Volume 5: The Age of Storms Chapter 0665: Mid-Game
Not long ago, Nan Yi heard of a similar case where a group of people broke into a family's yard, picked up a three-year-old baby boy and were about to leave. They were caught by the baby boy's ten-year-old sister. Seeing her brother being taken away by outsiders, how could the sister not fight to the death?
Losing her brother would not only make the sister feel bad, but even her parents would not be able to accept it. In all likelihood, whenever the parents think of her brother in the future, the sister would be severely beaten, or there might be more serious consequences.
But the result of the fight to the death was that the younger brother was still taken away and the sister was stabbed three times on the head.
People like this are still considered human traffickers who are a little afraid and in awe of "adults". What's worse is that some of them break into ordinary people's homes under the cover of night, first give a handful of quicklime to the sleeping parents, then pick up the baby boy between the two and leave.
The business model of the human trafficking industry is diverse and flexible, with small capital and huge profits, and it is sustainable.
After consulting with the mind control team, in order to avoid leaving a psychological shadow on Nan Wuwei, Liu Zhen took a leave of absence, and Nan Yi's family of three went to Beidaihe and played for a week.
In his spare time, Nan Yi thought about what he could do to combat human traffickers, but after much thought, there was very little he could do. The law clearly told him that he could not do this, and that would not work either.
After the storm, the sea temporarily returned to calm, and Nan Yi's family also returned to normal. Liu Zhen went back to work, and Nan Wuwei went back to continue playing house with Nuan Nuan.
Before Nan Yi went to Nanchen Village , the gourd brothers and sisters began to fall apart. The many conveniences that Nan Yi provided for the children to have fun did not win the favor of other children's parents. In a narrow open space, the gourd brothers and sisters first changed from "The Calabash Brothers Save Their Grandpa" to "The Five Rats Make Trouble in Tokyo", then to "The Three Rats", and finally only the two childhood sweethearts were left alone.
Nan Yi became the typical representative of the unpopular people in this area, and Nan Wuwei also became the one that other parents did not allow their children to play with.
The two children were playing with popsicle sticks in the living room, while Nan Yi was cooking in the kitchen while thinking, "Usually at this time, Nuan Nuan's family should come to pick up the children and take them back for dinner. Why haven't they come yet at this time today?"
With doubts, Nan Yi prepared the meal and brought it to the dining table outside.
"Nuan Nuan, are your parents not at home?"
"Uncle, mom and uncle had a fight yesterday, dad scolded mom, and mom was not at home."
Nuannuan's real name is Wen Yuanyuan. Her father, grandparents are all teachers at Tsinghua University, but it seems that her grandparents died in the countryside. Nan Yi only heard it from hearsay and has not done any investigation.
The people who lived on this side of the old house were all teachers, who were powerless. Even if they were not good people, the place where they committed evil was the school, which had little to do with Nan Yi. He did not need to investigate the details of his neighbors.
So apart from the two neighbors who interacted with each other from time to time and whom Nan Yi knew the general situation, he only heard about the affairs of other neighbors and any rumors outside, but he knew nothing about them.
"Does Wen Nuan have an uncle?" Nan Yi left a question mark in his mind. After suppressing his evil thoughts, he said to Wen Yuanyuan, "Then you can stay at your uncle's house for dinner. Wuwei, take Nuan Nuan to wash her hands."
“Yeah.”
Nan Wuwei responded, put down the popsicle in his hand, pulled Wen Yuanyuan and ran to the second floor without any intention of asking for anyone's consent.
Wen Yuanyuan let him pull her without any resistance.
Nan Yi had never had a childhood sweetheart in his two lives, nor had he ever had the experience of playing house. He looked at his son's back with envy and sighed for a while.
During the meal, Nan Yi served his son and also Wen Yuanyuan, who might become his daughter-in-law. After they finished eating, he disappeared tactfully, leaving the living room to the two of them.
Outside the Drum Tower, Nan Yi and Huang Saner will meet.
"Master Nan, I have found out all about Guan Guiman. He is an old hand and a house lover. It will be difficult for you to take his house."
"Tell me more about it."
"It's pretty much what you guessed. Guan Guiman's ancestors were officials. They had a lot of family property, but his father almost squandered it all. The reason why he was able to keep the house has to do with Guan Guiman's background. Guan Guiman's mother was born in the Yuelaidian on Wang Guangfu's diagonal street..."
