Chapter 495: Rapid Decay
Time marched into the cold winter, and it was already the end of November 95. On a sunny afternoon, Zhang Yunqi asked Yang Jin to organize a meeting of core executives of United Times.

Li Jilin, general manager of Liansheng Group, Yu Lin, general manager of Lianzhong Company, Hu Zhibiao, general manager of Aiwa Electronics, Zhang Yunfeng, general manager of Zhangji Catering, and Wang Guibing, senior vice president of United Times, all came to the meeting.

In addition to Aiwa, the office space of various business lines under United Times in Lijin is still under renovation, so this summary meeting was held at Aiwa Electronics Operation Center.

Zhang Yunqi comes to the company seldomly now. Yang Jin sorts out all the important matters in advance and reports to him at his residence on time every morning.

When Zhang Yunqi arrived at the Aihua Electronics Operations Center at two o'clock in the afternoon, he met Li Yufei, Lin Lin, and two unfamiliar girls, probably her roommates.

It is not surprising that Li Yufei came here. As the spokesperson of Aiwa Electronics, she often needs to cooperate with Aiwa in some publicity and promotion activities. The marketing department should have similar activities today, but he was surprised that Lin Lin appeared here. Most likely, she came here together.

Zhang Yunqi didn't think much about it. He greeted him with a smile, chatted briefly, and then went to the office for a meeting.

The core executives of United Times are already in place. Except for Hu Zhibiao, these executives who started from scratch with Zhang Yunqi are all very wealthy, and having luxury cars is nothing to them. When Zhang Yunqi walked into the meeting room, they were all talking about the Dongmen Villa.

Now the business focus of the United Times is slowly shifting to the provincial capital of Lijin, so they naturally have to stay here for a long time, and inevitably have to consider buying a house. Dongmen Villa is the only high-end villa complex in Lijin City, and they talked about being neighbors with Zhang Yunqi. This made Hu Zhibiao particularly lonely, because he was the only one among these big guys who had just started to make a fortune.

Zhang Yunqi was very happy.

He sat down and took a sip of tea, and spread a pancake: "What kind of luxury house is the one in Lijin? In 97, we formed a group to buy villas on the Big Wave Bend in Xiangjiang, and watched the Pearl of the Orient return to the motherland."

Everybody laughed.

After a few brief chats, as everyone's time was precious, the meeting officially began and the CEOs of each business line spoke one by one.

The first to speak was Li Jilin.

He focused on the 5,000-acre large-scale lotus shrimp agricultural industrial base project in Lijin City. This is the most important project of Liansheng Group at present and the first time that Liansheng Group has expanded its business overseas. According to Zhang Yunqi's original plan, he wanted to jump out of Lijin, the old nest, based in the provincial capital Lijin, and develop nationwide. However, after half a year of hard work, Li Jilin encountered a series of problems after signing a framework cooperation agreement with the city and district, and was forced to shelve it indefinitely. At the moment, Li Jilin has no good solution.

Wang Guibing was the most direct. He put out his cigarette in the ashtray and said, "In my opinion, if we don't get rid of Qiao Zhiwu, the local tyrant in Lijin, this matter will not be accomplished. I asked Ma Shi to go to the detention center to meet Sun Yalong, the deputy general manager of Jianzhicheng Industry. Sun Yalong was very stubborn and refused to drag Qiao Zhiwu into this. Isn't Qiao Zhiwu a gambler and loan shark? I think we can start from here and find some evidence to send him in, so that we can solve the problem once and for all."

Zhang Yunqi waved his hand: "The quality of the business environment is not something that a few ruffians can influence. Qiao Zhiwu is just the visible hand. How complicated is the network of interests in the city and the district? They want us to feed them, but if we don't want to, nothing can be done. The reason is that simple. In a word, we are here to do business, so we have to do what we have to do. Let's leave the Liansheng Group's project in Lijin as it is for the time being. It may not be a bad thing for us to delay it."

Perhaps not wanting to dampen everyone's confidence, Zhang Yunqi added, "In this world, either the west wind prevails over the east wind, or the east wind prevails over the west wind. Our wind will always come."

After that, when everyone was speculating about what this trend referred to, Zhang Yunqi asked Hu Zhibiao to speak and introduce the situation of Aiwa Electronics.

This month and a half was probably the busiest and most tiring period in Hu Zhibiao's life. He traveled to more than a dozen prefecture-level cities, sleeping in the open air and losing some weight. However, his spirit was still high.

For Hu Zhibiao, the three most important things at Aiwa Electronics right now are marketing, promoting the construction of a large-scale production base in Jiangchuan, and the supply of core components.

