Guide To Lying Flat And Getting Rich As A Kept Alpha - Chapter 70
70
Luo Hetu ultimately “snuck out” to the Cheng Corporation.
She didn’t ride a bicycle; she took a taxi instead. In truth, Luo Hetu was currently dirt poor. Apart from the ten thousand yuan Zhang Hanyu had given her, which she had already spent some of, she had almost no money left. She was waiting for all her business ventures to start generating income to ease her financial drought.
Upon arriving at the Cheng Corporation, she took the elevator straight to the chairman’s office. The door was closed.
She knocked and pushed it open.
No one was there.
She sent a text to Xiao Zhang, and after a while, Xiao Zhang replied: “Chairman Cheng is in a meeting on the 16th floor.”
Luo Hetu was about to head there when Xiao Zhang texted again: “I suggest you wait in the office.”
“Did she tell you not to let me come find her?”
“Well… Chairman Cheng has been extremely busy lately and isn’t in a great mood.”
Luo Hetu scratched her head, sitting quietly in Cheng Youqing’s office, fidgeting with the tea tray while waiting.
After a while, Cheng Youqing returned to the office. The moment she saw Luo Hetu, her expression grew even colder.
Luo Hetu shivered, cleared her throat, and stood up, trailing behind Cheng Youqing. She watched as Cheng Youqing sat at her desk, sorting through documents without sparing her a single glance.
Luo Hetu sat across from the desk, now fidgeting with the pen holder.
An odd silence hung in the air until Cheng Youqing finally spoke: “If you have nothing important to do, don’t stay here. I’m busy and don’t have time to entertain you.”
Luo Hetu stopped playing with the pen holder and sat up straight. “I heard you’ve run into some problems.”
“No need for you to worry about it. Why did you come back? Isn’t Shenzhen great?”
Luo Hetu: “I might have a solution.”
“Oh, you’re so capable.” Cheng Youqing replied, her tone icy as she continued reviewing documents, showing no real interest in discussing the issues.
Well, this time she’d really messed up and offended her.
Luo Hetu decided to take a roundabout approach.
Keeping her tone steady, she continued, “The Chen family is fighting for the DVD market, right? There’s no need for the Cheng Corporation to keep pouring money into the DVD project, but you can’t just abandon that market either. Ideally, you’d shift focus to breaking through with a new project to ease the pressure here, but the new projects haven’t made much progress either, so the e-commerce platform is struggling too, isn’t it?”
Cheng Youqing remained silent.
Luo Hetu pressed on: “While I was in Shenzhen, I noticed something. Building an e-commerce platform is a great idea, and there’s no issue with jumping in now, but internet penetration is still too low. Neither merchants nor consumers have much awareness of e-commerce. This means we need to lay a solid foundation in technical services early on, heavily promote it, and align with the expansion of internet access to successfully roll out the platform. This isn’t something that can be done overnight; it’s a relatively long-term investment. Meanwhile, it’s unclear how long the balance in the DVD market can hold. If the Chen family pushes harder, the Cheng Corporation will have to divert funds from other projects to cope, which puts you in a very passive position.”
Cheng Youqing closed her folder, her tone finally returning to a normal, businesslike one: “Did Xiao Zhang tell you this?”
“She only mentioned a bit about the DVD situation. The rest is my own thinking. I’ve been out for so long; of course I’d have some insights. Otherwise, how could I be your Alpha?”
Cheng Youqing looked at her expressionlessly.
Luo Hetu flashed a goofy, ingratiating smile, like a loyal dog trying to please its owner.
Cheng Youqing: “The video website isn’t progressing quickly either. On one hand, I don’t want to cannibalize our own DVD market right away. On the other, internet speeds are still too slow, making it difficult to watch videos directly on webpages. I estimate VCDs and DVDs will dominate the market for another three to five years before being phased out completely.”
