Tianming didn't spend the night at Meng Xinyi's house, and Aunt Dou asked him to live downstairs, but he didn't stay either, but went to find a nearby hotel and spent the night.

Early the next morning, Tianming picked up his mobile phone and made a call.

Within ten minutes, a car drove to the vicinity of Lirong Community, waited for a long time on the side of the road, opened the car door, and sat in.

"Brother Xu, we haven't seen each other for a long time." The man in the driver's seat turned his head and smiled at Tianming.

"Brother Chang, I can't recognize you after so long no see."

Chang Sheng's appearance is a little older, and his state doesn't look as energetic as he was two years ago, and he is a little tired between his eyebrows, and his face is full of sadness, as if he has something on his mind.

"Yes, Brother Xu, you have changed a lot, and I almost don't recognize you."

"People are changing, the world is also changing, and it's good that the heart remains the same. Let's go to a nearby café and sit down. ”

"Why don't you go to my house and sit down, I have good imported coffee at home, how about a light meal at my house?" Chang Sheng mentioned yì said.

"Okay." Tianming nodded in agreement.

The "buzz" car starts, bringing up a puff of dust.

……

After inviting Tianming into the house, Chang Sheng said to his wife in the kitchen: "Wife, buy a few more vegetables today, there are guests at home." ”

"Okay" Wen Meilin, who was wearing an apron, walked out of the kitchen, and was stunned when she saw Tianming, and said in surprise: "It turns out that the little brother is here, hello, hello." ”

"Hello sister-in-law." Tianming said hello to her.

Chang Sheng went upstairs to take down the bag of coffee beans he treasured, took out the soymilk machine, put the coffee beans in it, added some boiling water, buzzed and polished for half a minute, poured the hot coffee into two cups, handed it to Tianming a cup, and said to him: "This coffee is a little sour." If you want to add sugar, you can take it from this jar. ”

Chang Sheng pointed to the porcelain jar with white sugar.

"Thanks, how about I try unsweetened coffee first." Tianming took a sip of the cup gently, it was not as bitter as expected, but a little sweet, nodded and said to Chang Sheng: "It tastes good, no need to add sugar." ”

"This coffee is the famous Blue Mountain coffee, from the Blue Mountains of Jamaica, not only has a rich and mellow taste, but also has a perfect combination of sweet, sour and bitter flavors in the coffee. It's not bitter at all, just a little moderate and perfectly sour...... Of course, this kind of coffee is difficult to buy, the annual output is only 900 tons, and the annual export to country H is only a dozen tons, and it is difficult for ordinary people to buy genuine products. ”

After listening to Chang Sheng's explanation, Tianming has a little understanding of coffee. Nodding and saying, "Brother Chang is a person of great taste. ”

"Brother Xu is overrated, it's just an ordinary hobby, not a tall one." Chang Sheng smiled.

The two of them started a family routine, like friends. We talked about some light topics.

But Chang Sheng's eyebrows were still noticed by Tianming, and he asked curiously: "Brother Chang seems to have something on his mind, why does he look sad." What difficulties did you encounter? ”

"Alas" Chang Sheng sighed heavily: "Recently, there have been some problems in the business field, and it is a little tricky, which makes Brother Xu smile." ”

"What's the problem?"

Chang Sheng did not hide it. He told Tianming one by one.

He is engaged in foreign trade business, the scope of business is mainly to produce steel, aluminum, machinery and equipment and other commodities produced by domestic factories, resell to European countries, mainly rice countries, has been doing smoothly, although rice country from time to time to H country some goods to launch anti-dumping and countervailing investigations (double reversal), but the impact is only a small part of the goods, even if one or two are sanctioned, Chang Sheng's loss is not very large, after all, he transported to the United States ship goods, and more than one or two.

But this time, Chang Sheng encountered unprecedented difficulties, and the entire shipload of goods transported to the United States was all seized in the port, and all the goods on board were not allowed to enter the United States.

Not only that, but his company has also been accused of suspected smuggling, and if he does not collect a deposit of 5 million meters of gold in a short period of time and hand it over to the customs of the United States, the cargo of his ship will not even have a chance to return to country H. And the value of the goods on his ship added up to only 8 million meters of gold.

