Du Zhaohui was acting coy.

But Xia Xiaolan took him seriously.

Du Zhaohui had always been a bit effeminate, being a fashion icon of the 80s. Xia Xiaolan couldn’t understand Young Master Du’s aesthetic tastes.

What was there to worry about? So many people had been attracted here, and this was just the first wave.

Today’s business couldn’t be bad. People willing to visit shopping malls at eight-thirty in the morning were still a minority – these few hundred people were just the vanguard, and more would continue to come.

“First point: To prevent Du Zhaoqi from causing trouble, although we only revealed the lottery promotion at the last minute, we couldn’t limit knowledge of it to just those at the scene. That’s why I had you arrange vehicles with advertising banners and loudspeakers to circle the city, making sure everyone heard about Zhenggrong Plaza’s shopping lottery with a car as first prize!”

“Second point: Arrange ‘Zhenggrong Plaza’ buses at the station – dedicated lines offering free transportation to Zhenggrong Plaza. After the lottery promotion ends, this special line should be maintained. Though it requires some investment, it will help Zhenggrong Plaza maintain high foot traffic long-term.”

After stating these two points, Xia Xiaolan looked helplessly at Du Zhaohui:

“So what are you afraid of? If all 15,000 lottery tickets are exchanged today, you should be even happier. It means that on opening day, Zhenggrong Plaza’s sales exceeded 1.5 million. Even if we don’t maintain this daily, just one-third of this volume would mean over 100 million annually. With electronics sales breaking 100 million, more merchants will want to move in. Once the other areas are completed, you’ll be making money while lying down.”

Annual revenue over 100 million wasn’t direct profit for Du Zhaohui, of course.

Shopping mall operators made their living from rent and management fees. In 1987, how many malls could achieve annual revenue over 100 million?

Du Zhaohui’s was an electronics plaza with only one floor open.

In her previous life, Asia Department Store was a full department store. Its legendary rise came from achieving 90 million in revenue in just six months.

If Zhenggrong Plaza could reach the annual revenue Xia Xiaolan mentioned, it would outperform the Asia Department Store.

Of course, in her previous life, ‘SEG Plaza’ had lasted longer than Asia Department Store. The commercial city’s economy couldn’t compare to Pengcheng. The golden location of Erqi Square couldn’t match the prosperity of Huaqiang North. Asia Department Store targeted the commercial city’s customers; after two years of initial glory, no one would especially travel there to shop. Ultimately, it was because the commercial city hadn’t developed.

But Pengcheng attracted people from all over the country!

Du Zhaohui realized he’d overdone his act of playing dumb, but he didn’t contradict Xia Xiaolan. He didn’t need to appear too smart in front of her – if she thought him foolish, she’d be more willing to talk to him.

“Then Du Zhaoqi is going to lose.”

Du Zhaohui touched his hair – the glossy hairstyle was truly textbook antagonist material.

Xia Xiaolan couldn’t bear to look directly at him, “Yes, with the grand opening, Director Du will see Zhenggrong Plaza’s terrifying ability to attract money, and Second Young Master Du is bound to lose. Since you’ve investigated the merchants’ backgrounds, this worry can be resolved. Even with the shopping lottery stimulating more consumption, the final sales figures will be real. I guess some people might think they can collude with merchants to inflate receipt amounts for more lottery tickets. On the surface, this seems beneficial for both parties – a 100-yuan purchase getting a receipt for 500 or even 1,000 yuan. They get more lottery chances, and the mall’s performance looks flourishing…”

“But this is fake. You’ve said before that advertising can attract people, can exaggerate, but can’t be false propaganda.”

Du Zhaohui smiled and added:

“Because what’s fake is fake. If I falsify accounts, Du Zhaoqi won’t miss the chance to expose me.”

His smug head-bobbing made even Xia Xiaolan chuckle:

“Exactly. What’s real can’t be faked, and what’s fake can’t become real. Once sales figures are falsified, the risk you’d bear would be too great. It wouldn’t withstand investigation – one poke and it all falls apart. You might fool Du Zhaoqi but not Director Du. You won’t win that 5% share!”

Du Zhaohui laughed heartily: “So those self-proclaimed clever losers think the stall merchants will cooperate with them? How many receipts they issue relates to how much tax merchants pay. They might agree not to issue receipts, but asking them to issue extra receipts? No way!”

Cheating him out of a few lottery tickets or detergent bags was trivial.

Du Zhaohui couldn’t care less.

But if someone disrupted his bigger plans, he’d make them regret it.

Making money in his mall meant following his rules!

On the mall’s unopened second floor, an area had already been renovated. Du Zhaohui invited Xia Xiaolan upstairs for tea:

“Coming so early, you haven’t had breakfast, right? I had Ah Hua order dim sum from the restaurant. We can go upstairs to eat and chat. From up high, we can see everything happening downstairs. I want to count how many people come and go today.”

Xia Xiaolan understood this feeling.

Proud and happy, yet somewhat nervous. No matter how well planned, until today’s sales figures were tallied, Du Zhaohui wouldn’t truly feel at ease.

He wanted to watch personally, ready to handle any unexpected situations.

“I ate something before coming. Dim sum can wait – I’ll check on Xu Jing and Ma Hai’s situation in the mall first.”

Occupying the mall’s prime location, how would the Wenquxing electronic dictionary sales fare?

Xia Xiaolan calculated mentally – probably not much business.

This was a new thing, after all.

And not cheap – one unit costs 498 yuan.

This wasn’t Xu Jing and Ma Hai being greedy – the core components were imported. Anything involving the word “imported” wouldn’t be cheap.

The company needed to make money while leaving profit margins for retailers. Pricing at 498 yuan was already carefully negotiated.

They couldn’t sell at cost – that would be charity, not business!

Wenquxing currently had no reputation. The advertisement featuring last year’s Xiangnan Province science stream top scorer was completed but hadn’t aired on TV yet – Xia Xiaolan wanted to wait a few days.

Just before school started.

Every new semester, parents with better economic conditions would buy school supplies for their children.

At a minimum, two pens and some new notebooks, right?

Better-off families might buy pencil cases, school bags, and such.

And beyond that?

Moving up, people actually didn’t have many choices, not knowing what they could buy for their children.

Buy computers or phones?

Those barely existed in this era.

Various “learning machines” – fake studies, real gaming devices – hadn’t even appeared yet.

Xia Xiaolan wanted to instill an idea in parents’ minds: care about children’s learning and growth – give Wenquxing as a back-to-school gift!

Thinking this, she walked toward the mall, with Du Zhaohui immediately following.

The entire mall was crowded everywhere, except at the most prominent counter position where the Wenquxing electronic dictionary was… quite pitiful, with only a few customers.