Rebirth of the King of Waves

Chapter 178 The Depressed Market (Part 2)

"Let's eat." Ning Bishu pushed open the door and entered, then casually closed the door to Mu Shanming's office.

Mu Shanming, who was typing on the keyboard, looked up, gave a soft "hmm," typed a few more times, then stood up and sat down on the sofa.

Ning Bishu put the bag on the coffee table, and Mu Shanming reached in to take out breakfast, saying, "Zhang Junjun's Qianming Consulting share transfer agreement is ready. You just need to go over and sign it."

“Okay.” Ning Bishu replied casually, pulling up a chair and sitting down awkwardly opposite Mu Shanming. Then, picking up the steaming hot paper bowl, he felt a bit uncomfortable, so he pulled the chair back up and sat down next to Mu Shanming, placing the bowl on the coffee table. He said, “It’s good to let Zhan Zhao and his group sort things out these next few days. Right now, all these things are piling up, and I’m really anxious watching them, but urging them doesn’t help. I might as well go find Zhang Junjun to take a bath and get a massage, and talk to him about the project.”

Mu Shanming frowned slightly upon hearing this. "What else do you and Zhang Junjun have to talk about?"

Ning Bishu smiled, took out the chopsticks from the paper packaging, and gently stirred the thick, hot porridge in the bowl, which was visibly full of various kinds of fish, shrimp, and crab meat. He said slowly, "Mingming, sometimes the questions you ask give me a strange feeling."

"What illusion?" Mu Shanming asked unhappily.

Ning Bishu laughed and said, "I'm just wondering whether it's because I'm a country bumpkin who's been in X state for decades and hasn't seen the world that I'm so ignorant, or it's because you, a beautiful and elite woman from Beijing, still have things you don't understand about this society."

Mu Shanming was already holding a grudge because of Wu Qiye's barking dog, and now that Ning Bishu had made fun of her, she was even more furious. She put down her chopsticks and said with increasing displeasure, "What did I say wrong?"

“You’re right. You’re also standing on my side and considering my interests, right? I understand that.” Ning Bishu put down his chopsticks, took her hand, and coaxed her softly, “Are you worried that Zhang Junjun will take advantage of me if I work on a project with him?”

Upon hearing this, Mu Shanming's expression softened somewhat, and he said, "Since you understand, why did you say that?"

"So that's the crux of the problem." Ning Bishu looked into her eyes and explained carefully, "Actually, on the surface, the key to my project is the idea, the model, and the creativity. But if you look deeper, the model, the idea, and the creativity are all abstract. The main thing is to throw money at it. You have to spend a lot of money in the early stages to achieve economies of scale. Only with economies of scale can this so-called creativity work. But, clearly, these days, we're not the only ones with money."

"My two hundred million is nothing compared to those big companies. They can easily squeeze out two hundred million from their budget by cutting back on expenses. So, wouldn't they want to copy my ideas, models, and concepts?"
So my biggest advantage right now isn't actually my ideas and creativity, nor is it having a certain amount of funding and resources. It's that, given the ideas and resources, I'm a little bit ahead of those big companies.

However, being just a little faster, even just one step ahead, is useless. It's like a race between a tortoise and a hare. How can the tortoise win? Only if the hare is asleep and doesn't know the tortoise has reached the finish line, does the tortoise have any hope of winning. But these days, hares aren't that stupid. If I make even the slightest movement, they'll make their move before I even reach the finish line.

Mu Shanming blinked and asked, "Aren't you being a little... overly pessimistic?"

“Honey, I’m going all in right now. I need to control the situation to the point of zero risk,” Ning Bishu said. “If there’s even the slightest possibility of the rabbits catching up, I have to eliminate that risk. Right now, those rabbits don’t know I’ve already started. I need to be almost across the finish line by the time they find out. Only then will we have a chance to bargain with them if they ask for another round.”

"What are you planning to do?" Mu Shanming asked. "You think those big companies will definitely compete with you in the same market segment, right?"

Ning Bishu said, "As long as the model is running and traffic and capital are mobilized, those big internet companies will absolutely not let me reap the rewards. Not to mention them, the country will not allow the industry to be monopolized."

Upon hearing this, Mu Shanming seemed to suddenly understand, "You want to use Zhang Junjun's connections to get things done for you at the higher-ups?"

