1990: Starting from Baojia Street

As Zhou Hong said, there are indeed very few people on the sixth floor.

The area of ​​their building is not very large. In addition to an office hall, there are only seven or eight single rooms on the sixth floor.

In terms of the area of ​​a single floor, it should be less than one-third of Zhou Yan’s music studio.

When they reached the sixth floor, there were only three people in the entire hall, all young men.

Zhou Hong did not inform them of his coming in advance, so the three guys were quite surprised to see Zhou Hong, because Zhou Hong would not usually appear on the sixth floor.

But then they saw Zhou Yan and Wang Zuxian following behind Zhou Hong. The young man closest to the door opened his mouth and said, "Zhou..."

The young man didn't know how to greet him for a moment.

Zhou Hong smiled and pressed his hand, "You guys go ahead and do your work. I'll bring Teacher Zhou and Teacher Wang to have a look. Is Niu Ruchang here?"

"Mr. Niu is in the office." said the young man.

"Yeah." Zhou Hong nodded, and took Zhou Yan and Wang Zuxian to an office near the back.

The three young men were all very excited when they saw Zhou Yan and Wang Zuxian's backs. Although Zhou Entertainment was involved in the film and television industry and they had seen celebrities, Wang Zuxian and Zhou Yan's status was not something that ordinary people could compare to.

Arriving at the office door, Zhou Yan looked up at the doorplate: Deputy General Manager.

The general manager of Zhou Entertainment is Xu Junrong, and Zhou Yan usually deals with Xu Junrong, but he has never met the deputy general manager Niu Ruchang.

Zhou Hong knocked on the door, and a voice came from inside, "Come in."

When Zhou Hong pushed the door open, Niu Ruchang stood up in surprise, "Boss Zhou, you're here..."

Before he finished speaking, the surprise in his eyes became even stronger.

As the vice president of Zhou Entertainment, it is impossible for Niu Ruchang not to know Zhou Yan and also impossible for him not to know Joey Wong.

But in reality, it was the first time he met Zhou Yan and Joey Wong in person. Before that, he had only seen them on TV and in newspapers.

"Mr. Niu, I brought Teacher Zhou and Teacher Wang to take a look. Xu Junrong is not here, so I came to find you." Zhou Hong said.

"Sit, sit, sit."

Niu Ruchang came around to the front enthusiastically and said, "I was wondering why I heard the magpie calling when I went out this morning. It turns out that a distinguished person is coming. Mr. Zhou, Ms. Wang, I am so happy to meet you two."

Privately, Niu Ruchang and others actually called Zhou Yan the second boss, because they only knew that Zhou Entertainment was controlled by the two brothers Zhou Hong and Zhou Yan, and they were not clear about their family ranking.

Now, in front of Zhou Hong, Niu Ruchang could only follow Zhou Hong and call Zhou Yan "Teacher Zhou".

Zhou Yan was also quite surprised when he heard Niu Ruchang's words.

Niu Ruchang's accent makes it clear that he is a native of Pengcheng, but his tone of voice sounds a bit like a northerner.

And his height is also the same, basically the same height as Zhou Yan, and he is very fat, probably weighing about 200 kilograms.

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "Come to think of it, it's my fault. Zhou Entertainment has been established for quite a long time, but this is my first time here."

Hearing this, Niu Ruchang secretly glanced at Zhou Hong and thought that the second boss came up with the intention of declaring sovereignty. Could it be that this trip has some special significance?
Niu Ruchang knew a lot about their second boss. After all, Zhou Yan was a famous person and his news could often be seen in news reports.

Niu Ruchang had always thought that the two brothers of the Zhou family, one was in charge of the interior and the other was in charge of the exterior, and they did not interfere with each other at all.

Zhou Yan is making a lot of money on that path, and he may not come back to divide the family business with Zhou Hong.

But now it seems that within this wealthy family, it is probably inevitable that brothers will fight over the family property.

However, Niu Ruchang is more optimistic about Zhou Hong. He has more contact with Zhou Hong and understands Zhou Hong's skills. Although Zhou Hong usually looks like a stone Buddha, his methods are very sharp.

These two bosses have been in the art circle for many years. Can they outsmart the big boss?
Besides, Zhou Entertainment’s offices are all located in Zhou Hong’s territory, so Zhou Yan can’t compete with Zhou Hong even if he wants to.

In just a few seconds, countless pieces of information flashed through Niu Ruchang's mind, and he finally decided to wait and see.

If you can choose not to take sides, try not to take sides. If you really have to take sides, then take the side of the big boss Zhou Hong.