"You must have heard it wrong. Isn't the Guan family a family of officials? Why would they choose a concubine from Wang Guangfu's side street? Shouldn't they choose a concubine from Yanzhi Hutong?"
The Eight Great Hutongs consist of eight alleys, and the brothels inside are divided into four grades. The first grade is called Qingyin Xiaoban, a legendary existence. The girls inside are proficient in everything from playing the piano, chess, calligraphy and painting to reciting poems and composing couplets. If the customers want to talk about Li Bai or Tagore, that's fine. Even if the customers want to talk about the dispute between Sun and Yuan in the north and south, they can also talk about it in detail.
They chat with guests, share their sorrows with guests, and if guests want to do something practical, unless they send troops to surround the Eight Great Hutongs, otherwise, haha, they are more reserved than girlfriends in later generations.
Famous professors in the Republic of China liked to go to Qingyin small class to drink wine. At that time, this was a fashion.
The second class is called the Tea Room, where the girls are good at painting and singing, and have pretty faces. Going to the Tea Room is like attending a "dinner party" in later generations, and it is a self-esteem-conscious place, and the price is quite high.
The name of the third class is very ugly, it is called Xiachu. Let’s put it this way, the famous "Heaven on Earth" is almost at the level of Xiachu.
Below the third class is a lower class, called Xiaoxiachu, which is equivalent to the upper-middle level in nightclubs...
Among the Eight Great Hutongs, the most upscale singing troupes are mostly concentrated in Yanzhi Hutong, which is the shortest. Most of the places in Wang Guangfu Street are lower third-class places. However, this alley is closer to some theaters and restaurants, and there are also a few teahouses scattered inside.
"Master Nan, that's right. Guan Guiman's father only found his mother when he had almost ruined the family. It's already good enough for him to welcome a little concubine home."
"Oh, go ahead."
"Guan Guiman's mother was considered a concubine, and was raised by his father in that house. Later, when his father squandered all the property in the mansion, he also died from smoking opium, so the house escaped the disaster."
"Outer residence." Nan Yi chewed for a moment and said, "So, this Guan Guiman has brothers and sisters?"
"Yes, I heard it's still alive. Do you want to scrape it out?" Huang Saner said.
"I just asked casually. There's no point in finding them." Nan Yi waved his hand and said, "When did Guan Guiman create the house bugs?"
"That was a long time ago. I heard that he had entered the industry before the liberation. He was a big shot among the house bugs. Others called him Lord."
"Sir, damn it." Nan Yi spat and said, "Huang Xia, go to the Housing Management Office and ask how many houses Guan Guiman actually has under his name."
Whether Guan Guiman's title of "Master" is worthy of its name depends on how many houses he owns. After decades of being a real estate enthusiast, if he doesn't have a few houses, he doesn't deserve to be called a Master.
The per capita housing area in Beijing and Shanghai has always been low. Even when the country was just liberated, a house could easily be sold for over 10 million yuan [the maximum denomination of the first edition of RMB was 500,000 yuan]. There has never been a time when houses were worthless. There is only the difference between money being relatively easy to make and money being relatively difficult to make.
Nan Yi did not wait there to hear the news Huang Saner would bring back. In the following days, he traveled to all the antique trading places in Beijing, big and small. He also took a trip to the ghost town of Tiangang when he had time, and got a general understanding of the current market price of antiques.
Then, Nan Yi took a train to Shanghai and found Ke Jianzhen.
"Uncle Ke, do you have any acquaintances teaching at the university?"
“Archaeological?”
"Yes."
"One of my classmates is in the Archaeology Department of Peking University," Ke Jianzhen said. "He used to be in the History Department, and his students are all over the world. Most of his students work in museums around the world."
Nan Yi smiled and said, "That's easy. I'm going to meet an old overseas Chinese soon. He used to run a pickle workshop in the countryside before he got rich. He likes old things and has collected a lot of good things.
Of course good things cost money, so he didn't dare tell his wife that he was playing with these old things and he kept it a secret.
Once, when he was out doing business, a dealer visited his house and all his old items were sold to the dealer at a low price. From that day on, he hated the dealer and lamented that farmers were ignorant and were cheated by others.
Nan Yi said, looking at Ke Jianzhen's half-smiley face, he continued calmly: "Later, he went abroad, his business grew bigger and bigger, he made a lot of money, several billion dollars, he is nearly 70 years old, probably he doesn't have many years left to live.
