[Borrowing Seeds] (Part 1) (05) [Author: Half a Cup of Clear Wine]

Author: Half a Cup of Clear Wine
Word Count: 5505 (

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Chapter Five:

Starting a Business Upon waking, Zi Jun wanted to chat with Zi Kai, but he had already gone back to the factory. Zi Kai had even said he would take him to
visit the factory the next day. The next day, the two brothers took a car to the factory. Again, that annoying Brother Kui was driving, making Zi Jun so angry
that he remained silent with a livid face the whole way.

The factory was located in the suburbs, a four-story building with a rather simple exterior, surrounded by a large fence.
Two large wolfhounds were kept at the gate, barking incessantly from afar when the car approached. Zi Kai
stroked their heads a few times, and they immediately became submissive.

The factory had a lot of equipment inside, many of which were imported brands: Heidelberg six-color offset printing machines,
05 machines, hot stamping machines, die-cutting machines, and many others that Zi Jun couldn't name—several rows of them, quite a sight. The warehouse at the back was also filled with various brands and stacks of cigarette labels, with the red "Seven Wolves"
cigarettes displayed on the outermost edge . 　　The third floor houses the quality inspection center and printing plate room, with tables lining the space where fifty or sixty female workers are employed . According to Zikai, they are called "label pickers," responsible for selecting cigarette labels with printing defects. Because the cigarette factory's inspection process is very strict, substandard products are immediately scrapped without any room for negotiation. 　　After a brief tour of the fourth-floor cafeteria and multi-functional hall, Zikai led his younger brother to the second-floor office area. The general manager's office was filled with various awards and certificates. 　　"Brother, you've really set this up nicely! There's even a karaoke room upstairs? That's a bit too extravagant ! You're so good to your employees." Zijun leaned back on the comfortable leather sofa. 　　"Before, we were poor, so there was nothing we could do. Now that we've made some money, of course I can't let our relatives and friends down . It's a rare opportunity for everyone to get together and work happily; it's all fate." 　　"Brother, I think Brother Kui is a bit impulsive. Why do you still keep him around?" Zijun tried to sow discord . 　　"This kid doesn't really have any special talents, but we've been playing together since we were kids, so I should give him a hand, right? Besides, he has one special talent: he can drink like a fish, he's practically invincible. You know, some business deals can only be closed over drinks. So, we're inseparable." 　　"What kind of skill is just being able to drink? Brother, you're too lenient with him, this guy..." 　　"Kid, I don't like you talking badly about my friend. I know he has a lot of bad habits, and sometimes he tries to be clever, but as long as he doesn't make any big mistakes, I'll keep him around. Okay, want to hear my entrepreneurial story?" Zikai changed the subject at the right time. 　　Since his older brother had already said so much, Zijun couldn't argue anymore. He thought to himself that he'd find an opportunity to kick him while he was down later, and he didn't believe he couldn't get rid of Yongkui! How dare he molest my sister-in-law, he's really asking for trouble. 　　"Brother, I think you're a true example of someone who started from scratch. How did you do it? This place used to be just a small printing factory on the verge of bankruptcy." 　　"Hey, that's my skill. You guys always said I hung out with some shady friends, always playing cards or drinking, but actually I was gathering intelligence. The world is a mixed bag, and even a seemingly insignificant piece of information could be a huge opportunity for me. I believed that one day I would rise to prominence !" 　　"Stop teasing me, just tell me your secret to getting rich." Zijun crossed his legs on the sofa , ready to listen attentively to his older brother's entrepreneurial story. 　　"It was pure coincidence. That night I was playing cards with some friends, one of whom, Yuanzi, had obviously been doing quite well these past few years; he drove over in his car. After winning a couple of hands, he pulled out a pack of Zhonghua cigarettes! These cost thirty or forty yuan a pack, which is equivalent to a week's worth of groceries for our family, and you need connections to buy them. He gave one to everyone, which made me feel quite flattered. I took a couple of deep drags, making sure the smoke lingered in my lungs for a while, so as not to waste such a premium product." 　　"Is Zhonghua really that good?" Zijun looked skeptical. Although he didn't smoke, he had heard of Zhonghua 's reputation; at the time, it was considered the best and most expensive cigarette in China. Of course, excluding our Comrade Xiaoping's special Panda cigarettes. 　　"It's so pure! It doesn't sting at all when you inhale it. The first two puffs are absolutely unbeatable! I've only ever smoked three packs of Soft Zhonghua cigarettes in my entire life, it's a bit sad to think about! We played a few more rounds, and Yuanzi gave each of another one. He was really generous. I was sitting next to him and said to him, 'How can I accept this? ' Yuanzi just smiled and didn't say anything." 　　"What does all this have to do with your entrepreneurial history? Just because of a pack of Soft Zhonghua?" 　　"Just listen patiently, I'll tell you a story sometime. I said to him, 'Dude, looks like you're doing pretty well, with a car and Soft Zhonghua cigarettes. Can you point me in the right direction?' Yuanzi is honest. He told me the car belonged to the company, and he was just a driver. He also mysteriously told me that the pack of Soft Zhonghua was fake!" 　　"What? Fake? You're a seasoned smoker, how come you didn't notice?" Zijun asked loudly. 　　"I absolutely refused to believe it at the time, because I had just smoked one not long ago, a gift from my boss when he was in a good mood. The taste was exactly the same, and the packaging was indistinguishable from the real thing," Yuanzi said with a smile. He added that counterfeit cigarettes had reached a point where they were indistinguishable from the real thing; not only the packaging, but even the tobacco flavoring was almost identical. He said that without careful it was impossible to tell the difference. He said this pack of counterfeit Zhonghua cigarettes cost less than half the price of the real thing, and it was quite a good way to show off. He also said that there were more and more counterfeit cigarettes on the market, especially brand-name cigarettes like Hongtashan and Yunyan. My heart skipped a beat, and a bold idea formed in my mind. I asked him if there were many counterfeiters printing cigarettes now. He said that they certainly wouldn't dare to do it in big cities because it was illegal and they couldn't obtain a formal license. But because the profit margin was high and there was a potential market, there were still some...

