Volume 6: The Great Change Chapter 0775: Disgusting Ideas
"There is a quick way, but you may not be able to accept it, Boss Guo."
"What is the solution?"
"First of all, Mr. Guo, you need to confirm again that your project is worth more than $1 million and that it is a good project."
"Yes." Guo Fuxi nodded solemnly, "I am sure that the project I am going to do is a very valuable project, far more than 1 million US dollars ."
"Are you sure?"
Nan Yi confirmed again.
"affim."
"Okay." Nan Yi nodded. "Since you are so sure, I will tell you my solution. Wait, you can talk about the project first and let me make a simple evaluation. If I think your project is worth further tracking, I can take out 1 million US dollars first, but I won't give it to you directly.
I will have someone bring money to follow you to do what you want to do, the whole process, close to you, 24 hours a day. Boss Guo, don't blame me for being too direct. You and I have only met once and had dinner together once. We can't even talk about knowing each other, let alone trusting each other. So, I must send someone to watch the money."
Guo Fuxi nodded, "Boss Nan, I completely understand your concerns."
"Okay, let me continue. In addition to sending someone to follow you, I also need a guarantor. As for the brother you mentioned who is abroad, he probably can't come up with $1 million, nor does he have assets worth $1 million. Otherwise, you don't have to come to me."
Nan Yi pointed to the phone on the table and said, "Later, when you finish talking about the project, give him a call and tell him that someone will come to find him. Um, which city in the United States is your brother in?"
“San Francisco.”
"Oh, after you make the call, someone will come to him in two hours at most and ask him to sign an agreement. The general content is that if you, Boss Guo, take my money, he is willing to compensate me for my losses in any way, including but not limited to his organs and life. In short, your brother will guarantee you with his life.
Boss Guo, what I am going to say next may sound unpleasant, but it comes from my heart.
Don't think that what I did is immoral. You and your brother are brothers, and you may think that the other is priceless, but his life is worthless to me. It can't be equated with 1 million US dollars. It can even be said that it is not as much as 100 US dollars. By using your brother as a guarantor, I am still betting that you will consider the brotherhood.
Okay, I'll stop here. I'm going to the bathroom first. Give you ten minutes to think about it, Boss Guo. If you are willing to accept this plan, you can give me a brief introduction of the project when I come back."
After Nan Yi finished speaking, he stood up and walked out of his office, leaving Guo Fuxi some space to think alone.
Instead of going to the toilet, Nan Yi just stood in the corridor, in the blind spot of Guo Fuxi's sight.
Nan Yi didn't know much about Guo Fuxi's background. To Nan, although 1 million US dollars was insignificant, it was not a reason for him to take risks casually. Of course, he had to ask for some reasonable guarantees.
To be cold-blooded and objective, the life of Guo Fuxi's brother is indeed worthless to the Nan family. Nan Yi's proposal of a guarantor is just a bet that Guo Fuxi is a man who values friendship and loyalty. In addition, it also follows the ancient custom of "debts are cancelled when one dies". The money has been taken, and it would be an explanation for someone to die in front of him.
Otherwise, whether Guo Fuxi's brother lives or dies has nothing to do with Nan Yi. How many people are saints in the world who would be so heartbroken by the death of a stranger?
As I said, for most people, the death of a million strangers is not as sad as the death of their own cats and dogs. However, in order to cover up their own cold-bloodedness, they usually don't say so out loud, and even when they see similar remarks, they will jump out and criticize loudly.
When a wanderer who has been away from home for many years sees children abusing their parents on TV, he will curse them based on simple human ethics: "Evil son, unfilial!"
"Adam, Qiong Hang's investment amount has been decided, 10 million US dollars. Our requirement is to hold a 23% stake, but Qiong Hang is only willing to give us 19.12% of the shares based on the proportion of the amount, and it is converted according to China's official exchange rate." Glenn walked out of the office and came to Nan Yi and said.
