Brainstorming and Boss Xu's Shock

Nanjing, Xiyin Group headquarters.

Boss Xu had not been doing well lately. He often felt his temples throbbing, with severe palpitations and headaches.

To that end, he spent a fortune hiring an elderly Traditional Chinese Medicine doctor renowned around the world. After taking Boss Xu's pulse, the old man prescribed that he drink more mung bean soup.

The reason for Boss Xu's headaches was actually this.

Since 2016, the group's fast-fashion brand, Shein, had swept forward with unstoppable momentum. After conquering the North American market, it naturally turned its attention to Europe.

However, on the European Continent, Xiyin Group and several recently rising Chinese fast-fashion companies had encountered a frenzied blockade from international giants led by Zara and H.M.

Over the past few months, the battle had become fiercer than ever. Both sides had adopted price wars, fighting desperately at close quarters. Headquarters had to allocate enormous sums every week for advertising offensives and to subsidize the severe losses caused by the price war.

"This can't go on," Boss Xu muttered with a frown, pacing back and forth in his office.

He could not help recalling the phone call he had received two nights earlier. The caller had been an influential figure in the capital, and a single sentence from him had set Boss Xu's heart racing.

"Western giants have dominated the global market for years, with international capital backing them. They may not want a price war, but if one truly breaks out, they might not be afraid of it either. I know you've been having a hard time lately. If you don't mind, I can give you a suggestion," the influential figure had said.

"Please show me the way," Boss Xu had immediately replied with utmost respect.

"Perhaps it's time to add a little more technological content to your products."

"Technological content?"

"That's right. Recently, a domestic company developed a new type of fiber with exceptionally powerful performance and is looking for partners. If you're interested, you can try contacting them."

After hanging up, Boss Xu immediately made inquiries through various channels and soon traced the lead to Director Qin at the National Laboratory.

Director Qin had praised X Fiber to the skies, which led to the meeting with Gao Yuan.

At that very moment, the car Boss Xu had sent had already picked up Gao Yuan and Dr. Xu Qingzhou from Nanjing South Railway Station and was on its way back to the company.

Not long afterward, Gao Yuan and Dr. Xu Qingzhou were led into Boss Xu's office by the accompanying staff.

Boss Xu was slightly stunned. He had never expected the two of them to be so young. Gao Yuan was barely in his twenties, while even Dr. Xu Qingzhou, who was somewhat older, was only twenty-eight or twenty-nine.

Boss Xu instinctively walked toward Dr. Xu Qingzhou. After all, Gao Yuan was absurdly young, with a pair of Wade 8 basketball shoes on his feet and none of the air of a boss.

"President Xu, this is Boss Gao."

Fortunately, the accompanying staff reminded him before Boss Xu could make a fool of himself.

After both sides sat down, Boss Xu quickly discovered that his usual tactics were completely useless on Gao Yuan. There was no excessive false politeness. Gao Yuan immediately began discussing the technical aspects of X Fiber and had Dr. Xu Qingzhou take out the samples and documents they had prepared in advance.

"Next, let's discuss the cooperation," Gao Yuan said frankly. "The supply price for X1 Fiber is thirty thousand yuan per ton. The specific weaving and dyeing processes will be determined based on your requirements..."

Gao Yuan spoke only of practical matters, but Boss Xu began playing tai chi with him.

"Young Boss Gao and Dr. Xu have come from afar. Why not have a meal first and get a good night's rest? Once you're refreshed tomorrow, we can discuss the contract in detail," Boss Xu said with a beaming smile.

It was not that Boss Xu was being fake or anything. It was simply standard businessman behavior. He would not rush to make decisions, instead probing the other side's bottom line first. Having grown up in a business family himself, Gao Yuan understood these routines fairly well.

To be honest, so much of the false maneuvering in business was unbearably boring.

Unfortunately, Gao Yuan was still too weak to change the rules. Given Boss Xu's wealth and standing, receiving Gao Yuan and Dr. Xu Qingzhou in this manner was already considered a show of great respect.

"That works too," Gao Yuan said helplessly, though he still smiled. "Then we'll head back and rest first. We can talk tomorrow if there's anything else."

