Hong Kong Island: From a small stall to a global supplier

Chapter 215: Recruit people to join the gang!

Enemies become allies...

If we become partners, we naturally have to have a meal together.

The kitchen was almost ready and served four cold dishes to go with the wine. After three cups of wine, eight hot dishes were served.

Zhang Yaorong was shocked just by looking at the gorgeous presentation. How could a small street shop have such a high standard?
Then what about my Chinese nightclub and restaurant, which is the best in Hong Kong?
After Zhang Yaorong tasted all eight dishes, he put down his chopsticks and said solemnly, "I wonder where your cooking teacher came from, brother?"

"Very good?" Ji Bao asked in surprise.

The person next to you has eaten and seen it before, so why is he so surprised?
Ji Bao didn't have any special feeling. He had eaten similar beautifully presented dishes many times at Zhang Yaorong's restaurant and other famous restaurants in Hong Kong Island.

I just feel like I have discovered a treasure trove. Next time I invite people to dinner, I don’t have to make reservations a few days in advance.

Zhang Yaorong shook his head. "I'm not bragging. Ordinary people will only think that many dishes are delicious, but they can't taste the subtle differences. Only those who have been eating fine dishes for a long time will feel uncomfortable. But in the eyes of professionals, it's different."

"Take the dish 'Xianhe Shenzhen', also known as 'pigeon swallowing wings', for example. The main ingredients are baby pigeon and shark fins. If it is cooked in an ordinary restaurant or at home, people just buy pigeons and shark wings at the market, kill them, gut them, fill them with wings and stew them."

"But if you want to make this dish well, you have to first select the ingredients. There are strict requirements on the size of the squab, and the shark fins must be good."

"Then there is the knife skills. The cuts must be narrow and clean for the pigeon bones, leaving the pigeon skin intact. It will then be sutured, and the appearance must be perfect. This requires a lot of knife skills and patience."

"Then there is the experience of processing ingredients. When removing the feathers, the water temperature must be controlled to completely remove the hair and root residues so as not to affect the appearance. Then, the fishy smell must be removed while retaining the fresh taste of the pigeon. The control of time and water temperature and other details is the most important skill. The degree of soaking of shark fins must be controlled accurately, the soup must be thick, and the ingredients must be carefully selected to achieve the best taste and fully stimulate the umami flavor."

"Then there is the control of the heat. It takes more than five hours to steam the shark fin and stew the pigeon. You need to be able to accurately control the heat and time so that the pigeon is evenly heated and slowly absorbs the flavor. The stewed pigeon is tender and juicy, and the soup is rich and mellow."

"The last step is the presentation of the dish. The pigeon should be made into the shape of a 'crane', making the dish look like a fine work of art, visually enhancing the quality of the dish."

Zhang Yaorong's praise touched Wang Yaotang's sore spot, and he was immediately overjoyed, with a smile on his face blooming like a chrysanthemum.

We hired so many people in the past, and they were all fucking rough guys!

Damn it, from beginning to end all he could say was "sharp", "delicious", and "awesome", but he couldn't really put any other words into words.

After I introduced myself, I was still confused and the applause seemed fake.

Having good things to show off, but the recipient is unknown, is really suffocating and uncomfortable. Today I finally got some relief, and I feel so relieved!
Wang Yaotang clapped his hands heavily. "Brother Zhang is indeed a master who organically combines Chinese banquets with Western dance culture. His ability to appreciate Chinese food alone is admirable. Awesome, awesome."

"Thank you, thank you." Zhang Yaorong smiled reservedly and waved his hand gently.

"I've hosted so many people, and you're the first one who can taste the difference." Wang Yaotang gave a thumbs up, "My chef is the son of Chen Fuchou, the chef of 'Da San Yuan Restaurant', one of the four famous restaurants in Guangzhou during the Republic of China."

"Wow! So elegant!" Zhang Yaorong suddenly became interested, "Can I see it?"

"Brother, don't think about poaching this person. I hired this person with great difficulty after using my connections in the border area. My connections are still in the north. He only serves me personally and does not entertain outsiders."

“It’s really just a meeting to say thank you.”

"Then, let's do it."

The two of them pushed each other forward, feeling extremely happy and burst into laughter.

Ji Bao next to him had a stiff face, and suddenly he felt that the delicious dish just now was not fragrant anymore. Damn it, it turns out that you two are noble people who appreciate tea, and I am the Zhu Bajie who swallows the food whole!

Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!
Can this world ever be a better place? A gangster who dropped out of junior high school is so ambitious and noble, a contractor who graduated from high school is so talented and virtuous, and I, a dignified college student, have turned into a vulgar and uncouth man!
Is there any reason?
Is there any royal method?
Damn it, I shouldn’t have come today!
Shit! Bastard!
Ji Bao decided to turn his grief into appetite. Eat, eat hard, eat all the good things, and leave nothing for you two bastards!