After a simple calculation, Nan Yi said, "Chen Huozhou plans to raise 250 million RMB?"
"Yes, the inline shareholding system he proposed was very successful and raised funds very quickly. With our funds, it won't take long to complete the fundraising."
"250 million yuan in start-up capital is still a little short. What is his next plan?"
"Chen Huozhou plans to mortgage the raised funds and Qionghang's shares to the bank and borrow 600-700 million yuan from the bank. After getting the loan, he will order two Boeing 737-300 aircraft from Boeing."
"I understand. Let's continue the negotiation. Based on the actual value of $10 million, our funds can account for more than 32% of the total share capital. It is not excessive to ask for 23% of the shares. 22% is our bottom line. If it is lower than this number, there is no need to negotiate. Don't promise the other party any other conditions just to close the deal. We must get the due return for every investment we make."
"OK."
After staying outside for ten minutes, Nan Yi returned to his office.
Seeing Nan Yi coming back, Guo Fuxi said to him: "Boss Nan, I agree to your request."
"Okay, then Boss Guo, please introduce the project."
"Boss Nan, do you understand the Soviet revisionist regulations on forestry?"
“I understand it.”
"I have established a relationship with the head of the Forestry Bureau of a certain Soviet revisionist city. From him, I can get a logging quota, but the quota has a minimum limit on the amount of logging. To get a quota, the expenditure in all aspects needs to be around 1.15 million rubles, and I can only come up with 150,000 personally."
Guo Fuxi's introduction was really simple, but Nan Yi still understood it. The Soviet revisionists had abundant forest resources, so any controlled logging measures were completely unnecessary for them. They could just go into the forest and cut down trees as much as they wanted. In the short term, they didn't have to worry about the forest resources being destroyed.
Because of this, the Soviet revisionists did not limit the maximum number of trees to be cut down, but the minimum number. If they were small fry without much money in their pockets, they should not waste their time. However, as far as Nan Yi knew, the minimum cutdown target on the Soviet revisionists' side should be the cutdown of trees worth 800,000 rubles. If the number Guo Fuxi said was true, then the amount of the facilitation fee was really not small.
"Boss Guo, are you sure you found someone with the Forestry Bureau, not the Forest Management District?"
The Soviet revisionist State Forestry Committee is the highest forestry administrative body. Each of the Soviet republics has a forestry committee or forestry ministry accordingly. The border regions or states have forestry bureaus, and under the bureaus there are forest management districts.
A forest management area is both a grassroots forestry administrative agency and an independent operating unit or enterprise, similar to a forest farm in China, except that it is much larger in scale. There are 2,616 forest management areas across the country in the Soviet revisionist regime, with an average area of 453,300 hectares.
As soon as Nan Yi said the word "forest management area", Guo Fuxi knew that Nan Yi really knew something about the situation of Su Xiu's forestry, so he said again with certainty: "The relationship I'm looking for is the Forestry Bureau."
"Okay, Boss Guo can call your brother now."
Although it was already midnight in the United States, Guo Fuxi's call went through smoothly, and within a few hours, the guarantor problem was solved.
Nan Yi wrote a number to Guo Fuxi and asked him to call when he arrived in Manzhouli. The other party would naturally meet him with money. Nan Yi's unintentional action made Guo Fuxi realize his strength and made him look forward to the next cooperation even more.
Since the money issue had been settled, Guo Fuxi did not stay in Coconut City for long. He went to Yangcheng the next day, preparing to fly to Beijing to take the K3 train.
Two days after Guo Fuxi left, Nan Yi implemented another bounce tactic and flew to the capital.
Gu Wen has already graduated. This guy did not follow the common practice of staying in the United States or working in a large company or research institute for a while. This surprised Nan Yi a little and forced him to change his plans regarding Gu Wen.
Gu Wen is a talent that Nan Yi has already noticed. On his journey to study abroad, Nan Yi has created a lot of conveniences for him. The investment has already been made, and when the harvest season comes, of course he has to collect it.
