Chapter 47

Chapter 48

In April, the telecom company began setting up Chinanet, and Ting Hsin had finished the initial construction of its factories in China. It chose the same day as Uni-President to launch its new green tea: April 5, the Qingming Festival. I just couldn't understand it. Had bugs eaten the brains of both companies' marketing departments?

Uni-President loved showing off. Its television commercial ran with "Tradition-heritage," and it actually gathered a group of elderly and young people to honor their ancestors at Qingming. The elders wanted alcohol, but after the young people talked them out of it, nobody drank, and the whole table was covered in Uni-President green tea. What made Uni-President's commercials better than the others was their lack of dialogue. Most domestic commercials at the time were still stuck at a celebrity's face and a few introductory lines. The difference was obvious.

Ting Hsin didn't have as much money as Uni-President at this point. It poured its entire promotional budget into television commercials and, taking mainland preferences into account, used Hong Kong entertainers for the singing-and-dancing kind of commercial. Hong Kong films were all the rage in China then, so its choice was fairly sound.

Uni-President was different. Besides running television commercials relentlessly, it also offered promotional prizes. In 1995, liquor brands offering prizes with purchases were everywhere in China, but very few beverage brands did the same. Jianlibao was one, and Pepsi-Cola was another-as for Coca-Cola, with its current market share, it couldn't be bothered.

Whatever the case, with both companies' new products on the market, stable supplies, and lower costs, the full-scale war had finally begun.

Uni-President also entered the bidding for prime-time advertising slots in China, but it couldn't beat the local companies accustomed to working their connections and returned in crushing defeat. Like us, Ting Hsin simply stayed out of the bidding and mostly advertised outside prime time. Our circumstances were slightly different, though. Ting Hsin had no money; Sun Group's senior management couldn't bear to spend it.

Actually, ever since the company had grown, more people had come pitching advertising services than there were celebrities doing paid appearances. I had only one response: "Tell them all to get lost." The other participants in our Roundtable Meeting had learned well from me and politely declined all outsourced advertising offers.

We weren't short of advertising now. What we lacked was top-notch marketing talent. Our current people had no trouble managing things, but none was particularly good at actual marketing. This was still an era in China when an MBA was worth an annual salary of 500,000 yuan. After 1997, that fell to 200,000, and after 2000, many couldn't even make 100,000. When my company recruited in 2002, I happened to handle the interviews. Out of every ten applicants, nine were MBAs, and the remaining one was an EMBA. Scholars really were a dime a dozen.

There was actually someone I had long had my eye on, but the time wasn't right. He wouldn't come if we tried recruiting him now.

He shared my surname: Zhou Shichang, born in 1971 and twenty-four this year. He had started working at nineteen, first at a foreign trade company. Dissatisfied with its situation, he proposed reforms, then resigned in anger when nobody took him seriously. At twenty, he joined a famous Chinese nutritional products company. After six months there, he submitted a new marketing proposal to the general manager, and it actually passed. A year later, he had turned nutritional products into health supplements, expanding the business across more than half of China. Two years later, he became the symbol of a miracle in Chinese marketing. Four years later-this year-his achievements had made his boss feel threatened, and he was about to leave the company that claimed to be China's number-one health supplement brand.

In one year, he took a product with sales of 40 million yuan to 180 million, then spent another three years expanding its new products and those gains to annual sales of nearly 900 million.

He had held only three jobs in his life, one of which was at that foreign trade company that hadn't accepted his suggestions.

In the years that followed, he lived in seclusion, declining interviews and serving only as a consultant to a few companies, passing his days tending plants.

When many media outlets looked back on this years later, they said Zhou Shichang's passion had already burned out when he first left that health supplement company.

I thought I could understand him. The two jobs he took after leaving that health supplement company were also sales manager positions. Each product's sales rose severalfold from before his arrival, but the outcome was always the same: he was fired at the height of his success.

It was like love. Giving it your all and getting hurt once or twice might be manageable, but after the third time, you would probably never believe in love again.

I figured Zhou Shichang would probably be at odds with the company's senior management by late May. The general manager's reason for disliking him was actually simple: many people knew the company had a sales manager but didn't know its general manager. At the annual celebration, quite a few people who didn't understand the situation even toasted the sales manager first. What boss with a less-than-generous heart would keep a subordinate like that?

I clearly remembered the general manager rejecting his new plan at a senior management meeting in late May, and the health supplement company firing him in early June. The greatest benefit of reading lots of marketing and financial publications when I worked at a company was that all these disputes were covered in detail. Gossip had its uses, after all. Provided it contained a certain degree of truth.

