to receive foreign guests, I'm afraid you won't be able to leave. Can we still do what we want to do to find the source of goods?"
Liu Xi looked at Xia Juhua suddenly. He thought he had heard everything Qi Weidong said just now, but he didn't understand a word.
Xia Juhua thought for a moment, then told Qi Wei where the Dongyangcheng Supply and Marketing Cooperative was located and said, "Go there first and ask about the prices. After I finish receiving the foreign guests, we can work together to find a way."
Qi Weidong had no objection to this. He planned to take Liu Xi around Guangzhou after dinner. He believed that even without Xia Juhua's help, with his many years of experience in the black market, he could find out the black market in Guangzhou if he had enough time.
As for not hiding it from Liu Xi and taking him to the black market, it was Qi Weidong's cleverness: Xia Juhua must have trusted him very much since she took Liu Xi with her - just now, when Qi Weidong proposed the source of goods in front of Liu Xi, Xia Juhua did not stop him, which was a good proof.
Qi Weidong should not only trust the people Xia Juhua trusts, but also take good care of Liu Xi when Xia Juhua cannot take care of him, explain the situation to him clearly, and explain the ins and outs to Liu Xi. In this way, when Xia Juhua has time, the three of them can act directly without wasting time on Liu Xi's misunderstanding.
Before Qi Weidong and the other person left the room, Xia Juhua had already been invited to the restaurant by the secretary. Director Yang had not arrived yet, so Xia Juhua took a look and sat down in a seat near the entrance.
The secretary hurriedly asked Xia Juhua to sit up, but Xia Juhua refused, saying that she would have time to make adjustments after Director Yang arrived. Director Yang did not come in alone, but followed him with three other people. Seeing that Xia Juhua had arrived, Director Yang smiled and extended his hand to her: "Captain Xia, long time no see. Ping'an Village is so busy, and I asked you to come here. Thank you for your hard work."
"This is what I should do." Xia Juhua shook Director Yang's hand, indicating that she would obey the leader's call at any time.
The people following Director Yang gathered around the two people, waiting for Director Yang to introduce them. Director Yang briefly introduced the identities of several people. It turned out that in addition to his ministry, there were comrades from another ministry. Xia Juhua couldn't figure out their division of labor for a while, but the fact that they appeared at the same time as Director Yang might have something to do with the rubber of Country A. The remaining two people were the same as the secretary, two people's entourage.
"Captain Xia, come, let's sit down and talk." Director Yang's attitude was always so friendly. Xia Juhua glanced at those people, and Director Yang smiled and said, "They are younger than you, it doesn't matter where they sit."
Only a comrade from another ministry sat on the other side of Director Yang. The remaining two people, following Director Yang's instructions, sat below Xia Juhua and below the comrades from the ministry respectively.
The dishes were served quickly. There were no delicacies from land or sea. A sticky rice chicken was the main dish, and the rest were stir-fried seasonal vegetables. Director Yang pointed at the dishes in front of him and said to Xia Juhua, "Although we are hosting a welcome party for you today, we are all family, so we won't do anything fancy. Let's wait for the people from Country A to arrive and bring the goods, and then we can have a feast."
Xia Juhua naturally understood this. The trend of eating and drinking extravagantly was not yet popular. Even leaders of Director Yang's level had to pay for their meals when they traveled. He was not treating just one person today, so it was okay for the meal to be simple.
She didn't come to Guangzhou just to eat.
There was still business to discuss, so Director Yang naturally did not allow the wine to be served. After asking Xia Juhua to help herself, he took the lead in taking a bite of food. When he saw that everyone had also started to eat, he asked Xia Juhua: "I heard that you have developed something called instant noodles. Can it be mass-produced?"
Xia Juhua was prepared for the fact that Director Yang knew everything about her situation. She was not surprised and did not think she could keep it a secret from him. She said honestly:
"Not yet. Technician Xue, the one who helped us improve the vermicelli factory's machinery, Director Yang, you know, he is helping me research the machinery. Besides, the instant noodle factory cannot be mixed with the vermicelli factory, and we have to build another factory building."
Xia Juhua had a headache when she talked about this: "Everything else about the factory is easy, except cement."
Director Yang smiled at another comrade from another ministry. He had just introduced him to Xia Juhua. That comrade should be called Director Tang. Seeing Director Yang smiling at him, Director Tang also smiled: "The technician Xue you mentioned is now Engineer Xue from the research institute under our ministry. Some time ago, after he returned to Beijing from Ping'an Village, he brought a bunch of drawings and technical data and said he wanted to apply for a patent."
