Soon, Gu Xingye struck back.
First, several investors called Hengtu to say their investment plans had changed. Only after Chen Qi pressed them did they vaguely hint that someone was targeting the company.
Chen Qi hung up and cursed the investors in her office for being fickle and bending with the wind.
Zhao Pingchuan pushed the door open and handed her a cup of tea. "Qi-jie, calm down. You can't blame them for this."
Chen Qi tossed her phone onto the desk, still unable to calm down. Everything had been going so well in their talks, so why had they suddenly changed their minds?
She raised an eyebrow at Zhao Pingchuan. "The way you're talking, do you know what's going on?"
Zhao Pingchuan sat down beside her and nodded. "Just as I expected, it was Gu Xingye."
Startled, Chen Qi hurriedly sat up straight. "Gu Xingye?"
If Gu Xingye was putting pressure on them, it was only natural for the investors to change their minds.
Zhao Pingchuan told her what had happened with Jiang Jinyue.
Chen Qi frowned as she listened. "What the hell is wrong with this guy? Jiang Jinyue must have been blind to fall for him."
The worst part was that those two had to drag innocent bystanders into their relationship.
Seriously, what did any of this have to do with them?
Zhao Pingchuan smiled wryly. "As long as Gu Xingye thinks it has something to do with me, then it does. We're sworn enemies, after all."
In fact, Hengtu had already moved into a different field and was no longer much of a competitor to the Gu Group, but why would Gu Xingye care about that?
Chen Qi fell silent as well. After a long while, she asked, "What will happen to the company if we don't get new funding?"
Zhao Pingchuan said, "If it's just a lack of funding, we'll simply grow more slowly. Hengtu has stabilized now and can survive on its own."
Relieved, Chen Qi patted her chest. "That's good."
As long as the company could keep running, it wasn't the worst-case scenario.
But Zhao Pingchuan's next words shattered his hopes. "What I'm afraid of is that Gu Xingye has something else up his sleeve. He won't stop until he brings Hengtu down."
Zhao Pingchuan had guessed right.
Cutting off Hengtu's investments was only his opening move. Soon, he began poaching customers with low prices.
The Gu Group had numerous subsidiaries, so producing a competing product to Hengtu's was no difficult task. With their deep pockets, they could easily outlast Hengtu.
That move cut off Hengtu's lifeline and left Zhao Pingchuan overwhelmed.
At the Gu Group, the secretary handed Gu Xingye a stack of documents. "Mr. Gu, the projects you specified are all here. I've compiled a list of prospective clients, many of whom are currently working with Hengtu."
Gu Xingye took them and glanced through the list, secretly astonished. Hengtu had already captured most of the market in this field. It was hard to believe the other company was a small business that had only been around for three years.
Holding the cap of his fountain pen, he murmured, "Zhao Pingchuan, I really can't underestimate you."
He asked his secretary, "How did the talks go? Have those factories agreed to switch to our product?"
The secretary nodded. "Our price is only seventy percent of Hengtu's. Most factories have agreed to use our product. Only a small number are sticking with their original system, saying switching to a new one is too much trouble."
Gu Xingye frowned slightly, but his expression soon relaxed. "That's enough. Let's see how much longer Zhao Pingchuan can hold out."
The secretary respectfully withdrew from the office, though he couldn't help wondering what Mr. Gu hoped to accomplish by hurting himself almost as much as his enemy.
Still, he wasn't foolish enough to question his boss's decision.
In Hengtu's conference room, all the core staff were seated around the table. Zhao Pingchuan was looking through customer data, and the atmosphere was tense.
After a while, Zhao Pingchuan finished reading and asked Lin Zhou, "What feedback have customers given about their experience with our system?"
Lin Zhou shared the survey results. "Most customers who canceled said our system runs smoothly and has a clear interface. It was purely a matter of the price difference."
Zhao Pingchuan nodded, his expression relaxing a little. "If that's the case, it's not a big problem."
Chen Qi was still worried. "Pingchuan, Gu is selling theirs for only seventy percent of our price. Aren't they taking a loss just to drum up business? How can a small company like ours outlast them?"
Zhao Pingchuan said, "When I first decided to work on SaaS, I considered this possibility. That's why I placed special emphasis on the details of the user experience to improve user stickiness. The thirty percent price difference isn't a problem. Once those customers compare the two, they'll discover the problems with Gu's product."
His optimism was contagious, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. As long as Mr. Zhao's judgment was sound, everything would be fine.
At that moment, Chen Mo, who rarely spoke up, raised a hand. "Should we lower our price a little? Or run a promotion, like giving customers a free month when they buy a year?"
Lin Zhou thought it was a good idea and praised Chen Mo. "Not bad, Chen Mo. You know about promotions too!"
Chen Mo said sheepishly, "That's what I've seen in business wars."
Zhao Pingchuan smiled too, then explained, "What you're talking about is a price war. But we could never beat them at that, so we can only compete on product quality."
He thought for a moment, then made the decision. "Not only are we not lowering the price, we're not taking any countermeasures at all. Whatever the original price was, that's what it stays."
Chen Qi was puzzled. "Why is that?"
The bigger the price gap, the less likely users were to choose them, wasn't it?
Zhao Pingchuan casually pushed the documents aside, the corners of his mouth curling up, his eyes showing his determination to win. "If you mark something priced at one hundred down by twenty percent, users will think it's only worth eighty. Hengtu only sells things worth one hundred."
Though Zhao Pingchuan knew what he was doing, Hengtu's immediate difficulties were plain to see.
Ji Ran came out to use the bathroom before bed and saw that the light in the study was still on. He quietly pushed the door open and, sure enough, found his brother still working.
"Brother, it's so late. Why aren't you asleep yet?" Ji Ran glanced at the time. It was nearly midnight.
Zhao Pingchuan smiled. "Just the last few pages of a document. I'll be done soon. Go get some rest."
Ji Ran sat down beside him and said, "Then I'll keep you company while you read for a bit."
With that, he sat down, leaned over the desk, and turned his head to watch Zhao Pingchuan.
Late at night, the study was quiet, with only the sound of pages turning. It was as though they had gone back to the early days of starting the business, when they had still been squeezed into a tiny rented apartment. Whenever one of them worked late, the other would keep him company.
Zhao Pingchuan smiled without realizing it and continued reading.
Half an hour later, when he closed the document, he found that the person beside him had fallen asleep.
The fluorescent light overhead cast a shadow beneath Ji Ran's eyelashes. Zhao Pingchuan leaned closer, tracing the face he knew so well with his eyes. The eyebrows, eyes, and bridge of his nose were all features he had seen up close countless times. When his gaze moved to Ji Ran's pale lips, it caught there. A mysterious attraction urged him closer and closer.
I really want to kiss him.
They look so soft.
Asleep, Ji Ran was completely unguarded, like a well-behaved little animal. Zhao Pingchuan wanted nothing more than to bundle him into his arms and take him everywhere.
It took every ounce of his self-control to dismiss the thought of kissing him. Instead, he moved gently and picked up the sleeping man.
The sudden feeling of weightlessness made Ji Ran open his eyes, and for a moment, he panicked.
Soon, a gentle voice, familiar to his very bones, soothed him. "Go back to sleep, Ranran."
The little bit of wakefulness Ji Ran had vanished in an instant, and he fell fast asleep again.
Feeling the weight in his arms, Zhao Pingchuan found himself reluctant to put him down.
But as a good older brother, he could only carry Ji Ran back to his room.
He treasured every step of the short walk from the study to the bedroom. At last, he gently laid Ji Ran on the bed, carefully tucked him in, turned off the light, and left.