Chapter 88: Signing the Order

Chapter 88: Signing the Order

Yamaguchi had an accommodating demeanor. "Mr. Wen and Mr. Lu have been so hospitable; I am truly humbled. Business must be done."

On the spot, he expressed his intention to place an order for five thousand cans of fragrant luncheon meat and five thousand cans of braised pork.

Although the order was not large, Director Lu and Secretary Wen were still very excited. After all, this was their first genuine foreign client—not just an overseas Chinese.

A total of ten thousand cans, nearly 3.4 tons.

Yamaguchi smiled. "This is just the first batch. For the second batch, I need twice as much. As long as it sells well, subsequent orders will keep coming."

Director Lu was almost overcome with joy, tears in his eyes. This southern trip was worth it; all the hard work and having to cater to these second-rate foreigners had paid off.

Taking advantage of the situation, Yamaguchi raised the price. To make it easier for Director Lu and the others to calculate, he quoted the price in Chinese currency—90 fen per can.

Director Lu and his team were momentarily stunned. This... this price is a bit low.

It's right at our production cost.

Even wholesale should be one yuan per can.

How can a wealthy foreigner not even offer the wholesale price?

He suddenly realized that he hadn't told Yamaguchi about their production costs. How could he have hit it so precisely?

Could it be that Wu Chaoqun had informed him?

Disappointment crept into his heart. Mr. Yamaguchi spoke nicely and seemed friendly, but his price-cutting was swift and precise.

Director Lu showed a troubled expression. "Mr. Yamaguchi, 90 fen is too low. Our factory won't make any profit, and we have four thousand employees to support."

He began to complain, explaining how small the factory was, how they couldn't accommodate more workers in the dormitories, and needed to build housing for families but lacked funds. Additionally, they still owed money on loans for equipment.

Yamaguchi smiled understandingly but didn't budge on the price, not even a single fen. "If business takes off and orders keep coming, if sales go well, I'll raise the price by five to ten fen per can for the next order."

Seeing his firm stance, Director Lu and Secretary Wen exchanged glances. The price wasn't ideal; they had hoped for at least 1.3 yuan per can.

Everyone says foreigners are rich and pay high prices. But why are they being so stingy here when they weren't in Hong Kong or Guangzhou?

Wu Chaoqun started translating again. "Ah, labor is cheap in your country, so naturally, export prices should be lower."

Thinking about it, it made sense?

Wu Chaoqun continued, "This is just the beginning. Director Lu, Secretary Wen, think about thin margins but high volume. If there's a steady stream of orders, even with lower prices, you'll still make a profit, right?"

Ma Huiyou felt dissatisfied and boldly interjected, "Translator Wu, you know the domestic situation. Pig supplies are limited; we can't produce unlimited amounts. The entire canned meat production in the country is only 300,000 tons."

Wu Chaoqun's face darkened. "So you don't want to do this business?"

Director Lu glanced at Ma Huiyou, who immediately fell silent and apologized, saying he didn't understand and asked for guidance.

Director Lu and Secretary Wen thought it was feasible to start with less profit and grow the business later.

Director Lu agreed but added, "President Yamaguchi, this price is our cost. We can't afford to deliver the goods to the port; you'll have to bear the transportation costs."

Wu Chaoqun said, "Won't you help with such a small favor? The domestic transportation costs..."

He muttered back and forth.

Mr. Yamaguchi indicated that they could handle the transportation costs themselves. For him, doing business with China was too cheap, and this amount of money was insignificant.

Wu Chaoqun immediately praised President Yamaguchi as a generous businessman, a fair trader.

Sato then brought out the contract.

Seeing Director Lu about to sign it, Tang Yuan said to Secretary Wen, "Secretary Wen, let Professor Cheng review the contract."

She had researched some information and knew that foreign traders often filled contracts with fraud and traps when initially doing business with China.

Apart from some intellectuals who tirelessly portrayed foreign traders as honest and ethical, the traders themselves knew their true nature. They had built their wealth through global plunder and deception. Saying they were honest? That was a dream. Honesty was enforced by law; without legal constraints, would they be honest with poor countries? Dream on.

