Chapter 144: Waiting for Visitors to Arrive

Guoxing Trading.

At the desks by the sunlit windows in the company's shared office area, the other three men were all pondering Wang Qiang’s words.

If they didn't find clients as soon as possible, setting up this company was meaningless. Moreover, once Cheng Weihong and the others were snatched away by other suppliers, the company wouldn't even have its remaining handful of clients.

By then, let alone growing the business and making a monthly profit, they probably wouldn't even be able to earn enough to cover the rent.

Old Yao relaxed his brow, leaned back in his chair, and said, "Didn't you ask us to build up some hype on Qiujiang Road last time, saying we could get our hands on any cheap goods?"

Wang Qiang looked at him, mentally praising him. Old Yao might be mercenary, but his mind was truly agile. He figured out so quickly what Wang Qiang wanted to say. Wang Qiang nodded slightly, "Mhm, and then?"

Old Zhu and Wang Baoguo both looked over.

Old Yao reached into his pants pocket, searching for something, while saying, "I think the buzz has been built up enough. Now that the company is officially open, we can let those folks on Qiujiang Road know where they can pick up their stock." With that, he pulled out a flattened pack of Red Pagoda Mountain cigarettes from his pocket and handed one to Old Zhu.

"Mhm, Brother Yao makes a great point," Wang Qiang instructed, "Let's do just as you said. Later on, have someone subtly leak where our goods can be sourced, so the merchants on Qiujiang Road will come looking for us on their own initiative."

Old Zhu held the cigarette between his fingers and slapped Old Yao on the shoulder. "I never realized you had such deep strategic vision."

"Bah, what vision do I have? The idea came from young Wang. Look at how composed he is; he must have planned to do this all along, but I just happened to blurt it out first." Old Yao waved his hand, gesturing for Old Zhu to stop bothering him.

Old Zhu slanted his eyes and said, "Is it wrong to praise you?"

Old Yao said speechlessly, "Was that praise? Anyone with eyes could see young Wang was preparing to do this."

"Hah, I didn't see it. Are you implying I'm not a person?" Old Zhu argued unreasonably.

Old Yao was exasperated: "You!"

Watching them bicker, Wang Baoguo couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Wang Qiang, whose mind had been heavy with worries about the company, was also amused by them.

The two bickered for a little while until Old Yao, completely unable to best the unreasonable Old Zhu, raised both hands in surrender. "Stop, stop, stop! I surrender, alright?"

Only then did Old Zhu say with lingering satisfaction, "I'll let you off this time."

Old Yao rolled his eyes and looked at Wang Qiang. "Young Wang, should I go out now and spread the word that our company can source cheap goods for people?"

"No rush. It's almost lunchtime; go after you've eaten," Wang Qiang checked his watch. "When you do, try to have someone leak our company address as naturally as possible."

Old Yao gave an acknowledging grunt.

Although Wang Qiang was nominally only the company's supervisor, everyone present actually knew that he was the true helmsman. Whether it was the General Manager Wang Baoguo, Old Zhu, or Old Yao, if they wanted to make money, they had to take orders from Wang Qiang.

Before lunch, the four of them perfected the final step of their previously passive promotional method. After eating, Old Yao hurriedly left the company to execute the plan.

Around two o'clock in the afternoon.

Wang Qiang was discussing matters with his father and Old Zhu in the general manager's office when Old Yao pushed the door open and walked in.

"Back already? How did it go?" Old Zhu asked impatiently.

Old Yao stretched lazily. "How else? It's done, of course."

Hearing this, Wang Qiang felt a surge of secret anticipation. Presumably, clients should start coming in tomorrow, right?

After all, when they went to Qiujiang Road previously, those merchants seemed quite interested.

Maybe someone would even show up this very afternoon.

However, reality disappointed him.

Four in the afternoon...

Five in the afternoon...

Right up until six in the afternoon when everyone was preparing to close up shop, not a single person had shown up.

Looking at the pitch-black night outside the window, Wang Qiang felt a bit dazed. It seemed somewhat different from his imagination. This shouldn't be happening—why hasn't anyone come?

