Rebirth 08: Rise from copycat phones

Chapter 587 Xi Wanqing's Changes
Shenzhen in October is still hot, but the air conditioning in Building A of the headquarters of Zhiyun Group is strong, and many employees are even wearing long sleeves.

Xi Wanqing was one of them; she was someone who was quite afraid of the cold... Of course, she was also afraid of the heat.

Wearing a thin black blazer, she left the office carrying a tablet and a report. After walking a short distance, she arrived at Xu Shenxue's office.

After giving the briefing, Xi Wanqing entered the office and went to Xu Shenxue's desk: "Chairman Xu, the sales figures for the recent releases of several new models from Weiku Electronics have been compiled!"

Xu Shenxue looked up, then nodded slightly and said, "Mm!"

Xi Wanqing handed the report to Xu Shenxue. As she bent down slightly, Xu Shenxue's peripheral vision caught her chest. Xi Wanqing naturally noticed Xu Shenxue's gaze, but she didn't mind...

Instead, she continued to put the report down gracefully, even pausing for a couple of seconds before straightening up... Anyway, rumors were circulating that she and Chairman Xu were having an affair. At first, she would refute these rumors, and even feel disgusted by them... I rely on my brains and hard skills to make a living, not on my looks to get ahead.

Rumors are circulating that she and Chairman Xu are having an affair, and she refuses to believe that Chairman Xu is unaware of it.

However, Chairman Xu neither explained anything to the public nor transferred her away. In fact, he even promoted her to senior assistant in the first half of the year, giving her full responsibility for assisting in handling matters related to the smart terminal business. Xi Wanqing reported many things directly to Xu Shenxue.

These two people have become even closer through their work relationship!
As a result, the rumors became even more serious.

However, rumors are circulating that the truth is that she and Xu Shenxue are not really involved, and Xu Shenxue has never treated her differently, let alone pursued her or even made a hint.

This left Xi Wanqing feeling somewhat resentful...

Lately, Xi Wanqing has been confused about her own thoughts. When she is with Chairman Xu in private, such as now when the two of them are in the same office and there are no outsiders, she will inadvertently do things that she would never normally do.

For example, like this now... In the past, when she wore shirts with a slightly lower neckline, she would hand over documents from the front and would not bend over in any obvious way, just to avoid exposing herself.

But now, she chooses to pass the document from Xu Shenxue's side and slightly in front, and she does so with a noticeable bending posture... She knows that Xu Shenxue can definitely see it.

Once or twice, and after it happened many times, she would even deliberately linger for an extra second or two... She couldn't figure out what her mindset was.

Perhaps it was simply that pure unwillingness to accept defeat.

Perhaps they wanted to see how long Chairman Xu could hold out.

In short, that's what we did.

Xu Shenxue glanced at it for a few seconds out of the corner of his eye. Hmm, light purple. This color is quite nice and matches her skin tone well.

Then he took the document and started looking through it.

At this moment, Xi Wanqing seemed unaware of how easily her actions could cause ambiguity, and also unaware that Xu Shenxue's gaze lingered on her chest for a few seconds. Instead, she straightened up and said, "Chairman Xu, since September, Weiku Electronics has released four new models under its two brands, Xiaolan and Weiku. The market response to the flagship Xiaolan 15 Max has been rather lukewarm, with sales reaching five million units in the first half of the month, one million units less than expected!"

"The V100, the flagship model of the Vcool brand, has performed only moderately in the domestic market, but it still performs exceptionally well in the South American and Indonesian markets!"

Vcool Electronics adopts a dual-brand strategy, operating under both the Xiaolan and Vcool brands, each with a range of models. The Xiaolan brand primarily targets the domestic, European, and parts of the ASEAN and Indian markets.

The sales of the Vcool brand in China are relatively average, but it sells well in three major markets: South America, Mexico, and Indonesia in the ASEAN market.

Overall, BlueFocus's mobile phone shipments account for about 70% of Vcool Electronics' total shipments, while Vcool's own brand accounts for about 30%.

The Blue MAX is widely recognized as the fourth high-end model with large-scale sales volume, second only to the Zhiyun S series, Apple, and Samsung Galaxy series... It mainly targets the market of three to four thousand yuan and can achieve annual sales of about 30 million units.