“You’re right. That’s why we didn’t plan to pivot straight to a video website—it’s not a solution. But I’ve thought of an idea. Want to hear it?”
Luo Hetu shifted her tone and continued: “We should keep pushing forward with the e-commerce platform. Nothing gets done overnight, but since we’ve started and we’re on the right track, we’ll definitely move faster than others. I don’t want to let someone else take this piece of the pie.”
“For the DVD side, my idea is to focus on advertising through traditional media. In Shenzhen, I noticed that despite the rapid development of the internet, traditional print media and TV ads are still the main sources of information for most people due to limited internet access.”
“So, we can come up with a simple, memorable slogan and promote the core technology and legitimate market position of the Cheng Corporation’s DVD players across major traditional media. I also met the founder of the largest domestic search engine, and I’ll place ads for our DVDs there. As long as we emphasize our experience, quality, and brand legitimacy in the DVD campaign, that alone will give us a strong competitive edge, even if the Chen family ramps up their advertising and outspends us.”
“Regarding the difficulties in promoting an online shopping platform, if the issue stems from the internet not being widespread enough, then we should expand our channels, starting with the most familiar areas. For many years, the Cheng family has maintained extensive channels for manufacturing and selling furniture and appliances across various regions, collaborating with numerous small factories. We can first build an e-commerce platform for furniture and appliances as a trial, charging no fees to allow merchants to join without any burden. Start by building the platform with minimal costs and gradually expand from there. For e-commerce promotion, we can adopt a combined urban-rural approach, using carpet-style advertising in newspapers and magazines in counties and towns, as well as pop-up ads on search engines. The positioning of the promotion should focus on helping merchants expand their sales channels through e-commerce, emphasizing no fees and affordable prices to attract more merchants and businesses to join. These expenses should not be too high, and with the Cheng family’s current financial situation, we should be able to cover them.”
“E-commerce also heavily relies on logistics. Among the people I know in Shenzhen, there’s someone working in this area who collaborates with the postal service. His business is just starting, with limited staff, mainly operating in big cities and capable of achieving success. I’ll talk to him about this. This is the direction to go, but fully rolling it out will definitely take some time.”
“The two approaches mentioned above are just my ideas for addressing the current challenges with corresponding solutions. Of course, these won’t quickly recover funds. In Shenzhen, internet projects that can make money fast have already been seized by sharp-eyed entrepreneurs, and they’re doing quite well. Other companies are either raising funds or exploring other directions, all waiting for opportunities. Entrepreneurs there are sprouting like mushrooms after rain, with so many creative ideas that they’ll soon fill or even oversaturate various internet markets. So, I’ve been constantly looking for opportunities. Whenever there’s an untapped opportunity, we should seize it immediately. For example, I’ve recently discovered another business opportunity with low costs but great potential if executed well. I’d like to ask if you have any ideas for giving it a try.”
Luo Hetu, full of enthusiasm, said, “Let’s make games!”
…
Cheng Youqing’s businesslike demeanor finally cracked. She looked at Luo Hetu as if she were some strange creature. “Now? We’re talking about work. Where’s the energy to play games with you—cat and mouse? Eagle and chicks?”
“No, I mean making online games. Let those kids addicted to single-player 4399 games experience the joy of domestic online games! It doesn’t require much investment—just a few professionals to write code. I met a team in Shenzhen, and I’m ready to bring them on board. If we do it right, it won’t just break even; it’ll generate a ton of cash flow.”
Cheng Youqing locked eyes with Luo Hetu for a moment, then picked up the phone. “Call XX, XX, and XXX to come in.”
The meeting stretched late into the night, focusing on the points Luo Hetu raised, gathering opinions from others, and drafting a rough budget.
The budget estimate showed that if these projects were steadily implemented, the funds reserved for each project would suffice, with a small surplus, but not much.
Cheng Youqing looked at Luo Hetu. “Your game project—how much investment does it need?”