Right, the company was only just announced today.

How could others possibly rush over so quickly?

Wang Qiang figured that must be the case and didn't dwell on it further.

He bought some groceries nearby with his father.

Back at the rented apartment, the father and son enjoyed a hearty dinner, washed up, and went to bed early.

...

Early the next morning.

The father and son arrived at the company full of energy.

Before long, Old Yao and Old Zhu also arrived, yawning.

Sitting in the shared office area drinking tea, Wang Qiang greeted them, "Brother Zhu, Brother Yao."

Old Zhu didn't seem to have slept well. "Morning."

Old Yao's spirit also appeared somewhat listless. "I'm dying of sleepiness."

Sitting next to Wang Qiang, Wang Baoguo asked with curiosity, "Did you two not sleep well last night?"

Could it be that they were worried about the company having no clients coming in?

At this thought, Wang Qiang felt a tiny pang of guilt. The company's other two partners were losing sleep over business matters, while he had slept soundly all night. He felt rather embarrassed.

However, Old Zhu's next sentence almost made Wang Qiang spit blood.

"Not at all. We played cards with Old Yao for half the night, didn't sleep until past two." Old Zhu walked over to his desk, sat down, and suddenly assumed a proud air. "Hey young Wang, guess how much I won?"

Wang Qiang: "I..." He actually didn't know what to say. Earlier, he thought these two partners were so deeply invested, but it turned out they had just stayed up late playing cards and lacked sleep?

Forget it, never mind the two of them.

Today, surely customers would show up.

Wang Qiang was full of confidence; after building up momentum for so long, it was bound to have an effect.

Then he waited and waited.

For the entire morning, there wasn't the slightest bit of movement at all.

This time, Wang Qiang couldn't sit still. He found Old Yao, who was dozing off in the HR office, and asked him repeatedly to confirm whether the news had indeed been spread. Old Yao rubbed his sleepy eyes and told him that everyone on Qiujiang Road was already talking about it.

Talking about it?

Then why didn't anyone come?

Wang Qiang refused to believe it and decided to go check for himself. He patted the slumbering Old Zhu awake, grabbed his motorcycle keys, and headed downstairs.

...

Qiujiang Road.

Electronic Digital Building.

Parking his motorcycle in the shed, Wang Qiang walked briskly toward the entrance, wanting to see if people were discussing it just as Old Yao claimed.

First floor.

As soon as he stepped inside, Wang Qiang saw many people looking at goods in front of the display counters. He also wandered around aimlessly and casually browsed.

Passing several counters where the bosses were busy greeting customers, it was unlikely they would discuss such matters in front of patrons.

After strolling around a few times, he suddenly noticed two bosses chatting across a counter in the western corner.

A woman in her thirties was speaking to a middle-aged man in his forties at the adjacent counter, "Old Mu, aren't you going to go take a look?"

The man addressed as Old Mu took a sip of tea, smacked his lips, and said, "I'd like to go take a look, but I don't have the time. I have to keep my eyes on the counter every day."

Not understanding what they were talking about, Wang Qiang walked right past them toward the stairs to go up to the second floor. However, their subsequent conversation made him stop in his tracks.

"What do you mean no time? I think you're just afraid," the woman said with a chuckle. "Did the boss who supplies your goods warn you?"

Wang Qiang turned back and saw Old Mu reply sheepishly, "As if you weren't warned yourself."

What was going on?

Warned by the boss who supplies the goods?

His interest piqued, he pricked up his ears to listen.

The woman snorted, "Sure, they have the goods and they're powerful, but how can we small-time merchants twist our arms against their thick thighs?" With that, she let out a sigh. "If this rumored Guoxing company really is cheaper than the boss I currently get my goods from, that would be one thing. Otherwise, if I go looking for them and someone secretly tattles to my main supplier, I won't even have a place to source goods when I want to."

Old Mu curled his lip and said, "Ain't that the truth? I don't know which son of a bitch leaked it to the ears of those major distributors, leaving me with no courage to even go scout Guoxing's prices."