Zhou Shichang's conflict with senior management hadn't been disclosed yet, and hardly anyone knew about it. Most people only found out after he resigned in June. We had to act first. For that purpose, I specifically contacted Cai Qing, our foremost public relations expert, the lovely Ms. Cai.

Cai Qing was a very fashionable girl. She was more cheerful and outgoing than Lu Wei, and it was precisely because their personalities differed so much that they had become good friends at school. Generally speaking, two people with similar personalities had a hard time getting along.

She liked fashion and challenges, so I left most of the more challenging dealings with outsiders to her.

She and Lu Wei did have one thing in common, though: both respected capable people. As luck would have it, yours truly possessed just enough ability to make them regard me differently, so, heh heh heh... these two beautiful older sisters had always treated me incredibly well.

Occasionally, I wondered whether they would still think so highly of me if I made a terrible blunder one day.

What about everyone else?

Nobody could go through life without ever making a mistake.

But what was I afraid of? Even if I lost everything else, I would at least still have money and Zhang Xiaotong.

I remembered something I had once said to Guo Zhen: "I came into this world bare-assed. At worst, I'll leave it bare-assed too."

That was what I had said, but back then, I had still cared deeply about success and failure, fighting until I bloodied my head over trivial things. Now that I had come back to live my life again, many things mattered much less. I just hadn't reached the point where I could let go completely.

Since I had no time to go to Cai Qing, she set aside a day and came straight to Lu Wei's place. The two old classmates were chattering about the new Electronics City in Lu Wei's office; I heard them from outside. When I pushed the door open, I saw Cai Qing in a tight-fitting outfit that revealed every curve, standing beside Lu Wei's office chair, bent over with her bottom raised, staring intently at the computer monitor.

I gave a dry cough, and both shifted their eyes from the monitor to me. Lu Wei looked a little puzzled. "Why didn't Xiaotong come?" She knew Zhang Xiaotong and I were usually inseparable.

I shrugged. "Some handsome guy probably asked her out."

Cai Qing covered her mouth and laughed. "She could bear to leave you?"

As usual, I walked over to the sofa, sat down, and poured myself a glass of water. "She knew I could arrange to see two peerless beauties, so she left without a worry... unfortunately, she never calculated that one of those beauties has become more lethal lately." With that, I gave Cai Qing a few mischievous looks, sweeping her from head to toe like a scanner.

Cai Qing giggled. "Is that supposed to be a compliment?"

I raised my glass as though sipping tea. "Why wouldn't it be? I need to compliment you ladies more while you're young. If I wait until you're old and faded, I won't mean it anymore."

Cai Qing straightened up, presenting a dazzling curve from my angle. She pulled over a chair and sat down, crossing one leg and facing me with the bearing of a confident office lady. I unceremoniously scanned her again. "Thanks for rushing all the way over."

Cai Qing chuckled. "You didn't just ask me here for a look, did you?"

"Of course not. Sorry for the trouble, but I need your help with something."

Cai Qing's eyes lit up when she heard I needed her help. Every task I gave her came with a surprise, except that trip to Sichuan to find an unknown secondary school student. Fu Xiaofei was a formidable fellow I had met online in 2002. He had been an editor at a gaming magazine then, and we had gotten along wonderfully. I discovered that he had an extraordinary gift for outrageous ideas and a spirit of inquiry, making him very well suited to game development. I hadn't explained much when I asked Cai Qing to find him. She was probably still wondering about that.

From my crumpled schoolbag, I took out a battered plastic folder containing some information about Zhou Shichang and a brief introduction to his health supplement company.

"I'd like you to make contact with this man."

Cai Qing was astonished when she saw the information. "Him? That doesn't seem very likely. He's doing extremely well right now. You could call him the most celebrated employee in the country."

"He isn't doing that well," I said. "He's at odds with senior management. He'll probably have to pack up and leave before long."

Disbelief covered Cai Qing's face. "How could that be? Nobody outside knows anything about it. They're still using his marketing plan."

"That's the power of intelligence," I said. "This information should be very accurate. He argued with the general manager at the midmonth senior management meeting, and now they're planning to change the sales plan."

Beside us, Lu Wei frowned out of habit. "Surely not? Letting a personal grudge spill over into company business-is their boss that irrational?"

"You've met their boss," I asked Lu Wei. "What do you think?"

Lu Wei considered it, then sighed softly. "He is a little too self-centered, but I still don't think he would turn his back on money."

I smiled. "Things are going wonderfully right now. Even if he removes Zhou Shichang, he'll still make plenty. Don't you think?"

Both nodded. With sales, once things stabilized, even a downturn wouldn't be too bad. After all, more than enough groundwork had already been laid. This was also the main reason many companies sought help from outsourced teams. Most private Chinese companies believed talent and effort no longer had value once they had been used.