Wu Chaoqun immediately looked at Tang Yuan and smiled at Secretary Wen. "Secretary Wen, don't you trust President Yamaguchi? He runs a large import-export company in Japan, exporting products to Europe and America."

Instead of being swayed, Secretary Wen held onto Director Lu's wrist and smiled. "President Yamaguchi, can we study the contract?"

Yamaguchi's smile remained unchanged as he nodded slightly. "Of course, but please consider the practical aspects of some clauses."

Wu Chaoqun huffed arrogantly. "Go ahead and read it, but don't lose the business."

Secretary Wen took the contract from Sato. It was written in Japanese, which they couldn't understand.

Tang Yuan smiled. "Since this is international trade, wouldn't using a standard English contract be more appropriate?"

Yamaguchi still smiled politely, but Sato did not respond. Wu Chaoqun grumbled, "When President Yamaguchi does business with Europe and America, he also signs contracts in Japanese."

Tang Yuan didn't believe it.

She quickly scanned the contract. Although she didn't understand some technical terms, she noticed there was no deposit mentioned.

She was sensitive to key terms, and the absence of a deposit was problematic.

Moreover, 90 fen was indeed too low. She had asked Ma Huiyou, and they exported to Southeast Asia for 95 fen to one yuan, with a thirty percent deposit or full payment before shipment.

However, seeing Director Lu's eagerness to close the deal and retain Yamaguchi as a client, hoping for continuous new orders, she understood his perspective.

If it can really be guaranteed, then it's not impossible.

But a deposit is required, and the contract must be in English; this is a universal rule for international trade.

She expressed this view to Secretary Wen, mentioning that Professor Cheng had emphasized this point.

Secretary Wen then mentioned it to Director Lu and Mr. Yamaguchi.

This time, Mr. Yamaguchi did not refuse. He sighed and smiled, saying, "To show our sincerity to our business partners, we will try to meet all your requirements."

Director Lu was very pleased, thinking that Mr. Yamaguchi was very easy to talk to.

However, when he suggested raising the price to one yuan and having them deliver the goods to the port, Mr. Yamaguchi still refused.

Mr. Yamaguchi insisted on 90 fen and arranged for the transportation of the goods to Qingzhou Port himself, contacting trucking or railway companies.

Although the total amount of the deal was only 9,000 Chinese yuan, he did not want to give Director Lu the impression that he could casually raise prices and make demands.

In the afternoon, Mr. Yamaguchi and his group did not continue their tour. They chatted with Director Lu and Secretary Wen before returning to the hotel under the pretext of resting, agreeing to discuss the details of the English contract the next day.

In the hotel room, after Wu Chaoqun returned to rest, Sato discussed some contract details with Mr. Yamaguchi.

Sato asked, somewhat puzzled, "President Yamaguchi, why are we importing canned meat with poor taste?"

Though it's only a few thousand yuan, and we're not worried about selling it, shouldn't we choose products that sell well?

That way, we can make more money.

If we chose the sweet and savory canned meat, I think it would be very popular. The canned tripe would also sell well. I didn't expect President Yamaguchi to not choose those options."

Mr. Yamaguchi smiled and said calmly, "When doing business domestically, we should choose competitive products. But when dealing internationally, especially with a country like China, which is still developing, we need to adopt a different strategy. Poor-tasting canned meat imported at this price is quite cheap. We can sell it at a low price in ordinary stores to the poor, who don't care much about taste as long as it's meat and cheap. Our main market, of course, should consume our own factory's canned goods. I won't allow high-quality canned goods from China to disrupt our market."

As he spoke, his expression turned serious and slightly gloomy.

If China weren't so poor and had such low purchasing power, he would prefer to use domestic electronics to capture this vast market.

Of course, this trip wasn't without its gains. They found delicious and inexpensive fruit cans in the south and tasted the delicious canned tripe and canned meat at the cannery. They could try these flavors back home.

The domestic market for middle-class and wealthy people isn't lacking in good products, and these products aren't cheap, supporting domestic factories.

What's lacking domestically is inexpensive food. Domestic products can't be priced that low because labor and materials are expensive. In contrast, China has cheap labor and materials, filling this gap in the domestic market.

He reined in his smile and said coldly, "For the second order, let's try to bring the price down to 85 fen."

