Rebirth of the King of Waves

Chapter 189: Working hard
After leaving the veterans' activity center, Ning Bishu went straight to the sanatorium.

Then, this time, I stayed in the sanatorium for a full half hour before descending the mountain with a happy expression.

Ning Guoqiang's rehabilitation made significant progress in just over ten days. Dr. Jin's team actually managed to procure a set of rehabilitation equipment from an unknown source that completely overturned Ning Bishu's understanding of rehabilitation.

This is a simple external exoskeleton device that doesn't require any surgery or implantation. It's just attached to the skin, and it can actually allow the brain to directly control the device's trajectory through electrical signals.

Simply put, Ning Guoqiang would wear a wearable robotic arm on his immobile hand. Whenever he had the thought to move, that hand would automatically swing under the robotic arm's control. From shoulder to elbow, from elbow to wrist, and then to fingers, everything could move according to his will.

According to Dr. Jin, as long as Ning Guoqiang persists in exercising, his disabled hand will gradually regain sensation until it is fully recovered.

This is of course fantastic news.

The only downside is that the leg-worn device is not currently in stock.

Ning Guoqiang can only rely on daily rehabilitation training to try and revitalize his lower body. Currently, his lower body rehabilitation progress is such that his buttocks can finally lift half a centimeter off the bed while lying down, although he can only hold it for less than a second. But it's better than nothing at all.

Ning Bishu was very satisfied with the results of Dr. Jin's team.

"If even if only their hands recover by this time next year, I will still give them a one million yuan reward."

Zhang Long glanced at Ning Bishu's beaming face in the rearview mirror and asked, "Boss, could these people be doing this on purpose?"

Ning Bishu asked, "Why would you do it on purpose?"

Zhang Long said, "You told them before that if the old man could stand up within a year, you would give them a bonus of 100 million yuan. They weren't sure at first, so they told you to try for two more years. Now you see, they're getting the old man's hands moving first, so next year, you can't very well ask them to stop, right? You'll definitely have to try for another year. That way, they can get paid for another year. I reckon they have quite a few patients like the old man on their hands. They might have already figured out a routine."

Upon hearing this, Ning Bishu thought it made a lot of sense and asked in return, "So, based on what you've said, what should we do now?"

Zhang Long said, "No matter what we do, we can't make them give up making more money."

Ning Bishu thought for a moment and said, "I have a way." He then called Dr. Jin again and immediately offered money: "Dr. Jin, if you can help my dad stand up by the end of this year, I'll give you three million. Hurry up and contact them about the equipment; I don't believe we can't buy it with money. Give me the purchase order later, and I'll reimburse you."

Upon hearing this, Dr. Jin immediately said loudly, "President Ning, our hospital, our team, and I personally take this matter very seriously. We've already started contacting suppliers for this equipment. Rest assured, as long as it's available, we'll find it for you immediately, regardless of the cost!"

"Okay, then I'll trouble you." Ning Bishu hung up the phone.

Zhao Hu said, "Boss, just by opening your mouth, you've already spent several million."

Ning Bishu calmly replied, "Isn't the point of making money to spend it at times like this?"

Zhao Hu sighed, "Boss, you're really filial to the old man. I've seen many families encounter similar situations where they'd rather suffer more than spend money."

Ning Bishu said calmly, "It's not their problem, it's just a matter of money. The more money you have, the more room there is for filial piety. What is filial piety? Filial piety is being willing to give up your resources to your elders. If you can't even support yourself, what's the point of talking about filial piety? If I didn't have a single penny in my pocket, I would definitely run away without looking back. Whether my parents live or die is up to fate."

Just a second ago, Zhao Hu was praising Ning Bishu for being filial, but now that Ning Bishu was speaking so coldly and ruthlessly, he didn't know how to respond.

The car was quiet, and then we drove all the way to the XX Building.

Upon arriving on the 8th floor, as soon as the elevator doors opened, the receptionist who had secretly taken a photo of Ning Bishu and Mu Shanming and posted it on her WeChat Moments yesterday greeted Ning Bishu with a smile: "Good morning, President Ning."

"Good morning." Ning Bishu nodded and walked straight inside.

Zhang Long and Zhao Hu followed Ning Bishu to the driver's lounge next to the chairman's office. They waited until Ning Bishu entered before pushing open the door and going in themselves. Upon entering, Ning Bishu saw Ma Chao sitting obediently behind his computer desk.

