Hong Kong Film: Short mules have no future, I am in charge of Hong Kong

Chapter 286: Received Su Hanze’s money?
Lv Wancheng slapped the table, frightening the tall and thin man so much that his shoulders trembled. He stared at the tall and thin man and gritted his teeth and said, "Why are you retreating? Do you think I, Lv Wancheng, was scared? This time, Su Hanze stepped on me. If I don't turn back, won't he treat me like a wild dog in the future?"

"But this time..." The tall and thin man didn't dare to say anything else. He just looked at the newspaper on Lu Wancheng's desk. "Su Hanze is now in a very powerful position. The media are all on his side. How can we win?"

Lv Wancheng sneered, "Face? Does he think he can defeat me by relying on the media? He is just being clever. He can grab the limelight, but he can't grab the market. I want everyone in Hong Kong to know that no matter how high-end his jade is, it is just a toy to fool the rich. The real market relies on small profits and quick turnover!"

He grabbed the phone and dialed a number: "Hello, Lao Ma, I need your help to reduce the price of that batch of goods by another 10%. Also, find a few stall owners to sell the goods in Mong Kok Night Market under my banner and mark the price lower. I want to see whether Su Hanze's high-end jadeite is more popular or my cheap goods are more effective!"

A hesitant voice came from the other end of the phone: "Brother Lu, isn't this too risky? What if the media focuses on us again..."

"So what if he's targeting you?" Lv Wancheng snorted. "This time it's not about whose products are better, but whose are cheaper. Ordinary people only look at the price when buying things, regardless of whether they are high-end or low-end. Besides, if there are cheap products stirring up the market, how can his customers place orders with confidence? I'll see how he delivers the goods then."

At the same time, in Xiwan's office, Su Hanze was flipping through the account book, with a rare look of annoyance on his face.

He had just received calls from several customers, all asking him when the jadeite they had ordered at the exhibition would be delivered, and also mentioned the "cheap goods" circulating in the market. Although there was no blame in their tone, Su Hanze knew that these customers had begun to waver.

Ah Liu sat next to him, holding a cup of iced lemon tea, and looked at Su Hanze anxiously: "Boss, this Lv Wancheng is clearly trying to disrupt the market. His goods are ridiculously cheap, and customers will definitely think that our goods are not worth the price. Otherwise, we should also lower the price and take back the market?"

"Lower the price?" Su Hanze put down the account book and glanced at Ah Liu. "Do you know how much our jade costs? Lowering the price is a trick used by people like him to grab the market. If we follow suit, we will end up losing even more miserably."

"We can't just stand there and watch." Ah Liu frowned, "He's even set his sights on the Mong Kok Night Market this time. There are a lot of people there, and if word gets out about the stuff, won't our reputation be dragged down by him?"

"The night market is indeed a problem." Su Hanze stood up, walked to the window, and looked at the night view of Hong Kong Island flashing neon lights. "But what he wants to grab is not the night market, but people's hearts. We need to make customers understand that cheap goods are not only unsafe, but may also make them lose face. Ah Liu, this time you have to help me arrange a scene."

"What play?" Ah Liu was stunned.

"Let the market tell him what to buy and what not to buy." Su Hanze turned around with a meaningful smile on his face. "Find a few acquaintances and pretend to be customers to buy his cheap goods. But remember, after buying, complain directly in public, you can even smash the goods."

Ah Liu's eyes widened: "Boss, are you going to ask someone to help us fight counterfeiting?"

"It's not just about fighting counterfeiting." Su Hanze smiled, "It's also about making his customers lose trust in him. Don't forget, in the business world, reputation is much more important than cheapness."

That night, a jade stall at the Mong Kok Night Market was crowded with passersby who came to watch the fun. The stall owner was proudly promoting his wares: "Look, everyone, this jade is real, and it's shockingly cheap. If you take it home, it will definitely appreciate in value!"

"Appreciation?" A big man wearing sunglasses sneered, "How can this thing appreciate in value? You are kidding me!"

The stall owner's face froze, but he quickly came to his senses: "Brother, you can see for yourself whether this thing is good or not. If not, I'll refund you!"

The big man took the jade in his hand and looked at it for a few seconds, then suddenly shouted, "Give me back my money? This jade is not even as good as glass. Why did you sell it to me? As a decoration?"

The passers-by around immediately started talking about it. Some people came forward curiously to see what was going on, but the big man just threw the jade to the ground, making a crisp breaking sound.

