National Tide 1980.

Chapter 194 Golden Collar Taste

Life is like an ever-changing kaleidoscope.

Sometimes you only need to turn it gently, and you can change it into a variety of colorful pictures.

Ning Weimin is like this.

His life has changed dramatically since he joined Peel Carton.

Every morning, Ning Weimin would come to work in the most magnificent and tallest building on Chang'an Avenue.

In front of the clear glass revolving door, under the watchful eye of the straight guard, he walked into this famous hotel full of mystery and awe in the eyes of ordinary Beijing residents.

Coming out of the elevator, the corridor leading to Peel Carton & Co. was carpeted with thick wool.

The oncoming room attendant would greet Ning Weimin with a smile.

And at this time, Ning Weimin would also nod frequently as a gentleman.

When he walked into the office, the first thing Ning Weimin saw were the two female employees who were in charge of the front desk.

As a deputy manager, Ning Weimin deserved to be greeted with smiles by two not-so-beautiful but gentle girls.

And he also has the right to ask them to make coffee or tea for himself.

Ning Weimin doesn't have his own office, but his desk is in the top position near the window, and there is a simple partition to protect his privacy.

When he sipped a cup of fragrant tea and stood in front of the glass window and looked out the window, he could have a panoramic view of Chang'an Avenue.

And this widest road in the country can often give Ning Weimin the feeling of a big river.

"On the other side of the river" are all high and low office buildings of state ministries and commissions.

National Ocean Shipping, Textile Industry Bureau, Railway Public Security Bureau...

And in this "river", there are cars, bicycles, and tourists going to Wangfujing or Tiananmen Square.

It is indeed like a crucian carp crossing a river, flowing continuously...

As for the intensity of work, it was much easier than Ning Weimin imagined.

Since the company has just been established, many substantive businesses have not had time to roll out,

Currently working here is more of a formality.

It just shows that Peel Carton has stepped into the world's largest market.

Therefore, the only ones who are really busy every day are the boss Pierre Carton and the CEO Song Huagui.

On the contrary, the employees are all unstressed and light-hearted.

It's not like Ning Weimin's imagination, where everyone in the company is running around like clockwork.

Basically, everyone does not work overtime.

Everyone can enjoy a comfortable office environment and free coffee in an unhurried mood.

The canteen is also good, Song Huagui was able to let the employees of the company eat in the staff canteen of the Capital Hotel.

The food there is better than the general state ministries and commissions.

Think about it, Ning Weimin earns a salary that is several times higher than that of the minister, but he is in such a working state, it doesn't mean how cool it is!

Someone once said that the white-collar workers of foreign companies in the 90s were like gods.

It is conceivable that Ning Weimin lived this kind of godly life nearly ten years earlier, what a transcendent existence it is!

However, the resulting changes may not all be good.

As the saying goes, if you gain something, you will lose something, not everything is so perfect.

For example, the "luxury wholesale" business that Ning Weimin and Zhang Shihui have been cooperating with will inevitably be affected.

With no longer being able to withdraw at any time, it is impossible to know when you will be free.

As the party responsible for the supply, Ning Weimin had to buy some popular products in advance and store them in case of emergencies.

So the previous model of not needing to hold goods at all has completely changed, and he will definitely feel a certain amount of pressure on funds.

Fortunately, it is October, because of the National Day and intense training.

Ning Weimin didn't go to the ghost market, the cultural relics store, or the painting store.

Most of the money I earned was kept in my hands.

On the other side of the stamp market, because there are fewer and fewer high-quality stamps that can be eaten, you have to try your luck.

Ning Weimin has a high degree of control over monkey tickets, and it is very easy to sell high and buy low.

In fact, based on the comprehensive calculation of this period of time, he has actually made money in the postal market.

Finally, add the one thousand foreign exchange certificates that Pierre Carton just issued.

Ning Weimin also scraped together more than 1 foreign exchange certificates as capital for hoarding goods.

He bought seven imported color TV sets, twelve boxes of Moutai and four boxes of Zhonghua and put them in the guest room of Chongwenmen Hotel for Zhang Shihui to use at any time.

Needless to say, with so many goods packed into a hotel room, there are of course hidden dangers.

Ning Weimin was not afraid of being investigated by others, and the crime of speculation could no longer be implicated on him.

Because the room was rented under the name of Peel Carton Company, and he is now the deputy manager of the operation department of Peel Carton Company.

Anyone who wants to ask and learn about this will think that what is going on here is a normal business activity.

So when it comes to what Ning Weimin is really afraid of, he is only worried about one thing, which is the problem of theft at night.

These things are undoubtedly like a huge treasure trove in this era, and it is inevitable that some restless people will be tempted.

It wasn't that Ning Weimin was overly cautious.

