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Chapter 828: Chapter 720: Proxy (Subscribe please!)
January 13th.
The last day of the final exams.
Tang Qing had finished his exam in the morning, while Lin Jiaxue would not be done until the afternoon.
Underneath the teaching building where Lin Jiaxue was taking her exam, Tang Qing found a chair to sit on casually, with a stylish electric bike placed beside him, identical to the design he had drafted for his uncle.
A few simple colors matched up.
The whole electric bike exuded elements of youth and sportsmanship.
Since its nationwide release on January 10th, this electric bike had achieved impressive sales.
With a full-force promotion across all channels, Sheng Tang Group had set up a campaign where spending a certain amount would get you a discount on the electric bike.
With this coupon, you could get a significant discount at your uncle’s big store, or even if you didn’t want to buy a bike, you could use this coupon along with a receipt to collect a fine gift for free.
His uncle’s electric bikes were sold through both franchising and direct sales models.
Every provincial flagship store was directly operated, taking up considerable space, while the others were franchises. However, considering the cost and the hunger marketing strategy, the distribution was only opened up to the city level, which was already quite extensive, nearly five hundred stores.
In addition to the hundreds of stores from the Sheng Tang Group advertising,
every jewelry company associated with Tang Kai was helping out, which broadened the coverage even more. Every significant jewelry company in Huaxia had business dealings with Tang Kai’s jewelry group.
Now, other jewels can’t be assured,
but thinking of jade wholesalers,
Tang Kai was definitely the top choice in Southeast Asian countries because he had a stable supply, high-quality jade, and fair prices. Currently, the jade output from the Myanmar Economic Zone was still not open to the public.
He even, leveraging the Myanmar Asia Chamber of Commerce’s influence and abiding by the mutual support principle among chamber members, became acquainted with other eight influential family members within Myanmar.
Thus,
through various cooperations and exchanges,
Tang Kai had now become a pivotal figure in the Southeast Asian jewelry industry, especially in jade. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say he dominated half the industry. Thus, even without offering money, a call from Tang Kai would suffice for jewelry companies in both domestic and Southeast Asia to favor him.
Is it just about hanging a few banners and giving away coupons to customers?
Easy.
As long as there’s a stable supply, these are minor affairs.
Besides, both TV media and online media were going crazy, especially Comet Video, and there were even prize quiz games and obligatory pop-up ads involved.
The promotion had made this electric bike universally known, and the impact had been surprisingly excellent.
Prior to going public, the pre-orders alone had exceeded twenty thousand units.
Just on the first day, due to the maximum discounts, all stores nationwide sold a total of twenty-five thousand units, and the sales maintained above twenty thousand for the following days.
The daily drop in sales was not significant, which could be considered a massive success.
Then,
Tang Kai directly sent over three commemorative edition electric bikes.
At the time, Tang Qing was stunned, wondering why Tang Kai was sending him electric bikes. Tang Kai retorted irritably, "It wouldn’t hurt to take Jiaxue out for a ride occasionally, or use them for the servants to buy groceries."
Tang Qing thought it wasn’t a bad idea.
He didn’t need them for groceries since his training area provided all his food supplies.
Riding them with Lin Jiaxue was quite an enjoyable experience indeed, so he happily accepted them. Today at noon was the first time he’d used an electric bike to take Lin Jiaxue to her place, and it seemed pretty good.
He sat on the chair.
Beside him, a fashionable electric bike.
It captivated quite a few female students.
"So handsome."
"Forget about it, that’s Tang Qing from the first-year finance major. I heard about him long ago. I even sneaked into the last New Year’s Gala. He has a girlfriend, and she’s really pretty and talented..."
"Shut up, don’t bring up such a heartbreaking topic. Walk slower, let me look a little longer."
"Infatuated..."
"..."
Tang Qing selectively turned deaf.
Often, he heard a lot of such comments, and honestly, they were rather embarrassing.
He touched his face, thinking whether he should tone it down a bit. Drawing this much attention was indeed a bit of a psychological burden. In his past life, he could only captivate Lin Jiaxue and Wang Yan.
Thinking of Wang Yan,
Tang Qing realized he had seen her only once in the past few months and was unaware of how she was doing recently.
Recently, having been so affectionate with Lin Jiaxue, Wang Yan’s presence had gradually faded. But with the holidays approaching and his return to Qingyan City imminent, he was bound to meet his old classmates, and Wang Yan, his three-year desk-mate, was someone he couldn’t avoid.
In his previous life, he experienced unrequited love, mutual love, and nostalgic love, losing those sixteen years in regrets. Erasing sixteen years of memories was no easy task.
"Brother Tang."
A voice interrupted Tang Qing’s thoughts.
He looked up.
It was Zhu Zhiyuan, the class top student. Looking to the side, there was a girl with an ordinary appearance beside him. They were holding hands, making their relationship obvious, although Zhu Zhiyuan was an honest person, but who said honest people couldn’t have girlfriends.
"Zhiyuan, accompanying your girlfriend?" Tang Qing greeted with a smile.
Zhu Zhiyuan blushed and nodded a bit, "This is my girlfriend, Zhao Yun, ’Yun’ with the grass radical, from the same village. We have been classmates from elementary to high school. We promised each other to get into Fudan University."
