The Sea Queen of 1985

Chapter 299: Chapter 299: I Have a Request

Ye Feng nodded. ”You’re right. Kuno Hiroo has a temper, too. I’ll entertain him with you. It’ll also be a good chance to talk about my uncle’s patent.”

”Good. Having you there will be even better,” Han Xiaorui said with a smile. She asked Wu Jiao and Wu Yao to look after Pingping and An’an, and then she and Ye Feng headed to the Jinshan Bay Ornamental Fish Farm.

When they arrived at the farm, not only was Kuno Hiroo there, but Zhou Wei from the fish tank factory had come over as well.

”I’ve booked dinner at a seafood restaurant. Shall we all head over?” Yang Jianguo suggested. ”We can talk things over at the dinner table.”

Kuno Hiroo had already grown accustomed to the social atmosphere in Hua Country.

Many matters weren’t decided at a desk, but rather over a meal and a few drinks.

In fact, Kuno Hiroo genuinely loved Hua Country’s baijiu, as well as its cuisine.

He had a very deep understanding of Hua Country and was completely fascinated by it.

He wasn’t like those haughty, high-and-mighty Japanese. His appreciation was genuine, coming from the bottom of his heart. He often even felt a sense of regret, wondering why his own country didn’t have such things.

And for this very reason, Kuno Hiroo’s business dealings in Hua Country went swimmingly, and he was making a fortune.

”In that case, thank you very much!” Kuno Hiroo said with a laugh. ”As it happens, I also have something to discuss with Mr. Zhou.”

The group arrived at a seafood restaurant owned by Zhang Guangnan and were led to the most luxurious private room.

When Zhang Guangnan heard that Han Xiaorui, Yang Jianguo, and Ye Feng had arrived together, he personally came to greet them and instructed the kitchen to put extra care into their meal.

After everyone was seated, Kuno Hiroo said to Zhou Wei, ”Mr. Zhou, the quality of your factory’s fish tanks is excellent. They’re great value for the price and sell very well in Japan.”

”As I take on more and more orders, I’m also encountering a growing variety of customer needs. Right now, many outdoor parks want to build large aquariums, and four-sided, transparent glass tanks are the top choice.”

”This places higher demands on various aspects of the glass, such as its hardness, strength, transparency, UV resistance, and anti-corrosion properties.”

”Are you interested in developing in this direction? As a businessman, I can tell you with absolute certainty that the demand for these large-scale aquariums is huge.”

Zhou Wei was taken aback for a moment. ”Glass that can withstand the wind and sun isn’t the difficult part. The problem is the strength and hardness of the glass, which would require special treatment.”

”It would be challenging, but with increased R&D investment, it’s not actually insurmountable. The real difficulty is that transporting exceptionally large, single-piece aquariums is very hard. That would place extremely high demands on the packaging.”

Kuno Hiroo smiled when he heard this. ”I trust in the ingenuity of the Hua Country people. I’m sure you can figure out a good way to solve this problem.”

”If you can produce these large aquariums, I guarantee I can bring you a steady stream of orders and profits.”

Zhou Wei thought for a moment, then nodded. ”Alright. I’ll go back and discuss it with my technical staff. If we can’t do it ourselves, we’ll find experts to help.”

’If our private-sector experts aren’t enough, we’ll find military-industrial ones! As long as you’re willing to pay, there are plenty of technicians willing to take on R&D these days.’

Han Xiaorui thought for a moment, then said with a smile, ”Traditionally, aquariums are rectangular prisms. I think we could change our way of thinking and make them cylindrical, standing vertically.”

”First of all, a cylinder doesn’t have any sharp corners, so in a public space, people admiring it won’t accidentally bump into them. Second, cylinders can be made very tall, which would be more interesting.”

Kuno Hiroo paid close attention to the needs of both producers and end-users.

He imagined the beauty a cylindrical glass aquarium could create.

”Ms. Han, your suggestion is excellent. I think it’s feasible. At the very least, some customers will choose aquariums like that. For the fish tank factory, it would also be a good new product line.”

Zhou Wei chuckled. ”Thanks for the tip, Xiao Han. If sales are good down the line, I’ll send you a gift.”

”I’ll be sure to remember that. I’ll hold you to it if you forget,” Han Xiaorui said with a laugh. ”Come on, the food’s here. Let’s eat.”

After several rounds of drinks and dishes, everyone relaxed and was able to speak more openly about less serious matters.

”Ms. Han, Mr. Zhou, Mr. Yang, we’ve been working together for so long, and our collaboration has been a pleasure. I have a small suggestion—or perhaps, a request. I wonder if you would grant it?” Kuno Hiroo said, taking the opportunity to speak with a smile. He felt he had to get it off his chest.

Han Xiaorui was surprised. ”What is it? Please, tell us. As long as it doesn’t violate any principles, we’ll agree to it.”

Kuno Hiroo said sheepishly, ”I can understand Chinese. When your workers refer to me, could they call me Kuno, or Hiroo? Please don’t let them call me a ’Little Japan devil’ behind my back.”

”Sometimes, they just call me ’Little Japan’, and I can tolerate that. After all, our country’s land area is small, we’re an island nation, so we are indeed ’little,’ and our population is smaller than Hua Country’s. But adding ’devil’ on the end... that’s just too nasty.”

Hearing this, the others exchanged glances and shared a smile.

Han Xiaorui was the one to speak. ”Alright. I’ll do my best to make sure they don’t call you that to your face.”

”Huh?” Kuno Hiroo was exasperated. ”So that means they’ll still say it behind my back?”

Han Xiaorui gave a faint, unreadable smile. ”You know so much about Hua Country’s history. Even if they don’t teach that history in Japan post-WWII, you understand what your country did to ours. It’s very possible that some of these workers had elders who died in that war of aggression.”

”The only reason I can promise they won’t say it to your face is out of respect for our partnership. As for what they say behind your back, that’s their freedom. I have no right to interfere. We have freedom of speech in Hua Country!”

Kuno Hiroo thought about this carefully and felt Han Xiaorui had a point. ”Fine, that will have to do. What I don’t hear can’t upset me, after all.”

’Back home, there are currently two factions. One advocates for trade with Hua Country and confronting their history. The other advocates for suppressing Hua Country, distorting history, and one day reconquering that rich and beautiful land.’

’Kuno Hiroo, however, leaned toward the former.’

’If an industrialized Japan couldn’t even crush an agricultural Hua Country back then, what chance did they have now that Hua Country had industrialized?’

’Their technology might be lagging, but having something and having nothing were two completely different things.’

’The annual number of university graduates in Hua Country, its birth rate, and its investments across various sectors were all enormous. Its future potential was limitless.’

’For now, though, he was making money, and he would continue to promote trade in the future.’

To ensure that Jinshan Bay Farm would diligently fulfill the contract, Kuno Hiroo had the full contract amount wired to the Eastern International Trade account the very next day.

With so much money arriving all at once, Director Chen was thrilled. He repeatedly instructed Yu Zhenxing to make sure they provided the best possible service to the Jinshan Bay Ornamental Fish Farm.

Based on current projections, it looked like the Jinshan Bay Ornamental Fish Farm would bring in fifteen million US dollars in foreign exchange this year.

This was just a small-time farm, yet its profits were astonishingly high.

Paired with Zhou Wei’s fish tank factory, the two had become star enterprises. Both the Jinshan Bay farm and the tank factory possessed a certain level of technology; they weren’t just engaged in low-margin raw material processing.