By evening, the reception staff had taken Gao Yuan and Dr. Xu Qingzhou to their reserved hotel. As for the pointless arrangements of business banquets and mutual flattery, Gao Yuan politely declined them outright.

It was his first time in Nanjing. Rather than getting drunk senseless at night, he might as well take the opportunity to enjoy the night view along the Qinhuai River.

"Although he shares my surname, I don't really like this Boss Xu."

Dr. Xu Qingzhou was indeed a man of temperament. While gnawing on salted duck in a roadside restaurant, he said to Gao Yuan, "That guy has no sincerity at all. We brought a complete set of technical documents and samples, along with an extremely competitive quote, but he kept stalling as if we were the ones begging him."

Gao Yuan smiled. "He isn't stalling. He just doesn't know where our weakness lies. That's how business works. Forget thirty thousand yuan—even if we quoted twenty thousand or ten thousand, Boss Xu would still bargain. After all, pursuing profits is the common nature of all capital."

"And the basis for bargaining is understanding the product. I guarantee you that Boss Xu's technical team will be extremely busy tonight. With a businessman's caution, he won't believe our technical specifications at all. He'll definitely need to test them himself."

"And to push down our price, he'll also look among imported goods for comparable competing products. Then he'll lecture us: look, Mitsubishi Chemical's fabric is only thirty-two thousand. Yours is domestically made, with lower costs, so how can you sell it for thirty thousand?"

Uh...

Gao Yuan's reenactment was remarkably vivid.

Dr. Xu Qingzhou muttered, "Anyway, I just don't like him. He's too shrewd."

Gao Yuan laughed loudly. "Being shrewd is a good thing. If he weren't shrewd, could he have built such a large business?"

"Besides, it depends on whom he uses that shrewdness and cunning against. If he uses them against Western companies, not only would I have no objection whatsoever, I would strongly support him."

"Right now, the peak battle in the fast-fashion sector is raging. The warring sides are Chinese forces led by Shein Group and European forces led by Spain's Zara Group. This is not merely a contest between rising newcomers and traditional giants in fast fashion. It is also a life-or-death confrontation between Eastern and Western business groups."

"China already possesses the world's largest textile and apparel supply chain. If we also take the retail end, it would strike an enormous blow against the traditional powers of Europe and America."

"After all, according to the white man's design, they only need to control the brands and designs, taking the most valuable and easiest portion of the industrial chain, while leaving the grueling manufacturing work to hardworking Asians."

"So whenever Asian forces break into the Western heartland, they will without exception suffer an unprecedentedly intense backlash. Huawei and ZTE are the most typical cautionary examples. Instead of obediently working for the West, they actually wanted to build independent brands and develop their own technology? Such rebellious behavior had to be completely crushed."

"Before Huawei and ZTE, there were Japanese companies. At the end of the last century, North America's methods of suppressing Japan were no less severe than today's. Some time ago, I climbed over the firewall to take a look. Ever since our trade war with North America erupted, many Japanese people have remembered their own past humiliation. The forums were full of bitterness. It was rather interesting."

"Damn it." Dr. Xu Qingzhou, who was usually refined and scholarly, could not help swearing. "I only knew that our technology companies had an extremely difficult time surviving. I never expected even ordinary companies to be targeted? The entire Asian region was being suppressed? They're so overbearing—what gives them the right?"

Gao Yuan said calmly, "In 1441, a Portuguese man named Antão Gonçalves captured ten Black slaves near Cape Branco in Africa and brought them to Lisbon, Portugal's capital, to be sold. That marked the beginning of the West's evil slave trade, which lasted for centuries."

"Even today, although visible slavery has disappeared, invisible slavery and colonialism still remain. The currency in West Africa is the CFA franc, and national foreign exchange reserves are held by the Bank of France. France's nuclear power giant Areva controls seventy percent of Africa's uranium mines. Even if those African countries are so poor that people starve to death, they still use French-imported equipment across the board. Even small things like electrical wires and switches must come from Schneider Electric."

"Of course, as we continue advancing into Africa, the situation has improved somewhat. But unfortunately, helping Africa develop only earns us even greater hostility and slander from the West."