Ma Chao looked up and saw this, then quickly stood up and called out, "President Ning!"

"Did you tell your uncle?" Ning Bishu asked as he stepped forward.

Ma Chao nodded and smiled, "I told you."

"Okay." Ning Bishu nodded and then instructed, "Call Ye Chaotong, Lin Zhilan and Xu Ruojin over."

"Okay," Ma Chao replied, and immediately ran out in a flash.

Ning Bishu turned around leisurely and walked into his office.

I pushed open the door and entered; the windows inside were open.

The table was spotless.

It must have been Ma Chao who came in to clean this morning.

Ning Bishu pushed open the hidden door, the same color as the walls, and entered the lounge. He quickly washed his face. Then he came out, wiped the water droplets from his face with a tissue, and had only been sitting down in a chair for a short while when Ye Chaotong and Lin Zhilan entered the room.

Ma Chao closed the door from the outside.

Ning Bishu took out his phone and said unhurriedly, "I just glanced at what you posted yesterday on the way here. President Lin's idea is to attract initial traffic by acquiring free users first, right?"

Lin Zhilan said very seriously, "Yes, no matter what, we definitely can't start charging right away."

Ning Bishu put his phone on the table, looked at her, and asked, "So what do you plan to do?"

Lin Zhilan said directly, "Let's issue subsidies. For every kilogram of weight loss, we'll reward you with 10 or 5 yuan. That's about the current market customer acquisition cost. Besides, we're in the process of expanding our market share, so it's only right that the cost per customer is a bit higher."

Ning Bishu looked at Ye Chaotong and asked, "Where is Xu Ruojin?"

Ye Chaotong was taken aback. "I don't know."

Lin Zhilan said, "It seems she went out this morning."

"Oh..." Ning Bishu understood immediately; he must have gone to discuss offline collaborations again.

However, this CEO personally went to negotiate these store partnerships...

A few days ago, I had no one to help me.

But today is not like a few days ago!
Emmm...

He pondered for a moment and said to Lin Zhilan, "President Lin, there's a problem with your idea. Although we're currently in a land grab and in a hurry, the market is untapped, and no one is competing with us. Even if we're going to offer it for free, there's no need to spend so much money."

"Starting with free promotions is fine in general, I think you're right. But we can use other methods. For example, we can organize an event in the university town, contact their stupid student unions, and say we're having a weight loss competition. People who sign up will first download our app. Then we can divide them into groups, and the app will show the group assignments. The group competitions will last a week, and the champions of all groups will receive 300 yuan. Then we can have a monthly competition, with the monthly champion receiving 500 yuan. With tens of thousands of students in a school, and 100 people per group, that's an average of 3 yuan per person. We can also get those student union kids to do free promotion for us. The student unions can pay for the posters themselves, using their resources. Then we'll provide 100 special weighing scales as a favor, and at the same time, we'll try to get the teachers and leaders from those schools to come and join us."

"This weight loss competition can take many forms. We can also sponsor some freshman basketball tournaments, football tournaments, and other competitions. University student unions are all broke. If they sponsor a whole competition for two thousand yuan, they'll be ecstatic."

"Then, when it comes to attracting customers from the community, we just follow suit. Besides advertising, we focus on events. The gym's services only serve as a foundation and a safety net."

"Then, anyone who registers and logs into our app will become a Level 1 member. Their privileges include using our scale and being able to register for our various offline events for free within a month."

“For those who have participated in offline weight loss activities, you give them points, which can be used to register. The higher the ranking you get in the activity, the more points you get. If you don’t have any points in the future and want to register for the competition, you will have to recharge. Even if it’s only ten or so yuan each time, as long as we do activities frequently and with a wide variety of activities, this amount of money will be considerable.”

"Oh, right, that means we'll need to set up a dedicated department to liaise with the sports bureau and other government departments. Mr. Lin, could you plan out this department? Also, work out the membership system and points system according to my idea. And as for the daily friend weight loss ranking I mentioned last time, from township rankings and county rankings all the way up to the national rankings, we should also incorporate that ranking system. For example, users participating in the activity could receive weighted ranking points for the day or month..."

Upon hearing this, Ye Chaotong immediately perked up: "The Peak Tournament?!"

"Oh?" Ning Bishu's eyes lit up as well. "President Ye also plays Timi?"

Ye Chaotong smiled and said, "My husband loves to play, and I sometimes play with him too."

"That's awesome!" Ning Bishu clapped his hands. "Then I don't need to teach you how to make this, right?"