Sato exclaimed, "85 fen? Director Lu won't agree, right? Even 90 fen is barely acceptable."

Mr. Yamaguchi's face showed a confident and smug expression, "No, they will agree. I'll say 85 fen for a total of 20,000 cans. If they refuse, then it's only 5,000 cans. After all, such poorly tasting canned meat is hard to sell in our country, and we're selling it at a loss. I believe they will agree for future orders since their country desperately needs foreign exchange."

Sato's eyes lit up, indicating he had learned something.

Mr. Yamaguchi continued, "Then we'll reluctantly say that Chinese canned goods are hard to sell in our country, and we're almost selling them at 75 fen each. So, I hope to set the price at 75 fen. This way, even selling cheap canned goods, we can still make a profit."

Sato placed his hands on his knees and exclaimed, "Hai! President, you are wise!"

The next day, Professor Cheng rode his bike to the cannery to help them negotiate the contract details from the previous day.

They could have used the contract provided by the provincial import-export department, but Sato said they had their own requirements and needed to carefully discuss the details.

Everyone witnessed the meticulous and demanding nature of the Japanese, who seemed to want the treatment of buying bird's nest soup with the money for cabbage.

Fortunately, Professor Cheng was there, maintaining a calm and rational demeanor throughout, arguing logically to help the cannery gain benefits bit by bit.

He wasn't very familiar with import-export business, but Tang Yuan understood it and quietly reminded him as an assistant.

Deposit, inspection, shipment, delivery, dispute resolution, force majeure—these all needed to be listed.

This contract could serve as a template for future deals, requiring only minor adjustments.

It was more detailed and comprehensive than the one provided by the import-export department.

Mr. Yamaguchi's attitude remained friendly, chatting warmly with Professor Cheng about studying abroad, appearing very accommodating.

Sato, however, watched Tang Yuan warily, feeling she was some secret weapon. Whenever she whispered a few words to Professor Cheng, he proposed new clauses, making the contract more complete and plugging potential loopholes.

These loopholes were areas where they could exploit reasonable advantages.

For example, if hygiene inspections failed, if there were delays in delivery, or if too many dented cans occurred during transport, they could claim compensation from the factory.

They once worked with another factory, and a 20,000 yuan contract ended with them claiming 50,000 yuan in compensation due to delays, which they considered a generous concession.

Wu Chaoqun also sensed something was amiss and glared at Tang Yuan, trying to pressure Director Lu, whispering, "Director Lu, there's something wrong with this young employee. She's upsetting President Yamaguchi."

Although Director Lu had his own interests, he remained steady on important matters. Since he didn't understand foreign affairs or English contracts, he had to trust Professor Cheng, who respected Tang Yuan's input.

President Yamaguchi also noticed Tang Yuan and asked gently, "Is Ms. Tang a graduate of the University of Foreign Trade?"

Tang Yuan immediately shook her head and smiled, "I'm learning from Professor Cheng, who is a very professional translator of English and Japanese."

President Yamaguchi respected Professor Cheng, and thus Wu Chaoqun dared not be arrogant.

Wu Chaoqun was only outwardly polite to President Yamaguchi but looked down on him inwardly, considering it a form of intimidation. After all, the gentle and humble President Yamaguchi wouldn't easily show displeasure.

Professor Cheng and Tang Yuan discussed the contract clauses and wrote them down, while Feng Chen copied them.

He had a strong ability to imitate and replicated the elegant English handwriting from Professor Cheng's notebook, impressing Mr. Yamaguchi.

He couldn't help but reconsider his judgment of the cannery. Could it be that this place... as the Chinese say, is full of hidden talents?

But looking at Director Lu and the others, there was nothing particularly special about them. They were just ordinary factory directors eager for export orders, timid and conservative in some aspects but bold in others.

Yamaguchi was very skilled at exploiting others' weaknesses to his advantage. As the president of a major trading company in Japan, he had taken full advantage in Thailand and Vietnam. However, those places were too poor and small, with ignorant people. Even if there were opportunities, he didn't want to bother; it was too exhausting. It was much better here in China.

With vast resources, by grasping their weaknesses, one could continuously draw benefits.

