Chapter 135
Zhou Jiani went to the venue with a teacup and tea leaves. She brewed a cup of strong jasmine tea for each person to refresh themselves. The jasmine fragrance filled the air. People from the Linshi Handicraft Factory next door came over to ask for tea and asked Zhou Jiani to sell them some.
Zhou Jiani didn't want to waste her time wandering around. Pointing to the batch of trumpet-shaped woven baskets behind their booth, she said with a smile, "Sell me ten baskets, and I'll give you half a pound of tea. No ticket required."
The number of trumpet-shaped fruit baskets in Lin City is quite large, so it should be easy to negotiate if she wants ten.
Tao Dongliang laughed: "Didn't we agree to swap at the end?"
Zhou Jiani smiled and said, "That's not the same thing. I bought it as a gift. I bought it today and will find a way to give it away today."
"Haha." Tao Dongliang laughed and turned to direct the factory workers, "String ten baskets for Comrade Zhou."
There won’t be enough goods to sell, so these ten won’t make a difference.
Zhou Jiani went over happily to make the deal, fearing that they would go back on their word. At noon, she went out for a long walk with the things under the pretext of buying lunch, and finally found a suitable corner to put the things in the warehouse.
Although they were busy all day and there was one person missing, the three of them had already adapted to this rhythm and were responding and arranging things in an orderly manner. Li Jingdang even went to report to someone about their plan to increase staff and asked someone to help adjust two beds.
Zhou Jiani hadn't received the red envelope in the group yet, and was worried that she would miss the response to the request for stamps. In the afternoon, when someone started a group sale of men's belts, she responded to the request to buy stamps in the message.
Two different versions of panda stamps, with asking prices of 4,200 and 700 respectively; a 1972 version of the table tennis stamp set, with asking price of 400; a 1970 version of the Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy stamp set, with asking price of 1,230 per set; and a 1972 version of the ship stamp set, with asking price of 1,100.
Zhou Jiani found a chance to send out red envelopes and mentioned the group leader's name. Then she distributed the five types of stamps, two sets of panda stamps, two sets of ping pong stamps, and one set of each of the others. They were sold out in seconds.
By the way, I also sent the ten baskets I bought from the nearby store this morning to the group. They were medium-sized fruit baskets, priced at 14.9 each, and were very easy to sell, sold out in seconds.
After deducting the handling fee and costs, Zhou Jiani earned more than 11,000 yuan this time. She looked up happily and looked towards the silk factory. She stared at it enviously for a while, then turned back and continued to introduce their baskets, bags, and boxes to people.
Aunt Cuiyun was just having some difficulty acclimatizing to the local climate. She felt much better after a day's rest and continued to fight the next day.
By the time Tian Yumei and Hou Jingguo arrived, Zhou Jiani and the others had already practiced to the point where they could handle the situation with ease, no matter how busy they were. They even held a small welcome ceremony for the two of them that evening. Aunt Cuiyun was the happiest, taking bites of pickled vegetables and pickled peppers, breathing deeply and saying, "This might be my fate."
The food here is generally light in taste, but Zhou Jiani found it quite good after getting used to it for a few days, while Aunt Cuiyun couldn't adapt at all.
I think it tastes better when eaten with pickled vegetables from my hometown.
After they became familiar with and adapted to the work here, Zhou Jiani and the others arranged their shifts, except for Li Jingdang.
Comrade Jingdang was full of energy. After a busy day, he would go to another guesthouse at night to do odd jobs for the salesmen who were working overtime to get contracts. He learned a lot from them and also gained some experience in negotiating contracts.
When I first came here, I was unfamiliar with the place and was afraid of getting lost or kidnapped. Now that I am familiar with the place, other people don’t have to worry too much when I walk around alone.
Zhou Jiani finally let go. Not only did she covet the department store, she also found many scalpers on the way to familiarize herself with the surrounding terrain. Of course, they were some distance away from the venue, and the area was strictly checked, so they didn't dare to get close and just wandered around the outer edge of the restricted circle.
Zhou Jiani has a sharp eye for these people.
They found a place to disguise themselves and came to trade with scalpers. They asked for higher prices for outsiders like them. Zhou Jiani patiently bargained with them, and in the end the overall price was still a little higher, but acceptable. In this way, she collected a lot of tickets little by little.