This result is already quite good.

Globally, apart from the four companies mentioned above, there is no fifth mobile phone company that can sell so many high-end models.

Vcool Electronics' position as the world's fourth-largest mobile phone company is not solely due to its third-largest mobile phone shipments globally, but also to the consistently strong performance of its Blue MAX series. Even in the fiercely competitive domestic market, dominated by the Zhiyun S series, it has achieved considerable sales.

Many people who don't use the Zhiyun S series, especially those who dislike the closed Yun OS system of Zhiyun phones, which focuses too much on security and restricts many functions, and who also don't want the chaotic Android ecosystem in China, will buy Bluegogo phones... which also have a unified, secure, and stable software ecosystem, but with fewer restrictions than Zhiyun phones.

Furthermore, it primarily utilizes in-screen fingerprint recognition technology, creating a clear differentiation from Zhiyun's signature 3D facial recognition technology.

With the Zhiyun S series above and the Bluegogo MAX in the middle, it's extremely difficult for other domestic mobile phone manufacturers to produce mid-to-high-end models, resulting in low sales...

Of course, the domestic market is large enough that even if their phones don't sell well in the high-end market, they can still sell some by relying on their fan base accumulated over the years, the more open nature of the Android system, and some of their unique technological features or advertising and marketing strategies.

This is also why, in recent years, domestic mobile phone manufacturers have been keen to compete for the mid-to-high-end market in overseas markets... They used to sell low-end phones, but now they've started selling mid-to-high-end phones overseas... They sell as many as they can, a little in one country and a little in another, and that's how they accumulate sales.

China's mobile phone market is the world's largest smartphone market and also the most competitive. Even top-tier mobile phone brands like Zhiyun S series, which are considered dominant, face enormous pressure every year and need to constantly launch various innovations to attract consumers.

Vcool Electronics is no exception... However, their advertising and marketing strategies, especially on the Internet, have been quite successful. After years of brainwashing, they have successfully gained a large number of die-hard fans!
However, starting this year, Vcool Electronics' mobile phone business is also facing many challenges!
In particular, the sales of the core product, the Little Blue Max series, have declined instead of increased, which is not a very good sign!
However, Vcool Electronics' low-end models are still selling well!

Xi Wanqing's report explained this point: "Weiku Electronics has four new models, including two new mid-to-low-end models. One of them, the Little Blue M, targets the market of 1,000 to 2,000 yuan. After its launch, its sales have been very good, increasing by 8% compared to the sales of the same model launched last year!"

"There's also a blue digital model, whose sales are 15 percent lower than expected!"

"The company's market analysis department believes that the decline in sales of Xiaolan Digital Edition is due to the continued rapid growth of Zhiyun's new cloud brand this year, as well as fierce competition from newly launched competing products in the same price range from Dami Company and Huawi Company!"

"Considering this situation, the marketing department at Vcool Electronics has already lowered its forecast for this year's mobile phone shipments, which may be down by two percentage points compared to last year. The average selling price of mobile phones will also decrease slightly, resulting in a revenue reduction of about three percentage points and a decline in gross profit margin!"

After listening to a few sentences and reviewing the report himself, Xu Shenxue said, "The competition in the mobile phone market is even fiercer this year. Send an email to Weiku Electronics and tell them to get ready. I want to hear their solutions!"

The decline in sales of mid-to-high-end models is not a good sign...

Although Vcool Electronics' low-end models are still selling well, and its Little Blue M series sells very well in both domestic and emerging markets, these low-end models don't make money!

This market is too competitive. Everyone is focusing on cost-effectiveness, both domestically and overseas, to the point that the profit margin of some models is extremely low. Simply selling phones doesn't actually make much money; it's all about the software ecosystem to generate revenue.

The main source of profit for Vcool Electronics' mobile phone business comes from the Blue Digital Edition, which targets the 2,000 to 3,000 yuan market, and the Blue MAX series, which targets the 3,000 to 5,000 yuan market.

The sales of both models declined simultaneously, which caught Xu Shenxue's attention!

Although the current mobile phone market has entered a period of saturation and shipments have declined, the market decline is particularly severe in the price range of 2,000 to 5,000 yuan.

