The booming era begins with the director of the Propaganda Department!

Chapter 406: Moonlight shines brightly before the bed!
Zhang Shenfei took the water cup from the table, handed it to Tian Xiaozao's mouth and asked her to drink a few sips. After the discomfort in her throat eased, he said:
"Grandma and sister-in-law have helped to arrange everything, you don't have to worry about it."

"Well, if you miss home after you leave, just call the street office. You know the street office's phone number." Tian Xiaozao said tenderly and snuggled in Zhang Shenfei's arms.

The two had never been separated for such a long time since they got married. Tian Xiaozao felt a little sad when she thought that her man was going to Guangdong Province, thousands of miles away.

But she knew in her heart that the man was doing it for work, so she couldn't say anything.

Zhang Shenfei knew what Tian Xiaozao was thinking. He stroked her hair and said, "Go to work and take good care of Weiguo after work. I will bring you some specialties from Guangdong Province when I come back.

Grandma is old, and you are busy with work, so let the boys from my eldest brother's family handle all the things at home... Don't be too stubborn at work, and listen to Sister Hongying's opinions more."

Tian Xiaozao nodded obediently.

……

The next morning, Zhang Shenfei took his luggage and met up with the factory delegation going to the Canton Fair, and together they boarded the train to Guangdong Province.

Although the group was sitting in a soft sleeper car, the efficiency of the green train was amazing. After the long journey, people still felt extremely tired.

A week later, when his feet stepped on the ground again, Zhang Shenfei felt as if his body was still swaying with the train, as if he was drunk, and everything around him seemed not quite real.

Secretary Xiao Hou carried the bag, and the two of them walked forward with other people in the factory.

There were a total of ten people in the peeler factory delegation, among whom Chief An was in charge of foreign trade, Zhang Shenfei was the factory director, Xiao Hou was his secretary, and the remaining seven were all sales staff.

When the group walked out of the exit, they saw that the Canton Fair reception staff had already put up a banner and set up a table and were waiting here. On the table there were registration forms, paper and pens, etc.

There were more than a dozen chairs behind the table, and not far behind the chairs, there were seven or eight buses, each with words written on red paper. They should be the reception vehicles for the Canton Fair.

Chief An has been in charge of the Canton Fair since the factory was founded. He went to register with ease, while Zhang Shenfei chatted with Xiao Hou and others.

The first Canton Fair was held in 1957, and its name at that time was China-Sino Friendship Fair. It was located in the China-Sino Friendship Building.

The original intention of holding the Canton Fair was to break through the economic blockade of my country by Western countries. Since we can't go out, we invite foreigners in to facilitate transactions.

The first conference was divided into two sessions, spring and autumn, and attracted a total of 19 foreign buyers from 1223 countries and regions, with a transaction volume of more than US$8600 million, which was an unprecedented success at the time.

In 1958, with the full implementation of my country's Second Five-Year Plan, foreign trade developed rapidly and the Qiaoguang Road Exhibition Hall soon ran out of exhibition space.

When visiting the Fourth Canton Fair, the second-in-command said that the exhibition hall was too small and a larger hall should be built. So the construction of the Qiyi Road Exhibition Hall began and was completed last year.

The purpose of Zhang Shenfei and others' trip was to visit the Uprising Road Exhibition Hall, and they stayed at the Yangcheng Hotel.

The conference organizers arranged standard double rooms for all domestic representatives.

As soon as everyone got off the car, Zhang Shenfei's secretary Xiao Hou immediately ran to the front desk to get the keys, then carried the two people's luggage upstairs, fetched water, checked the beds, and was very busy.

The salesmen were all doing their own things, but one of them was smart enough to arrange Chief An's luggage.

At this time, representatives from all over the world were still entering the hotel to check in, and Zhang Shenfei was smoking in the lobby.

The purpose of his trip was not the Canton Fair, or rather, this was just a cover, but at this moment, listening to everyone's different accents and the industries they were engaged in, he found it quite interesting.

After a night of rest,
The next day, Zhang Shenfei and others and delegations from other factories arrived at their destination.

Zhang Shenfei got off the car, but found that there were many more people from the country Z queuing to enter than foreigners.

Zhang Shenfei frowned, and Section Chief An, who had attended many meetings, told him.

In fact, since the great success of the first Canton Fair, the number of foreigners attending each subsequent Canton Fair has never exceeded 10,000, and the transaction volume has not only failed to set a new record, but has even declined significantly.

