Chapter 290 289【Urgent Telegram】
Generally speaking, for awards with greater influence, the selection process is more complicated and time-consuming. The selection of the Goncourt Prize for Fiction lasted half a year, while the selection of the Nobel Prize for Literature lasted for a full year.
In September last year, the Nobel Committee sent nomination invitation letters to qualified institutions or individuals. The former Nobel Prize winner in the United States, after receiving the nomination invitation letter, chose Zhou Hexuan as the nomination candidate, and contacted the American publisher to produce the nomination materials.
At the end of January this year, the deadline for nominating candidates.
It will take two months for the Nobel Committee to select 15-20 candidates as preliminary candidates from hundreds of nominations and submit the list to the Swedish Academy.
Then, it will take another month to select 5 final candidates from among these 15-20 people.
From June to August, members of the Swedish Academy will spend three months reading all the works of the five final candidates, and the Nobel Committee will also prepare a separate selection report.
By September, members of the Swedish Academy began discussions, evaluating and comparing the merits and contributions of the candidates.
Until the beginning of October, members of the Swedish Academy began to vote, and the winners must receive more than half of the votes to be considered valid.
The next step is to prepare for the award ceremony, and the official award ceremony will not start until mid-December.
Not only did Zhou Hexuan not know that he had become one of the hundreds of candidates for the Nobel Prize in Literature, he didn't even know that his works caused a sensation in France, and it took at least a month for the news to spread from Europe to China.
Since Zhang Mouzhi wanted to develop in Shanghai, Zhou Hexuan could only take his father-in-law to visit. Anyway, he is only in charge of referrals, as for whose relationship he can get in touch with, it depends on Zhang Mouzhi's own ability.
"Chen Steward, the water is cut off again." The servant of the mansion came to report.
"If the water is cut off, go to the water delivery man," said the old housekeeper Chen Han, depressed. "This Shanghai is really worse than Jiujiang. The running water is cut off every three days."
Zhou Hexuan just came back from the outside with his father-in-law. Hearing the housekeeper's complaint, he explained with a smile: "The workers of the waterworks in the French Concession are on strike. It may not be resolved in a while. It is better to have more drinking water at home."
"My uncle said, I will arrange it now." Chen Han said respectfully.
Zhang Mouzhi shook his head and said, "The request made by the workers in the water plant is too outrageous. They actually want to double their wages. How could the French agree?"
Zhou Hexuan explained: "I heard that the water factory in the French Concession has not raised wages for several years, and prices have risen sharply in recent years. Since the Northern Expedition, the silver dollar has continued to depreciate. It is reasonable to double the salary."
Not only are they complaining, but the entire Shanghai French Concession is full of complaints.
People can go without food for three days, but they cannot go without water for three days. Recently, the water cut off has made people want to die.
Even the mayor of Shanghai was alarmed by this matter, and he sent people to persuade and negotiate with no results. In the end, the mayor could only visit Du Yuesheng in person, hoping that Du Yuesheng could come forward to resolve it.
Due to the opium smuggling case some time ago, Du Yuesheng was having a tough fight with the mayor of Shanghai. This time he took the opportunity to show off, the city government contacted him several times and promised many benefits, Du Yuesheng finally agreed to help.
Don't look like he's just a gang leader, but Du Yuesheng really has skills in Shanghai. With his communication, the strike of the waterworks workers was successfully resolved. The water factory in the French Concession agreed to raise wages by 75% for the workers, but the wages during the strike were not recognized, and Du Yuesheng paid the workers in advance from his own pocket.
Although it cost some money, Du Yuesheng benefited a lot. After this matter was settled, the French owed him favors, the Shanghai Municipal Government owed him favors, and the workers of the water plant also praised Boss Du for his benevolence.
"Son-in-law, what kind of business do you think I should do in Shanghai?" Zhang Mouzhi has not yet determined the development project, he said, "My old business is comprador and real estate, but the competition in these two industries in Shanghai is too fierce We're new here, so we can't compete with others."
Zhou Hexuan smiled and said, "Dad, do you believe me?"
"Of course!" Zhang Mouzhi said quickly. He now knows how powerful his son-in-law is. Even Minister Yan Xishan would come to ask for advice. Celebrities in the business world like Yu Qiaqing and Xu Shenru also favored his son-in-law.
Zhou Hexuan said: "Don't do anything now, wait a few months and go to the United States to make a fortune."
"America?" Zhang Mouzhi asked in surprise.
Zhou Hexuan explained: "According to my speculation, the economic crisis will break out in the United States soon. At that time, whether it is buying short for finance, or buying equipment and personnel to build factories, it will be a profitable business."
"Really?" Zhang Mouzhi was skeptical.
Zhou Hexuan smiled and said, "You will know when the time comes."
Zhang Mouzhi frowned and thought hard, and said after a long time: "Then I'll wait a few more months and go to America together."
Weng and his son-in-law got along quite happily, and Zhou Hexuan handed over the exclusive Jiangxi agency rights of "Meikou" underwear to Zhang's family to operate. Although there are many counterfeit underwear nowadays, "Mei Kou" is a brand name, and the upper-class celebrities and female relatives only recognize "Mr. underwear".
Due to the government's failure to protect patents, Zhou Hexuan has decided to change his business strategy after discussing with Xu Shenru and Zhang Jiazhu. From now on, "Mei Kou" will only make mid-to-high-end underwear, leaving the low-end market to those miscellaneous brands to compete for.
Zhou Hexuan also wanted to invent other money-making gadgets, but he couldn't figure out what to do after racking his brains. Monosodium glutamate was invented by the Japanese a long time ago. Although stockings are very profitable, the technology is too complicated for China, which has no foundation in petrochemical industry, to produce them.
These days, the more profitable an exclusive invention is, the more risky it is.
For example, Qu Huanzhang, the founder of Yunnan Baiyao, was forced to death by the government of the Republic of China. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, the government called on businessmen to donate money, but it was useless for Qu Huanzhang to donate a plane. He had to donate 300,000 yuan. Qu Huanzhang couldn't afford so much cash, so he was imprisoned.
At this moment, Jiao Yitang, curator of the Central Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine, invited Qu Huanzhang to work in the Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Qu Huanzhang thought he had met a savior, so he hurried to Chongqing, but was asked to hand over the prescription of Yunnan Baiyao, which was produced by Jiao Yitang's privately held Zhonghua Pharmaceutical Factory.
This is obviously a carefully set up game, just to occupy the prescription of Yunnan Baiyao. Qu Huanzhang refused to agree, so he was placed under house arrest and eventually died of a hunger strike.
You must know that Qu Huanzhang has been running shopping malls and officialdom for more than 30 years, and he also knows many important people, so he does not lack political protection at all. But the husband is not guilty, but he is guilty of carrying a jade, who let him have a treasure in his hand, if he is targeted, he can only die.
After thinking about this, Zhou Hexuan immediately lost interest in making exclusive inventions.
When Weng and his son-in-law were chatting about the shopping mall, the servant suddenly came in with a telegram and said, "Master, there is an urgent call from Peking!"
There were only eight words on the telegram: Xiehe Hospital, Ren Gong is critically ill.