After Zhou Hexuan returned to Shanghai, he did not go to a hotel, but went directly to Xu Zhimo's house. Anyway, there were many rooms here, and they were all vacant, and there were cooks and servants to serve them.
It was the weekend, and Xu Zhimo was resting at home.
As soon as he saw Zhou Hexuan, Xu Zhimo asked with concern: "Mingcheng, I heard that there was a riot in Nanjing, are you okay?"
"Stop talking, it's hard to explain in one sentence," Zhou Hexuan said with a wry smile, "I'll introduce you to two friends, Booker, professor of agriculture at Jinling University, and this is his wife Pearl, who is also a writer."
Xu Zhimo was warm and hospitable. He shook hands with Pearl Buck and his wife and said, "Hello, you two!"
"Hello Mr. Xu, my Chinese name is Pearl Buck." Pearl Buck said with a smile.
Xu Zhimo said in surprise: "Ms. Pearl speaks Chinese really well."
"We've been living in China," Booker explained.
Zhou Hexuan was as casual as if he were at home. He sat down, picked up the teacup and asked, "Where is Xiaoman?"
Xu Zhimo said: "She went to play cards with her friends and may not come back until evening."
Zhou Hexuan didn't ask any more questions and sat on the sofa to drink tea slowly. Xu Zhimo and Pearl Buck chatted happily. Pearl Buck also took out her first draft of "The Good Earth". Xu Zhimo read it and praised it greatly, saying that it was a Chinese film.
A romantic epic in the countryside.
Romantic epics often mean being divorced from reality.
Everyone chatted for a while, and suddenly someone came to visit.
The visitor's name is Zhang Jiazhu, who is about 24 or 25 years old. He just graduated from Harvard University last year. He is the eighth brother of Xu Zhimo's ex-wife Zhang Youyi. He founded Crescent Bookstore (major shareholder) in Shanghai at the beginning of the year, specializing in publishing and selling Crescent School.
The poet's works.
It's strange for the Xu and Zhang families. Although Xu Zhimo abandoned his wife and divorced Zhang Youyi, they still stayed very close to each other.
Xu Shenru bought a bungalow in Shanghai for her ex-daughter-in-law last month, and Zhang Jiazhu hangs out with her ex-brother-in-law all day long. It is not awkward for these people to interact with each other.
"Yu Jiu, why do you have time to come to my place to play?" Xu Zhimo asked with a smile.
Zhang Jiazhu said angrily: "I have free time all day long, so I only have time left."
Zhang Jiazhu is indeed qualified for leisure, and his family is also rich.
Zhang Runzhi has a total of 12 children. The eldest is a Shanghai oil tycoon and a famous entrepreneur; the second is engaged in politics and academia and is the founder of the National Socialist Party and one of the four great kings of New Confucianism; the third is engaged in finance and is known as the modern Bank of China in later generations.
The father of...
Zhang Jiazhu is the eighth oldest. Although he has no future prospects at the moment, he graduated from Harvard and will become a well-known industrialist in the future.
Xu Zhimo smiled and said: "Let me introduce you, Yu Jiu, this is Mr. Zhou Hexuan Zhou..."
Zhang Jiazhu is impatient. Before Xu Zhimo finished speaking, he clapped his hands and said, "It's Mr. Zhou. I have read your poems and admired them for a long time! Mr. Zhou has also moved to Shanghai?"
"I'm here to find someone to do business with," Zhou Hexuan said.
"What kind of business?" Zhang Jiazhu didn't even understand the situation, so he patted his chest and said, "You can ask me to cooperate."
Zhou Hexuan hilariously took out the underwear sample and said: "Buddy bellyband business."
Zhang Jiazhu picked up the underwear and took a look at it: "This seems to be a new type of underwear, it's quite beautiful."
Pearl Buck and his wife were also attracted. Booker observed: "These are all live buckles, which seem to be more convenient than the new American underwear."
"And the style is nice too," Pearl Buck added.
Zhang Jiazhu laughed and said: "My little sister will definitely like it, why don't we bring her in to participate in it as well?"
The "little sister" Zhang Jiazhu calls is Zhang Jiarui, Xu Zhimo's former sister-in-law. She studied fashion design. In a few years, she will become a judge at various talent shows in the Republic of China and a well-known social activist.
Zhou Hexuan rolled his eyes and asked with a smile: "Brother Yu Jiu, are you really planning to buy shares?"
"Of course, the new underwear is so new, young people should try new things." Zhang Jiazhu said. He has never worried about food and clothing since he was a child, has never experienced the hardships of life, and does everything based on his own preferences.
"Okay, let's go find Uncle Xu now. He also plans to invest." Zhou Hexuan stood up immediately.
"Let's go, just do it!" Zhang Jiazhu quite agreed with Zhou Hexuan's vigorous and resolute behavior.
After the two left, Xu Zhimo hadn't even recovered yet - how come they had already agreed to cooperate after just a few words when they first met?
The reason is simple. Zhou Hexuan is worried about Xu Shenru, so it is enough to bring the Zhang family in. Although the two families have a good relationship, a rift has developed since Xu Zhimo and Zhang Youyi divorced, and the Zhang family is full of resentment towards the Xu family.
Only Zhang Jiazhu, a stupid young man, could run after Xu Zhimo.
Xu Shenru was a little surprised by the visit of Zhou Hexuan and Zhang Jiazhu. After thinking about it, he couldn't laugh or cry. To be honest, his family had a big business and looked down on the bellyband business at all. He would not play tricks in it because he felt his hands were dirty!
Alas, let them young people do the trouble.
Xu Shenru treated the younger generation very patiently and discussed cooperation with Zhou Hexuan and Zhang Jiazhu. It didn't matter even if he suffered a little loss, it was regarded as compensation to the Zhang family. Who would let his son abandon his wife?
The underwear factory is tentatively located in Pudong. Shanghai is backed by a sea road and connected to the Yangtze River. It is convenient for purchasing and shipping, and it is also easier to recruit workers.
Xu Shenru invested 20,000 yuan and was responsible for raw material supply and production, accounting for 30% of the shares; Zhang Jiazhu invested 20,000 and was responsible for sales and management, accounting for 30% of the shares; Zhou Hexuan invested 20,000 and provided exclusive rights, and was responsible for promoting public opinion, accounting for 40% of the shares.
In fact, Xu Shenru and Zhang Jiazhu don't need to personally intervene. Both families have their own professional talents, and they can just send a few people to take care of things.
In the next half month, Zhou Hexuan and Zhang Jiazhu were running all over the place. They were newbies in the business world, and they followed the professionals and made noise more often.
Xu Shenru has great powers. Before the factory building was selected, he had already shipped 200 sewing machines and was recruiting and training workers intensively.
In the early years of the Republic of China, Shanghai was a core base of light industry with numerous factories and companies, especially the textile industry.
During World War I and the following years, China's textile industry prospered unprecedentedly, and anyone who built any factory could make a lot of money. However, after 1921, Western and Japanese businessmen came back, and the supply of China's textile industry exceeded demand.
The market collapsed in an instant. Even Zhang Jian's factory suffered losses year after year, not to mention others - the boycott of foreign goods movement in the 1920s came about in this context.
Zhou Hexuan now runs an underwear factory, which has two advantages at the beginning: First, the competition in the textile industry is fierce, resulting in low cotton and yarn prices, and low raw material costs; second, the closure of large factories in the past few years has caused countless workers to lose their jobs, and now workers can be recruited casually
You can get on the job within a few days of training.
Even the factory buildings are ready-made. A closed yarn mill was located in the market. After simple decoration and layout, it could be started in less than half a month.