That was why state-owned companies generally couldn't beat foreign companies.

Cai Qing set the information on her lap and frowned like Lu Wei. "Achievements that threaten the boss. Heh, so that really happens."

I sneered. "They call that a strong sense of crisis. He's terrified some salesman will steal the company he worked so hard to build. Chinese infighting... heh!"

Cai Qing smiled. "Aren't you afraid?"

It was a rather taboo subject. Only she could bring it up so casually.

I looked at her, then at Lu Wei, and smiled. "Me? What should I be afraid of? I think getting your subordinates to become better than you is an ability in itself. There was a fellow named Liu Bei in the Three Kingdoms. He had no abilities at all and cried all day. Any one of his subordinates was better than him, but didn't he still found a state, rake in money, and marry beauties?"

"He had political skill and knew how to use people," Cai Qing said.

"Exactly. If you can't tolerate people better than you, doesn't that mean you don't know how to use people?" I said. "If you're even afraid of other people surpassing you, you might as well go back to school for more training. Isn't surpassing others and being surpassed how people make progress in life?"

Cai Qing smiled at me. "You're getting fonder and fonder of grand pronouncements."

I shook my head mockingly at myself. "Grand but useless. All empty talk. Let's be practical. Contact Zhou Shichang and leave a good impression."

Cai Qing nodded, took out her notebook, and wrote it down. "Any pointers on the approach?"

I thought for a moment, took her pen, and wrote two characters in her notebook.

Be sincere.

Cai Qing nodded, understanding.

Just as I was about to end the conversation, I remembered something else I needed to explain to her.

"Um... do you remember that Fu Xiaofei in Neijiang?"

Cai Qing had probably been thinking about it. She nodded. "I remember."

I made something up on the spot. "Two years ago, I read something he wrote in some brainteaser magazine. It was very interesting. He's talented and would make a good game designer. Help me get in touch with him. He probably doesn't feel like staying in secondary school anymore. Ask whether we can recruit him as a junior worker. A higher monthly salary is fine."

That settled Cai Qing's doubts. She knew I had a photographic memory and always noticed details and reminded them about them, so it made perfect sense that I would remember Fu Xiaofei's name. China had so many brainteaser magazines at the time, most published twice a month. Heaven knew which one I meant.

I was very excited when I left Electronics City. If things went well, a legend of Chinese marketing would work for me. It was something I had never even dared imagine before.

Uni-President and Ting Hsin joining the battle had stirred my fighting spirit instead. I decided not to retreat anymore.

Come on, then. Let me see whether those two tea drinks that once dominated China can really blast me out of the running, and whether the other private companies waiting for their chance have the confidence to enter this market.

Cai Qing's contact with Zhou Shichang went well. A gentleman would never flatly say no to a young, beautiful girl's request. With the sincerity I had always advocated and Sun Group's vision of revitalizing national industry, Cai Qing won him over. However, Zhou Shichang said people should give their work their all. He was still handling the health supplement project and couldn't simply walk away. Cai Qing tactfully replied that Sun Group's door would always be open to him, with a director's position waiting.

I was very pleased with the initial contact. "These days, there aren't many people willing to give their all and stick to their principles," I remarked to Cai Qing.

Cai Qing asked with a smile, "Do we count?"

"It isn't that you're willing to give your all," I said. "You give too much. More than words can express."

That made Cai Qing very happy. "Call me again next time there's an opportunity like this. He's really impressive. I learned so much just from exchanging a few words with him."

"Then I'll talk to you every day," I said.

"Shameless little brat..." Cai Qing scolded with a laugh.

While putting Cai Qing fully in charge of Zhou Shichang's recruitment, I disbanded the trading studio and placed Lu Wei directly in charge of trading. Electronics City went to deputy manager Zhong Rui, who had experience in home appliance retail. Lu Wei moved into a private office at the city's securities exchange for the time being.

My plan was simple. If we went to develop in Yulin County, someone had to stay behind in North Gate. Although I wasn't entirely comfortable leaving Zhong Rui there, there wasn't much work, after all. Once Zhou Shichang arrived, I could transfer him to Yulin County. Lu Wei was a rare talent. Her personality, soft on the outside but firm within, with a needle hidden in cotton, suited me very well. I needed someone like her beside me to help with everything.

Lu Wei was a good choice. At least she trusted my decisions. To be blunt, though, I was also more favorably disposed toward women, even if women were actually just as likely to be unreliable as men...

