Scientists who revitalized the country (5): Negotiator

The minister was angry for a long time because he couldn’t bear to part with the paint. In the end, he could only hold his nose and agreed to the other party’s unreasonable request. Now he was getting angry over there: “Where’s Xiao Wang? Call him to translate for me!”

The subordinates quickly said: “Brother Wang is on a business trip, and no one told him before that we would sign an agreement today.”

The minister was extremely angry, “Then just find someone who understands the F language!”

The subordinate hesitated: “But those professional terms cannot be translated by someone who just knows the language, right?”

The minister shouted angrily: “If they don’t understand then just look in the dictionary! People over there can’t even afford to wait for this little time!!”

The subordinate was stunned and said bravely: “Okay, okay.”

Xiu Xiu moved very quickly, checking out the twists and turns in country F this time, and told Si Qi. Si Qi thought for a moment and said to the minister: “Minister, can you let me listen on the sidelines?”

The minister hesitated and glanced at Chu Lian. Seeing that Chu Lian didn’t express anything, he immediately said: “Okay, you are already one of us, it would be better to know this earlier.”

So a group of people hurried to the conference room, where several foreigners were sitting on chairs in a neat manner. This place was located in the suburbs, and all the electricity had been moved to the engineering side. The air conditioner was basically in a display state and had little effect. So the group of people unbuttoned their clothes, rolled up their sleeves, blew on the air conditioner, and said, looking for trouble: “Your Chinese products are so bad! Even the air conditioner is useless, it’s so hot that we’re all sweating!”

The minister clenched his fists by his legs and ordered the men beside him: “Go get two electric fans.”

He took out the contract and sat across from him, and said to the F countryman: “Then let’s talk about the regulations in the contract.”

The people on the other side frowned and said, “Why, are you still dissatisfied with the conditions we offered?”

The Minister explained: “The selling price above is too high. The international price is 180,000 E yuan per ton, and the price you gave me is four times that…”

“So what? We helped you get this batch of goods, and we should be paid enough for the hard work. Otherwise, why should we give this batch of goods to you?” The man opposite said matter-of-factly: “Be clear, it’s you who are begging us, not us rushing to cooperate with you. If you want us to help, you must obey our requests!”

The minister clenched the pen in his hand, “At least wait until we finish inspecting the goods…”

“Oh my God! Do you know what you’re talking about?” The man opposite slapped the table and spoke in an exaggerated tone, “You begged us to sell you something, but now you doubt what we gave you! Since you don’t trust us, why waste our time?”

The electric fan was brought over, plugged in, and blew on several foreigners. The bossy foreigners rolled their eyes and muttered: “I really don’t know why I came here. Everything in China makes me feel terrible…”

Seeing that the minister was livid with anger, Si Qi said, “Can I say a few words?”

The minister glanced at Si Qi tiredly and said in Mandarin: “What do you want to say? Although these guys are annoying, they can’t be offended…”

The foreigner said loudly: “Hey! Don’t whisper in front of us something we can’t understand! This is the most basic courtesy!”

Si Qi and the minister said gently “I know”, and then quickly changed his face and said with a cold face, using the F language with unceremonious contempt: “Is it polite to sell expired items to others?”

The expressions of the people on the opposite side stiffened for a moment, and then they shouted in anger: “You damn Chinese! What nonsense are you talking about!”

The minister saw that the other party got angry when Si Qi spoke, and he was a little panicked. He quickly asked the translator to translate, for fear that Si Qi would offend those people and lose the paint he finally got.

The translator translated this sentence to the minister. The minister was stunned for a moment, then exploded. He pointed at the noses of the people opposite and said loudly: “Expired?! Give me a fucking explanation!”

The translator forced himself to translate politely, but several foreigners across from him said stiffly: “We don’t know what expiration you’re talking about! It’s so confusing! Is this how you Chinese trade?”

After the translator finished translating this sentence, he and the minister looked at Si Qi eagerly, fearing that this matter was true, and also fearing that this matter was false – otherwise Si Qi was simply lying and deliberately causing trouble.

Si Qi, who was watched by everyone, said calmly: “The storage period of GX-72 is only 18 months, and the last time you ordered this batch of materials from country E was two years ago.”

The signed contract only stated that Country F would trade a certain amount of paint to China, but it did not say when the shelf life of these paints would be. Even if the minister and others spent a huge amount of money to repeatedly test the paint afterwards, and finally realized that they had been tricked, they would not be able to bring this matter and find trouble with country F, because it was clear that they wanted to default on the debt. It was clear that disputes between countries could not be easily broken up. They could only break their teeth and swallow them in the stomach, and it would be embarrassing to speak out.

Several people in country F were selling dog meat on top of sheep’s heads ¹, trying to use expired products to defraud resources from China. Si Qi exposed this to their face. At this moment, everyone blushed and shouted in anger: “This is a secret of our country! You have no right to know!!” 

After saying that, he seemed to realize something and asked: “Where did you get the information from?”

Si Qi looked coldly and returned the original words: “This is a secret of our country, you have no right to know it.”

The foreigner was so angry that he was speechless: “…” 

The minister scratched his head irritably. He was distressed that the paint he had finally obtained was actually a pile of expired stuff. He was also angry that he had almost been tricked. He had endured this long enough, roared loudly at the guard outside the door: “Someone come! Get these bastards out of here!”