In order to recruit talents, Nan's companies have made donations to major universities around the world based on region and major. The amount is not too much, it is just a registration, and talents in need can be contacted before they graduate.
When hiring, the Nan family prefers highly educated graduates from prestigious universities. This is not because Nan Yi despises talents from ordinary universities or those with lower academic qualifications, but because students from prestigious universities have a better circle, and their network of relationships can become a part of their overall quality.
Moreover, to use a not-so-appropriate metaphor, students from prestigious schools are discarding sand from the gold, while other channels are picking gold from the sand. The screening cost and trial and error cost are completely different.
Of course, this is related to the fact that most of the people Nan needs now are high-tech talents.
When Nan Yi arrived in the capital, Gu Wen had not yet set off. He came early on purpose because besides chatting with Gu Wen, he also had other things to do.
The car's gas tank was almost empty. While Tiger cub went to buy gas, Nan Yi tidied up the old house. After Tiger cub filled up the gas, Nan Yi set off for Cuigezhuang.
There used to be two old basketball training halls belonging to the army at the foot of the Western Hills. In 1987, the director of Beijing Radio and Television made up his mind and put all the assets of Beijing TV and the Art Center into an investment of 2 million yuan to convert the two basketball halls into simple indoor TV series shooting greenhouses.
The location for indoor drama shooting was available, but we had no idea what to shoot.
Therefore, the director personally found some young people to plan the script, including Zheng Xiaolong and Wang Lu. Wang Lu boasted that there were five of them at the time, eating mutton and drinking wine in the Jimen Restaurant, and thinking about the topic of the TV series together.
At that time, there was a short news report in "Reporter's Digest" about the story of adopting an abandoned baby. It happened that all five of them had read this report. When their passions collided, they decided that the core of the story of the script would revolve around "abandoned babies."
After the core was decided, the plot was added to it. The five people stayed in the hotel at that time. Each of them first conceived a set of storylines and structural ideas, and then sat together to brainstorm, bringing together the five people's ideas, the stories written by several people, the designed character destinies, and the organized plots.
That is to mobilize the life experiences of five people to enrich the story, character fate and plot structure of this TV series.
The script that these five people put together is called "Desire". According to Wang Li, the character setting of Wang Husheng in the script does incorporate a small amount of Nan Yi's personality traits. It was not without reason that Zheng Xiaolong said that he would give him the role of Wang Husheng.
The script has been written, but the mission it was supposed to accomplish is gone. Not only is there no need to use the studio in a hurry, but we have to schedule it instead.
When they arrived at the studio, except for a few main actors who were about to shoot a meal scene, the rest of the crew were eating in the "storage room". Ruan Mei was not there, as she was eating loess in Dunhuang.
After research by Shanghai TV, it was decided that Ruan Mei would play Shang Qingjun, so she had many rival scenes with Bo Yikao and Jiang Ziya in Dunhuang. Coincidentally, the actor who played Jiang Ziya also had to play Wang Husheng's father Wang Zitao, and Ruan Mei's guest role in "Desire" was a secretary-like character next to Wang Zitao. She had only two scenes and appeared on the screen for no more than three minutes.
When he came to the storage room, Nan Yi took a look at the color of the lockers and the numbers on them, and the round table in the middle of the room looked familiar. Wasn't this the scene in the first episode where Liu Huifang gave Wang Husheng a lion head?
Nan Yi had almost forgotten the plot of "Desire", but the scenes involving eating were deeply engraved in his mind and he had not forgotten them at all.
When watching the TV series, Nan Yi did not even reach Liu Huifang's living standard. He had never seen lion's head or the piece of tenderloin weighing at least one pound that Liu Huifang's mother cut. He even thought that lion's head was a meatball made with lion meat as the filling.
"The food is good, do you have any extra?"
