Jiangcheng, 1998.
Nineteen-year-old Chen Hongmei clutched her last 217 yuan and held a faded canvas bag as she stood outside Limin Wholesale Market, a rough-and-tumble place full of all sorts.
Behind her were 30,000 yuan in loan-shark debt left by her gambling father, who had skipped town. Her mother lay in a hospital bed, waiting for the money that could save her life. With nowhere else to turn, Chen plunged into a place brimming with opportunity and crawling with wolves.
Her fellow vendors banded together to squeeze her out. Local thugs showed up demanding protection money. Unscrupulous merchants shortchanged customers and tried to ruin her reputation. Everyone expected this lone young woman to cry and run out of the market.
But they didn't get tears. They got Hong, a woman with a backbone of steel.
You use dirty tricks to undercut my prices? I'll win your customers with fresh goods weighed fair and square.
You bring a gang to make trouble? I'll face you head-on with a fish knife in hand, without backing down an inch.
You try to cut off my livelihood? I'll smash your whole shady operation and make sure you have nowhere left to stand in this market!
She held fast to her principles: “Never make dirty money, never let down the people around me.” Starting with a seafood stall barely a meter wide, she secured her supply channels and established herself. She helped sisters with nowhere else to turn and brought struggling brothers along to make money together.
From a stallholder anyone could bully, to the leading name in Jiangcheng's seafood wholesale trade, and finally to the head of a nationwide fresh-food chain.
In the end, everyone in Jiangcheng, from industry bigwigs to market vendors, called her Hong with genuine respect.
