Chapter 39
While Zhou Jiani was talking to Section Chief Wang from the department store, Comrade Xiao Qiu at the entrance of the plastics factory was lucky enough to run into Director Qin whom the security guard mentioned.
One of them fully demonstrated the exquisite weaving skills of their village craftsmen in the office, and the other spoke in a leisurely tone at the door of the plastic factory about the planting of crops, the difficulties in the current promotion of plastic greenhouse planting technology, and the courage of the Qianjin Brigade to try.
Qiu Zeming combined what he learned from the information with his own insights and analysis, and successfully persuaded Director Qin to agree to help them transfer a batch of goods as soon as possible. After paying the deposit and getting the receipt, he came to pick up the goods two days later.
After leaving the plastic factory, Qiu Zeming handed the security guard a cigarette, chatted with the old man for a while, and walked to the intersection to wait for the bus.
At the same time, Zhou Jiani clutched her crossbody bag tightly as she walked back to the South Building with a reckless gait. Once inside the unassuming corner door, her steps slowed down, and she adopted a well-behaved and reserved demeanor. She slowly walked back to the thermos counter, pulled two apples from her bag, and gave one to the thermos counter attendant and one to the light bulb counter attendant. A shy smile played across her face as she spoke softly, "Thank you, sisters! Without your encouragement, I wouldn't have taken this brave step. You truly are good comrades serving the people. Thank you!"
"It's done, right?"
Zhou Jiani smiled and nodded, saying modestly, "I promise to give it a try first."
"This step is just a formal process. Unless your product is significantly different from the sample, you can probably sign a formal cooperation contract."
The two tellers were also happy, feeling a sense of pride and satisfaction, and came over to ask her about the negotiation.
Zhou Jiani smiled and said, "Section Chief Wang said the designs are outstanding and the craftsmanship is exquisite, but he's worried that our workshop is small and we can't guarantee quality and quantity. However, many large processing companies have grown step by step from small workshops. So, your company's leaders are really kind and are finally willing to give our small workshop a chance to grow."
The most important factor for her success was the novel design. As soon as she put the basket out, the staff from the purchasing department gathered around her. This alone was half the success.
Exquisite workmanship... These days, any purely handmade product that can enter such a large unit must have exquisite workmanship, which is a basic requirement.
The second step to success was that Zhou Jiani showed them the huge market potential, and they received orders for more than 40 baskets in just one day.
The only issues that took a long time to discuss were the purchase price, sales price and payment settlement.
Fortunately, the people in the department store recognized this novel style. Zhou Jiani also analyzed the difficulty of the weaving craftsmanship of these styles for them, and guaranteed that during the contract period, a new style would be added every year, so the final price was above the price Zhou Jiani had in mind.
The department store also has requirements. Once you sign a formal contract with them, you can no longer sell privately, and the words on the bottom of the basket must be changed to a trademark style. Even if you write on the cloth strips and sew them on, it will look better than writing directly on the basket.
The final sales price set by the department store was generally two to three cents higher than what Zhou Jiani had sold it privately.
Zhou Jiani had no objection to this.
The samples were left at the First Department Store, and another set of samples was prepared for discussion with the Second Department Store.
Zhou Jiani went to a nearby state-owned restaurant and ordered a steamed bun, a plate of stir-fried seasonal vegetables, a bowl of millet porridge, and her mother's braised pork. While no one was paying attention, she fiddled in her bag and took out a braised egg and a can of pickles, which she then prepared for herself in a very colorful way.
After eating and drinking, I rode my bike to stroll around the city. When I came across a supply and marketing cooperative, I went in to see its size and recorded it in a notebook so that I could draw a business map later.
By the way, buy some enamel basins, enamel pots, and hand-woven kang sweeping brooms.
I was looking through the records that day and found that the brooms for sweeping the kang were sold out faster than the brooms for sweeping the floor.
I also bought a few cans of food and put them in the warehouse for her to eat slowly.
I wandered around until around three in the afternoon and went to the guesthouse where Qiu Zeming was staying. I asked the front desk first and only knocked on the door after knowing that Qiu Zeming had returned.
