Lin Yan did not get any news about Liang Minghao at the banquet, but she was not in a hurry. They would meet when they were supposed to.
After Lin Yan and her father got into the car to go home, Lin Yan took out a stack of business cards from her handbag.
"Quite a haul!" Lin Yan casually put the business cards aside.
"After all, Yan Yan, you are now a sought-after figure in Shanghai. Who wouldn't want to make money with you? Moreover, you're making money from foreigners!" Her father also saw how people treated his daughter.
"But there are some people I really want to meet."
"Who do you want to meet?"
"Some bosses in the chamber of commerce with good reputations. I want to discuss business with them. After all, I can't make all the money myself. It's better for everyone to make money together."
"The market is huge. If we don't develop, others will occupy this market."
Lin Yan was referring to foreign capital. China's commerce was just beginning, with little capital and low technological content. Compared to foreign capital, it was like a mantis trying to stop a chariot.
They were currently unable to attend to other matters, which created an opportunity for development here. Once they turned their attention to this side, Chinese national enterprises would be unable to resist foreign capital.
"You want to cooperate with them?" Her father frowned. He worked in the Ministry of Finance and dealt with these businessmen all the time. They were all cunning old foxes. Wouldn't Yan Yan be deceived if she went to cooperate with them like this?
"Yes, a single plank cannot support a house. The more shields there are in front, the safer I will be." Lin Yan directly told her father the meaning behind her actions.
When they returned home, Lin Yan told her father the information she had gathered at the banquet. She did not share her analysis but recounted all the information she had obtained in detail.
She believed that her father would be able to obtain what he wanted from this information.
After Lin Yan finished speaking, her father did not say anything, only told her to go back and rest.
However, Lin Yan did not rest after returning. She took out the business cards and found a notebook to record the contact information and addresses of these people.
She would find these people in a few days to discuss cooperation matters. However, before contacting them, she had to check their reputation.
She did not want all her hard work to be in vain, benefiting others instead.
Zhou Wenjie came back from outside with a piece of meat. His family had not eaten meat for several days.
He had just found a job recently as an accountant. After all, few people were literate now, and it was relatively easy for someone with his education to find work.
However, the original owner and his mother would likely look down on such a job. But what could be done? People had to eat.
If he didn't go out and make money, his family might starve to death while guarding this large house.
"Brother, Brother! You're back!" A little girl ran over.
The little girl was about seven or eight years old, lively and cute. Her father's death did not seem to cast a shadow on her. After all, her father appeared very rarely in her past.
And each time he appeared, it was to take money. She disliked her father a lot. She did not feel any sadness about his death now.
"Wen Ying, be careful, don't fall." Zhou Wenjie also liked this sensible sister. He remembered that when he was lying in bed, it was this sister who stayed by his side.
"I won't! Brother, you bought meat! Can we eat meat today?" Zhou Wen Ying looked at the meat her brother was carrying and felt her mouth water.
"Yes, we'll have meat tonight." Zhou Wenjie patted his sister's head with his free hand. "Where are Yuan Ge and the others?"
"They are playing in the back. I knew Brother was coming back soon, so I waited for Brother here." Zhou Wen Ying looked up at her elder brother with an expression seeking praise.
"Good, our Wen Ying is the best! Come on, let's take the meat to the kitchen together." Zhou Wenjie took his sister's small hand and walked inside.
In the evening, Zhou Wenjie calculated his current income. His salary as an accountant was only a few silver dollars a month, which was enough for his family to live in this town.
However, his father had sold off most of the family property, and with his previous illness, the family had no savings at all.
Once someone in the family had a minor ailment, they probably wouldn't even have money for medical treatment and medicine.
Zhou Wenjie felt that the money he earned as an accountant was not enough for the family's expenses. Moreover, his younger siblings were still young. When they were older, he would have to send them to school. Only by reading and writing could they have a future.
This would be another huge expense. Before he transmigrated, Zhou Wenjie was just a university student, still asking his parents for money. But now, he had to bear the livelihood of a family. He had become the pillar of this family.
He suddenly understood what it meant to be unable to do anything without money. He was like this now. He also wanted to make money, but he had no connections, no capital, and not even the strength.
He could find a job as an accountant to record accounts because there were too few literate people in this small town.
Zhou Wenjie considered the jobs he could do, but after thinking about it, he still had to deal with writing. After all, in his 20-plus years in modern times, the most familiar thing to him was words.
After so many years of schooling, he could write a few hundred or a thousand characters with ease, among other things.
He took out the newspapers, monthly journals, and magazines he had collected recently and placed them on his desk. He felt he could earn some extra money by writing articles. He still couldn't quit his job as an accountant. This was now his family's only income.
Although he couldn't write classical Chinese, he had used vernacular Chinese for over 20 years. Moreover, he had read countless novels, so he should be able to write one himself!
Vernacular Chinese novels were just beginning. As long as his writing was decent, he should be able to get his work published and receive royalties.
This was much more time-saving and labor-saving than him doing other jobs, and it would not affect his work as an accountant.
However, submitting manuscripts also required certain skills. After all, paper, ink, and stamps all cost money. He didn't have that much money to submit manuscripts broadly.
Therefore, he had to thoroughly study the style of each newspaper and monthly journal to ensure that his manuscripts would be approved. This way, he would not waste ink and stamp money.
His family was really too poor now. Since he transmigrated, only during the few days he was sick did they eat some meat. After that, meat had never appeared on their dining table.
It was the beginning of the month today, and the shopkeeper had given him some monthly wages, which was why he had eagerly bought a piece of meat to improve their diet.