Spring Breeze Twenty Years

Chapter 220 Opening Up Ideas

The man shrank back, saying, "Holy crap, is he really that awesome?"

An Laowu glanced at Xiaowei and the others and said, "Remember last time, Mao Yong from the power company tried to renege on his debt by cutting off my electricity to fine me? The one in the blue shirt. Without saying a word, I knocked Mao Yong down with a rolling pin. And what happened? You should ask around. Mao Yong got fired, and my shop is doing just fine. And do you know how much my electricity bill is now? 37 cents. That's only because I'm too powerful and it's hard not to collect."

Everyone at the table wore expressions of "Wow, that's awesome!" An Laowu flicked his cigarette ash and said, "You guys weren't here that day, but the big boss of Longcheng Power Supply came all over. That guy was sweating buckets like a grandson. Isn't Mao Yong's brother-in-law the head of this area? He wasn't even a grandson. He personally connected my meter, and then got scolded like a little dog and chased away."

"After that, all they said was, 'It's too much of an impact, fire him.' Mao Yong just gave up. The big boss at the power supply company, I think his surname was Li, really, I'm not exaggerating, he was like a grandson. He said, 'Sit down, have a meal with me,' and only then did I dare to sit down. After we finished eating, he gave me a thumbs up and said, 'Good,' and that's when they let me go to Fengtian. After the New Year, I'll be running a big hotel in Fengtian. I'll leave this to Bozi. You guys keep an eye on things for me. Come visit me in Fengtian sometime."

Everyone at the table readily agreed and raised their glasses to toast Old Man An.

The two tables were at opposite ends of the room, about seven or eight meters apart. If they spoke softly, they wouldn't be heard. Xiao Wei and his two companions had no idea that Blind Qu and Old Man An had already put on a perfect show for them. Right now, they were stuffing meat into their mouths like starving ghosts.

With a full stomach and sweating profusely, I finally breathed a sigh of relief, slowed down my eating pace, and my mind became more active.

Xia Maosheng threw down the bone he had just finished gnawing on and said, "Can they close up there right now? Should we go check?"

Xiao Wei said, "Forget it, what if it's not shut down? What about the other units that have meals? Are you going to drink with them? Let's go tomorrow, it's the same. After we finish eating, let's go to the yard and see how the boiler is doing."

Xia Maosheng nodded in agreement, and Chen Hui said, "Now that I think about it, if the wallpaper is stretched out, the floor is laid, and the heating is on, it would be really comfortable to live in. Sigh, I can't stay there for more than a few days."

Xiao Wei said, "Laying flooring would be quite a hassle. The house opens right into the yard, where would we change our shoes? Would we just throw them outside?"

Chen Hui and Xia Maosheng were both stunned. They looked at each other for a while, then both cursed. Xia Maosheng said, "Our dream is shattered. We can't even change our shoes to pave the floor."

Chen Hui frowned and said, "If we don't change our shoes, the room will be so dirty."

Xiao Wei said, "Let's go and discuss it with Master Gong tomorrow, see if they have any ideas, we definitely don't."

That's all we can do.

Chen Hui said, "The dance hall is fine, but how should we set up the karaoke room? It's huge! Which side should we project onto?"

Xiao Wei said, "We'll just have to figure it out as we go. I've never seen anyone else do this before, and I can't even find a place to learn. We'll just have to figure it out as we go. Anyway, this kind of work is mostly the carpenter's job. We'll need to build a counter or something, and we'll need a worktable to put the machines on. When Master Gong and the others come, we'll check it out together. We definitely can't do it on our own."

Chen Hui said, "The projector is suspended, why are you putting it on a table?"

Xiao Wei said, "Where's the DVD player? Where's the discs? Doesn't everyone need a place to sit? Where do we put the tea leaves and teacups?"

Xia Maosheng chuckled and said, "Xiao Hui, you just don't remember anything. You're always arguing with Xiao Wei. Do you think you can beat him?"

Chen Hui pursed his lips and said, "You two tell me, should I get one set for my side? I think the one at the Cultural Palace is pretty good."

Xiao Wei shook his head and said, "I don't think it's necessary. The styles are different. Your side is all about antiquity, so you should focus more on that aspect."

Xia Maosheng said, "I think you could use some display shelves as partitions, put some handicrafts on them, and add some lighting. It would definitely look nice."

Xiao Wei nodded and said, "That's fine. You could also install a sound system and play some erhu or guzheng, but whatever you do, don't play pop songs, okay? If you actually do that, it'll be a disaster."

Chen Hui said, "As long as it sounds good, that's all that matters. Why do we have to be so particular?"

Xiao Wei said, "You'll definitely get a score, don't get cocky. The tea needs to be good, and the teacups should be porcelain, the kind with a bottom and a lid. It's best to have a few people specifically in charge of brewing the tea, to create some kind of effect. Also, the water for brewing the tea needs to be special, either spring water or deep well water. You can ask around when you get back, you'll definitely be able to find some. Oh, by the way, you can't serve black tea, not many people around here recognize black tea."

Xia Maosheng said, "Order everything we need, and have the character 'An' engraved on everything. If it can be made of wood, then don't use anything else. If it can be made of porcelain, then don't use glass. By the way, can you find a cigarette factory? Order cigarettes, two packs per table, they'll be there as soon as you sit down. Also, get a box of old matches with the character 'An' on them, and the prestige will skyrocket. I could charge two hundred even if we don't eat anything else."

Chen Hui couldn't shut up anymore and asked, "What brand of cigarettes are you using?"

Xia Maosheng tapped the table with his hand and said, "Anji, Anji Special Supply, only you have it, that's high-class enough, but the cigarette factory has to be good, and the cigarettes have to be good to smoke."

Chen Hui said, "Isn't this crazy? How many do we use in a year? How many do we order? If you only make ten or twenty, who's going to make them for you?"

Xiao Wei said, "This is actually really effective. It's not possible to make ten or twenty packs. We can make a batch of dozens of boxes, which can be used for gifts, hospitality, and restaurants. Then we and our families can switch to this brand. It's also a form of advertising when people come and go."

Xia Maosheng slammed his hand on the table and said, "That's right, like your Uncle Chen, he'll smoke this from now on. When he goes to Beijing or the provincial capital for meetings and stuff, what kind of people does he meet? Right? When people see him, they think, 'Wow, this old Chen is awesome, how come he's the only one who has this kind of cigarette?' They quickly look for it, and they find it here, and that's how they make a name for themselves, right?"

Chen Hui blinked and said, "Are you two telling the truth? I'm convinced you're right."

Xiao Wei nodded and said, "Really. I'm not kidding, this is definitely possible. The cigarettes will be called Anji Special Supply. The cigarette box needs to be designed; it can't be the same as the ones commonly found on the market. Hey, how about we make those foreign cigarette boxes, where you open them horizontally and the cigarettes sit on either side? But we won't use leather; we'll use cardboard, how about that?"

Xia Maosheng thought for a moment and nodded, saying, "Okay, I think it's good. Didn't you just mention matches? Put the matches and cigarettes together, take the cigarette here, push the match over there, strike it, light the cigarette, and put it away. Just imagine how awesome that would be. It's way more awesome than your precious Cartier."

Chen Hui said, "You two are getting weirder and weirder. Damn, you've completely confused me."

Xiao Wei said, "Go get paper and pen, write down what we just said, and then we'll think about it slowly."

The three of them laughed together.

(End of this chapter)