My Lord, you need to stand up!

Chapter 60 A game and a dream
But when the first college student suggested to Rang Weidong as quietly as possible: "I can sell this kind of camera on all the major campuses in Pingjing."

This guy must have reacted immediately.

This is the sales method he was looking for!
The problem with Weidong is that he has never attended university.

I have never experienced the strong spending power of campus.

Even though they were all poor students, even in 1984, it did not change the fact that they were already one of the very few young intellectuals at the top of the pyramid in this society.

The family conditions are definitely much better than the national average.

The key point is that college students at that time had another characteristic: a considerable number of families would often bring their children to school with living expenses for the entire semester as long as their financial conditions allowed.

Due to inconvenient transportation, they rarely went home during the journey. In addition, remittances, bank fees, and other fees were inconvenient, and there was also the trouble of having to carry food coupons and food books with them when transferring.

Families who have been saving money for their children's college education since middle school try to bring enough at one time.

Therefore, most college students have dozens of dollars in cash, especially when school has just started.

Very rich.

People on the spot quickly paid cash to buy the ten cameras.

The newspapers also fanned the flames by taking photos and conducting interviews nearby. As long as this "People's Camera" really appeared to be in high demand in front of them, it was like they were witnessing the grand spectacle of three to five thousand units being snapped up.

Their purpose of inviting Wei Dong to Pingjing was achieved.

It is authentic and reliable, and contains first-hand interviews with buyers.

But a few university students didn't even bother to buy up the small amount of shares. Instead, they followed Rang Weidong closely and said, "Comrade Rang, I have fellow countrymen at various universities in Pingjing. I'm confident that I can sell this camera well!"

"Comrade Rang Weidong, I'm from Shuchuan, and I'm confident I can sell a lot of these cameras at Pingjing University."

"Students, our university has a photography hobby group. I know photography, so I can find a lot of photography-related activities to promote this camera."

"let……"

Weidong is one or several years younger than them, but he is much more mature and steady in his actions. He gestures around him with a smile.

The staff who are watching eagerly, the students who are curious and peeking, and the helpless teachers should not discuss buying and selling at this time.

Although today's topic is buying and selling.

Rang Weidong is like this. He doesn't understand the big principles, but he has seen a lot of worldly affairs in his life and has watched a lot of short videos and TV dramas.

I am no longer a young and naive person.

These business-minded students quickly dispersed, but stayed close by.

After waiting for a long time for the leader's summary, the newspaper's encouragement, and a bunch of nonsense such as taking a group photo, Wei Dong smiled and gave one yuan to each of the college students who grabbed ten cameras.

Then he took these seven college students who were determined to become "Beijing agents" to a stone table and stone bench in a green belt on campus to "hold a meeting."

To be fair, Rang Weidong took advantage of this period of time when routine work was over to think carefully and decided to show off in front of these Pingjing University students.

But I didn't expect it to be installed.

The two country boys squatted outside the bushes and green belt, looking more like two watchdogs than bodyguards.

As the two female and five male university students gathered around the stone table out of curiosity, they looked at each other with a bit of disdain: "You guys from the Steel Institute, stop wasting your time on this kind of speculative business."

"Hey, this is our home turf. Why do people from the Aviation College have the right to dictate what we do?"

"I think this kind of thing is something we geologists should do as we travel around. Your advanced discipline shouldn't be tainted by the smell of money... Hey, comrade, I'm not saying you stink of money. I really like it."

"I think it would be best to fire you first!"

Weidong was trying to build the atmosphere, hiding the warm and cheerful atmosphere he had displayed at the previous symposium. He was channeling his older brotherly demeanor towards Erfeng and Goudan's group of young fellow villagers, and also imitating Director Shi's demeanor. He sat down calmly, trying to speak in a more profound tone. "This isn't just a small business selling cameras. On a larger scale, there are indeed economic strategies mentioned at the symposium, such as revitalizing the economy. But the key point is, on a smaller scale, what does this mean for us participants?"

The seven college students, who were originally a bit playful but whose attention was still on him, immediately became solemn and listened attentively.

Then they heard Weidong say something that they would never forget: "We can think of this as a game, a game that may last our entire lives."

I swear to God, it was only 1984. When it comes to the word "game", all college students' minds should think of kindergarten games like dropping the handkerchief and finding a friend.

There was no concept of electronic games or mobile games at all, not to mention the vast number of game categories such as RPG role-playing games, FPS shooting games, RTS real-time strategy games, etc.