"You're overestimating him. What kind of connections could a pimp like him possibly make?" Ning Bishu said disdainfully, but immediately added, "Maybe, I mean maybe, he might actually have the ability, but that's not why I'm looking for him. To me, Zhang Junjun is just a jet engine installed on the back of a turtle right now."

Mu Shanming seemed confused again and shook his head.

Ning Bishu asked her, "Mingming, what is the core task of my project right now?"

Mu Shanming said, "The core task... is, of course, to find a way to make a profit."

“No,” Ning Bishu said. “The core task now can be summed up in four words: land grabbing. This tortoise of mine, in order to survive, must run the big companies around on this track.”

But how many people are there in X state now? How much traffic and money can just X state generate? But what about Zhang Junjun's side? He's a pimp, and his greatest skill is recruiting people.

The entire city of Beijing, plus the Yangtze River Delta region, represents roughly half of China's middle-class families. If I can capture this market share in a short period, those big companies won't be able to do anything about me.

At that time, I will be able to free up my resources to stabilize the market in the Yangtze River Delta and Beijing, while continuing to penetrate deeper into third-tier cities and fourth- and fifth-tier small counties. Only in this way can I achieve a market position that even large companies cannot shake in terms of scale.

Only at this point can my project be considered to have initially taken root.

The so-called creativity and ideas, the so-called models and tracks, are what made my business successful. Next comes profitability and revenue generation, and only then do I need to consider whether Zhang Junjun can help me navigate the relationships at the top.

Right now, only Zhang Junjun can act as the jet propulsion system behind my turtle's rear end. Let him give me a push to speed things up.

Even if we have to give up a small portion of the profits, as long as we can use other people's strength to help us solve the most critical problem, even if we only get a small share of the profits later, the project will not have been a waste of time.

Clearly, where there are people, there is wealth. The people who pay for our project are people, the people who work for us are people, and the people who share the profits with us are even more so. We need to have a long-term vision and a broader perspective.

Ning Bishu stared intently at Mu Shanming.

Mu Shanming found it hard to withstand Ning Bishu's aggressive gaze.

Suddenly, she hugged Ning Bishu and showered him with kisses on the face.

"Attorney Mu..." Ye Jingyang suddenly pushed open the door, but seeing that the room seemed to be busy, he immediately closed the door without changing his expression.

But then Ning Bishu shouted from inside, "Come in!"

Ye Jingyang had no choice but to push the door open again and walk in, awkwardly smiling as he said, "Sorry, I think I've come at the wrong time..."

"It's nothing." Ning Bishu released Mu Shanming. "I was just about to look for you."

"Looking for me? What's up?" Ye Jingyang asked curiously.

Ning Bishu said, "Put down what you're doing for a moment and come to my company with the director of my company's marketing department. I have a lot of things to do there today, including drafting many documents. Could you help me out?"

"Sure," Ye Jingyang replied readily. "Where is your company located?"

"I don't know." Ning Bishu replied readily. "My company is still under renovation. The administration is looking for a temporary office today, but we haven't told them exactly where yet. Just follow them around. It'll probably be quite busy these next few days. Find a hotel nearby to stay in first, and we'll get reimbursed by someone from our company later."

"All right……"

Ye Jingyang was both amused and exasperated. "You're making quite a fuss. The company isn't even finished being renovated yet, and you're already causing such a stir."

Ning Bishu thought to himself, "It's more than that."

The app, the scales, the physical stores, the company's internal operations, and other things I haven't thought of yet...

What seems like a simple model actually involves a tremendous amount of preliminary work. And that's assuming you have ample resources. For an ordinary person, even if they had this idea, just getting this path up and running would likely take several months, and they probably wouldn't even have finished the preliminary work.

Ning Bishu said calmly, "Time is life."

Ye Jingyang grinned, then suddenly heard Mu Shanming ask, "What do you want from me?"

"Oh..." Ye Jingyang reacted, "It's about President Ning's matter. There was this guy called 'Red Flag Flying on Bayin Mountain,' who was exonerated, right? He originally said he would apologize, but then he went back on his word. I just want to ask, should we continue to sue this person?"

Mu Shanming turned to look at Ning Bishu.