After finishing the meal and sending the guests away, there were still some leftovers, so he called Wei Tao in to eat with him.

Wei Tao didn't mind it, he followed Wang Yaotang all day long, he knew these dishes were good stuff, one "Immortal Crane Needle" was worth half a month's salary for a current white-collar worker in Hong Kong Island.

Don't think it's expensive, you may not be able to eat it even if you spend this much money.

The chef has limited time and cannot spend so much time serving ordinary people.

It is only by following Wang Yaotang that he can eat here and there, so it is understandable that he wrote a letter of resignation to the police force. Han Yili, you don’t even eat as well as I do, so why should I follow you!
"Boss, just give him 10% of the shares." Wei Tao asked after taking a sip of soup.

"Why, do you feel like you've lost out?" Wang Yaotang asked with a smile.

"Of course. According to our market forecast, after it is transformed into a video store, the turnover can double within two years, to at least HK$5 million. If the profit is calculated at 20%, he will get his money back within two years." Wei Tao said with some distress: "What investment can pay back in two years and then double every year!"

“That’s not even counting the impact it brings.”

"No money!" Wang Yaotang gritted his teeth, getting angry when talking about this, "Damn it, I worked hard for more than a year, and now I have nothing."

"The 2000 million yuan I borrowed from HSBC has been used up again. Yesterday, Siyan calculated that the current funding gap is still more than 6000 million yuan."

"Puff!" Wei Tao spat out all the food on the ground, "So much?"

He knew that Wang Yaotang was short of funds, but he didn't know it was so tight. After all, he didn't know much about the community's business.

"You think so!" Wang Yaotang snorted. "After purchasing the copyright from Mr. Shao, I only have about 1000 million left. That's still due to business. This time, we have to renovate more than 50 stores, and we have to spend all this money. Moreover, during the renovation period, there are only expenses and no income. After the renovation, the customer flow will not increase for a while."

"The acquisition of music stores is stuck here. Most of them have only signed contracts but have not yet paid the final payment. In addition, there are still problems such as unified decoration and adjustment of business structure. There is still a gap of 5000 million."

"Mr. Shao has received 1000 movies and more than 8000 episodes of TV series. Should we start production? Blank videotapes are 15 yuan each. Even if we allocate the number of copies based on box office and ratings, we need at least 100 million videotapes to distribute them."

“Otherwise, how can we stimulate the market if there are too few categories and not enough choices for customers?”

"Sixty million is a fucking understatement. Even with Zhang Yaorong's 6000 million, there's still a gap of at least 1500 million."

"Oh, by the way, this doesn't even include the issue of shares in Jordan's new acquisition. The acquisition will require another sum of money." "Fuck..." Wang Yaotang lost his appetite just thinking about it.

Looking at Wang Yaotang in a daze, Wei Tao sighed in his heart, being a boss is not that easy, there is always a funding gap of tens of millions, this kind of pressure is enough to make people collapse just thinking about it.

"What should we do? Where can we get the money?" Wei Tao also began to worry.

After all, if he is good, I am good too...

"Using the tiger's skin to make a big banner!" Wang Yaotang clapped his hands and stood up.

Even if Zhang Yaorong himself did not say he wanted to invest, Wang Yaotang would find a way to get him to join, which was also a big banner.

……

PolyGram Records Ltd., conference room.

Last time, Zheng Donghan and his colleagues were here to discuss how to attack the 'monopoly' of the record distribution industry. Who would have thought that in less than a month, they would be meeting here again to discuss investing in the 'Yaoxing Audio and Video Products' chain store.

The hateful guy who sent people to kidnap Tan Yonglin and came to his house in the middle of the night to threaten him with his son to come out for help, has suddenly changed and is now standing in front of the curtain and talking. Maybe he will become his business partner soon.

This world is so crazy!

Wang Yaotang was wearing a custom-made light blue slim-fit shirt. His muscles held the shirt up, showing that he had a great figure. There were two slits at the collar and his sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, looking both dignified and handsome.

Place the documents you brought flat on the table, pick up the top one and place it on the slide projector.

There was no other way. It was not until 84 that NEC launched the first commercial LCD projector. At that time, projectors were not as useful as slide projectors, so we could only make the PPT into slides and play them manually.

The power of PPT in the future will be revealed in front of investors!
"I'm sure everyone knows this man next to me, Mr. Zhang Yaorong, the owner of the two largest nightclubs in Hong Kong Island. His nightclubs are a platform for displaying the popularity of singers from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. He has also held concerts for singers from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan many times. He is also the major shareholder of the Ocean Audio and Video Products Store and my partner."