Nan Yi glanced at everyone in the storage room, stayed on "Liu Huifang"'s face for a while, and then moved his gaze to Zheng Xiaolong and Wang Lu.
Hearing Nan Yi's voice, Wang Lu, who had his back to Nan Yi, turned around and took a look, "Nan Batian, why are you here today? Aren't you busy making money outside?"
"I've had enough. The storehouse at home is full. There's no room for one more ingot. Now, I still have several million taels and nowhere to put them. I want to come and ask if you have a tunnel at home. How about I put them in your house?"
Nan Yi said this and sat down next to Wang Li.
"There is no tunnel, but I do have an idea. Why don't you buy the front building and renovate it, widening it from 99 feet to 188 feet."
"It's a good idea to buy the front gate tower, but there's no need to widen it. You're such a short guy, I can bury seven or eight of you. After I bury you, I'll hire three opera troupes to sing 'Angry Digging of the Wang Family's Tomb' on the city gate tower every day."
"You are still so mean when you talk."
"The mosquito scolds the leech, why do you still bite people?"
Nan Yi retorted, thanked the crew member who brought him the meal, picked up the chopsticks, and poked the lion head in the enamel teacup.
"Nan Batian, how long will you stay this time?"
A few words of banter at the beginning was the normal procedure for Nan Yi and Wang Lu to meet. After that, they could talk properly.
"Can't stay long."
"Shabu-shabu mutton tonight."
"Okay." Nan Yi responded, and then said to Zheng Xiaolong: "How long will it take to shoot this drama?"
"If nothing goes wrong, we can finish filming before October."
"Can you get away tomorrow?"
Zheng Xiaolong nodded, "Okay."
"Let's talk about advertising tomorrow and work out the specific plan."
By this year, for Wangbei Media, the domestic television penetration rate has reached 100%. Families that would become potential clients of advertising agencies have already bought televisions, and those who haven't bought one can go to their neighbors' homes or go to the village to watch one.
At this time, the village committees of many villages in the country would buy a TV and place it in places like the threshing ground or the meeting hall at six or seven o'clock in the evening for villagers to watch. In the evening, the villagers would gather at the village intelligence center to exchange the plot of the TV series. Good guys and bad guys, martial arts moves, and new things were all within the scope of the information exchange.
At the beginning, some places set up separate centers for educated youth, while others were scattered in farmers' homes, which gave some farmers the opportunity to build connections in big cities; more than ten years after the resumption of the college entrance examination, many people from rural areas passed the exam and stayed in big cities; in the past two years, many families have established relatives in Taiwan.
For various reasons, some "information dealers" have the opportunity to brag, such as "I've drunk Nanchen wine", "I've also eaten Liu Huifang's Mamahao dumplings", "I've been here", "I've seen this person", etc. Such bragging will be made in every village intelligence center. In order to make their bragging sound even louder, the intelligence dealers will always rack their brains and use all the words they know to dress up the object of their bragging.
Each village intelligence center is the word-of-mouth diffusion network of Wangbei Media. Product placement in TV dramas is a powerful tool for brand influence and word-of-mouth communication in this era. As long as we proceed steadily and pay attention to controlling the quality and service aspects during the period of surge in sales, do not lose ourselves and do not fall behind the times, the brand vitality can be maintained firmly.
After having dinner in the studio, Nan Yi said goodbye and left. The main purpose of his coming here was actually to see the main actors, both to satisfy his curiosity and to recognize their faces. If nothing unexpected happens, "Desire" will still be a hit, and in addition to product placement, they might also ask a few of the main actors to shoot a few commercials.
…
The foreign-related office building on South Street, Shanwei’s domestic office has moved to Shenzhen, so the office here was naturally vacated, and the Wangbei Media sign and its legitimate business license were hung here.
After going up to the sixth floor, he called Gong Xue. After a while, Gong Xue came out and brought Nan Yi into the office area.
