Chapter 112: After All, We're Just Gatekeepers

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Actually, there was no need for that stack of blank introduction letters; Wei Dong could have used any previous introduction letter to buy a plane ticket. This thing merely proved he was on a business trip—so if he traveled to Yuezhou and then back to Huhai, was he not allowed to fly? Others might see it as something grand and impressive, but Wei Dong roughly understood it was just about identity restrictions. As long as he had an introduction letter, it was generally fine.

So this time when he returned to Jiangzhou, he found himself on a Tupolev Tu-154 made in Russia, and he dared to use the introduction letter to fully understand the plane. Theoretically, switching planes in Russia should have involved this model. Even though he left Huhai in such a rush without time to bring his camera, he still carefully observed and experienced both the exterior and interior of the aircraft.

The shortcomings were very obvious: the plane only had air conditioning once airborne, and in this May heat, it was already warm enough to want to strip off clothes. Once flying, it was like a noisy agricultural tractor, very raucous! Wei Dong grasped the chance to consult the flight attendant about the "user experience" of this kind of plane, explaining that their factory was making similar parts.

In short, keeping busy prevented him from dwelling on the sudden upheaval of becoming a man. Perhaps women find it hard to imagine how much a man values his first time. Yet women can always keenly sense something different.

First was his mother, who noticed when her son suddenly appeared at the spicy hotpot shop carrying a plastic bag: “Hmm? You look a bit different, don’t you?” After leaving the airport, Wei Dong casually bought a few local specialty dried ducks by the roadside. “I went on a business trip to the big city. Here, this is for you and Dad to eat. As for Gou Dan, tell a few guys to come with me to pick up the goods.”

His mother, already obsessed with scam groups, called out: “Yueyue! Xiaoyue! Wei Dong’s back! You go out shopping and have dinner with her. Do you have enough money?”

Actually, from afar, the scam girl who had been eyeing Wei Dong’s silhouette pretended to be busy and passed by casually: “Ah? Brother Dong’s back, alone?” Wei Dong gave her a sharp, annoyed glance.

Once on the Dongfeng truck, Shen Cuiyue said, “Nothing to worry about. That person in the military uniform isn’t as formidable as you think.” Damn, these scammers really have a knack for reading people.

Wei Dong laughed: “You can even tell what kind of taste she has?” Shen Cuiyue took off her mask and smiled: “She’s got some family upbringing, but not much, and no real knowledge. You should find a rich and noble wife. If you want me, I’ll be your concubine; if not, just treat me as your pawn, accompanying you wherever you go. So she’s nothing.”

Impressive, even Wei Dong hadn’t realized the slight wound this had inflicted on his heart.

Back home, the minor scratches were quickly covered with putty, sanded smooth, repainted, and even polished and waxed. This made Wei Dong burst out laughing heartily—the first time he’d laughed so freely since that night in the small town.

Of course, the closing remark was still revealing: “You don’t know a damn thing.”

Several young men were driven to smoke in the cargo area. Even Gou Dan, as an “original comrade,” had no resistance to the city girls, especially Shen’s third sister. They were all overjoyed to escape far away.

Shen Cuiyue didn’t even bother to hide it, probably deliberately showing off her abilities: “Who can’t see? She came looking for you to show her the world, thinking she could use a bit of charm to scheme and act high and mighty. Real men can’t be caught like that, right? Did you try her taste? You look a bit haggard; you need to take care of your health. Our family knows some internal exercises that you can practice.”

She even stuck out her big butt and peered closely with a tone like a concubine advising her master, leaving the driver utterly embarrassed.

“Nonsense!” The driver focused on driving, not noticing her animated face.

Shen Cuiyue didn’t cling to the topic. She sat back down and put her mask on again: “Don’t all men go through this? What about that master from East Guangdong?”

This timely comfort and smooth topic shift made Wei Dong feel comfortable as he explained: “...This machine bought for seventy thousand yuan, I’m considering whether to bring it back to Shangzhou or keep it in Jiangzhou. A leather shoe company has been registered here, producing tissues too, but I don’t quite understand the key production process yet. I still need to send it back to Shangzhou to study with the technicians at the machinery factory, just like with that broken domestic vacuum machine.”

Shen Cuiyue wasn’t the type to just offer empty praise; she tried to think: “The elders used to tell many stories about before and after the Republic era, when someone bought foreign machines and built successful businesses, becoming wealthy in the region. Didn’t expect that even decades later, it’s still like that.”

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Wei Dong couldn’t help nodding: “Oh, it really seems to be as you say… You know, this trip I confirmed a great truth.” Shen Cuiyue was attentive: “Tell me.”

Strangely, Wei Dong had never told Zhang Lanzhi this. Of course, she wasn’t interested in discussing commerce or industry; she cared about arts and culture, which Wei Dong found pretentious.

“I’d only been to Zhezhou twice, Huhai once, and then to Pingjing in the north. I had a vague feeling that commerce and industry in Huhai and Zhezhou were leading, and policies in Pingjing were advanced. Bringing those advantages back to Jiangzhou gave us a head start. This time in Yuezhou, the feeling became very clear. If we regularly visit these places, we can lead in everything!”

He didn’t mention that many of these advances were trial and error, with many mistakes, but at least he could clearly identify the right directions and transplant the leading experiences of Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong directly to the backward western stronghold.

