I'm reborn and I'm an international student again?

"You have a general understanding of what happened. Now, what solutions do you have?" Feng Yun got to the point.

"I roughly understand the situation. But I'd like to hear your original plan for how to handle it first," Chen Xi said slowly, lighting a cigarette.

"Of course, we'll use public relations to suppress the news. The reason we're contacting you is because you control many media outlets now." Feng Yun tapped the table.

Many media outlets now have Chen Xi's investment behind them, and to quell negative voices online, one must obtain his cooperation.

"Brother, do you really think I can control the media? I only invested some money in the early years. Trying to shut those people up online by pressuring them with the media won't work. Trying to reason with these people criticizing pre-cooked meals is like talking to a brick wall. It's like you drinking a glass of nuclear wastewater to prove the water is safe—they still won't buy it." Chen Xi shook his head.

"What should we do then? Let them keep talking?"

"No, that's not it. The key now isn't arguing with contrarians about right and wrong, but rather making the public understand the real difference between pre-cooked and non-pre-cooked meals. Among those criticizing you, many might be fellow restaurant owners. From a food safety perspective, standardized central kitchens do indeed have lower risks. But in terms of nutrient retention, freshly cooked dishes from qualified restaurants are better than fully pre-cooked dishes, though not much different from semi-pre-cooked dishes. Of course, in terms of taste and 'wok hei' (wok aroma), pre-cooked dishes are indeed inferior to freshly cooked ones. But to be honest, most domestic consumers don't care about that now. Think about the food we ate when we were young; the hygiene standards were much lower than they are now, and we still got by, didn't we? What consumers really care about is the price."

He flicked his cigarette ash and continued his analysis: "Pre-cooked meals abroad are priced much lower than freshly cooked meals in restaurants, which is a reasonable market positioning. If pre-cooked meals were sold at a higher price than freshly cooked meals, that would be unreasonable, since freshly cooked restaurants also need to survive. But the situation in China is special; consumers are already used to low-priced products. So even if pre-cooked meals are priced lower than freshly cooked meals, there will still be complaints. Ultimately, it's a matter of overall income levels, and people have become accustomed to a long-term low-price model. The saying 'Those with money eat freshly cooked meals, those without money eat pre-cooked meals' is indeed hard for some people to accept, but this is only a minority. What you need to do now is lower prices and grasp the core needs of consumers. As for the critics, they will criticize no matter what you do."

After he finished speaking, he began to recall an event from his past life, in which he invested in a cannery that produced canned yellow peaches.

Most fruits are preserved by canning, and the process involves sterilization, so there are absolutely no safety issues.

Even so, he was still criticized online, with people saying that the canned food contained a lot of preservatives.

However, canned yellow peaches produced by reputable manufacturers usually do not contain preservatives.

The long shelf life of canned yellow peaches relies not on chemical preservatives, but on physical preservation. This involves peeling and pitting the peaches, adding sugar syrup to the jar, sealing it, and then sterilizing it at high temperatures. It's even safer than eating fresh peaches directly. Moreover, most of these canned peaches are exported overseas, and their quality fully meets standards. Therefore, Chen Xi believes that some online comments can be completely ignored.

"According to you, we're going to continue losing money for several more years?" Feng Yun was clearly dissatisfied.

"I haven't finished yet. You can hand over part of the production line to me to operate, which will allow you to quickly recover your investment."

"Give it to you? You want to steal my business?" Feng Yun frowned.

"What's all the fuss about! I'll use the production line to make military rations. Then I'll post some high-quality pre-prepared military rations on military enthusiast communities. That will not only open up sales channels, but also gradually dispel the public's misunderstanding of pre-prepared food. Think about it, even soldiers eat pre-prepared food, what do ordinary consumers have to worry about?" If it weren't for the screen separating them, Chen Xi would have really wanted to give Feng Yun a good whack on the head.

"Military rations? Good lad, you really know how to do things!" Feng Yun immediately beamed, without even asking where the other party got the military supplies.

Then, Feng turned to the group of employees and pointed to the screen: "See that? Now that's what professionalism looks like. The company spends so much money hiring you to solve problems, and in the meeting, none of you can utter a single word..."

"Don't get too excited yet. In my estimation, it will take a long time for more than 70% of people to fully accept that pre-cooked meals are safe and reliable, unless some major event drives this. Look at how many foreign supermarkets are now springing up all over the country, and they mainly sell pre-cooked meals, but Chinese people not only don't criticize them, they praise them. This isn't entirely about worshipping foreign things, but rather that people's trust in domestically produced food has been severely shaken. To rebuild this trust, we must rely on the joint efforts of enterprises and regulatory departments to raise the standards to the highest level." Chen Xi timely poured cold water on his enthusiasm.