Zhou Yan never expected that his simple words would make Niu Ruchang imagine so many things.

If he knew what Niu Ruchang was thinking, he would definitely just laugh it off.

He didn't want any of the Zhou family's assets, even Zhou Entertainment. As long as Zhou Hong wanted it, he could give it up.

The money he earned was more than enough for him to live on.

Zhou Hong glanced at Niu Ruchang with a smile. He knew that Niu Ruchang was a cunning person, but he didn't say anything.

After so many years of struggling in the society, Zhou Hong has long realized that it is difficult to control other people's thoughts, and the most important thing is to do your best.

The two brothers know their own affairs clearly, but it is normal for others standing outside the door to have some unreliable thoughts when they only see that the Zhou family is a wealthy family and that there are only two brothers.

Niu Ruchang is a smart man. As long as he doesn't cause trouble, it doesn't matter what he thinks.

Zhou Hong only cares about what others do and doesn't care what they think.

"Mr. Zhou, Mr. Zhou, Ms. Wang, please take a seat. I'll pour you some tea."

Zhou Hong waved his hand and said, "I won't drink the tea anymore. Please take us around the sixth floor."

"Well, I'll take you out now."

……

In fact, there is nothing much to see. There are only fourteen employees on the entire sixth floor, including General Manager Xu Junrong and Deputy General Manager Niu Ruchang.

The company's system is not perfect. Human resource management, finance and logistics are all in a managed environment. These areas alone save a lot of manpower.

Normally, Xu Junrong spends most of his time traveling around the city, leaving Niu Ruchang to stay at the base camp. In most cases, there are only five or six people in the company.

"The company's business is scattered. For example, we have a company called Huanyin in Taiwan, and Huanyin is basically in charge of all the business there. In fact, Huanyin has more serious business than us. In the mainland, many businesses are also handed over to the Yanjing Office."

Niu Ruchang gave Zhou Yan a brief introduction to the company's business model.

In fact, there was no need for Niu Ruchang to introduce it. Zhou Yan knew the model of Zhou Entertainment very well, because most of Zhou Entertainment's business was related to him.

The artists signed by the company are basically those chosen by Zhou Yan.

Zhou Hong didn't want Zhou Yan to waste time on the sixth floor. After Niu Ruchang took them around the sixth floor, he said, "Come on, I'll take you to see other floors."

Afterwards, Zhou Yan and Joey Wong, led by Zhou Hong, started walking around the building.

Zhou Hong didn't just want to go through the motions. Every time he arrived at a floor, he asked the person in charge to introduce their business to Zhou Yan.

As a result, their tour speed became very slow. In the morning, they had only visited the seventh and eighth floors, in addition to the sixth floor.

At half past eleven, Zhou Hong looked at his watch and said, "Let's go and have dinner. We'll visit the rest of the floors in the afternoon."

Zhou Yan nodded and asked, "Where are we going to eat?"

"Go to my office. There's a small restaurant inside my office."

Zhou Yan raised his eyebrows. There was a restaurant in the office. How elegant. But this was also in line with Zhou Hong's style. He always paid attention to the ostentation.

In fact, Zhou Yan wanted to go to the factory cafeteria and since he was there, he might as well get to know the employees’ living environment.

But he didn't come alone today, he also brought Joey Wong with him. If the two of them appeared in the cafeteria together, they would probably be recognized and cause chaos.

However, Wang Zuxian smiled and said, "Second brother, is there a cafeteria in our park?"

"Of course there is a cafeteria." Zhou Hong nodded.

"How about we go to the cafeteria to eat, which can also be considered as an experience of life. What do you think?" Joey Wong suggested.

"The cafeteria isn't as good as you think, and if you're recognized, it might be troublesome."

"It's okay, I'll just wear a hat."

Seeing that Wang Zuxian wanted to go to the cafeteria, Zhou Hong nodded, "Okay, let's go to the cafeteria, I'll have someone arrange it."

Zhou Yan smiled and waved his hand, "No need to make any arrangements, we will just be ordinary employees today."

"Then I have to ask for some meal tickets too."

Afterwards, Zhou Hong went to ask the people in the logistics department for some meal tickets. When the people in the logistics department heard that Zhou Hong asked for meal tickets, they couldn't believe it.

For so many years, Zhou Hong hasn't gone to the cafeteria to eat.

Many bosses like to appear to be very down-to-earth, and some even eat and live with their employees occasionally.

