Chapter 230: Trends (First Update)
Han Hongzhen was paid attention to and promoted by the leaders of the county women’s federation, the municipal women’s federation and other leaders some time ago. She was a little inflated in her heart, but after coming to Guangzhou, she was directly poured cold water on by the Canton Fair reporting office, which shattered her confidence.

The reporting office was located in the guesthouse of the Nanyue Provincial Military District in Meihuayuan. There were armed soldiers standing guard at the door. Translator Lin, who was holding a home return permit, originally wanted to accompany Han Hongzhen and three others in, but was stopped outside the gate.

The notice required reporting before the 17th. Xie Hushan, Han Hongzhen and his group arrived in Yangcheng on the 13th. Han Hongzhen arrived at the reporting office on the 14th, thinking that since they reported three days in advance, there shouldn’t be many people there. However, when Han Hongzhen and three others entered the guesthouse with the notice and reporting letter, they found that the corridors of the guesthouse were crowded with people.

Han Hongzhen found the office of the light industry exhibition and trade group according to the light industry category she belonged to and reported. As a result, the girl who spoke in Beijing dialect took the report letter, glanced at it and threw it back to her:

“You are not from here. Ask somewhere else.”

Han Hongzhen spent a long time searching in the crowded guesthouse, but still couldn’t figure out which room Zhongping should report to. She was sweating profusely. Jiao Peng, who came with her, had no choice but to find a guesthouse staff member with his work ID:

“Comrade, I am Jiao Peng, the head of the United Front Work Department of Bingyang County. I would like to ask, Zhili Province…”

“County United Front Minister? See? The old man in the yard who is about to cry in anxiety, the deputy mayor and the head of the Municipal Native Products Corporation, is still like a headless fly. If you are not a high-ranking official, don’t mention your position to me, it’s useless, and I don’t know the specific situation! It’s a mess now, just find out by yourself, I’m busy too!” said the waitress in a green military uniform without a rank impatiently.

Jiao Peng retreated helplessly, but Han Hongzhen rolled her eyes, took out two women’s T-shirts from the sample bag on her back, hid them on her lower abdomen, covered them with clothes, and walked towards the waiter. A few words led the other party to follow Han Hongzhen to a quiet place. Two minutes later, the waiter enthusiastically led Han Hongzhen, Jiao Peng, Hu Shuang and Deputy Director Liu to an empty room in the guesthouse with several long benches, and asked the four of them to sit down and rest:

“This is a temporary lounge for our service staff. Sit down and take a rest. I’ll go find out where you can report. I’ll queue for you and let you know when it’s your turn. By the way, there’s water in the kettle. Drink it if you’re thirsty.”

“Tell me, what kind of atmosphere is this…” Jiao Peng smiled awkwardly: “We travel thousands of miles to earn foreign exchange for the country, and we have to give gifts to others first… In the past few years, no one would dare to do this blatantly.”

Hu Shuang was quite open-minded, wiping his sweat while sitting on a bench: “If it weren’t for Brother Xie a few years ago, you might still be wearing a high hat. How could you be perfect? ​​At that time, there were fewer people who got promoted and made fortunes by flattering others and giving gifts.”

“Now that it’s open, I finally understand.” Deputy Director Liu of the County Printing Factory picked up the kettle and poured a bowl of water from the bowl next to him. He gulped down two mouthfuls and then continued:

“Once the economy was opened up, everyone’s brains became active and everyone showed off their talents. There’s nothing wrong with that. I heard from an old cadre who went on a study tour abroad that this is popular in foreign countries, and you have to tip when you eat… We are learning from foreign countries now. They are not taking advantage of us for nothing. They give us a place to rest our legs and help us queue up. We should just treat it like a foreigner.”

Jiao Peng looked at Han Hongzhen next to him: “Xiao Han’s social skills were learned at the steel mill. I still remember the first time he came to my house with Hu Saner, he was too embarrassed to speak.”