He thought that he had never done anything good in his life, so he thought of the past and wanted to do something practical for the ignorant farmers.
Ke Jianzhen smiled faintly, "You made up this story on the way here, right? Okay, just tell me what you want to do."
"Haha, I'll be frank." Nan Yi laughed without any embarrassment. "Learning archaeology, like any other major, requires internships. You can't just work in isolation. There are a lot of good things scattered around in the vast countryside, but the farmers don't recognize them and just treat them as ordinary things. They will sell them if someone offers a little money.
But they don’t know that perhaps the value of that certain thing is enough to completely change their lives and allow them to achieve class mobility.
If you say that everyone in the antique business has poor eyesight and gets picked up at a bargain price, then you deserve it. But it's not the same for farmers. If it happened to them, it should be called fraud, fraud based on information asymmetry.
How innocent are the farmers?
So, the old overseas Chinese planned to sponsor the teachers of the archaeology department to take the students to the countryside, firstly to see the country side. Many of the objects in the farmers' hands might have been dug out when they were farming, or picked up from rivers or mountains, and there was a high possibility that they were washed out from ancient tombs by floods.
If you look at more objects, you may get clues about the ancient tomb, and you can protect the tomb or conduct protective excavation before the tomb robbers do.
Secondly, it can also help educate farmers about the value of antiques, so that they will not be easily deceived and have their good things stolen.
If time permits, teachers and students can also volunteer to sit down and appraise for farmers. This is a good deed, and they can also collect some goods and store them for appreciation.”
Ke Jianzhen's eyes sparkled, and the corners of his mouth twitched, "Nan Yi, do you know how many people's jobs will be ruined by your actions?"
Nan Yi said nonchalantly: "It's smashed, so what? How many transactions in the antique business have been taxed? How many jobs can the prosperity of the antique business bring? How much benefit can ordinary people get?
Valuable items remain in the hands of farmers and they can exchange them for big money. Even if they don't do business, they have to spend the money. Even if it doesn't create jobs, it can at least generate a lot of tax revenue for the country.
While pushing up the price of antiques, it can also do something practical for farmers, so why not do it? "
"You, you are sophistry." Ke Jianzhen nodded at Nan Yi and said, "I will help you make the connection. You mentioned an old overseas Chinese, but you are not going to show up yourself?"
"Uncle Ke, I never seek fame. Please wait for a few days. I will go and look for the old overseas Chinese first."
After reaching an agreement with Ke Jianzhen, Nan Yi first went to Fang Mansion to see what needed to be renovated in the house, and then went to the small house in the garden next to it, the "air-raid shelter monitoring room", to visit the people who were guarding the antiques.
Ever since the antiques purchased from the state-owned antique shop were taken out of the air-raid shelter and sent to the estate in Deep Water Bay, someone was hired to handle the remaining antiques before they were sealed up for a long time; afterwards, the three entrances to the air-raid shelter were sealed with reinforced concrete, two in total, each five meters thick.
After sealing, the air in the air-raid shelter was drained and injected with inert gas, and air pressure monitors, seismographs and closed-circuit televisions were installed.
There is also a digital display device in the air-raid shelter. A four-digit number will appear randomly at irregular intervals every day. If the number does not match the registered number one day, it means that the monitoring personnel are absent, and the supervisor will naturally come to confirm the safety of the air-raid shelter.
Eight people work in three shifts, two people in one shift, with one day off every three days, and receive 600 yuan a month plus full benefits. They only need to look at the instruments and monitoring, and they don't have to keep an eye on them all the time. If there is an abnormality in the instrument, an alarm will be issued, and five minutes before the numbers appear, the bell in the monitoring room will ring in advance to give a reminder.
The working atmosphere is relaxed and the pay is super high. If these monitoring personnel mess things up, Nan Yi will really lose his temper in front of them.
As for collusion between internal and external parties and embezzlement, it would be strange if Nan Yi gave them any loopholes, as there were two pairs of eyes in the dark watching them all the time.
Nan Yi did not stay in Shanghai for long. After doing what he needed to do, he immediately returned to Beijing.
Seeing that half a month was almost up, there was still no progress on what he promised Yi Jinru. If he didn't go back to do it, Yi Jinru would scold him as a bastard in front of his bed again.
…
Old villa.
Several people were sitting around the grill.
