That year the flowers bloomed 1981

Chapter 1279 Opening the door

When the people from Nanjing Automobile Group saw Li Ye arrive with more than a dozen workers from the First Branch Factory, they all gathered together, ready for anything.
The two groups slowly approached each other, and from a distance, it looked like Brother Ho-nam from Causeway Bay and Yao-yeung from Tung Hing were negotiating a deal.

The two companies had met at an exhibition in Beijing last year, and the other company's sales staff recognized Li Ye.

"Director Li, why such a big fuss today?"

"Hey, I heard you guys launched a new bus, let's all come and support you! What's this guy's name?"

"Just call me Lao Zhou. Our unit can't compare to yours. Your Beijing-plated buses have monopolized the market for official vehicles for our leaders. We can only research products suitable for the working class."

Old Zhou first flattered the First Factory, then humbly remarked on his own shortcomings.

Li Ye shook his head and smiled, "Leaders are always a minority in this world; the working class is the foundation. If your car is truly suitable for the working class, then I congratulate you in advance on its great sales."

The Beijing-brand buses produced by the First Factory were indeed targeted at the business reception and official vehicle market, and under Li Ye's various requirements, they possessed a certain "luxury" quality.

But ordinary people will always make up the majority of the world, so products for ordinary people will always be the foundation of a company.

"Hahaha, then we'll take your kind words. We're not looking for huge sales; we'd be content with one-fifth of the sales volume of your Beijing-branded buses."
Come, come, let me introduce this to Factory Director Li. This is our new bus, which we call "De Yi" (meaning "Proud"). It uses advanced technology from Italian Iveco buses.

Li Ye spoke eloquently, so Lao Zhou naturally had to give him a warm welcome and immediately led him to visit their new car.

Xiao Zhu and his accomplices, like spies, circled the exhibition vehicles, looking them over from all angles, even lying on the ground to examine them, and secretly pointing out their flaws.

"The seats aren't as comfortable as the seats in our business van."

"The chassis is indeed a ladder frame chassis, so the ride comfort is definitely not as good as our Beijing-brand commercial vehicles."

"It still has two rear wheels. Isn't this just an Iveco truck with a passenger car shell on top?"

"Look here and here, these are all imported parts. I bet the domestic production rate isn't high..."

"."

But after Li Ye's cold gaze swept over them, they all fell silent.

Actually, we're all tech people, so of course we know how excellent this "DeYi" series of buses is.

With just the ability to provide heating in winter and air conditioning in summer, it completely outclassed all other light and medium-sized passenger vehicles in mainland China at the time. Moreover, it also had advantages in power, fuel economy, and passenger comfort.

The Beijing-brand commercial buses produced by Factory One are indeed more comfortable and luxurious, but the Beijing-brand buses are nine-seater models; even with a facelift, they'd probably only have eleven or twelve seats.

However, Iveco is "proud" that it comes with a 19-seat model right out of the factory, and with a row of small stools squeezed in the middle, more than 20 people can fit in.

Running passenger transport is about making money. Operating costs require a certain number of seats. Every additional seat means more profit. Furthermore, the truck chassis it uses gives it the ability to carry more passengers and overload.

In other words, the number of migrant workers has not yet experienced explosive growth, so people lack awareness of the prospects of this type of vehicle. Once the free market is fully liberalized next year, there will be an explosive demand for this type of long-distance highway vehicle that can easily travel a few hundred kilometers.

After Lao Zhou finished his introduction, Li Ye waved his hand and said, "Section Chief Zhou, this car is really good. Our unit will order ten units first."

Old Zhou chuckled and said, "Director Li, we're already very grateful that you could come and support us today. It's not necessary to go to such lengths, not at all."

"What do you mean by 'spending too much'? We really need this car."

Li Ye smiled and said to Wang Siyu, "Give them the deposit now, then keep an eye on these display cars. We'll drive them away after the exhibition ends. From now on, these cars are ours."

Old Zhou was stunned for a moment before he realized that Li Ye was serious.

Then he said, "Thank you, Director Li. Today is the first day of the exhibition, and we've already opened for business. I'll also buy one of your Beijing-branded commercial vehicles. Don't think I'm stingy; I'm just a section chief, I don't have your level of authority."

"Hey, what kind of talk is that! Open the door and good fortune will come! Open the door and good fortune will come!"

"Hahaha, may your business prosper and bring you good fortune!"

Both of them successfully completed their first business deal and won a lucky prize. They were both very happy and congratulated each other with clasped hands.

Just then, someone ran over from afar, shouting to Old Zhou, "Section Chief Zhou, Xiao Sun and the others are fighting over there! Everyone, hurry and help!"

He immediately turned and ran east.

Li Ye and the others were stunned for a moment, but then followed.

The east side is the exhibition area for foreign car dealers, which is said to have expensive "imported luxury cars". So Li Ye originally planned to go and take a look later. Now that something has happened, it's not bad to go and take a look beforehand.

When everyone ran to the east side, they found that the crowd was indeed larger than in other places. Clearly, the light drizzle couldn't dampen the men's love and obsession with "luxury cars."
Luxury cars and beautiful women—the old saying about luxury cars being placed before beautiful women must have some truth to it.

"It's right over there in Bayer's booth. We were queuing up to visit, and after waiting for ages, someone cut in line. We got angry and started arguing, but they were completely unreasonable, and Bayer's distributors were unreasonable too."

Bayer is BMW.

Before 1992, BMW, with its blue sky and white clouds, was not called BMW in mainland China. Instead, it was called Bayier, similar to the name used in Hong Kong.

Although the saying "drive a BMW, ride in a Mercedes" hasn't become popular yet, BMW's excellent handling is already widely known, so it's understandable that there are many visitors. However, cutting in line during the visit is really going too far.

Now, because of the fight, the area is packed with people, three or four layers deep.

"Excuse me, excuse me."

"Why are you squeezing in? Why are you squeezing in?"

"We're going in to fight, why are you pushing?"

"Oh, okay, you guys go in first then."

People from the mainland love to watch a good show, and when they heard that Lao Zhou and his group were going to go in and fight, they immediately made way for them.

Then Lao Zhou, Li Ye, and the others squeezed in.

But once they squeezed in, they couldn't start a fight at all.

Because Nanjing Automobile and its branch factory together have more than 20 people, while the other side only has four, it would be strange if a fight broke out.

Several BMW employees in suits stood in the middle to prevent the situation from escalating.

When Old Zhou saw that his employee's nose had been broken, he immediately yelled, "Why did you cut in line? Why did you hit people?"

The other person wasn't intimidated: "Who cut in line? They're queuing for people who want to buy cars; you poor wretches are the ones cutting in line!"

"Who are you calling a poor wretch? Anyone can afford a beat-up car."

"I just can't afford it, it costs 400,000! Can you even afford it?"

"How do you know we can't afford it? Is 400,000 a lot?"

"Heh, you guys are obviously just wage earners, you'll never make 400,000 in your entire lives."

"."

Li Ye watched coldly as the argument escalated, but Bayier's people clearly sided with the four locals, while Nanqi seemed to have a natural aversion to the locals, and it looked like they were about to fight again at any moment.

"Who says they can't afford it? You're just looking down on people."

A middle-aged woman suddenly walked over and coldly reprimanded Bayier's employees, who all lowered their heads.

Then, the woman turned to Li Ye and said with a smile, "What, you're not even going to call me 'Auntie'?"

Li Ye glanced at the other party, then at the Bayier employees with their heads down, and couldn't help but feel a sense of unease.

Has she managed to whitewash her image and get out of trouble?

(End of this chapter)