Back to 1979: Sending the Educated Youth’s Wife Back to the City

Chapter 133: Shoot an advertisement
The next morning, Fang Mingche got up at 7:30, called Lao He to go to Cui's house to eat a bowl of noodles, and then drove off.

He only booked it for half a day, so try to act early.

We still have to ask Lao He to come. If he were alone, he could arrive half an hour earlier.

Lin Yan now likes to sleep in the morning. It is normal to be sleepy when you are pregnant, and it is the only day of the week when you don’t have classes.

It was November, and the beginning of winter was about to set in. Even Yanyan was reluctant to get up so early.

Then let them sleep comfortably. In this weather, I would rather be motherless than leave my bed at dawn.

Beijing Normal University is nine kilometers away from here. It usually takes Fang Mingche about 40 minutes to ride there. If the weather or road conditions are bad, it will take another ten minutes.

But if you drive a car, it only takes ten minutes to get there.

Fang Mingche couldn't help but let out a "tsk".

If he could afford a car to drive to and from school, he could sleep half an hour longer every morning, and the time spent on commuting could be greatly reduced.

It’s not possible to take the bus. Buses always go around in circles, trying to get as many people on this route on board as possible.

The train has to stop, open and close doors at every station.

And the station was not right in front of his house, he had to walk a kilometer to get there.

There is a stop for Beijing Normal University right at the school gate, but it is not close to the teaching building after getting off the bus.

Taking the bus takes just as long as riding a bike.

Fang Mingche said to Master He, "Starting next Monday, please help me pick up and drop off my wife to and from school."

Although Ayan was very hardworking after going to the countryside, she repeatedly emphasized that she could ride her bike to and from school.

But she is a pregnant woman after all, so we still need to take care of her.

It will snow in a few days, and the road will be very slippery.

Master He said, "That's fine with me. Just give me the class schedule. We can also negotiate a package price."

He could take Teacher Lin to school after breakfast, and then go home for dinner after school. This would be more regular than the three meals nowadays.

"Well, yes."

The car waited at the agreed school gate, and Wang Dexian arrived in a military jeep.

In this case, the Wang family’s car and Mr. Wang would definitely have to be requisitioned.

It’s not his own business. The Wang family will have to share the money when the time comes.

This is also to let the Wang family understand the progress.

At this moment, Wang Dexian has not given the money to Fang Mingche yet. He had agreed to give it to him at the end of November.

Fang Mingche rolled down the car window and told him that he had borrowed 10 yuan from Lao Cui at an annual interest rate of %.

They have no way to get loans now and can only borrow from private individuals.

Wang Dexian also thought this was a good deal, and nodded, "Well, you decide. By the way, the company requires half a year's car rental fee to be paid on December 12st. I talked it down to 1 a year. 9000, is that okay?"

Fang Mingche nodded, "I have estimated this expense."

Wang Dexian said: "We have not yet started the tour guide activity for Japanese tourists. If we rent another one, it will cost another 4500!"

"As for Japan, I have contacted the families of several people who went there to work illegally. They haven't made up their minds yet because the income gap is too big. But they work 16 hours a day there and are not treated as human beings at all. When they see that our English tour guides are making money, they will definitely be willing to come back. I estimate that we will start after New Year's Day. As long as the English tour guide team can proceed smoothly in December, we should be able to get 12 by New Year's Day. If not, it will be a problem to set up a Japanese tour guide team."

This is considered a high-end travel agency. Moreover, he and Wang Dexian have no intention of being lenient in making money from foreigners.

Wang Dexian has learned a lot since he saw Fang Mingche double the price.

Foreign exchange is more valuable than RMB!
Fang Mingche said: "In fact, the exchange rate of banks is not bad now. The exchange rate of US dollar to RMB is 1:1.5. However, the price on the black market is much higher than this. Most tourists who come here seriously go to the bank to exchange money. However, their average salary level is really much higher than ours! The average salary in developed countries is one hundred to eighty times ours!"

Wang Dexian cursed, "Didn't they rob our money a hundred years ago and complete the primitive accumulation of capital? Not only that, until 1949, the Americans were still robbing our money through financial means."

He returned to the Siheyuan last night. The old man thinks highly of their travel agency.