It turned out to be Technician Xue, not Engineer Xue's boss. Xia Juhua smiled at him, greeted him again, and said, "Engineer Xue has been helping Ping An Village with production for some time. I hope he didn't interfere with the work of the department."
Director Tang laughed even louder: "No delay, no delay. His going to Ping'anzhuang was specially approved by the department. It's all for the convenience of the troops. But we have studied the drawings that Engineer Xue brought back. They are indeed very practical and have a wide range of applications. However, applying for a patent..." No one in the country has ever proposed this.
At that time, people had no awareness of intellectual property rights at all and even believed more in the collective wisdom. After any research results came out, the researchers often did not even deserve to own their own names and were at most just XX research group.
So when Engineer Xue suddenly proposed to apply for a patent, the leaders of the institute and the ministry were really stumped. Director Tang happened to meet Xia Juhua today, and he thought he could ask her for her opinion:
"The machines that Engineer Xue improved were all completed with money paid by Ping An Zhuang. If he applies for a patent personally, isn't that an infringement of Ping An Zhuang's interests?"
I gave Engineer Xue the idea to apply for a patent so that he would have the confidence to continue researching machinery in the future economic wave. Xia Juhua naturally could not accept that Ping An Manor's interests were being encroached upon:
"Director Tang, you are wrongly accusing Engineer Xue. Even if we, Ping An Zhuang, paid for the machine parts, without Engineer Xue to come up with the machine design and improvement plan, even if we want to spend money, we don't know which parts to buy, or how to assemble the parts after buying them, right?"
Seeing that Director Tang and Director Yang both nodded, Xia Juhua simply put down her chopsticks and expressed her thoughts: "And I think that Engineer Xue's application for a patent is not only a good thing for Ping An Village, but also for our country."
"Oh, how is it good for the country?" Director Yang and Director Tang asked in unison.
Xia Juhua looked at the two people who asked the question and said, "Since Director Tang has seen Engineer Xue's drawings, he should have discovered the improvements he made. It's just that no one has realized it yet. No one has thought of combining machines for production and only knows how to use single machines."
"If Technician Xue doesn't apply for a patent, someone could buy the machine, disassemble it, and then copy it. If someone from our country buys it, it's fine, and they can copy it. But if a foreigner buys it and copies it, wouldn't Technician Xue's hard work be wasted?"
"If Technician Xue had a patent, he could sign a contract with people when selling the machine, requiring them not to dismantle the machine at will, let alone counterfeit it. Of course, this is only to protect against gentlemen, not villains, but it is better than nothing. In addition, even if counterfeits appear, the target of investigation can be smaller, and it is easier to trace where they came from."
Director Tang and Director Yang were both stunned after hearing Xia Juhua's theory. Their philosophy has always been collectivism, and they have never thought about the possible disadvantages. Now after listening to Xia Juhua's words, they felt that it made a lot of sense and began to ponder.
The table fell silent for a moment. Xia Juhua was fine, but the other two attendants and the secretary were all watching the two leaders with their peripheral vision. After a long while, Director Tang said to Director Yang, "Captain Xia has her reasons."
Of course it makes sense. This is what Xia Juhua learned from watching TV in her previous life. Although she didn't learn the essence and her words were not as insightful as those of professionals, it still had a great impact on people today. Especially the ministry where Director Tang worked, which managed several research institutes. Although it had experienced turmoil in recent years, some scientific researchers were still protected and achieved many results. There was indeed a hidden danger that it would be difficult to hold accountable after a leak.
So he asked Xia Juhua several questions, with the intention of digging deep into her mind. After listening for a while, Director Yang felt that Director Tang had asked almost all the questions he wanted to ask, so he said, "Captain Xia is someone I invited to help. If you have any questions, you can go back and talk to Engineer Xue."
At this point, Director Yang still felt that Xia Juhua was able to say what she just said because Engineer Xue might have revealed in Ping An Village that he wanted to apply for a patent and discussed it with Xia Juhua, so she could speak so clearly about such issues.
Director Tang did not think so, because many of the things Xia Juhua said were not explained clearly by Engineer Xue himself. He could see clearly who was influenced by whom.
