Volume 5: The Age of Storms Chapter 0699 Don't mess with me, I'm not easy to mess with
As soon as they walked out of Donghu Liyuan, Fan Hongdou said, "Godfather, there's an event at the Cafe de Coral stage at the Youth Activity Center this afternoon. Shall we go and watch it?"
"There are performances during the day?" Nan Yi asked in surprise.
Fan Hongdou said: "Yes, today is a day when many factories are closed for the holiday."
"Oh, do you want to watch, or do you want to go on stage?"
"Go on stage. I signed up a long time ago. It's my turn today. Godfather, Cafe de Coral is very popular. Although it costs money, there are still many people who sign up."
"Oh, I know. What song are you going to sing?"
“My Future Is Not a Dream, Only Hard Work Can Win.”
Nan Yi smiled and said, "They are all new songs from Taiwan. The last one is in Minnan dialect."
"Well, I've been studying from the tape for a long time, but my pronunciation is still not quite right."
"It's okay. Let's go catch a Hu Jian and stew him. After that, he'll become more accurate."
"Hehehe." Fan Hongdou smiled and didn't say anything, "Godfather, where are we going to have tea?"
"You're treating, so just order whatever you want. Let's go to the Guomao revolving restaurant."
"You still think this is casual? Guomao is so expensive."
"I don't want to spend money anyway."
The two of them laughed and joked as they soon arrived at the China World Trade Center. They ate and talked until about two in the afternoon, then went to the Youth Activity Center.
When he arrived at the place, Nan Yi took a look and saw that it was crowded with girls. It turned out that today was the day when the garment and electronics factories were closed.
Many of the girls were dressed very fashionably and had their hair done. Some of them had one or two inch hair that looked like steel wire, which was due to mousse. Some of them had big plastic earrings on their ears and lipstick on their lips.
There are many varieties of clothes, including T-shirts, dresses, and silk shirts with padded shoulders. Without exception, these clothes consume a lot of fabric, as the garment factories have not yet learned how to cut holes in clothes to remove the fabric.
“What a pity!”
Nan Yi sighed, lamenting that these girls treated him as an outsider.
"Godfather." Fan Hongdou waved her hands in front of Nan Yi's eyes, "Be careful or you won't be able to pull your eyes out."
"What's going on in your little head? Godfather is observing the fashion trends of modern women's clothing and thinking about how to use less fabric and sell more for more money."
"Oh, godfather, you continue to observe. I'll wait by the stage."
Fan Hongdou did not expose Nan Yi's lie and was very obedient to save face for Nan Yi.
"Well, go ahead, godfather will cheer you on."
Nan Yi retracted his gaze and looked in the direction of the stage. The good positions in the front were already full of people, and the two good wide-angle positions on the sides were also occupied. The only positions closer to the stage, near the speakers on both sides of the stage, could accommodate two or three people.
"The viewing angle is so bad that my ears will explode."
Nan Yi muttered something and walked towards a raised area far away from the stage.
Standing on the ridge, Nan Yi took out a telescope from his backpack and waited for the show to begin.
The Youth Activity Center is located in the industrial areas of Shangbu and Bagualing, where tens of thousands of workers gather. In order to relieve the boredom of migrant workers and give them a place to express their feelings so as to prevent them from causing trouble, such a stage was set up.
It is said that when the stage was first built the year before last, the Youth Activity Center planned to invite professional song and dance troupes to perform on stage regularly. Unfortunately, when the first performance was about to begin, the actors did not arrive for some reason.
In order to save the situation, the leader of the activity center had an idea and wrote a slogan "Self-recommendation for performance" and posted it. Unexpectedly, the number of people who registered on site was overwhelming, and the performance results were unexpectedly good.
The Cafe de Coral stage came into being. Young people were very enthusiastic to perform on the stage. Yes, they were very enthusiastic, which forced the organizer to resort to charging measures in order to control the number of people. There is no doubt that this was definitely not a disguised form of charging.
The fee for performing on stage is 50 cents. With 20 to 30 shows a night, I can earn 15 or 16 yuan at most, which is not enough to cover the loss of sound equipment.
The reason why young people are so eager to go on stage is not because everyone has a strong desire to perform, but because going on stage can bring benefits - they can easily make girlfriends or boyfriends.
This is an era where you can find "friends" just by singing well, an era where a bowl of fried rice noodles can make your girlfriend happy for the whole day, and an era where bad men can easily make good women.
This is an era where people will appreciate your singing, dancing, smoking, and skating as long as your posture is cool enough.
It doesn't matter whether it's good or bad, this is what's happening now.