He called a few days ago and said he needed a car to pick up international students to shoot an advertisement. Well, it was a print advertisement, and I would get their photos in the brochure.

The old man immediately agreed to let him drive the car over. Normally, he really didn't give it to his grandchildren.

Oh, and tell him to fill up the gas tank.

Fang Mingche asked, "Have you found a place to print the brochure?"

"I found it. We have it in our government department. I'll pay you based on the private work I've taken."

Fang Mingche said: "I thought it didn't cost any money."

"You're so beautiful! Printing equipment is so expensive nowadays! The money collected goes into the company's slush fund. Our old man would never take advantage of this. Here they are, are they?"

Wang Dexian saw several foreigners coming out in the morning light.

There was also an old Chinese man with him. He should be the associate professor Xiao Fang mentioned who lost his teaching qualifications after saying a few fair words and could only work as a boiler stoker.

Fang Mingche took a look and said, "Yes, that's them."

He got out of the car and waved, "Teacher Qiu, Truman——"

The foreign students had just eaten breakfast in the cafeteria. They just felt that working and studying was a bit hard, and they had to get up so early on Sunday.

As for Teacher Qiu, he was reluctant to eat in the cafeteria and just cooked a bowl of noodles at home.

When I came out, I happened to meet these foreign students. When I heard them mention Fang Mingche's name, I followed them out.

Fang Mingche asked Teacher Qiu to sit in the passenger seat of his car and called two foreign students to join him.

The other four got in Lao Wang's jeep.

Lao He agreed and let him drive by himself. This would free up a spot for Master He to move with his camera.

However, Fang Mingche must take full responsibility if anything happens to the car.

It was only after he followed Lao He on several trips to help him drive and showed him his driver's license that Lao He agreed.

Fang Mingche's driver's license was obtained by his cousin in the county, and was transferred to the capital before.

Old He was still a little worried, and said, "It should be no problem for one more person to sit, we can just squeeze in."

Fang Mingche said: "Foreigners pay more attention to these."

After much persuasion, Old He finally agreed. Anyway, Fang Mingche would be responsible for anything that happened, so he took the money for the car and driver and just rested at home for half a day.

He insisted on coming this first time because it was only daybreak when he set out. He felt that he would feel more at ease if he drove on his own.

The two cars drove towards Tiananmen Square together and arrived at about 8:20.

There were already people in the square at this moment.

The group that watched the flag-raising ceremony just left, and these people came to visit the square.

Or you can just watch the flag-raising ceremony, have breakfast nearby and then come back to visit.

Master He handed the car keys to Fang Mingche and walked home by himself.

Fang Mingche asked Master He, who was taking photos, to go into the Forbidden City together.

He went to buy tickets and took everyone with him.

The next part of the time was given to Teacher Qiu to perform. The old man prepared for a while and today he would act as a tour guide for the international students.

He also wrote down and memorized all the introductory phrases.

If he wanted to teach tourism, he must be a competent tour guide. He introduced the six foreign students in English along the way.

Fang Mingche and Wang Dexian followed all the way, and Master He ran around looking for angles to take pictures.

There are group photos and individual photos, and you must also pay attention to capturing the essence of the Forbidden City.

This is not to ask the international students to pose, but to invite them to visit the Forbidden City. The photos are very natural!
Truman smiled and said to Fang Mingche: "Fang, I think it's okay! When I first arrived in China, if there was such a service, I would be happy to accept it."

Several other international students also said the same thing.

Later on, some independent tourists from Europe and the United States even followed behind to listen to Teacher Qiu's explanation.

Fang Mingche communicated with them and found that some of them were willing to appear on camera, while some were not.

If they are willing, he will let Master He take photos for them; if they are not willing, they will have to pay a service fee.

These foreign tourists are accustomed to being served and paying service fees.

Fang Mingche finally received two big unity tickets.

Well, the purpose was to take photos, so I just walked around the main routes such as the three main halls and the Imperial Garden and then left.

The route planned for this morning also includes the Temple of Heaven, the Summer Palace, etc. We must go there to take photos!