Few printing plants are willing to take the risk. "

I wasn't in the mood to play cards anymore. When it was over, I caught up with him and asked if he would introduce me
to some bosses who produce counterfeit cigarettes. I promised he wouldn't treat me badly. Yuanzi hesitated for a moment, then said I was usually
quite righteous and would help me with this. He then took me to meet a few bosses. The talks went fairly smoothly.
They said it would be a huge market, but there were relatively few printing factories willing to take the orders. There
was only one in Yunxiao, and its output was small, far from meeting their needs. To be honest, I was terrified of being poor at the time.
As long as there was money to be made, I would make counterfeit cigarettes, or even counterfeit guns and cannons! I signed a preliminary agreement with them and
quickly settled on a price. It was easy to find a printing factory. Through a friend's introduction, I found one that wanted to
sell . Oh, this is it. The boss felt that the profit margin for printing color boxes and brochures was too low, and it was
easier to make money selling pork."

"Brother, you're too bold! You actually dared to print counterfeit cigarettes? If this is discovered, you might go to jail!"
Zijun felt a sense of foreboding.

"A small place like Yunxiao is easy to exploit. The supervision isn't that strict, and all sorts of illegal and disorderly things happen all
the time. Gambling dens, hair salons, massage parlors—aren't they all 'playing the party' every night? The law enforcement officers usually
turn a blind eye. As long as you remember to bribe them from time to time, it's not a big problem. My first priority was to appease the dozen or so
long-term employees. They were the backbone of the printing factory. I was blunt with them, asking if they dared to print counterfeit cigarettes. I also
promised them a 20% raise on their current wages and a big bonus at the end of the year! They were
overjoyed and said they'd even print RMB if they could get paid on time! I thought, forget about RMB. If
something goes wrong, I'll be executed. I'm not stupid."

"So you made your first fortune by printing counterfeit cigarette labels?"

Zikai nodded proudly. "That's what you call being skilled and daring. The key is daring. Many people would
think twice when faced with this kind of opportunity, but I didn't hesitate at all because our family desperately needed money. I couldn't let
my younger brother's future tuition be left unpaid! As the eldest brother, I had to make something of myself and support
this family!"

"Brother..." Zijun looked at his older brother, his eyes already a little moist.

