Bei Yi Lane, a street lined with internet cafes.
Chen Yansen sat at a computer, sliding the mouse. He typed a string of characters into the search bar and pressed Enter.
"Heh, this UI is so primitive. At first glance, I thought it was some kind of knockoff site."
Chen Yansen stared at the Ali Baba webpage and quipped with a smile.
At the same time, he created a new spreadsheet on his desktop. In the first row, he filled in the column headers: Brand/Model, Storage Capacity, Screen Size, Screen Resolution, Battery Capacity, Battery Life, Supported Formats, Additional Features, Wholesale Price, and Minimum Order Quantity.
The rest was simple.
All he had to do was sort the MP3s and MP4s by sales volume in descending order, enter the relevant information into his spreadsheet, and then filter the results to find the best products and suppliers.
Of course, this was just a preliminary selection.
He still had to negotiate with them to get the best wholesale prices and payment terms before locking in his final suppliers.
An hour later, only seven candidates remained on his spreadsheet.
Chen Yansen let out a soft sigh of relief. He decided to go to the counter to buy a bottle of water, but as he was about to stand up, he noticed Wang Zihao, who had been busy fighting zombies in some pyramid-themed game, staring at him in utter amazement.
The look in his eyes was incredibly complex.
"Those fucking rip-off artists! This MP4 is the exact same one I bought for 389. I haggled my ass off just to get ten yuan off, and the wholesale price is only 140!"
Wang Zihao pounded his chest, his heart twisting in agony.
God only knew how hard he had worked to save up that money!
"That's the retail price the factories list to trick individual buyers. The actual wholesale price is even lower."
Chen Yansen added, twisting the knife based on his own experience.
"Holy shit!"
Wang Zihao was completely floored. He wanted nothing more than to go home, grab a kitchen cleaver, and hack that rip-off artist to death.
Chen Yansen ignored him and walked straight to the cooler by the counter, grabbing two bottles of cold water.
By the time he paid and returned, Wang Zihao had already calmed down.
"So, you're planning to flip MP3 and MP4 players?"
"Yeah."
"But First, Second, and Third Middle School are all on summer break. Who are we going to sell them to?"
"Mr. Ziren once said that the vast countryside is a land of great promise. There are twenty-two townships around Chunshen. Even if we only sell one hundred MP3s and twenty MP4s at each town's market fair, do the math. How much can we earn?"
After speaking, Chen Yansen casually twisted open a bottle of water and downed a third of it in one go.
As August approached, the weather grew hotter and hotter. That son-of-a-bitch cafe owner was so cheap on the electricity bill that you'd sweat even with the air conditioning on.
'Serves him right for going out of business later on!'
"Brother Sen, you just said 'we,' so you're definitely going to let me in on this, right?"
Wang Zihao asked, shamelessly sucking up to him.
"Silly goose! What are you supposed to call me?"
Chen Yansen patted Wang Zihao's shoulder, a mischievous smirk playing on his lips as he gave him a look that said, 'You should know.'
"Foster Father, I, your son, swear to follow you from this day forward!"
The shameless Wang Zihao clasped his hands in a formal salute and bowed with practiced expertise.
"Rise, my son."
Chen Yansen chuckled and helped his 'dear son' to his feet.
"But we don't have any startup money!"
Wang Zihao smacked his own forehead. "SMACK!" he reminded him, suddenly anxious.
He'd seen Chen Yansen's spreadsheet; the lowest minimum order was three units. The combined net worth of the two of them wasn't enough to buy even that many. How were they supposed to flip anything?
"I'll take care of the money."
Chen Yansen was full of confidence.
Before meeting up with Wang Zihao, he had checked his bank account balance at an ATM. He had more than enough to cover their initial stock.
"You're not thinking of stealing Uncle Chen's money, are you?"
Wang Zihao's eyes darted around, and he instantly understood the source of his friend's confidence.
"How can you call it stealing when it's between a father and son?"
Chen Yansen didn't bother to hide it, admitting it openly.
After all, Wang Zihao wasn't an idiot. Once they had the goods, he could easily calculate the total cost of the inventory.
"Maybe we shouldn't do this?"
Wang Zihao said tentatively.
The plan seemed solid, but there was no such thing as a risk-free business venture.
If he got caught, Chen Yansen's dad would string him up and give him the beating of a lifetime.
"If I don't earn money, are you going to support me?"
Chen Yansen rolled his eyes at him and snapped.
'A man can't be without money. If you don't have a few tens of millions on hand, you won't even have the confidence to order abalone.'
"That's not entirely out of the question."
Wang Zihao grinned and lowered his head, feigning shyness.
"You little brat! Two things. First, get me two thousand yuan by tomorrow, and I'll count you in for a share. Second, help me find a warehouse. Nothing fancy, just something around twenty square meters."
Chen Yansen said, waving his hand dismissively and adopting a serious tone.
"Uh, but I only have two hundred yuan to my name."
Wang Zihao said with a helpless look, turning out his pockets.
"Even with friends, business is business. If you have the capital, you can buy in as a partner. If you don't, you can work for me. I'll pay you one hundred a day. It's your choice."