The stock market still rose considerably in 1995, and the bear market didn't begin until June. Cautious and meticulous by nature, Lu Wei actually made us a tidy little sum. In early May, I instructed her to start selling off the shares gradually. A careful tally showed that we had made more than 50 million yuan. After giving Lu Wei a five-million dividend, I put everything else toward the funding gaps in the school construction and Sun Homeland projects. Once it was divided among the construction crews, none received very much, but getting paid shortly after work began gave everyone a little more confidence.

During this time, Liu Mingyao called several times. He had already started spouting Japanese in a Kansai accent. Apparently, the food in Fusang was terrible. A plate of shredded pork with green peppers cost over ten thousand yen, and he wasn't used to things like sashimi. Even with Japanese girls around, he didn't dare do anything. Thinking of Cai Qing and sexually transmitted diseases, he was thoroughly dejected and frustrated. Our poaching operation was progressing fairly smoothly, though. Liu Mingyao successfully made contact with Matsuno, a key figure at Quest, and Mikami, a producer at Capcom. Both regarded Mr. Liu Mingyao, SCE's ally, as a kindred spirit. Our President Liu was quite practical, getting his hands on two people whom many gamers would later worship as gods.

Liu Mingyao's contact with these two caused considerable panic at both companies, and a Japanese version of "the wolf is coming" spread like wildfire.

Over at Sony, Kuta kept calling Liu Mingyao whenever he had a moment. "Liu-san, are you enjoying Japan?"

Liu Mingyao knew how seriously the Japanese took business intelligence, so he hadn't bothered concealing his visit to Japan. He answered just as openly. "Very much, very much. I'm taking a look at the Japanese market while I'm here too, hahaha..."

There was nothing Kuta could do. He sent SCE staff to accompany him on visits to various places and occasionally fish for information. Liu Mingyao laughed it all off.

I couldn't stop laughing when I heard Liu Mingyao's account. "Stay a few more days, then. Let them keep worrying..."

Apparently, when Liu Mingyao heard that, he wanted to swallow the phone.

In late May, I laid my cards on the table with my parents. "I want to go to a private school."

By then, my parents counted among the moderately prosperous households answering the nation's call. Recently, they had become particularly interested in stocks and investments and could hardly be bothered with me. After all, even at my worst, I was still first in my year, and there were plenty of places to catch me if I slipped. So, quite naturally, I disappeared during the day and came home late at night, becoming a notorious unsupervised kid.

Actually, my parents had their eyes wide open. Even if nobody else kept me in line, Zhang Xiaotong was there to do it. They had no need to worry.

My parents exchanged a look. Mom played the good cop and asked first, "Why do you want to go private? I hear their progression rates aren't high."

"You should have confidence in my grades," I said. "I just want to learn independence a little earlier."

Dad lit a cigarette. "Have you thought it through? You keep changing your mind. Can you stick with it?"

"You've said it yourselves," I said, moving away from his choking secondhand smoke. "Poor children learn responsibility early. It's time I learned to look after myself too. I promise you, whatever else happens, I'll definitely get into a key high school."

They fell silent. They did have that much confidence in me.

I added a little weight to my case. "I want to be like Xiaotong, writing things and making money. She also said I should learn to take care of myself first. She said only someone who can look after themselves can spare the thought to look after others."

That was the gist of it, but nothing was really settled that day. A few days later, Zhang Xiaotong visited my parents with several pieces of stock market news and casually brought up where I would go to school. She demonstrated the full power of a woman's gentle blade, settling in a few sentences what I hadn't managed in days.

From then on, I resolved to bring her out whenever I needed to communicate with my parents, rather than waste time.

In early June, Liu Mingyao returned to Shenyang, reportedly accompanied by several Japanese people of varying appearances. I breathed a sigh of relief. If he didn't come back, who would oversee the official European and American release of Whit You?

Whit You would initially launch in English-speaking countries: the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and so on. Except for the United States, these places all had pitifully small populations. Beiguan City had over a million people, at least. Canada, supposedly vast and sparsely populated, had a population so sparse it amounted to only ten million or so. Even major cities like Vancouver were full of Chinese people, and foreigners were considering moving away as soon as possible. This so-called worldwide release was just a gimmick. SCE understood the art perfectly and hyped it to the skies. As a result, Sun Electronics was showered with praise at home too, almost becoming the savior of the national software industry.

But how many people knew that this supposed savior didn't even have a single proper, complete development team?

The moment Liu Mingyao returned to China, a heap of titles landed on him. Labels I had promised him, such as pioneer of Chinese gaming and electronics prodigy, were slapped onto his head like buckets of shit. Even Dongda, our partner, began inviting him to give lectures.

I figured Dongda would start pursuing its own little schemes and shortcuts this year too. It still wanted to do things itself, after all. Sun Electronics' partnership with it was probably nearing its end.