Brilliant Years 1991

Chapter 112: Unwilling to be a Canary
"My dear, you are back!"

It can be considered a team-building event of that era, but the program was far less rich than the team-building events of mainland companies decades later. It was just a meal, but Cao Yukun still drank some wine. When he took a taxi back home, it was almost nine o'clock. He was still taking out the key to open the door, but the door had already been opened from the inside.

Cao Yukun looked up and saw that it was Zhou Aimin. "Hey, you came back so early today!"

"Yeah, the recording was pretty good today, so we finished work early!"

As she was getting him his shoes, she frowned, "You smell like alcohol! Do you have a dinner party tonight?"

When she said this, she looked suspicious, and Cao Yukun explained nonchalantly, "The company had dinner together to celebrate. Business has been good recently!"

Her suspicion faded a little, and she smiled and said, "Wow, if you had known earlier, why didn't you tell me? I also want to attend your company's celebration party."

Cao Yukun turned his head to look at her in surprise and smiled, "Okay! I'll call you next time!"

She is... well, very suspicious.

However, it can be felt that she really likes this temporary small family. In addition, the prevailing trend in Hongkong is that pretty girls want to curry favor with rich men and marry into wealthy families, while men with money love to play with women. There are endless cases of cheating, cheating, and having mistresses. Therefore, she is always a little worried here and there, and Cao Yukun understands this.

After all, she is a jade girl. Let’s put other things aside. Even if we just consider that in the past month or so, she has always kept the house rented by Cao Yukun clean and tidy, and Cao Yukun also knows about it.

Although...to be honest, it's just a relationship.

When I came in after closing the door, hugged her and kissed her, she smiled and pushed me away, "Oh, take a shower first! You smell like alcohol!"

As a result, after Cao Yukun took off all his clothes, he dragged her directly into the bathroom.

She couldn't break free, so she had to be dragged in.

It was more than half an hour later when the two of them came out of the bathroom.

While lying on the sofa and chatting, she talked about something that happened this afternoon. She said that Wong Jing contacted her agency and expressed his desire to restart his "The Romance of the Condor Heroes" series and shoot a fourth film. "That film has already shot the third film, which happened three years ago. Andy Lau and I both starred in it. It didn't sell well at the time, so there was no next film. But recently, my husband, your drinks are selling very well. Everyone is talking about it. Everyone says it tastes sour and sweet. Even Andy Lau and I have benefited from it. The discussion has been much higher recently, so Director Wong Jing wants to restart this drama and find Andy Lau and me..."

"Oh, what then?"

"Then...of course the company said they wanted to take it, and I thought it was a good idea!"

In fact, Cao Yukun had no intention of interfering with her acting career. He didn't care whether she was singing or taking on acting roles. It was normal for them to like each other, fall in love, or even live together. But Cao Yukun didn't think he should interfere in each other's life - he kind of, um, didn't cherish it.

To be honest, in Cao Yukun's heart, she is not as precious as Huang Jiaying, not even as precious as Hu Zihong - it has nothing to do with occupation, wealth, ability, or appearance. First of all, those two girls were intact when they were with him, but the one next to him now is not.

However, after living together for more than a month, he actually liked this well-behaved girl.

Diligent, obedient and able to endure hardship.

It is pleasing to the eye too.

Holding her in his arms at this time, his palm gently stroking her soft long hair, Cao Yukun hesitated a little and said, "Actually... you know, my business is doing well and I make money. At least I can support you. So, whether it's singing or acting, just do it if you like. If you don't like it, there's no need to force yourself and don't make yourself so tired. You are busy every day. I can only see you at night most of the time..."

Looking down at her, she was listening with her eyes wide open, but she didn't seem to want to speak, so Cao Yukun continued, "In short, don't do something you don't like just to make money. As for albums, you can record and polish them slowly, and it will take one or two years or two or three years to release one. As for movies, you can't refuse to take a good movie unless it's a good one... Empty words are useless. I'll help you pay off the mortgage on your house later, okay?"

This time she was shocked, "Wow..."

Her initial mortgage loan was HK$350 million, and she still has more than HK$ million left to pay off. This is no small amount of money - she has been quite popular in the past two years, and every year she makes about HK$ or HK$ from filming, releasing albums, taking commercial performances, and advertising endorsements. It is difficult to make over a million, and in this era of popularity, this is already far beyond the income level of ordinary people. Among all the female celebrities in Hong Kong, she is considered to be in the upper middle class. However, it will take her many years to save up for more than HK$ million, after all, she was greedy and bought a house of square feet!

So after being stunned for two seconds, she couldn't help but rush over and kiss Cao Yukun on the face, "Husband, you are so good to me!"

