wild 1995

Chapter 31
"Di Ye, is "One House, Two Wives" a tertiary film?"

"No, this is a comedy film released in 1987, starring Chen You, Anita Mui, and Xia Wenxi."

"Pan Jinlian's Past and Present Lives must be this one, right?"

"No, this is a fantasy drama film released in 1989, starring Wang Zuxian, Zeng Zhiwei, and Lin Junxian."

At the beginning of 1995, the pirated VCD industry chain was still immature. Most of the CDs Fan Dazhi and Bi Wanxi bought were old movies converted from videotapes.

Di Ye sat in front of the socket in the corner of the warehouse, put his laptop on a foldable dining table, made a list with Excel, and recorded the name and quantity of the CDs, while instructing Bi Wanxi to classify the movies and put them in different boxes, so as to prevent the oolong incident of recommending third-grade movies to customers as family fun.

Before the emergence of VCD, the Chinese film market had been sluggish for many years. Due to the high cost of piracy, low production efficiency, and high price, videotapes were bulky and inconvenient to transport. Therefore, video theaters in inland areas had limited film sources and often showed the same film over and over again, resulting in very low viewing volume for film lovers at this time.

Bi Wanxi is a shabby householder who can’t even get a few thousand dollars out. The reason why he and Fan Dazhi were able to get online and go to Guangdong Province to buy pirated discs together is because he has relatives in Hong Kong, and another reason is that he spends years in video theaters and has seen more than 100 movies, so he knows how to do it.

However, for movie fans in the Internet age like Di Ye, reading more than 100 movies is not worth mentioning. As long as Bi Wanxi reports the name of the movie, he can immediately tell the release time, general content, main actors and even related gossip, crushing this so-called "expert" to nothing.

"Di Ye, have you watched so many movies?"

"of course not."

Excluding the time wasted on commuting back and forth, Di Ye stayed in Pengcheng for a total of 5 days. During these 5 days, he was alone, and he could make up nonsense as he wanted. He said casually: "I had nothing to do in Pengcheng a few days ago. I found a second-hand book stall and read a lot of outdated magazines about entertainment in Hong Kong."

"You remember it after reading it once?"

"I can remember tens of thousands of English words, but can't I remember the introductions of hundreds of movies? And the names of people like Jackie Chan, Stephen Chow, and Maggie Cheung are much easier to remember than Hollywood stars like Bruce Willis, Tom Cruise, and Meryl Streep."

"Damn, I convinced you..."

"A Chinese Journey to the West."

"You are awesome!"

With Di Ye's plug-in, the statistical work was completed very smoothly. When Fan Dazhi arrived at the warehouse around 10 o'clock, he found that not only were all the CDs sorted, but even the movie catalog and advertising leaflets were printed out.

"Xiaoye, you are a real genius. You have such a good brain. No wonder you can earn more than 20 yuan a day in Pengcheng."

"Did Uncle Fan see my dad this morning?"

"Yeah, I just went to your house to discuss with your father whether to hire some more people."

Upon hearing this, Di Ye quickly said: "If you want to hire, not only hire, but also rent a bigger room as a workshop."

Fan Dazhi was very shrewd, he knew the elegance of the string song, and asked with a smile, "Do you have any new ideas?"

Di Ye took out a CD with the name "A Man Should Be Self-Reliant" from the box beside him, and said, "Uncle Fan, on the day we went to Guangdong Province, a CD cost 40 yuan, but on the day we came back, a CD cost only 30 yuan. According to this speed, the price of a CD may drop to about 10 yuan in a short time."

"I thought so too, so I didn't dare to buy too many this time, I only bought 2000 copies."

"If the price of CDs drops to 10 yuan, more people will buy VCD players, and more people will sell and rent CDs. So we might as well hold an event during the Spring Festival. On the one hand, we can sell the 600 decompression cards as soon as possible, and on the other hand, we can build a reputation for the rental shop, seize customer resources, and get back some funds."

Fan Dazhi asked thoughtfully, "What kind of activity?"

Di Ye raised the CD in his hand, shook it, and said, "Pay 200 yuan to get a membership card, of which 100 yuan is the disk rental fee, and 100 yuan is the deposit. Members can watch all the CDs during the first month. If you don't rent the disk after the first month, the 100 yuan deposit will be refunded in full. If you continue to rent the disk, the rent will be 8% off."

Fan Dazhi was taken aback, and subconsciously said: "It costs 10 yuan to rent a movie. Even if you only rent one movie a day, you can earn 300 yuan a month. Now you pay 100 yuan for people to watch casually for a month, isn't it a loss?"

