Chapter 68: Yuan Wenhai’s New Position
When Xiao Liang asked whether Professor Xu Yushan had raised any new conditions, Xiao Xiao said with a headache, “Professor Xu is holding firm. He said he wants to meet you in person before discussing anything further.”
Xiao Xiao had never handled business negotiations before, and now he was responsible for contacting Professor Xu on his own from start to finish. Naturally, he felt uncertain about many things.
Xiao Liang nodded. “I’ll go through the materials first. In a couple of days, once the new company is registered, I’ll go back to Dongzhou. If the talks go smoothly, you should apply directly for Professor Xu’s in-service graduate program. No matter where you go in the future, a higher degree will always be useful.”
Then he turned to Gu Peijun. “Old Gu, clear out the hot-fill production line in Workshop Two for me first.”
“Fine. The production line won’t be running at full capacity at first anyway. There isn’t enough concentrated juice base on the market to supply us,” Gu Peijun said. “By the way, I heard Yuan Wenhai is being transferred to Yunshe.”
“Oh?” Xiao Liang perked up. “As station chief, right? Not some irritating deputy position?”
Since returning to 1994, there were very few people Xiao Liang truly wanted to get close to. Yuan Wenhai was definitely one of them. Unfortunately, he had been too busy in Xijiang for over a month to visit him in Shishan for tea. They had only spoken twice by phone.
He hadn’t expected Yuan Wenhai to be transferred directly to Yunshe after recovering from his injury.
Yuan Wenhai had previously been deputy captain of the county criminal investigation brigade. If he could replace Chen Shen as chief of Yunshe Police Station, that would be a solid step forward.
But if, under the current expansion of township-level policing, he was merely assigned as an instructor or deputy chief, it would mean something entirely different.
“I heard it’s station chief—but that’s just what I heard,” Gu Peijun said.
“That’s easy enough to confirm.”
Xiao Liang flipped through his notebook, found Yuan Wenhai’s pager number, and used the phone on the coffee table to call the paging station.
Xijiang would become the most important base for building the sales team. Once finances loosened up a little, Xiao Liang not only rented an office on the second floor of a building along Zijiang Road and several apartments as dormitories, he also had a landline installed in his own room for easy contact with Gu Peijun and his family.
“Hello, this is Yuan Wenhai from the county criminal investigation team. Who’s this?”
Yuan Wenhai called back quickly after receiving the page.
Hearing that familiar voice through the receiver, Xiao Liang smiled. “It’s Xiao Liang. I was wondering—should I call you Chief Yuan now, or Deputy Chief Yuan?”
“Oh, it’s you, kid! Why aren’t you in Yunshe? Why is this a Xijiang number? You’re not working in Yunshe anymore? You ran off to Xijiang?”
The moment he heard Xiao Liang’s voice, Yuan Wenhai’s volume rose noticeably.
“Who said I’m not in Yunshe anymore?” Xiao Liang asked.
“Qian Haiyun said so. He came to the bureau for a meeting two days ago and said you’d been kicked out by the township and thrown into the mess at Nanting Lake Juice Factory.”
Yuan Wenhai had only heard fragments from Qian Haiyun and had been puzzled ever since, but he hadn’t had a chance to ask Xiao Liang face to face.
“What exactly happened? Wang Xingmin wouldn’t cook you so quickly, would he? And you haven’t even come to Shishan to visit an injured man. Don’t tell me I’m supposed to shamelessly go looking for you instead. Why are you in Xijiang now?”
“I requested the transfer to the juice factory myself. To better serve that ‘mess,’ I even took unpaid leave,” Xiao Liang said. “I’ve been on business in Xijiang for over a month. I haven’t even had time to see my own parents, so naturally I haven’t had the chance to pay my respects to Chief Yuan.”
He chuckled. “When are you reporting to Yunshe? I’ll rush back and throw you a welcome dinner. Or I’ll be back in Dongzhou tomorrow or the day after—should I host a celebration banquet for you in Shishan first?”
