Back to 2008: I Helped My Dad Become the Richest Man

Chapter 70 Each Person's Growth

Li Minxia never imagined that one day she would win a negotiation against someone on the other side.

That happened at the end of November.

At that time, Xiyuan was still in Shanghai. She continued to work at the farm as usual, feeding the pigs in the morning, preparing feed in the afternoon, checking accounts in the afternoon, and inspecting the pens in the evening. She managed all of these things by herself.

The problem lies with the organic fertilizer plant.

After six months of operation, the factory gradually gained a good reputation and started receiving regular orders every month. The most stable order came from the Green Source Vegetable Base, which purchased 20 tons of vegetables each month.

The problem stemmed from a county-level agricultural supplies dealer named Liu Tao.

He used to come here to buy goods, not in large quantities, just one or two tons, but the supply was stable, and he always paid promptly without delay.

Last month, he came to talk to Li Minxia, ​​saying that he had several major clients who could help Roche Fertilizer expand its sales channels. His condition was a 20% rebate, monthly payment, and payment after delivery.

Li Minxia immediately sensed something was wrong.

With a 20% rebate and monthly settlement, she had to pay upfront, cutting her profit margin by nearly half. Moreover, she had no idea whether those "big clients" even existed.

She didn't agree on the spot, saying she needed to think about it.

Then I took out the supplier management manual that Xiyuan had left behind before she left, read it twice from beginning to end, and then called Xiyuan to ask her about it.

Xi Yuan's original words were: "I will absolutely not accept such conditions. You don't know if the big clients he mentioned are real, and once the monthly settlement option is opened, it will become increasingly difficult to collect payments later."

But just as she was about to refuse, Liu Tao arrived at her door with three other people.

He brought two bottles of wine, sat down in the conference room, put his legs up on the armrest of the chair, and said, "Sister-in-law, your boss Luo isn't here, so I'll talk to you about this. If it's okay, great; if not, just tell me and I'll go somewhere else."

Li Minxia placed the booklet on the table and glanced up at him.

She had worked in the textile factory for ten years and had met all sorts of people, but this was the first time she had ever encountered someone who put on airs as soon as they walked in.

She straightened her back and calmed her voice.

"Boss Liu, then I'll be frank. We can't accept either of these conditions: a 20% rebate plus monthly settlement."

Liu Tao's smile faded slightly.

"Sister-in-law, do you know who controls the agricultural supply channels in this area? If you don't go through my supply chain, how will you distribute your fertilizer?"

"Our fertilizers are now supplied directly to Green Source vegetable bases, strawberry farms, and rose estates, without relying on distributors."

"Those are those big orders; I'm talking about a broader market."

"We'll develop the wider market ourselves." Li Minxia placed her hand on the table. "Boss Liu, if you're truly interested in cooperating, we can discuss the terms, but there's no room for negotiation on the cash payment clause."

Liu Tao put her legs off the armrest of the chair and leaned forward slightly.

"Sister-in-law, are you forcing me to find competitors in the province?"

Li Minxia picked up the notebook and stood up.

"Please go ahead then, I have other things to attend to."

She walked to the door, opened it, and without saying she wanted to see the guest out, her meaning was crystal clear.

Liu Tao stared at her retreating figure, his face turning slightly green.

Finally, the group stood up and, as they left, said, "Okay, I'll remember that. Don't blame me for not looking after you in the future."

The door closed.

Li Minxia returned to the table, sat down, and placed her hand on her lap. Her hand was trembling violently. She looked at her hand, took a deep breath, and waited for it to slowly calm down.

A full five minutes passed.

She remembered something Xi Yuan had said: "These kinds of people are testing whether you're easy to bully. If you give way, they'll take two steps forward."

She closed the ledger, took out the notebook for recording customer information, turned to Liu Tao's page, and crossed out his name.

Then I sent a message to Xiyuan and told her what had happened.

Xi Yuan replied quickly: "You did the right thing."

The second comment immediately followed: "That Liu Tao, just block her."

Li Minxia stared at the two messages, put her phone on her lap, and looked down at it for a long time.

Throughout her life, when she was a worker, she was most afraid of getting into conflicts with management. She would endure things first, and only take a detour when she couldn't bear it anymore.

Now, she handled the whole thing by herself, without causing her daughter any worry or her husband any involvement.

She picked up her phone and replied to Xiyuan: "Don't worry, I know."

Then I put away my notebook and went back to review the afternoon's accounts.

The notice was delivered on Wednesday morning. A young man on a motorcycle handed the envelope to Luo Xinde, said, "Director Luo, please prepare carefully, as there will be leaders attending the meeting," and then rode away.

Luo Xinde stood in the courtyard with the envelope in his hand for about two minutes.

He's good at holding team meetings, he's good at talking to contractors, and he has no problem holding cooperative meetings in the village.

But the county's agricultural exchange meeting was a different story. The audience consisted of township officials, agricultural experts, and leaders from the city.