Ye Chaotong nodded and smiled, "I understand."

“Okay, let’s get started then,” Ning Bishu said.

"Okay." Ye Chaotong replied readily, then added, "Of Professor Huang's two students, Wang Rui said he didn't want to come and work in the office, but Zhang Huyu has already arrived. Should we let them start working directly?"

Ning Bishu said, "Ask around. Those who are willing can stay, and those who aren't can leave. Our technical department shouldn't have that much work, right?"

Ye Chaotong said, "If I work overtime, I can finish it all by myself." Ning Bishu nodded slightly, "If you need to hire someone, just tell President Lu directly. You have the final say on who the deputy head of the technical department is. You don't need to go through me."

"Okay, then I'll be going now." Ye Chaotong smiled and got up to leave.

Lin Zhilan, who remained behind, seemed about to say something but hesitated.

Ning Bishu looked at her and asked with a smile, "Is there anything else, President Lin?"

Lin Zhilan said, "President Ning, as you just said, our expenses are actually quite high. And participating in competitions is too much trouble for many people. I think we should also include the option of paying for customers. Many people prefer to exercise on their own, and gyms are public places for them. And with so many people having social anxiety these days..."

Ning Bishu pondered for a moment and felt that Lin Zhilan was right.

After a moment's thought, he said, "We'll link the sale of the scales to this customer acquisition strategy. New users get a week of free gym access, and they need to go to the gym to buy our special scales. We'll sell some scales directly at the gyms, and the rest online. After registering, we'll give customers a 5 yuan discount coupon for the scales..."

"Then what's the difference between this and buying directly?" Lin Zhilan interrupted. "Customers aren't stupid. The price of the scales is set by us. They don't get any discounts."

“No, no, no,” Ning Bishu explained, “We not only sell directly, we also rent them out.”

"rent?"

"Yes. The deposit is 30 yuan, the rental fee is 5 yuan per day, and there's a 5 yuan coupon that lets them take the scale home and use it for free for 10 days. These socially anxious people aren't actually socially anxious; most of them are just a bunch of lazy bums who are too lazy to go out. Once they actually take the scale home, they basically won't bother to return it."

"A mere 30 yuan deposit, they could just buy the scale directly, right? And then, we give them a 10 yuan discount coupon. Don't they feel like they got a good deal?"

"Hiss~~~" Lin Zhilan took a deep breath.

Ning Bishu smiled and said, "Alright, go and get the plan sorted out. What you wrote last night was rubbish. Just do it my way. Just listen to me."

Lin Zhilan nodded and left the room with a look of admiration.

Ning Bishu casually picked up a bottle of mineral water from the side and unscrewed it.

He took a sip to moisten his throat, then immediately picked up the phone on the table and called Shen Junzhe: "Mr. Shen, how's the sample weighing scale coming along?"

On the other end of the phone, Shen Junzhe quickly replied, "It's already being assembled. We'll go to inspect it this afternoon."

"Go now."

Ning Bishu said calmly, "Go have lunch with their boss, and bring the scale back this afternoon."

Shen Junzhe raised his hand and glanced at the time.

It's past 11 a.m.

Ning Bishu hung up the phone without waiting for Shen Junzhe's reply.

He picked up the half-empty bottle of mineral water, pushed open the door and walked out of the room, saying to Ma Chao, who was ordering takeout, "Ma Chao, come with me."

"Huh?" Ma Chao was taken aback. "Where are we going?"

"Go collect the goods."

Ning Bishu walked straight out.

Ma Chao quickly unplugged the charging cable and followed.

A short while later, Ning Bishu, accompanied by his driver, bodyguards, secretary, and his CEO, passed by the assistant's office. Suddenly remembering Xuan Ce, he called out, "Xuan Ce, come with me!"

Xuan Ce was completely bewildered and hurriedly followed him out of the office.

A large group of people set off at midday.

Lu Chengxuan, holding a thermos, stood behind and looked on with a sigh, saying to Jiang Ruiming, "President Jiang, with His Majesty's diligent efforts and this approach, we can expect to go public within three years."

Jiang Ruiming chuckled. "Pinduoduo? Do you think that's possible?"

Lu Chengxuan laughed and said, "Who knows, just what if it's possible?"

Jiang Ruiming's confidence in realizing this grand vision was rather weak, so he simply echoed it for good luck:
"Okay, let's hope so..."

(End of this chapter)