Ning Bishu frowned slightly, pondered for a moment, and said, "Let's send her a lawyer's letter first, just to remind her. If she ignores us, we'll leave it for now. We'll deal with it when we're less busy."

"Okay." Ye Jingyang nodded. "Then I'll go out first."

Mu Shanming hummed in agreement.

Ye Jingyang took two steps outside, then suddenly turned back and said, "Oh, right, President Mu, let's hire a few more people. I'm really feeling overwhelmed by President Ning's 300-plus cases. We also have cases coming in from Beijing these next few days. And it seems like Attorney Lü... he's quitting."

"Okay, I understand." Mu Shanming nodded slightly.

Ye Jingyang then left Mu Shanming's office.

Before leaving, he glanced at the breakfast on the table one more time, thinking to himself that the two lovers were really in a passionate affair.

They hugged while we were still eating...

It smells absolutely awful!
……

As soon as Ye Jingyang left, Ning Bishu and Mu Shanming exchanged a glance. Mu Shanming suddenly chuckled, then opened the wet wipes that came with the takeout and wiped the lipstick marks off Ning Bishu's face. Only then did the two of them obediently start eating breakfast.

A short while later, before Ning Bishu could finish his breakfast, Xu Ruojin, the market management director of Bishu Health who had just reported for duty the night before, arrived. Ning Bishu picked up a cup of soy milk, left Mu Shanming behind, and went into the reception room with Xu Ruojin. In the reception room, Wu Qiye, who had nothing to do, had been waiting for nearly 40 minutes and still hadn't left.

The porridge in the bowl on the table was eaten clean.

"Sit down." Ning Bishu pulled over a chair and sat down first. Then he casually introduced Xu Ruojin, "President Xu, this is Mr. Wu, the investor of the gym in our community."

Wu Qiye stood up slightly and reached out his hand to Xu Ruojin.

Xu Ruojin ignored her, simply smiled and nodded before sitting down opposite Ning Bishu.

He kept a distance from Wu Qiye.

Wu Qiye looked slightly embarrassed and awkwardly withdrew his hand. Ning Bishu then got straight to the point, saying to Xu Ruojin, "President Xu, I just talked to Mr. Wu. We'll cooperate with Mr. Wu and use our app to drive offline traffic to his store. In terms of profits, his store will take 20%, and we'll take 80%."

"Wait! I didn't say 20%!" Wu Qiye shouted immediately.

“We’ll discuss the specifics later,” Ning Bishu interrupted calmly, looking at Xu Ruojin and saying, “President Xu, these offline stores are indispensable in our model, because our business involves a service fee.”

"I know."

Xu Ruojin said, "I reviewed it last night when I got back. There are still many details in this model that need further improvement. For the stores, it involves how to calculate profits with franchisees, and how to calculate the number of people brought in. And..."

"Yes, listen to me first."

Ning Bishu interrupted Xu Ruojin again, "Here's what I'm thinking: for users who register on our app, we'll pre-set a recommended gym for them based on their registration location, just according to spatial distribution. Of course, if users want to go to another gym, that's fine too, but the revenue sharing will still be based on the originally pre-set gym."

Theoretically, a registered user might be recommended to Gym No. 1 in X State, but they can still enjoy services at a partner gym in Beijing. If they ultimately lose weight, say ten pounds, then 20% of that 666 yuan goes to Gym No. 1 in X State. This way, firstly, it's convenient for users to choose, and secondly, even if a partner gym suddenly closes down, we can immediately arrange for the user to go elsewhere. Furthermore, if a partner gym suddenly closes down, our contract automatically becomes invalid, and we don't need to pay any commission.

"No, you're saying this to my face like that?" Wu Qiye asked, looking shocked.

Ning Bishu glanced at him indifferently, without answering.

Xu Ruojin then asked, "So, wouldn't this mean we should create a nationwide chain of cooperative projects?"

“Yes, so this is your task.” Ning Bishu said calmly. “But you don’t need to rush. In the next couple of days, just talk to two or three stores, in the city center area. On the app, you need to design some content for the stores to see the number of users. As for the specific functions you want, just talk to the technical department and Ye Chaotong for your opinions. I won’t get involved in the details.”

“Okay.” Xu Ruojin nodded.

Ning Bishu then asked, "Any other questions?"

Xu Ruojin thought for a moment, then shook her head and said, "Not for now."

