The next day, Hu Wenkai came to the company's office early, and the second floor was empty, and he went to work on Scott Road. It's rare for the company to be so quiet, and the third floor is almost gone, and only a clerk is left in the office to answer the phone. When he came to Shanghai, he never calmed down to take a closer look around downtown Shanghai, and he thought that there was nothing to do today anyway, so it would be better to ride around Shanghai. Riding to the North Sichuan Road, it took nearly an hour to cover a distance of several kilometers.

He stopped from time to time to watch the bustling area of this place beyond his imagination, and he also walked this route some time ago, but at that time, several people were sitting in rickshaws, patronizing and talking, and did not pay attention to the street scene. The streets are lined with people of all colors such as Japanese ronin, Indian Asan, British sailors, prostitutes, and hawkers along the streets.

The atmosphere on the street here is much more lively than in the French Concession, and Hu Wenkai took out a simple map of the properties acquired by the company here from his pocket and looked at them one by one. According to his request, there were already seven or eight properties in Lunan, and it was only the end of September 1920, and according to the company's development, in a few months at the latest, the construction of the largest department store in Shanghai could be started in September 1921 at the latest.

There were many bookstores on the way, and he bought more than a dozen books along the way, and it was very heavy to carry in his hand, so he asked the store for a piece of thin hemp rope to tie the books to the back rack of the bicycle.

He heard the screams of the car's brakes, instinctively flashed to the side, and a Ford Model T couldn't brake enough to scrape his bicycle over, scattering books all over the ground.

The door opened, a man in his thirties got out of the car, picked up the bicycle, and said sorry to Hu Wenkai, Hu Wenkai checked that the bicycle was not damaged, but the book was stuck with a lot of dust, and said that there was nothing, and the driving speed should be slow in crowded places, and if something happens, it will hurt a person. The man said yes, yes, he must pay attention in the future, and he is in a hurry to catch up with his friends today. Hu Wenkai didn't pursue anything, saying that he was fine, and the other party should have something to do.

When the car left, Hu Wenkai saw that the license plate was a public concession license plate of four fours, and remembered the famous gambler Sheng Enyi, Sheng Xuanhuai's favorite son.

Later, his friend wrote: "Sheng Laosi slept a lot during the day and didn't get up until four or five o'clock in the afternoon. What should I do when I wake up and see that I need money for something, but the family does not have enough cash? Go to the bank, the bank on the street has closed, so I have to take out the old way of the Sheng family, anyway, there are antique things at home, just take one to the pawnshop to pawn, exchange the money, until the next day the bank opens, and then send someone to withdraw the money, to the pawnshop to redeem the antiques. The pawnshop has almost become his second bank, which is a big joke of Sheng Laosi's family. "It's more unfortunate to meet this loser, but the character is good, at least stop and apologize. Riding a cart with a stack of books back to No. 3, Lane 181, and moving the books to the study and stacking them on the shelves.

The weather at the end of September was crisp in autumn, and James, Lao Yi, and Lao Shi entered the living room. The opening ceremony in the morning was very successful, the consulate, the board of directors, the ministry of industry, and the patrol room all sent people to attend the ceremony, and Chiang Kai-shek also came to congratulate him in the morning, and did not see Hu Wenkai a little disappointed, Lao Yi invited him to attend the celebration banquet in the evening, Chiang Kai-shek was very hesitant to ask Hu Wenkai if he was going, and after receiving a positive answer, he readily agreed to attend. Hu Wenkai laughed when he heard this, Chiang Kai-shek was too eager for quick success.

The trio kept describing the appearance of the guests when they walked into the property, and everyone was shocked by the uniform dress of the staff and the simplicity and convenience of the luxury in the reception hall. The guests on the scene ordered a lot of furniture, especially the large luxury desk booked a lot, and Ivanov gave a 20% discount.

Hu Wenkai told them that this is the first step, and the scale will be bigger than one in the future, and what they have to do now is to quietly acquire the property on North Sichuan Road to prepare for the next step in opening a department store, this matter can only be limited to the four people in the house to know that it must be kept secret, and the news will skyrocket the price of real estate.

Hu Wenkai drew simple drawings on paper to show them, explaining that a two-story cinema will be built opposite the department store, the first floor will be turned into a performance theater, and the second floor will show movies, the right side of the department store is a three-story restaurant, and a three-story café will be built on the left, a café on the first floor, a bar on the second floor, and a ballroom on the third floor. To the left of the cinema is a bookstore and to the right is a hotel.

The three of them froze, and the first thought was how much money it would cost, Hu Wenkai explained that this was a step-by-step process, the first was to build a department store, and then the cinema was built gradually, and the first project was built profitably, and the second project was built with the first project's profits. Lao Yi said that your plan is to concentrate the consumption of the whole Shanghai, and Hu Wenkai replied that this is the plan. He didn't dare to say any more, and according to his plan, he was going to build a bank nearby, for fear that they would be frightened.