He was a shrewd and sharp-eyed capitalist who immediately recognized Tang Yuan and Feng Chen as capable individuals and wanted to bring them under his wing.

He needed to develop a few trusted confidants in China to handle business here and report on policies and developments.

For now, he would import cheap food and handicrafts. If China's policies loosened up, he might even set up factories here, utilizing China's cheap labor and inexpensive materials to produce goods for global markets.

The profits would be substantial.

It took them two whole days to finalize the contract terms for the nine-thousand-yuan order.

President Yamaguchi smiled, expressing great satisfaction. "A meticulous start can save a lot of trouble later. Future orders will follow this contract."

He subtly hinted to Director Lu and the others not to underestimate this order, not to find it troublesome, but to lay a solid foundation for future continuous orders.

During the contract signing, Tang Yuan introduced with a smile, "President Yamaguchi, our cannery also produces delicious seasonal fruit preserves, such as fat peaches, honey apricots, white peaches, and cherries."

She didn't mention the specialties from the south or common apples but instead introduced some local specialties from her province.

Yamaguchi, harboring intentions to poach Tang Yuan and Feng Chen, naturally became more cordial towards them, smilingly inquiring.

Tang Yuan then took the opportunity to introduce them.

Fruit preserves are seasonal products. When they are available, the factory produces them. At present, only apple, jujube, pear, and hawthorn preserves are being made. There were no peach, honey apricot, or cherry preserves, but the factory had samples stored.

These would be distributed as welfare to employees at year-end.

Director Lu immediately asked Zheng Yingju to fetch a few fruit preserves.

Tang Yuan had tasted the cannery's preserves before. The syrup was thick and sweet, providing a satisfying experience.

It was afternoon tea time for Yamaguchi and the others, and they sat in the meeting room tasting the sweet fruit preserves.

Yamaguchi particularly liked the hawthorn preserves. The syrup was thick, but the hawthorns still retained a slight tartness, making them more layered than the other overly sweet preserves.

The honey apricot and cherry preserves were also good, while the apple and pear preserves were merely sweet, lacking the freshness of real fruit.

Yamaguchi calculated that hawthorn and cherry preserves could fill a gap in the domestic low-end market and would be easy to sell after importing.

In Japan, land was scarce and labor expensive, making certain agricultural products very costly.

His elder in the government had said that it was important to appease the low-end market to prevent accumulating too much dissatisfaction, leading to undesirable outcomes.

Seeing potential profits, he decided to maintain appearances for the sake of Director Lu, Tang Yuan, and Feng Chen. To cherish their friendship, he was willing to sign another order despite already having a large fruit preserve order with a major cannery in the south.

Director Lu was deeply moved.

Though he was dissatisfied with Wu Chaoqun, he was extremely grateful to President Yamaguchi.

Not all Japanese were bad; their businessmen and ordinary people were just like everyone else. They should be separated from the government and military scoundrels.

Dinner was again held in the private room on the second floor of the canteen. This time, with Professor Cheng present, Wu Chaoqun wasn't as arrogant, and the translator didn't dare to be perfunctory or distort anything.

Yamaguchi sat next to Professor Cheng, with Tang Yuan and Feng Chen beside him.

With Professor Cheng translating, Yamaguchi asked many questions about Tang Yuan and Feng Chen.

Professor Cheng naturally praised them, believing that if they had been born a few years earlier, they would have been proper university students, possibly even studying abroad on scholarships.

Yamaguchi then said, "We should cooperate more in the future. Perhaps you can visit Japan to see the cherry blossoms."

He proceeded to give a ten-minute performance about sakura, reciting haiku to express his fascination and love for the flowers, as well as his melancholy over life's brevity.

Director Lu was moved to tears, and Secretary Wen sniffled in agreement. Professor Cheng, who had studied in Japan, felt deeply touched.

Tang Yuan bit the inside of her cheek to keep from rolling her eyes or scoffing, knowing that recognizing life's brevity didn't stop them from pillaging and plundering.

Crying in the homes of those they had oppressed—ha.

Everyone dining together was part of the factory's upper management and understood the importance of this order, so they refrained from bringing up war and national enmity.

After all, the government had reconciled, and the two countries formally established diplomatic relations in 1972. After breaking ties with the Soviet Union, China urgently needed to open trade with other countries.

