On the evening of October 9, Sun Zongyuan, his wife Xu Rui, sister-in-law Xu Mei, and younger brother Sun Zongda, drove a car carrying four tons of fruit, asparagus, and canned pet food, traveling 2,000 kilometers to the Canton Fair.
In Anyang County, County Magistrate Wang, along with Deputy County Magistrate Zhu Zhengting, who is in charge of economic affairs, and Director of the Economic and Trade Commission Qi Shuhao, drove directly to the Canton Fair and made promotional activities to foreign businessmen together with Sun Zongyuan.
Sun Zongyuan and several others were riding in a truck, which was a 135-horsepower, 5-ton Jiefang brand 141 car owned by the Ganhe City Transportation Company. The car did not have power steering, and the driver was a retired car soldier. He was not only strong but also skilled. You have to know that cars in this era were not easy to drive. Since there was no air conditioning, people often had to wear only shorts in the summer when it was hot, and a full set of cotton clothes and pants in the winter. The car could not start and had to be cranked. People with less strength could not start it, unlike in later generations where a little girl could start the car with just a press of her finger. Not only was it easy to start, but the cab also had two layers of beds for rest, and you could also cook in the car. Alas, in terms of enjoyment, later generations had it better.
The driver also has a young apprentice with him. At night, the driver drives on complex roads, while the apprentice drives on flat roads during the day.
Sun Zongta sat in the cab, squeezed together with the driver and his apprentice, chatting with his apprentice while helping to observe the road conditions.
Sun Zongyuan, Xu Rui and Xu Mei were in the vehicle at the back. There was still three square meters of space left after putting four tons of apples, autumn pears, asparagus and two kinds of canned pet food in the vehicle. Sun Zongyuan asked the driver to cover the entire vehicle with a tarpaulin. Before getting on the vehicle, he put two straw mats in the vehicle and stacked them together. He also found two quilts and a green coat, and put two stools so that the three of them could take turns lying down and sleeping so as not to be too tired.
After driving all night, the driver was a little tired, so he stopped at a restaurant on the side of the road to have breakfast and rest for a while. Several people filled the kettle, and then the apprentice drove, while Sun Zongta continued to sit in the driver's seat. The driver ran into the car, lay on the thatch and fell asleep.
At five o'clock in the afternoon, it was getting dark, so we found a place to eat and refuel the car. We didn't see any gas stations along the way. There were two oil barrels in the car. We used pipes to lead the gasoline into the small barrels and then poured it into the fuel tank.
As night fell, the vehicles continued to move forward.
In the carriage, Xu Rui and Xu Mei had long lost their excitement about the ride and were very tired from the bumpy ride. The two sisters lay down on the mat at either end and chatted with Sun Zongyuan.
"Since we have nothing to do, how about we each make up a story?" said Sun Zongyu.
"Zongyuan, how can we make up stories? Don't we just listen to stories made up by others?" Xu Rui said.
"That's right, brother-in-law. Why don't you teach us how to weave it?"
"I thought, since we're going to Guangzhou to sell canned food, why not use canned fruit, asparagus, and canned pets as the main themes of our story? Let's make up a beautiful and memorable story for each. What if someone falls in love with the canned food after hearing the story and buys it?"
"Nonsense, I've never heard of anyone buying things just because they like listening to stories. But since we have nothing to do anyway, we might as well make up our own stories for fun," said Xu Rui.
"Okay, I'll be in charge of the asparagus, Xu Rui, you'll be in charge of the canned fruit, and Xu Mei, you'll be in charge of the canned pet food. Is that okay?" Sun Zongta asked.
"Okay, if someone listens to our story and actually buys the canned food, you have to reward us!" said Xu Rui.
"Of course we will. We will first think about which aspect to start with to tell this story well. After we have written it, we will think about it together and improve it." Sun Zongyuan said.
...Along the way, the three of them put a lot of thought into coming up with a good story, and in an era without the Internet and smart phones, they also killed a lot of time.
Late at night on the third day, all three of them were a little sleepy. Suddenly, they heard some noise. Sun Zongyuan turned on his flashlight and shone it around the car. He found that several people were running after the car, trying to climb up while running. The Xu Rui sisters were so scared that they lay on the thatch and dared not move.
Sun Zongyu knocked on the cab with his flashlight, and then shone the flashlight around to show them. Sun Zongta reached out from the cab and handed the crank to Sun Zongyu, then picked up a large wrench, opened the car window and waved it.
Sun Zongyu used the crank to knock down several hands that were reaching in from outside the car, and then told the driver to step on the accelerator to speed up. The robber was injured, and seeing that the car was going fast, he stopped chasing after him, cursing.
Sun Zongyuan was sweating from both nervousness and exhaustion from waving the crank.
After driving for more than an hour, they entered a county town. Sun Zongyu asked them to find a larger hotel and let the driver and the Xu Rui sisters rest in the hotel. Sun Zongyu, Sun Zongda and the apprentice driver slept in the cab and the carriage respectively.
At 3:30 p.m. on October 12, Sun Zongyuan and his party arrived at the hotel that the sales department had contacted in advance. The current head of the sales department is Meng Xiangguo, who was originally in charge of the three northeastern provinces. This time, the Canton Fair arranged him here. The other one is called Jiang Anmin. The two of them had been waiting here for the boss's arrival.
After finding a warehouse to unload the canned food, Sun Zongyu went to the room of County Magistrate Wang Peizhong and met with several county leaders. They took a fast car and arrived yesterday afternoon.
For dinner, Sun Zongyuan arranged to find a decent hotel, ordered some local specialties, and drank a few glasses of locally produced rice wine with several leaders. He felt that the wine was not as strong as the one in his hometown, and the rice was not as delicious as the one in the north. The key point was that the rice bowls were not big and could not hold much rice. Everyone ate two or three bowls, which shocked the hotel waiters and made them drop their jaws: this group of people can eat too much!
After dinner, Sun Zongyuan asked the leaders to return to their rooms for a short rest, and then called the food factory and other people over for a meeting:
"Meng Xiangguo, you'll be responsible for contacting a few translators at the conference center tomorrow. Ideally, one Japanese, two English speakers, one French speaker, and one Russian speaker, five people in total. Each person will receive ten yuan a day for dedicated translation services. If you close a deal, there's a bonus!"
Xu Rui, you and Sun Zongta go to the university and find four tall and beautiful college students. Buy them some beautiful dresses as work clothes and prepare to be image representatives at the Canton Fair. Each person will be paid ten yuan a day.
"Jiang Anmin, assist Xu Mei and have the advertising company produce 1,000 copies of the three stories she prepared into color pages. Make sure they're brightly colored and high-quality. Don't be afraid to spend money. Also, use the scenery photos we took at Honghua as advertisements to show outsiders the growing environment of our Honghua fruit and asparagus. Make sure they're high-quality and large enough to serve as the background for the booth. Discuss the specific dimensions with the advertising company. Xu Mei should also consider how to display our canned products, highlighting our unique characteristics."
"Everyone, please pay attention. Everything I arranged needs to be completed by tomorrow afternoon. The day after tomorrow, we will all go to set up the exhibition. The university students and translators we hired will also be in place the day after tomorrow afternoon. The Canton Fair will begin the day after tomorrow, which is the 15th. We must go all out to win foreign orders!"
After Sun Zongyuan finished speaking, he went out with his leader to see the night view of Guangzhou.
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