ryethenovel Chapter 16 Heiji Company
Chapter 16 Heiji Company
Wang Lang pushed open the conference room door and parted ways with Zhu Ge.
At the other end of the corridor, several lights in Group Two were on, so Shen Tingyun should have arrived by now.
The layout of Group Two was similar to that of Group Four, and some people had already opened their spreadsheets and started working in their cubicles.
The air smelled of coffee mixed with printing paper, and the clatter of keyboards was interspersed with the occasional ring of a cell phone.
Shen Tingyun sat at her workstation by the window, the screen lit up, displaying a densely packed data table. She rested her chin on one hand, while the index finger of her other hand gently slid across the mouse.
Wang Lang knocked twice on the partition. Shen Tingyun looked up, saw it was him, and a hint of surprise flashed in her eyes.
"Good morning." Wang Lang walked to her workstation and said in a low voice, "Are you free? I need to ask you something."
Shen Tingyun minimized the data table, turned her chair around to face him, and said, "Go on."
"I received an order for health products from a company called Heiji."
Wang Lang noticed that Shen Tingyun's eyebrows visibly twitched when she heard the words "Heilongjiang Jilin Company".
"Lai Ge Bao gave this to me. I heard this order circulated through your second group, but you didn't take it in the end. Do you know why?" Wang Lang continued to ask.
"That client's request... was a bit strange." Shen Tingyun tilted her chin up, glancing at the ceiling out of the corner of her eye as she recalled something.
The morning sunlight streamed through the window, falling on her upturned chin—the curve that descended from her earlobe, gently curved along her jawline, and ended at the tip of her chin, as clean as if drawn with a single stroke of a pen.
"Do you see any problems with this profit and loss statement?"
Shen Tingyun took out a document, opened one of the pages, and saw a striking red curve that was so steep that it was almost parallel to the vertical axis.
"When we presented our proposal, he didn't even look at the profit margin. He just flipped to the sales forecast page, drew a line on it, and said, 'Can it be steeper than this?'" As she spoke, Shen Tingyun tucked her hair behind her ear, revealing a small section of her earlobe, which was illuminated by the light and appeared a light pink.
"It sounds like he's in a rush to boost sales," Wang Lang analyzed.
Shen Tingyun nodded: "It is indeed urgent. Normal customers would prefer you to take your time so they can negotiate a lower price. But this person is doing the opposite, rushing you like you're in a hurry to be reborn."
As she spoke, Shen Tingyun turned her face to face Wang Lang.
Wang Lang noticed a few stray hairs hanging down from her forehead, resting above her cheekbone, swaying gently with her breathing.
"In short, something was wrong, so our group didn't answer."
The air was filled with the aroma of the light white peach oolong tea on Shen Tingyun's table, mixed with the occasional milky fragrance, and warmed by the light.
Wang Lang pressed further, "Did he mention anything about financing or anything like that?"
"I don't remember." Shen Tingyun shook her head.
"Thanks, but I still need to go see the boss." Wang Lang prepared to leave.
As the two stood up, their eyes met, and Wang Lang could see his own reflection in her deep brown pupils.
"Then be careful, that boss has a very nice way of speaking."
"Huh? Oh—" Wang Lang suddenly realized that he had been staring at her for a while, and it would be impolite to keep staring.
Shen Tingyun looked at him quietly, a faint smile in her eyes, it was hard to tell whether it was friendliness or insight.
"Thanks!" Wang Lang turned and walked towards the door, but after taking a couple of steps he realized he was going the wrong way; the direction he was going was towards the tea room.
He quickly turned around, pretending that he had intended to take a detour anyway. Luckily, Shen Tingyun was already sitting down and looking at the screen, and didn't look up.
……
Back at her workstation, Sister Zhou was watching a Korean drama with her headphones on. The male lead on the screen was holding the female lead's hand in the rain, and the background music could be heard clearly even through the headphones.
Sister Zhou was so engrossed in watching that she didn't even bother to drink the coffee beside her, which had gone cold.
Wang Lang went through the information about Heiji Company again.
Looking at the pages again with the clues given by Shen Tingyun, something seemed off—the profit forecast column had ridiculously large numbers, but the cost column was almost empty.
A company that sells health products has zero R&D costs and zero quality control costs. The only expense is "packaging design fees," which account for 40% of the total cost. The packaging is four times more expensive than the product itself.
"Are they selling the product or the box?" Wang Lang took out his phone and sent a message to the customer to schedule a meeting.
After sending the message, Wang Lang thought he would have to wait a while, but to his surprise, the other party replied instantly:
"Is this afternoon okay? It's convenient for us anytime."