“I’ll probably head to Yunshe in a couple of days. It’s just about settled,” Yuan Wenhai said. “Forget the banquet nonsense. As long as you haven’t forgotten me, that’s enough.”
In his previous life, Yuan Wenhai had suffered greatly because of him—even being pushed out of the police force. Xiao Liang hadn’t expected that after his rebirth, Yuan Wenhai’s life would also change course.
Naturally, he was glad to see it.
After hanging up, he smiled at Gu Peijun. “He didn’t say whether he’s station chief or deputy chief. That means he must be the chief. Looks like we’ve got someone solid to lean on in Yunshe now.”
…
Because Professor Xu Yushan might demand a high price, Xiao Liang slightly adjusted his plans. If he was going back to Dongzhou to negotiate, he needed access to a larger sum of money.
The next day, he called Xu Xiaodong, Zhao Xudong, Li Xiangnan, Fei Wenwei, and the others back to the office.
After giving more detailed instructions for the next phase, Xiao Liang decided to distribute the first phase of bonuses immediately.
“There will be new adjustments in the next stage. Xu Lihuan will take charge of the Xijiang office. Xu Xiaodong, Zhao Xudong, and Fei Wenwei, you’ll report directly to him. Zhang Ming and Li Xiangnan will return to Dongzhou to establish a new office. Zhang Feili and Liu Weiwei will return to the factory headquarters. Director Wu Qiyan will have another assignment.”
He continued, “Director Wu stayed up late last night calculating everything. The full sales bonus for the first phase comes to just over 785,000 yuan. To reassure everyone—and to prevent anyone from worrying that I’ll pocket the bonus after the job changes—Director Gu and I discussed it last night. After reserving necessary expenses, we’ll distribute 700,000 yuan this time.”
He handed out the bonus allocation sheet.
“These are the amounts each of you nine will receive after estimated personal income tax. Check them. If there’s no issue, sign. Your task this afternoon is to take your ID cards and open accounts at the nearby Bank of China. The bonuses will be transferred directly into your personal accounts.”
“Oh no, the tax deduction is huge. It hurts!” Zhang Feili cried after reviewing the sheet Wu Qiyan had prepared overnight. The tax alone was more than what she had earned in an entire year before.
She looked at Xiao Liang. “Manager Xiao, how much tax do you have to pay? Won’t that hurt even more?”
“I’m registering a private company. My personal sales reward will be converted into business income for the new company. As long as it doesn’t go into my personal account, I don’t have to pay personal income tax on it for now.”
Xiao Liang looked at Zhang Feili’s lovely face and smiled. “What, feeling bad about paying tax? If you’re not afraid your husband will suspect there’s something between us, you can invest your money into my company too.”
“Forget it. My little bit can’t withstand any tossing around. I’ll just honestly contribute to the country,” Zhang Feili said, glancing at him.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to invest in the new company. She had another use for the money, and couldn’t worry about whether he misunderstood.
Xiao Liang thought she still didn’t trust him and wanted to keep the money in her own hands. He felt a small pang of disappointment, but then figured it was just as well. At least he wouldn’t need to find an excuse to refuse her.
…
The plan to register a new company, take over the juice factory’s marketing and sales, and enter the health supplement business was now officially public.
Wu Qiyan, Xu Lihuan, and Zhang Ming all chose to join the new company. Once it was established, Wu Qiyan would handle administration and finance, Xu Lihuan would oversee the Xijiang market, and Zhang Ming would return to Dongzhou to establish a new office.
Their compensation would begin with monthly living allowances of one to two thousand yuan, with Xiao Liang making up the promised annual salary at the end of the year.
Zhao Xudong, Fei Wenwei, and Xu Xiaodong also agreed to join the new company as ordinary sales staff, with lower base salaries plus sales commissions.
Li Xiangnan, who had been head of the inspection department, chose to return to his original post at the juice factory after the early sales work was completed and bonuses were paid.