It must be a bit confusing.

I continued to hear Comrade Rang Weidong say earnestly, "For example, the rules of the game say that cameras can only be produced in Jiangzhou. If we want to sell them in large quantities, we can only do so in first-tier cities like Pingjing, Zhezhou, and Shanghai. Well, as players, we have to diligently travel back and forth between Jiangzhou and these cities. There are thieves along the way, and we might be caught by the police if we sell them. We might even be robbed by bullies, and we have to pay taxes after we sell them. So how can we sell as many cameras as possible in a given period of time, quickly and profitably?"

The seven college students looked at each other at the same time, and they could obviously see horror, ecstasy, realization, and countless "WTF!" in each other's eyes.

Is this the highest realm of gaming?

In the 1980s, the college students who were generally asking themselves who they really were were caught in the huge rift between the planned economic system and the market economy.

Even if ordinary workers, peasants and soldiers encounter setbacks in their work and life, it is difficult for them to think about the deeper core issues.

What caused this change?

How do we respond to this change?

What can we do to adapt to or change the world during this transformation?
These are questions that intellectuals will only ask themselves when they reach a certain level.

The geology student said in disbelief, "You...are talking about understanding this trade from a philosophical perspective?"

Wei Dong waved his hand, "Don't make it so complicated. It's just a game. Haven't you played games before? I've already asked you how to sell as much as possible quickly and profitably. Now it's your turn to ask questions."

There was a girl with short hair who looked very smart. She tucked the ends of her hair behind her ears and said, "Okay, I'll try it first. How much do you want for a camera? The selling price... today it's 29 yuan, right?"

Rang Weidong nodded: "I'll give you 24 yuan, but at this price... I guess the delivery will be in Zhenjiang, and the rest will need to be taken care of by you to Pingjing."

The boys naturally became interested: "Why Zhenjiang? Is there any connection reason?"

He asked Weidong to take the large transportation atlas that his younger brother always carried in his bag. "There's a train from Jiangzhou to Pingjing, but as everyone knows, train cars are extremely popular and in short supply. Besides, we don't need such a large scale for transporting cameras. Okay, the main route we've opened now is to ship the cameras by water to Zhenjiang, and then have two helpers pick them up there and transport them to Zhezhou. We sell four or five hundred units a day. I don't know if you can achieve that scale in Pingjing."

That’s a daily income of two to two thousand five hundred!

The seven college students immediately widened their eyes at the smell of money, and one boy's face turned red.

Wei Dong calmly lowered the temperature: "Remember the rules of the game I just mentioned? Don't think too much about the returns. This is just a game. Otherwise, it's very likely that someone among you will abscond with the money. A thousand, ten thousand, or even a hundred thousand yuan can make you blinded by money and commit crimes. From then on, you will embark on a path of no return and miss out on this golden age when you could have made countless times more money honestly!"

Really, it’s useless for Weidong to say these words to Goudan and Erfeng, and it’s even difficult to communicate with the Dong sisters.

The college students of the 1980s were enlightened. The girl with glasses pushed her somewhat heavy frames and said, "What you are teaching us is a state of mind. We must maintain this state of mind when playing this money game, so that we can step back and observe the state of ourselves and our partners at any time."

Weidong thought to himself, I didn’t think so much, I thought you would understand more easily if I just treated it as a game.

But he nodded with an enigmatic look on his face. "That's about right, so now I understand a little bit. Maybe one or two people go back from Zhenjiang each time to carry the cameras. Maybe you can explore the train freight packages from Jiangzhou to Pingjing on your own. Come, look here..."

He took out the train timetable again, and the college students immediately gathered around him with as much concentration as if they were a command post looking at a battle map.

"The train distance from Jiangzhou to Pingjing is 2550 kilometers. According to this freight form, cameras should be classified as Class II goods. The freight rate for this distance is yuan per kilograms. I'll deliver the goods to the train in Jiangzhou. How will you accept the goods here and how will you subcontract and sell them?"

"It's obvious that shipping the cameras and packaging separately and then packing them together after arrival will save more space and weight. If you're capable enough, you could even find a local printing factory in Pingjing to more cheaply share the cost of thousands or even tens of thousands of packaging boxes, making transportation cheaper and safer."

Han Guobin, the leader of the "Quanzhen Seven," who was later nicknamed the "Quanzhen Seven," has described this scene countless times: "From then on, there was no more game over in this game."

(End of this chapter)