Priorities had to be managed. Just as Japan smiled and did business with China while secretly looking for ways to take advantage, China also smiled and did business with them while cursing them internally.

For the sake of profit and development, many things could be temporarily set aside.

Separate business from politics; after all, the factory had thousands of people to feed, and securing export orders was crucial.

Once President Yamaguchi finished his sakura sentimentality, he showed interest in Tang Yuan and Feng Chen's hometowns.

The underlying message was that their hometowns were likely poor and lacked prospects, suggesting they should join him.

Be my representative here, handle my business, and I won't mistreat you. You'll even have the chance to go abroad.

During his stay in China, how many Chinese had bowed and waited for his favor? Look at Wu Chaoqun; he merely offered a translation opportunity and a chance to go abroad, and he eagerly served.

Tang Yuan was pondering how to steer the conversation towards her cooperative!

Thank you, President Yamaguchi, for providing the perfect segue!

Although she had long wanted to introduce it, when the opportunity arose, Tang Yuan only briefly mentioned the initial stages of the ecological farm.

Professor Cheng translated this for him.

Yamaguchi and Sato were somewhat surprised. An ecological farm?

This concept was first proposed by the United States. In 1972, several countries established the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) in France. Yamaguchi, who kept up with world affairs, naturally knew about this.

But he didn't expect China to start talking about this concept as well?

He looked at Sato.

Sato whispered, "Some provinces in China have been using biogas for a long time, but they haven't mentioned the concept of ecological agriculture."

Tang Yuan smiled and said, "That's because our Chinese agriculture has always been ecological. It's universal, so there's no need to emphasize it specifically."

Chinese agricultural practices ten years ago were not much different from those a hundred years ago—minimal pesticides and fertilizers, minimal machinery, relying mainly on human and animal labor. If that's not ecological, what is? Of course, they just hadn't consciously integrated agriculture, forestry, livestock, sideline production, and fisheries.

Especially in animal husbandry, farmers and brigades didn't use the various methods of the future; they didn't give antibiotics to pigs and chickens or feed them hormone-laden feed. As a result, the pork, beef, mutton, poultry, fish, and eggs of that era were all organic, free from drug and hormone contamination.

Anyone importing agricultural products from China now would make a fortune.

Since establishing diplomatic relations with Japan, China imported a lot of urea from Japan and developed many pesticides, leading to an increase in pesticide and fertilizer usage.

Seeing President Yamaguchi's interest, Sato asked Tang Yuan a few questions.

As Tang Yuan answered, the light of interest in Yamaguchi's eyes grew brighter.

He thought China was clearly very backward, lagging behind Western countries by more than forty years in both industry and agriculture. Yet, they had such advanced agricultural concepts, which surprised him greatly.

Soon, he recalled that China established diplomatic relations with France in 1964, and in 1973, the French president visited China despite being ill. This year in May, the Chinese foreign minister also visited France and signed a series of trade agreements.

Since IFOAM was based in France, did France pass these ideas to China?

That made sense.

He carefully asked about the scale and details of the Forward Brigade's ecological farm, mentally comparing it to Japan's ecological agriculture.

When he heard that the farm wasn't large, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief, feeling his country was still superior. But when Tang Yuan mentioned that although small, the farm would gradually improve and eventually expand to thousands of acres, he felt anxious again.

Tang Yuan also told him that the farm's medicinal herbs, vegetables, orchards, and crops didn't use pesticides, relying instead on biogas liquid and plant-based pest control. In reality, there weren't many pesticides available, and previously, they only used them on cotton.

Yamaguchi was curious about plant-based pest control. As a businessman, he understood some concepts but lacked detailed knowledge.

He encouraged her, "Plant-based pest control? We've had this concept in Japan for a while. How do you implement it?"

Tang Yuan smiled. There was no need to hide this information; much agricultural knowledge came from generations of experimentation and summarization.

Moreover, the specific mix of pest-control plants varied depending on the land.

She thought for a moment and said, "For example, in vegetable gardens, we plant strong-smelling herbs like leeks, garlic, mint, fennel, coriander, celery, and dill alongside easily infested vegetables to suppress pest populations. Similarly, in crop fields, we include certain pest-control plants like marigolds."