"See? This broken thing breaks into pieces when you drop it. How dare you say it's real jade?" The big man stared at the stall owner and said in a loud voice, "Who are you trying to trick? Call the police or something. It's your choice!"

The stall owner was sweating profusely and waved his hands quickly: "Brother, don't get excited, we can talk it out, I'll give you the money back right away!"

"Give me back my money?" The big man pointed at the crowd with a sneer, "How many things do you have on your stall? They're all of this kind, right? Don't buy anything. You'll lose a lot if you do!"

After hearing this, passers-by cast questioning looks at him. Several customers who were about to pay quietly put their wallets back, and the stall owner's face became even uglier.

The farce was captured by many passers-by with cameras and soon reached several newspapers in Hong Kong Island, becoming news headlines the next day.

The report not only mentioned the quality problems of the jade stalls, but also implied that the suppliers behind these low-priced goods were suspected of "passing off inferior products as high-quality ones."

When Lu Wancheng saw the report, he was having breakfast at a teahouse in Sham Shui Po. He was so angry that he kicked over the chair in front of him and cursed: "These damn reporters, are you deliberately trying to make things difficult for me?"

The tall and thin man sitting opposite him asked cautiously: "Brother Lu, what should we do now? Once these news come out, customers will definitely not dare to order goods."

"What should I do?" Lu Wancheng gritted his teeth, "Keep lowering the price and sell all the goods. I don't believe that the market will follow Su Hanze!"

However, he did not expect that the market would react faster than he expected. After seeing the news, several small and medium-sized jewelers who were willing to accept his goods called to cancel their orders, and some stall owners even closed their shops directly, preferring not to do business rather than sell his goods.

Meanwhile, Su Hanze was drinking tea with Lin Ke'er in his office. Lin Ke'er smiled and said, "The market has been a big help this time. I guess that Lu won't be able to make any big waves any more."

"The market helped us once, but we still have a long way to go." Su Hanze put down his teacup, his tone still calm, "There will be other Lu Wanchengs in the future. The key is that we have to establish our own brand so that customers will not be fooled by these people."

Lin Keer nodded and suddenly said, "But your trick this time was really mean. You let others ruin the place by themselves. It's absolutely amazing."

"It doesn't matter if there is damage or not, the key is the effect." Su Hanze smiled, "In business, you use your brain, not your fists."

After the farce at the Mong Kok Night Market, Lu Wancheng's business suffered a severe blow, but this guy was a resilient person who got up immediately after falling down.

Three days later, he took several boxes of new "improved" jade jewelry to a teahouse in Sham Shui Po, sat down with several small and medium-sized jewelers, and enthusiastically poured tea and offered cigarettes, with an expression of "we are all family". "Everyone, there is absolutely no problem with the goods this time!" Lu Wancheng patted his chest and assured, "I specially found a new factory in Shenzhen. Every piece of jade this time has been strengthened. It will definitely not fall or crack, and it will not be damaged even if you hit it with a hammer!"

A chubby jeweler asked with a squinting look while smoking a cigarette, "Wancheng, the last incident caused a lot of uproar and all of us brothers lost a lot of money. What can you do to convince us to continue working with you this time?"

"Brother Fat!" Lv Wancheng stood up and poured a cup of tea for the fat jeweler with a sincere look on his face. "It was my fault last time. The factory didn't do a good job. I've taught them a lesson! This time the goods are not only of good quality, but also 10% cheaper than before. Think about it, who in the market can compare with me in terms of cost performance? As long as you are willing to give it a try, if you can't make money, you can kick my head like a ball!"

The fat jeweler looked down at the teacup and didn't say anything for a long time. Then a thin businessman next to him spoke up, "Wancheng, it's cheap, but we have to save face. Everyone knows that your goods were smashed in Mong Kok. If we sell you your goods again, will customers still trust us?"

This sentence touched a sore spot, and Lu Wancheng's smile froze for a moment, but soon returned to normal.

He lowered his voice and said, "Old Li, you all know who smashed it. Su Hanze is a cunning guy. I will definitely get back at him! But before that, don't worry, I will not only provide the goods, but also provide after-sales service. If there is a problem with the goods and the customer is not satisfied, they can all be returned. I will be fully responsible!"

Several jewelers looked at each other, and although their expressions were still hesitant, they were obviously a little shaken. The fat jeweler sighed and said, "Okay, Wancheng, we'll give you a chance, but if something goes wrong again this time, don't blame us brothers for being rude."