Qiu Zeming was in the room, poring over some materials. When he heard the knock on the door, he thought it was the waiter. He opened the door and was met with the smiling face of Comrade Xiao Zhou. "Comrade Xiao Qiu, how did you learn today?"
Qiu Zeming was unconsciously infected by Xiao Zhou's mood and smiled. He said, "You can pick up the goods directly in two days." He added, "Wait a moment."
He turned back to the house, came out with a bag of things, and said, "Let's go out for a walk?"
A man and a woman were alone in a room, unable to explain themselves. They went downstairs, left the guesthouse, and strolled around chatting.
Qiu Zeming briefly described what happened on his side, and finally asked, "How did the talks at the department store go?"
Zhou Jiani opened her bag and took out the note from the department store. She flicked the stamp on it and said, "Let's try it first. For the first batch, order ten of each style. Have the team leader sign and stamp it, and also add our commune's stamp. After stamping it, just mail it or send it with the goods."
"It's fine for the first cooperation, but when we sign the formal contract, we'll have to ask the captain to come over with the documents and official seal."
Qiu Zeming took it and looked at it, his eyebrows slightly raised: "Comrade Xiao Zhou, not bad!"
Zhou Jiani suppressed the slight arrogance in her eyes and said, "Well, this is just the department store." She then unfolded her little notebook and showed it to him, "There are only over forty in the factory. I'm now worried about the production capacity of the team."
He shook his head and sighed, "What a sweet burden."
Qiu Zeming's eyes were filled with laughter as he asked, "Have you told the captain?"
"Not yet. I came to ask about the situation on your side. We plan to report together."
The two turned back and rode their bikes to the post office.
On the way, Zhou Jiani said, "Before we set off, I mentioned it to the team leader and asked him to go to the commune the next day or the day after to say hello and leave an impression on them. I don't know if the team leader went."
Qiu Zeming asked, "Didn't you temporarily add a sales representative from the county supply and marketing cooperative to the team? Don't you care about that issue?"
"Yeah!" Zhou Jiani shook her legs and said, "What should I do? Just because I had an idea, I'm more worried about production capacity."
If Qiu Zeming smiled, Zhang Baosheng would feel both sweeter and more burdened, and he would probably not be able to sleep at night.
On the way to the post office, Qiu Zeming passed by a movie theater and took a look.
After getting off the car at the post office, Qiu Zeming said, "You might want to ask the team leader how long it will take to complete this order. If it doesn't take too long, discuss with the team leader how long it will take to complete this order. You can stay here for a few days and return after the goods are delivered. This is the first handover, and there's an agreement and payment to be made. We also need to sign a formal contract while the iron is hot. As for me, I'll be returning in two days with the plastic sheeting and documents and following the transport team."
Zhou Jiani glanced at Qiu Zeming, her heart filled with joy, and she thought with a bit of complexity, after working with a comrade like Qiu Zeming, she wondered if she could adapt if she had to change partners due to work arrangements in the future.
How can there be such a good partner that suits my needs?
The call was connected and transferred to Xihe Commune.
On the other side of the Qianjin Brigade, Zhang Baosheng also decided to go to the commune after a fierce ideological struggle.
Before Comrade Xiao Zhou went to the provincial capital, he told him to show up at the commune in two or three days.
Comrade Xiao Zhou's original words were to let him "go out." Where to go? Of course, to go in front of the leader and let the leader see his old face.
As a mediocre existence in Xihe Commune, it has the more outstanding Anyong Brigade above it and the poor Niucun Brigade below it. One of them is more visible in front of the leaders, is summoned for talks from time to time, and has to give a report on stage at the end of the year.
The other one was frowning so hard on the leader's brow that the leader couldn't help but see it.
Only those who were mediocre were the least favored. Every time they went to the commune for a meeting, the leader would just say "not bad" lightly and then pass over them to look at the key focus objects.
Zhang Baosheng even suspected that if he met his leader on the street, the leader might not recognize him.
This is an exaggeration, of course, but the lackluster impression is true.
So Comrade Xiao Zhou asked him to take the initiative to walk in front of the leader and show his face twice more.