"Alright then." Ning Bishu stood up straight and called out, "Attorney Ye!"

Ye Jingyang rushed in, "President Ning!"

Ning Bishu introduced Ye Jingyang: "Attorney Ye, this is Ms. Xu Ruojin, the general manager of Bishu Health. You can go back to the office with her later."

Turning to Xu Ruojin, he said, "President Xu, could you ask Zhou Yanzhe or Gu Qingxuan if they've found an office space for today? If they have, get to work as soon as possible. Oh, and by the way, what about Boss Wu over here..."

Ning Bishu seemed to finally remember who he had been receiving in the reception room, and pointed at him, saying, "You should talk to Boss Wu about the profit sharing again, just like I said earlier. I think a 20/80 split is quite reasonable. Help me persuade him. If it really doesn't work, then forget it."

"Hey, hey, hey!" Wu Qiye immediately shouted, "What! You made me wait for ages, and now you're telling me it's over?"

"You guys talk first."

Ning Bishu was very busy, so he turned around and went next door. He opened the door and said to Mu Shanming, "Mingming, I'm going to Beijing first!"

Mu Shanming nodded: "Okay."

"Mua~!" Ning Bishu blew her a kiss, then walked away with a smile.

As he walked, he called Zhang Long: "Brother Long, call Ah Hu and come pick me up. I'm going on a business trip to Beijing!"

As he spoke, he strode out of the law firm.

Wu Qiye was furious and shouted, "Damn it, what a show-off!"

Ye Jingyang glanced at him and said to Xu Ruojin, "President Xu, call me when you're leaving."

“Okay.” Xu Ruojin nodded, watched Ye Jingyang leave, got up and sat in the chair Ning Bishu had just been sitting in, and asked Wu Qiye in a calm voice, “Shall we continue talking?”

"What's the point of even talking! Just 20%? Are you trying to fob me off?"

Wu Qiye, his face full of displeasure, cursed angrily, "Let me tell you, your project has absolutely no future! What kind of environment is this? You still want to build a national chain? You couldn't even manage a chain in X state! Gyms have almost all closed down, and you're making an app? You're really good at pretending! What's your company's name?"

Xu Ruojin said with a stern face, "Bishu is healthy."

"Ha! Look at this name!"

Wu Qiye sneered, "You're completely clueless about health! And you call yourself President Ning? Ning... wait? Bi Shu? Ning Bi Shu?!"

As he was muttering to himself, his eyes suddenly widened.

"No, that guy just now, was he Ning Bishu? That stock market guru on Weibo?!"

Xu Ruojin nodded slightly, her face expressionless.

Wu Qiye's expression changed instantly, "Is it really Ning Bishu?"

Xu Ruojin simply asked, "Are you still going to talk?"

"I, I..." Wu Qiye's expression changed rapidly, sometimes excited, sometimes surprised. He pretended to be proud, but his face couldn't help but show a smile like a dog wagging its tail.

That's Ning Bishu...

That would be a different story.

Anyone who wants to do this kind of project is just bragging.

Ke Ningbi, that's no ordinary person!
This guy has over 200 million followers on Weibo, with at least 180 million of them being haters.

It's common knowledge that those who become popular on Weibo aren't necessarily truly famous.

But the blacker the color, the redder it will be!

This damn built-in traffic might actually help him revive that lousy gym!

Wu Qiye hurriedly asked, "Mr. Xu, how about 30%?"

"Forget about 30%." Xu Ruojin didn't give him any room for negotiation and got up to leave.

"Fine, fine, two-tenths! Better than nothing!" Wu Qiye didn't even bother to pretend anymore. With no customers left in the gym, he was ready to close down immediately. He then scurried to Mu Shanming's office, pushed open the door, and apologized, "Attorney Mu, I'm so sorry about earlier. Please apologize to President Ning for me. If I had known it was him, we wouldn't have been able to discuss any cooperation!"

Mu Shanming looked up at the guy and nodded coldly: "I know, I have something to do now."

"Okay, okay, then you go ahead and get busy..." Wu Qiye smiled and closed the door.

Mu Shanming stared at the screen with a cold expression, seemingly unconcerned.

He remained silent, but the corners of his mouth involuntarily turned up slightly at an angle...

(End of this chapter)