So urgent?
Wang Lang thought for a moment, then instead of replying immediately, he opened another page—the homepage of the "Heiji Health" flagship store on an e-commerce platform. The store had a rating of 4.2, which wasn't high.
Clicking into the comments section, the first few pages were all positive reviews with pictures, the writing style so consistent it seemed like it was all written by the same person. Scrolling through a few more pages, negative reviews started to appear:
"The color of the water is wrong; it's completely different from what customer service described."
"It's supposed to be made with wild black goji berries, but it tastes like artificial sweetener."
"I requested a refund, but customer service said they don't accept refunds once the package has been opened."
Wang Lang took several screenshots, saved them to his photo album, and then replied to the customer:
"Okay, is 3 PM okay?"
The other party replied instantly: "No problem! I'll send you the address."
At noon, Wang Lang and Zhu Ge were at the village base again.
"So, what did Shen Tingyun say?"
"This company is something else," Wang Lang repeated what Shen Tingyun had said.
After listening, Zhu Ge slurped up a mouthful of rice noodles with pickled cabbage and shredded pork: "So he just wants to boost the numbers? Why would he want to boost the numbers?"
"I don't know, but I'll find out when I meet with the person in charge this afternoon."
"Are you going alone?" Zhu Ge looked up at him.
"Um."
Zhu Ge thought for a moment and said, "Then you should pay attention. Some contracts have very detailed breach of contract clauses, and the responsibility of the agency is much heavier than that of the client."
Wang Lang was stunned for a moment. He had been so focused on looking at Heiji's information that he hadn't taken a closer look at the draft contract terms.
……
At 2:40 PM, Wang Lang left the company.
Heiji Company's address is in an industrial park in Nandi District, a 20-minute taxi ride away. After getting in the car, Wang Lang read the contract again—Zhu Ge was right, the breach of contract clauses were written in dense verses for two pages, and the operator would bear full responsibility for "all legal consequences arising during the operation".
In plain terms: If something goes wrong, you're the one who has to take the blame.
Wang Lang folded the contract and put it in his pocket.
The mountain city outside the train window receded into the distance, and the light rail glided over the elevated bridge overhead, the afternoon sun making the tracks gleam.
At the entrance of the industrial park, there is a gray-white building with a few tiles missing from the exterior wall. The ground floor is a courier station, and the words "Heilongjiang Health Preservation" are pasted on the second-floor window. The font is flamboyant, but the words are pasted crookedly.
Wang Lang stood downstairs and looked up at the crookedly pasted sign.
A company that can't even put its signboard up straight is trying to achieve a sales curve that's steeper than the vertical axis.
He straightened his shirt collar and walked into the stairwell.
There was a damp, musty smell in the stairwell on the second floor, and the fire extinguisher in the corner was covered in dust. Wang Lang pushed open the glass door to the second floor, and a strong floral fragrance wafted out, the cloying sweetness of air freshener.
There was no one at the front desk.
To be precise, there was a table at the front desk with a bunch of artificial flowers on it. Next to it was an acrylic sign that read "Heiji Health Technology Co., Ltd." and next to the sign was a printed sheet with the handwritten words "Please go straight ahead".
Wang Lang walked down the corridor to an office at the end, the door of which was half-open.
"Hello Mr. Li, this is Wang Lang, the operations specialist who contacted you this morning."
A man in his forties stood up from his chair. He had a round face, was slightly overweight, and wore a collared polo shirt with the "Heilongjiang Health Preservation" logo embroidered on the chest. He walked over quickly, grasped Wang Lang's hands, and shook them three times.
"I'm Li Wei, just call me Lao Li. Come, come, have a seat."
Tea sets were already laid out on the office desk, with two cups of goji berry tea steaming. Next to them, a row of products was neatly stacked—dark purple glass jars with gold lids, and the jars were printed with images of high mountains and snow-covered areas, along with the words: "Wild Black Goji Berries from 4000 Meters Altitude".
Wang Lang sat down, picked up a can and looked at it: 398 yuan, 60 grams.
Before he could even speak, Li Wei had already begun his introduction:
"Teacher Wang, our products are absolutely top-notch in the industry." Regardless of their profession, people in Chongqing can address each other as "teacher".
"Wild black goji berries grown at altitudes above 4000 meters have 20 times the anthocyanin content of blueberries. You know anthocyanins, right? They're antioxidants and anti-aging agents, which are beneficial for both young and old people."
Hmm? Why does that sound so familiar?
The boss has worked on health and wellness programs on TV before, right? He's not going to make a decision that goes against his ancestors' wishes again, is he?
Wang Lang immediately became alert.