The woman rolled her eyes, "Who leaked it? Nobody leaked it; it's just that everyone kept chattering about Old Cheng and the others on the second floor getting cheap goods, and those major distributors overheard. Afraid of having their business stolen, they dropped direct threats."

Hearing this, Wang Qiang frowned slightly, roughly figuring out what was going on.

If what the two of them discussed was the truth, then indeed, third, fourth, and numerous other factions had intervened. Wang Qiang felt he had been a bit careless. When launching a loud, passive publicity campaign to snatch business, how could those suppliers not react at all?

If the promotional period had been shorter, it might have caught those major distributors off guard, allowing the merchants to discover the prices were indeed cheaper than their previous sources, naturally turning them into loyal customers.

The crux of the matter was that Wang Qiang had been busy with the four-piece bedding sets in Shenzhen recently. Furthermore, since the company wasn't established yet, he was afraid his personal influence wouldn't be enough, so he hadn't executed it immediately. He hadn't expected that this group of arrogant major distributors would react in time.

As for the psychology of the merchants, he understood it thoroughly. As mentioned before, the current era was a seller's market, and merchants naturally had to walk on eggshells while currying favor with major distributors, terrified of accidentally offending them and losing their supply channels. Clearly, this group of merchants was currently caught in that exact worry: they clearly wanted to go to Wang Qiang's company to inquire about prices, but lacked the courage to take the risk. Thus, it created an awkward stalemate where Guoxing Company had built up fame, yet no one came knocking.

However, just by listening to the two of them, Wang Qiang couldn't be completely certain yet. He decided to walk around some more.

Climbing the stairs.

He reached the second floor.

"Going or not?"

"Go where? Aren't you afraid of getting your supply cut off?"

"Sigh, that's true. I'm just afraid Guoxing's prices might be even higher than what we currently get, only for us to get our supply cut off in the end."

Hearing several people saying similar things, Wang Qiang was practically certain and began to calculate what to do.

Suddenly, a voice rang out from behind him.

"Young Boss Wang!?"

Wang Qiang was startled by the sudden voice and repeatedly patted his chest, thinking, *Who on earth is that?* He turned around and saw Zhang乾 (Zhang Qian), who used to source goods from him alongside Cheng Weihong.

He nodded slightly. "Hello, Brother Zhang."

Zhang Qian was holding a glass cup used for tea, beaming. "It really is you? I thought I was seeing things just now."

Wang Qiang smiled, "And you are?"

"Just went over to Brother Cheng's place to pour some hot water for tea," Zhang Qian said, shaking the glass cup to illustrate, and then asked, "Are you here to see Brother Cheng?"

"Oh no, just strolling around casually to see how your business is doing," Wang Qiang said.

"Business is great!" Zhang Qian was immensely excited, tumbling out a string of words like pouring beans from a jar, "It's all thanks to your cheap supply. We lowered our prices just a bit, and our competitors couldn't compete with us. Heh, you wouldn't believe it, but the boss who used to supply us even called to warn Cheng Weihong, telling us not to source goods from you or he'd cut us off." He slapped his thigh, "I've long found that bastard displeasing to the eye. We used to have to serve him like an old master, unlike you, Young Boss Wang, who are so easygoing. Brother Cheng hung up right in his face, and I couldn't have felt more vindicated."

Oh?

Even Cheng Weihong and his group had been warned?

It seemed the credibility of the situation was easily over ninety percent.

Wang Qiang had completely figured out what was going on. He chatted casually with Zhang Qian on the surface, but inwardly he was pondering how to break the current deadlock and give those merchants the courage to "take the risk." Unless someone actually went over there and spread the word, proving that Guoxing's goods were indeed cheaper than what the merchants used to pay.

So, he probed, "Brother Zhang, do you guys need any stock recently?"

Zhang Qian was tightening his tea lid and shook his head, "We took a thousand portable cassette players last time, and fewer people want CD players, so we probably won't need any for a week or two."

"Alright, call me if you need stock." Wang Qiang sighed inwardly. It seemed impossible to rely on Cheng Weihong to open up the market in the short term. He would have to think of another way—ideally, if someone would just take the initiative to visit them.