Dong Qiangqiang's Story of Leaving Germany

Before the car left the parking lot, Dong Qiangqiang noticed through the rearview mirror that Zheng Chunhua did not walk back to the restaurant, but waved to him. He stopped the car, rolled down the window, and leaned out to ask Zheng Chunhua: "Anything else?"

"Feng Chong's Chinese class is about to start in the summer vacation. Did he tell you?" Zheng Chunhua said as she walked towards the car.

Dong Qiangqiang thought of the small advertisements at the Wanfu bar and shook his head. He had never mentioned the conflict between him and Feng Chong to Zheng Chunhua, and Zheng Chunhua always thought that they had a close relationship.

"He asked me to give a lecture, but I don't know how. He said that I have a friend who gives it very well and asked me to ask for his advice." Zheng Chunhua stood motionless by the car door for a while, and her smile gradually widened.

"Lu Wei?" Dong Qiangqiang's heart skipped a beat and he blinked several times.

"Yes, that seems to be the name. Would you mind asking for me?"

Dong Qiangqiang wanted to give Lu Wei's phone number to Zheng Chunhua so that she could ask directly, but when he thought that it was rare for Zheng Chunhua to make a request to him, he swallowed his words back.

"Okay, I'll talk to her about it later, and then you can communicate over the phone." Dong Qiangqiang figured it out quickly.

"Thank you. Be safe." Zheng Chunhua waved in thanks.

In Dong Qiangqiang's memory, there has never been so much rain in July in previous years. There were drizzles, there were downpours, and there were even days of continuous rain. When Dong Qiangqiang was tired of reading in the library, he looked up at the rain and it always reminded him of a joke he had heard before: it rained twice this week, once for three days, and once for four days. But to be honest, although there was a lot of rain, it always gave people the feeling that it was not a good rain every time, and it would always be hotter in the next few days.

Lao Bai responded quickly. When Dong Qiangqiang handed the landlord the domestic travel itinerary and quotation carefully drafted by Lao Bai, the landlord exclaimed in disbelief.

It turned out that during the time when Dong Qiangqiang was digging the pond day and night, she also consulted several local travel agencies, but the plans given by the Germans were expensive and limited to a few places, because they wanted to avoid the risk of SARS. In comparison, the number of tourist attractions in Lao Bai's plan was more than double that of the travel agency. Although Dong Qiangqiang thought that it was a bit rushed to visit so many places in a three-week trip, Lao Bai's price was only two-thirds of the price quoted by the German travel agency. In the eyes of the landlord, there were many places to visit and little money, so there was no reason not to go. The only thing she was worried about was that Lao Bai's travel agency was selling dog meat under the guise of sheep, so she asked Dong Qiangqiang if he had participated before and whether there were other Germans in the group.

Dong Qiangqiang relayed the landlord's many confusions to Lao Bai. Lao Bai admitted that because she was Dong Qiangqiang's landlord, he contacted a large travel agency with many years of cross-border tourism reception experience. If it was a small workshop-style pheasant travel agency, the cost could be half cheaper, but there was no guarantee, and the landlord would become a fat sheep waiting to be slaughtered. If it was last year, he could even give the landlord a chance to travel to China for free, but at this time the pressure on performance was like a heavy burden, forcing him to cherish every penny, so this time he didn't think about making money from the landlord, and also saved the idea of ​​turning the landlord into a German seed user. Although Lao Bai lived in the hillside for a shorter time, he still knew the landlord's identity as a Christian. If this trip could really satisfy and make the landlord happy, there would be hope for future German groups. After all, Germans have the habit of traveling everywhere, and it is rare to get the trust of Germans, so he is more reluctant to see the landlord get into trouble than Dong Qiangqiang.

White's openness about his plans made Dong Qiangqiang realize that he had finally become the shrewd businessman again. In Dong Qiangqiang's opinion, there was nothing wrong with this, but it made him feel more at ease. After learning about all the key points of the trip in detail, Dong Qiangqiang admitted that because the landlord introduced the pond business, he was willing to sponsor half of the landlord's expenses. The landlord would pay half and he would pay the other half. White said that it was up to him and that he should place an order as soon as possible if there was no problem, so as to avoid more trouble. At the same time, he asked Dong Qiangqiang to remind the landlord to get a tourist visa as soon as possible. However, for Germans, getting a tourist visa to China has never been a difficult matter, especially at this time.

