Chapter 14: The First Bowl of Gold
Chapter 14 The First Bowl of Gold (Seeking Follow-up Reading)
Now that he has become a big shot on the list, Yang Wendong actually doesn’t really care how much he can sell in a day at the stall.
Anyway, I'm just running a stall and can come back anytime I want. The most important task at the moment is to produce the mousetrap that Elena wants.
After careful consideration, Yang Wendong found three more people from the dormitory to help with the work.
The first is to be able to increase the speed a little bit, and the second is to learn more. Once you become proficient, you can also increase your production capacity.
On the fourth day, one thousand mousetraps were completed. There were too many of them, so seven people and 7 bamboo baskets headed towards the destination.
The government department where Elena worked was called the Municipal Committee. Yang Wendong had asked some people before and knew that this department was in charge of a wide range of matters.
They can get involved in the environment, public works, logistics and transportation, church, social welfare, etc. Yang Wendong also understood why Elena and others were able to influence the police and promote the establishment of the hawker management team.
"What are you doing?" The guard at the door of the government department immediately stopped Yang Wendong and his companions when he saw them.
"Brother, we are here to see Ms. Elena." After Yang Wendong said this, he immediately handed over Elena's business card and a pack of opened cigarettes.
The guard glanced at the business card, opened the cigarette box, saw the banknotes inside, and said, "Okay, I'll let you know, but you can't stop at the door. Wait on the side of the road for a while."
"Okay." Yang Wendong agreed quickly. He must be cautious here.
During this era, although the Triads were in chaos and looked very arrogant, the ones who truly controlled Hong Kong were still the British.
After the guard went in, Yang Wendong and his companions stayed on the side of the road and waited for a long time. Then Elena came over under the guidance of the guard.
"Ms. Elena, they are those people." The guard changed his previous arrogant expression and spoke very flatteringly.
"OK." Elena ignored the guard, then walked towards Yang Wendong and asked, "Are all the things ready?"
"Yes." Yang Wendong nodded.
Elena looked at the bamboo baskets on the ground again and asked, "Are these not assembled yet? Do they need to be assembled separately?"
"Yes." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "1000 is too many. The assembled mousetraps take up a lot of space and cannot be transported here."
This is the disadvantage of the mousetrap. In terms of weight, the one made of bamboo is much lighter than the mousetrap or mousetrap made of iron, but it takes up more space, especially because it is necessary to install additional mechanisms outside the bamboo tube, which takes up more space.
"Yeah, that's right. Once they're packed, it's not convenient for me to deliver them to those warehouses." Elena thought about it and felt that it made sense.
Last time she brought back 20 of them, and they were tied up by Yang Wendong, so she just had to carry them by the ropes. Now there are 1000 of them, and the order of magnitude is completely different.
Yang Wendong asked again: "How far should these mousetraps be sent?"
"It's not very far, about 1 mile, but the direction is different." Elena seemed a little stumped. It was also troublesome for her to deliver these things.
Yang Wendong saw Elena's difficulties at a glance, so he said, "Ms. Elena, why don't you let us send it over."
"You guys send it over? Our deal doesn't include this." Elena asked in surprise.
Yang Wendong smiled and said, "It's okay, just consider it as a free gift from me. There is a saying in Western society that the customer is God. I am happy to help customers solve their problems."
"Well, okay." Elena thought for a moment and said, "It's 10 o'clock now, so let's deliver it to the first house first. I'll treat you to lunch at noon." "Okay." Yang Wendong smiled and agreed readily.
For Elena, finding someone to deliver it might cost a lot, but for Yang Wendong and others, it would only take one day.
The thing that ordinary poor people in Hong Kong care least about is time. In many cases, this group even has no concept of labor costs. It is very good to be able to give them a lunch with good food.
In Hong Kong society, there are many families where even a husband and wife working together cannot support the family, and it is common for children to become child laborers at the age of seven or eight.
Elena was old, so it was impossible for her to walk like Yang Wendong and the others. She called a rickshaw, followed by several young men carrying shoulder poles.
After more than ten minutes, they arrived at the first warehouse. The person who came to greet them was a British guy in his 40s. The two of them communicated in English in front of Yang Wendong and others.
Yang Wendong could understand some English, but not very well. He was not an English major in his previous life, and the English level of a normal college student was still far from normal communication.
If he has the opportunity in the future, he will definitely learn English, which is the basis for getting along well in Hong Kong...
After a while, Elena said, "Mr. Yang, this is Brian, the person in charge of Jordan Warehouse. He said he would like you to put the things inside the warehouse after you install these mousetraps."
"Shall we put it away?" Yang Wendong asked curiously. Generally speaking, outsiders should not be allowed to enter this kind of warehouse.
Elena said: "Recently, there have been a lot of shipments from the port, and the surrounding warehouses are also full. All the warehouses are very busy, and they don't have that much time to arrange people to do these things."
"Oh, so that's how it is. Okay, that's fine with us." Yang Wendong nodded quickly in agreement.
He also roughly knew that in the late 50s, Hong Kong had a huge trade and its own industry was also developing, which was very likely to lead to a warehouse explosion at the dock.
"Okay." Elena said, and chatted with the foreigner in the warehouse for a while, then said to Yang Wendong: "Mr. Yang, I will take you to the other three warehouses to deliver the goods first, and then we need to go back to settle the payment.
As for the storage of the goods in the warehouse, you can come back and Mr. Brian will settle the fees with you later."
"Okay, I'm happy to." Yang Wendong said with a smile. It would be good to expand one more business. Anyway, he and others have plenty of time, and it is the least valuable.
Afterwards, Yang Wendong and a few others followed Elena and delivered the goods to three other warehouses, and basically negotiated new business the same as before.
At the last warehouse, Elena also arranged for Yang Wendong and others to have a meal in this warehouse. This was also the most sumptuous meal Yang Wendong had eaten since he traveled through time: there was plenty of meat and as much rice as he could eat.
Back at the headquarters of the Municipal Committee, Elena gave Yang Wendong a check for 300 yuan, which was the most money Yang Wendong had earned since he traveled through time.
It is not an exaggeration to say that it is the first bowl of gold.
Of course, not all the money belongs to him, he still has to pay salaries.
"Ms. Elena, this is a little gift from me." Yang Wendong took out a notebook and handed it to Elena.
"This isn't the first time you've done this, but it's really not necessary." Elena smiled and glanced at the banknotes in the notebook, then handed them to Yang Wendong: "Remember my original request? If you can help more poor people in the future, that will be your way of thanking me."
……
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(End of this chapter)