In the current mobile phone market, low-end phones are supported by the domestic market and numerous emerging markets, ensuring stable sales. The high-end market (above 5,000 yuan) benefits from the huge domestic market and developed country markets, resulting in a decent market size. The ultra-high-end market (above 7,000 yuan) has even expanded… In recent years, influenced by China's sustained high-speed economic growth, the domestic high-end market (above 7,000 yuan) has expanded very rapidly!

However, this has nothing to do with companies like Vcool Electronics... The ultra-high-end market in China, priced above 7,000 yuan, is the exclusive domain of Zhiyun Group's flagship S-series. The expanded market share has been basically devoured by Zhiyun's S-series, leaving no scraps for other companies!
Of course, other companies don't have phones that expensive either...

In overseas markets, it faces competition from Apple's new flagship phone, but the new flagship phone only sells well in the United States, and is completely suppressed by the Zhiyun S series in other markets.

For companies like Vcool Electronics, the market between 2,000 and 5,000 yuan is their core market.

The Blue MAX model that sells in large quantities is priced at just over three thousand yuan.

The main volume seller of the Bluegogo digital version is also in the 2,000 yuan price range.

With sales declining for models in both price ranges, Xu Shenxue naturally needed to hear about Weiku Electronics' solutions...

Xi Wanqing then said, "I'll send an email to President Bai's office in a bit!"

Xu Shenxue put down the report and looked up at Xi Wanqing again. Xi Wanqing's outfit today seemed similar to her usual one, but there were some differences. Her hair was not tied up, but rather loose and wavy. The neckline of her white chiffon blouse was a bit low, and instead of pairing it with black women's suit pants, she wore an A-line skirt above the knee.

Because she was standing to his side, he could see the high-heeled sandals she was wearing, and her toenails were painted with purple nail polish...it looked quite nice.

Then I looked at her hands. It seemed that she still had relatively long nail tips on her fingers, which was unusual for Xi Wanqing.

Xi Wanqing has been with the company for quite some time now. Xu Shenxue rarely saw her wearing skirts or nail polish before. She used to dress relatively maturely, even old-fashioned, and even her hair... Most of the time she wore a white shirt and black women's trousers, with her hair tied up, a very typical female business elite's outfit... trying to downplay her young and beautiful female attributes and to reflect the image of a top business elite.

Of course, even her slightly old-fashioned business attire couldn't hide her natural beauty... There's no way around it, Xi Wanqing is just too beautiful. With such looks and figure, even if she were only wearing a bed sheet, she would still amaze everyone.

When Xu Shenxue first saw her after she joined the company, he knew that this woman's looks were at least a nine out of ten!

However, he wasn't a horny man who would be unable to move when he saw a pretty woman... Not to mention Zhihai Garden, there were also a lot of women in the Logistics Secretariat... So if he saw one, he would just see one, and if the other woman didn't take the initiative to come closer, he wouldn't do anything.

Previously, Xi Wanqing seemed to want to rely on her own abilities to make a living and wanted to succeed in the workplace. He would never even glance at her out of the corner of his eye and would never do anything that would cross the line.

But recently, Xi Wanqing has clearly changed...

Not only has their clothing changed, but they also often make some 'unintentional' gestures in situations where they are alone together...

He has plenty of experience with this kind of thing, and he can usually guess what the other person is thinking just by taking a quick look.

So, after thinking for a couple of seconds, Xu Shenxue said, "I heard from Director Bai during a casual chat some time ago that you had some unpleasantness with your family?"

Upon hearing this, Xi Wanqing thought to herself, "There really are no secrets in this office." She had only mentioned briefly when chatting with a few female colleagues that her family insisted on arranging blind dates for her, and that she had already argued with her mother about it several times.

Two years ago, Xi Wanqing's mother acted like a highly educated and enlightened mother, saying that she should decide her own marriage, that marriage was a matter of personal freedom, and that her parents would not interfere too much.

However, the fact that Xi Wanqing hadn't started dating for a long time inevitably made many parents anxious.

Her tone became increasingly harsh, especially this year, with her saying things like she's getting old and shouldn't be too picky, that if she doesn't find someone soon she'll really be too old, and that it will be even harder to find someone in a few more years, and that she can't really live alone for the rest of her life, and then she tried to arrange other blind dates.

