Chapter 235: South Korean Merchants
The album that the other party handed over showed slender female models and sunny and tough male models, wearing underwear of various colors and sizes, posing in various poses.

But no matter how it is posed, the focus of the photo is still the underwear on the model.

The representative who had just said that his factory had hand-made clothes for the leaders, glanced at the album and his face changed immediately. He quickly stepped back and even raised his hand to lightly fan himself on the cheek, hating himself for speaking too quickly.

My goodness! The glorious revolutionary history of his own factory over several decades was almost ruined by his own mouth.

He didn’t even look at the craftsmanship carefully, because no matter what the craftsmanship was, the factory would definitely not take on this kind of job.

If he really took this job, he estimated that he would not have to count on the factory to arrange a celebratory party for him, but he might be able to hope for a Hongmen Banquet.

If things get more serious, the two major factions of leaders in the factory, who are currently fighting over the reform and opening-up policy, may be able to reach a consensus and work together to deal with him, the traitor who insulted the factory.

When the time comes, all the comrades in the factory will surround him and spray him to death with saliva at the meeting:
“Do you have any shame? Our factory has made clothes for leaders and has been commended and inspected by leaders. Why are you actively trying to discredit it? What kind of business is this?”

The other representatives stepped back, but Xie Hushan came over, took the album, looked at it, and handed the album he had prepared to the other party’s translator:

“Comrade, this is our factory’s product. You can ask this foreign businessman to take a look at it. Our factory has been producing for European and American customers. Well, comrade, if it’s convenient for you to finish work in the evening, go to Room *** of the Oriental Hotel and we can talk in detail. I have prepared a lot of samples of foreign goods in the hotel. You can help give me some suggestions then.”

The reason why he dared to offer benefits directly to the translator in front of the South Korean merchants was naturally because the translator in front of him was arranged by the Canton Fair for the merchants and was one of their own.

The Canton Fair has been held for so many years that foreign businessmen have become accustomed to it. They understand that even if they bring their own translators, the Canton Fair will provide them with translators to prevent them from bypassing the Canton Fair and discussing business with exhibitors in private. Therefore, some merchants who come to the fair every year are too lazy to hire private translators to accompany them at high prices.

The translator was a man in his twenties. He nodded calmly after hearing what Xie Hushan said. After taking the picture album and handing it to the South Korean businessman, he translated his words. However, he should have added a lot of content, because Xie Hushan only said two sentences. The translator pointed at the picture album and spoke to the South Korean businessman for nearly twenty seconds. The South Korean businessman nodded repeatedly and finally asked a lot of questions.

The translator looked at Xie Hushan and said, “Mr. Park would like to ask how many workers and sewing machines the Zhongping Processing Plant has now, and where they are located.”

Xie Hushan spoke without blinking:
“Three hundred workers, one hundred and twenty automatic sewing machines, and two hundred manual sewing machines.”

The number he reported was just a threshold, which completely distinguished the factory from the family garment workshops in Hong Kong Island. In Hong Kong Island, most of the garment industry were family workshops. Small workshops had 20 to 30 looms, medium-sized workshops had at least 50 looms, and those with 120 looms and more than 200 skilled workers were no longer considered workshops but could be called garment factories.

Generally speaking, a garment factory of this scale that can be opened in Hong Kong Island must have long-term and stable cooperative customers.

“As for Zhongping, it is located in Yaoshan City, Zhili Province, a city along the Bohai Sea, very close to South Korea. If you can establish some connections and use Hong Kong Island procedures to ship goods from Yaoshan, it will be at least half the time faster than sending the goods to Hong Kong Island and then to South Korea.” After Xie Hushan finished talking about the quantities, he began to talk about Zhongping’s convenient conditions.

Although Zhongping and Bingyang County are not on the coast, Yaoshan is on the coast, and Yaoshan Port is an authentic deep-water port with well-developed shipping routes. There is no need for the Korean to know that Zhongping is about the same distance from Yaoshan Port as Yanjing. Just let him imagine that Zhongping is right outside the door to the sea.

