Chapter Ten: Borrowing a Hen to Lay Eggs

"Satellite dish?!"

Zhang Xiaocheng looked at Li Dongling’s expression and realized he wasn’t joking. Furthermore, Li Dongling’s credentials as a graduate of Hanxi Jiaotong University carried significant weight; while some might dismiss academic qualifications, most people in society held such a degree in high regard and respect.

"A satellite TV receiver. Just like the TV antennas we use now, it provides a signal to the television, except it picks up satellite channels!"

Hearing Li Dongling’s explanation, Zhang Xiaocheng couldn't help but look up. Even though he was a rough-hewn man who had been appointed factory director after retiring from the military, the mere mention of something as high-tech as a "satellite" made him stand in awe, listening intently to Li Dongling.

"If you don't install cable TV now and only use a standard TV antenna, you can only receive two or three channels like CCTV, the provincial station, and the city station. In towns and rural areas, you can receive even fewer, and in the mountains, there’s often no signal at all!"

"But with a satellite dish, you can watch satellite channels directly. You could receive over 15 channels, including CCTV-1, CCTV-2, and the Yunnan-Guizhou Satellite TV. In the future, more provincial and municipal stations will move to satellite. A single dish can receive over fifty channels, or even more!"

"Most importantly, a satellite dish only requires an initial installation and equipment fee. You never have to pay a subscription fee again!"

"Nationwide, there are already over 80 million color TV households. Even here in Pingyang, there are nearly 850,000 television users. How many of them are currently using cable? If we launch these satellite dishes, how many people would be willing to buy one..."

Li Dongling stopped there. Zhang Xiaocheng felt his throat tighten; anyone who had paid for cable TV provided by a station understood exactly what Li Dongling meant. Installing cable meant paying two or three hundred yuan every year. If you wanted to keep watching, you had to keep paying—stop paying, and the signal was gone.

If the satellite dish worked as Li Dongling described—paying once to watch so many channels—Zhang Xiaocheng could see that it would essentially crush the cable television business.

He quickly realized this was essentially stealing business from the TV stations.

Li Dongling didn't rush him. The satellite dish was the best project he could think of for the Shangguan Town Component Factory: it was low-difficulty, high-impact, and highly profitable.

For Li Dongling, as long as he could bring the factory back to life, it would prove his capability. After leaving the No. 1 Radio Factory, no matter what he chose to do next, he would certainly have people willing to support him and provide funding.

This was an era of grass-roots heroes. Just like Boss Mou or Boss Shi of Giant, once you proved yourself, even if you went bankrupt, people would still follow you. You could hold up a blank sheet of paper and countless people would invest. People would even cheer for and fund sensational projects, like blowing up the Himalayas!

The satellite dish project was a gray-area venture. If Li Dongling did it alone, he might run into trouble, but doing it through a state-owned factory meant that even if someone tried to cause trouble, it would likely just end in bureaucratic squabbling.

Although satellite dishes would eventually be banned several times in later years, they remained widespread in rural China for decades. Even thirty or forty years later, the number of units in use was staggering. The reason was simple: they were cheap and effective. After being phased out in China, they were even sold to Southeast Asia, Africa, and South America to great acclaim.

Relying on this project, even if it didn't last forever, it would be enough to make the Shangguan Town Component Factory a fortune in the short term. It certainly wouldn't last long, as there was no technical barrier and no real brand or patent protection to speak of; soon, counterfeit knock-offs would be everywhere.

"Dongling, is it? Can you really make this satellite dish?!"

After a moment, Zhang Xiaocheng made up his mind. He didn't care about legal gray areas or stealing business from TV stations. The factory was on the verge of starving to death; he was even willing to go to jail to hide from creditors, so why fear offending anyone?

"I can!"

"Half a month. Most of that time is just for sourcing materials!"

Li Dongling gave him a firm answer. In reality, if the parts were already on hand, he could assemble a satellite dish in just a few days.

"However, Director Zhang, I have one requirement."

"The technology and the brand for the satellite dish project belong to me. I can authorize the Shangguan Town Component Factory to use them. But, if sales exceed 3,000 units, I want 35% of the revenue from subsequent sales as a brand and technology licensing fee."

Li Dongling spoke directly. Asking for a revenue share or equity was common in private companies, but not so easy in a state-owned factory.

If the factory were still profitable, Li Dongling wouldn't have proposed such terms. But seeing it on the brink of bankruptcy, was it really excessive to ask for a cut if he saved it?

In the current domestic landscape, both state-owned and private enterprises were "crossing the river by feeling the stones." Anything could happen. It was common to see well-managed state-owned factories being handed over to private management. Li Dongling asking for a project commission was far from excessive. Of course, this meant Zhang Xiaocheng had to shoulder the risk.