"What should the hippo do in the future?"

"It's like this: given the same price, people often choose imported over domestic products. To turn things around quickly, you have to do the opposite. Start by piloting hippopotamus in a few special economic zones. If that works, then enter the Asian market and promote domestically produced ready-to-eat meals. Once you've established a foothold in the international market, domestic consumers' confidence will naturally increase. However, domestic and international standards must be consistent, otherwise you'll be shooting yourself in the foot. But currently, the overseas market is monopolized by established supermarkets. If you want to break into the market, it's best to acquire some struggling local businesses and rebrand them... Right now, you can start by partnering with some well-known restaurants to launch restaurant-style ready-to-eat meals..." Chen Xi pointed out the direction for Feng Yun and also suggested that he cooperate with the Da Jiangnan Group.

Meanwhile, far to the north of AbaAba's headquarters, in a mysterious building.

"Boss, the news about Chen Yifeng has spread online. Should we try to suppress it as soon as possible?" Secretary Shi walked into the office with a document to ask for instructions. He used to work in diplomatic journalism and was used to such incidents. His first reaction was naturally to eliminate the negative impact.

"Why suppress it?" The middle-aged man who was reviewing documents at his desk pushed up his glasses.

"Boss, this kind of thing must be dealt with as soon as possible. The speed of information spreads on the internet is too fast these days. I think this is just a little trick played by Chen Yifeng himself."

"You're wrong about the first half of what you said, but you're right about the second half. Xiao Shi, I haven't been feeling well lately. I was thinking of letting you step down and give you some experience as the top leader, but it seems you might not be up to the task. Look at Qin Feilong, he started as a secretary, and he managed Xinlu very well..."

"Boss, I... I'm better suited to clerical work in a small department," Secretary Shi said, her face flushed.

"Well, that's fine too. If I'm not around one day, given the current situation, you'd probably be easily bullied. Finding a quiet job and writing articles is a good option." The middle-aged man nodded.

"But what about Chen Yifeng..."

"Xiao Shi, you can't look at things too simply. These voices online aren't necessarily a bad thing. Think about it, there's overcapacity right now, and we need to stimulate consumption, but everyone's just keeping their money in the bank. Deposit interest rates have been lowered again and again, but the effect hasn't been significant. This incident can trigger some people's concerns, prompting them to withdraw their money. And once the money is withdrawn, most people will choose to spend it. Besides, many banks currently have foreign ownership, like Qinhuai Bank, Huajing Bank, and Rongcheng Bank, where foreign ownership has reached about 15%. In the past, for the sake of development, we had to let them in. Now that we've developed, some foreign capital should be cleared out. Look at consumer finance companies now, nearly half of their shares are foreign-owned. How can this be allowed? They don't dare to lend at high interest rates in their own territory, so they come here to lend? We're going to take advantage of this opportunity to cut off these hands that shouldn't be reaching in, piece by piece. Let's burn this wasteland and make it flourish."

“Borrowing the east wind… the ground is red… Leader, your words are profound!” Secretary Shi said with a look of sudden realization and delight. He stepped forward and saw that the leader’s teacup was only half full, so he respectfully added hot water.

"Sigh, these entrepreneurs nowadays, after they become rich, they all forget about common prosperity. Sometimes, without some effort, they will eventually monopolize all industries... Perhaps, this idea was a scam from the very beginning..." the man sighed softly, muttering to himself.

At this moment, in a hotel room on the Second Ring Road.

Wang Xianqi was holding his phone and cursing, with the ashtray in front of him full of cigarette butts.

He has already lost four or five million yuan in online games, and the online loans he borrowed are still accumulating interest.

After being scammed by several platforms, he wasn't unaware that these platforms were shady, but he was already caught up in the hype and always held onto a sliver of hope. After all, there were still two platforms that hadn't taken his money, and on several occasions, withdrawals of tens of thousands of yuan had even gone smoothly.

Yesterday, he was still 140,000 yuan short to repay his online loans. Luckily, he won back the money in several consecutive hands of cards. Although he managed to pay off the online loans, his debts to other platforms are due in a few days, so he has no choice but to continue gambling day and night.

"Damn it, how could I get killed like that?!" Wang Xianqi had two Aces in his hand, but was instantly killed by the opponent's straight flush.

