The Big Deal

For Chinese people, the Spring Festival was the beginning of the new year. They did their shopping, had New Year’s Eve dinner and paid New Year greeting visits or calls in the morning. Those were all the traditional activities.

When Qin Guan was done with those, he stayed at home for the rest of the day, eating and sleeping without any motivation.

Early in the morning, his phone rang non-stop. He stretched his arm from under the cover and shut it off decisively.

Only Huang Jiajia could be calling him at this time. She was currently in a cram school for winter vacation.

Before he could fall asleep again, short messages starting beeping on his phone one by one.

Qin Guan poked his messy head out of his quilt and picked up the phone angrily.

Several short messages from the same person were jamming his mailbox. The name of the sender was Xue Wanyi.

“Qin Guan, this is Sister Xue. I have something to tell you. Please call me back.”

“You bastard! You dare reject my call! You’re getting bolder!”

“Actually, what you are doing?”

“There’s a gig on the 10th day of the first lunar month. Do you want to audition for it?”

“Your sister really needs your help. I know that you are relaxing at home. How about I give you one third of the poundage? 500 yuan in cash and 3,000 yuan in a Carrefour shopping card. Just answer, yes or no?”

Qin Guan climbed up in a roll when he heard that last message. He texted her back, “Deal! Wait for my call after I return to Beijing.”

Receiving the short message, Xue Wanyi took a puff on the Moore cigarette in her hand, blew a smoke circle and got off the phone bitterly. Brat! All you want is money!

That evening there were eight of them sitting at the dining table at his grandma’s. His uncle, aunt, younger female cousin, father, mother and Qin Guan himself, plus the two gods above, all had a happy family feast together.

Qin Guan informed everyone of his plan to return to college earlier.

His female cousin heard about his plans for a part-time job with heated admiration. My cousin is tall, handsome and a good student. Now he can even make a living by himself without any financial support from his family!

Liu Yi daydreamed happily, covering her round face, which looked like a small red apple. If this was ancient times and my parents were to pick a husband for me from my relatives, would I have accepted my older cousin?

Qin Guan had no idea that he was the Prince Charming in his cousin’s daydream. He was just listening to his parents and his uncle chat. They were talking about rectifying and reformations, as well as the stock rights of their respective plants. The topic triggered Qin Guan’s memory.

There had been quite the breaking news those days. Both the plants his mother and uncle were working at were carrying out some reformations, aiming to build up a group system.

They were planning to get rid of the unprofitable firm, which was ineffectual for the recalcitrant subordinates, and bring in new programmes to promote competitiveness in the corporation.

As a result, some plants would be merged together while some would be rebuilt. After the merging, new projects would be carried out. On what resources and capital, you ask? An internal pre-sale plan for the enterprise staff had been etched out exactly for that purpose.

They all had to buy internal stocks. The exact amount of stocks rested on their personal willingness, but of course a minimum amount had been set.

At the time, workers were always the ones who got money from their plants, and they were reluctant to take money out of their own pockets.

On that year’s Spring Festival, his mother and uncle had made the decision to buy internal pre-sale stocks, but stick to the minimum level. It was not easy for most people to make a living.

Things had gone bad. One of their plants had been renamed Oriental Electricity Group, while the other had been renamed Blue-White Group.

In less than three years, the former one had entered the stock market. The internal pre-sale stocks had gone from 2 yuan to 80 yuan. The Blue-White Group was counted as one of the biggest food enterprises of the province. Its staff got a large annual profit commission, according to the stocks they had bought.

Everyone attending the meeting that day was terribly regretful about the outcome.

Years down the road, when they recalled that day, they would still murmur to themselves. If only I’d done things differently at the time, we’d be a rich family now.

Thinking of this, Qin Guan stopped eating. He reached for his purse and took out his debit card.

In his account was his scholarship and all the money he had left from his part-time job. He turned to his uncle and said, “I’ll buy 5,000 stocks.”

His mother hit him on his back with her fist, “You bastard! You just got some money, you don't know how to spend it. If you want to waste it, at least buy the stocks of your mother’s plant.”

Massaging his back, Qin Guan said with his teeth bared, “Your poor food plant can't enter the stock market. Do you even know what an emerging industry is?”

Then he pushed his card to his uncle. Afraid that his uncle would decline, he pressed on, “My dearest uncle, you and I are really close. Don't listen to my mother. Do remember to buy the stocks for me!”

Qin Guan’s father was curious about this. He put down his chopsticks and said, “Tell us what you’re thinking. Why invest so much money in this?”

Qin Guan couldn’t avoid the question, so he cleared his throat and began to bluff, “Just think, this new government policy- whatever the results may be- brings both those plants directly into the game. We have to respond positively to the national call. The system is changing and we have to spend money. Of course this doesn’t mean that we need to spend our entire family fortune. We could just buy a little more within our financial limitations. Worst case scenario, we lose the capital, but we still make a good impression on our leaders. At least they’ll consider that we’re positively cooperating with the organization. Shall we do it then?”

His parents and uncle chewed his words for a while and found them reasonable. They discussed it together again.

Qin Guan was quite gloomy. If I tell them the profits will be 40 times higher, will they think I’m idiot? Reborn people felt so lonely in this world.

They made their final decision. Originally, his uncle had decided to buy 1,000 shares, which was the bare minimum. He raised the standard up a little and decided to spend 10,000 Yuan. Adding Qin Guan’s investment of 10,000 Yuan, he would buy 10,000 shares in total.

His mother would also buy 5,000 shares, so it was 15,000 Yuan from both families. As to the stocks of his mother's plant, his mother raised the original 3,000 shares to 5,000 shares, and his uncle also decided to buy 5,000 shares. That was 10,000 shares in total.

Qin Guan made the calculations and found that it was much more than they had spend in his past life. Everyone will be satisfied.

It turned out that Qin Guan was wrong. When the results came out, the two families regretted it. They thumped their chests and stamped their feet in deep self-accusation. They couldn’t believe that they’d bet all their fortune on those stocks.

At the time, Qin Guan was totally speechless. History had still not changed.

On the 8th day of the first lunar month, Qin Guan said goodbye to all his family members and took the train to the capital alone.

He arrived at his college to find the dormitory building deserted. After unpacking his luggage, he called Sister Xue.

She sounded so happy on the other end of the line, she couldn't seem to be able to stop talking. It’s not every day that Qin Guan has some spare time. I have to take advantage of it.

It snowed lightly on the 10th day of the first lunar month. Sister Xue brought Qin Guan to Carrefour's headquarters in the capital. The advertisement department staff led them into the prepared photo studio.

People were placing goods and arranging the background. The person in charge of the Marketing Promoting Department was in a heated discussion about the shooting arrangement with several distribution businessmen.

Most of the goods the suppliers provided were shoes, clothes and suitcases, which were both cheap and good quality.

The monthly sales in hypermarkets could equal the annual sales of the small manufacturers.

That's why they made careful preparations and showed seriousness during Carrefour’s seasonal sales promotion every year.

It was essential for their sales volume to have a prominent place in the poster.

The theme of this promoting season was the leisurely beginning of the new term. The main products were suitcases and spring clothing for the new season.

As required by the staff, Qin Guan changed into the clothes and shoes provided by the distribution businessmen and pulled a black draw-bar suitcase. He stood in front of a background plate of goods, displaying them with pride.

The lights and reflectors made the studio quite bright. Qin Guan massaged his eyes, trying his best to adjust to the brightness.