Chapter 18

Why didn't Jia Hongjian adopt the various get-rich-quick methods described in novels? Like collecting monkey stamps, going to Guangzhou to buy electronic watches and sunglasses to sell, why not trade tulips, why not trade stocks? Because when it came to stamps, Jia Hongjian was a complete novice. He had never collected stamps in his life and had no interest in them. In such a situation, how could he be expected to buy monkey stamps? Would he even recognize what a monkey stamp looked like? He might get cheated and not even know it!

Going to Guangzhou to buy electronic watches and sunglasses? Don't be ridiculous. Jia Hongjian was in Shanghai, not some remote mountain village. Would anyone in Shanghai buy electronic watches and sunglasses from a street vendor? Come on, nowadays, Shanghai kids only cared about things imported from developed countries! Besides, Jia Hongjian was still a student, attending a boarding school where his mother also worked. Could he skip school, take a slow green train to Guangdong, and then set up a stall in Shanghai? Even if his family didn't find out, he wouldn't have the time, the endurance, or the interest in such meager profits. Moreover, he was unfamiliar with the environment in Guangdong. If he were to be robbed by a gang and break his leg, he wouldn't even have anyone to save him!

Tulips? No time, no space, no skills, thank you...

Although the plan was basically set, Jia Hongjian didn't act rashly. He wasn't a teenager and didn't have such strong impulses. He was very methodical, planning to first check if there were any savings accounts at home that had matured, to see how much money could be withdrawn without losing interest. He wouldn't withdraw the money immediately but would scout out a few large malls to see if there were any counterfeit branded items. Only after finding a reliable institution to verify the authenticity would he take action.

Since Wang Hai had become a millionaire in the 1990s by exposing counterfeits and earned a good reputation, why shouldn't Jia Hongjian take this path with little negative impact? Moreover, this path could also combat issues like melamine and gutter oil, which would be beneficial for everyone, including himself, who didn't want to ingest a belly full of chemical elements.

After recalling the content of Wang Hai's book, he confirmed this plan. Then, he flipped through a pile of books he had bought a few days ago and found a book by Kenichi Ohmae titled "The Borderless World." Ohmae was a well-known management expert in East Asia, specializing in market strategies and overseas investments for multinational corporations. Although he was Japanese, he had been bullish on China from an early stage. In this book, published in 1993, he predicted China's rise.

This was unimaginable in that era! Because the prevailing view was that of the Chinese-American economist George Chan, who predicted China's collapse in his book "China's Coming Collapse"! It was ironic that most economists and management experts worldwide had always been pessimistic about China, predicting its collapse. Yet, after 20 years of focusing on collapse, China had become the world's second-largest economy. In his previous life, Jia Hongjian wasn't particularly interested in reading books by such prophets, but after learning about Ohmae's unique perspective and his prediction in 1993 that China would peacefully reunify with Taiwan by 2005, he became curious and started reading the old man's books.

For Jia Hongjian, reading the books of Kenichi Ohmae, the leader of the "Hyperglobalist" school, after his rebirth wasn't to learn management concepts or knowledge, but purely for entertainment.

The next day, after his parents went to work, Jia Hongjian rummaged through a corner of the wardrobe in his parents' bedroom and found the family's small treasury, which was actually a shoebox containing important documents and various savings accounts. After a long search, he couldn't find any fixed-term savings accounts that had matured or were about to mature. The only one was a current account in his name, which held about 500 yuan in lucky money. There were also about 3,000 yuan worth of three-year treasury bonds.

While flipping through the savings accounts, he was surprised to find a stock purchase certificate for the original "Big Eight" stocks in the shoebox. This certificate, in layman's terms, was the original physical "stock" when the stock market first opened in 1985. The stock code was 600601, and based on the stock price and the number of shares, it was worth about 3,000 yuan. It seemed his father had bought it when Yanzhong Industrial went public in 1985.

After some thought, Jia Hongjian decided to cash in the treasury bonds. Treasury bonds were essentially government bonds, which the central government issued annually from the reform and opening up until 1998, with interest rates similar to bank deposits.

The stack of 30 treasury bonds in the shoebox, each with a face value of 100 yuan, were three-year bonds issued in 1990, which had just matured. Although the total principal was a bit low, at 3,000 yuan, with a 20% interest rate, they would yield about 3,600 yuan. This was roughly equivalent to Jia Hongjian's father's annual salary.

Deciding to cash in the treasury bonds, Jia Hongjian didn't simply take the papers. He neatly arranged them as they were, put the shoebox back, and made it look as if it hadn't been touched. Then, he made a phone call.

"Wang Dan, come with me tomorrow," he said straightforwardly after hearing Wang Dan's response.

"Pfft, you didn't want me to accompany you to school before, so why should I go with you tomorrow?" The little vixen was clearly putting on airs.

Jia Hongjian shrugged and said in a mysterious, almost teasing tone, as if inviting her to join in some conspiracy, "Trust me, you won't regret it. I can say you'll experience something you've never experienced before..."

"Hmph... Why does it sound like you're going to trick me out and rape me? You don't have to do that; just say the word, and I'll serve you..." The little vixen pouted, teasing and seducing him at the same time.

"Going out with me will be more fun than rape or mutual pleasure," Jia Hongjian said, unfazed, maintaining his mysterious allure. He resisted the urge to retort, "Pfft, twisting my waist while playing hula hoop is more fun than doing it with you."

Of course, he had to hold back from saying that, or Wang Dan would go crazy and come to "rape" him again, making it harder for him to persuade her.

"Really? What are you going to do?" Wang Dan seemed to be biting the bait.

"You'll see when we get there. You won't regret it. Come to my place at 10 AM tomorrow, and bring your mother's makeup. Dress maturely, remember."

"Even dress maturely? Are you planning to sell me to some foreign den of iniquity? Wait, when did I agree to this?"

"Don't forget, 10 AM, makeup, mature."

Jia Hongjian hung up the phone. He knew Wang Dan well and was sure she would pout for a while but would still come the next morning, acting all high and mighty. But as he said, he wouldn't let her regret it. Tomorrow, he planned to slightly disguise himself and take the maturely dressed Wang Dan to buy counterfeit goods.

Selling counterfeit goods wasn't an exciting endeavor, but what if he pretended to be a future employee of his alma mater and claimed he needed to buy a batch of small appliances from Sony, Panasonic, Casio, or other brands? What if he said he needed to take a few samples of different brands back to show his superiors? What if he actually took them to the Shanghai offices of those companies to have them tested for authenticity? What if he used the letterhead from his mother's workplace to forge an introduction letter and used a carved seal to stamp it?

Yes, Jia Hongjian had never thought about buying suspected counterfeit goods and then sending them for testing, as that would be risky. His preferred method was to use the lure of a large order to get the merchants to provide free service first.

This method was something he came up with on the spot during a job interview with a Fortune 500 company after graduating from university. He remembered the interview where the interviewer gave them a task to photocopy a document 100 times without the company paying for it.

Many of the high-flying returnees from prestigious universities paid out of their own pockets to photocopy the 100 copies, while Jia Hongjian, a local, completed the task without spending a penny. He first asked for the interviewer's business card, then found a small photocopy shop near the company. He claimed to be the interviewer and said their company was selecting a long-term photocopying and printing partner, and they needed 100 copies as samples.

After some persuasion, the shop owner happily photocopied the 100 copies for Jia Hongjian, and Jia Hongjian smoothly advanced to the next round of interviews, which were personally conducted by the CEO...