After going out, Wang Dexian and Fang Mingche acted as drivers. Master He also took photos of them getting on the car. The background was Tiananmen Square! The Temple of Heaven and the Summer Palace were similar to the Forbidden City, and there were foreign tourists following them spontaneously. In total, five photos of great unity were collected in one day.

After visiting several places, Wang Dexian looked at his watch and said, "I won't be able to make it to the Great Wall in the morning."

The Great Wall is quite far away!
"We didn't plan to take them to the Great Wall. We can just go and take some photos by ourselves."

Wang Dexian asked, "There should be foreign tourists up there, right?"

If I had known earlier, I wouldn’t have spent more than 800 yuan to hire these international students as models.

Fang Mingche said: "If there are no regular tourists, we don't look like a tour group. There are not many tourists on the Great Wall. It is now overgrown with weeds. I went to see it specially last week."

"You said you wanted to go to the Great Wall to take pictures. I thought you were better now."

Wang Dexian is an old BJ, so he certainly knows that there were no tourists on the Great Wall in the past few months. But when Fang Mingche mentioned the Great Wall, he thought the situation had improved greatly in the past few months.

Fang Mingche said: "It will definitely get better in the future. The main reason is that we have only been open to the outside world for a short time, and the tourism industry is still growing on its own. The public services along the Great Wall cannot keep up. But we can include the scenery of the Great Wall in the filming."

After Teacher Qiu came back and sat down, Fang Mingche quickly handed him a bottle of mineral water to moisten his throat.

The old man prepared his lecture today very well and said a lot.

Well, mineral water has been around for a long time. When Qingdao was still a German colony, the Germans created Laoshan mineral water.

Since Fang Mingche was going to set up a foreign-related travel agency, he had to prepare mineral water.

All services must be thoughtful for foreign tourists. Otherwise, why would they spend money here?

I also hope that word of mouth will slowly and gradually spread.

"Teacher Qiu, thank you for your hard work." Fang Mingche felt that these commentary scripts could be used directly.

Teacher Qiu waved her hands and said, "It's been ten years since I had the opportunity to speak English with so many people like this!"

He will definitely cherish it and prepare well in advance.

Moreover, after such a long time, Xiao Fang gave him ten yuan! He could buy nearly twenty kilograms of pork.

Fang Mingche saw that it was already eleven o'clock, so he sent the person back to school.

Be thrifty and don’t include lunch!
Teacher Qiu said to him, "This schedule is a bit rushed!"

"It won't be so rushed once it's officially launched. This is a one-day tour. In the future, it will be a three-day or five-day tour of the capital."

"That's okay."

Fang Mingche settled today's wages for Teacher Qiu and the international students on the spot.

The international students who went out to play with him earned 4 yuan more than Teacher Qiu.

There is no other way, what we need is their foreign faces. And they also gave a lot of feedback.

He explained it to Teacher Qiu, who nodded, "Don't worry, I understand. We Chinese people are not very attractive to foreign tourists. Besides, they only come once, and I am a long-term employee."

"Yes. Please pack up and I will take your luggage over. We will start classes tomorrow!"

The class will be held in the small courtyard at that time, and Lingzi, the driver and the full-time tour guide introduced by Teacher Qiu will attend the class together.

This full-time tour guide is actually Mr. Qiu's daughter. She was sent to the countryside as an educated youth and has not yet been assigned a job, after all, her father has a problematic background.

Fang Mingche had some basic knowledge of English since his family background was learning it, so when Teacher Qiu said so, Fang Mingche agreed.

As for the future, we will add more staff if business is good.

Moreover, Lao Cheng and Xiao Xu both said that they would come to work part-time during the winter vacation. They said that if there was business at that time, they would not go back to their hometown and let their families come to the capital to reunite.

Then we can find a hostel and rent a room for multiple people, one for men and one for women.

"it is good!"

Xiao Qiu had already packed Lao Qiu's luggage. Both father and daughter would live in the small room in Fang Mingche's house.

Just add another single bed and put a curtain in the middle.

There is not much space left to move around, but such living conditions are not bad in the current capital.

There is an old lady in their family, Lao Qiu's mother. She is 70 years old, but still quite healthy. So they ask their colleague next door to help look after her from time to time.