Di Ye smiled and explained: "Uncle Fan, do you think everyone has time to watch movies every day? Office workers will go to work on the fourth day of the junior high school, and students will go to school after the [-]th day of the first lunar month. It is impossible to rent DVDs every day. Besides, if you want to rent DVDs, you must first have a DVD player. At present, only we have a large number of DVD players for sale, so we can raise the price a little."

Fan Dazhi turned the corner, nodded again and again and said, "Maybe you can earn a little more if you come and go like this, just follow your orders and do it like this!"

At this time, Huang Ya hurried over from the street holding an umbrella, stood at the warehouse door and asked, "Di Ye, I heard from Bi Wanxi that you have finished the rental materials?"

"I only finished the movie catalog, and I have to ask my brother-in-law to help print the brochure with pictures."

"Give me the catalog first. There are a few video studio owners in the store. I'll show them."

Di Ye handed over a catalog and said, "There are a total of 300 movies and 10 TV series. Among them, I marked the better-looking ones with asterisks. You can operate as I said last night."

"Understood, you can rest assured."

Huang Ya came in a hurry and left in a hurry. Fan Dazhi looked at her petite back and said with a smile: "Although this girl is a little short, she has a tough temper, is serious in her work, and has a flexible mind. She will definitely be a good wife and mother in the future. Don't you think about it, Xiao Ye?"

Di Ye didn't like others interfering with his love life, so he changed the subject directly and said, "Is there anything else, Uncle Fan? If not, I'll go home and write my graduation thesis."

"There is one more thing. I wanted to discuss it with your father, but he asked me to come to you..."

Fan Dazhi lit a cigarette, hesitated for a moment, and said, "Ono, you came up with this disk rental business and helped a lot. Now that it is about to open, we need to clarify the shares. After all, there is Bi Wanxi between us."

"How much Uncle Fan and Bi Wanxi plan to contribute?"

"Bi Wanxi has no money, and plans to invest in his family's shop. His shop is worth about 10 yuan, so I plan to contribute 10 yuan."

Di Ye thought for a while and said, "I'm still a student, so I can only help out a little. Uncle Fan has to take charge of the general direction, so I'll pay 5 yuan, and take 20% of the shares for dividends."

Fan Dazhi is mainly engaged in the wholesale business of smuggled electrical appliances. At the end of the year, the capital chain was relatively tight. In the morning, he learned from Di Yongchang that Di Ye earned 24 yuan a day in Pengcheng, and he had more than 30 yuan in spare money. He was worried that he would increase investment and dilute his own shares, so he was a little hesitant just now. Now that he heard that he only needed 20% of the shares, he was overjoyed and said quickly: "Okay, that's the deal."

Although the disc rental business is profitable, it is a gray area after all, and it won't last long. Di Ye doesn't pay much attention to it. After talking about shares, he inquired: "Uncle Fan, how did you apply for your Hong Kong passport?"

"Why, do you want to go to Hong Kong to play?"

"I want to see and see next semester."

"There are three ways to apply for a visa, namely visiting relatives, group tour and business visa. Bi Wanxi's grandfather is in Hong Kong, so you can apply for visiting relatives. If you don't have such a relationship, you don't have to think about it. Touring with a group is boring, and the control is very strict. You can't move freely, so it's best to get a business visa, which can stay in Hong Kong for 7 days..."

Fan Dazhi briefly introduced the types of passes, and said: "There is a quota limit for passes every year, and you are a student. You may not be able to apply for a business visa through the normal way. You have to find another way. I will find someone to help you with it later."

"Row."

After chatting with Fan Dazhi, Di Ye took a movie catalog and a few advertising leaflets, took a taxi to Yuncheng Literature and Art Publishing House on Hengshan Road, found Lu Hanming in the reference room, and asked, "Brother-in-law, have you got the promotional photos of Hong Kong movie stars?"

"I have already contacted a friend who runs entertainment news, and he said that he will give it to me tomorrow."

Seeing him rummaging through a pile of yellowed outdated magazines, Di Ye was a little curious and asked, "What information are you looking for?"

"The case of your school was published in the "Yuncheng Evening News" a few days ago. I mentioned the matter of adapting it into a novel. The editor-in-chief was very interested and asked me to write it. As a result, I didn't write a single word after two days of writing. Just now, I suddenly remembered that I had read a crime-solving novel. The plot was similar to this case, so I wanted to find it for reference."

Di Ye became interested and asked, "What's the name of that novel?"

"Can not remember."

"What about the author's name?"

"I don't remember, and I forgot what year it was, so I can only look for it one by one."

Hearing this, Di Ye really wanted to give Lu Hanming Bi Wanxi's phrase "I convinced you".

(End of this chapter)