In the afternoon, all the staff of the furniture sales company were convened in the office, Hu Wenkai said at the beginning that the furniture sales company will be renamed Xingye International Trade Company, and the main task of the company at this stage is to find the contact information of the main sales companies and commercial organizations in the United States, Japan and Europe, the more detailed the company's scale and reputation, the better, and the classification and filing.

If these companies have offices or sales outlets in Shanghai, they should report immediately, and Chen Yongcheng will bring people to the door to sell furniture first, not whether the business is successful, but the key is to establish contacts. The second floor of the company is all used by the trading company, and the company structure is improved as soon as possible.

Hu Wenkai taught them how to collect information, find the company's address from open foreign newspapers and periodicals, and then mail the letter of the company's product introduction to the other party, the quotation should be exchanged into the other party's currency, and the envelope should be specially printed and the company address and telephone number in English should be printed on the door. Go to the department store to find the product packaging or buy the buyer of the department store, and then go to the other party's consulate in Shanghai to ask for the contact information of the other party.

In the morning, the gang was busy with the real estate company, Hu Wenkai told them to tidy up the office, go home and rest first, start work early tomorrow morning, and he needs to see results after a month.

Back in the office, Schroeder came over and said that in just a few afternoons, five funds were released, all of which were used for the mortgage of the due property, according to the bank's conditions, the mortgaged property was converted into the price at the time of the mortgage, these lenders could not find anyone to trade because the title deed had been mortgaged in the bank, and the price given by the company was much higher than the dead mortgage to the bank, of course, much lower than the market price, but these people at least had some cash in the account.

Hu Wenkai asked Lao Shi to recruit a few more financial personnel, and the company was ready to set up a separate department for the operation of the mortgage business, and Lao Shi temporarily served as the manager, and instructed Lao Shi to pay attention to the safety of the company's capital flow, which is the primary precaution.

When she returned to No. 3 Lane 181 after work, Carrotta was already standing in front of the house, and she was dressed very formally today, with a purple shirt, white striped trousers on a black background, wedge shoes, and a small handbag in her hand. Seeing Hu Wenkai coming over, he hurriedly said, "Hurry up and open the door, I've been waiting for you for a long time." ”

"Why are you here? Isn't it a feast in the evening? Ivanov didn't tell you? ”

"Oops! Stop grinding, open the door first."

Hu Wenkai opened the door, she ran into the bathroom like a rabbit, it turned out to be urine Hu Wenkai lying on the sofa with a smile. He was punched in the shoulder, punching him in the shoulder and back.

"It's not your fault for making you laugh"

"Why do you blame me again, why do you always blame me for no reason"

"I've been waiting for you outside the door for a quarter of an hour, you pig, you're slowly getting off work. How do you not ride a bike? ”

"Talking to Schroeder, the bike wasn't requisitioned for you, Carrotta, you pig's head."

"Don't talk to you about wordiness, you go change your clothes, wear regular, don't wear crumpled clothes, I'm waiting for you because I'm afraid you'll wear clothes randomly."

Hu Wenkai was a little moved, and specially came to supervise himself to wear formal clothes, tonight Carrotta was afraid that he would wear clothes at will cause a sense of disrespect to others, and he was afraid that the guests would look down on him. He simply spread his hand and handed it to you, you can help me choose clothes. Karotta dragged him upstairs by the arm, opened the closet, tried left and right, and finally settled on a striped suit and white shirt.

"Dare you let me wear a striped suit in order to match your clothes"

"yes, you pig just understand," Karotta smiled slyly.

"Okay, I'll wear it as you wish." Hu Wenkai now understands that women's hearts are very delicate.

"Wax your hair." Carrotta pulled out a box of hair wax from her handbag.

"Holy! Can you still use this hair wax? It smells terrible."

"Alas, Hu Wenkai is your master today, what do I mean?"

"It's not interesting, by the way, okay, you go downstairs, I'm going to change my clothes"

"Pig, hurry up, it's going to be six o'clock in a while, and the restaurant they booked is on North Sichuan Road."

"I know it's 7:30 a.m. You sit there and wait a while."

Hu Wenkai changed into clothes, put on a tie, and smeared hair wax. In the mirror, I saw that my image was particularly handsome, with 175 heads, powerful and slender legs, a waist circumference of only 74 cm, a strong figure, broad shoulders, thick lips, a straight nose, and deep eyes under two sword-like thick eyebrows.

After a while, I went to the study and found the M9 in the pocket of my suit, and rummaged through the drawer of the desk to find something and put it in the pocket of my trousers. Walking down the stairs, I heard Carrotta complaining that Wang Ma only washed clothes and didn't know how to shine leather shoes, squatting on the floor at the door to wipe Hu Wenkai's black leather shoes. The leather shoes should have been wiped by the royal mother a few days ago, and it is estimated that Carotta blamed the royal mother when she saw that the leather shoes were not shiny. Hu Wenkai was really moved, and said to Carrotta: "Carrotta, thank you." ”

The hard-mouthed Carrotta said, "You don't have to thank me, I just can't look at people being sloppy." Hu Wenkai stood there and smirked, don't laugh, put on your shoes and go, Carotta handed over the shoes.