Lao Qiu gave ten yuan to his mother, asking her to use it to live on. He also said that he would earn more money in the future and should treat himself better.

Then the father and daughter followed Fang Mingche.

As for Wang Dexian, he was going to meet the people from the travel agency today. He was still there.

Fang Mingche brought the Qiu father and daughter home, returned the car intact to Lao He, and settled the payment.

"Mr. Qiu, Miss Qiu, please get over it for now. The conditions of travel agencies are really not that good now."

Sister Qiu waved her hand and said, "It's already very good."

"Okay, let's go have lunch first. My wife and daughter have already gone to order food. I've also called other people from the travel agency so we can get to know each other today."

He called Master He, Teacher Gao, Lingzi and others to go to Lao Cui's house for dinner.

The driver Xiao Hu introduced by Wang Dexian was also called.

He had left the military camp and was helping people move things outside. He was very happy to be a driver.

There wasn't enough space this morning, so I didn't ask him to go out with me.

While waiting for the food, Fang Mingche introduced everyone to their names and future positions.

Except Yanyan, everyone else was on secondment. Lin Yan was on secondment as cashier, and Wang Dexian was the vice president.

"From now on, we will eat from the same pot. Let's get to know each other. Tomorrow, Teacher Qiu will start teaching English to everyone. Sister Qiu, Lingzi, and Xiao Hu, all of you come, unpaid. Teacher Qiu charges three dollars a day! The course will last for two weeks until December 12st, and then we will officially open. I will decide on everyone's salary standards before then."

Teacher Gao said, "I want to come and listen, too. Can I?"

"Your job doesn't require much English, and don't you have to take English classes in school?"

"Improve it a bit."

Fang Mingche nodded, "Okay. Okay, let's eat. Let's take a break for an hour after lunch. Xiao Hu, Master He and I will go to the Great Wall to take pictures. Lao Wang, are you going?"

Wang Dexian nodded and said, "Go!"

After lunch, Wang Dexian went to his mother's house to rest.

Xiao Hu was the one driving the car in the afternoon, while Wang Dexian sat in the front passenger seat. Fang Mingche also brought Yanyan with him.

Lingzi enthusiastically ran to help the Qiu father and daughter pack their luggage. She wanted to learn English from them in the future.

Lin Yan was pregnant and couldn't help much.

Lingzi was very attentive to the Qiu family father and daughter. Teacher Fang said that if she learned well enough to answer the phone in English, her salary would be raised to 48 yuan a month.

If you don’t learn well, you will only get 24 yuan.

The gap is quite big, so she is very motivated.

In the brochure, the contact number will be Lingzi's home number, and the office address will be Mr. Gu's large courtyard house.

Anyway, to people who don’t know, it still looks very formal.

When taking photos in the afternoon, Master He couldn't help but ask: "How can the Great Wall be so desolate?"

Fang Mingche unscrewed the bottle of mineral water and gave it to Yanyan, who was panting from crawling, to drink.

"There are still many tourist attractions like this in China today."

Wang Dexian said: "What a waste of natural resources!"

Fang Mingche said, "There is one more thing. If foreign tourists want to go to other places after visiting the capital, although we don't have a branch office yet, it would be best if we could help them buy air tickets and sleeper tickets."

Wang Dexian said, "Well, it's OK for foreign tourists. They don't need a letter of introduction when buying air tickets or sleeper tickets."

"No, we buy it for you. This is also an additional service item."

Wang Dexian thought for a while, "If foreigners don't go to the window, it won't be easy for Chinese people to buy. We don't have an official seal, so we have to register with a unit that is qualified to buy. Let me go back and ask the investment office, it should be possible. Then let them issue us a letter of introduction."

Fang Mingche nodded, "Okay, that's hard work. Yanyan, come, Dad will carry you up. Let's go to Haohanpo and take a picture when we get there."

"Okay." Yanyan is very happy today. Children like to go out and play.

Mom stayed at home to rest and greet Grandpa Qiu and Aunt Qiu. She followed Dad out to play.

Master He said, "Didn't you tell me about this for quite some time?"

"Just take this afternoon out to relax."

Master He said, "Okay, since the lunch dishes are very rich."

(End of this chapter)