The night was getting darker, and when Zhang Yingfang walked out of the office, she saw Dong Yiqing had fallen asleep in front of the computer.
She tiptoed to Dong Yiqing's side, reached out and picked up a notepad full of notes on the table, and slowly flipped through the pages.
When she put the notebook back on the table, she couldn't help but glance down at Dong Yiqing, who was sleeping soundly. She thought of countless nights in the past, in Japan, Southeast Asia, and Europe, where she slept in front of the computer just like Dong Yiqing before her. At that moment, she seemed to see herself when she was younger.
She suddenly reached out and took off her shawl and covered Dong Yiqing's body with tenderness in her eyes.
Dong Yiqing, who was lying on the table, moved the corners of her mouth and said something in her sleep.
Zhang Yingfang walked back to her office and poured herself a small glass of red wine. Holding the wine glass, looking at the mottled night outside the window, I fell into memories.
Zhang Yingfang's father, Zhang Quanfu, was originally a stonemason in a small mountain village in Fujian, and he had a good craft passed down from his ancestors. There is a stone shop that can be either big or small at home.
There are four brothers and sisters in total. During the day, Zhang Quanfu went out to work, and his mother took care of the four children.
In the early days, the business of the stone shop was very unsatisfactory. Because there were many mouths to eat, the Zhang family's family background was not very good. Fortunately, there are still a few distant relatives who help them from time to time, so they can barely survive.
There are many people in the village who have been working as masons for generations, and many of them have their own unique skills. Some are good at figures, some are good at animals, insects and birds, and some are good at depicting buildings, but Zhang Quanfu's ability is unique. His greatest strength lies in carving different varieties of flowers and plants.
This craft is very unpopular, because most people rarely need this kind of stone ornaments, so Zhang Quanfu's business has always been relatively deserted. Although he also went out to help others carve stone lions, stone tablets, etc., he earned less and spent much more money, and there was no improvement.
Because of his work, Zhang Quanfu often needs to deal with stone dealers. After being in contact for a long time, both parties have gained trust. Some stone dealers will put some product samples in his store for sales, and after the sales, the two parties will share in proportion. Later, he found that the selection of materials sent by the stone dealer was very poor. After going back and forth, he started to make stones and work as a mason again.
Time flies and the children grow up.
The eldest Zhang Yingwang, Zhang Shuo's father, signed up to join the army when he was 17 because he didn't like the job of a stonemason and went to receive training in the army.
Although the second child, Zhang Yinghua, is also a boy, after graduating from high school, he did not join the army like his elder brother, nor did he learn skills from his father, a stonemason. He was glib and idle all day long, and did not do his job properly. Everyone in the family looked down upon him, except his mother. I like this eloquent son.
The third child, Zhang Yingfang, is the only daughter in the family. In addition to being good at studies, she also shows a strong interest in masonry skills that neither of her brothers are interested in. But Zhang Quanfu had no education, so he didn't have much culture. The remaining feudal thoughts in his mind about favoring sons over daughters and that family business should be passed down to men rather than women made him not want to train Zhang Yingfang as his successor.
Although the palms and backs of her hands are full of flesh, it is obvious that Zhang Yingfang only has rough and thick flesh on the backs of her hands, which is only meant to be exposed to wind, sun and rain.
The three children above are no more than three years apart in age, but the third boy in the family, Zhang Yingfei, the fourth, is almost six or seven years older than the above brothers and sisters. Due to the hard life, the parents feel more guilty towards the youngest, and are inevitably a little partial and pampered on weekdays. Although his studies are not bad, there is still a big gap between him and his third sister Zhang Yingfang.
Although the business of the stone shop is bleak, it is still open and operating. However, the boss is not at home and the second brother is out of tune, so on weekdays, he mainly relies on the third child Zhang Yingfang and the fourth child Zhang Yingfei to help Zhang Quanfu.