"Don't worry!" Lu Wancheng nodded repeatedly, with a smile on his face like oil. "Just wait and see, this time I will let Su Hanze know that cheap goods can also win!"

Meanwhile, Su Hanze sat in his office, listening to Ah Liu's report of the news he had just received. While stirring the iced lemon tea in his cup, he asked with a smile of interest, "Did he really say that cheap goods will win?"

"It's absolutely true. I heard that he brought a few boxes of goods to Sham Shui Po, intending to start over." Ah Liu flipped through the notebook in his hand. "But this time his goods have indeed been changed a lot. The quality seems to be okay. At least they don't break when hit like last time."

"This guy is quite resilient." Su Hanze leaned back in his chair and said thoughtfully, "But he still doesn't understand one thing. Cheap goods can deceive people for a while, but not for a long time. Customer trust cannot be bought with cheap goods."

"Then what should we do?" Ah Liu asked, "Are we going to have someone mess up the place again?"

"No need. If we smash things too much, it will make us look less generous." Su Hanze smiled and said, "Let's change the tactics this time. We won't do anything and let him smash his own place."

Ah Liu was confused: "Boss, how can we do this? Are we going to find another client to complain to?"

"No need to find someone to help you." Su Hanze put down the cup, a sly look flashed in his eyes, "Find a real customer. Arrange a few people to buy his goods, and then send them to several authoritative jewelry testing institutions for appraisal. After the results come out, just let the media expose it directly."

Ah Liu's eyes lit up. "That's great, Boss! If an authority says it's a fake this time, he's done for!"

"Whether it's true or not depends on the test results." Su Hanze waved his hand with a relaxed tone.

"But even if it is real, as long as there are minor flaws, we can make a fuss about it. What do customers buy jade pictures for? Flawless appearance. If he can't achieve this, he will never be our opponent."

That night, Ah Liu and a few others bought Lv Wancheng's "improved" jadeite as planned. This batch of goods did look much better than the previous ones, but Ah Liu knew that if it was sent to a professional institution for testing, it would definitely be able to find any flaws.

A few days later, the test results came out, and as expected, although this batch of goods was not fake, the material contained a lot of impurities, and the surface gloss was also chemically treated, which made it look bright and beautiful, but in fact it was not durable.

When Liu returned to the office with the report, Su Hanze was discussing the new design plan with Lin Keer.

As soon as he entered the store, he excitedly slapped the test report on the table: "Boss, it's done! The results are out. The quality of this batch of jade is average. It's not high-end jade at all. We can make a big fuss about it!"

Lin Keer picked up the report and glanced at it, then said with a smile, "This time he has no chance at all. What are you going to do with your big move?"

Su Hanze lit a cigarette and exhaled a puff of smoke. "Don't worry. First, send the test results anonymously to several media outlets and let them comment freely. Then contact experts from several jewelry associations and ask them to comment on the 'low-end jadeite' on the market, emphasizing that customers may suffer losses due to lack of knowledge."

"Great, really great!" Ah Liu couldn't help but give a thumbs up, "Boss, this move is really a bloodless killer, it's amazing!"

"Business should be done without bloodshed if possible." Su Hanze flicked the ash off his cigarette. "However, this is only the first step. Once the media coverage spreads, we will hold a free jade appraisal event and invite customers to bring their jade for testing. Once the real and fake jade are compared, the market will naturally understand our advantages."

"You're going to make it impossible for him to make a comeback in the market." Lin Ke'er smiled and shook her head, "But I like it."

A few days later, the media reported on the issue as expected. This time, the article not only listed the problems of "low-end jade" in detail, but also quoted the analysis of many experts, pointing out that many cheap jades on the market have quality problems.

These reports quickly attracted the attention of customers, and many people began to doubt the low-priced jadeite. Some customers even took the initiative to contact the Jewelry Association to request testing of the goods they bought.

When Lv Wancheng saw these reports, he almost smashed the cup in his hand. He flew into a rage in the office, cursing, "Did these reporters take money from Su Hanze? Why are they always targeting me?"

The tall and thin man carefully handed over a glass of water and said, "Brother Lu, how about we stop for a while and wait until the storm has passed?"

"Stop!" Lv Wancheng shouted angrily, "He Su Hanze is bullying me! But I, Lv Wancheng, will not admit defeat. I haven't grabbed enough of this market yet!"

The media reports soon caused an uproar. People in the jewelry circle began to talk about Lu Wancheng's "low-end jadeite", and even the small stall owners in Sham Shui Po who had originally cooperated with him began to complain.

(End of this chapter)