Fang Bai found the director of the offset printing factory without much effort.
After a brief chat, both parties signed a contract, and Fang Bai paid a deposit of 80,000 yuan upfront.
16 million lottery tickets cost a total of 120,000 yuan to produce, averaging less than one cent per ticket.
One A4 sheet can produce 20 lottery tickets, so 16 million tickets require 800,000 A4 sheets for printing. They use a better quality 100g/m paper, which is thicker than the common 70g/m paper. The paper alone weighs 5 tons, and currently, this specification of paper costs 4,000 yuan per ton.
For industrial products, if only considering price, the cost of plain paper is not much different from prices in later generations; due to backward technology, it is even more expensive.
Calculated this way, the cost of one A4 sheet is 2.52 cents.
Of course, the main printing costs are toner and equipment, with an average printing cost of 5 cents per A4 sheet.
The quote Fang Bai gave was equivalent to 0.2 yuan per A4 sheet, including paper cost, printing, coding, cutting, packaging, and all other expenses.
Of course, the paper used for the lottery tickets comes in large rolls. Fang Bai didn't ask how many meters were in each roll; the printing price was calculated by weight.
The covering layer uses multi-layered special anti-counterfeiting ink printing, which cannot be seen through even with a super strong light source 100 times that of an ordinary flashlight. Therefore, without scratching off the covering film, it's impossible to know the specific details of the prize symbols beneath.
Normally, even with overtime printing, it would take four days. Fang Bai hoped the offset printing factory could work in two shifts.
However, the offset printing factory had a limited number of staff, making two shifts impossible.
So, he finally decided that after 6 batches of 6 million lottery tickets were printed, he would return first to host the event, still making it in time for the Lantern Festival.
Wang Dakai could just wait here; returning three days later shouldn't be a problem.
He had been too busy these past few days, getting a bit flustered and losing his composure.
After Fang Bai made up his mind, he said to Mo Junkang, the director of the printing factory:
"Director Mo, time is a bit tight. I hope you can arrange it immediately. I want to get 6 million lottery tickets by tomorrow morning and rush back."
Director Mo Junkang, considering the money, politely said, "Boss Fang, that's not a problem. Later, tell your requirements to the designer for design and typesetting. We can start printing today and finish with overtime tonight. We can't keep going for a second day, so I hope you understand."
"Okay, I understand," Fang Bai nodded.
Director Mo Junkang took Fang Bai to the designer and explained the task to the designer.
Fang Bai communicated his layout design ideas to the designer, then listed all the quantities of N-tier prizes he needed on a single sheet of paper.
After the designer finished, Fang Bai reconfirmed the quantity and distribution of each prize level of lottery tickets.
Fang Bai divided the 16 million lottery tickets into 16 batches, meaning different versions.
During actual sales, a new version would only be distributed after the previous one was completely sold out.
Before sales, Fang Bai would clearly explain the version issue to the prize redemption and sales staff.
Fang Bai requested that all the major prizes be printed separately, for instance, if a roll of lottery tickets contained a special prize or a first prize, then it would be specifically arranged to control the time slot when major prizes could be won. At the same time, he was also afraid the offset printing factory might make a mistake.
More than an hour later, the version was designed and typesetting began.
Once the typesetting was fine, they could start test printing the lottery tickets.
The printed lottery tickets hadn't been coded yet and needed to be transferred to the coding assembly line.
After starting the machine and test printing a small batch of lottery tickets, Fang Bai and the designer checked them together and found no problems, so they could arrange for workers to print directly.
In later generations, an assembly line could print 18,000 lottery tickets per minute, 1.08 million per hour, and Fang Bai's 16 million could be printed in one or two days.
However, current equipment is relatively backward, and even with overtime printing, it still takes four days; normally, it would take five days.
Today was already the eleventh day of the first lunar month; if he waited until printing was complete to return, it would definitely be too late.
Fang Bai stood in the workshop watching the printing, feeling very anxious.
Waiting like this wasn't an option. Wang Dakai stayed behind, and he went to find a state-owned car fleet to charter a car.
By the time Fang Bai had arranged the car and returned to the offset printing factory, it was already past four in the afternoon.
Wang Dakai had been monitoring the site and, seeing his backbone return, reported the progress to him: "The factory director said it's going smoothly, with no equipment malfunctions."
Fang Bai breathed a sigh of relief and asked, "Have you had lunch?"
"Hehe, I had a meal with Director Mo. He wanted me to drink, but I said no, I still had work to do this afternoon," Wang Dakai said with a laugh.
Fang Bai patted his shoulder: "Hmm, good. When you're away from home, you need to know how to adapt."
"Yes, Boss, during the time I was learning to drive, I was constantly scolded by the instructor, but I also had to curry favor with him. Dealing with people was something I was forced into."
"Go back and return to the driving school to continue learning."
"It's fine to report a few days late. Some students join temporarily. Just give the instructor a pack of cigarettes and everything's fine. I'll help out for a few more days."
Fang Bai nodded: "Alright, I've been too busy lately and am really short on people."
The more critical the time, the more important it is to stay calm. Getting too busy makes it easy for problems to arise.
At five in the afternoon, Fang Bai simply settled the remaining balance with Director Mo, and at the same time, instructed the workers to make sure the lottery tickets were moisture-proof.
