Chapter 456: Chapter 456: Cute old man
Feng Yiping watched Huang Jingping take things out of the box one after the other: a bag of medium-length, silvery-white dried fish; a bag of dried shrimp, also supposedly caught in the river; a bag of neatly arranged dried daylilies; a bag of dried black fungus (don't get any ideas); a bag of persimmons with a sugary colour on top; and a bag of uniform-sized dried sweet potatoes.
Sure enough, as County Magistrate Zhao had said, they were all worthless local produce, except that they were all much more exquisite than those made at home.
Besides, as the saying goes, a goose feather sent from afar may be of little value, but it carries a lot of weight in the sense of goodwill. These are much more valuable than goose feathers.
Wen Hong, who had not yet gone to training, still pursued, 'This was sent by the county magistrate?'
Huang Jingping nodded.
Feng Yiping didn't bother washing his hands and picked up a dried persimmon with his chopsticks. The unique fragrance was accompanied by a unique sweetness, really the taste of home. 'This is why County Magistrate Zhao is a county magistrate and Wang Ganqing is only a town mayor,'
Huang Jingping coughed, oh, forgetting that her father was only a deputy town mayor.
'Don't worry, uncle. It's just that you didn't have the chance before, but now you do. In a few years, you'll leave petty bureaucrats like Wang Ganqing miles behind, and by then, you'll be a genuine second-generation official,' Feng Yiping quickly said to make amends.
'You're the one who knows how to talk,' Huang Jingping laughed and picked a dried sweet potato to feed him.
'Hey, be careful, I'm still here,' after living together for a few days, some of Wen Hong's lively and feisty energy had returned.
'Then I'll feed you too,' said Huang Jingping, chasing after Wen Hong with a dried sweet potato.
Feng Yiping watched them smilingly, picked up the mobile phone vibrating on the table, which was the landline of his third uncle's house. This was rare, but he didn't expect it to be his grandfather on the other end when he picked it up. "Yiping, let me ask you, are you doing business with the Japanese?'
Why was Grandpa concerned about this? "Yes, we picked up a business at the Canton Fair. It's going well, and we'll have orders all year round. Mom and Dad are organising the food factory to produce right now.'
But Grandpa doesn't care about that. 'I know all about that. Have you forgotten what I told you before? When I was young, the Japanese built a blockhouse on the hill behind the town. I'm not sure how many families in the town suffered, but in our village, out of 12 families, four lost their male descendants.
The Japanese gun emplacement often fired at night, and one of my cousins was shot in the leg by a Japanese soldier on the gun emplacement while walking home at night. He was carried home but only lasted two days before he died. Our family has a blood feud with the Japanese.
Now things are going well, so why do you have to do business with the Japanese?'
Feng Yiping had heard his grandfather talk about these things, but for Feng Yiping and his family, these things were too remote. There is not even a trace of the Japanese fort on the mountain behind the town. He remembers that after hearing this, he felt that it was really not easy to win the War of Resistance against Japan, and the Japanese devils had actually occupied even such a small place as theirs effectively.
But now Feng Yiping thinks about it, and unlike them, who have learned about that period of suffering through history, documentaries, photos, the few remaining sites, and various anti-Japanese film and television dramas, his grandfather lived in the Japanese-occupied zone when he was young and witnessed the atrocities of the Japanese invaders. Right in front of him, many of his relatives died innocently at the hands of the Japanese. Such hatred is indeed difficult to let go.
It's useless to talk about big ideas. You can't expect a country man in his seventies to have the same broad view as a member of the Politburo.
You can hear that Grandpa is very excited now. 'I already told your parents, and they said that this is a signed contract and we can't break it, or we'll have to pay compensation. I'm just asking you, are you also like them, and do you absolutely have to do this business? How can I face my brother in the future if you do this?'
As Grandpa spoke, the phone kept ringing with new incoming call alerts. Needless to say, it must be Mum and Dad calling, only they weren't as quick as Grandpa.
Feng Yiping glanced at the two girls who were still laughing over there, and slowly walked upstairs, racking his brains for the right words. 'If I had been born at that time, I would have done the same as you and helped the guerrillas fight the Japanese devils. But what do we do now? We can't fight anymore, we have to find another way.
Listen to me, Grandpa. We sell these dried radishes in convenience stores for less than a dollar each. We make them exactly the same size as they want, and sell them for 2.4 yuan. So tell me, is it better to make money from the Japanese, or not to make money from the Japanese?
'Anyway, I think making more money from the Japanese is a way of getting revenge, don't you agree, Grandpa?' Feng Yiping asked.
Grandpa didn't say anything, and all you could hear was him breathing heavily. After a while, he hung up with a 'clang'.
Feng Yiping touched his forehead, which was covered in sweat. This was an opportunity to get through to Grandpa.
He looked at the missed calls on his phone and called one back. 'Dad, yes, I just finished talking to Grandpa. Yes, I explained the reason. He wasn't as angry as he was at first. I think you should go with Mom and explain the reason to him properly. He's so old now, and his mood is better than anything else.'
To be honest, when Feng Yiping took on the Sato convenience store order, he never expected anything like this to happen.
In fact, to be honest, he didn't have a lot of good feelings towards our close neighbour across the sea. He personally had some views that the Japanese and Koreans had some commonalities, and in many ways, mainly small ways, they did better than we did, for example, traditional etiquette, they inherited and retained a lot of Tang and Song charm.
But the biggest problem is that, on some major issues of right and wrong, they simply have no concept of right and wrong.
For example, they say that the bamboo stick is theirs, that the festival is theirs, and they hate to admit that the dynasties in our history were all their vassals. Even the country has gone so far as to go to UNESCO to register some of our traditional festivals. ƒгeewёbnovel.com
It's better not to mention the devils, as the evidence is overwhelming, but they just refuse to admit it. Sometimes when I see politicians speaking on the news, I just wish I could be born a few decades earlier and have a real fight.
So he actually supports the initiative to boycott Japanese goods, and would rather not use them if possible.
Therefore, what he can't stand the most is those public intellectuals who say that boycotting Japanese goods is really a ridiculous argument. The reason the public intellectuals know is that, when you look closely at all kinds of household appliances in the home, there is no such thing as not using Japanese parts.
This is sophistry! These public intellectuals are substituting concepts. Boycotting Japanese goods is an attitude. It means using as little as possible. Although it is impossible to boycott 100%, a boycott of just a few percent is not a boycott? Does it have no effect? Because it is impossible to boycott 100%, is it therefore unnecessary?
When he was in junior high school, he told Huang Jingping that he wanted to learn Japanese to make money from the Japanese. It really came from the bottom of his heart. However, before he could learn it, by chance, the Japanese came looking for him. How could he let such an opportunity go?
After Feng Zhenchang spoke with his son on the phone, he felt that Feng Yiping had a point. Without explaining the reasons thoroughly, his father-in-law's heart would never be at ease. After discussing it with Mei Qiuping, they rushed to the Meijia Village in the afternoon.
After being persuaded by his children and their spouses, Mei Jianzhong finally agreed that what everyone said made sense. It was better to earn money from the Japanese than not to earn any money at all.
So he called Feng Yiping again and said, 'Yiping, I've thought about it, and you're right. So let's think of more ways to make the business bigger and earn more money.'
'Okay, Grandpa, I'll do as you say and think of a way right away,' Feng Yiping was very happy. He told Grandpa that it had been quite a feat to get him to change his mind.
Haha, what a cute little old man!
However, according to Oberyang, Sato Convenience would like to visit the factory if given the opportunity. It seems that it would be best to keep Grandpa in the dark, otherwise who knows what he might do.