However, Xie Hushan did not expect that the South Korean merchant was so rigorous. He actually took out another map and found the location of Yaoshan on the map according to the translator’s instructions. He found that the description was indeed consistent with what Xie Hushan said. Then he nodded with satisfaction, politely exchanged business cards with Xie Hushan, bowed slightly to say goodbye, and continued to move forward.

“Comrade, don’t forget to help give some advice to our country people in the evening.” Xie Hushan didn’t expect the other party to give him a business right away when they met for the first time. He just whispered to the translator.

The other party smiled at Xie Hushan and left quickly with the foreign businessman.

After the other party left, several older brothers and sisters in the same exhibition room came over to Xie Hushan. The impatient older sister clicked her tongue at this time:

“Captain Xie, Xiao Xie, why do you want to make money from everything? Don’t you have any awareness? I tell you, don’t take on any business next time. You’re obviously not a serious person. The same goes for this foreigner. Don’t you feel ashamed? Why can’t you make underwear at home? Why do you have to come here to embarrass yourself? You are young, and you don’t know that if this kind of thing gets out, the punishment can be serious or minor. At the very least, you will be criticized for not having ideological awareness, but at the most serious level, you may even be charged with hooliganism! Listen to me, don’t flirt with people blindly!”

A middle-aged man next to him said with a cigarette in his mouth, smiling, “It’s nothing if you ask me. Captain Xie is a young man, a newcomer with a new look. Nowadays, young people are learning from the West. Yesterday, I saw two brown-haired foreigners kissing on the street. I felt ashamed for them, but before I could turn my head, a couple with black hair and black eyes next to them also tried it boldly. The one wearing a red headband next to them didn’t care at all. In our time, we would have wanted to find a place where there was no one to hold hands with our partners. How could we dare to do that?”

“You said that South Koreans also have black hair and black eyes, not blue eyes and yellow hair. How come they are as shameless as those foreigners from the West? They took out the photo of that gangster in broad daylight and asked if they could make pants and vests for him?”

“South Korea is the real deal, just like the Western foreigners. Have you forgotten that the United Nations Army led by the United States has been staying in South Korea? The people there must be affected by this kind of thing.” Team leader Li flicked the ash off his cigarette. Seeing that several other representatives were saying that South Korean businessmen were hooligans, he shook his head with some emotion and changed the subject:
“The world has changed. I went to other places during the renovation these two days. In the 1960s, our factory gritted its teeth and started machine printing. Our products were even sold to East Germany. Now, when I see foreigners wandering around the first floor, they come up and ask if we have hand-printed products. They don’t think highly of machine printing… My goodness, which factory can have that? The struggle was so fierce at that time. Those who proposed to retain the hand-printing process were all criticized, and some were even transferred away… If the old leaders of our factory knew that foreigners like hand-printing now, they would die with regret…”

In the evening, the translator really went to the hotel, and Xie Hushan gave him a bunch of foreign goods from Hong Kong to please his wife and children. The translator was also very considerate and immediately reintroduced the South Korean friendly merchant he was responsible for to Xie Hushan. Xie Hushan learned about the quotations made by other promising exhibitors to the South Korean friendly merchant.

A few days later, the decoration of the exhibition room was roughly completed. It was not too eye-catching, but simple, similar to the high-end silk booths on the first floor of the Canton Fair. The ugly shelves and counters were removed, and a lot of mirrors were added to make the originally small exhibition room appear more transparent. The goods were hung up to facilitate customers to reach out and touch them directly to feel the fabrics. The extra space was also deliberately decorated with a few green plants, which was somewhat similar to the minimalist style popular in Japan.

There is also a cylindrical dressing room designed in the middle with a mirror on the outside. If someone wants to try on the clothes, they can open the hidden door and go in to try them on.

It was at this time that Zhongping began to hang clothing samples on the wall and even placed two plastic models wearing the samples at the entrance of the showroom.