Tang Qing looked at them both, surprised.
These two, it turned out they were childhood sweethearts.
"That’s really wonderful, haha, I hope you can always remember your first intention and make it till the end," Tang Qing said. He meant it sincerely as surviving through all those years and still being together was precious, making their future marriage likely more stable and happy.
Zhu Zhiyuan found it a bit old-fashioned, but it seemed normal for him as Tang Qing often showed a maturity beyond his age. Zhu Zhiyuan chuckled and said, "Thanks, Tang Bro, is this... your car?"
He had noticed the car earlier because it looked familiar, but now that he thought about it, wasn’t this the electric car Tang Qing had designed? It was already in production? Zhu Zhiyuan was amazed.
His family was not well off, and they didn’t have a computer, so naturally, he hadn’t seen the extensive advertising for this electric car.
"Yeah, not bad, right?" Tang Qing nodded.
"What do you mean ’not bad’? It looks like your design got approved, congratulations! I’m envious of you being so talented, drawing a design without even using a ruler and still making it look so good."
Zhu Zhiyuan remembered how Tang Qing used to sketch the designs during class, and his admiration was genuine.
Sketching mechanical structures and visual diagrams without a ruler was beyond even a professional. Zhu Zhiyuan was no novice; Tang Qing’s drawing skills were truly inscrutable.
"Thanks," Tang Qing smiled.
"This was designed by you?" Zhao Yun exclaimed with her hand over her mouth.
Zhu Zhiyuan might ignore worldly affairs, but that didn’t mean she lacked awareness.
Although her major was unrelated to design, some of her courses touched on media and business models. One teacher’s assignment had been to research and report on the advertising impact and future development of a new online video service.
Although they were just bluffing about, she had seen the online advertisements.
She knew about this electric car, she had followed subsequent news about it, and she was quite aware of its sales. She couldn’t believe it was designed by the young man before her, was it really that shocking?
"Yes, but I only designed the exterior," Tang Qing nodded in acknowledgment.
"I personally saw Tang Bro sketch the design of this car, his strokes, his speed, it was really... Tang Bro, was this the design fee they gave you?" Zhu Zhiyuan asked curiously.
"Yeah, the boss is too stingy. He didn’t give me a penny for the design, just gave a few electric cars," Tang Qing playfully complained about his uncle’s stinginess, of course, just in jest.
But Zhu Zhiyuan took it seriously.
"What, how could they do this? Such a great design should sell for tens of thousands at least. Just a few electric cars for it, that’s too much! Yes, sue them," he said, filled with righteous indignation.
Zhu Zhiyuan’s girlfriend rolled her eyes at him.
Tens of thousands.
Given the car’s sales and the company’s power.
The fee of tens of thousands for the design would be laughable, not dared to be offered by anyone as taking advantage isn’t done this way. Such a talented designer being treated like this, it would not be odd if competitors tried to steal him.
"Er... it’s okay, we are all relatives. It’s not about the money," Tang Qing said, not expecting Zhu Zhiyuan to take such a stand.
Upon hearing this.
They suddenly understood.
No wonder it was just a few cars as a token, it was because they were relatives. That made sense. Well, sensible or not, it still meant having a stingy relative, Zhu Zhiyuan thought.
"Tang Bro, what’s the county-level distributor price for this electric car?" Zhao Yun suddenly asked.
"That, it hasn’t been opened up yet," Tang Qing replied.
Currently, the dealership for this electric car was only at the city level, with county-level dealerships to start recruitment after the New Year. The goods were good enough to sell themselves; having established a reputation at the city level would make things much easier at the county level.
"I know, I just wanted to get a head start. My brother has always been doing motorcycle repairs, and he wants to try selling electric cars after the New Year. If it’s inconvenient, just forget I mentioned it," Zhao Yun explained, looking at Tang Qing with hopeful eyes.
"This is currently confidential, I really can’t disclose it, but if your brother is really going into business, I can help out by then, getting a county distributorship should be no problem. Just give me a heads up in advance so I can speak to my relative, and maybe get you a discount."
Tang Qing of course knew the price for a county-level agency but couldn’t tell her as it was his uncle’s company’s internal information not yet made public.
A county distributorship was a simple matter for him.
Whoever wasn’t going to be an agent.
"Thank you, Tang Bro," Zhao Yun smiled happily.
Her own elder brother was not very smart, slightly slow, which suited him for technical work. He had also been supporting her education and expenses since their parents had passed on, placing a lot on him.
Just last year, he finally got married, and by mid-year, his wife was pregnant, so he thought about earning more to support the upcoming child.
She mentioned this while talking over the phone with her brother, he was still undecided between electric cars and motorcycles, and which brand to go with. If there was a real opportunity, this electric car was it, especially knowing someone from the manufacturing company, that was an advantage.
"Don’t mention it, go on with your business, I’m waiting for someone here," Tang Qing said with a smile.
"Alright, really, thank you Tang Bro."
Zhu Zhiyuan of course knew about the siblings’ circumstances, his eyes filled with gratitude."
After they finished.
They left happily.
Unbeknownst to them, as they prepared to leave to go buy some local products to take back home, they would have such a windfall.