Shen Cuiyue absorbed this seriously: “Learned a lot. That’s why I say following you is destiny.”

Wei Dong almost forgot: “Hey hey hey, that’s the same old...” Shen Cuiyue laughed: “Flattering words.” The driver nodded with satisfaction: “Right, right!”

At this moment, recalling his mismatch with Zhang Lanzhi, it was only the sudden intimacy that dazzled him with an unprecedented thrill. At twenty, the excitement was already intense; for him, aged forty with years of experience, the explosion was even more overwhelming. Fortunately, this flood came and went quickly, just like that.

He felt much relieved and even started joking and laughing.

Unexpectedly, upon arriving at the Jiangzhou Commercial Bureau courtyard, the seventy-thousand-yuan machine was unloaded and placed in the center of the shed. The wooden slats that had held the outer packaging were gone. Fortunately, the operation panel was sealed with a sticker, and there was a T-shaped wrench considered as the key to the lower cabinet door of the machine, which Wei Dong kept in his pocket since returning from Yuezhou.

Power cords and such were locked inside; unless someone broke it open, the machine couldn’t be operated.

Then the people coming to pick up goods arrived, and a crowd from upstairs and downstairs at the Commercial Bureau gathered, eagerly debating what kind of machine it was.

By this time, all local enterprises under the Jiangzhou Foreign Trade Department had come to collect their belongings, leaving only this strange imported machine.

Almost all local factories, industrial research departments, and Commercial Bureau officials, many of whom were cadres from various factories, passed by and asked what this machine did.

Because anyone with a bit of knowledge could tell this was a cobbled-together machine, not a standardized industrial device with a factory nameplate, which piqued great curiosity.

Wei Dong felt conflicted about whether to let people know it was part of a tissue paper production line. Would it inspire someone to steal his market?

But then he thought, even he only knew parts of it. Who looking at this machine would understand the whole process or know what the finished product looked like?

So he smiled, opened the cabinet, and called Gou Dan and a few others to help move the machine to a place with an outlet, connected the power, and checked that three large rolls of raw material were fed into the entrance. At this point, Wei Dong felt something was off—this didn’t feel like paper!

Zhang Lanzhi had said it was some kind of comfort towel, right?

Could this be some kind of disposable towel?

If so, the seventy thousand yuan was truly thrown down the drain without a sound.

Towels weren’t rare these days; who would buy this?

Even forty years later, no one liked using disposable ones.

He felt anxious.

The machine was fed with three white “tire”-sized rolls, each about an adult forearm length wide, not very heavy. Two young men could fix the rack holding the raw materials following his instructions. The rack was disassembled but easy to assemble.

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It really looked like three big rolls of toilet paper feeding in at one end and out on the table at the other.

Could these rolls be three-ply?

Wiping one’s bottom must be quite comfortable.

Half the table was full of complex knobs and adjustments to ensure the rollers inside could flatten and press the paper passing through, with manual tension control.

The other half was a green rubber surface with some rollers.

What Wei Dong saw that day was like this. The communication afterward was actually with Zhang Lanzhi, but this time he left so decisively that he forgot to hand over this detail!

It seemed she even recorded this text but forgot to give it when she cried.

Anyway, Wei Dong thought he would slowly figure it out back at the machinery factory.

Now, nervously, he simply explained: “Tissues, paper tissues that every household can use, with the effectiveness of straw paper or crepe paper, but softer and more comfortable.”

The cadres all suddenly understood, some even reached out to touch it: “Hmm, it’s very soft.”

But they mainly urged him to power it up and run it.

Shen Cuiyue definitely hadn’t seen one before and watched eagerly, also telling Gou Dan and the others not to grimace and embarrass Dong Ge. She didn’t mention that her neck was stretched out quite long.

Wei Dong rubbed his hands, tore off the seal, confirmed the power, and ceremoniously pressed the button.

At least fifty people watched as the machine started running. The three big rolls were pulled in simultaneously, pressed and molded, then quickly came out... surprisingly, a piece of sanitary napkin?!

Originally, these had perforated stamps linking them, but the rollers on the rubber table took away the excess scrap, directly pushing out individual sanitary napkins?!

If not for having just bought some for Zhang Lanzhi on the plane and helping her buy a few packs, Wei Dong wouldn’t have recognized that modern sanitary napkins now lacked the axe-handle shape, instead having a crossed pressed mark resembling the Chinese character for “wind.”

Zhang Lanzhi had used them several times but stubbornly refused to say which side went forward.

But it was definitely this thing!

Wei Dong was stunned: he bought a sanitary napkin production machine for seventy thousand yuan?

Wait, is it really this simple?

He immediately shut it down and examined the three rolls of raw material. Indeed, the top and bottom layers were thin fabric, the middle looked like cotton, all white in rolls. He had thought they were the same.

Back then, everything was too rushed, with language barriers. The translator was careless, they even slept outdoors at night. In the following days, there was no time to discuss the machine; everything was all over the place, so the details were missed by accident!

At this point, the cadres swarmed in, taking the “little axes” and flipping them over, clicking their tongues: “Is this also straw paper?”

Some even wiped their faces and sniffed, showing off their appreciation for imported goods.

Wei Dong felt too embarrassed to explain what it really was, afraid of offending anyone.

Having seen forty years of bureaucracy, he had at least learned some workplace diplomacy.

All he could say was: “Yeah, something like that.”