Similarly, there were some small vendors hiding their activities on the outskirts, mostly selling snacks. Zhou Jiani also met a vendor selling tea sets, the shapes and prints of which were somewhat different from those they had.
You can buy the pot alone, the tea bowls alone, or you can match a set yourself. Zhou Jiani matched five sets of six tea bowls for one pot, which are very suitable for giving as gifts.
When Zhou Jiani came across a vendor selling children's toy telescopes, her eyes lit up and she bought all the goods with a wave of her hand.
I don't plan to resell these. I'll give them to the twins and one to Huihui. I'll take the rest to the village and wait for the village primary school to be built and tested for enrollment. I'll give them as rewards to the children with good grades.
I also bought some small boxes of black tea from the venue. I squeezed for a long time and only bought two boxes because they had a limited supply.
It's pretty good, most of the stuff is not available there.
When she was resting, she took several empty woven bags and rushed to the department store to buy things. The styles of straw hats here were different from those over there, so she bought some; the styles of conical hats were also different, so she bought some.
Other cotton handkerchiefs, silk handkerchiefs, enamel products, bamboo thermos, hand-woven products, cloth shoes, etc.
After a day of hard work, my feet are sore from exhaustion, but I feel refreshed as if new energy has been injected into my body.
Quite refreshing.
I went back to the guesthouse and asked the front desk lady for a bottle of soda. I asked about the nearby supply and marketing cooperatives, farmers' markets, and the detailed terrain and bus routes. When I had some rest, I went out for a walk for the whole day.
Meng Yan did not buy the goods directly from their stall because her leader did not approve it. But when the factory shipped the goods here, she asked her colleagues in the factory to help her adjust more than 20 silk scarves that were not in the export series and send them over together.
Zhou Jiani asked for twenty, and the rest were bought by everyone else in the dormitory. Tian Yumei also bought one, and even Aunt Cuiyun asked for one.
Zhou Jiani took advantage of Meng Yan's break to treat her to a meal. She had just ordered a few roast chickens from the group and had taken one out and wrapped it in brown paper. When she took it out of her bag during dinner, Meng Yan's eyes lit up and she said with emotion, "Jiani, you're so kind. Oh my god. But this is very expensive, right? I won't charge you for the other dishes, but the meat ticket for this chicken is mine."
Zhou Jiani thought about it and decided that it was not a good idea to go too far, so she didn't bother to be polite with her.
Meng Yan gnawed on a chicken drumstick, squinting her eyes happily, a look of satisfaction on her face. Finally, she said, "It's delicious. It smells so good."
Everyone who comes out to work has to eat work meals. The standards for each unit are different, and it is not convenient to go out and eat alone in the conference venue. Not only is it not worth it to go out and eat alone, but there may not be any food available.
So, this roast chicken, for which she paid for a meat ticket, moved Meng Yan to tears. As they ate and chatted, Meng Yan said, "I asked about that small silk scarf with a low silk content you mentioned last time, but they can't be produced in a short time. If you really want it, place an order with the factory in the name of your company now, get a number in advance, and keep pushing them. You must push them hard, keep pushing them hard, otherwise I really don't know when you will be able to get it."
Meng Yan still couldn't imagine what a silk scarf would look like on a bag, so she could only help with some ideas as an insider.
Zhou Jiani asked, "What size are the existing patterns for your silk scarves, handkerchiefs, and larger square handkerchiefs? If they happen to be available, then we can use the existing patterns. Otherwise, there will be a pattern-making fee for making new ones, right? There will also be quantity requirements, right?"
Meng Yan said, "Of course, but the most crucial issue is that the work of making patterns now has to be put on the back burner, unless the higher-ups come forward to assign tasks."
But Jiani's unit is not a state-owned unit, but a village-level enterprise, so it would be good if the factory could take over.
Zhou Jiani smiled: "I understand. Later, please help me write down the dimensions. Maybe there will be something we can use."
Meng Yan asked about their order situation and said, "I heard that you only accept pre-orders, and all orders must be made on the spot. Have you started delivering?"
“Deliveries have begun.”