“But we don’t have to worry. Although the turnover of the Canton Fair is low now, the products produced by our factory have always been popular at the fair.

Our annual turnover ranks among the top three. Some factories even say that our products are small but have great uses. "Chief An said with a smile.

"That's right. We once joked that it's a good thing we have a planned economy. If the capitalists were to produce as they did in the past, who knows how many peeler and grater factories would have sprung up across the country." Another member of the group also said.

Although the current export volume of peelers and graters is high, the production capacity of their factory can fully keep up, so there is no plan to build a new factory.

In addition, among the products they brought to the conference this time was a new product designed by Director Zhang, a stuffing inserter, which greatly boosted everyone's confidence.

Everyone walked towards the venue while chatting and laughing.

The venue, which was built only a few years ago, looks quite modern, and its appearance is enough to beat 99% of the buildings of this era.

After entering, the six-meter-high ceiling, large glass windows, clean and tidy terrazzo floors, and even modern ventilation equipment made Zhang Shenfei feel as if he had returned to the 21st century.

But when he took another look at the snow-white lace tablecloth on the table and the clothes of the people around him, he quickly came to his senses.

Under the leadership of Section Chief An, Zhang Xuefei and others found their factory's booth. Everyone took out samples from their boxes, put them on display, and started to get busy.

Zhang Shenfei was wandering around the exhibition idly. According to the original plan, he only needed to show up on the first day of the Canton Fair, and then go to the port city under the arrangement of the organization.

At around 10am, all the merchants and manufacturers had arrived, but the exhibition was not as lively as Zhang Shenfei had imagined. To put it bluntly, there were even more sales than purchases.

Fortunately, the booth of the peeling and grating machine factory was surrounded by many customers with whom the company had cooperated many times.

A grater is not a high-end product, but at the beginning of mass production, Zhang Shenfei suggested that Minister Wen apply for an international patent for this product.

The salesmen and the foreign translators were discussing and promoting their new products, but Zhang Shenfei kept dozing off.

He was not a salesperson to begin with, and he felt sleepy after hearing this.

He didn't know how long he had slept when he felt someone pushing his shoulder. He opened his eyes and the enlarged facial features of Section Chief An immediately came into his sight.

"Sorry, I accidentally fell asleep." Zhang Shenfei smiled embarrassedly.

"It's normal. Director, you are a technical talent. It's really a bit difficult for you to come to the sales site." Section Chief An smiled and said, "Today's schedule is over. We should go back to the hotel for dinner."

"Okay, let's go." Zhang Shenfei readily followed suit.

“How were sales today?”

"It's okay. The new products are almost as expected, but the old products are a little worse... Our products are good in every way, but they are too durable. Foreigners spend a few dollars to buy one and it can be used for years and never breaks down..." Section Chief An was very distressed.

How can I buy new things if they are old and never break? How can I boost sales if I don’t buy new things? ? Zhang Shenfei thought to himself after hearing this: “It is not good to be too durable... Let me think about it.”

Since the discovery of Daqing, my country's oil is no longer as scarce as before. Perhaps it is time to design a non-durable product...

It was just an idea that suddenly popped up in his mind after hearing what Section Chief An said, but how to implement it would require further consideration and experimentation.

Now is not the time to work on this, let’s talk about it later.

After putting the idea behind him, Zhang Shenfei got on the bus, found a seat and sat down. After the bus started, he enjoyed the beautiful scenery along the way.

He had been to this city in his previous life, but now it seemed quite different.

The Canton Fair provided meals, and the food was quite good. There were ten people at the table, with six dishes, three meat dishes and three vegetable dishes. Zhang Shenfei and his group just filled up the table.

During the dinner, representatives from other factories came to greet him, and Zhang Shenfei asked Section Chief An to deal with them.

After dinner, there is free time. Many people will take this opportunity to stroll around the streets, on the one hand, to travel, and on the other hand, to do some shopping.

Although Taipei is the political capital, Guangdong Province is closer to Hong Kong and other areas. In addition, due to policy reasons, some things here are not easy to buy in Taipei.

Seeing that it was still early, Zhang Shenfei simply went out and visited several large shopping malls. After buying all the things he had promised to buy for his neighbors, he returned to the hotel.

Another good night's sleep.

the next day,
After separating from the factory director and his men, Zhang Shenfei found his contact, received new information, and set out for the port city.