But after school, there would be various activities in school or in society from time to time. Young Zhang Yingfei had no intention of staying at home and often made excuses to run out of the house to socialize and entertain with his friends. The one who stayed behind to really work with his father and learn his skills was the flesh on the back of his hand that Zhang Quanfu least wanted to cultivate.
In the 1980s, Japanese people suddenly began to appear in the village. These Japanese businessmen have a lot of money in their hands and purchase traditional stone craft products with Chinese characteristics everywhere.
To the surprise of all the masons in the village, the most popular thing in the village turned out to be Zhang Quanfu's things.
The inconspicuous stone carvings of flowers and plants were packed into boxes one by one by the shrewd Japanese, put on the car, and then thrown into the ferry for the long journey to Fuso.
A lot of money flew into Zhang Quanfu's pocket. A small business became a small business, and a small business became a big business.
There was a thunder on the ground, suddenly rich.
Zhang Quanfu and his stone shop suddenly became popular. The person who came to recommend stones and asked him to help sell stone carvings would almost break the threshold of his home and shop.
Seeing their father making money, the second and fourth children seemed to have suddenly changed their minds and surrounded Zhang Quanfu every day, studying diligently.
Not long after such days, the boss, who heard the news, was demobilized and returned home, and began to take care of the carving and stone business with his father.
As business gets better and better, someone in the family needs to go to Japan and Southeast Asian countries to help sell products. This was a good opportunity for training. Zhang Quanfu originally wanted his eldest son, Zhang Yingwang, to go overseas to see the world, expand his horizons, increase his experience, and come back after a few years of training to take over his position with good reputation.
But to his surprise, Zhang Yingwang directly rejected his suggestion on the grounds that his parents were old and he needed to stay with them to take care of them. He was willing to give this opportunity to his younger brother or sister.
Zhang Quanfu saw that what Zhang Yingwang was really worried about was that his younger brothers would take control of the family company while he was away.
He turned his head in disappointment and turned his attention to the second and fourth eldest children, but as he expected, the two refused more simply than the eldest son. The reasons were all based on the ancient sayings such as "if parents are around, don't travel far away". Zhang Quanfu choked to death and almost vomited a mouthful of blood on the carved stone.
Zhang Quanfu fell into deep confusion and didn't understand why his sons were so lack of courage and responsibility.
At this moment, Zhang Yingfang, who had been ignored by her father, walked up to Zhang Quanfu. As she grew older and had been exposed to it for many years, she gained more experience and understanding of what her father did. She volunteered to go to Japan to develop her father's career. She knew very well that no matter how good she was, she could not easily change her father's deep-rooted ideas. Rather than doing this, it would be better to fight alone overseas.
Wide sea diving, sky high the birds to fly.
Seeing the Zhang family making money, more stonemasons in this village and neighboring villages also entered the flower carving mode. The emergence of competition makes price wars simply and brutally torture all practitioners in the market in the most primitive way.
As the saying goes, ideals are plump, but reality is skinny and cruel.
In the late 1980s, Japan's economy declined rapidly at an unexpected speed. The Zhang family's purchase orders quickly dropped from a few hundred pieces per quarter to dozens of pieces per quarter, then to a dozen pieces per year, and finally to no orders at all. .
The eldest, second and fourth brothers have also established their own companies in the past few years. Seeing that their father's big tree has withered and withered, the three brothers have each shown their magical powers and created clever names to allocate the income from the family company to themselves. on the accounts of the company under his name.
The three brothers, who had many conflicts with each other, reached an unprecedented consensus at this time: if the father is dead and the mother is married, let them take care of themselves.
When the flower masons in this village and neighboring villages were transitioning into other fields of carving, Zhang Yingfang, who had seen it before, persuaded Zhang Quanfu to let her take the products and part of the remaining funds from Japan to Southeast Asia, and then to Europe to participate in the Professional exhibitions held in Germany, France and Luxembourg.
In the eyes of the three brothers, Zhang Yingfang's approach was purely a futile attempt to defeat the enemy. However, Zhang Yingfang firmly believed that the European market at that time was a new world and it was worth giving her a try.
