Chapter 268 Traveling back from the modern times to the 23rd year of the Republic of China
Shanghai Girls' High School is the first girls' church school in China. It is located between the floors and has an overall ancient Greek architectural style.
The school conducts education completely in the American way. In addition to the required courses, there are also religious activities and various elective courses.
English teaching is also an important part of school learning.
Ye Heqi has a cheerful personality and excellent grades. Not long after school started, she completely adapted to the environment in the school and made several good friends.
Among these friends, the one who plays best with Ye Heqi is her deskmate Sang Peizhen.
Sang Peizhen comes from a well-educated family. When she was young, she traveled to various Western countries with her father. She has a good knowledge and speaks fluent English. Ye Heqi often pulls Sang Peizhen to practice speaking together.
Once, Yao Rong heard Ye Heqi practicing English at home.
After Ye Heqi finished practicing, Yao Rong said that she also wanted to learn English.
After more than half a year of study, Yao Rong has mastered most of the commonly used Chinese characters, and her daily reading and writing are very smooth. She does not intend to become a great writer, and her learning is mainly based on practicality.
In this era, English is very practical.
Ye Heqi is naturally happy to see it happen.
After school life gradually got on track, Ye Heqi finally conceived the plot of the novel and could try to write it.
People living in this era find it hard to imagine that this devastated country has achieved economic prosperity and national rise in just a hundred years.
But this is Chinese civilization.
It may have lagged behind, but it has infinite power.
During the Korean War, the United States once drew this very famous propaganda painting, which said:
Can human bodies block rivers?
They compared the US army to the endless and unstoppable flood.
Then they used an airplane to drop this propaganda painting on the volunteer army's battlefield, hoping to disintegrate the fighting will of the volunteers.
In the eyes of Westerners, they think that the flood is God's punishment on mankind, and God's will cannot be defeated by mortals.
So in Noah's Ark, the gods sent down a flood to destroy the evil, leaving only hope for good people to escape.
But in Chinese civilization, there are always ordinary people who become gods for the people. That is why Dayu did not enter his home three times. That is why Li Bing and his son built the Dujiangyan Irrigation System, which is immortal.
That is why a country that had been poor and weak for a hundred years and had just gotten rid of semi-feudal and semi-colonialism really defeated the world's most powerful country.
That is why in the 54-year Yangtze River flood and the 98-year flood in the entire basin, there was really a group of people who were ready to die and used their bodies to block the flood.
After several years and decades, the people's soldiers have responded to the questions raised by the US military again and again with their actual actions.
The sound is sonorous and powerful, and it echoes endlessly in the long river of time.
Even in the distant feudal dynasties, when a disaster occurred in a certain place, the court needed to provide disaster relief, and the emperor might have to issue a self-criticism edict to reflect on his own mistakes.
If the court did nothing, it was common for the people to rise up in rebellion.
But what about in the West?
Which country's army would go to disaster relief?
Which country's army would not carry weapons when rescuing disasters? Which
country's 100,000-strong army would not enter homes in order not to disturb the people, and sleep in formation on the side of the road on a cold night with heavy rain.
If a civilization, in the face of natural disasters and the power of nature, does not choose to surrender, does not surrender, but regards natural disasters and nature as opponents, then it must be invincible.
After thinking for a long time, Ye Heqi decided to present China a hundred years later from the perspective of the protagonist in the form of fragmented stories.
Occasionally, some old objects that have been passed down, such as old photos, mottled bullets, and blood-stained flags, will be used to connect the characters a hundred years ago and a hundred years later, allowing the characters of the two time and space to communicate in this special way.
In this way, Ye Heqi wants to tell all readers who have read this novel:
Our generation will not live in such a country, but our descendants can.
Our generation may not be able to wait for the rising of the red sun, but it doesn’t matter, we are doing something right and great.
We should know what ideals we are fighting for and what ideals we are sacrificing for.
***
While Ye Heqi was busy studying and writing, Yao Rong was also not idle.
With Bei Lin's introduction, Yao Rong contacted a businessman who was interested in transferring a clothing factory.
The businessman's surname was He, and he was a second-generation rich man. His family was in the textile factory business.
After returning from studying abroad, he felt that he was well-informed, so he embarked on the road of entrepreneurship as a second-generation rich man. His
family ran a textile factory, so he opened a small clothing factory to produce dresses.
However, dresses produced by Chinese people were not as easy to sell as those produced by Westerners. After losing all his money, the businessman surnamed He had to stop the loss in time.
The price offered by the other party was slightly higher than Yao Rong's psychological price, but the exorbitant price was not met with a low price. The two sides negotiated back and forth twice. After Yao Rong promised to purchase all the production materials from the other party's textile factory in the next three years, he successfully took over the clothing factory at a relatively low price.