Other plants included castor oil, mint, Sichuan pepper, tagetes, lavender, dandelions, astragalus, tomatoes, and morning glories.

Marigolds could eliminate nematodes, Sichuan pepper leaves could repel beetles, and wormwood could drive away red spiders.

She didn't elaborate further.

Yamaguchi listened with great interest, developing a desire to visit.

Since he was already here, taking a few days to visit the Chinese ecological farm seemed worthwhile.

However, Tang Yuan politely declined, smiling, "President Yamaguchi, I'm sorry, but our ecological farm is small. We're currently cultivating special herbs and new breeds of mountain pigs, free-range chickens, and ducks. It's not suitable for visits."

Wu Chaoqun immediately glared at Tang Yuan, saying harshly, "Tang Yuan, your rural brigade can at most grow some herbs and raise a few pigs. What's there to hide? Do you know the value of President Yamaguchi? If he's interested after visiting, he might invest in your farm."

Tang Yuan calmly replied, "That won't work. We must maintain full ownership of our brigade's ecological farm."

She was firm.

Ma Huiyou, Lu Jiankang, and Zheng Yingju were stunned. Tang Yuan really dared to boast!

To them, it seemed impressive, but in the eyes of developed countries, how impressive could it be?

Yet President Yamaguchi was intrigued. He was naturally suspicious and cunning, with countless tricks up his sleeve.

Everything during this trip to China had gone according to plan, with no surprises.

But these two small employees from the Cannery gave him a significant surprise. Whether it was Tang Yuan supplementing Professor Cheng's contract or Feng Chen's beautiful English handwriting, everything seemed unusual. Indeed, they even had modern agricultural concepts like ecological farms and were researching secret herbs and better-tasting meats?

Not knowing was one thing, but knowing made him curious, and he wanted to see their farm and what they were researching.

Knowing something valuable yet unattainable made him feel out of control and uncomfortable.

Tang Yuan understood his character. Let him keep guessing; don't satisfy him easily.

Keep him interested for the next visit to China and continue placing orders with the Cannery!

Being a polite and agreeable person, Yamaguchi didn't insist after Tang Yuan's polite refusal. He said regretfully, "I hope to have the opportunity to visit your farm someday."

Tang Yuan smiled and said, "Once our farm grows larger, we'll definitely invite President Yamaguchi to visit and guide us."

After dinner, Yamaguchi and his companions returned to their hotel in a car.

The car was borrowed from the government by Secretary Wen, specifically for escorting foreign guests, adding prestige.

Sato smiled at Tang Yuan and Feng Chen, "Tomorrow, we'll contact the transportation company. Please take care of the contract."

The contract terms had already been agreed upon; they just needed to finalize the document and have it typed at the government's import-export department.

Tang Yuan naturally agreed.

After the foreign guests left, it was already completely dark.

Secretary Wen and Director Lu thanked Professor Cheng again and offered to arrange a car to take him back.

Professor Cheng smiled and said, "No need for the trouble; I came by bike."

The contract had been finalized, so he wouldn’t need to come over tomorrow. He had taken leave these past two days.

Tang Yuan, not feeling at ease, asked Feng Chen to ride his bike to send Professor Cheng back.

The Cannery had just received two orders, which made Director Lu and Secretary Wen very happy, and they praised Tang Yuan.

Director Lu’s attitude became much warmer. "You two young comrades did a great job!"

Tang Yuan smiled. "Secretary Wen, Director Lu, our brigade’s cannery will still be under your name, so we hope you can continue to take care of us."

A brigade-run factory is a small one, especially those below the county level, which have little presence.

If it were affiliated with a provincial factory, its status would be quite different.

Secretary Wen immediately agreed.

Director Lu didn’t object either. Tang Yuan had helped them secure an order for fruit preserves and also finalized the contract details.

He had previously been wary of Tang Yuan, but now he admired her and wished to transfer Tang Yuan and Feng Chen to the Cannery right away.

Tang Yuan still politely declined. She might be a bit of an idealist; in her previous life, she was content being a poverty alleviation officer, with low pay, many trivial tasks, and plenty of worries, but there was also a sense of accomplishment.