In the days before the Spring Festival, Cheng Ran helped Cheng Feiyang plan the public bonus distribution and proposed improvements to the security system. He got up early, had breakfast, took bus No. 2 and headed to Shuijingfang Road.
This is an old alley, surrounded by courtyards built with stone walls. Some locust trees and ginkgo trees with lush branches and leaves extend from the other side of the wall.
The bluestone alleys here are often covered with ginkgo trees. He came a little early and stamped his feet from time to time in the cold morning air to drive away the chill. When a few people passed by, he curled his five fingers together, exhaled into them, and rubbed them from time to time.
He doesn't look like a young boy who prefers elegance to warmth these days. Instead, he looks like an old man spending the winter in his soul.
Not long after, the sound of light footsteps came from the other end of the alley covered by morning light.
Then a woman appeared from the other end.
The woman was wearing a shirt and a light-colored jacket, with a rosy face above the scarf, nine-point casual pants on the bottom, and a pair of black high-heeled shoes on her slender legs. Her face was lightly made up, but it made her skin look more clear. Her hair was especially tied up into a bun, with straight hair hanging down by her ears, outlining her melon-seed-like jawbone.
The ancient bluestone path, the ginkgo trees on the courtyard wall and the locust trees, when Cheng Ran saw the woman who looked like she came out of a painting, for a moment he was stunned.
This old street will be demolished in the future, and the impression of this street will become something in his memory. It is for this reason that Cheng Ran has a sense of amazement about this painting that will never be seen again in later generations.
This is... Qin Xizhen
Why is she different from before... Oh, right, Cheng Ran remembered that he had seen her in school before. The school required teachers to dress simply and even pay attention to makeup. Qin Xizhen had already submitted her resignation and was no longer a teacher, so she naturally returned to her daily outfit. In fact, although Qin Xizhen's clothes at this time were not as colorful as those trendy clothes in later generations, and the colors and changes were more single, on her, they were simple and fitted. There is a truth that is really irrefutable, that is, no matter what you wear or what hairstyle you have, the most important thing is your appearance.
"Sorry, sorry, I'm a little late..." Qin Xizhen said as he trotted forward.
"It's okay. Girls always spend two hours getting dressed before going out."
"Well, I also went to play mahjong next door... It's not that exaggerated!" Qin Xizhen stared, and then saw Cheng Ran holding his hands and breathing. Qin Xizhen was a little unhappy. She tightened her hands around her collar a little, "Are you so cold? Why don't you wear more clothes?"
"I didn't feel cold outside, but it's shady here, and after standing for a while, the cold started to seep in..."
"It's okay, let's go..." Cheng Ran just turned around and raised his head, and suddenly a scarf appeared in front of him.
Looking at Qin Xizhen again, the gray and white checkered scarf around her neck had been untied. A hand was extended towards her, revealing a swan-like neck.
"It's a bargain for you. Fifty dollars." Qin Xizhen didn't look at him, his eyes looked elsewhere.
"Overnight stay..." Cheng Ran cut off his words as he spoke, as if something extraordinary had sneaked in. An evil spirit.
Fortunately, Qin Xizhen didn't hear this sentence clearly, and looked at him suspiciously, "What?"
"Uh... OK." Cheng Ran took the scarf and hung it around his neck. A scent of a woman's fragrance entered his nose. Cheng Ran reached into his trouser pocket, took out a fifty-yuan bill, and slapped it on Qin Xizhen's hand.
“You…!” Qin Xizhen opened her eyes wide. Seeing Cheng Ran shrinking his neck, she felt bad and hesitated when she thought of giving him the scarf.
After all, this is her personal item. The scarf is actually private, after all, it is worn around her neck. But in the final analysis, it is just a warm item, and sometimes you have to make up your mind in an emergency. But it is okay to give it to a child, after all, Cheng Ran in front of him is also a young boy with full blood.
She has never really let any man use her personal belongings since she was a child...
Qin Xizhen was still hesitant at first, wondering if it was appropriate. But she still felt that it was unacceptable, so she made up her mind and said "50 yuan" to take advantage of Cheng Ran's belief that she was a money-grubber, which would make the process more natural and simple.
But Cheng Ran took it and didn't even ask to return it after using it. Instead, he simply gave me 50 yuan. What's going on
This scarf costs 130 yuan...
Qin Xizhen was so distressed that he should have extorted two hundred yuan from him earlier!
Finally, Cheng Ran seemed to be warmed up. He turned around and asked with concern, "I bought you a scarf. Aren't you cold?"
Qin Xizhen, who was still complaining about the unprecedented loss-making business, gave him a very cultured and elegant smile, but her voice was filled with cold murderous intent, "There's a phrase called 'beauty that freezes people'! Just don't die of the heat."
…
No. 18 Shuijingfang Street West Road is the location of Shanhai Red Star Printing Factory. Qin Xizhen and I came here today to handle related matters. Qin Xizhen had actually talked to the printing factory before, and the preliminary photocopy proofs were also sent over. The person who met with them today was the factory director Fu Zuotao. In the past, state-owned printing factories like Red Star Printing Factory generally did not accept private jobs.