Half a month has passed since the start. Zhou Jiani summarizes the day's orders every day and calls back to report the styles and quantities. Naturally, she knows how busy the village is now. In the first few days, they only gathered the support of the craftsmen of the entire commune and some craftsmen from the neighboring commune. Later, as the number of orders increased, all the craftsmen from Donghe Commune were summoned. Now the county has also transferred personnel from other communes, and even the county has stepped in to help negotiate the purchase of materials.
As of now, the early small orders have been completed and shipped.
Now when signing a contract, Li Jingdang will try his best to talk to the other party and extend the timeline. I heard that last year and the year before last, some manufacturers signed contracts with foreign countries that could be shipped from spring to before the start of the Canton Fair in autumn.
Or if the contract is signed in autumn, the goods will not be delivered until the Canton Fair is held in the spring of the following year.
I'm not afraid of extensions, I'm afraid of overdue.
Now Zhai Xiangqiang is stationed in the Qianjin Brigade. He requisitioned Li Jingdang's dormitory and personally took command. He divided the team into several production groups and worked overtime.
The county cadres also went down to hold a brigade meeting and delivered an important speech on the issue of generating foreign exchange. The then □□'s secretary also participated in the meeting.
In any case, according to Zhang Baosheng's description, the Qianjin Brigade has never been so prosperous.
He also told Zhou Jiani on the phone that all the foreign exchange earning orders were no longer under the village's jurisdiction, but the higher-ups would award rewards for the contributions of the Qianjin Brigade.
Now we all work together and earn an honor.
At the same time, the higher-ups will hold another meeting to discuss allocating a few regular worker quotas to the Qianjin Brigade's weaving factory.
The number of places and who they will be given to have not yet been decided. We will discuss it together after Zhou Jiani and her team complete their mission successfully and return.
Zhou Jiani was not surprised that the foreign exchange income was under the unified management of the higher-ups. This formal job position really made her take a deep breath. Listening to Zhang Baosheng's slightly choked and excited voice on the phone, Zhou Jiani felt her eyes warm.
Zhang Baosheng said, "Comrade Xiao Zhou, this is all the honor you have brought to our Forward Brigade."
Zhou Jiani: "Don't say that. How can I do it alone? I think the biggest credit goes to the craftsmen like Fourth Uncle. Captain, when the time comes to allocate positions, give priority to these skilled workers. They are the pillars of our weaving factory's continued development."
Zhang Baosheng said repeatedly: "I know, I know. You are also a good child and a great contributor to our cause. All of us members are grateful to you."
After hanging up the phone, the great hero felt embarrassed to bring in smuggled goods from outside. Of course, she had already cleared the area nearby, and she was not familiar with the area, so she did not take the risk of spreading the goods further. She went back and briefly conveyed the spirit of the meeting of the Forward Brigade to their small team. Liu Cuiyun was so happy that she did not recover for a long time.
——Of course, she didn’t think she was included in the list, but she participated in this battle of honor.
A light appeared in Bai Haoyang's eyes, but then it went out again. Although he was a cadre in the factory, he was just an insignificant cadre, and he would definitely not be among the first batch of candidates.
But now that it has been started, there will definitely be more benefits like this in the future, so he also has to think carefully about how to make more contributions to the factory.
Tian Yumei was also happy. The better the development of the Qianjin Brigade, the more opportunities they would have to show their abilities. The more achievements they could make, the greater their chances of returning to the city.
Hou Jingguo could only envy.
After a busy month, the Canton Fair is finally coming to an end. Zhou Jiani and her team have had ups and downs. There were times when they were closed, or they signed orders for only a few hundred pieces a day. But in the end, they negotiated orders for more than 90,000 knitted products for their own knitting factory, and expanded sales in the domestic market. According to Qiu Zeming's statistics on the phone, the number of domestic phone orders has now exceeded 30,000 pieces.
Li Jingdang had to stay and finish up, so Zhou Jiani and the others went back first.
We exchanged samples with the nearby handicraft factory, and will communicate by phone regarding any subsequent specific learning and communication issues.
Several comrades in Zhou Jiani's dormitory also had a dinner together. After living together for a month, they had developed some feelings for each other. They agreed to write letters to each other and then packed up their luggage and went home one by one.
As expected, I didn’t buy a sleeper ticket, only a hard seat.
Before leaving, Aunt Cuiyun suddenly wanted to go shopping, so I accompanied her to the department store and bought a lot of things. After that, we packed up what we could and boarded the return train with light luggage.
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