Director Mo, having received all the payment, was also very straightforward in his work.
Early the next morning, the six million lottery tickets, rushed out with overtime, were already packaged.
Lottery tickets after printing and coding were heavier; six million tickets weighed over two tons.
The small box truck Fang Bai had arranged also arrived, and several workers helped load the goods, quickly finishing the transfer.
The one-way trip was 1,500 kilometers, and with poor road conditions, driving alone was estimated to take forty hours. Fang Bai and the driver took turns driving, and after more than three days of travel, they finally arrived at Xinghai Shopping Mall in Wen City at noon on the fourteenth day of the Lunar New Year.
Fang Bai used to be a salesman and specifically got a B2 driver's license. He often drove small trucks to deliver goods and had driven many medium-sized trucks, but he wouldn't dare to drive those large semi-trailer trucks.
When the driver heard Fang Bai say he could drive a box truck, he initially didn't believe it, but since Fang Bai said he could, he let him try for a bit. It turned out he drove quite well, so they took turns driving to save time, though the driver still did most of the driving.
Fang Bai's parents, waiting at home, were very anxious, calling daily for work updates. Seeing their son return, they finally breathed a sigh of relief.
As soon as Fang Bai got out of the car, he asked his father to arrange for people to unload the goods and move the lottery tickets into the mall's small warehouse for storage.
On the day he returned, Fang Bai had called and communicated with his parents once, saying he was rushing back and it would take a long time, and there had been no further contact during that period.
"How have things been at home these past three days?" Fang Bai asked his mother.
Liu Fengqing looked at her son, who seemed a bit haggard, likely from lack of sleep, and said with concern, "Your dad said everything's arranged, waiting for your return to inspect. Do you want to rest first? Rushing back like this must be really tiring.
You haven't had lunch, have you? I'll prepare something for you."
"Not yet. I'll eat with the driver later. I'll survey first. Why are there so many people now?" Fang Bai heard that everything was arranged and breathed a sigh of relief.
Tomorrow is the Lantern Festival. If he had returned any later, the event would probably have been delayed, which would be very detrimental to Xinghai Company and affect its reputation, as it had already been advertised.
The scene was now very lively. When he parked earlier, Fang Bai glanced from the car; on the east side of the mall, there were an estimated thousand people.
The west and south sides of the mall, where the event was being held, were a sea of people as far as the eye could see.
Especially around the prize area, heads were bobbing everywhere.
So many people came primarily because of the promotional activities published in the newspaper.
The promotional activities started the day before yesterday. In the Wen City Daily, a large question mark "?" appeared on the entire third page, with a small line of text below it: "To be announced tomorrow."
Seeing this super question mark, readers didn't understand what it was about and started asking questions. More and more people asked, making even citizens who usually didn't buy newspapers aware of it.
By the next day, people who saw yesterday's newspaper, who usually didn't buy newspapers, specifically bought one, just wanting to know what the content was. A whole large page with a question seemed like it wasn't a small matter, or else it was just grandstanding.
As a result, the big question mark was replaced, and the content became "2 Yuan to Win a santana Car," but the time and location were not announced.
This content surprised even more readers and made them more curious.
Can you really win a santana car for 2 yuan?
A santana car, the market price for that is 200,000 yuan!
With more curious people, newspaper sales surged, and the newspaper office had to notify the printing factory to print more.
On the third day, the fourteenth day of the first lunar month, the newspaper announced the specific details of the event, including the time and location.
[Oubei Wharf Xinghai Plaza Ten Million Yuan Prize Draw Event]
[Win a santana car, motorcycles, color TVs, refrigerators, washing machines, bicycles, and other prizes for 2 yuan. Total value 10 million yuan, high winning rate, real advertisement, instant scratch and redeem!]
[Time: Starting from Lantern Festival — ?]
[Xinghai Plaza is a new generation large-scale comprehensive shopping mall that Xinghai Company plans to invest 200 million yuan to build, integrating sports and fitness, leisure and sightseeing, one-stop shopping, large-scale dining, and other businesses. It covers an area of over 40,000 square meters.
Currently, the first phase, Xinghai Electric Appliance Market, has been put into use, and the second phase is about to start construction, with a larger scale, meticulous planning, and careful design, it will be built into a dazzling and prosperous city center of Oubei.]
Fang Bai had prepared the advertisement text in advance and entrusted Chen Yang with it. This was both a lottery event and a promotion for Xinghai Plaza.
By investing, he would quickly expand his network in Wen City. At least Fang Bai would have a background in his hometown. In this era, doing business without connections was impossible, and it would also facilitate future bank loans.
In reality, it just needed to be completed within five years, which wouldn't affect Fang Bai's main strategy.
An investment of 200 million yuan, plus the newspaper publication, the already constructed physical store, notarization by industrial and commercial personnel, maintenance of the site by police personnel, and piles of prizes—how could it be fake?
Xinghai Company had the strength!
All of a sudden, Xinghai Plaza became famous.
Anyone who had read the Wen City Daily knew about Xinghai Plaza.
Moreover, this lottery event spread like wildfire, quickly sweeping across all of Wen City and even beyond.
Some promotional activities had not yet been launched and would only truly begin when the event started tomorrow.