Chapter 142: On the Songhua River

After chatting for a while about matters up north, Cheng Liutian and his men bid farewell. Before leaving, Zhao Si and Li Xian arranged a time to discuss the agency agreement in Beilin, which Li Xian naturally had no objections to.

Currently, the situation in Russia is that apart from military supplies, there is a shortage of almost everything. Although the price of sanitary paper from Xinlang is a bit high, Cheng Liutian has indeed established a large market within Russia. Considering the situation in Russia, Li Xian doesn't expect huge sales but acknowledges that having an additional channel is always good.

Li Xian kept this matter in mind.

While he was contemplating this, Xu Maohui slapped him on the back and said, "Are you stupid? Cheng Liutian rarely pulls people in. After all these years of dealing at the border, from the domestic Ice City to Manzhouli, and then all the way through Chita, Kursk, and Moscow, he's well-acquainted with the business. This is clearly a lucrative opportunity! He offered you shares because he values you. Why didn't you agree?"

Li Xian didn't have a good answer to that.

In his impression, from 1993 to 2002 was indeed a peak period for border trade between China and Russia. One of Li Xian's former classmates was engaged in the clothing business over there. They would buy goods from Shenyang's major market or directly from Xiliu, then wholesale large quantities to Russian traders near Nibuchu and Chita.

Every New Year, when this uncle visited, he brought the best things. Li Xian particularly liked the pure, bitter Russian chocolate.

But he vaguely remembered that around 2002, this uncle's situation deteriorated. At that time, Li Xian was only six or seven years old and remembered vaguely that the northern side started expelling Chinese traders. The uncle's rented shop, which cost over 1.2 million a year, his 4 million in savings, as well as his property and goods over there, were all lost.

What he had earned over the years vanished overnight.

Later, this once-successful classmate of Li Xian was left running a noodle shop beside a night market and had an unsatisfactory middle-aged life.

So, subconsciously, he felt that Cheng Liutian's large market posed too great a risk.

Russian policies have always been very rigid and unreasonable, especially towards foreigners. Even without considering past experiences with border trade, from the current perspective, Chinese traders succeed in Russia because the Russian government needs a channel due to its weak light industry and high demand for goods.

However, if domestic development progresses, a group of traders who make a fortune and operate on the edge of legality, often relying on illegal profits, would be seen as the best prey.

Capitalists cut the sheep's wool without considering your connections.

In the face of interests, the more money and capital, the more likely one is to be targeted.

So Li Xian was cautious.

For Cheng Liutian, who had made up his mind, Li Xian, who was only half-informed about the future, couldn't say much and could only offer a precautionary note, hoping he would leave himself an escape route.

Seeing that Li Xian was silent, Xu Maohui berated him for not seizing opportunities and not liking his nagging, so Li Xian went straight back to the hotel.

Just as he returned and hadn't even taken off his shoes, his mobile phone rang.

It was the advertising company he visited first during the day, the one with the... well, the woman with the big, white posterior.

On the phone, the woman was no longer arrogant like in the afternoon but rather negotiated with Li Xian about offering a further discount on the small-pack napkins. She wanted to try out this segment.

The price couldn't be lower, and the quantity requested was too small. Li Xian, used to dealing with orders in tens of thousands, had no interest in the napkin business, which had a unit price of just seven cents per pack. If not for wanting to expand his napkin business, he wouldn't bother negotiating with these elementary-level advertising companies that only print small ads and banners.

Seeing Li Xian was firm on the price, the woman eventually compromised and placed an order for a thousand packs.

The phone call from the woman seemed like a starting gun. After Li Xian finished washing up, several other advertising companies called, requesting goods.

Seeing this momentum, Li Xian felt a huge weight lifted off his shoulders.

Previously, the slow sales of napkins were due to restaurants not valuing them beyond their appearance, thinking they had little practical use, and distributors finding the sales network too fragmented and troublesome. This was a classic supply-demand issue.

Advertising companies, however, are different. Though many are still rudimentary, they fundamentally operate on profit from advertising. Using the advertising print on napkin packaging as a link to change the supply-demand relationship was Li Xian's true intention.

If advertising companies successfully promote napkin advertising, the sales channel issue would be resolved, and the added value of advertising napkins would make them a promotional product for restaurants rather than just a consumable.

This supply-demand relationship, Li Xian believed, was without problems.

No issues whatsoever!

Although it was already past nine in the evening, Li Xian still called the business office of Xinbei Paper. He contacted Chen Shulin and asked him to quickly produce a batch of blank napkin wrappers.

Faced with this odd request, Old Chen was perplexed, "Factory Director, didn't you say we should build the brand? Why not print something on the wrappers?"

Used to Chen Shulin's working and speaking style, Li Xian wasn't annoyed. "Are you dumb? Just print our Xinbei brand and phone number on the edge of the wrapper!"

After a brief complaint about Old Chen's wooden-headedness, Li Xian confirmed the order and hung up.

The first batch wasn't large. The factory quickly revised the packaging design overnight and produced 10,000 packs of small napkins, which were loaded and shipped the next morning.

By noon, Li Xian received a call from the driver, saying the goods had arrived.

After arranging for a tricycle to deliver the orders, Li Xian headed straight to the train station.

Although the machine tools needed to be sold, processing over a hundred machines wasn't something that could be done in a short time, so there was no need to wait around. As for the napkin business, he was confident he had found the key and solved it. The rest depended on the operations of those advertising companies.

With plenty of time before the 8 PM train, Li Xian strolled towards the station after delivering the last batch of napkins.

Although Harbin's streets had changed significantly since the early years of the People's Republic, they still retained the character of the old Ice City.

The city's rise came from the construction of the East Siberian Railway by the Russians. So even though times have changed and New China has been established, the numerous Russian-style buildings that have been preserved for decades, even nearly a century, still give the city a strong foreign flavor.

Along the street, perhaps retired workers from some unit were engaged in cultural activities. In Zhongshan Road Plaza, dozens of elderly people were singing in unison.

The song was one of the exiled trilogy that is rarely heard today, "On the Songhua River."

"My home, on the Northeast Songhua River.

There are, forests and coal mines, and also, vast fields of soybeans and sorghum.

My home, on the Northeast Songhua River.

There are, my fellow countrymen, and also, my aging parents.

September 18, September 18…"

Without any band accompaniment, the song, sung solemnly by the elderly in the frigid temperature of over twenty degrees below zero, was particularly grand and solemn.

Walking on Zhongshan Road, formerly known as "Huoerwat Street," later as "Army Street" and "Tu Fei Yuan Road," and renamed in 1946, Li Xian couldn't help but take off his hat upon hearing the song.

The black leather gloves lightly brushed against the brick wall, which had once been built by the Russians, later possibly marked with large "*****" characters but now covered with "Family Healer Cures All" ads and peeling red paint, producing a rustling sound.

"Buzz, buzz, buzz"

In the distance, a flock of white doves flew past in the setting sun, emitting a series of cooing sounds.