Qingyuan Dogs Are Worth a Fortune (Please Bookmark)

A story had been making the rounds in Qingyuan City's upper circles lately: Li Tianlang, the youngest son of Sky Star Company's chairman, had acquired a dog that swept through the city's underground dogfighting clubs.

The betting winnings were beside the point. What mattered was the attention it drew.

These idle rich kids all had their hobbies, and plenty of them liked keeping dogs.

They didn't keep dogs for their looks, though. They kept them to fight.

The fiercer a person's dog was, the stronger it was in a fight, the more status its owner could claim.

In some major cities, champion dogs that had survived countless fights had even been driven up to prices of several million, sometimes over ten million yuan.

Qingyuan City was only a second-tier city, so things hadn't gotten quite that crazy, but dogs selling for two or three million yuan weren't unheard of.

Word was that Li Tianlang had paid less than two million yuan for his dog. In just two days, he'd won back more than that.

That was the beauty of hiding strength behind an unassuming appearance. Who would expect a village mutt to win? Naturally, Li Tianlang had made a killing.

Qingyuan City's rich young men flocked to the seller, hoping to get a dog like it.

This remarkable dog looked exactly like a Chinese Rural Dog, but it was leagues smarter than a Border Collie. Every time it fought another dog, it relied on brains rather than brute force.

It was practically a mage-type fighting dog.

For a while, the price of village dogs in Qingyuan City rose by thirty percent. Opportunists tried passing ordinary mutts off as the real thing, but none could match Big Yellow's intelligence. Even a fool could tell the difference.

Shen Bing wasn't in Qingyuan City, but he could imagine what was happening there.

Once, Luoyang Paper Is Expensive had become a saying. Now it was Qingyuan dogs that cost a fortune.

But Shen Bing didn't let it go to his head.

At the end of the day, remarkable dogs like Big Yellow were luxuries. While people clamored for them, their prices could soar to dozens or even hundreds of times their actual worth.

But once they became commonplace, they would be no different from ordinary village dogs.

So although Shen Bing knew making money with the Intelligence Potion would be easier, that was only good for a side venture. To make serious money, he needed technology products.

Shen Bing was now waiting outside Fengze Residential Community. The afternoon sun was still blazing, but his expression remained calm.

He was waiting for Phantom Immortal Technology's General Manager.

That morning, Shen Bing had met and interviewed four professional managers recommended by a headhunting firm.

He had eventually chosen one to serve as Phantom Immortal Technology's General Manager and, for the time being, director of the Illusion Immortal Glass Factory.

After all, Phantom Immortal Technology was currently just an empty shell. Its only asset was the Illusion Immortal Glass Factory, so the General Manager's work would be the factory's work.

Shen Bing's selection method was simple. He met each candidate somewhere convenient, had a brief conversation, then set off for the Illusion Immortal Glass Factory.

Two of the four candidates left halfway there. One even said outright that Phantom Immortal Technology wasn't a good fit for his career.

What nonsense. The recruitment notice included a company profile. He should have worked out whether it suited him beforehand.

The real reason was that the surroundings grew more desolate the farther they went, and Shen Bing had taken them there by taxi. Their hearts sank.

The two of them wrote off Phantom Immortal Technology on the spot.

Of the two remaining candidates, one made it as far as the Illusion Immortal Glass Factory. But after seeing the tiny workshop, he turned around and left without another word.

Only one calmly followed Shen Bing into the factory.

When he saw its sole finished product and the glass sheets steadily coming off the production line, he immediately decided to stay.

Shen Bing was pleased with Wang Sheng's decision, too. Their conversation along the way had shown that Wang Sheng understood the current state of the glass industry, but more important was his attitude.

A few minutes later, a car stopped beside Shen Bing, and a man in his thirties stepped out.

He wore a suit and had the air of a successful professional.

It was Wang Sheng.

Wang Sheng's résumé was impressive. He had worked for a Fortune Global 500 company. He had only been a department supervisor, but given the size of the company Shen Bing had described in its profile, that experience was especially valuable.

"Sorry for the wait, boss." Wang Sheng showed no sign of looking down on Shen Bing for his youth. Ever since he had seen the glass product at the Illusion Immortal Glass Factory that morning, he had known Phantom Immortal Technology had limitless potential, and that Shen Bing might well become a rising star in business.

Shen Bing smiled. "I just got here myself."

After exchanging a few pleasantries, they got into the car.

Sitting in the passenger seat, Shen Bing asked, "You said on the phone you wanted to go back to the factory. What for?"

"Here's the thing, boss," Wang Sheng said. "I worked out a detailed plan for the company's development over lunch. I haven't put it in writing yet, but I wanted to report it to you first. As for the Glass Factory, I thought I'd pick up a sample or two while we're out, then take them to the quality inspection bureau for a test report. We'll need one before we can sell the glass on a large scale."

"Tell me your plan," Shen Bing said.

"Of course, boss. I've done some basic research based on our product. The product itself is unique on the market, so competitiveness isn't a concern. The next question is where to use it. Glass is used across all sorts of industries today, including construction, aviation, home appliances, cars, furnishings, and offices. We need to choose the right entry point to give the company the best chance to grow."

Shen Bing nodded. Wang Sheng had gotten to the heart of the matter.

Shen Bing had been confident the product would sell because of its quality and performance. That didn't mean he had decided where it should be used.

Wang Sheng continued, "In the glass industry, precision instruments offer the highest profits—camera lenses for military satellites, lithography-machine objective lenses, and the like. But a few industry giants control those fields, and we're not in a position to break in yet. Based on my research and our product's properties, I think construction is the best place for us to start."

"Construction?" Shen Bing was taken aback. What he really wanted was to enter the LCD industry. He had made that sample yesterday specifically to demonstrate the glass's unique advantages for image display.

The glass sheets produced by his little workshop weren't yet thin enough for LCD Substrate, but Shen Bing was confident he could make the right product after buying new equipment.

Wang Sheng understood his confusion. Shen Bing had briefly mentioned LCD Substrate during their conversation the day before.

He explained at once, "I know. Given our product's properties, it would be ideal for making LCD Substrate if we could refine and process it. But a handful of large companies control LCD panel manufacturing, and they're the only ones that need glass substrates. They already have established suppliers, so it would be hard for us to get a foot in the door."

"How do you plan to approach the construction industry, Manager Wang?" Shen Bing asked.

Confidence rang in Wang Sheng's voice. "Simple. As I understand it, Nancy Building, currently under construction in Rongcheng, is intended to be the city's new landmark. Recent reports say its exterior will use a glass curtain wall. If we land that project, we'll establish ourselves in the curtain-wall industry. And with Nancy Building advertising our product for us, we could even save on advertising."

"All right, Manager Wang. I'll leave it to you."

Wang Sheng's face fell. "Boss, you're not expecting me to pull this off all by myself, are you? Phantom Immortal Technology is a company with a bright future. We'd look pretty shabby."

"Easy enough," Shen Bing said. "First, set up the company's basic structure—HR, finance, sales, all of it. We don't need many people yet, just enough to keep things running."

"Uh..." Wang Sheng froze. He had seen hands-off bosses before, but never one this hands-off.

He had been worried his authority as General Manager would be restricted and had even raised the issue indirectly during his interview.

Now it seemed he'd worried about the wrong thing. What he should have worried about was being worked to death.