In the office, no sweet words were exchanged and things went straight into business mode. Gong Xue took Nan Yi to the technical department to watch the commercial that was being edited using Avid/1 Media Composer.
"Donghua Watch is our first real advertising client. The other party's budget is very low, so there is no need for filming. We just need to create some effects on the computer."
As Gong Xue said this, she asked the editor to play the unfinished product from the beginning.
Looking at the monitor screen, a low-quality advertising video began to play. The effect was very simple, just gradually disappearing, revolving, and floating. There was no aesthetic appeal to speak of. If it were the Flash era, a beginner's first assignment would not be worse than this.
"Donghua, Donghua, Donghua brand clocks are of advanced quality and superior technology, accompanying you to spend a wonderful time. Donghua brand clocks are the designated products of the 11th Asian Games."
After watching the advertisement, Nan Yi's inner evaluation was that the picture was very bad and the effect was rubbish, but the narration of the advertisement was very pleasant to listen to.
"How much?"
"2500."
"It's miserable. How many packs?"
"Two packs."
"This price difference is really ruthless. Can you make money?"
"If we calculate the cost, it's definitely a loss. The computers used for editing, plus the money spent on software, cost nearly $50,000. And the hidden cost of taking on this commercial is more than $2,200."
As Gong Xue spoke, she led Nan Yi towards her office.
Sitting down in Gong Xue's office, Nan Yi said, "It's okay to lose money. This is also the first step for Wangbei Media to take independent accounting. Are there any other clients that you are in contact with?"
"Yes, there is a Suibao mattress in Yangcheng, a Peony color TV in Beijing, and a Chrysanthemum fan in Jiangsu Province. This one has the best chance of being acquired. They want a female actress to shoot it. There is also a new commercial for the Yanwu tape recorder."
"Yan Wu." Nan Yi said, and hummed again, "Yan Wu, Yan Wu, one song brings one love, haha, this advertisement is not bad, why do you want to change it?"
"The advertising effect is not as good as before. Yanwu's advertising budget is very high. If we can win it, we can make hundreds of thousands of dollars."
Nan Yi nodded, "Very good, are there any heavyweight potential clients who can increase Wangbei Media's reputation in the industry?"
The quality of an advertising company depends on the quality of its clients. If it has never served large brands and does not have a few high-end brand clients, the advertising company will never be able to stand out.
"Yes, Cartier has entered China and is inviting advertising companies to make advertising proposals. However, the companies that will be involved in the proposals are several large multinational advertising companies. We at Wangbei Media are far behind them."
"Gong Xue, this is your fault. They are a multinational corporation, so what? We are a small team, so what? Which big company didn't start out as a small company?
You must participate in the proposal. Although the chance is slim, it is a good opportunity to show yourself and learn. You must take it seriously, come up with a beautiful plan, and compete with those big companies. Bring back four words - honor in defeat.
It is a legend of the century for a newly debuted boxer to knock down boxing champion Ali. If he can last three or four rounds before being knocked down, he is a rising star.
If Wangbei Media can sit down with Omnicom and make proposals to become their competitor, it will be a kind of affirmation for us. If they regard small shops that make billboards on the streets as their main competitors, then Wangbei Media will not be independent and will continue to be a vassal and auxiliary. "
"I understand. I will take it seriously." Gong Xue nodded.
"Well, let me introduce you to a job. There is a company called Master Fan Holdings Co., Ltd. that wants to develop a complete VI. Its main products are instant noodles and ham sausages. Please ask your subordinates to design a LOGO for me first."
"Show it to you? And you won't let me have direct contact with the customer?" Gong Xue asked.
"The client is busy and has to go to school."
The client that Nan Yi mentioned was not in school at the moment, but was holding a board meeting of Wenchang Weiwanxiao Group on the playground of Wenchang Weiwanxiao School.
On the podium of Wenchang Weiwan Primary School, former principal Zheng Haoran, former academic director Guo Zhenggu, and current principal Xian Zilin stood in a row. In front of them stood the board secretary Fan Hongdou, who was holding a manuscript in her hand and reporting to the shareholders.