After liberation, our country’s border exit requirements were strict, and most people were unable to cross the river to enter the port.

But last year, because the situation was really difficult, Bao'an County began to relax its lending policy, and a large number of people began to cross the border and go to the port city to seek a new life.

Although we have crossed the mainland border, the Hong Kong city still implements the policy of arrest and repatriation, and has deployed a large number of police officers to patrol the border.

Even so, more than 100,000 people still successfully entered the port in more than a year.

Because there were too many people entering the country, Hong Kong had no choice but to start solving the refugee problem. The first thing was of course food and clothing, and then livelihood and household registration.

People from the north are more able to endure hardships, are often willing to do harder work, and have lower demands for treatment.

Their influx made the indigenous people feel a sense of crisis, and many democrats harbored great hostility towards these people, so words like "Northern Yankee" and "Northern Girl" came into being.

When encountering people with obvious mainland accents, most people, even those from the lower classes of Hong Kong, tend to look down on them.

It was in such an environment that Zhang Shenfei crossed the river and entered the port.

Arriving at the first stop in Hong Kong, Zhang Shenfei followed the address he had memorized in his mind, hailed a taxi, and found a place called Kowloon Walled City.

Kowloon City Station was first built during the Daoguang period. Because most of the people living here are Chaozhou people, it has always been known as "Little Chaozhou".

When the cession treaty was signed, it was stated that this piece of land located in the port city still belonged to Country Z, and it was difficult for the mainland to handle it.

Gradually, this place became a no-man's land. If there were no rules, they created them. Kowloon Walled City became a special autonomous region and began to have its own rules.

This is the first stop for many mainlanders arriving in Hong Kong.

Kowloon Walled City is 6 acres in size, about 2.7 hectares, but it has many buildings.

Narrow paths, dirty ground, and buildings with only small windows next to each other block the sunlight, so that most of the houses here never see the sun all year round.

Hidden in the darkness are countless casinos, drug trafficking, brothels, duck brothels, and unlicensed clinics where abortions and various surgeries are prevalent.

The most indispensable thing in a place like this is gangs. Kowloon Walled City is not a big place, but it has several forces.

They divided the city into their own areas and firmly controlled their own section.

Zhang Shenfei came here for the first time. He wandered around in the maze-like fortress and got lost several times. He asked for directions three times and was given two cold stares. One of them even pointed him in the opposite direction.
Finally, I stood in front of a clinic called "Zhangji Dental".

When Zhang Shenfei walked in, he saw a girl lying on a dental bed whose original color could not be seen, with her mouth wide open.

A bald dentist wearing a white mask and white doctor's coat was standing behind the girl, helping her repair her teeth.

Apart from these two people, there was no one else in the room.

"Hello, is Zhang Tianci here?" Zhang Shenfei asked.

The dentist looked at him, nodded, and motioned for him to sit down first.

The sound of the dental drill was harsh and sharp. Zhang Shenfei felt the pain in his teeth just by listening to it while sitting there.

I don't know how long it was before the sound finally stopped and the dentist finally put down his tools and went to the side to wash his hands.

The girl took out money from her small purse with a swollen face and slapped it on the table: "Lao Zhang, with your cooking skills, if you weren't in Kowloon Walled City, you would have starved to death."

Lao Zhang glared at her and said, "If you weren't here, do you think you have the money to get into my house? When I was in the mainland, I was a doctor in a regular hospital!!"

One of them spoke the dialect of Sichuan and Chongqing, and the other spoke the dialect south of the Huai River, but they were able to communicate without any problems.

After sending the girl away, the dentist named Lao Zhang sterilized his tools carelessly while turning to look at Zhang Shenfei: "Where do you feel uncomfortable?"

Zhang Shenfei blinked innocently: "The moon shines brightly in front of the bed."

Lao Zhang paused, as if the system had stalled, and after a long while he replied, "Li Bai, drink chicken soup."

"Drank a whole jar of water?" Zhang Shenfei continued.

Lao Zhang was excited: "Pee, peed all over my crotch..."

With a bang, the tools in his hand fell onto the iron tray.

Then he turned around and ran to the door with the sign saying "Open for Business" hanging outside, locked the door from the inside, and came back.

"Comrade!! I finally meet you!" He held Zhang Shenfei's hand tightly, his tone extremely excited.

(End of this chapter)