The atmosphere in the conference room instantly became tense. When several people on the other side saw that the minister was trying to drive them away, they quickly shouted:  “Wait, wait, don’t be so grumpy, say it nicely if you have something to say.”

How could the minister give these people face? He cursed them so much that he almost beat them up.

Si Qi watched carefully from the side and saw the anxious expressions of the foreigners. He narrowed his eyes, stopped the minister from getting up and grabbed the person by the collar and threw him out, and said to the foreigners: “You really want to get our country’s rare soil.”

The foreigners immediately became embarrassed, stammering and unable to speak.

The minister said “Huh?” and asked the translator suspiciously: “What’s going on? What did Mr. Si just say?”

The translator translated this passage to the minister. The minister’s expression changed slightly. He carefully observed the helpless expressions of the foreigners on the opposite side after losing the initiative. He found that there was no arrogance on their faces anymore, only guilt and panic.

At this time, most of the anger in his heart had subsided, and he felt a little relieved instead.

Yes, they were panicking, which meant that their goal had not been achieved, and maybe they would beg their country, China, in turn!

Si Qi sat comfortably in his seat and said to the foreigner who stood frozen in place: “You’re speechless? Don’t worry, you can take your time and think.” He looked at Chu Lian standing behind him and said to him: “Bring me their fans.”

Such childish behavior almost made Chu Lian laugh out loud. Under the disbelieving gazes of those foreigners, Chu Lian walked over and unplugged the fans unceremoniously and sent them to Si Qi. 

Si Qi slowly said to them while feeling the wind: “Rare soils are precious resources in our country. Other countries hide them for their own use and are difficult to buy on the market. Since you have even resorted to trickery and abduction, you must be in great need of these things, right? At what price are you prepared to buy it from us?”

The foreigner was silent for a long time, and finally he could only say angrily: “The market price, at worst, we won’t charge you any handling fees for the paint. Everyone trades fairly.”

“That’s not okay.”

The minister and others looked ecstatic and almost agreed. Si Qi tapped his fingertips on the table, spoke first, and said to the group of people step by step: “Country G, which is currently competing with you, definitely doesn’t want us to sell these resources to you. If it is to prevent you from obtaining these rare soils, they will be eager to buy the GX-72 and sell it to us at a loss. We can buy this thing with money without selling resources. “

The foreigner’s face turned red with anger, veins popped up on his forehead, he stared angrily and said, “Then what do you want!”

Si Qi folded his arms and sat on the back of the chair, raised his chin, and said matter-of-factly: “You spend money to buy our rare soils and then give us GX-72 as a gift.”

The foreigner was so angry that he slapped the table: “Don’t bully others too much!”

Si Qi was not polite and slapped his hand on the table too. The sound was so loud that the minister next to him was startled.

He obviously didn’t expect that Si Qi, who had a gentle and cool temperament, could get so angry, and he was a little frightened for a moment.

Si Qi’s cold eyes stared at the people opposite him. There was no expression on his face, which made the people opposite him feel panicked and terrified.

Si Qi said word by word: “Do you think this matter of fooling us with expired items will just go away? The dignity of China is inviolable. Give us the paint as an apology. This is the price you should pay! “

For China, they could either buy paint from country G at a low price, or sell rare soils in exchange for money and get paint from country F for free, and they would not suffer any loss. The initiative was with China at the moment, and country F on the other side was begging China to sell rare soils to them. It was very reasonable to make certain concessions and apologies. Si Qi’s request just hits their weakness, even if they felt aggrieved, they could not refuse Si Qi.

The grown men felt an inexplicable creepy feeling in their hearts as they were stared at by Si Qi’s death-like emotionless expression. Swallowing, he pretended to be calm and moved his gaze to the surrounding walls, and stammered: “Since you said so, let’s do it. You, you ask that man to negotiate the price of rare soils with me. I don’t want to talk to you…”

Si Qi sneered, and the hand that originally hit the table with gravity retracted behind his back.

Chu Lian happened to be standing behind Si Qi. In the blind spot of the people around him, he saw the young man with a cold face, an arrogant tone, a straight waist, and an aggressive aura, put his hands behind his back and carefully kneaded them with the fingers of his left hand. He patted the red, painful palm with his right hand.

Chu Lian:? ?

He blinked subconsciously and took a closer look, only to see the young man lift his chin in the next second and sneer at the people opposite him: “It’s not up to you to decide who comes to discuss with you! You’d better not let me catch anything again!”

The foreigner on the other side nodded subconsciously, expressed hesitantly that he would not, and smiled apologetically to reassure Si Qi. 

The minister and others on the side were in awe of the young man’s aura and clapped their hands unconsciously, and the atmosphere suddenly became lively.

The young man sat back calmly, folded his hands, and stared at the numb foreigner opposite him like a supervisor. This natural aura seemed like he was born to be respected. Then he put down his arm seemingly casually, and gently stroked the red palm, again and again, very gently and carefully.

Chu Lian: “…………”

The author has something to say:

Si Qi: It hurts so much QAQ, but I can’t say it.

Notes

1. What is hung is a sheep head and what is sold is dog meat. “Sheep’s head” is a metaphor for “good signboard “, and “dog meat” is a metaphor for “bad goods “, which refers to inconsistency and deception . ↩︎