Return to Singapore 1995

Li Xiaofan smiled and said to Uncle Singh: "Mr. Singh, what's the big deal?"

What's the big deal? What's the big deal? It means "what's the big deal?" in Hokkien. At that time, Fei Yuqing had a classic Hokkien song "Love Liar I Ask You" that he liked to sing very much. There is a lyric in it: "What's the big deal? We are all Jiaji..."

Although Uncle Singh is of Indian descent, he grew up in a multi-ethnic kampung when he was a child. He can understand some basic Mandarin, Hokkien, Cantonese, etc., and can even speak a few words.

Singapore has made a lot of efforts to maintain multi-ethnic harmony and has introduced many laws and regulations. There is even a strange rule for buying HDB flats in Singapore that may only exist in Singapore in the world: for example, if you like a HDB flat in a certain community, you can't just buy it casually. In other words, "you can't be willful even if you have money", and you have to see whether it meets the racial ratio regulations of the entire building.

In multi-ethnic Singapore, Chinese account for more than 70%, Malays 10%, and Indians about 6%. In order to avoid the extreme situation of splitting small groups when all people of the same race live in a building, Singapore HDB stipulates that the composition of people living in HDB flats must also match the national racial ratio.

Li Xiaofan remembered that in his previous life, a PR couple from Malaysia wanted to buy a house in Tampines. Because the Chinese in the building where the HDB they liked was full, even if everything was ready, including the price, they could only look but not buy. After waiting for half a year, they finally found a HDB flat in the next block that met the purchase conditions.

Uncle Singh smiled at Li Xiaofan and said, "There is a Daizhi, there is a Daizhi!" It means that there is something important.

"Li, come here, I have good news to tell you!" After saying a sentence in Minnan dialect, Uncle Singh said in English with a smile.

"What good news?"

"Your sunglasses are all sold out!"

"Really?"

"Yes!"

"Who bought them?" Li Xiaofan asked curiously.

"Most of them were bought by a group of club members who went to Pulau Ubin for outdoor camping yesterday afternoon. The remaining few pairs of sunglasses, including the samples, were bought by several tourists this morning!"

Uncle Singh happily pointed to the place where the large-size sunglasses samples provided by Li Xiaofan were hung.

"Oh, it seems the market is pretty good!"

"Li, a few guests from the outdoor camping club who just came back from Pulau Ubin came to ask me if you still have this pair of sunglasses. They want to buy a few more pairs!"

"Really?"

"Yes! Li, how many sunglasses do you need? Bring some more to sell!"

"Uncle Singh, it's no problem to supply you with more! But you have to tell me how much you sell it to customers?"

Uncle Singh smiled slyly: "Li, you are not going to raise the price because there is a market, right?"

"Uncle Singh, don't worry, this sample of sunglasses I brought from China is currently three Singapore dollars for you, and the price will not increase!"

"I sell it at this price!" Uncle Singh typed the numbers "1" and "2" on the calculator.

12 Singapore dollars, if Uncle Singh is telling the truth, Li Xiaofan calculated that if he gave Uncle Singh a purchase price of 3 dollars, Uncle Singh would have a 3-fold profit!

But Li Xiaofan still had some doubts in his heart. The sunglasses that Uncle Singh had bought before were of lower quality and were sold for 12 SGD. Now Li Xiaofan's sunglasses were much better than those. How could they only be sold for 12 SGD? Li Xiaofan estimated that he might have sold them for around 15 SGD, or even higher.

After that, Uncle Singh counted out three blue 50-SGD notes from the drawer and handed them to Li Xiaofan: "Li, this is for you. Congratulations on our successful first business cooperation!"

When Li Xiaofan took the 150 SGD, he calculated in his mind that even if each pair of glasses was sold for 12 SGD, Uncle Singh would have made a net profit of 450 SGD!

In any case, the first business trial was successful, and Li Xiaofan wanted to continue to observe this market.

After Li Xiaofan received the money, he said, "Thank you, Uncle Singh, I'll give you another 100 pairs of this pair of glasses!"

"OK! Li, tell me your pager number so we can contact you next time!"

When Li Xiaofan put the money into his pocket, Uncle Singh saw the pager in Li Xiaofan's pocket. This SKY pager from Singtel was bought by Li Xiaofan at the Tampines Telecom store after get off work last Friday. Including the one-year service fee, he spent a total of 210 Singapore dollars.

At that time, mobile phones were still relatively expensive in Singapore, but the popularity of pagers was relatively high. It is said that half of the population in Singapore had pagers at that time.

"No problem!"

Li Xiaofan wrote a pager number to Uncle Singh, then returned to the terrace house dormitory and took out 100 pairs of the same sunglasses for him.

Today is Sunday. In the evening, many workers from the mainland worked overtime until 5:30 pm and took the bus back. After returning to the dormitory, they took a simple shower and dressed up, and then rushed to Zui Baxian Seafood Restaurant on the Changi Beach for a banquet.

Tonight, Li Xiaofan hosted a dinner to fulfill his promise before going abroad last time, and congratulated himself on his special promotion and the title of the first monthly best employee from mainland China in the history of Ximu Electronics.

Zhou Haitao, Wu Siling, Liu Xiaoyue, Zhao Yanna and a group of mainland workers, as well as the special guest A TAN, all came.

When ATAN saw Li Xiaofan, he came over and hugged his shoulders affectionately and said, "Brother Fan, long time no see! Oh man, I haven't seen you for a few days and you have become a celebrity in our factory!"

Commander Wu handed a cigarette to Li Xiaofan: "Afan, you are now the pride of our mainland employees. After you won the award last time, we feel that everyone in the factory has straightened up a little!"

Liu Xiaoyue took over and said: "Yes, yes, Xiaofan, after you won the award, we all felt very honored!"

Li Xiaofan raised his beer glass and said, "Haha, maybe it's just good luck. Thank you everyone! Come on, let's start eating. Let's have a drink first!"

The dishes Li Xiaofan ordered today were even more sumptuous than what Commander Wu ordered. He ordered a round of several major dishes such as chili crab, black pepper crab, large black grouper, tiger shrimp, grilled manta ray, etc., and he ordered a lot of Tiger Brands. Feel free to drink fresh beer!

Everyone ate and drank until after nine o'clock. After they were full, Li Xiaofan continued to fulfill his promise and invited everyone to go bar-hopping at the nearby Changi Village Bar Street.

Changi Village is located in Changi Village, the easternmost part of Singapore. Before the founding of Singapore, this place was the most remote place where "birds did not lay eggs". Later, it once became a British colonial air force base, and now it has become one of Singapore's resorts.

On the way to the bar, Atan smiled and said to everyone: "Do you all know that Changi has a very special nickname?"

"What nickname? Isn't it just that there is the world-famous Changi Airport next to it!" Liu Xiaoyue asked curiously.