But Director Yang was right. Today Director Yang and Xia Juhua were indeed discussing how to receive the rubber merchants from Country A. Director Yang explained the situation to Xia Juhua:
博覽會後，A國人的橡膠只賣到了二百八十塊錢一噸，肯定是不大痛快的。只是合同簽了，定金付了，他們沒有不發貨的理由，第一批貨确實在六月份的時候運到了羊城。
按照合同，夏菊花應該參與那一次的提貨，可是楊司長了解到當時的夏菊花，正在跟薛技術員攻關酸辣粉生産機器，便做主沒讓夏菊花來羊城。
給A國的理由就是，夏菊花家中突然有事，只好提前離開。好在海上風浪的原因，A國的貨船晚到了幾天，所以夏菊花等不及也說得過去。
偏A國商人回國準備裝運第二批橡膠的時候，得到了L省再次向羅伯特購買三萬噸橡膠的消息，還是按每噸二百四十五元的價格收購的，一下子有了危機感，向楊司長提出，這一次無論如何都要見到夏菊花的要求。
他們得到的消息中，夏菊花是促成羅伯斯與L省橡膠買賣的重要人物，上一次賣給華國橡膠，也是夏菊花出面談判。所以A國商人認為，夏菊花在華國的橡膠采購上，有很大的話語權。
這個情況楊司長倒不便跟夏菊花提起，只在介紹完情況，問了夏菊花一個問題：“……這一次A國的商人，很可能向是我們提出再次供貨的建議，夏大隊長，對此你怎麽看？”
剛才楊司長介紹情況的時候，夏菊花也在思考，A國和羅伯斯所在的國家，都在非洲，那裏的橡膠産量盡管很高，可也沒多到由着兩家公司上萬噸、上萬噸收購的地步。
商人都是逐利的，他們的收購價相差不會太大，羅伯斯二百四十五元能賣給自己，A國商人應該得到消息後，就提出想見自己的要求，只有一種可能。
他們可以按二百四十五元甚至更低的價格把橡膠賣給華國，前提是L省不能再從羅伯斯手裏購買橡膠。這樣一來已經回國開始收購橡膠的羅伯斯，收到手裏的橡膠就會積壓，甚至會導致壓占資金過多，導致資金鏈斷裂，公司再難存活。
短期看，A國商人如果把橡膠的價格，壓到低于二百四十五元的話，對于華國肯定是有利可圖的。可真是這樣嗎？等到羅伯斯的公司真破産，缺少了競争對手的A國商人，會不會再次提價、甚至把這兩次的損失彌補回來，都未可知。
想想吧，收購時缺少了競争對手，供貨時又沒有參照标準的商人，等于自己擁有了買進與賣出的定價權，他們甚至可以決定非洲橡膠的産量了，到那時華國再想從非洲買橡膠，可就得A國商人說了算。
以夏菊花想來，長期依賴于一家公司或是地區，都很危險，就跟上輩子華國對袋鼠國鐵礦石最初的依賴，從而導致失去了定價權、被袋鼠國拿捏了好幾年，是一個道理。
所以她問楊司長：“如果A國這次提出降價，要求L省不再購入羅伯斯的橡膠，部委是個啥意見？”她能想到的，部委應該也能想得到，楊司長現在心裏肯定有答案。
楊司長的表情不輕松：“國家現在的外彙并不寬松。如果A國商人主動提出降價的話，部委自然是歡迎的。L省一個省的橡膠制造業，與全國一盤棋相比，畢竟還……”
夏菊花不客氣的打斷了楊司長的話，盡管這有些不禮貌：“可是如果沒有L省與羅伯斯的交易，A國可能主動提出降價嗎？等羅伯斯因為我們毀約公司破産後，A國再一次成為唯一供貨人，他還願意以低價把橡膠賣給華國嗎？”
這種可能性，楊司長他們在京城的時候同樣考慮過，現在聽到夏菊花同樣考慮到了這個問題，還與部委的意見基本一致，不由笑了：“那你的意思，是不同意A國商人降價？”
夏菊花趕緊搖頭：“降價當然歡迎，可不是由着他們提條件。”
對于夏菊花如此直白的表現，楊司長在她與A國人談判的時候就見識過，沒有過于吃驚。唐局長等人卻不一樣——現在大家做事，先得立一個基調，就算是想要求什麽，也要曲線前進，從來沒人如夏菊花一樣直白的表達。
看着幾人如自己當初一樣震驚，楊司長覺得自己有了同伴，鼓勵夏菊花接着說下去。夏菊花的意見很簡單，那就是兩國公司在非洲收購橡膠，由着他們各憑本事。而華國橡膠采購，要根據自己的需要，由兩家公司競标。
誰出的價格低，華國就采購那家公司的橡膠！
“羅伯斯不會對你或L省有意見嗎？”楊司長覺得夏菊花提出的辦法雖然新鮮，明顯對華國更有利，所以沒有糾結就在心裏接受了，反而關心了一下夏菊花與羅伯斯之間的關系。