“Not much. Just enough to buy equipment and pay salaries.”
This was her old expertise, so it wasn’t a challenge for her.
As for why she hadn’t thought of it before… she used to lack money, channels, and enough talent, so she stuck to physical stores. After getting married, the Cheng Corporation wasn’t focused on the internet, and she always felt that a company of its scale should aim for something huge, like an Alibaba.
She’d been thinking too big, forgetting that the internet had only been around for a little over a year and needed time for popularization and initial investment.
Her trip to Shenzhen opened her eyes. She realized no one had recognized the potential of the gaming market yet—only a few hobbyists were tinkering with games. She’d kept their contact info. Back when she was slacking in Jiang City, she hadn’t planned to dive into the internet. When Zhang Hanyu came to her, broke and desperate, she’d guessed Shenzhen was already buzzing with people exploring every facet of the internet. But she’d overlooked that no one was touching games yet.
This was her old turf—she had to seize it fast.
She quickly reassured, “We just need to set up a studio under the Cheng Corporation, focusing on ideas and talent. I guarantee that within six months, we’ll have a game ready, rolled out to every internet café, and we’ll make our first profit.”
“From what you’re saying, the game isn’t a major core project. The money it makes—how much does it tie into the Cheng Corporation’s overall development path?”
“Not much. At most, it’d be a side project for the group.”
“Hmm. It might make some money, but not a lot. For the group, it’s just small potatoes. With funds so tight and so many projects needing constant attention, diverting money to start a game studio might be a stretch for the group.”
“…Yeah.”
Luo Hetu pouted. This was her one shot to get ahead of everyone else and make quick money. But with so many executives present, and the chairman not approving the funds, she couldn’t argue or throw a tantrum on the spot.
Cheng Youqing continued in her formal, leadership tone: “Good that you understand. I’ll allocate 500,000 yuan for you, a chairman-approved project. For office space and equipment, talk to General Manager X.”
Luo Hetu instantly turned into a touched potato.
Even with the group facing difficulties, her wife could still casually toss out a chunk of money for her project. So cool.
None of the other executives objected. Cheng Youqing assigned more work details, emphasizing talent recruitment for each project, building long-term professional teams, and laying a solid foundation for the platform. She instructed General Manager X to focus on traditional media, telling her to report any difficulties so she could personally negotiate long-term partnerships with those media outlets.
Then, back to her businesslike tone with Luo Hetu, she stressed that everything promised had to be executed well. Luo Hetu needed to report progress regularly at the company and stay in constant contact with the executives.
“Since you want to start a game studio under the Cheng Corporation, you’re an employee now. Follow through on the tasks I’ve assigned. If you don’t deliver, I’ll cut your studio’s funding.”
Luo Hetu: “I guarantee I’ll get it done.”
It was her plan to do it well anyway, especially since it was for Cheng Youqing’s group—her family’s business. Of course, she’d give it her all.
With business settled, the Cheng Corporation’s massive machine set new goals and plans, slowly grinding into motion. By the time they got home, it was late. Cheng Youqing went to the study to work some more. As the chairman, she had to think through many things carefully. Luo Hetu’s ideas were just that—ideas. Even before Luo Hetu brought them up, Cheng Youqing had already considered several approaches, but implementing them and addressing any issues required her and the group’s talent to identify, analyze, and solve problems together.
After organizing her immediate tasks, Luo Hetu realized it was past midnight, and her wife still wasn’t planning to sleep.
Her heart ached. She knocked on the study door and opened it. Cheng Youqing was deep in thought and, seeing her enter, said, “Go to bed first.”
She’d been using that tone all day.
Luo Hetu hummed, sat on the sofa, and started picking at the fabric. “I’ll stay here with you.”
Cheng Youqing worked a few more minutes, then suddenly stood up.
Luo Hetu looked up.
Cheng Youqing walked over to her. “You really won’t say a single nice thing to me, will you?”