"From 1975 to 1980, record sales in Hong Kong and Macao showed an upward trend over a period of five years. With economic growth, according to the current trend, the record market will grow further in the next three years." As he spoke, Wang Yaotang changed a slide, and the growth trend curve changed, which was clear at a glance.

"Of course, PolyGram must have these data, so I won't go into details here. But as a store that monopolizes the Hong Kong and Macau markets, the future of Yaoxing Audio and Video Products Store is self-evident."

"Mr. Wang, what does the Haojing Market have to do with you?" Zheng Donghan asked.

"Good question." Wang Yaotang said with a smile, "In the previous few small disputes, the Haojiang community was completely defeated by me. At present, I have reached a series of cooperation with the high-level police officers in Haojiang. However, it is not convenient to talk about these here. Starting this year, Haojiang will only have Yaoxing Audio and Video."

Okay, Zheng Donghan nodded.

"It used to be a music store, but this time I added the word 'image' to it. As the name suggests, it means image. With the development of JVC's technology, singers will have new products to sell in addition to vinyl records and tapes. That is a combination of short plays that match the music. I call it Music Television. Take the song 'Selling Contract' by Sam Hui as an example."

Wang Yaotang waved his hand, and Wei Tao immediately pushed a videotape into the VCR and clicked on it to play.

This is an MTV called "Selling Body Contract" that Wang Jing and his team shot a few days ago. It uses a comedy form to tell the story of a man who signed one indenture after another during his life of work, marriage, and having children. Accompanied by songs, it more intuitively reveals the pain of ordinary people who are busy all their lives.

This form brought great shock to Zheng Donghan, Feng Tianzhi, Guan Weilin and others.

Unlike movies, the compressed plot is more compatible with the songs.

"As you can see, songs that match the plot are a better form of expression than just songs. Don't tell me that the sound quality is not as good as records. Ordinary people can't hear the difference. Of course, more importantly, new products can bring huge profits when they are put on the market!"

"PolyGram can also try to shoot MTVs for its past songs and resell them in the form of videotapes, making a lot of money while increasing the influence of the singers!"

"Of course, as the largest sales platform in Hong Kong and Macau, Yaoxing's revenue will inevitably surge."

"This is just a collection of videos and music. In fact, the bigger market is the video tapes themselves. If you want to watch a movie, you can find it immediately at Yaoxing. Whether it is domestic or foreign, movies or TV series, you can buy or rent it and watch it anytime."

"Hong Kong Island has a population of 500 million, of which the number of housewives is as high as one million. For them who spend most of their time doing housework, movies and TV series are the best way to kill time. They can rent or buy them and watch them whenever they want. They can watch them while doing housework or taking care of their children. Even if they have something to do, they can pause for a while and continue watching after they finish dealing with it. This attraction is fatal!"

"Similarly, for young people, what should they do when they are at home on holidays? They can bring home a few videotapes and watch movies and TV shows that they could not watch during school hours."

"For children, cartoons, children's programs..."

“For the elderly…”

“This is a market that far exceeds the record industry, and Yaoxing, which is spread across Hong Kong and Macau, is the best, most convenient, most comprehensive and largest sales and rental platform.”

“The future of Yaoxing Films is extremely bright!”

While Wang Yaotang was talking, the TV next to him was playing images of housewives, elderly people and children watching videotapes. This all-round display made Zheng Donghan and other PolyGram executives feel that this was a real picture of future family life.

He also agreed with Wang Yaotang and Yaoxing's view that their financial prospects were extremely bright.

After a discussion, Zheng Donghan asked, "I believe in the future prospects of Yaoxing, so why did you find us, PolyGram?"

"I have had many 'communications' with Mr. Zheng Donghan on some issues before. I have always believed that cooperation can lead to win-win results. PolyGram can consolidate the record market while seeking common development!"

Zheng Donghan frowned, and after a while, he suddenly said, "If a professional manager said this, I would believe it, but..."

Wang Yaotang's face darkened. "How can you look at people with your old eyes?"

Zhang Yaorong lowered his head and pinched his thigh to prevent himself from laughing out loud.

"From Mr. Wang's previous introduction, apart from the need for capital investment, I only see various benefits for PolyGram. I also believe that the investment will soon recover the cost and make a profit. If you simply need financial support, I believe you can easily find money for such a good project. So, what made you find us?"

Zheng Donghan said in a deep voice: "I dare not invest without getting an accurate answer and being sure that I can do it. After all, I have experienced Mr. Wang's methods."

(End of this chapter)