After Tianming heard his words, he said angrily: "What is the difference between this kind of behavior and pirate kidnapping? The country of rice is really disgusting. ”

Chang Sheng agreed: "Brother Xu is right, I also regret it now, if I had two years earlier, I would have turned the direction of trade to Africa, and doing business with Africans would be better than those white people who do not speak of faith." ”

But it's useless to regret it now, 5 million deposit, which is equal to more than 25 million yuan, how can he have so much money? A whole shipload of goods has spent almost all of his company's working capital, and he is now either raising money to ransom the goods, or giving up the goods and preparing to make a comeback...... Both choices are difficult to make.

In addition, in addition to the cargo on the ship, there are also cargo ships and crews, and they also have to pay a lot of deposits to redeem them, and Chang Sheng can't ignore them, at least the employees of his company on the ship, he can't ignore them.

But where did he go to find so much money to go?

"This kind of thing should be solved by the state, right? If the state does not intervene, you will definitely lose all your money. Tianming asked.

"The state meddled in it, and protested a few words diplomatically, but the people of the United States did not eat this, so our customs recently detained a few ships of the United States, but this is useless, and the people of the United States have detained our ships, far more than we have detained their ships. In this trade war, the losses of country H will be greater than that of country Mi. ”

It is indeed a trade war, a trade war that has been prepared for a long time, the United States is in the active position, and the H country reacts passively, and if H country does not launch a greater counteraction, it will fall into a greater passivity.

"Brother Xu, you give me a reference, should I raise money to ransom the goods, or just redeem the people?" Chang Sheng asked Tianming for advice.

It is not very reliable to hope that the state will intervene to recover the losses, and the state will not spend so much unjustly money for them, at most, to provide some diplomatic and legal assistance.

To be honest, Chang Sheng is not very hopeful.

Looking at Chang Sheng, whose brows were furrowed into the word "Chuan", Tianming thought for a while and asked him, "How much does it cost to redeem people?" ”

"An 80,000 meters of gold, plus the crew of the freighter company, there are a total of 8 people."

"Then let's redeem the crew first, the ship and cargo are still handed over to the state for disposal, 5 million meters of gold, even if you sell the house, you can't afford so much money." Tianming built yì road.

"Brother Xu makes sense, I think so too, but ......"

"But what?"

"On that cargo ship, there are 4 crew members of our company, one person is 80,000 meters of gold, and four people are 320,000 yuan, which is equivalent to 1.6 million yuan, but I can't even get 1.6 million cash now." Chang Sheng smiled bitterly.

"1.6 million, this is not a big problem, I can help you solve it, not only that, I also have a very important matter, I want to cooperate with you."

Tianming said his purpose for finding Chang Sheng, which shocked Chang Sheng's spirit, and he looked at him with surprised eyes, with some faint expectations in his heart.

"Cooperation, what kind of cooperation?" Chang Sheng asked.

"Regarding medicine, I remember that you seem to know a professor surnamed Bai named Bai ......"

"Bai Yuanhang, his name is Bai Yuanhang." Chang Sheng hurriedly reminded.

"Yes, you call him over too, and the three of us will discuss it together, if the matter can be negotiated, it will be of great benefit to you."

"Okay, okay, I'll call him right away!"

Chang Sheng was excited, quickly picked up his mobile phone, and dialed a contact number.

……

While waiting, Tianming chatted with Chang Sheng about some slightly lighter topics, Chang Sheng was also very interesting, and did not talk about any words about "medicine", but diverted the topic and talked about family matters.

Chang Sheng's daughter is almost 18 years old this year, after walking downstairs, Tianming looked at it, slim, down, and generous, looking a lot more mature than before, when he called Uncle Tianming, there was no stage fright, and the cat he was holding in his hand was still so smooth.

"Bei Bei is in her second year of high school this year, and she will be able to take the college entrance examination the year after tomorrow, and her grades are so-so in the class, so it's no problem to get into a better university."

"Dad, I've already won the first place in the class three times, why can't I say something so-so, can't I say something praiseworthy?" Chang Beibei pouted and said dissatisfied.

"If you get the first place in the school, my evaluation is a compliment, very good or okay, do you want these two words?" Chang Sheng joked.

Chang Beibei stuck out his tongue, grimaced, and said: "If you say that Chang Beibei is the best, then I will consider taking the first place in the school, if you don't say it, then I can only continue to be so-so." ”

"Okay, it's up to you, as long as you get the first place in the school, I will say that Chang Beibei is the best!"

"It's a deal."

Tianming looked at them with a smile and felt that this family was quite good.

…… (To be continued......)