But Xi Wanqing had Xu Shenxue, with whom she had a rumored affair, right in front of her, so she had no interest in paying attention to other men... Besides, she couldn't help but compare those so-called blind date partners with Xu Shenxue!

The comparison is all it takes; all those blind date partners are trash... I just can't stand them...

In fact, her parents are quite accomplished; they are professors at top universities and have a very good network of connections.

The blind date partners they can find and introduce are all quite good, including promising young associate professors, young entrepreneurs who have taken over family businesses, and workplace elites working in large companies.

However, while these people are indeed quite good, it depends on who they are compared to: at least compared to Xu Shenxue, they are not worth mentioning.

Every time Xi's mother brought up the topic of blind dates and marriage, Xi would get annoyed, and eventually they even got into an argument on the phone!
Feeling frustrated, I chatted with a few female colleagues I usually get along with, and it ended up reaching Mr. Xu's ears... I don't know which of those female colleagues was the one who slapped me so much that she spread everything.

Xi Wanqing then said, "Actually, it's nothing much, just some family matters. We argued on the phone a few times, but it's all fine now!"

Xu Shenxue said, "Every family has its own troubles, so don't take these little things too seriously!"

"By the way, tell Yunhai Restaurant that I'm going there for dinner tonight. It's been a while since I've been there, so I'll go for a change of pace. If you're free tonight, you can come with me. The food there is pretty good."

Xi Wanqing was slightly taken aback when she heard this, and then looked at Xu Shenxue... Her mind was a little blank for a moment. This was a bit sudden... and for some reason, she felt a little surprised!
As Xu Shenxue's senior assistant in the board office, although Xi Wanqing didn't have much access to Xu Shenxue's personal affairs, she had learned some of his habits from being around him for a long time...

Xu Shenxue often goes to Yunhai Restaurant for meals, as he likes the ambiance and the taste of the food there... He even acquired the entire Yunhai Hotel a few years ago... mainly to facilitate security operations.

The Cloud Sea Restaurant attached to the hotel also became his usual dining place.

If he doesn't want to eat at home or at the company on weekdays, he'll go to Yunhai Restaurant to eat!
However, he almost always held business banquets at the Yunhai Restaurant... He ate there alone most of the time!
Xu Shenxue treated that place as his private restaurant. He just wanted to have a good meal and relax, and didn't want to hold any business banquets or have dinner with his subordinates.

So, Xi Wanqing has never actually seen Xu Shenxue treat anyone to a meal at Yunhai Restaurant in all this time!
Of course, she just didn't know. If Xiao Chen were here, she would know that Xu Shenxue would occasionally bring women to Yunhai Restaurant for meals!
Xiao Chen knew even better that over the years, every single woman who had accompanied Xu Shenxue to Yunhai Restaurant for a private meal had ended up in Zhihai Garden... without exception!

So, when Xiao Chen drove up to the elevator reserved for Xu Shenxue's chairman in the evening, he was a little surprised to see Xi Wanqing coming out of the elevator with Xu Shenxue and then getting into the car with Xu Shenxue.

He naturally knew about Xi Wanqing. At first, he also thought it was a romantic relationship, believing that given his boss's personality, Xi Wanqing would most likely not be able to escape...

But nothing really happened after that, and he thought Xi Wanqing was different from other women.

I think Xi Wanqing is probably a career woman type, and there are quite a few career women in the company. There are several female executives at the vice president level in Zhiyun Group, so it's not surprising that there's another Xi Wanqing.

Everyone has different pursuits. Some capable and ambitious career women also pursue career and power.

So I didn't think about it that way after that... I treated Xi Wanqing as a regular assistant in the board of directors' office, and one of the future candidates for senior management positions in the company.

But to my surprise, today I saw Xi Wanqing get into Xu Shenxue's car... and not in the front passenger seat, but in the back seat.

And we're going to have dinner together at the Cloud Sea Restaurant!

Did the boss finally give in and make a move, or did Assistant Xi change his mind?
He didn't know, but he did know that after a while, he would likely have another team under him: one specifically responsible for Xi Wanqing's travel and other private affairs!
(End of this chapter)