He made a phone call to Xiyuan.

The call connected, and there were voices in the background, sounds from inside the company.

"Dad, what's wrong?"

He read the contents of the envelope once more.

There was a moment of silence on Xi Yuan's end: "Good news, let's go."

"But I don't know what to say."

"Then I'll prepare the materials for you."

"How can we help in Shanghai?"

Send an email.

He paused for a moment while speaking into the microphone.

He's not very familiar with email yet, so he usually relies on Rowan to help him with it.

"What will you be talking about?"

"Just talk about what we've done. How we signed the cooperation agreements with farmers, how we set up the technical service team, how we determined the purchase price, and how we compared the income before and after. Don't talk about grand theories, just talk about specific things."

"Is this all you need?"

"Dad, when others use PowerPoint presentations, you tell real stories. The effect will definitely be better than theirs."

Luo Xinde pondered these words for a moment, feeling that they made some sense, but he was still not completely at ease.

Two days later, Xiyuan sent a document, three pages long, all in large print, in a conversational style. Each paragraph began with a summary sentence, followed by a specific case, a story, and a number.

He read it word by word and felt that it was indeed something he could say.

On the day of the speech, the meeting was held in the conference room of the Agriculture Bureau. There were more than twenty representatives. The first two speakers read from their prepared notes. One spoke in a flat voice and the other spoke quickly. Some people were taking notes and others were looking at their phones.

When it was Luo Xinde's turn, he walked to the front of the stage, held the three pages in his hand, and took a deep breath.

Then he folded the three pages, pressed them in his palm, and didn't look down at them.

"My name is Luo Xinde, from Luojia Village. I used to be a construction worker on a construction site."

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After he said that, two or three people below looked up at him.

"Two years ago, we had only two hundred yuan left in our account at the end of the year." He paused for a moment, "My daughter told me that we needed to do something. And she actually did it, so I followed suit."

The agricultural expert sitting in the front row raised his pen and began to take notes.

Luo Xinde continued, saying that when the farmers were signing the cooperative agreement, an old bachelor in his fifties came to him. He had farmed all his life but hadn't saved much money. He asked if the cooperation was real and if he could really make money.

Luo Xinde said, "I assure you."

"This old man raised twenty pigs in his first year and made a net profit of 18,000 yuan." Luo Xinde paused here, "When he came to tell me about this, his eyes were red. He told me that this was the first time in his life that he had earned more than 10,000 yuan on his own."

The audience was silent for a few seconds.

Then came applause, starting from the front row and going back row by row.

Luo Xinde put the three pages into his pocket, walked back to his seat, and felt his legs were a little weak.

After the meeting, the director of the city's agricultural department came over, shook his hand, and asked if he would like to participate in the city's observation and exchange meeting next year, saying that they were in need of such cases.

Luo Xinde gripped that hand tightly, thought for a second, and nodded.

"Yes, you're welcome anytime."

That evening, he told Xiyuan about it.

After hearing this, Xi Yuan said, "Dad, next time there's an opportunity like this, let me know in advance, and I'll help you make the materials look even better."

What does "better looking" mean?

"Make it into a PPT, add data charts, and practice a few times before going on stage to prevent your hands from shaking."

Luo Xinde was left speechless, unsure whether to be angry or amused by her words.

"My hands weren't shaking."

"I knew you'd be trembling before you even put those three pieces of paper in your pocket."

He paused for a moment, then didn't respond.

After a two-second pause, he changed the subject: "Your mom told me that a supplier caused trouble today, but she dealt with him all by herself?"

"Yes, it was handled very well."

"————Okay, your mom is amazing."

His voice lowered slightly on the other end of the phone: "So—is no one bullying you over there?"

Xi Yuan paused for a moment, then said, "Dad, you're overthinking it. Go to sleep."

On the afternoon QQ Farm officially launched, Xu Yang sent Luo Xiyuan a screenshot of the data without saying a word, just that one picture.

The graph shows the user growth curve of QQ Farm in its first week of launch, which is almost vertical. By the seventh day, the number of registered users exceeded five million.

Luo Xiyuan stared at the picture for about thirty seconds.

Then I sent a message: "How's the development of Happy Ranch going?"

"The product department says it's still three weeks away."

"Add more people, add more money, and hold them for two weeks."

Xu Yang was silent for a moment before returning: "Okay. There's one more thing—one of our key planners has been poached by Tencent."

Luo Xiyuan paused.

"Who?"

"Chen Junming. He's been with us for two years, and he designed most of the core gameplay of Happy Farm."

"When did he resign?"

"I mentioned it yesterday, and I've already reported to Tencent today."

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Luo Xiyuan put her phone on the table and thought for a while.

Tencent is not a small middleman like Liu Tao; it is a competitor far larger than them, with a complete ecosystem, huge traffic, and abundant resources. Now, they also have someone who knows their next plan.

That's the real trouble.