I'm back in 1990

Chapter 240: The Era

Sunday, May 6.

Huang Xiaochuan received another call from Chang Zhihong, who implied that the price was negotiable if Huang Xiaochuan was willing to sell him more than 10,000 subscription certificates.

Chang Zhihong was in such a hurry because the issuance of newly issued shares was about to begin, and with the soaring price of subscription warrants, they were now extremely difficult to obtain. Therefore, every day of delay was a loss, both in terms of time and money.

Chang Zhihong knew that Huang Xiaochuan intended to sell subscription certificates, but the key issue was the price. So after communicating with some major shareholders, he decided to acquire the more than 10,000 subscription certificates in Huang Xiaochuan's hands at all costs.

Huang Xiaochuan also felt that the time was right, so he agreed to meet with Chang Zhihong at the coffee shop near Wanguo in the afternoon to discuss the matter in detail.

After Huang Xiaochuan hung up the phone, he returned to the house from the balcony. Tang Yuan was in the kitchen helping Yu Xiang and Ji Mei cook. Yu Wei was alone on the coffee table, sorting stamps. He picked out some stamps in poor condition and put them into different stamp protection bags in batches.

After Huang Xiaochuan sat down, he asked him, "What are you busy with?"

Yu Wei didn't even look up, continuing to sort through his stamps, but he replied, "I'll sort through the stamps you gave me and exchange the ones in relatively poor condition for other stamps."

Having not been to the stamp market in a long time, Huang Xiaochuan casually asked, "How's the stamp market doing now? Is the market good?"

"It's not as popular as it used to be, but the foot traffic seems alright. It's not crowded on weekdays, but it gets quite busy on holidays and Sundays. If you're free this afternoon, why don't you come with me for a stroll?"

"Maybe next time! I have an appointment with someone this afternoon."

"Whatever you want." Yu Wei continued fiddling with his stamps.

Yu Xiang and Ji Mei treated everyone to lunch today. Huang Xiaochuan didn't have much to do this morning, so he simply called Zhou Wei and Li Huan and asked them to accompany him to check out the nearby alleyways.

The alleyways of Shanghai are the most distinctive places in Shanghai, where a large number of local Shanghai residents or people from Jiangbei who have settled in Shanghai live.

Huang Xiaochuan stopped to listen for a bit. He heard the neighbors chattering about stocks, and surprisingly, they were communicating quite fluently in both Shanghainese and Jiangbei dialects.

An elderly man, holding a loquat syrup jar wrapped in a plastic sleeve as a teacup, was saying, "Have you heard? The Yu Garden shopping mall recently went up to 10,000 yuan! Unbelievable! The stock exchange's big screen couldn't even display anything, it almost broke down."

"My goodness, is this for real? Ten thousand yuan per share?"

"I'm lying, this is it!" The speaker even made a turtle gesture with his hand, meaning that if he was lying, he was a turtle.

After listening to one side of the story, Huang Xiaochuan continued walking inside.

Along the walls outside each house in the alley, chamber pots were placed, facing south at a 45-degree angle to be exposed to the scorching sun. This was a unique feature of Shanghai during this period, since most families living in the alleys did not have private bathrooms, let alone flush toilets. So every morning, a man would come out with a manure cart, ringing a bell, and the women of each household would come out disheveled to empty their chamber pots.

The biggest dream of these people living in the alleyways is to be allocated or buy a two-bedroom apartment with a private bathroom and a flush toilet. Then they want to leave and never come back.

It was morning, and everyone was busy cooking. Because the living conditions were quite crowded, many households shared a kitchen. Huang Xiaochuan went in to take a look. When the old ladies and aunties who were cooking saw a stranger run into their kitchen, they all looked at him warily.

Huang Xiaochuan quickly smiled at them and complimented the elderly women, saying, "I was passing by and the aroma here was incredible, so I wanted to come in and see which grandma or auntie has such good cooking skills?"

Hearing Huang Xiaochuan praise their skills pleased the elderly women, so they stopped rejecting his uninvited and impulsive behavior. Besides, the young man was handsome, which pleased the elderly women as well.