On the grill, cicada monkeys, silkworm pupae, scorpions, pig brains, garlic cloves, eggs, turtle eggs, bananas, sugar canes, all kinds of things were skewered on it and sizzling with oil.
Nan Wuwei, holding a small bowl in his left hand and a fork in his right hand, was picking up a bastard and putting it into his mouth.
Liu Zhen took a spoon and scooped up a spoonful of brain and drained the oil.
Huang Saner, holding a beer bottle in his right hand and two strings of silkworm pupae in his left hand, stuffed them horizontally into his mouth, took a bite, and pulled, and all the silkworm pupae fell into his mouth.
Nan Yi, holding a handful of skewers in his left hand, held a paint brush in his right hand, dipped it in the oil bowl, and brushed the oil on the skewers up and down.
Huang Saner gulped down a mouthful of wine, wiped her mouth, wiped her greasy hands on her skirt first, then wiped her back, and a pack of cigarettes and a disposable plastic lighter appeared in her hands.
"Uncle Nan, I'm going to go out and smoke a cigarette first."
"Wait a minute, light the cigarette first and let me see the lighter."
"It's nothing good. Men Saner brought it back from Japan and gave it to me." Huang Saner lit a cigarette and handed the lighter to Nan Yi.
Nan Yi took the lighter, played with it in his hand for a while, and a memory immediately popped up in his mind.
I forgot which year it was, but there was a period of time when disposable lighters with beautiful girl stickers became popular on the market. The stickers would undergo magical changes when exposed to fire and heated.
"What's so good about a lighter? Turn it over quickly, it's burnt." Just as Nan Yi's thoughts were drifting further and further away, Liu Zhen, who had already finished sucking the pig brain, said.
"oh."
Nan Yi responded, put down the lighter, and continued to brush oil on the skewers.
After a while, Huang Saner came back from smoking, and as soon as he sat down, he started talking about business, "Uncle Nan, that old guy is amazing, he has 12 rooms, all of them are good rooms, not a bad one."
“How many of them face the street?”
“Four.”
Nan Yi asked, "Is Fang Chong'er still in the Qianmen building?"
"I just moved a little bit. It's not far."
"Let's go over there together tomorrow and discuss it if there's a chance."
As Nan Yi spoke, he took a bunch of skewers from the grill, placed them in a corner where there was no charcoal fire, and picked up two skewers to taste slowly.
After eating a few skewers of skewers and drinking half a bottle of beer, Nan Yi finally said, "Did Men Saner tell you how much this lighter cost? I remember it was 260 yen in 1982."
"She told me she bought it at a duty-free shop for 320 yen each."
"Then I guess the price hasn't increased much." Nan Yi nodded, picked up the lighter on the low table again, pinched it with his thumb and index finger, and rubbed it with his middle finger, turning it in circles in his hand, "This lighter is made of fine materials, plus Japanese labor is expensive, so the price is so expensive.
In fact, this thing does not require any technical content. You can start working once you have all the machines.
Have you used all those nice numbers I gave you?"
"Not yet. I still have six numbers left. Pager numbers are being sold like crazy. Two of them can be sold for more than 50,000 yuan." Huang Saner said excitedly, "If all six numbers are sold, I can make 12 or 13 yuan."
One number was sold for 50,000, and Huang Saner could only keep less than 30,000. The rest was a matter between Yaqing Company and the Wireless Communications Bureau.
"Then hurry up and go out. Mobile phones will be on the market by early next year at the latest. By then, the price of good numbers will be unstoppable. Who knows how much it will drop."
"Uncle Nan, you can continue to do your job as usual."
"That's a nice thought, but you take me for a fool. Can't you learn from me?" Nan Yi spat.
Huang Saner sighed, "What a pity."
"What a pity. Listen to me. I just told you about the lighter. Just keep thinking about it."
Huang Saner grabbed the lighter from Nan Yi, "Master Nan, do you want me to do this?"
"Yeah." Nan Yi nodded and said, "This is still a new thing in China. If you sell it for four or five yuan each, there will definitely be people who will buy it. The materials don't have to be too good, as long as they are safe and the cost can be kept as low as possible, it's not difficult to make a gross profit of one yuan and twenty or three yuan. But when the cost is less than fifty cents and many people follow suit, I'll sell the factory and leave."
At most, 5 to 6 billion disposable lighters can be sold a year, and this can only be achieved when the retail price reaches one yuan. At one yuan, the factory price is at most 0.30 cents. Even if the net profit can reach 20%, the annual profit is only 360 million.
