Chapter 17: At Worst, Start Over Again!
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Around three in the afternoon, Tang Ye received a call from the security office saying that someone had come to see him.
Tang Ye went downstairs and saw Sun Hai from a distance, offering a cigarette to the security guard. He wondered why the fellow had not called to let him know he was coming.
Sun Hai entered the office and immediately took an interest in the potted greenery by the window, fingering its leaves. “Tang Monk, your clivia is thriving. It looks as though it is about to bloom!”
Tang Ye could tell that he was in an excellent mood. “What brings you here?”
Sun Hai gave a smug little chuckle. “I came into a windfall.”
Tang Ye remained remarkably calm. “Good for you.”
Tang Ye did not follow the usual script and ask what had happened. Sun Hai immediately grew impatient. “That’s all? You’re not even surprised?”
Tang Ye smiled, then asked, “How did you come by this windfall? Tell me about it.”
The Fatty shook his head, crossed one leg over the other, and said with a grin, “I bought a junk stock in the first half of the year. It was suppressed for more than six months and was known as the worst stock in the A-share market. It only ever fell and never rose. Then, unexpectedly, it started climbing last week. At first I thought it was just a fluke, but it kept going up and still hasn’t stopped today.”
Tang Ye paused for several seconds before reminding him, “I’m not trying to dampen your spirits. The stock market is a casino. Until you cash out, those figures are nothing more than betting chips—no different from tokens at an arcade.”
Sun Hai spread his hands, perfectly at ease. “That’s why I got out. I exchanged the game tokens for cash and walked away from the table.”
“How much?”
“Three hundred thousand!”
In 2005, three hundred thousand yuan was no small sum.
In a slightly less central part of the city, it could buy three commercial apartments.
Tang Ye secretly admired Sun Hai’s nerve. Not every gambler could resist the temptation of chasing a stock higher and higher. “How are you planning to spend it?”
“I came to ask your advice. Is there anything suitable for me to do?”
Sun Hai was determined to start a business.
Tang Ye considered the start-up capital needed for Qin Ge Garment Factory’s new product line. “As a matter of fact, there is something. Shall I introduce it to you?”
He took a project proposal from his drawer and handed it to Sun Hai.
Sun Hai flipped through two pages, then stared at Tang Ye in astonishment. “Women’s lingerie?”
Tang Ye smiled. “That’s right. What’s the matter? Are you embarrassed that a group of grown men would be getting into this business?”
Sun Hai shook his head and licked his dry lips. “Why would I be embarrassed? Goo Jai once made a movie called La Brassiere. Didn’t it do pretty well at the box office? This project is fresh, exciting, and stimulating. It has real potential!”
La Brassiere had been released in 2001. That year, it grossed more than eighteen million at the Hong Kong box office, ranking sixth. Because of its unusual subject matter, the project made a powerful impression on Sun Hai.
“I’ll have to ask my partner whether she’s willing to take you on. This project has enormous potential. If everything goes smoothly, we could recover our investment in six months and turn a profit within a year.” Watching Sun Hai’s expression, Tang Ye felt it would be improper to exaggerate too much.
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Sun Hai was clearly not so easy to fool. He laughed. “Don’t treat me like a sucker. I’ll invest only if you’re willing to put in money too!”
To Sun Hai, the extra money from the stock market was hardly different from money he had picked up off the street.
He knew Tang Ye’s character. Tang Ye was exceedingly cautious in everything he did. If he was willing to invest in this project himself, he must have considered all the risks carefully.
Tang Ye called Gu Wenqin.
When Gu Wenqin learned that someone wanted to join the venture, she hurried over.
The moment Sun Hai saw her, he froze for quite some time.
He had never expected to encounter such a beautiful woman in a small town.
Gu Wenqin was not only attractive and slender; more importantly, there was a touch of allure at the corners of her eyes.
“Hello. My name is Gu Wenqin.”