Huang Xiaochuan glanced around and saw that the small kitchen was already crammed with seven or eight people, each with their own stove and water tap. Interestingly, each tap had a tin box attached to it, which was locked when not in use, for fear that someone would steal their water.

While these aunties and grandmothers were busy cooking, they also chatted about this and that.

"Have you heard? The Lin family on the third floor of building number 19 only used eight kilowatt-hours of electricity in three months. The power company came to their door today, saying they were stealing electricity and they're going to be fined."

"Have you heard? The Lin family on the third floor of building number 19 only used eight kilowatt-hours of electricity in three months. The power company came to their door today, saying they were stealing electricity and they're going to be fined."

"Please help me out! She used eight kilowatt-hours of electricity in three months? Everyone in the neighborhood knows she has a ton of appliances!"

"That's really going too far. At least using ten or twenty kilowatt-hours of electricity a month is nothing to other people. Eight kilowatt-hours in three months? Are you out of your mind!"

"Jufen! Why did you cook so many side dishes this morning? Are we having guests?"

"yes"

After satisfying his curiosity, Huang Xiaochuan left. Seeing that it was still early, he went to the Wanguo Huangpu area, which was a gathering place for pile drivers. It was estimated that half of all the pile drivers in Shanghai were there. These people either worked in twos and threes on their own or gathered in groups to calculate and divide the money. When someone came to sell subscription certificates, the scene was like a rush to buy vegetables at a market.

Huang Xiaochuan strolled casually near Wanguo Securities, with Zhou Wei and Li Huan following closely behind him.

Perhaps it was because Zhou Wei and his group exuded such a strong aura that no one dared to approach Huang Xiaochuan to strike up a conversation.

Huang Xiaochuan took the initiative to find a piling mold manufacturer and inquire about the price.

"Friend, what's the price of subscription certificates lately?"

The man glanced at Zhou Wei and his group, then at Huang Xiaochuan, and said, "Boss, are you planning to buy or sell?"

Huang Xiaochuan asked with a smile, "How much are you taking in? How much are you giving out?"

As he spoke, he took out a pack of Zhonghua cigarettes from his pocket and gave one to him.

The other party took the cigarette and started talking, explaining in detail to Huang Xiaochuan the current price of the subscription certificates.

They buy subscription certificates for an average of 5000 each, and sell them for an extra 100 or 200 each, but there are many tricks involved.

For example, if you win the subscription certificates for "Zhongbai" and "Hualian" stocks, the current market price is 11000 yuan per certificate, with no bargaining allowed, and they are extremely sought after.

The pile driver was a chatterbox and talked to Huang Xiaochuan for a long time. Before leaving, Huang Xiaochuan gave the pile driver the pack of Zhonghua cigarettes he had just opened.

I returned to the old apartment just in time for the food to be served.

Upon seeing Huang Xiaochuan, Yu Xiang said, "I was just about to call you. Where did you go all by yourself?"

As Huang Xiaochuan changed his shoes, he said, "I went out for a walk."

After lunch, after seeing Yu Wei and Tang Yuan off, Huang Xiaochuan stood alone on the balcony for a while, lost in thought.

Charlie Cao called; he'll be coming to Shanghai next week to meet with Jiang Bixing.

Huang Xiaochuan arranged for him to register a Times Trading Company in Hong Kong under the name of ET Investment Company. Huang Xiaochuan instructed Cao Charlie to use this Times Trading Company to invest in and register a wholly-owned retail company in Shanghai, with an investment of HK$30 million, and to discuss option matters with Jiang Bixing.

The main point is that Jiang Bixing must open eight large super shopping malls before 2000, in which case he can obtain shares in the retail company 05.

Moreover, Huang Xiaochuan has already thought of the name for the future large-scale super shopping mall.

"Times Super Shopping Center, it's extra."

In fact, the actual controller of this soon-to-be-established large-scale retail enterprise is Huang Xiaochuan himself. He established this retail enterprise to realize some of his own ideas, which is actually to imitate the operating model of Pang Donglai in later generations, so as to achieve the goal of the rich leading the poor to get rich.