"Ah Jun, I didn't start this factory just to make a quick buck and leave. I want it to be a long-term business, so
that our family and friends can also live a good life. I know that sneaking around like this isn't a sustainable solution; it'll get
exposed sooner or later. We need to get a proper special printing license so we can openly open our doors and make money!
My greatest strength is probably my decisiveness; I never drag things out. After the printing factory had been running for almost a year,
I had already earned four or five hundred thousand yuan. I used that money to buy a genuine German Audi and drove it straight to the Longyan Cigarette Factory."

Through pre-arranged connections, the factory manager finally agreed to have a meal with us. Oh, and
Yong Kui was there too. The factory manager had an amazing capacity for alcohol; it was rumored that if you couldn't beat him, you couldn't do business with him. He believed
that only people who could drink were worth being friends with. So Yong Kui and I used all our strength to drink with him, and when we couldn't take it anymore,
we'd run to the toilet to vomit and then come back to continue drinking. The next day, he asked me to come in for a private meeting. He said I was a straightforward person and
worth befriending, but given the current scale of our factory, it was impossible for us to receive cigarette label orders. He told me to go back first and we
could cooperate again in the future. I had already guessed this would be the result. I immediately took out my car keys and slammed them on the coffee table.
"Factory manager, if you think I'm a decent person, you can accept this Audi. It would be best if we could cooperate in the future.
If not, consider it a gift from me to make you my friend!" I said it with great confidence. I really
was betting everything I had, but I had absolutely no confidence in the end.

"Wow, bro, you're really going all out... If he accepts the car but doesn't give you any orders, it seems like there's nothing you can do...
" Zijun's mouth was agape for a long time.

"That's true. The cigarette factory has always been arrogant, paying the most taxes to the country every year, with an incredibly prestigious status.
Only when someone comes to them for help do they act like emperors, giving or receiving something entirely at their whim. Even
the cleaning lady at the gate—you have to be careful when talking to her, she might be a relative of the factory manager."

"So what happened? I'm so anxious! That was a four or five hundred thousand
yuan ..." Zijun was eager to know what would happen next. In those days, a house only cost tens of thousands
of yuan, so you can imagine what hundreds of thousands meant.

"The factory manager took a deep drag on his cigarette, stared into my eyes for a while, then suddenly stubbed out his cigarette,
saying he was glad to have made a friend like me, and praised my decisiveness! He had the technical manager bring
me several sets of Seven Wolves cigarette label films, telling me to take them back to make a sample, and then bring the sample back for their evaluation. If it met the standards, we
could start small-batch production. That's how my cooperation with Longyan Cigarette Factory began."

"Wow, no wonder you made more and more money after that, and built a house in just a few years. All our old neighbors must
have been dumbfounded." Zijun was also proud of his brother; he was indeed bold and insightful, truly a natural businessman.

"Ah Jun, you've guessed wrong. I still make money printing counterfeit cigarettes. The factory manager only gave me
the brand, with very thin profit margins. I only get tens of thousands of cartons a year, honestly not enough to fill my stomach.
But I never expected to make money this way. I just needed to maintain a long-term cooperative relationship with the cigarette factory, and
let people know I had such a powerful backer. As I expected, with the Longyan Cigarette Factory as my backer,
the printing plant quickly passed the audit, and the city issued all the necessary certificates. We're now a licensed
printing company and a major taxpayer in the city. As you can see, the outermost machine
prints the official cigarette labels, and the finished products piled up at the entrance are genuine. But there's
a ; that's where the printing presses are really making me money. They print day and night in two shifts,
every single cigarette label is money!"

"How can such a small cigarette label make so much money?"

"Hehe, a set of packaging accounts for about 10% of the product's selling price." In other words, if a carton of cigarettes
costs 100 yuan, the packaging alone costs 10 yuan (one carton contains ten smaller packs). After deducting paper and printing costs,
there's still a profit of a few yuan per set. We prefer cigarette packs with more complex manufacturing processes, ideally with
features like silkscreen printing, embossed gold foil, and anti-counterfeiting measures, which significantly increases the price of the cigarette label. And this is the biggest...
The advantage is the sheer volume; we can print hundreds of thousands of large boxes every year. Think about how awesome that is! Next, I
'm going to go even bigger. We'll use both genuine and counterfeit cigarettes, bring in more cigarette factories, buy that piece of land behind us,
and build a large building to expand! Hehe, then I'll be the biggest entrepreneur in Yunxiao, hahaha!"