Zhang Xiaocheng stared intently at Li Dongling. A veteran who had seen combat, his gaze was fierce enough to kill. If Li Dongling were a fraud, he would have crumbled by now, but Li Dongling showed no fear.

Although Zhang Xiaocheng didn't know how many dishes could actually be sold—he wasn't even sure if they could sell 3,000—he was cautious and didn't want to agree to too much too soon.

"10%!"

"25%."

"20%." After a few rounds of bargaining, Li Dongling took a step back. The profit margin for satellite dishes might exceed 40% or 50% in the early stages, but as competition intensified, profits would thin out.

"Deal!"

Zhang Xiaocheng reached out a large hand to shake Li Dongling’s. As a military man, he was decisive; once a decision was made, he didn't hesitate. He knew that in battle, the most dangerous thing was indecision—those who wavered were the first to die. With no way out, Zhang Xiaocheng had no choice but to fight to the death.

After reaching the agreement, Li Dongling prepared to draft a contract. He didn't sign it directly with Zhang Xiaocheng, but instead planned to set up a company—even if it was just a shell company—to sign the agreement on its behalf.

This was a precaution. His current status was still that of an employee at the Xicheng No. 1 Radio Factory. If he didn't take evasive measures and got caught, there would be no end of trouble. In this era, many grass-roots entrepreneurs had fallen over such trivial details, ending up with their earnings confiscated and themselves behind bars.

"What raw materials do you need? I’ll have someone buy them now. As for the money," Zhang Xiaocheng gritted his teeth, "I'm going all in. I’ll cast aside my pride and borrow another sum from the town. The mayor of Shangguan Town is an old comrade-in-arms. When we went to fight in Vietnam, I saved his life. Now it’s his turn to pay his debt!"

Li Dongling wrote out a list and handed it to Zhang Xiaocheng, then began working on the blueprints.

Zhou Wenyuan, who had nothing to do, came over and saw the designs. His eyes lit up. Li Dongling hadn't spent all those years at the Provincial Mechanical Design Bureau for nothing; one look at the drawings and Zhou knew exactly how skilled Li Dongling was.

Thinking back to the technical meeting where Li Dongling had proposed a personal mini-radio project, he couldn't help but wonder what the No. 1 Radio Factory would be like today if they had followed his advice.

A satellite dish wasn't particularly complex, and with Li Dongling’s blueprints, anyone with a bit of technical knowledge could understand it at a glance, let alone a seasoned veteran like Zhou Wenyuan.

"Receiving antenna, LNB, feeder cable, satellite receiver, motherboard, main control chip, memory chip..."

Looking down the list, Zhou Wenyuan realized the most valuable parts were the motherboard and the two chips.

Looking at the drawings and then at Li Dongling, Zhou Wenyuan felt that if he had the materials, he could assemble a dish by hand just by following the diagram. "Is this really going to work?" he asked.

Li Dongling glanced at him. Aside from computers and mobile phones, most of the popular electronic products of the time weren't very difficult; they were just assembled from bought parts. It was more about the creativity. "Wait until we finish, and you'll see."

Li Dongling handed the blueprints to Zhou Wenyuan and told him to start by making the antenna dish surface, the LNB, and some of the smaller components.

"Exactly 150,000!"

Zhang Xiaocheng returned from Shangguan Town and placed the 150,000 yuan on the table in front of Li Dongling. He had truly worn his tongue out on this trip.

"If this money is gone and the component factory isn't saved, then I, Zhang, will have no choice but to jump off a building to answer to the creditors!"

Li Dongling looked at the pile of money—a huge sum for this era. He calculated that with current costs, including materials, production, R&D, and sales, producing the first batch of satellite dishes would be no problem.

Over the next few days, Zhang Xiaocheng spent most of his time at the factory gate, looking out for the arrival of the motherboards, chips, and equipment, or pacing around Li Dongling.

Li Dongling was less anxious. After finishing his morning work, he would go fishing by the river in Shangguan Town in the afternoon. This had been one of his few hobbies after arriving in the provincial capital in his previous life. He lacked proper gear now, using only a homemade rod, and he didn't have much bait. He decided that one day he would definitely start a fishing rod factory to solve the misery of anglers everywhere.

For a fisherman, there were only two reasons for not catching fish: either the rod wasn't good enough, or the bait-maker hadn't used enough attractant. It was never a matter of skill—absolutely not!

After fishing for two or three days, he had only caught a few small fish. Li Dongling didn't mind; he believed the big fish would bite eventually, even though he’d seen a few swim right under his rod several times...

"Dongling, the materials are here!"

Just as another big fish swam under his line, Li Dongling sighed. It wasn't his lack of skill—it was the fish being scared off by Zhang Xiaocheng’s booming voice.

"The chips, motherboards, and tools you wanted have arrived!" Zhang Xiaocheng shouted from a distance.