“Let him… let Xie Hushan squeeze me. He was less in charge of the steel mill, but after dealing with it for a long time, he gradually understood it.” Han Hongzhen lowered her head and smiled, “I was not used to it at first, but later I had to get used to it. For example, the scrap steel I ordered before was said to be 100 tons, but when you went there, there were only 30 tons. They didn’t say they would not give you the remaining 70 tons, but said they didn’t have the stock for the time being and asked me to wait. At first, I thought that because of Xie Hushan’s relationship, the other party must really not have spot goods, but this kind of thing kept happening, and later I figured it out.”

The waitress who had received the bribe was indeed very efficient. After more than half an hour, she came back and asked the four people to follow her. As she walked, she said to Han Hongzhen:

“Your reporting office is so hard to find. It took me more than ten minutes to find it. The leader of the team is not good enough. He couldn’t even get a good room for his own reporting office.”

The four of them followed her through the crowds of people and finally arrived at a shabby room that looked like a storage room. They motioned to the person behind the desk at the door to ask Han Hongzhen to take out her registration card and said, “This is it, there’s no mistake, the reporting office of the Zhili Provincial Joint Trading Group.”

Then the waitress shook her hair neatly and said, “I’ve finished helping you. Now I’m leaving.” Without waiting for Han Hongzhen to speak, she walked away into the crowd.

“That’s good. At least giving gifts will get things done.” Deputy Director Liu said with emotion.

Jiao Peng sighed: “I don’t know how much foreign exchange the Canton Fair earns, but these people should be able to earn a lot during this period.”

“Comrade, we are from Yaoshan. Here are our registration cards and notification letters.” Han Hongzhen said as she handed over the documents she had prepared long ago to a middle-aged man behind the desk.

The middle-aged man took the documents and checked them one by one, then looked up at the four people and said, “Zhongping Light Industry, you have to divide this into two product groups: knitted garments and printed paper documents. You have to decide among yourselves who will be responsible for printed paper documents and who will be responsible for knitted garments. The exhibition halls for these two groups are different, so they have to be separated.”

“I, I, I, comrade, I am responsible for the paper documents.” Deputy Director Liu immediately raised his hand to express his opinion.

He came to the Canton Fair this time with an important mission, which was to find as many opportunities as possible to sell the high-end stationery produced by the county printing factory.

“Old Liu and I will be responsible for the paperwork.” Jiao Peng hesitated and spoke.

The remaining Han Hongzhen and Hu Shuang were assigned to the knitted garment group.

“Go to the dormitory. The barracks have separate dormitories for men and women.” The middle-aged man returned the information to Han Hongzhen and threw out four keys. “Go out of the guesthouse and walk three miles north to the barracks. Once you enter, you are not allowed to leave without permission. Be ready for meetings at any time.”

Deputy Director Liu’s legs began to tremble at the thought of having to walk another three miles. In addition to his luggage, the bag he was carrying also contained a batch of very heavy sample papers.

As soon as I walked out of the door, I saw Cao Tianbao standing outside in a colorful summer outfit and a straw hat. There were two tricycles parked next to him, and two middle-aged men who looked like farmers were squatting next to the tricycles.

“Leaders, get in the car. We’ll take you to the dormitory.” Seeing the four people coming out, Cao Tianbao, who was almost suffering from heatstroke, greeted them weakly.

“Mr. Cao, why are you here? Where is the translator Lin?” Han Hongzhen asked in surprise.

Cao Tianbao pointed to the distance and said, “I heard from other people who have completed the work that you will be staying in the military camp. The environment is poor, so translator Lin will go and help you prepare some daily necessities.”

“I don’t feel comfortable bothering others.” Hu Shuang said awkwardly from the side.

Cao Tianbao sighed, “Don’t be embarrassed. She went to purchase goods and stayed with me. It was all Brother Shan’s order. Let us, the poisonous weeds of capitalism, find the feeling of serving the people.”

(End of this chapter)