But in recent years, the efficiency of printing factories has been in a long-term slump. As a large factory with so many labor costs, it was forced to expand its business. At least large state-owned factories like Red Star Printing Factory still have some bottom line. Some small factories have directly broken the bottom line. Piracy of some best-selling books and materials on the market has become a trend, and pirates have become business channels for these small factories. After all, the paper is the same. Once it is printed and rushed into the market, who knows which printing factory it came from.
Fu Zuotao probably had been attacked hard by Qin Xizhen before, and he wanted to hide when he saw Qin Xizhen coming to his house. "Miss Qin... you should at least leave us some profit margin. I've already given you very little... You are going to do process printing, and I have a whole set of processes here, such as filling. The card paper you want to make is thicker and consists of multiple layers, and it has to be kneaded by steel rollers. Our technology is sophisticated, and it will never fall off after playing for a long time. Secondly, embossing, die-cutting, sorting, shrink wrapping, printing the outer packaging box, glazing and gluing the poker box... After all these processes, where else can you get such an affordable price..."
Seeing the bitter face of the factory director, Cheng Ran knew that Qin Xizhen must have knocked the factory director unconscious before.
"I invited our designer here today, let's take a look first..."
Director Fu took the two of them to inspect the entire printing factory, and the printing area was rumbling.
Cheng Ran looked at the equipment and said, "Heidelberg four-color printing press... double-page press and quad-page press..."
Director Fu looked at Cheng Ran with a little surprise, "Good eyesight! Our Red Star Printing Factory is a large state-owned factory. We introduced the Heidelberg machine in 1994. This is a good thing... I dare say that in Shanhai City, our company is the only one that has introduced the Heidelberg machine on a large scale! In addition, for many years..."
Cheng Ran observed each link online and found that the technology of this state-owned factory was still trustworthy. Moreover, at that time, the Three Kingdoms War did not require the level of precision of later generations. Generally, traditional printing factories of this type did not need major module changes and could do the job with general printing technology.
"We think the most important thing is the price... Because we still hope to have long-term cooperation with you, we will print 10,000 copies in the early stage and distribute them through our board game channels. If the sales reach the expected level, our cooperation will continue. In the future, it will not only be 10,000 copies, but also 100,000 copies or 1 million copies..."
Qin Xizhen said, "Based on our long-term cooperation, you can lower the price by one yuan..."
Director Fu almost turned around and left, "This is still uncertain... I quoted 15 yuan at first, then 13, 12... Now it's 10 yuan a pair, and you still want me to reduce it by another yuan..."
"You said it yourself, larger quantity means better price..." Qin Xizhen smiled.
"That's only after you can really print that number. Go ask around. Ten thousand copies is just our starting number for molds. We won't accept orders for anything less than that..."
"Then you have to show us your sincerity first... Otherwise, reduce the rate by another 50 cents?" Qin Xizhen had a harmless expression.
Director Fu was also bewitched by her. When he first saw the pretty girl, he was bewildered and alert. But it turned out that this girl was smiling but hiding a dagger. She used both soft and hard tactics to bargain. It was simply impossible to resist... He should have refused with a straight face at the beginning, but during the chat, they became familiar with each other. In addition, the other party had a pure appearance and pleasant conversation. She would say things that made him happy from time to time. Director Fu had never seen such a powerful character before, so he could only lower the price again and again.
But in fact, other factories can also do it at this price, but Cheng Ran feels that such large state-owned factories still have to go through a hurdle in terms of quality control, and even some operations and ethics.
Later, the printing factory agreed to reduce the price by another 50 cents, reducing the cost of a board game to 9.5 yuan. However, there was still a prerequisite, that is, the down payment must be 30%.
This amount is still very high compared to some printing factories that can start work after 10% of the work is done. After all, the biggest cost is labor. Even if people have nothing to do, they still have to be paid. If there is work to do, the money will naturally be received later.
Three percent is 28,500 yuan. Cheng Ran now has more than 40,000 yuan in hand, so he can still pay this amount. After signing the contract with the printing factory, Cheng Ran and Qin Xizhen came out and suddenly felt that it seemed that this was a major turning point in their career.
They will also face a final payment of more than 70,000 yuan. From the initial small-scale sales of more than 2,000 board games in half a semester relying on Cheng Xiang's typing and copying shop, they have expanded their production capacity to 10,000 boards. If these board games cannot be sold, or they cannot be sold all within the collection period, and the sales are not good, then the problem will be serious.
Qin Xizhen said softly, "My senior brother from Computer News replied that the column has been approved by the editor-in-chief, who thinks it is worth trying to explain the content of board games, and they are willing to help us be the agent. Next, we will send them some samples and let them discuss and decide internally."
Cheng Ran nodded slightly. It seemed that the 2,000 yuan "activity fee" given to senior brother Qin Xizhen was effective. If they were promoted and represented by Computer News, their current channels would go from being just small-scale channels in Rongcheng and Shanhai to a national channel, facing geeks across the country who were interested in board games.
Cheng Ran couldn't help but feel his heart beating fast.