“You said, ‘You guys call this doing business? It’s scamming—everything’s fake around here.’”
“You already know Wencheng is full of counterfeits, so why keep working with them long-term instead of investing your money to build your own factory?”
Wang Chuang took a moment to process it, then muttered, “Start our own factory? And make our own brand?”
Jiang Luo nodded seriously. “Yes.”
Wang Chuang let out a laugh. “Well of course we’d pick making our own brand, our own factory, our own products. Why even ask?”
Jiang Luo said, “Since you already think that way, why still feel bad about losing the small-market business?”
Wang Chuang finally grinned wide. “Then obviously I don’t feel bad at all.”
He admitted wholeheartedly, “You’re right. We need to build our own brand. Later we’ll open our own factory, and sell our own products all across the country!”
…………………………
Wang Chuang immediately declared, “I won’t ever bring up the small market again. That’s all in the past.”
He chuckled and ran his hand across the desk in front of him. “From now on I’ll come work at our own company, sit in an office. I’m a big boss too.”
Jiang Luo took something out of his own drawer, raised a hand, and motioned for him to come over. “Come look at this.”
Wang Chuang got up, walked over, and leaned down beside him.
“These are the goods we’ve already delivered to Yong’an Department Store.”
Jiang Luo opened a booklet and pointed. “These are the product types. These are the quantities. This is our wholesale price to them. And these are the retail prices at their counters.”
Wang Chuang bent even lower, studying it closely, repeating the details to himself in his head.
Jiang Luo continued, “Aside from the dolls from Zhang Zhiqiang’s factory, everything else has the ‘Shengfei’ brand label.”
“Several items already hit the shelves at Yong’an in the last couple days.”
“I haven’t had time to go check. Later, you can come with me.”
As Jiang Luo spoke, Wang Chuang kept reading.
Then Jiang Luo flipped to the next page and pointed. “This one here is something I’m planning to make next. Take a look so you have some idea.”
One glance—and Wang Chuang was shocked. “You really want to open a factory.”
Jiang Luo replied, “Mm. It’s part of the plan.”
Soon after, they left the office, heading toward the elevator. On the way, Wang Chuang bounced back into excitement. “When did you hire all those people?”
“You were with me at the market every day—when did you even have time to recruit and set up a company?”
Jiang Luo said as they walked, “Didn’t I tell you before I had someone help me register the company?”
“That old man at the front desk.”
“His surname is Xue. He’s an old accountant.”
“I had him handle the office rental and hiring. I provided the money.”
“I hired him too—he keeps our books and does some miscellaneous work.”
“Ohhh, that’s how.”
Wang Chuang finally understood, then grinned again. “So we’ve got a company and employees now… I’m really a boss.”
Nonsense.
Jiang Luo smiled faintly. “We’re in this together. I’m not going to be the only boss while you run errands. We agreed—we earn money together.”
Wang Chuang walked into the elevator happily. “Exactly. Following you is the right move.”
The two of them went to Yong’an Department Store.
They went upstairs to the counters selling their products and took a general look around. They also asked the salesclerks about how things were selling.
Most of the staff were fine. Seeing that Jiang Luo was young and handsome—and a supplier—they were polite and straightforward, saying sales were good and the products were moving well.
But one saleswoman, around thirty-five, who sold hairpins and headbands, was extremely rude—impatient, rolling her eyes repeatedly, and refusing to speak Mandarin as required by the store, sticking to the local Haicheng dialect the whole time.
“Hey, you—”
Her sharp tone irritated Wang Chuang so much he nearly snapped back at her in her own dialect.
“Let’s go.”
Jiang Luo didn’t take it to heart at all.
Once they walked away, Wang Chuang grumbled, “We’re the suppliers. She just stands at a counter selling stuff—what’s with that attitude? What’s she so proud of?”
Jiang Luo stayed calm and analyzed, “Do you know where the problem is?”
“Where?”
Wang Chuang glared. “No way it’s our fault, right? With that nasty attitude?”
Jiang Luo said, “The problem is, she works for Yong’an. Not for us.”
“She’s selling on Yong’an’s behalf. Yong’an pays her salary and commission. It’s basically another form of an ‘iron rice bowl.’ Of course she doesn’t care about pleasing us.”
Wang Chuang caught the implication. “You mean…”
Jiang Luo kept walking and said evenly, “Those counters—we’ll find a way to replace them with our own people.”
“Our people, under our management, will actually work to sell.”
“Yes! Exactly!”