Seeing Zikai's slightly arrogant laughter and disdainful expression, Zijun suddenly felt a little scared.
The money coming too easily had made Zikai somewhat blindly confident. "Brother, printing counterfeit cigarettes is illegal
and against the law. You should stop as soon as possible. You've already made a lot; be content with what you have!"

"Contentment is a favorite phrase of incompetent people. To succeed, you have to be greedy to have
the motivation to move forward! Don't worry, our small place is perfect for finding loopholes. Even if something goes wrong, as long as you're willing to spend money, you can
definitely get it sorted out. China has no shortage of corrupt officials."

"Brother, I'm still a little worried. Tobacco is one of the most important industries the country values. Counterfeit cigarettes
will definitely impact the sales of genuine cigarettes to some extent and cause market chaos. Sooner or later, there will be a full-scale crackdown. Let's quit while we
're ahead. Everyone should have a backup plan, right?" Zijun said earnestly.

"Why are you getting more and more nagging? You're even more annoying than your sister-in-law. She always advises me like this, no wonder
you guys can't achieve anything great. Okay, okay, I'll work on it for a few more years, make enough money, and
then I'll quit, divest the counterfeit cigarette business, and only print real cigarettes from now on, okay?"

"Don't have any wishful thinking, a few years is too long, how about..."

"Alright, alright, stop talking, I don't have time to waste with you. What's the point of worrying all day?
Thinking too much will only lead to failure. Do you know what it means to seek fortune in danger? Alright, I have a meeting later,
you can just take a walk around the factory and go home." Zikai said impatiently.

Zijun suddenly remembered something, "Brother, I heard from sister-in-law that you need my help with something?"

Zikai was stunned for a moment, his face suddenly turned red, and his expression became quite unnatural, "Oh, it's
nothing , let's talk about it when I get home tonight. I have to go to the meeting, I'll have Yongkui drive you home."
Zikai was obviously upset.

"I don't want him to take me. I'll take a taxi home myself. Brother, I'm leaving now. See you tonight." Zijun turned and
left the office, and behind him, Zikai seemed to let out a soft sigh.

Bored, Zijun met up with some old colleagues
. Someone suggested taking this opportunity to have a class reunion, since it was rare for Zijun to come home. They quickly contacted many classmates, had a meal at a restaurant that evening, and then went to karaoke,
making a huge fuss until almost 1 a.m. before Zijun

finally got home. He slept until almost noon the next day, only to find that Zikai had already gone to the company. Zijun kept thinking about
that matter, wondering if his brother's situation was urgent. After lunch, he sneaked into the kitchen to find Xiuyan to get information,
but Xiuyan blushed and refused to say anything, leaving Zijun confused. He wondered what could be so
secretive .

Zijun had always wanted to do something for his brother; it couldn't always be Zikai helping him. He wanted to play his part too, even if he couldn't contribute money, he could at least
contribute his time. He was about to take a taxi to the printing factory when he suddenly
received an unexpected call—it was his high school homeroom teacher!

The teacher had learned of his return from other students and insisted he come to the school to
share his college entrance exam experiences and insights with the graduating class, letting them know that with hard work, getting into a prestigious university was entirely possible.

In recent years, only Zijun from the school had been admitted to Sun Yat-sen University. Because of his impoverished family background, his story
was all the more inspiring, even making him appear in the local newspaper. This made the school very proud, and they often
used his story to motivate other students.

Zijun couldn't refuse, so he reluctantly went. He was most uncomfortable speaking in such situations, as it made him
very reserved. After the "lecture," the teacher took him to visit the school's newly added facilities and even took
some photos to hang in the exhibition hall, leaving Zijun both amused and embarrassed, unsure whether he felt honored or
awkward.

That evening, Zijun was unexpectedly fortunate enough to have dinner with the principal, which flattered and overwhelmed him. He sat at the table all night, feeling incredibly
awkward and unable to utter a single word.

Back home, Zijun collapsed onto his bed and fell asleep immediately. These social engagements were truly a chore for him,
even more exhausting than the college entrance exam. He told himself he would never participate again, just this once.

[To be continued]

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[Borrowing Seeds] (Part 1) (05) [Author: Half a Cup of Clear Wine]

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