Chen Yansen said bluntly.
'They were good friends, sure, but he wasn't Wang Zihao's real dad. He'd given him the opportunity; it was up to him to seize it.'
"Okay, I understand."
Wang Zihao opened his mouth, looking slightly embarrassed. He seemed to want to say something but held it back, finally just nodding heavily.
Although he understood Chen Yansen's point, he found the bluntness of his words hard to swallow.
Seeing his reaction, Chen Yansen just smiled and let it be.
'Young people are sensitive. If he can figure this out on his own, it'll be a good lesson for him, both in business and in life.'
"Hello, I am the Purchasing Director for the Zhou Lai Clothing Factory. We are planning to procure 10,000 MP3s and 3,000 MP4s. Could you provide us with an exclusive price quote?"
Chen Yansen turned back to the screen and typed out the message. Then he copied it and fired it off to all seven suppliers at once.
'The Zhou Lai Clothing Factory did exist, but in this day and age, companies in small, third-tier towns relied on local, offline orders. They had zero internet presence, and the landline number they had listed online was disconnected ages ago.'
'It would be too difficult and costly for the suppliers to verify his identity.'
'Besides, as long as the money and the order were real, who would care about his identity?'
For Chen Yansen, bluffing these sales reps who had likely come up from the factory floor was second nature.
By setting a few traps in his messages, he could figure out their commission structures, their bottom line on payment terms, any potential extra discounts, and whether they could throw in freebies like memory cards or headphones.
Watching from the side, Wang Zihao couldn't believe his eyes. His friend was deftly switching between chat windows, haggling like a seasoned pro.
_Your product's specs meet our requirements, but your price is a bit high. If you can lower it by 8 yuan, we will give your company priority and consider increasing our order quantity._
_If the unit price for the MP4s can be lowered to 100 yuan, we can purchase them as a bundle. The total amount is estimated to exceed 600,000 yuan. With that in mind, would it be possible to apply for a more favorable bundle price?_
_We prefer to pay cash upon delivery, with no payment term delays, ensuring fast capital turnover for you. If the unit price can be brought down to 105 yuan or less, we are prepared to pay a deposit and lock in the order today._
Wang Zihao felt that Chen Yansen was laying it on a bit thick. His own face started to burn with secondhand embarrassment.
"You think they're all going to believe this?"
Chen Yansen glanced at him and asked with a smile.
"Then why are you saying all that?"
Wang Zihao scratched the back of his head, which had suddenly started to feel itchy.
"In a business negotiation, the most important thing isn't your strategy; it's understanding what the other side needs."
"When we were freshmen in high school, the cheapest MP3 player cost over 300 yuan, and an MP4 was over 800—almost as much as a cell phone. And now?"
Chen Yansen let go of the mouse and asked calmly.
"An MP3 is around 150, and the cheapest MP4 is a little over 300."
Wang Zihao said, frowning as he tried to recall the prices he'd seen while out and about.
"And what does that tell you? With mass production and falling costs for raw materials, the prices for products like these will only get lower. The electronics factories in first-tier cities like Yangcheng and Shencheng City are facing terrifying levels of competition and pressure to survive."
"They're like starving dogs. Even if all you have is a meatless bone with the faintest scent of fat, they'll smell it and pounce."
Chen Yansen said with a confident chuckle.
"Holy shit!"
After hearing Chen Yansen's explanation and being dazzled by a few professional-sounding terms, Wang Zihao was completely sold. This business had huge potential.
"Bro, what are you doing?"
Just then, a graceful figure appeared before them.
Chen Yansen looked toward the voice and saw a girl of about thirteen or fourteen standing behind Wang Zihao.
She was about 1.68 meters tall, much taller than other girls her age. She wore a blue and white T-shirt, and her fluffy short hair fell to her shoulders. She had an oval face, alluring peach-blossom eyes, and fair skin with a faint pinkish glow. A beauty mark was faintly visible under the corner of one eye, making her face very distinctive.
Her nose was small and elegant, and the corners of her mouth were turned up in a slight smile, revealing a row of pearly-white teeth. Her eyes seemed to sparkle with starlight.
'An underage Prince Ziyuan!'
Chen Yansen instinctively shot to his feet, ready to run. He was terrified the girl was about to pull out a ring and force him to marry her on the spot.
"Haozi, see you at the usual spot tomorrow!"
He only turned to shout this once he'd reached the entrance of the internet cafe.
"Bro, don't you think Chen Yansen was acting a little strange today?"
Prince Ziyuan stood frozen in place, a puzzled look on her face.
"Him? He's been completely off all day. Let me tell you…"
Once Wang Zihao got started, the words came spilling out. He complained about everything under the sun, leaving out only the part about their business plan.
When she learned that Chen Yansen and Zhou Keyuan had 'broken up,' Prince Ziyuan's eyes lit up, and a complex mix of emotions she had kept hidden deep inside suddenly surfaced.
Gazing at his retreating figure, Prince Ziyuan silently clenched her fists as a faint smile spread across her lips.