Wang Chuang instantly perked up. “Replace that woman first! Her attitude is garbage.”
Jiang Luo turned to look at him.
Wang Chuang: “What?”
Jiang Luo said, “I’ll leave this matter to you. Can you handle it?”
If Wang Chuang was going to learn to run a business with him, Jiang Luo couldn’t do everything himself.
Wang Chuang thought for a moment, then nodded. “Sure. Leave it to me.”
Then added, “You’ve got the manager’s office number at Yong’an, right? Pass it to me later. I’ll go build some rapport—have a meal, flatter him a bit.”
“Alright.”
Jiang Luo gave him another look and teased, “Seems you’re not stupid—you know who to talk to.”
“Of course.”
Wang Chuang bragged, “Look who I’m following. My Luo-ge—he’s amazing.”
“With him leading the way, how could I not be amazing too?”
Jiang Luo laughed through his nose.
And just like that, around the turn of July to August, Jiang Luo and Wang Chuang wrapped up their small-market business and officially entered a new stage.
Wang Chuang went to build connections with the department-store manager at Yong’an, while Jiang Luo caught a green-carriage train back to Wencheng by himself.
He went for one main reason: the voltage-regulator workshop he’d bought earlier. Now that production in Leqing had resumed, he needed to sell it quickly while demand was returning.
And while he was in Wencheng, he might as well check on the factories producing goods under his labels—Wencheng made way too many counterfeits. He didn’t trust them and had to keep an eye on things, knock some sense into them, make sure the goods they supplied to the department store weren’t inconsistent in quality.
On the train, Jiang Luo leaned back with his arms folded, quietly thinking.
Wencheng was good—plenty of factories, sharp business-minded owners willing to make anything, easy to cooperate with. Otherwise he wouldn’t have brought Wang Chuang here in the first place.
But there were too many counterfeits. A lot of factories cut corners without hesitation. The owners would do anything for money.
And most importantly, it was a bit far from Haicheng.
After thinking it through, Jiang Luo felt that now that they were building their own brand, it would be better to find factories closer to Haicheng—easier to supervise, faster to reach if anything came up.
Yes.
Jiang Luo made up his mind. Once he found a suitable factory near Haicheng, he’d switch. Wencheng was simply too far, and the counterfeit issue could blow up at any time.
When he got off the train and walked out of the station, he immediately spotted Zhang Zhiqiang waving at him.
“Boss Zhang.”
Jiang Luo walked over.
Zhang Zhiqiang had clearly been waiting a while—his forehead was covered in sweat.
He greeted Jiang Luo with a grin. “Come on, come on, Shao Jiang, get in the car, let’s get the AC going. It’s way too hot out here.”
Once they were in the car and driving, Zhang Zhiqiang beamed. “Shao Jiang, good thing I followed your lead and bought that workshop in Leqing.”
“I resold it—guess what? My wife’s family can finally rebuild their ancestral tomb.”
“My wife and mother-in-law are actually treating me well for once.”
Jiang Luo, sitting in the middle of the back seat, laughed. “Didn’t you say you weren’t going to rebuild it because that’s just for show?”
“It still has to be rebuilt.”
Zhang sighed. “Everyone else renovates it—how can I not? If I don’t, my wife will kick up a fuss. And once she starts complaining, how am I supposed to have any peace? I wouldn’t even get dinner at home.”
“How much did you sell the workshop for?” Jiang Luo asked.
“Bought it off a relative for forty thousand. Now that they want it back, I can’t sell it at too high a price or they’ll have nowhere to go.”
“Sold it for a hundred thousand.”
Zhang checked the rear-view mirror. “Think that’s too high or too low?”
“I wanted more, honestly—but my relative would’ve flipped the table.”
He added, “The original owner of your workshop also contacted me. Even wanted to buy it back at the original price.”
“I told him no way. No chance. I sold mine for a hundred thousand.”
Jiang Luo made a small sound of acknowledgment. “A hundred thousand is about right.”
Family ties were involved—no point burning bridges.
Zhang looked at him again in the mirror. “How much are you going to sell yours for?”
Jiang Luo said, “Not much. Fifteen thousand more than yours—I’ll let it go for one-hundred-fifty thousand.”
Zhang nodded. “Yeah, I figured you’d sell it for around that.”
“Alright, I’ll talk to my friend later.”
Jiang Luo teased, “Going to help him buy it cheap? Did he send you a gift?”
“No, no.”
Zhang quickly denied, “What kind of gift could he give me? Nothing compared to what I earned thanks to you.”