"The so-called human community is certainly a beautiful aspiration. But before building a human community, there is a prerequisite: Western hegemony must be thoroughly reckoned with."

After pausing, Gao Yuan continued, "From that perspective, whether Boss Xu is a good person or whether he is deceitful in business is not really a problem—or rather, not a major problem."

"It's like how we all know Huawei phones have always had some issues with screen quality. Since there are issues, should they be criticized?"

"Of course they should. But if you want Huawei to die as soon as possible just because of that problem, then you're both stupid and wicked."

Hoo...

Dr. Xu Qingzhou let out a long breath and stared at Gao Yuan with a strange expression for more than ten seconds. "You taught me another lesson today. Sometimes I truly wonder whether you spend all your spare time thinking about those profound social issues."

Gao Yuan smiled. "Not really. Sometimes I think about women too."

"It's just that I think cooperating with a company like Xiyin can strike at Western hegemony while allowing us to earn a little money. It isn't a bad idea."

"We need to make money. The only question is whether we make it standing up or kneeling down."

Similar discussions took place between Gao Yuan and Dr. Xu Qingzhou every day. They were like repeated brainstorming sessions, and many wonderful ideas and plans emerged through the collision and exchange of their thoughts.

Gao Yuan liked chatting with smart people like Dr. Xu Qingzhou who shared his values, because it could spark inspiration.

Late that night, when they returned to the hotel after strolling along the Qinhuai River, concepts for business cooperation—and even the direction of development for the next few years—had gradually taken shape in Gao Yuan's mind.

As the saying went, a lamp would not shine without being trimmed, and reason would not become clear without debate. That was probably what it meant.

Early the next morning, Boss Xu summoned the company's technical director, Zhang Guangling, to his office.

After an entire night of intensive testing and analysis, Zhang Guangling's eyes were bloodshot, but he remained full of vigor, his gaze bright and sharp as if he had received an enormous shock.

"Speak plainly." Boss Xu frowned slightly and complained, "I didn't go to much school, so I can't understand all your technical jargon. Just tell me how good it is. How much of DuPont's COOLMAX fabric's performance can it achieve?"

Zhang Guangling wiped the sweat from his forehead, his voice trembling. "It's not a matter of how much. It exceeds DuPont's by nearly three times!"

"Three times?" Boss Xu jolted upright. "You said three times!?"

Zhang Guangling hurriedly replied, "There can be no mistake. The technical department has exploded. No one expected Kunlun Company's product to be this damn incredible!"

"Normally, manufacturers always pad their technical specifications and exaggerate certain figures to make their products easier to sell."

"But Kunlun Company not only didn't exaggerate anything, they even understated the figures by a huge margin. I've worked in this field for decades and have never seen anyone do business like this!"

Boss Xu suddenly remembered what that influential figure in the capital had said. Blindly fighting on price was not a solution. Perhaps he could try increasing the technological content of his products...

Technological content!

Technology!

Boss Xu's expression became extremely grave, and he quickly had Zhang Guangling continue his introduction.

As Zhang Guangling described the extraordinary performance of X Fiber in the simplest language possible, light gradually bloomed in Boss Xu's eyes.

This era was an era of technology!

Take sportswear, for example. Ever since Nike launched its outrageously high-tech running shoe, the ZoomX Vaporfly NEXT, helping Eliud Kipchoge break the two-hour marathon barrier, the track and field world had gone completely insane!

Sports enthusiasts all over the world had gone completely insane!

Nike's sales had skyrocketed!

Meanwhile, its old rival Adidas had suffered a massive loss of 5.6 billion in the second quarter alone!

The reasons behind such enormous losses were naturally complex, but Adidas's comprehensive technological disadvantage in recent years bore undeniable responsibility.

The three stripes and trefoil logo were still cool, but from a technological standpoint, Adidas had long ceased to be Nike's match.

"Quick, invite Young Boss Gao over."

"No, prepare the car. I'll go to the hotel and invite him myself!"

With that thought, Boss Xu gritted his teeth and hurried out of the office.

Good heavens, it was already one-thirty in the morning by the time I finished writing and uploaded this. What kind of efficiency was that?

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At ten-thirty, I received a message from the backend saying this chapter had been blocked and needed revision.

Sigh.