It's not about asking him to take the initiative to report the greenhouse experiment. Comrade Xiao Zhou said that he should try not to bring it up proactively and directly, but let the leader discover it inadvertently at the right time.
The main purpose of this trip to the commune was to say hello and remind them that if they received an order call from the provincial capital, they would be happy to run errands and let me know.
What order? Woven goods order. No greenhouses mentioned, just woven goods.
If the deal on knitwear is successful, there is no need to hide it. Just put the results on the leader's desk.
After Zhang Baosheng had a mental struggle, he felt that it was better to hurry early than late, so he rode his bike slowly to the commune while all his work for the day was arranged.
Halfway through the journey, he met a young man whose bicycle was about to spark, and he passed by him in a flash.
Zhang Baosheng glanced subconsciously, turned around and called out, "Secretary Li, where are you going?"
Li Jingdang is the secretary of the commune. Today the director received a call and asked him to go to the Qianjin Brigade as quickly as possible to call the brigade leader Zhang Baosheng to answer the phone.
He remembered clearly that the director's face was still full of shock before he left, and even he himself found it unbelievable.
When did that silent Qianjin Brigade set up a weaving workshop and sell its products to the provincial capital?
I was concentrating on riding my bicycle when I passed an old man. I glanced at him and felt that he looked familiar. Before I could remember who he was, I heard him calling him.
Li Jingdang braked his car and turned around and said, "I'm going to the forward brigade."
Zhang Baosheng's spirit suddenly shook. He slapped his thigh and said, "Secretary Li, I am Zhang Baosheng, the captain of the Forward Brigade."
Li Jingdang quickly turned around and rode over. He walked up to Zhang Baosheng and looked him over. He said, "No wonder he looks familiar. Captain Zhang, the commune has your phone number from the provincial capital. Let's go there quickly. Don't wait until the post office is closed. Your people won't be able to get through."
He knew without even thinking that this was definitely a call announcing good news. Zhang Baosheng was so happy that he quickly got into the car and stepped on the accelerator hard.
He walked two miles before he glanced sadly at Secretary Li next to him, thinking that this mediocre person really had no sense of existence in the commune. The secretary next to the leader didn't recognize him at first sight.
Comrade Xiao Zhou is absolutely right. He needs to get out and let the leaders take a good look at his old face.
I was full of pride while thinking about it all the way, but when I really arrived at the commune and stood in front of Zhai Xiangqiang, the deputy secretary of the Party Committee and the director of the commune, I became a quail again, not even daring to raise my hand to wipe the sweat from my face.
Unlike the cadres of the Ernst & Young team, they don't talk freely in front of the leaders.
"Captain Zhang, please sit down. Your comrades said we'll call back another one at 4:30." Then they instructed Li Jingdang, "Pour Captain Zhang a glass of water."
Zhang Baosheng said stiffly, "No, no, leaders, you guys are busy. I'll just sit over there and wait."
Zhai Xiangqiang smiled and said, "Don't be nervous. It sounded like the person calling was a young girl. Is she an educated youth from your production team?"
He wasn't nervous anymore when talking about Comrade Xiao Zhou. Zhang Baosheng wiped his sweat off his face and said, "Yes, that's Comrade Zhou Jiani from our production team, the educated youth who came here just last month. Comrade Xiao Zhou may not be very old, and he hasn't been with the team long, but he's smart and kind-hearted. He not only helped the older educated youth solve the problem of surplus vegetables, but he also helped the members of our team solve some of their vegetable problems. Now, every day the village selects 20 kilograms of vegetables from the members' homes and sends them to the state-owned restaurant here. This time, Comrade Xiao Zhou... Oh, and Comrade Xiao Qiu went on a business trip to the provincial capital, and he also picked 100 kilograms of vegetables from the village to help our members generate income."
It happened to be Zhai Xiangqiang who answered the phone when it rang earlier. He learned from the call that the Qianjin Brigade had organized its members to make a batch of woven goods and sold them to the provincial capital. Now they had also negotiated a cooperation with a department store. He thought Zhang Baosheng would discuss the woven goods mentioned on the call, but he didn't expect him to discuss vegetables as well. He became interested and said, "Oh? Tell me more about it."
Zhang Baosheng: ...?
That’s all.
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