“Dear shareholders and students, in the first quarter of this year, the profit of the Young and Promising Toy Factory totaled 6,416,093 yuan, 37 cents and 2 cents… As of now, the group’s account has 37.28 million yuan in liquid funds. According to the share structure of Wenchang Weiwan Primary School Group, the school holds 30%, the school foundation holds 45%, and the Young Talents Foundation holds 25%.
When Wanxiao Group was first established, it not only had a wholly-owned subsidiary, Nian Shao You Wei Toy Factory, but also a subsidiary, Master Fan Holdings, which held a 32% stake;
Before, this company had never conducted any business, but not now. It will soon prepare to produce instant noodles and sausages, and needs to raise 10 million yuan. According to the share ratio, Wanxiao Group needs to invest 3.2 million yuan.
Today, we need to vote on two things: first, whether to inject capital into Master Fan Holdings in proportion; second, whether to officially launch the school foundation this year, so that it will no longer be just a name.”
"Lawyer Jin, I'll entrust you to register a few trademarks, one for 'Images for reference only', one for 'Final interpretation rights', and 'Come again', including its derivatives 'Come again a bottle', 'Come again a pack', 'Come again a bag', 'Come again a stick', 'Come again a can', etc. All trademarks related to food must be registered. If registration is possible, register all trademarks with similar meanings and similar fonts."
After leaving Wangbei Media, Nan Yi went to find Jin Daosheng again.
"The names of your trademarks are all weird. Don't hold out too much hope for the others. They will be hard to register." Jin Daosheng frowned when he heard this.
Nan Yi chuckled and said, "Let's give it a try. What if it gets registered?"
"Okay, in the name of which company?"
"Master Fan Holdings."
On the playground of Wenchang Weiwan Primary School, as soon as Fan Hongdou finished speaking, the students on the playground began to chatter with each other. In the legal sense, they were not shareholders of the Wenchang Weiwan Primary School Group, but they were the legal beneficiaries of the Young Talents Foundation, and logically speaking, they were shareholders of the Wenchang Weiwan Primary School Group.
Zheng Haoran looked at the students below and felt very pleased. Although not all of these students were top students in their studies, all of them had good overall qualities. When other students didn't even know what computers were, the students here had computer classes every day, as well as compulsory labor skills and agronomy classes, and elective martial arts classes.
Thinking in his mind, Zheng Haoran looked up at the satellite dish on the roof of the computer classroom. Every day, students watch international news and follow the latest developments in the world in real time. Hearing the children's naive discussions about the current situation in Moscow and the latest iterations of international high-tech technologies, he was filled with emotion.
What are cultivated here are not small town test-takers who only know how to bury their heads in solving problems and are determined to escape from the countryside. The children here have a broad vision, they open their eyes to the world early, they are confident, self-reliant, and know how to treat money correctly.
A child of seven or eight years old or ten years old can get dividends of tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands or even millions of yuan a year. They have been bathed in the ocean of money since childhood. Money is not mysterious or out of reach to them. When they enter society, they will definitely be able to do as Mencius said, "wealth and honor cannot corrupt, poverty and humbleness cannot move, power and force cannot bend."
"What a pity, what a pity, the village no longer values scholars, it's all gone, the vitality is gone, but fortunately, the primary school is still an independent pure land. I'm old now, and I've retired for the second time, so it's time to go back and enjoy my life."
From public-spirited to private-interested, Zheng Haoran was very satisfied. He was invited with a gift of six gifts and now he was receiving a million-dollar pension. There was also a construction team building a mountain residence in his hometown, allowing him to live there and experience the mood of "picking chrysanthemums under the eastern fence and leisurely seeing the southern mountains".
"It's a pity that I can't have a good chat with the person behind all this." Zheng Haoran thought, looking towards the direction of Nanzhai.