"Ding-dong!" The doorbell rang.

He thought it was Wang Zhi, so he quickly put away his phone. But when he opened the door, he found that it was Duan Yixiong standing outside.

"Oh, what brings you here, Mr. Duan?" Wang Xianqi was impatient, but on the surface he warmly welcomed him into the room and started making tea.

"I came to see you and chat about company matters. President Chen is always elusive, but you're a good friend of his, so it's the same if I tell you." Duan Yixiong smiled and offered him a cigarette.

"What could possibly happen to the company? Isn't everything fine now?" Wang Xianqi scoffed.

The two belonged to opposing camps, and Duan Yixiong's late-night visit was of unknown purpose.

"What's so good about it? The company hasn't distributed any dividends in all this time. Your monthly salary is only around ten thousand, which isn't high in a first-tier city, especially considering we're a big company. In the end, it's because the company isn't profitable enough. If you had listened to me and directly started lending money, we would have been distributing profits long ago. Now, President Chen doesn't agree to a backdoor listing, saying things like 'We're in the agricultural sector, not here to make money'... Who are you trying to fool with this high-sounding nonsense? If you're going to do business, why pretend to be something you're not? You're different from him; you consider things much more practically. You rarely speak in meetings now because President Chen is a dictator and won't listen to your opinions..." Duan Yixiong said while drinking tea.

"You came all this way just to say this?" Wang Xianqi replied, exhaling a smoke ring.

"I know you'll think I'm trying to sow discord by saying all this tonight. But I'll only ask you one question: Do you want to make money?"

"Make money? Who doesn't want that?" Wang Xianqi answered directly. What he lacked most right now was money. Unlike Chen Xi, he was willing to use any means necessary to achieve his goal.

"Where is President Wang?" Duan Yixiong asked Wang Zhi tentatively.

“Of course he wants to. But my dad has always been used to diversifying his business. Huahetong isn’t even fully profitable yet, and he’s already gone off to work on other projects to make money.” Wang Xianqi exhaled a smoke ring.

“Yeah, I’m not having an easy time either. The initial investment almost emptied my pockets, and I’m short of money. So we should stick together and make money. President Chen doesn’t need money, so of course he’s not in a hurry, but he hasn’t considered the feelings of us other shareholders at all, don’t you think…” Duan Yixiong’s words made perfect sense, and Wang Xianqi also thought it made sense.

He recalled his previous experience of being refused a loan from Chen Xi, and his pent-up anger was finally ignited by Duan Yixiong.

The next day, Chen Yifeng sat on the sofa at home.

"Yes, yes, Mr. Zhu, you've seen the news. It's not that I'm unwilling to pay, it's just that the bank swallowed the money. I'm helpless now. Since legal channels are blocked, I can only rely on the media to seek justice..."

"Yes, yes, Mr. Tang, don't worry. As soon as the money is recovered, I will distribute dividends to all shareholders immediately, not a penny less. Business is all about reputation; I can't be like a bank and break my word, can I? I believe the public has discerning eyes, and the truth will eventually come out..."

Faced with a series of calls from shareholders demanding repayment, Chen Yifeng remained calm and eloquent. Now that he had a legitimate reason, the creditors' attitudes softened considerably, and many even expressed sympathy for him.

Thanks to Zhang Xuan's father's leadership position at the newspaper, his story was published in the newspaper that very day.

In Zhang Xuan's view, this money must be recovered as soon as possible, otherwise her good life in the future will be difficult to continue.

Zhang Yide shared the same thought. If Chen Yifeng's cash flow dried up, the Zhang family's expenses would also be affected.

"If you ask me, I suggest we stop putting our money in the bank. It's too risky," Zhang Xuan said while eating fruit.

“That’s what I think too. These banks are really outrageous.” Chen Yifeng nodded in agreement.

His trust in banks has now dropped to negative levels.

"Why don't we take all the cash and buy a house?"

"Why buy a house! House prices will fall sooner or later. Antiques, on the other hand, are worth considering."

As the owner of an auction house, Chen Yifeng is very familiar with this industry.

Antiques are more flexible than real estate; they can be directly auctioned in Hong Kong and exchanged for foreign currency, while houses can only be resold in mainland China.

"Why can't we buy a house? House prices are still rising!"

Zhang Xuan persisted in pursuing this issue relentlessly.

Buying antiques means she can't put her name on the deed, so in the end she might not get a single penny, but a house is a different story. (End of Chapter)