“Stop flattering me, get to the point.”

“Yes, yes, these sales figures aren’t just from Guangdong Province. Do you remember Duan Jun?”

Duan Jun?

Xia Xiaolan thought for a moment. “You mean Old Duan, Chen Xiliang’s friend who rents a counter at Chengying Plaza?”

“Yes, that’s him! Old Duan is quite ambitious. He’s also helping us move merchandise. Of course, we give him a discount when he buys from us – we have to let him make a profit. I’ve talked with Old Duan, and he went to negotiate channels in Fujian Province himself. He says if he can secure the deal, he wants us to give him the distribution rights for Fujian… What do you think?”

Ma Hai looked excited.

Xia Xiaolan wasn’t particularly surprised – this had been discussed during dinner with Old Duan, who had finally decided to make his move.

Truthfully, it was best to keep sales channels under their control.

Having another province’s distribution rights in someone else’s hands meant being at their mercy later.

But to capture the market in the shortest time possible, their strength alone wasn’t enough.

You can’t have it both ways – this contradiction would come later, and Xia Xiaolan wouldn’t make things difficult now:

“If he can open up the Fujian channel and save us promotional costs, then give him the distribution rights for Fujian!”

Fighting over profit distribution before even making money wasn’t something Xia Xiaolan would do.

That was more Du Zhaoyi’s style.

Xia Xiaolan tapped the table. “9,431 units at 498 yuan each. Without even calculating the final profit, we’ve recovered at least 4 million yuan in capital. You’ve managed to establish the brand for now – that’s great news! Wenquxing electronic dictionary became an instant hit because it filled a market gap, but that doesn’t mean we can rest easy – competitors will soon come flooding in!”

The real challenge wasn’t opening up the market.

The problem was that while Wenquxing had created the concept of “electronic dictionaries” for consumers, it might not capture the majority of the market share and instead lose out to imitators – that would be infuriating.

Seeing something profitable, why wouldn’t others jump in?

If Xu Jing and Ma Hai could make it, others could too.

Especially large companies with technical expertise and capital…

The situation wasn’t optimistic. Ma Hai’s smugness disappeared, though Xu Jing remained more composed:

“We can’t stop others from manufacturing – no country’s laws would allow that. Even our English-Chinese electronic dictionary is an imitation. Since we can’t stop others, we can only focus on improving ourselves. I’ll keep upgrading product performance and ensure new products are released, while Ma Hai works on expanding channels… Even with many imitators, Wenquxing should still be competitive, right?”

Building a brand depended on many internal and external factors – even Xia Xiaolan couldn’t be certain.

But since Xu Jing showed such awareness, she had to encourage him.

“Senior Xu is right. Let’s not worry about what others are doing. Let’s focus on doing our best – if Wenquxing itself is strong enough, we naturally won’t fear competition from similar products. While others are still in research and development, let’s quickly seize the market. And for people like Duan Jun who want distribution rights, don’t refuse them. Many hands make light work – we can all profit together. How can the business not grow bigger this way!”

After hearing the performance report, Xia Xiaolan fed Xu Jing and Ma Hai some motivational words.

She was worried.

It was $100,000 after all.

Xia Xiaolan felt she had worked so hard to earn that $100,000 from Du Zhaohui.

If Xu Jing and Ma Hai lost it, it would mean Xia Xiaolan had poor judgment in investing in the wrong people.

A few casual words couldn’t ease Xia Xiaolan’s anxiety!

She truly wanted to pursue something different, otherwise she wouldn’t have invested the $100,000 in Xu and Ma. How much would that money be worth if used to hoard real estate in Beijing?

Meeting Xu Jing and Ma Hai was just part of Xia Xiaolan’s morning schedule.

When she left Pengcheng for Yangcheng Airport, Chen Xiliang was waiting there.

Chen Xiliang smiled, “Miss Xia, isn’t Qihang’s new property going on sale? Don’t forget the two units you promised to reserve for me.”

“I won’t forget, that’s a small matter. Your business is growing – are you worried about not being able to buy property? Besides the ‘Luohu Tiancheng’ that Qihang is launching, there will be more and more properties in Pengcheng. With money in your pocket, you can buy wherever you want!”

That wouldn’t do.

It’s not the same.

Though Xia Xiaolan only focused on making money, Chen Xiliang never lost out on working with her.

Buying properties developed by Xia Xiaolan’s company guaranteed quality – Miss Xia wanted to make money long-term and wouldn’t ruin her reputation. Chen Xiliang wasn’t willing to spend money now on other properties.

Did he have to buy apartment buildings?

Couldn’t he buy a small house in Yangcheng?

Xia Xiaolan didn’t let Chen Xiliang continue thinking about property matters:

“Remember I mentioned that Ji Ya’s Elegance was being seized by the bank for loan repayment?”

“Of course, I remember. I heard Elegance is already under receivership. Everyone’s panicking – even the headquarters staff are worried about whether they’ll get next month’s salary!”

Chen Xiliang had been following the situation – he even knew about the employees’ complaints.

“I don’t know if Elegance can pay salaries, and I have no intention of taking over the Elegance brand. Its positioning doesn’t match China’s current conditions. Maybe in 20 years, it would be the best time for it to fit the market, but we can’t wait 20 years to help Ji Ya develop the brand, can we?”

As soon as Xia Xiaolan spoke, Chen Xiliang nodded vigorously:

“Elegance isn’t down-to-earth enough – it can’t outsell Luna.”

“We don’t want Elegance, but its distribution channels are real – worth over ten million yuan, without any inflation. If we tried to buy from Ji Ya, even at 20 million yuan she wouldn’t sell.”

Chen Xiliang slapped his thigh. “But now Elegance’s ownership is with the bank – it’s not even worth 10 million!”

Xia Xiaolan smiled. “The bank needs to handle bad debt, not operate Elegance themselves. Without competitors bidding up the price, Elegance indeed isn’t worth 10 million. That’s why before the New Year’s dividend, I told you not to touch your big money – isn’t this the opportunity we can now seize?”

“I’m happy to seize the opportunity, but I have one question: if we buy Elegance but don’t continue the brand, are we going to use its channels to sell only Luna clothes?”

Elegance stores were shamelessly opened very close to Luna boutiques.

Having two Luna boutiques in one city wasn’t a problem – it showed Luna’s brand recognition was high. However having two Luna stores too close together made Chen Xiliang feel like they were fighting themselves.

Whatever he could think of, surely Miss Xia had thought of too!

Chen Xiliang looked at her eagerly, waiting for her explanation.

Xia Xiaolan didn’t keep him guessing:

“We’ll open a secondary line for Luna – if we can make money from women, why can’t we make money from men?”