His decision wasn’t surprising. Not everyone wanted to work in sales, and not everyone believed the new company had a bright future.
In any case, the production side of the juice factory also needed people.
Earlier, to support market promotion in Xijiang, Xiao Liang had drawn more than twenty young workers from the juice factory.
After observing them for a period of time, Xiao Liang finally confirmed with Xu Lihuan, Wu Qiyan, and Zhang Ming that they would first retain twelve of them for the new company, then recruit and train new employees from society.
Xijiang’s city and county state-owned enterprise reforms had already begun early last year, and the pace was much stronger than in Dongzhou.
For many workers on standby or laid off, this was an extremely difficult period. But for newly established private enterprises, it created unprecedented freedom in hiring talent.
Xiao Liang stayed in Xijiang one extra day to make arrangements. Without even waiting for the new company registration to be finalized, he returned to Dongzhou by car with Xiao Xiao, Gu Peijun, Zhang Feili, and Liu Weiwei.
Without pausing to catch his breath, he immediately headed straight to Dongzhou Institute of Technology to meet Professor Xu Yushan.
In 1994, many transactions between manufacturers and distributors were still done in cash, and intercity transfers were troublesome. Xiao Liang simply stuffed fifty thousand yuan in cash into his backpack.
Xiao Xiao had already met with Professor Xu several times, and they had communicated extensively. When Xiao Liang arrived at Xu Yushan’s office, he exchanged only brief pleasantries before speaking frankly.
They were registering a new company and would definitely operate a health supplement product, with Nanting Lake Juice Factory handling contract manufacturing.
Xiao Liang also stated plainly that he was currently deputy director and sales manager of the juice factory, but would soon resign from those positions and take full responsibility for operating the new company.
Because the new company had suddenly decided to enter the health supplement industry, the future still held too many uncertainties.
He could not agree to Xu Yushan’s other conditions. His offer was simple: fifty thousand yuan to buy out Xu Yushan’s related research results outright, plus a monthly consultant fee of two thousand yuan to hire Professor Xu as the new company’s technical adviser, providing technical guidance for future product development and process improvement.
If Xu Yushan developed other research results in the future, the company would, based on its financial strength and market development, seek deeper cooperation with him.
The only additional condition Xiao Liang proposed was that his brother Xiao Xiao would immediately begin following Xu Yushan’s research work in the laboratory, and he asked Xu to help Xiao Xiao apply for an in-service graduate program at Dongzhou Institute of Technology.
Previously, Professor Xu had proposed twenty thousand yuan to buy out the research results plus a sales commission. In reality, his expected buyout price was around forty thousand.
In the 1990s, the prices for commercializing university research were far lower than later generations would imagine.
Xiao Liang’s offer exceeded Xu Yushan’s expectations by a considerable margin. The two sides quickly and pleasantly finalized all cooperation details in the office.
Since Professor Xu had other university activities that afternoon, Xiao Liang directly took twenty thousand yuan from his backpack as a deposit and left.
As for the municipal pharmaceutical factory, Xiao Liang felt it was inappropriate to publicize the relationship between the new company and the juice factory too early. He decided that over the next two days, Xiao Xiao would accompany Gu Peijun and contact several pharmaceutical factory employees they knew, in the name of the juice factory.
Even if they wouldn’t resign outright, they needed to persuade four or five people to apply for unpaid leave and try working at the juice factory for six months to a year.
Just as Xiao Liang, his brother, Gu Peijun, Zhang Feili, and Liu Weiwei were about to leave Dongzhou Institute of Technology and passed by the gatehouse, someone called out:
“Xiao Liang! Xiao Liang, what are you doing at the Institute of Technology?”
Xiao Liang turned and saw Sui Jing, whom he hadn’t seen for some time, standing beside the gatehouse. She held the telephone receiver handed through the gatehouse window and was waving at him in surprise.
But the moment he turned around, she seemed to regret calling out.
Beside Sui Jing stood a girl in a pale yellow dress, looking at the five of them with curiosity.