Because like the non-staple food store at this time, an old man had to be hired to work the night shift.

Pastry theft is a common occurrence in unguarded non-staple food stores.

That's no way, just to ensure the safety of the goods, Ning Weimin gets a hotel room to sleep every night.

But this inevitably made Kang Shude a little dissatisfied.

The old man thought that his apprentice had a disease of wealth and could not get used to living in a bungalow.

The so-called having to look at the goods all day is just an excuse and excuse.

In addition, the suit is still the symbolic clothing of foreigners these days, and few Chinese will wear it.

Naning Weimin appeared in front of the old neighbors and old neighbors in a suit and leather shoes.

It seems that his ideological tendency of worshiping foreigners and seeking pleasure has been further confirmed.

Because of this, his reputation among the residents of Fan'er Hutong plummeted.

Just like Prince Gong back then, he got the nickname of "fake foreign devil".

How unfair this is.

As far as Ning Weimin's own feelings are concerned, the dress that made him stand out from the crowd is of course very painful.

It's just that the source of the pain is not the gossip behind other people's backs, but the discomfort of wearing a suit and the practical difficulties faced in transportation.

First of all, Ning Weimin was used to wearing loose cotton clothes these days.

Now I have to wear such a formal suit every day, which is decent, but it is really awkward.

Secondly, there are no private cars at the moment, and even Line 2 of the Beijing Metro has not yet arrived.

So no matter how well Ning Weimin was dressed, he still had to squeeze the bus to go to work.

But what is the bus like these days?

During rush hours, drivers often have to jump out of the cab and push people in with their knees to close the doors.

Think about it, after such baptism, when Ning Weimin got off the car, would he still be able to see the suit?

On the first day of work, Ning Weimin arrived at the Jingcheng Hotel, and finally squeezed out, it was the creases all over his body.

The leather shoes also had to be stepped on several times, full of footprints.

There was no way to explain how embarrassed he was. He had to go to the toilet in the lobby to tidy up before he had the nerve to report to the company on the second floor.

So the next day, he switched to cycling to work.

But once he was riding a bicycle, he also had the inconvenience of riding a bicycle, and he found that his whole body was tense and uncomfortable.

In the face of headwinds, I dare not push hard, for fear that my pants will open.

And along the way, other people on the road looked at him as if they were looking at a western scene, probably wondering which country he was from.

It made him more eye-catching than real foreign devils.

In addition, when he arrived at the Beijing Hotel, there was no place for him to store his bicycle.

He had to ride his bicycle to Wangfujing to find a place to park his car.

Good guy, of course Ning Weimin can't stand such embarrassment and trouble.

So simply, he changed to "No. 11 Road" and walked to work on two legs.

Fortunately, Chongwenmen Hotel is not far from Jingcheng Hotel.

From Chongwenmen to Dongdan, and then turn to Wangfujing, it is only three kilometers away, and it takes only 45 minutes to walk there.

Although I am a little tired, I have exercised my body.

It wasn't until several days later that his legs finally became clear.

Why do I feel like I should learn from those people in the company who regard wearing a suit as a status symbol?

Store the suit in the office, and change it when it arrives. This is called one "two".

I have to say that things in the world are still so interesting.

Regardless of the neighbors in Fan'er Hutong, they all regard Ning Weimin as a degenerate example of pursuing a bourgeois lifestyle.

Everyone can't understand his foreign style.

However, those colleagues from Peel Carton still think that Ning Weimin is too rustic and has too little experience.

It seems that he is not worthy to be an executive in such an international fashion company.

I don't know if it's because the salary is too high, or the benefits of being a white-collar worker in a foreign company are too good.

Most of these people are a bit snobbish, quite grateful to their French bosses, and adore everything in the developed West.

Especially for Paris, France, their yearning has reached the point where it cannot be added.

It is a realm where the moon in Paris is the roundest, and even the air is sweet.

If you don't go to see it in this life, you will regret it for the rest of your life.

So they secretly joked that Ning Weimin smoked and didn't recognize foreign cigarettes, and only smoked peonies.

They also didn't understand why Ning Weimin didn't enjoy the free coffee.

You have to spend your own money to buy scented tea and put it in the pantry.

Of course, in their eyes, Ning Weimin's habit of coming here in ordinary clothes and going to the bathroom to change into a suit every day is a big joke.

Many people understood this as Ning Weimin's reluctance to wear them, fearing that they would have to pay for them if they were worn out.

So everyone began to discuss secretly, wondering why the boss had to find such a misfit to be the deputy manager of the operation department.

Especially one day, when it was revealed that Ning Weimin had no academic qualifications and was directly employed.

That's more suspicion and speculation.

In the end, everyone's consensus was that Ning Weimin might be the son of a certain court official, a character like Gao Yanei in "Water Margin".

(End of this chapter)