畢竟有羅伯斯在，有他與夏菊花之間的合作在，才讓A國商人有了危機感。
夏菊花覺得這一點不用擔心：“羅伯斯是一個商人。”商人重利，只要有利益可圖，一時的氣憤他自己就可以化解。
有了統一的意見，飯也就吃完了，大家各自回屋休息，養足精神等待A國商人的到來。
夏菊花回房前，先去敲了敲齊衛東他們的門，裏面沒人應聲，看來還沒回來。她倒不擔心兩人出啥事兒——現在的治安還沒到非嚴打不能解決的時候，那兩孩子只是出門吃頓飯，再就是逛一逛街，出不了大問題。
第二天一早，夏菊花是被齊衛東敲門聲叫醒的，他來是告訴夏菊花，昨天他打聽到了一處能吃羊城特色早茶的地方，問夏菊花要不要跟他們去。
現在竟然就有吃羊城特色早茶的地方，夏菊花還真想見識一下。只是A國人一天不到，她就不好不告訴楊司長一聲單獨行動，只能讓齊衛東他們兩個自己去，等送走A國商人後她再去品嘗。
自己這輩子竟然還能嘗到地道的羊城早茶，夏菊花覺得很不可思議，到餐廳的時候還帶着些恍惚。
楊司長等人以為她是馬上要面對A國商人，心理壓力太大——不管夏菊花昨天說的話多有道理，在大家眼裏她農村婦女的形象不是一時半會能改變的，所以有些心理壓力不是正常的嗎？
就連他們這些人，也覺得有些興奮和緊張呢。
同樣興奮和緊張的，還有從A國坐飛機到羊城機場的商人。見到等在出機口的楊司長等人，一行人露出了一模一樣的大白牙，齊齊向他們高高揮手。
除了對楊司長進行了禮節性的擁抱，幾個人都沒有試圖擁抱或是跟夏菊花握手：時間雖然過去了好幾個月，他們還記得夏菊花在博覽會上奇怪的堅持，不會自讨沒趣。
不過夏菊花出現在迎接他們的行列裏，讓A國的商人覺得自己此行應該能有成果——畢竟他們給華國提供橡膠的數量，比羅伯斯兩次加起來還多了一萬噸。這是自己還不能出産橡膠的華國，無法抗拒的，這不對華國橡膠采購有話語權的夏菊花，也不得不來迎接他們了？
帶着這樣的期待，A國商人覺得應該讓夏菊花認識到自己的財力，大手筆的遞上帶給夏菊花的禮物：一條沉甸甸、帶有濃郁非洲特色的金項鏈。
上輩子夏菊花連一個兩克的金戒指都沒有，看到這條足有小手指粗細的項鏈時，真的驚呆了——這得值多少錢呀，這些A國的人想幹啥？！
她不光擺着手表示自己不要，還試圖通過躲到楊司長身後，向A國人證明自己拒絕的決心。
辦事先送禮這事兒，竟然是由外國人教會華國人的嗎？夏菊花不想相信眼前發生的一幕。
楊司長通過翻譯告訴A國來的特爾，他的禮物太貴重了，夏菊花做為國家的工作人員不能接受如此貴重的禮物。
特爾帶着些遺憾收回了項鏈，卻又拿出了另一個小盒子遞給夏菊花，還特意向楊司長聲明，盒子裏的東西跟那條項鏈比起來，輕多了，所以夏菊花應該可以接受。
國際友人已經被拒絕過一次，再拒絕的話就不太禮貌了。楊司長向夏菊花點了點頭，夏菊花不情不願的接了過來：從羅伯斯的角度考慮，如果她現在接受了特爾的禮物，以後的合作怕是會有些麻煩。
她有理由相信，A國人離開華國後，會把自己收下他禮物的事傳得該知道的人都知道。
果然，看到夏菊花接過盒子，特爾的嘴都快咧到耳根了：“夏，希望我們以後合作愉快。”
夏菊花舉了舉手裏的盒子，問特爾，自己跟他合作是不是愉快，跟這個盒子裏頭的東西是不是有關系，如果有的話，她就要馬上把盒子還給他。
特爾忙用更大的笑聲表示，自己理解夏菊花是在跟他開玩笑，還說盡管是玩笑，也請夏菊花放心，他們的合作，肯定跟盒子裏的禮物沒關系：“這是看到老朋友的禮物。”
Well, seeing the gift from an old friend made it easier. After Xia Juhua returned to the guesthouse, she didn't even go back to her room. She followed Director Yang to his room and said, "Director Yang, you have to testify for me that I have never opened this box. Now I'm giving this box to you. It has nothing to do with me anymore."