Willow catkins fly, the village road is fragrant; wine flags flutter in the warm breeze, youths are wild with passion.
Tan Jincheng leaned against the car window at the entrance of Yongcheng University, watching students come and go, each in their prime, with radiant smiles, and for some reason, he thought of this poem.
From his grandparents' generation to his parents' generation, and even his own, studying could truly change one's destiny.
Just then, a tall girl with shoulder-length hair, wearing a white short down jacket and blue slim-fit jeans, emerged from the school gate and gracefully walked towards where Tan Jincheng had parked.
"Been waiting long? Sorry, a classmate held me up with a small matter,"
Gu Qingqing said apologetically, smoothing her hair.
Tan Jincheng smiled as he sized up Gu Qingqing,
"Last time you waited for me, this time it's my turn to wait for you. We're even."
Honestly, this girl is quite pretty.
Her features are delicate, and she seemed to have put on some light makeup today.
While her outfit isn't particularly outstanding, it really accentuates her figure.
Indeed, what they say online is true: if you have a good figure, you'd look good even in a snakeskin bag.
"Let's go, we need to find a quiet place to get the quote sheets and promotional materials ready."
Coming to see her today was for this very purpose; Tan Jincheng could do these things himself, but it would be time-consuming.
"Mhm, I brought my laptop too,"
Gu Qingqing said, patting her cross-body laptop bag.
Tan Jincheng glanced at the laptop bag; damn, a young lady from a wealthy family.
There were no cheap laptops these days, with prices generally above 8,000 yuan, especially since Gu Qingqing's laptop bag had "Think" written on it.
Tan Jincheng wasn't sure when Think was acquired by Liangxin Xiang, but he hadn't seen any news about it online before, so this must be an IBM model.
Although he couldn't tell the exact model, this item could certainly be considered high-end goods now.
It's not that the poor don't work hard, it's that children from wealthy families are too self-disciplined; she uses a computer costing over ten thousand yuan, yet she's still thinking of doing part-time work to earn pocket money!
Over the Lunar New Year period, frequent online chats had significantly deepened their relationship.
Gu Qingqing confidently got into the passenger seat and asked with a smile,
"Where are we going?"
Tan Jincheng thought for a moment and replied,
"You decide, I'm not as familiar with this area as you are."
"How about we go to that Starbucks we went to last time? My treat this time."
"Alright, that works."
Starbucks it is then, there didn't seem to be a better place.
In this era, working on a laptop at Starbucks wasn't considered lowbrow, so it didn't matter.
Tan Jincheng still remembered the location, and after several turns, they arrived.
Today was Saturday, but because they arrived early, Starbucks was nearly empty, with only a few customers.
"I said it's my treat today, you can't fight me for it,"
Gu Qingqing emphasized before they entered.
"I won't fight you. You should have received New Year's money, but I didn't, so you're definitely richer than me right now."
Tan Jincheng understood that Gu Qingqing didn't want to owe favors; work was work, and earning money wasn't shameful, but privately, one shouldn't casually spend a boy's money.
Fairy princesses who naturally spend boys' money existed in every era, not just exclusively in later generations.
"Still a mocha?"
"Mhm, mocha. Give me the laptop, I'll go find a seat. Also, don't buy me cake, I don't like that stuff."
Gu Qingqing pursed her lips and smiled,
"Got it."
With that, she handed the laptop bag to Tan Jincheng.
Tan Jincheng had also brought his laptop today.
He found a four-person table by the window and opened his own laptop bag.
He powered it on, inserted a USB drive, and waited for the data to copy.
He would then import it into Gu Qingqing's laptop using the USB drive later.
In 2005, USB drives were already quite popular, capable of reaching up to 1GB, and not expensive.
The one Tan Jincheng held was 512MB, a Netac brand.
Later, Tan Jincheng planned to open another electronics import and export company.
During this time, he was cramming knowledge in this area, still doing import and export business, but avoiding the same track as Jinpeng Trade.
This was to prevent direct competition between the two companies, which would be good for both himself and Zhang Xupeng.
Taking the USB drive in front of him as an example, its structure and components weren't complex: a USB plug, a USB mass storage device controller, and a flash memory chip were its main components.
Once these three were handled, a USB drive could basically be made quite easily.
This business could still thrive for several years, mainly because there were too many brands, and counterfeiting was rampant, making them prone to breaking easily, almost like consumables.
Anyone who experienced the PC era had bought countless USB drives.
Tan Jincheng himself, in his previous life, had bought countless USB drives ranging from tens to hundreds of yuan, which either got lost or broke.
From USB drives, it could also be seen that the current electronics market held great potential.
However, currently, computers were still dominated by PCs.
Electronic products, including peripherals, revolved around PC computers, so doing business in electronics still required a step-by-step approach.
Even knowing that the future would be dominated by mobile internet, venturing into that business at this time would only lead to a crushing defeat.
Being half a step ahead makes one a pioneer; being one step ahead makes one a martyr.
"What are you thinking about?"
Just as Tan Jincheng was deep in thought, Gu Qingqing gracefully approached with two cups of coffee.
"Nothing, which one is mine?"
Tan Jincheng said, gathering his thoughts.
"They're the same, either one is fine."
By then, the USB drive data had also finished importing.
Tan Jincheng gestured to Gu Qingqing, who was sitting opposite him, to import the data from the USB drive.
Cheng Yongjun had helped secure a booth at the Canton Fair, which cost a significant amount of money.
The money couldn't be wasted, so this exhibition couldn't be as casual as the last one; all necessary preparations had to be made.
For this, Jinpeng Trade also recruited two new salespeople, offering a base salary plus commission.
The base salary wasn't high, and the commission depended on individual ability.
They would go to Yangcheng together then.
For some reason, ever since working for others became normalized, it seemed that salespeople and clerical staff were very easy to recruit at any time.
Quote sheets, exhibition giveaways including custom shopping bags, business card holders, etc., as well as flyers, catalogs, brochures, and other promotional materials, basically contract templates, all needed to be prepared in advance.
This also involved some common English vocabulary.
The materials Tan Jincheng had used for testing previously proved that Gu Qingqing already had the ability to handle it, so this part of the work was entrusted to her.
"You go ahead and do it according to the requirements; you can ask me if you don't understand anything."
After a brief explanation, Tan Jincheng also began to work.
This was typical for the owner of a small company; one couldn't say he was omnipotent, but he certainly knew a lot of things.
Tan Jincheng had even been forced to learn some simple design.
Spend where necessary, save where possible, you can't hire people to do everything.
(End of Chapter)
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