Although this figure is still considerable, it is the profit that can only be achieved by completely monopolizing the disposable lighters.
Disposable lighters do not have much technical content and there are no patent barriers to speak of. It is very easy to imitate them. If you want to monopolize the market, the only way is to lower the price, compress costs again and again, and reduce profits to less than 5 cents.
The single profit is 5 cents, and the ceiling of total profit is only 30 million. It’s better not to do this business.
"Uncle Nan, am I suitable to open a factory?" Huang Saner asked unconfidently.
"This is a business that makes money for free. If you don't want to do it, I'll give this idea to someone else. You can open a training class for pager repair and charge an apprentice two to three thousand yuan. He will earn a lot in a year."
"Uncle Nan, the idea of the training class is good. I will do this and I will make lighters for anyone who wants to."
Nan Yi shook his head and said helplessly: "It's up to you. I'll help you find a skilled master. When you make money, send me 200,000 yuan as my idea fee."
"Okay, I'll send 100,000 to Master Nan tomorrow. Since you said this deal is feasible, it must be a good deal." Huang Saner wiped the oil on her hands on her skirt and said happily.
"Okay, eat quickly and get out of here right after you finish eating. Your true colors show when you drink. You don't act like a woman at all."
"Master Nan, this is called Sa."
"Yes, yes, yes, you are the big Sami." Nan Yi said unhappily.
Huang Saner took a sip of wine and muttered unconvincedly: "That's right, my Xuzi likes me like this."
After finishing most of the skewers and drinking two bottles of wine, Huang Saner left the old house feeling satisfied.
As soon as she left, Liu Zhen spoke.
"Nan Yi, is it really easy to make a lighter?"
"It's easy. You can eat spicy food at the beginning, then you can eat some meat, and then you can only eat some meat." Nan Yi answered Liu Zhen's question first, and then asked: "Ask for your second brother?"
"Yeah, it's not a good idea for him to mess around every day. It would be better for him to set up a separate factory."
Nan Yi smacked his lips and said, "Then you go and talk to him yourself. Second brother may not be willing to open a factory. Let me tell you first, business is business. If he really wants to do this business, I can help pave the way, but I won't lend him the money. Not only that, he has to give me 500,000 yuan as an idea fee."
"Five hundred thousand is enough to drain my second brother's money. How can he get the money to start a factory?"
"I didn't ask him to send it right away. It won't be too late to send it after he earns the money." Nan Yi said a little uncomfortably.
"That's more like it."
"Wuwei, are you full?"
Nan Yi ignored Liu Zhen and turned his attention to Nan Wuwei.
“Full.”
Nan Wuwei touched his belly and murmured.
"You're full, then daddy will take you for a walk to help you digest the food."
"Uh-oh."
Nan Yi stood up and walked out of the yard holding Nan Wuwei's hand.
"Wait for me, I'll come with you."
"Don't go. If you go, who will take care of the hygiene?" Nan Yi said, turning his head.
Liu Zhen walked up to Nan Yi and put her arms around him. "It's not too late to clean up when we get back. Wuwei, do you want your mother to hold you?"
"No." Nan Wuwei rejected Liu Zhen, and then looked up at Nan Yi and said, "Dad, Nuannuan wants to play shuttlecock, can you teach me how to do it?"
"Okay, Dad will go buy some copper coins tomorrow and buy a feather duster. I'll make you a lot of them, okay?"
“Yeah.”
…
Decree date.
At three o'clock in the morning, Nan Yi ran to the ghost market in Panjiayuan and bought a lot of copper coins.
Cheap, only slightly more expensive than copper.
After taking it home, Nan Yi picked it out and found a "Daoguang Tongbao Coin with Baoyuan Large Model Carved Mother" from the pile of copper coins covered with green rust. It was in good condition and the rust was not too heavy.
Nan Yi added a little vinegar water and soaked the copper coin in it for twenty minutes to remove the rust on the surface. Then he found a whetstone and polished the copper coin until it was shiny.
He used a nail to drill two holes on the copper coin, took apart the feather duster, picked out a few of the best quality chicken feathers, gathered them together, tied them up with a string and fastened them to the copper coin.
Soon, a shuttlecock that had been hoarded for twenty years and would be worth more than three hundred thousand was made.
Following the same method, Nan Yi picked out a "Qing Daoguang Tongbao AKS partial silver coin" and made the second shuttlecock.