But when the excitement gradually subsided, she thought about it for a long time and still said, "If you help me pay off my debts, I can try to make my work easier, but releasing an album every two or three years is definitely not okay, it will be outdated! And, husband, my mother taught me that people should work hard to make money when they are young. If I don’t work hard, I will definitely be idle every day..."

Cao Yukun pursed his lips and nodded, which was not a big deal. "It's up to you then!"

She could tell Cao Yukun sounded a little unhappy, so she tried to please him, "I'll try to finish work earlier in the evening, okay? Hubby..." "I don't mind. If you think it's better to be busy with work, then go ahead. Making money is not a bad thing after all. It's pretty good..."

It seems that she is unwilling to be a canary, so... forget it!
…………

"Hello, Mr. Kun..."

"Wow... Mr. Jin?"

"Hahaha, it's me! Do you have time to come out for afternoon tea?"

"You came to Hongkong?"

Before three o'clock in the afternoon, Cao Yukun suddenly and unexpectedly received a call from Jin Zhiqiang, and learned that he had come to Hongkong. Of course, he was happy to keep the appointment. So, at 3:30 in the afternoon, he rushed to a place called Peninsula Tea Restaurant, which was said to be a famous and popular afternoon tea restaurant in Hongkong.

Many celebrities, wealthy people, officials, and even stars like to come here for afternoon tea.

If it were put in 20 or 30 years, it would definitely be considered a check-in destination in Hongkong.

After the two met, they gave each other a warm hug at the same time - they had known each other for quite some time, and had had various mental battles with each other, but in the end, they had achieved something for each other, and at this time, he suddenly ran to Hongkong, and he felt the joy of meeting old friends again.

However, in fact, Cao Yukun had just returned to Shanghai in late June to sign the second contract with him.

"No wonder you left the subscription certificates alone and sold them out all of a sudden. It turns out you have other ideas to make money! Awesome, awesome!"

Everyone sat down to chat, but he couldn't help but praise again and again at the beginning, "I was wondering before, those 1,000 tons of drinks you brought over before were actually sold? The second batch actually went straight to 10,000 tons? It was only when I came to Hongkong that I suddenly realized that your drink is actually selling like crazy here!"

"I heard someone tell me about your advertisements in the past month, and the lawsuit. Haha, Mr. Kun, I admire you so much! I didn't expect that besides your unique vision in finance, you are also a master at publicity! I remember before I came here, it seems that 9,000 tons of the 10,000 tons of goods have been shipped. The old Tao you sent to Shanghai has contacted my company two days ago, hoping to sign a third order... You've made a fortune!"

Cao Yukun laughed, "It's impossible to make a fortune. I can only make a small profit. Compared with your boss Jin's huge success in the stock market, the little money I made is not worth mentioning!"

Jin Zhiqiang waved his hands and laughed, "Don't give me that! I heard someone tell me that someone has calculated that you can make two to three thousand yuan per ton selling beverages here! Others don't know how much you have sold, but I don't? Ten thousand tons, Mr. Kun, it's only been a month, and you've already sold ten thousand tons, twenty or thirty million!"

"The pressure on the payment of goods is very strong, but it's actually not that much!"

"Come back! You're selling so well, who dares to hold you back on payment? Normal payment procedures can't be considered holding back on payment! From now on, just this business alone, if you can keep it stable, you can make hundreds of millions of Hong Kong dollars a year!"

As for making money, it really is making money. For domestic beverage manufacturers, they have to admit that in the 1990s, it is really delicious to go to Hongkong to have a taste of it.

It can be seen that my original idea was completely correct.

But, "Hey, you're making a lot of money, 600 yuan per ton, that's a lot, don't raise the price! If you dare to raise the price, we won't even be friends anymore! Don't blame me for turning my back on you!"

"Hahaha! You fucking bastard..." Jin Zhiqiang laughed, "I invited you to have afternoon tea with good intentions, but you interrupted me as soon as I opened my mouth! Alas, we can no longer be friends..."

"Hahahaha! If you don't raise the price, we can still be good friends!"

To be honest, for domestic enterprises with foreign trade qualifications, it costs two to three thousand to ship one ton of goods, and they only make 600 yuan. In fact, the profit margin is not high. If the batch is small, many foreign trade companies may really look down on it. For example, Jin Zhiqiang did the operation purely out of the perspective of helping.

However, if we can handle 100,000 tons of cargo a year, the profit would be huge enough!

Even for Jin Zhiqiang, this is a business that he is unwilling to give up no matter what!

"So, how about lowering the price? For example, I'll lower the price by 100 yuan per ton, how about that?"

"Oh? You're so generous?"

"Hahaha, when have I ever been ungenerous?"

(End of this chapter)