Forced Me to Regress, Huh?

Outside the factory, Wang Anquan thought, Brother Zhu has been talking nonsense this whole time.

They had just graduated from high school, and in his eyes, Cheng Zhu had no experience in e-commerce.

He didn’t own a store, nor had he ever received negative reviews from customers.

He even lied when the factory owner asked him how old he was, claiming he was born in 1992.

Wang Anquan suspected, If someone asked what Chinese zodiac sign corresponds to 1992, Brother Zhu probably won’t be able to answer.

But after another cigarette, the boss’s attitude towards Cheng Zhu changed completely.

Cheng Zhu called him boss, and now the factory owner also called Cheng Zhu boss.

Moreover, the factory owner said in a bitter tone, “Boss, there’s really no one who negotiates prices like you.”

“How is that possible? The product we just talked about, at the price I quoted, you’ll definitely make a profit,” Cheng Zhu said immediately.

He was quite satisfied with this factory.

The reason was simple. This factory met his requirements—it had texture and no quality.

Cheng Zhu had always felt that such products should strive to be like silk stockings.

Didn’t they look full of texture? Didn’t they feel smooth to the touch?

It was enough to meet the visual and tactile requirements.

As for quality, the so-called negative review was proof of its shortcomings.

Sometimes, you have to treat these things as consumables, Cheng Zhu thought.

In the apparel sector, the refund rate was relatively high.

Many customers even used the products and then returned them.

For example, they might wear a piece of clothing once and then return it within the return window.

However, it wasn’t so easy to return these ‘battle-worn items’!

Even if you were thick-skinned enough to return the natural flavor of your girlfriend or wife, it had to be in pristine condition.

You already fucking damaged it to this extent, but you’re telling me you want a refund? Are you out of your mind?

This was one of the reasons why these products had a low return rate.

Of course, the quality can’t be too bad. Cheng Zhu knew this very well.

It couldn’t be too good or too bad.

Cheng Zhu saw that the factory owner was adamant about not lowering the prices any further, so he immediately stubbed out his cigarette, walked into the factory, and picked up a product he was interested in. “Fine, I won’t haggle over the price. Can you add a zipper to this part?”

The factory owner imagined the design and exclaimed, “Awesome!”

Wang Anquan looked at where Cheng Zhu was pointing and couldn’t help but turn his head. When he thought about the benefits of adding a zipper there, his heart began to beat faster. How can Brother Zhu talk about that with a straight face?! It’s crazy!

He suddenly felt his mouth go dry, while Cheng Zhu was still talking fluently.

The reason was simple. The current Guanyun had not developed into the self-sufficient system it would become later, when it could support half of the sexy apparel in the country and even the world with just one small town.

At present, Guanyun only had a few notable factories that had made a fortune by making these types of items, leading many others to follow suit.

After negotiating the price down, Cheng Zhu wanted the factory owner to help him with dropshipping, but the owner was somewhat unwilling and said that he had never done it before.

“I’d have to hire people to help you ship the packages, and coordinating it all is a hassle.” He didn’t expect that after negotiating the price down so much, this young man would still want more.

Cheng Zhu began to paint a bigger picture, explaining that many factories in the country were already doing this, that it could enhance competitiveness, and so on…

In fact, from a certain perspective, dropshipping was indeed a service that emerged from the increasing competition among factories.

They would compete on products, prices, and everything else. In the end, the only thing left to compete on would be service!

For Cheng Zhu, this would save time, effort, and costs. More importantly, it would reduce his inventory pressure and lower capital investment.

To be honest, he didn’t think that, with his experience, the products wouldn’t sell like hotcakes.

In this day and age, merchants on Taobao can still use black hat tactics on the ZTC advertising system.

Cheng Zhu was an expert in this field.

He could leverage the lowest promotional expense in exchange for the greatest value.

However, since his business was just starting out, he still needed to secure as many benefits as possible.

Moreover, as a new company, it wouldn’t be easy to negotiate shipping prices with courier companies, and he wouldn’t be able to get favorable rates.

But factories were different. They had been shipping goods to customers all over the country and had already negotiated their rates with courier companies.

The price difference here was quite a bit of money.

After listening to Cheng Zhu for a while, the factory owner absorbed some of his points and acknowledged that dropshipping indeed provided strong competitive advantages for factories, which could attract many customers, especially those just starting their businesses.

Young people nowadays are not simple. He looked at Cheng Zhu and sighed in admiration.

“I’ll think about it, okay?” He didn’t want to say anything definitive.

“Sure.” Cheng Zhu added him on WeChat and left his contact number.

After finishing this, he pointed at the few products he had selected and said casually, “Boss, the samples have to be free!”

* * *

In the taxi, Wang Anquan was clutching a bag full of samples.

He was completely in awe of Brother Zhu.

After hearing the factory owner had agreed to give the samples for free, Brother Zhu had even picked out a few more items.

At this moment, the young man looked down at the contents of the bag, feeling his blood boiling and his heart beating faster.

How could a young man like him withstand this?

In contrast, Cheng Zhu was already tired of these older styles.

He planned to first find a reliable factory partner and then design his own new styles.

The second factory Cheng Zhu was heading to wasn’t far away, only about a ten-minute drive.

When they were about to arrive, Wang Anquan felt that the samples in his hands were a little hot and asked, “Brother Zhu, will it be bad for me to take these things to another factory? Should I put them in my bag?”

“It doesn’t matter. Comparing prices when sourcing goods is perfectly normal. Just let the boss see them. We’re here to give him an opportunity to make money, so what’s there to be embarrassed about?” Cheng Zhu raised his eyebrows.

Students were often thin-skinned.

He scolded Wang Anquan, “Don’t you fucking turn into one of those people-pleasers!”

These days, people-pleasers were becoming more and more common.

“Huh?” Wang Anquan was stunned at first, but his admiration for Cheng Zhu kept soaring, so he quickly added, “Okay, got it.”

Honestly, he wanted to be like Brother Zhu.

Just today alone, there had been several moments when he thought Cheng Zhu was incredibly cool.

That attitude, that swagger—man, I want to learn!

It was like when you went shopping with your mom and saw her haggling for a small discount. You might feel embarrassed.

But if someone your age managed to negotiate the seller into silence, you might think, “Wow, that’s awesome!”

Human nature was complicated as hell.

At this moment, Wang Anquan saw Cheng Zhu pick up his phone and suddenly take some photos.

He was taking pictures of the samples.

“Brother Zhu, who are you sending them to?” Wang Anquan immediately became anxious.

It wasn’t that he dared to control Cheng Zhu. He was simply worried that his brother might include his face in the photos.

He was still too thin-skinned.

“Don’t worry. You’re not in the shots.” Cheng Zhu saw through his thoughts at a glance. “I’m looking for a model, so I need to show the samples.

“We’re about to get into e-commerce, so we definitely need product photos,” Cheng Zhu said matter-of-factly.

Upon hearing this, Wang Anquan glanced down at the samples in the bag that could only be described as ‘threadbare’.

“Find… find a model? Take… take photos?”

—Brother Zhu, you’re my god!

At this moment, Wang Anquan’s phone rang again. It was another message from Chen Rongrong.

The message was: “What are you and Cheng Zhu doing?”

Previously, Wang Anquan would have chatted enthusiastically and wouldn’t have noticed the underlying tone and attitude revealed in the message.

Of course, he didn’t notice any extra nuances now.

But for some reason, he looked down at the samples in his arms and suddenly lost interest in chatting with Chen Rongrong.

Instead, he began chatting with Cheng Zhu about the product photos.