2003: Starting with Foreign Trade

Chapter 66 Chinese New Year
In less than a day, by evening, the news that Tan Lihua's son had made a lot of money and bought a car spread throughout the village.

Tan Jincheng grew up in the village before he went to school. He caused a scene the summer before last, and the villagers still have some memory of him.

Over the course of a year and a half, Tan Jincheng became a negative example for many parents. He was disobedient, willful, and abandoned his studies to work at sea, causing his parents great anxiety.

In a city where literature and art flourish, or even in a rural area, every family takes pride in their child getting into university. If, after graduating, the child performs poorly and lives a mediocre life, Tan Jincheng will become a negative example for educating children in the village.

For Tan Jincheng, who has no attachment to his hometown, these things don't matter; but Tan Lihua certainly doesn't think that way. Not going to school is an unchangeable fact, but he can still make money even without studying, which can at least save face a little.

Tan Jincheng didn't explain much to his relatives about what he did specifically, only saying that he sold clothes, bought them from factories, and then sold them wholesale.

If you mention other industries, the villagers might not understand them, but when it comes to making clothes, at least half of the people from Tanjia Village who go out to work know about it.

More than half of the people from Tanjiacun who go out to work work in the children's clothing city in Zhili, Huzhou. Some of them have seized the opportunity to open factories there and become rich.

My first encounter with the clothing industry was when I was a child and heard about it from people who had gone out to work when I returned to my hometown.

Zhili's children's clothing industry accounts for a large proportion of the domestic children's clothing market. There are many garment processing factories of all sizes. Tan Jincheng has been there and found that the working environment is much worse than in Ningbo.

A row of residential buildings, three to four stories high. The bottom floor is the fabric cutting workshop, the middle floors are the sewing machine workshop, and the top floor is the staff dormitory.

Unlike the small garment factories in Ningbo, the factories in Zhili offer free meals and accommodation, but at the same time, they exploit employees even more. Employees there start work at eight o'clock every morning, have half an hour for lunch, and work until about eleven o'clock at night.

They only don't work overtime on Sunday nights, which they euphemistically call a day off.

Another thing that Tan Jincheng couldn't understand was that, because the garment industry has peak and off-peak seasons, factories in Zhili would take a two- to three-month long holiday around the Dragon Boat Festival and the Spring Festival every year.

Their wages were settled all at once during holidays, rather than paid monthly. Some poorly performing factories would abscond with the money during holidays.

Therefore, for the migrant workers from Tanjiacun who go to Zhili to work in the garment industry, finding a reliable factory is their biggest wish; even with the risk of not receiving wages for six months, people still flock to it.

The supply and demand relationship is extremely unbalanced. The large influx of migrant workers into cities means that no matter how unscrupulous the boss is, they don't have to worry about not being able to recruit workers.

These days, it's really not easy for migrant workers to find a job in the city. There are scams everywhere, and the wages are very low. In the past, a decent wage for a decoration worker was 50 yuan a day, which is considered a high wage now. If you want to earn more money, you can only become a contractor, but being a contractor is riskier and not everyone can do it.

The next day, news spread throughout the village that the eldest grandson of the Tan family, who was willful and didn't study, had made a lot of money selling clothes. In addition, today was the day to receive gifts, so the ancestral house was bustling with people from morning onwards.

Whether you're giving gifts or not, come and take a look. In 2005, only a handful of families in Tanjiacun could afford a car. The villagers were actually living a relatively hard life and didn't have much of a sense of leverage.

In fact, even Tan Lihua and his wife felt the same way. They found it hard to accept taking out a mortgage when they bought a house, fearing that one day they would be unable to repay it due to an unexpected event. The concept of advance consumption was not in their minds.

"How much is a pack of cigarettes?" Tan Licheng squatted by the door and asked his nephew. There wasn't much work to do today, and Tan Jincheng, who was habitually lazy, was unlikely to work diligently. Tan Jincheng also didn't have much to do; his task was to keep an eye on Tan Jinyue.

The sun is shining brightly today, so Xiao Jinyue's crib has been moved under the eaves to bask in the sun.

"20 yuan, what's wrong?"

"It's no fun smoking it, a cheap pack of Red Three Rings cigarettes would be better," Tan Licheng said, pursing his lips.

"You took one even though it's not good? Give it back to me." Tan Jincheng said speechlessly. This is the most classic Da Hong Ying cigarette. In a few years, you won't be able to get one even if you want to smoke it. After it was acquired by Liqun, it stopped appearing on the market.

"I'll use this to fool people during the New Year. It's good that I don't need to buy any more. Give me a bottle of the wine in your trunk too."

"No way, that's Wuliangye, and there aren't many bottles left. I bought it for my uncle. You don't drink, so why would you want it?"

“When I have guests over for the Chinese New Year, we need to have some wine. Having a bottle of good wine makes us look good.”

"There will definitely be leftover liquor from the banquet. Just take a few bottles home. Kouzijiao isn't high-class enough. What kind of distinguished guests do you have who would drink Wuliangye?"

The uncle and nephew were sunbathing, chatting and joking around without any regard for seniority. After a while, Tan Jincheng's uncle, Tan Liye, also came over. Since his uncle was a rather serious person, Tan Jincheng naturally didn't dare to joke around like that.

Although the three Tan brothers had a good relationship and were role models of filial piety in the village, they had very different personalities. The eldest brother was steady and authoritative, the second brother was lively, and the youngest brother was serious and earnest.

With such contrasting personalities, the second and third brothers couldn't be joked with. After chatting for a while and getting bored, Tan Licheng made an excuse to go play somewhere else.

The second brother took a carton of cigarettes, and the third brother, a heavy smoker, naturally couldn't be left out either. Tan Jincheng gave the third brother a carton of cigarettes, but ended up getting a lesson in return.

These are life lessons such as learning to be frugal when starting a business, not spending money extravagantly, not being ostentatious in one's conduct, and learning to build good relationships with customers.

These are all good words, and they are all sincere attempts to teach my nephew how to conduct himself, but what young person is willing to listen to these?

Even though Tan Jincheng has the soul of a middle-aged man, he doesn't care about these things. However, compared to a real young person, Tan Jincheng is able to hide his emotions very well. His uncle should have been born in 1972? Speaking of which, he hasn't seen as much as he has now.

Tan Jincheng doesn't like listening to people preach, nor does he like to preach to people; there are many people who know a lot of principles, but still can't live a good life.

In both my past and present lives, I have never had the desire to be a teacher. In this second life, besides doing what I am capable of, I just want to live this life to the fullest and try my best to leave as few regrets as possible.

(End of this chapter)