Ready or not?

Whether playing with mysterious countdowns,

Getting official endorsements,

Or even arranging plants to eagerly lease spaces – it was all about building Cheng Rong Plaza’s popularity.

Ultimately, the measure of a specialized market’s success remained its foot traffic and annual turnover.

If this was just about winning the competition with Du Jiaoqi, Du Zhaohui would already be winning by generating buzz and leasing out all available spaces, showing Du Chengrong the plaza’s potential.

However, having received a 10 million HKD consulting fee and given Du Zhaohui such a promising idea, Xia Xiaolan naturally wouldn’t let him ruin the electronics plaza.

After attracting merchants, the next step was drawing crowds.

Xia Xiaolan had pondered this for a while – should they follow her previous life’s Asia Department Store’s approach, advertising on central TV with slogans like “Where to go in Central Plains? Commercial Asia” and gimmicks like beautiful flag-raising ceremonies?

No, Xia Xiaolan felt that wasn’t right.

Asia Department Store targeted everyone – Zhou Zuizhou’s ambitious nationwide chain expansion needed to make “Asia” a household name, hence requiring central TV advertising.

Cheng Rong Plaza was more targeted – as a specialized market, its merchants weren’t selling everyday items, so it didn’t need universal recognition… only potential electronics buyers needed to know about it.

Besides regular customers, this included individual traders coming to Pengcheng to stock up.

Why would Yangcheng’s electronics wholesalers lease spaces at Cheng Rong Plaza?

Because once opened, its legitimate operation would make traders feel secure, and they wouldn’t choose wholesalers who dealt secretly.

With a large market offering complete product varieties for selection, traders would flock there, forcing wholesalers to grudgingly lease spaces to secure their position.

What else could they do?

Though they had some financial means, they couldn’t afford to build their building when someone else had already built a plaza offering business spaces!

Understanding their target consumers made advertising easier.

Where did these traders previously get goods? In Yangcheng.

Some lacked border passes and found coming to Pengcheng troublesome.

Now that Yangcheng wholesalers were moving in, traders had no choice but to come to Pengcheng. Xia Xiaolan needed to guide them… with a sign they couldn’t miss.

Beyond Guangdong locals, traders from across the country reached Yangcheng mainly by train!

Advertising on trains would reach not just traders but also regular tourists and fortune seekers heading south – unless they were illiterate, everyone would see it.

Xia Xiaolan wanted Du Chengrong to negotiate train naming rights.

Regardless of origin, as long as trains terminated at or passed through Yangcheng, they’d negotiate for as many as possible.

Imagine numerous trains heading to Yangcheng – as “Cheng Rong Plaza Train #1” departed, “Cheng Rong Plaza Train #2” would arrive at the platform.

Passengers arriving at Yangcheng Station.

Passengers departing from Yangcheng Station.

Everywhere they looked would be “Cheng Rong Plaza X Train” – people might think Du Zhaohui had bought the railways.

What scale of advertising was this?

What a display of financial might!

And what a spectacular way to flatter!

Du Zhaohui was stunned – just considering the flattery aspect, this far surpassed his sweet talk, his “Cheng Rong Scholarship,” and naming the electronics plaza “Cheng Rong Plaza”!

His old man was flamboyant, and fame-loving, and wanted to expand Cheng Rong Group and elevate the Du family’s position in Hong Kong high society, preferably surpassing other tycoons.

Du Zhaohui could imagine how pleased his father would be with such flattery.

Xia Xiaolan, who could devise such strategies, had only charged 10 million HKD in consulting fees – what a bargain!

This was the difference between women who lived by their brains versus their bodies.

Xia Ziyu sacrificed herself to sleep with his father, but Du Zhaohui wouldn’t give her even 1 million HKD.

His eyes lit up looking at Xia Xiaolan.

Heart racing, oxygen-deprived, breathing difficult, feeling faint… his heart and brain seemed to malfunction simultaneously.

However, their planning hit a snag – Du Zhaohui learned that trains currently couldn’t be named!

Xia Xiaolan knew this had happened in her previous life.

But this time, perhaps it was too early – the railway authority wouldn’t care about this money, and no one dared approve such random train renaming.

The timing was too early.

Larger systems had more rigid thinking.

Perhaps it would work in the 90s?

Actually, even if Du Zhaohui secured naming rights, the investment might not yield sufficient returns – “Cheng Rong Plaza Train #1” was impossible, “Cheng Rong Plaza” would become “CRGC”… such abbreviations were awkward.

When one plan failed, Xia Xiaolan didn’t easily give up. She changed her approach – instead of naming rights, she had Du Zhaohui rush-order goods through Chen Xiliang, potentially achieving even better advertising effects.

When Xia Xiaolan asked if Du Zhaohui was ready, it had a double meaning.

Every hair on Du Zhaohui’s head radiated pride:

“Don’t worry! Even without naming rights, can’t I handle this much? I still have my Hong Kong merchant status, which gets some preferential treatment.”

“That’s perfect!”

This concerned whether Du Zhaohui could get 5% group shares or even the Du family inheritance – he’d be more invested than her.

…

He Shiyuan returned to Ye Xiaoqiong’s place in her sports car after dating Yuan Han.

Her wealth was all a facade.

The car and outfits were provided by Ye Xiaoqiong, and naturally, her identity was fake.

The He family had no “He Shiyuan” – He Zhitong had no sister, He Shi’en had no sister. But people in Pengcheng didn’t know! Using the He family as an entry point, with Nanhai Hotel standing there, people instinctively believed “He Shiyuan’s” identity.

Even a decade later, many would still be deceived by so-called “investors” – bold scammers even fooled regional governments. Only after the millennium, with easier information sharing, did such incidents decrease.

In early 1987, no one doubted He Shiyuan’s identity, given her high-profile presence.

He Shiyuan tossed some photos to Ye Xiaoqiong:

“Here’s what you wanted.”

What kind of woman would allow compromising photos of herself?

Of course, one who loved pleasure but lacked money.

If such a woman was ill, she’d be even more eager to enjoy life quickly.

Ye Xiaoqiong paid her to play “He Shiyuan” – with money and fun involved, of course, she agreed!

As for sacrificing herself to sleep with men – please, she was already a prostitute with many clients, and Yuan Han wasn’t some greasy middle-aged man – what was there to dislike?