There was a noise coming from the speakers and the first performer came on stage. Nan Yi picked up the telescope and took a look. The woman was specially dressed up in a sequined stage costume. The word "professional" could be heard as soon as she opened her mouth.
This is not a wage earner, but a singer who went south to pursue his dream of becoming a musician.
The song "Loess Plateau" was sung with such high notes that it almost broke the speakers. The audience responded enthusiastically and gave the singer thunderous applause.
Nan Yi, however, disagreed. Having experienced the era when people were considered bad at singing if they couldn't sing high notes, he had developed a rebellious attitude towards high notes and felt annoyed when he heard high notes in pop songs.
The second person to go on stage sang a song called "Follow Your Feeling". How can I describe her performance? I can only say that she was very courageous. Many people in the audience booed her, but the fact that she dared to go on stage and finish singing the whole song meant that she had already defeated 90% of people.
Although he knew that no one could hear him, Nan Yi still quacked and clapped his hands until they turned red.
The third person to go on stage sang a song called "Missing You". Her mouth was very similar to the original singer's, and equally frighteningly big. Nan Yi focused through the telescope and always felt that she could call her Nan Yi every time.
However, the singing was very good, with quite the style of the original singer. Nan Yi took away the binoculars and stopped looking at the person's mouth, and the feeling was a little better.
Wang Jie's "A Game, A Dream", Zhai Huimin's "Tears Behind Bars", Li Yijun's classic "Meeting by Chance", "Probably in Winter", "The World Outside"...
Most people who came on stage sang the most popular songs of the past two years, and there was also a group that performed a breakdance to the music of "Colder Than Ice".
At this moment, a woman was singing Madonna's "La Isla Bonita" on the stage. Her accent had a bit of Taiwanese accent. She was probably a secretary or employee brought from Taiwan by a Taiwanese company.
Back in New York, Nan Yi caught a glimpse of Madonna through the glass of a coffee shop. Madonna was still in a confused period and was looking for opportunities everywhere. Now she has become a queen and can be compared with Jackson.
When hearing this song, Nan Yi thought of Madonna, and even more so of Alisha, with her slender waist twisting .
Just when Nan Yi's thoughts began to go astray, Fan Hongdou had already stood on the stage. Nan Yi quickly put away his vulgarity, waved his hands in front of his face, and the solemnity and seriousness of a father were pasted on his face.
Any intangible cultural heritage may be lost, but face changing has long been deeply rooted in people's hearts, and countless people have mastered its essence.
With a silly smile on his face, Nan Yi waved towards the stage, telling Fan Hongdou, who was scanning the surroundings, that he was there.
Fan Hongdou smiled at Nan Yi and hummed along with the music, "Are you like me, bowing your head under the sun, working hard and silently with sweat on your face? Are you like me, not giving up the life you want even if you are treated coldly? Are you like me, busy pursuing something unexpected all day long..."
The little girl sang well, but it did not resonate with the audience. "My Future Is Not a Dream" does not conform to the current mainstream thinking. It would be better to put it aside for a few years until those born in the 1970s have fully grown up.
After listening to "My Future Is Not a Dream", Nan Yi was waiting to listen to "Only If You Work Hard Can You Win", but who knew that the little girl bowed and left the stage.
"What's going on? It's not a duet?"
Confused, Nan Yi continued to stand on the bulge and saw Fan Hongdou walking towards him from afar.
Before the forked urine could even start dripping, Fan Hongdou had already arrived in front of Nan Yi.
“Why only sing one song?”
"'Only Hard Work Can Win' has been scheduled for tomorrow."
"I thought I could hear you sing again. What a pity! I saw a few professional singers in front of me. Why are they singing here too?"
"The Lychee Cup Singing Competition is about to begin. They might be here to participate."
"Oh, do you want to go now or watch for a while?"
"Let's watch it later."
"Okay, come up."
Nan Yi stretched out his hand and pulled Fan Hongdou up to the bulge.
After watching all the shows, it was already past four o'clock. They didn't rush to leave, but stood there for a while. When most of the people had left, Nan Yi and Fan Hongdou came down from the bulge.
"Nansheng, there are a few teenagers coming over here. They look like gangsters." The school beauty reminded Nan Yi from behind.
After the school beauty reminded him, Nan Yi glanced around and soon saw five or six teenagers around fifteen or sixteen years old walking towards them.
He was wearing a flowered shirt, had long hair, and had a cigarette in his mouth, looking very uncouth.