Unexpectedly, it was this last effort that allowed her to break into a new sky.
At that time, there were not many domestic stone manufacturers in the German market. With exquisite craftsmanship, high-quality stone materials, and low prices, Zhang Yingfang's products received orders from Germans and Luxembourgers in one fell swoop. Although the number and amount of orders cannot be compared with the Japanese orders and amounts received during the company's peak period, Zhang Yingfang can be regarded as the person who turned the tide when the family company's traditional business was in danger.
Zhang Quanfu never thought that before he was 70 years old, he would be able to see with his own eyes what was a small business at the time turned into a major business in cross-border trade.
Seeing that the dead trees are springing up again and the old trees are sprouting new branches, the three brothers reluctantly and secretly transferred the money back to the family company's account.
From 1999 to 2000, Zhang Yingfang began to contact a German company. The company was very impressive and had many and cumbersome requirements, but the order quantity was not very high.
According to the views of the three brothers and even Zhang Quanfu, there is no need to do this kind of small fish and shrimps. The best way is to go all out to serve other big customers.
However, Zhang Yingfang insisted that "there are no clients big or small" and still negotiated with the Germans according to the procedures. She even brought Zhang Quanfu in during the later negotiations.
But what surprised the three brothers was yet to come. The Germans recognized Zhang Quanfu's ideas and products very much. After the negotiation, they not only increased the total purchase amount, but also introduced another German company to Zhang Quanfu.
Now the three brothers could no longer sit still and wanted to join in the conversation.
However, since the boss is responsible for domestic business and his own personal affairs all year round, he has many and complicated things to do and can't get away at all.
The fourth child followed directly because he was young and energetic.
The second child's situation is a little more complicated. After all, the eldest brother knew something about business. The second child, who had been idle for many years, knew nothing about business matters, but was unwilling to stay out of it, so he set up a translation agency. The translation agency usually has no business at all and is constantly losing money. But Zhang Yinghua had something more on his mind: Every time Zhang Quanfu went abroad, he would personally select a male translator from a translation agency to accompany him, including the translator and life secretary, euphemistically called taking care of the elderly.
The other brothers and sisters didn't think much about it at first, but during a spot check of the contract, Zhang Yingfang accidentally discovered that the German purchase price in the contract was much lower than the previous quotation, and no one in the company raised any objection to this.
Zhang Yingfang felt that something was fishy, so she directly called the German company's Nuremberg headquarters to ask about the situation, but she got an unexpected answer: the purchase price had never changed.
After some investigation, everyone discovered that the translator sent by the second brother took advantage of the fact that no one knew the foreign language and the company's seal was not strictly managed, and made a fake contract to deceive the company. At the same time, he colluded with the company's finances to transfer the excess money. One plus makes five points.
Zhang Yingfang immediately called the police. Seeing that the male translator and the company's financial officer were imprisoned, the second child also felt that his face was dishonored. Although everyone said that this matter had nothing to do with him and asked him to find an interpreter every time he went abroad, he knew very well that he would no longer be able to speak at home.
This time, Zhang Quanfu, who was in his 70s, went to Germany to discuss business in person, and everyone in the family paid great attention to it. Not to mention, the fourth child is naturally the most caring.
Zhang Yingfang sighed and put out the cigarette in her hand. She curled up on the sofa, tried to make herself more comfortable, and soon fell asleep.
At 8:30 the next morning, Lu Wei started calling the labor agencies that she had favored last night and provided part-time job information. Most of them rejected her outright, except for the last one who agreed to give her a recommendation first. Let her go to the agency to register with the materials.
Lu Wei grabbed a few mouthfuls of food, jumped on the city light rail, and went straight to the agency.
At nine o'clock sharp, Dong Qiangqiang arrived at the driving school on time. Having had his first embarrassing experience on the road, now sitting in the classroom, he listened more seriously than the first time.
After all, he paid for this knowledge in real money. More importantly, whether he studied well or not was directly related to how much money he would make in the future. He didn't want to hang around like before.
Maybe this is the beginning of growth.