After Xie Hushan finished looking at his own exhibition room, he walked around upstairs and downstairs, then returned to the hotel and said to everyone:

“I took a look around, and none of the chemical fiber factories and textile factories that actually produce ready-made clothes are as beautiful as the ones in Zhongping.”

Yang Limin looked out of the hotel window, sighed at the busy traffic below, and said with a wry smile:

“So when the elders at home teach their children, they always say that when scammers are trying to cheat people, they are most willing to spend money.”

“Hey, Lao Yang, if I go and sue you now, you will definitely be punished. Are you trying to say that I invested money to deceive foreigners? Let me tell you, you’d better be careful. The country invested money to organize the Canton Fair, isn’t it also to make money from foreigners? I am responding to the call of the country. What you said is against the country. Be careful that you will lose your job.” Xie Hushan said to Yang Liming with a smile.

Accountant Zhao wore his reading glasses these past two days and looked at a lot of photos that Han Laoer had prepared for him in advance. He also wrote down a lot of numbers in his own account book as Han Laoer chatted with him.

Except for Xie Hushan, Han Laogou, Yang Liming and Han Laoer, no one knew why Xie Hushan brought Accountant Zhao to the Canton Fair. Accountant Zhao did not go around like Taozi, Lu Yuan or even Jiao Peng and his wife. He stayed in the hotel looking through photos these days, or waited for Han Laoer to have time to chat with him.

“The exhibition room decoration work is done. I will go to Hong Kong Island with Chief of Staff Han and Accountant Zhao in the next few days. If there are any issues in Zhongping that need to be negotiated, find Fourth Sister. If Fourth Sister can’t handle it, then go to Old Yang. If Old Yang can’t solve it, then forget it. As for if it involves foreign countries or needs to take advantage of some policies, let my eldest brother Bao Ge come forward. He has a Hong Kong Island identity, so it will be easy for him to handle it.” Xie Hushan turned around, holding a cup of coffee, looked at the people in the living room and said.

After hesitating for a moment, he looked at Taozi again: “Taozi, come with me. Anyway, you can still take advantage of it now. You can get a Hong Kong Island household registration for free through the offset policy.”

When Taozi heard that Xie Hushan was going to take her to Hong Kong Island, she hesitated a little. She looked at her good sister Lv Yuan who was beside her. Lv Yuan immediately encouraged her and whispered, “Go, go, why don’t you go…”

“Why don’t you go too, old aunt? It doesn’t matter whether Old Yang goes or not. It’s okay if you go.” Xie Hushan said with a smile when he saw that Lu Yuan was more excited than Taozi.

Yang Limin frowned slightly, turned around and looked at Xie Hushan, wanting to open his mouth to refute, but he didn’t expect Lu Yuan to shake her head with backbone:
“I won’t go. Old Yang in my family eats government food. How can I go to the capitalist society to get a hukou? Wouldn’t that be a drag on him?”

“Then why are you so excited?” Xie Hushan asked Lu Yuan.

Lu Yuan took out her wallet, counted out a stack of money and handed it to Taozi: “Taozi, you have to go. When you get there, help me buy it…”

“Are you going there like you did last time, Third Brother?” Although Xie Hushan had never mentioned it to her, when Zhu Youjun and Lin Meiyang were shopping and chatting with her these days, her half-true and half-false questions had already made Zhu Youjun and Lin the translator tell her everything about how Xie Hushan took them to Hong Kong Island and what he did there.

When Xie Hushan saw the look in his wife’s eyes, he immediately glanced at Lin the translator and Zhu Youjun in anger and pointed at the two women:
“You two have looser lips than your belts…”

“I…” Zhu Youjun didn’t react at first, but then he looked at Taozi and sighed in sudden realization.

“What do you mean by ‘I’? You guys are not cut out for confidentiality work.” Xie Hushan said with a smile, then looked at Taozi:
“We don’t have to go that far this time. Comrade Zhu and Translator Lin have already helped fill out the invitation letter. We can just take the bus there.”

(End of this chapter)