In the late 1970s, a group of people went to Xiangkeng from here. They didn't find proper jobs, but joined gangs. After a few years, they didn't do very well, so some of them returned to Shencun. Nan Yi heard that the area around Shajing was not very peaceful.
There was no way behind Nan Yi and the others, so they had to go in the opposite direction to get out. This was most likely aimed at Fan Hongdou.
Looking at the graceful Fan Hongdou, Nan Yi sighed softly, "If the tree does not stir up the wind, the wind will come naturally."
"Red Bean, do you know him?"
“No.”
"Oh, let's go."
Nan Yi put his arm around Fan Hongdou's shoulder and walked towards the exit . After a few steps, he ran into the teenagers.
"Pretty girl, don't be in a hurry to leave. Come and have dinner with us." One of the young men stepped in front of Fan Hongdou and said.
"Yes, pretty girl, let's go eat together. This is our Brother Long, we are from Shajing..."
Bang!
Without waiting for the other boy to finish his words, Nan Yi slapped him.
"No vision at all."
Nan Yi complained and slapped that "Brother Long" to the ground again.
Two of them were slapped to the ground, and the other teenagers were stunned.
"Tiger cub, leave it to you."
"yes."
While the boy was still confused, Nan Yi took Fan Hongdou and left first.
"Campus beauty, phone call."
Nan Yi took the phone from the school beauty and called Lai Huri.
"Where?"
"Brother Nan, are you in Shencun?"
"Well, Youth Activity Center, I need your help with something."
"I'm at Huafu, I'll be there in a few minutes, wait a minute."
"No, it's the third restaurant on the left opposite the main entrance of Donghu Liyuan. Go there and I'll treat you to a meal."
"good."
Half an hour later, Nan Yi and Lai Huri had already sat in the hotel's private room.
The restaurant is opened by Xu Xiaofang.
"You're not doing the school business anymore?"
"I only did it for one season last year and then stopped. I made hundreds of thousands of dollars in a winter when the temperature dropped to minus 10 degrees Celsius. Business was not good. Someone happened to take over, so I transferred the channel to someone else."
"It's good not to do it. People are now criticizing the corrupt officials. Don't get yourself involved."
"Forget it. If I dare to trade, my dad will break my legs. I traded treasury bonds for a while last month. The country has already liberalized the market, but my dad still won't let me touch it. It's easy to make money from treasury bonds. I can put hundreds of thousands of dollars in it for circulation and make good use of my time to travel between several cities. I can make tens of thousands of dollars in one trip. If I run fast, I can make one trip in a day and a half." Lai Huri said with regret.
"Okay, don't be so low-key and don't just focus on speculation. Innovation centers have emerged abroad, which can be translated as innovation centers, incubation bases, or maker spaces.
Don’t worry about its name or what it does. It just means office sharing. Several startups rent an office together and share the rent to save money.
Of course, when necessary, we can help each other out. Today you play my secretary, and tomorrow I play your driver."
"A shell company to keep things looking good?" Lai Huri asked.
"About the same." Nan Yi nodded and continued, "Last year, when the news that Qiongdao was going to establish a province came out, many people went to Coconut City to venture out to sea, including college students, young and capable grassroots cadres, and unit employees. By now, there are about 100,000 people.
There are only a few hundred thousand people in Coconut City. It is not easy to absorb 100,000 immigrants all at once. First of all, housing is a big problem. It is estimated that many people cannot find a fixed residence.
Secondly, these people are not thinking of going there to work, but to look for opportunities to start a business. Since they want to start a business, they naturally need office space, and Coconut City simply does not have so much space for them to work in.
So..." Nan Yi spread his hands, "Do you understand what I mean?"
“Build a makerspace in Coconut City? Build rental housing?”
“Register a company, set up a project, buy as much land as possible, build slowly, and sell it when the land price goes up. However, you must always remember the original intention of building a makerspace and rental housing, and do not repeatedly speculate on land;
Once the building is built and operational, if someone wants to buy it at a high price, you sell it and go back to Shenzhen to continue the project of building a makerspace. This is real work, not just a gimmick.”
Nan Yi pointed at Fan Hongdou and said, "There is one more thing you must remember. Don't ask the bank for a loan for your project in Coconut City. If you need money, you can ask your brother or her."
"Boss, don't play with me. You want me to find her?" Lai Huri pointed at Fan Hongdou and said, "Who is she?"
"My second daughter."
“…”
After Lai Huri cursed Nan Yiniang thousands of times in his heart, he said again: "Can we do it?"
Nan Yi said calmly: "I will lend you half of the money and charge you 5% annual interest, and the other half will be an investment. Don't rush to agree, talk to your brother. I'll tell you what I want to ask for your help."