But Mr. Zhou never does such a thing. Instead, he keeps a certain distance from his employees and travels in a very grand manner.

Mr. Zhou has never been an approachable boss.

……

Zhou Yan had a good first impression of the campus cafeteria because the hygiene was very good and the floor and tables were clean.

In addition to good hygiene, the order is also very good. In front of each window, the employees line up very consciously and there is no queue cutting.

There are not many windows, but there are not many people queuing either. After Zhou Hong's explanation, Zhou Yan realized that the cafeteria had employees leaving get off work in batches so that employees can eat at different times to improve efficiency.

When Zhou Yan and his friends arrived, they were probably the first group of employees to get off work and come to eat, so there were quite a lot of dishes.

However, Zhou Yan was disappointed with the dishes in those windows. Among so many windows, only two had meat dishes. The other windows basically only had vegetarian dishes, or at most half-meat and half-vegetarian dishes like shredded potatoes and pork.

Moreover, the vegetarian dishes were not particularly good and the color was very average.

After getting their meal, the three of them found a place to sit down.

Zhou Yangan frowned as soon as he took a bite of the shredded potatoes and pork because it was a bit salty.

The food in Pengcheng is relatively light, but the shredded potatoes and pork he just ate was very salty.

Seeing Zhou Yan's expression, Zhou Hong smiled and said, "Salty, right?"

"Yeah, a little bit." Zhou Yan nodded.

"It's salty when it's salty." Zhou Hong didn't move his chopsticks, but just looked at Zhou Yan with a smile, "Don't you think it's much worse than the cafeteria in your studio?"

Zhou Yan shook his head, "I never thought about comparing it with the studio cafeteria."

"Workers have a fixed meal allowance. If the canteen is too expensive, they can't afford it. But if we increase the meal allowance, operating costs will rise sharply. There are more than 5,000 people in several factories here. If we increase the meal allowance by one yuan per person per day, the daily cost will increase by more than 5,000 yuan, which means more than 150,000 yuan a month and nearly 200,000 yuan a year."

In fact, Zhou Yan felt that an increase of 200,000 yuan in costs a year was completely acceptable. After all, the profits that more than 5,000 employees could bring to them were also very considerable.

Moreover, two hundred thousand a year might not even be enough for Zhou Hong to go on two business trips.

However, Zhou Yan had no experience in running a factory, so he did not comment.

Zhou Hong wanted to say a few more words, "After you started working, the circle you came into contact with was actually very small, and you didn't know much about the lives of the general public. The treatment in our factories is already pretty good. Although it can't be said to be top-notch, it is above average."

Zhou Yan was unable to refute this, because his life had been relatively good since he started working.

The most difficult time was probably when we went to Qiao Family Courtyard to shoot "Raise the Red Lantern". But even in Qiao Family Courtyard, the food was still pretty good.

The conditions were quite difficult when "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" was being filmed, but Zhou Yan brought a lot of supplies every time he went, so he didn't feel it.

Besides, when we say that the conditions for actors today are difficult, it is only compared with actors in later generations. However, compared with most ordinary people, the welfare benefits of actors are still much higher.

As for the average level of factories in Pengcheng, Zhou Yan has not conducted any investigation, so he has no say.

Zhou Hong's words also made Zhou Yan realize a problem, that he was indeed getting further and further away from the lives of ordinary people.

The life in the past few years even gave him the illusion that everyone's life in this era is pretty good.

Zhou Yan lowered his head and took another bite of the shredded potatoes and pork. This time he put a little more rice into his mouth, and it felt much better.

Then he looked around and found that most of the employees were eating with great relish. The food, which he thought was of no quality, tasted delicious to the employees.

Zhou Yan never thought of himself as an idealist before, but today he discovered that he was indeed a bit idealistic.

He knew that, in fact, the workers who could work in Pengcheng were not bad compared with others in the whole country.

Nowadays, most rural areas in the country are very backward. Many people cannot even afford to eat meat.

People who go out to work are likely to become wealthy when they return to their village.

If he were to switch positions with Zhou Hong and be the one managing the family business, it might not be long before their family would lose all their money.

After that, Zhou Yan didn't say anything else, but just quietly finished his meal.

Zhou Hongze had been observing Zhou Yan. The reason why he said a few more words just now was actually to make Zhou Yan more realistic so that he could get started faster if he came back to manage the family business in the future.

But he didn't expect that his words would make Zhou Yan completely give up the idea of ​​taking over the family business.

Because Zhou Yan realized that he would never be able to achieve what Zhou Hong did. (End of this chapter)