After listening to Dong Qiangqiang's explanation and assurance, the landlord did not hesitate and immediately said that although Lao Bai had not performed well with her before, the advertisement on the homepage of Lebai touched her heart, so she was willing to trust Lao Bai again. Dong Qiangqiang was confused by the landlord's words. When she opened the homepage of Lebai, she found that the advertisement on the homepage had been changed to: If SARS taught us anything, it is not to take travel for granted, otherwise life will teach us. So, while you still have time, go out and see the outside world. You don't need to go far to get close to the thousand-year-old monuments, appreciate the breathtaking natural landscape, incredible beaches and dangerous peaks, taste delicious delicacies, fine wines, and experience the colorful retail industry and wild nightlife. No matter where your interests are, Lebai is willing to work with you to go deep into different cities on different continents, find the little-known hidden gems behind the city, and let the city tours of Europe/Asia/North America/Africa (coming soon) inspire you to explore all the fun that this continent can offer.

  In addition to the homepage, the content of other sections has changed so much that Dong Qiangqiang was beyond his memory. He just remembered that the last time he logged into Lebai was during the winter vacation. He didn't expect that it was almost summer vacation. And judging from the situation, Lebai's territory seemed to be expanding to Africa, but why had he never heard Lao Bai mention this?

Before Dong Qiangqiang could ask Lao Bai if he changed the advertising slogan, Xu Tongying called him again. Dong Qiangqiang thought she wanted to know the effect of her persuasion to Lao Bai, but she complained again and never mentioned it again. After asking, she found out that she asked Lao Bai for the second quarter data in July, but Lao Bai's answer was exactly the same as last time, saying that there was no problem with giving the data, but Xu Tongying had to connect more tour groups to Le Bai first, and at the same time lift the restrictions on the use of funds in Germany for Le Bai as soon as possible. Xu Tongying didn't expect Lao Bai to bring up the old matter again. As soon as he said that you still have to communicate with investors and shareholders about this matter, Lao Bai hung up the phone, and there was no intention to talk about it. She was so angry that she could only ask Dong Qiangqiang what was wrong with Lao Bai and whether he planned to continue.

As a small shareholder, Dong Qiangqiang's relationship with Lao Bai had just eased due to the landlord's travel. It was inconvenient for him to say harsh words, and he could not be a hands-off boss. He had to try to smooth things over and appease Xu Tongying with kind words, telling her that Lao Bai was indeed working very hard in Germany. However, Xu Tongying sneered and asked him if he knew that Lao Bai had drastically cut the tour guide's salary a while ago, which caused the tour guide to become angry and quit his job, leading to the farce of Le Bai's client being thrown on the streets of a European country late at night.

Dong Qiangqiang immediately explained that the group on the seven-country tour were all students of Trier, not clients of Lebai, and had nothing to do with Lebai.

Xu Tongying disagreed with his point of view. Even if the clients were not, the tour guides and drivers would always be Le Bai. SARS was about to end, and the number of tour groups had begun to rebound visibly. Le Bai would ultimately have to rely on these tour guides and drivers to complete their tasks. Although Lao Bai's original intention of cutting his salary was to control the company's operating costs, which was certainly logically correct and was also required by investors and shareholders, his simple, crude, one-size-fits-all management style without emotional intelligence or warmth would definitely leave hidden dangers.

Facts have also verified the judgment of investors and shareholders. The joint actions of tour guides and drivers were not the only incident in the Seven Countries Tour. Just in June, when the whole country was celebrating the end of SARS, another farce of a Lebai customer being thrown on the streets of Europe at midnight occurred again. And just like last time, Lebai played a deaf ear to the inquiries of investors and shareholders, as if this incident had never happened from beginning to end.

Dong Qiangqiang didn't understand why Lao Bai and the investors, shareholders and Xu Tongying suddenly became so hostile. The differences and contradictions between the two sides seemed to be becoming more and more irreconcilable. He could only agree to help continue the coordination, but he didn't even believe that he had the ability to do so.

What made him feel even more incredible was that when he talked to Du Lan and Duanmu about Lao Bai's recent performance and the tense relationship with investors, they both expressed their understanding of Lao Bai's behavior. Duanmu believed that Le Bai was like Lao Bai's child, just as he regarded Buchan as his own child. During the SARS period, investors not only did not help the "sick child" in times of need, but also did not do the most basic thing to show concern. Lao Bai must have made such a seemingly extreme but actually normal move out of disappointment, and Dong Qiangqiang could not empathize with Lao Bai because he never had to consider business operations.

Duanmu’s criticism really made Dong Qiangqiang depressed. He didn’t expect that he would have such an image in Duanmu’s mind.

But Duanmu's next words surprised him even more.

On the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the founding of St. Petersburg, the second largest city in Russia, Sergey Lato Anderson sent Duanmu and Dong Qiangqiang an invitation card to spend Christmas in St. Petersburg at the end of the year. According to Anderson, all startups invested by Sergey Lato must send their top executives to attend.

Duanmu doesn't want to go. (End of this chapter)