Nan Yi pointed at Fan Hongdou again and said, "Today I met some hooligans who wanted to take advantage of her. Please help me take her to the public. I want to let the people in Shencun know that she is a hedgehog and not to be messed with."
It is better to guide than to block. It is too troublesome to slap someone in the face every time someone provokes you. It is better to let others know that Fan Hongdou is not easy to provoke.
"I thought it was something simple. I can just take her to a few dinner parties and introduce her to others."
"Well, I'll trouble you with this." Nan Yi nodded and said to Fan Hongdou, "Ask your mother if she has draft beer. If so, I'll have some draft beer, snails, and salted edamame."
"Yes, I'll get it."
"Give me more edamame." Nan Yi shouted at Fan Hongdou's back, and then said to Lai Huri, "I think you are tired of eating all kinds of fish and meat. Come with me and have something simple."
"It's great. The weather is so hot, I'll enjoy some draft beer. Draft beer tastes good, but it's a pity that it's not available in China. The ones here are all from Xiangkeng."
"Yes? Tsingtao already has draft beer, right?"
"I'm not sure, but Shencun isn't there yet." Lai Huri shook his head and said.
"Who cares? Just drink it."
Nan Yi wasn’t quite sure either, he just remembered that he seemed to have caught a glimpse of it in a newspaper.
…
After staying in Shencun for two days and giving Lai Huri some information about the incubation base, Nan Yi used a bouncing tactic to jump to the capital.
As soon as he arrived in the capital, he went to see Yang Kaiyan first and got the gifts that he had entrusted her to purchase. Then he had lunch at the Liu family's restaurant and then went to the Nan family's restaurant for dinner in the evening.
It is still the original Duanjinlou. It has now merged with the neighboring Manyuanchun to become the head office of Duanjinlou. If there is nothing to do, Yi Jinru will still stay here.
Only Nan Yi and Yi Jinru had dinner together. Nan Huaiqiu and Wenren Lanyue were on a business trip, and Nan Tieli was busy moving houses for others. He set up a moving company that specialized in taking on moving business.
Of course, it must have been Nan Yi's idea. Nan Tieli is too naive, so this kind of business is more suitable for him. If he doesn't get the hang of it, he will just keep moving. Once he gets the hang of it, he can jump into the logistics and express delivery fields and continue to do it.
It was already eight o'clock in the evening when Nan Yi and Yi Jinru started eating. Halfway through the meal, Nan Tieli came over in a hurry. As soon as he sat down, he asked for a bowl of rice and started eating.
After Nan Tieli had a bowl of rice to fill his stomach, Nan Yi spoke up, "Brother, how is business?"
"It's pretty good. It was not easy at the beginning. People usually ask relatives and friends for help when moving. But later everyone found that asking relatives and friends for help didn't save money. Although they didn't have to pay for hard work, they had to treat everyone to a good meal after the move. The meal cost was almost the same as what they paid us.
Besides, if they break something, they are too embarrassed to blame others, but it is different when they come to us. We will compensate for the damage according to the price. Now we have one or two businesses every day, and five or six during busy periods. "
"Take it slow. People nowadays enjoy themselves more and more. They are unwilling to do things that can be done by others. As more and more people live in high-rise buildings... the company's business will definitely get better and better."
Nan Yi actually didn’t know the name of Nan Tieli’s company and never asked.
"I know. If we provide good service first and have a good reputation, people will come to us naturally. Nan Yi, I have something to ask you. In addition to moving, can I open a waste collection company?"
"Why do you ask?"
"When moving, there are always people who have things to throw away, such as tables, benches, wardrobes, and everything else. I thought, let's not throw these things away. I might as well bring them back and sell them. There will always be people who want them."
"It's a good idea. You can do it. I'll give you two phone numbers. One is in the antique business. You can learn some antique knowledge from him. Don't be foolish to not know the treasure. If you are not sure, you can ask him to help you identify it. The other one is in the scrap collection business. If you can't sell your things, you can give them to him."
"Okay, okay." Nan Tieli agreed hurriedly.
Yi Jinru looked at Nan Tieli with great relief, thinking that her son had finally come to his senses.
Nan Yi stayed in Duanjinlou until nine o'clock and then left. He was very busy and had to attend another dinner party.
In Chen Feng's courtyard, a barbecue oven has been set up in the yard, and half a lamb is being roasted on it. On the low table, there is a pot of mutton soup, a basin of boiled meat, and a few bottles of beer. Chen Feng and Lai Biao are chatting and laughing.
"You kid, you're here so late?"