Taking advantage of the weekend holiday, Yao Rong took Ye Heqi to visit the clothing factory.
The clothing factory is not far away, and there is a small house at the door. Yao Rong plans to renovate the small house and use it to sell cheongsams.
In addition, what needs to be changed is the large plaque hanging at the door.
Yao Rong pointed to the plaque engraved with "He's Clothing Factory" and asked Ye Heqi to give the clothing factory a new name.
Ye Heqi smiled slyly: "I've thought about it a long time ago."
Nowadays, many celebrities will do live broadcasts to sell goods, and many brands are willing to spend a lot of money to hire spokespersons, which is to take advantage of the "celebrity effect".
And her mother, as the first person to publish a divorce in the newspaper in the Republic of China, is also quite famous.
So the name of this clothing factory can be directly called "Fire Phoenix Clothing Factory", so that the clothing factory, or the cheongsam, is deeply tied to her mother.
The cheongsam became popular, and so did her mother, who was the first person to wear it. Fire Phoenix, the first clothing factory to produce cheongsam, also became popular.
Maybe it can also boost the sales of the novel "Fire Phoenix".
Yao Rong: "..."
You are really a clever little ghost.
But how should I put it, your idea is indeed unique and interesting.
So the name of this clothing factory was decided so smoothly.
The scale of Fire Phoenix Clothing Factory is not large. Including Yao Rong, there are only seven staff members. After thinking about it, Yao Rong decided to divide the clothing factory into two production lines.
One is responsible for the production of ready-made clothes, so as to realize the mass production of cheongsam, so that cheongsam can enter the market faster and form a trend faster.
The other is responsible for tailor-made.
After the construction of the garment line began, the cheongsams designed by Yao Rong for Bei Lin and Fan Xiangxue were also completed.
And the Ye Heqi version of the hype plan was officially implemented -
first, the "Women's Times" once again sparked a discussion about contemporary women's clothing.
The sales of the "Women's Times" have declined compared to the stage of the war of words, but it is still considerable, so the scale of this discussion is much larger than the first time.
Yao Rong personally wrote an article and published it on the front page of the "Women's Times".
In the article, Yao Rong introduced the situation of cheongsam in detail, saying that cheongsam, as a kind of clothing, can solve all the needs raised by everyone.
At the end, a small advertisement was also placed for his own clothing factory.
After the public opinion was laid, it was time for the hands to show their true colors.
As a gathering place for celebrities, Shanghai often holds various banquets and cultural salons. At a recent large-scale banquet, Yao Rong, Bei Lin and Fan Xiangxue all attended in cheongsam.
They came to the banquet this time to promote the products.
As expected, as soon as they entered, the clothes they wore immediately attracted a lot of attention.
Someone recognized it at a glance: "Is this the cheongsam mentioned in the newspaper?"
Yao Rong smiled and chatted with the other party.
She had a very good sense of proportion, which could make people interested in cheongsam without making people dislike her advertising.
Moreover, the fact that cheongsam could later become the representative clothing of women in the Republic of China naturally also shows where its market is.
So after the banquet, several people placed orders with Yao Rong.
Bei Lin said he would help, and he did his best. After returning to the newspaper, he wrote an article in person, describing in detail the sensation caused by the cheongsam at the banquet in a very objective tone.
From then on, the cheongsam began to flow into the market.
When the first person became interested in the cheongsam and went to the Fire Phoenix Garment Factory to buy a cheongsam, there would be a second person, a third person...
When more and more women wore cheongsams when attending banquets or salons, wearing cheongsams would become a trend.
The Fire Phoenix Garment Factory, which had been preparing for this for a long time, successfully took the first bite of the cheongsam market.
When other large and small clothing factories and tailor shops discovered the business opportunities and followed suit, Yao Rong had already successfully negotiated cooperation with the department store and rented a storefront in the department store to display and sell cheongsams.
Yao Rong was not in a hurry at all.
One step ahead, one step ahead.
As long as the Fire Phoenix Garment Factory can maintain a stable customer base and continuously launch new cheongsams, the cheongsam market will grow bigger and bigger, which will only benefit the Fire Phoenix Garment Factory and not harm it.
At the end of the month, Yao Rong received a letter from Zhou Qihuai, and learned a good news from the letter.
The cheongsam trend has spread from Shanghai to Beijing.
This shows that the cheongsam as a kind of clothing has been accepted by the public, and it is only a matter of time before it spreads throughout the country.
When Yao Rong's career was going smoothly, Ye Heqi also finished writing the whole novel.
After thinking for a long time, Ye Heqi accepted Yao Rong's suggestion and gave up the name "Zhuang Zhou Mengdie", and changed it to
"The People in the Great Wall".
We build our new Great Wall with our flesh and blood. This is the story of the people living in the new Great Wall.
We see their stories.
And "we" are a brick to build the new Great Wall.