“My name is Sun Hai. I was Tang Ye’s classmate in high school.” Sun Hai came back to himself and laughed a few times to conceal his earlier lapse.
With Sun Hai now joining as an investor, the shares had to be redistributed.
Tang Ye revised the agreement and printed it out. “This is the contract I drafted. Take a look and let me know if you have any objections.”
Tang Ye went home and told Qin Lan about his plan to invest in the lingerie project.
Qin Lan’s character was entirely different from Tang Yu’s cautious, stability-seeking nature. She strongly supported Tang Ye’s desire to invest.
“A young man should have ambition, especially before the age of thirty. Everything is still changing then. Don’t be afraid of failure. At worst, you can start all over again.”
Gu Wenqin would contribute the factory premises and the workers, receiving a fifty-percent share.
Sun Hai would invest three hundred thousand yuan, receiving thirty percent.
Tang Ye put in all the savings he had accumulated from graduate school and his years of work. He also borrowed one hundred thousand yuan from his mother and invested it under her name. His total contribution was two hundred thousand yuan, earning him a twenty-percent share.
“Town Chief Tang, I have no objection to the division of shares.”
“I’ll follow your lead…”
Tang Ye’s tone suddenly turned serious. “Starting a business inevitably involves risk. We have to prepare ourselves mentally. Whether we make money comes second. What matters is investing our time and energy, and taking care to perfect every detail.”
Gu Wenqin’s eyes reddened. Although she was not putting in any cash, the costs of the factory premises, labor, management, and everything else could not be overlooked.
“I feel a lot of pressure. If we lose money…”
A look of determination appeared on Sun Hai’s round face. “We’re all adults. We can take responsibility for our own decisions. If necessary, we’ll simply start over!”
Tang Ye had made such a substantial investment only after careful consideration. He smiled and encouraged his partners. “We won’t lose money. The era of demographic dividends is about to arrive. In particular, women’s purchasing power will become evident over the next three to five years.”
Gu Wenqin drew a deep breath, feeling the blood in her veins quietly beginning to burn.
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“Once we sign this equity agreement, we’ll all be tied to the same rope.” Tang Ye brought out an ink pad and pressed his fingerprint onto the document first.
Gu Wenqin did not hesitate for a moment. She pressed her thumb into the signature box.
Sun Hai suddenly faltered.
The three hundred thousand had barely reached his hands.
And now he was supposed to throw it all in?
Everyone said that starting a business was a matter of surviving nine disasters out of ten, and this was a field he had only encountered today.
Impulsiveness was the devil.
Perhaps he should think it over a little longer.
“Tang Monk, I just remembered that I have something else to take care of. I’ll take the contract home, and bring it back to you in a few days, all right?”
Gu Wenqin looked at Sun Hai and tried to put herself in his position. It really was too sudden. “Why don’t we sign the contract in a few days? Let him take some time to calm down.”
“Fatty, are you trying to back out? Too late!”
Tang Ye seized Sun Hai by the wrist, pressed his hand into the ink pad, and then stamped his fingerprint onto the contract.
“What the hell! Do you really do things like this?” Sun Hai stared at the red ink smeared across his hand, then at the red palmprint on the signature line, completely dumbfounded.
“Ha-ha-ha-ha…”
Gu Wenqin’s clear, melodious laughter, bright as a skylark’s song, dispelled the tension in the room.
Tang Ye blew several times on the damp fingerprint. “There. In ancient times, sworn brothers pledged themselves together in the Peach Garden. Today, we form our alliance in Pinghu.”
Sun Hai scratched his head with his left hand. “Don’t tell me I’ve just boarded a pirate ship?”
“If so, you brought yourself aboard.” Tang Ye handed one copy of the contract to Sun Hai. “Remember to transfer the money first thing tomorrow morning. We’ve already signed the contract. You’re not going to drag your feet and welch on the deal, are you?”
Sun Hai steeled himself.
“I’m a man of action. I won’t hold things up…”
“If I lose everything, I’ll just consider it stolen!”
…
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