With Hu Zhibiao, a marketing genius, in charge of marketing, Zhang Yunqi didn't need to worry about it at all. In one and a half months, Hu Zhibiao used buses, large outdoor advertisements, newspapers and magazines to directly spread the brand image of Aiwa Electronics throughout the streets and alleys of southern Hunan.

The suspense marketing advertisements and large-scale outdoor advertisements of Aiwa Electronic DVD players were both pioneered by Hu Zhibiao. If nothing unexpected happens, they will be recorded as typical cases of Chinese advertising and marketing for future generations to learn from. Of course, spending money is like burning paper. In just one and a half months, the advertising expenditure reached a huge amount of 680 million. Fortunately, the effect is also good.

Throughout October, Aiwa Electronics' sales volume exceeded 10 units, with sales reaching more than 38 million yuan. In the Xiangnan region alone, where the early market promotion work was most extensive, sales exceeded units, accounting for % of the province's DVD player sales, making it the number one brand in the Xiangnan region.

Zhong Renxing, general manager of the Hunan State-owned Assets Corporation, and Zhao Jianqiang, chairman of the Jiangchuan State-owned Investment Corporation, would probably be grinning from ear to ear when they heard such good news, but Zhang Yunqi wanted to know more about what Hu Xianxun would think.

Hu Zhibiao fought so well in the first battle that Zhang Yunqi also wanted to increase his equity option ratio and shorten the exercise period so that he could become the second largest shareholder of Aiwa Electronics as soon as possible.

After the first round of large-scale advertising, Aiwa Electronics' early marketing activities can come to a temporary end. The marketing team is conducting low-intensity marketing in various parts of central China. Next, Hu Zhibiao will contact Philips' component suppliers to discuss supply issues, and secondly, accelerate the construction of Jiangchuan Aiwa Electronics' large-scale production base and strive to complete the first phase of the project before New Year's Day.

After talking about Aiwa Electronics, Yu Lin talked about the business progress of Lianzhong Company.

Lianzhong has now moved to Lijin. Under the leadership of Yu Lin, Lianzhong acquired a state-owned home appliance company in Tianxin District. This state-owned home appliance company is called Xiangai Electric Appliance Co., Ltd. It is not large in scale and its business is limited to Lijin. However, Zhang Yunqi took a fancy to it at first sight and acquired it in full against all odds. In addition to the channel resources that Lianzhong values, Xiangai Electric also has a sales department with an area of ​​2,000 square meters on Yangjiatang Hengjie Street, Qingwu Road.

No one knew better than Zhang Yunqi that Xiangai Electric Appliances' sales office was located on Qingwu Road, the most commercially valuable road in Lijin. This alone ensured that Lianzhong would be invincible in this acquisition, and making money would just be a piece of cake.

After the acquisition, Xiangai Electric changed its name to Lianzhong Electric Co., Ltd. Relying on this subsidiary, Lianzhong will gradually shift the company's strategic focus from building electrical appliance distribution channels to home appliance retail business. However, the business has just started, and Yu Lin still has a lot of preparatory work to do. He needs to properly renovate the original sales department store and organize sufficient supply from home appliance manufacturers. It is expected that the company will officially open to the public on New Year's Day, relying on the home appliance sales peak season from New Year's Day to the Spring Festival, and strive to make a breakthrough in the home appliance retail market in Lijin, the provincial capital.

Next is the Zhangji Catering business. Zhangji Catering, run by Zhang Yunfeng, has done well in the Yuxianli Night Market project in Lijin City, but the catering chain business has been lukewarm and has not developed in the past two years.

After the meeting, Zhang Yunqi and other executives left and left his eldest brother alone to talk about the matter. As they talked, he felt that his eldest brother was in a bad mood. He probably felt that his energy had never been on Zhangji Catering, and that there was very little resource support from all aspects.

Of course this is true.

After Zhang Yunfeng left, Zhang Yunqi sat alone in the office and thought for a while. When he got up and went out, it was already late at night and there were no staff in the office area.

Zhang Yunqi turned off the lights one by one, but on his way through the corridor to the front door, he saw Lin Lin in the reception area. Lin Lin was sitting alone on the sofa, flipping through the brochure of Aiwa Electronics.

Zhang Yunqi was really surprised and asked, "Why are you still here so late? Where are Li Yufei and the others?"

Lin Lin saw Zhang Yunqi, put down the album, stood up and walked over. Without much explanation, she just said, "She went back with her father."

Zhang Yunqi nodded: "Wait for me?"

Lin Lin smiled but said nothing.

Zhang Yunqi turned around and said, "Let's go. I'll take you back."

Lin Lin picked up her bag and followed Zhang Yunqi into the elevator. As the elevator door closed, the scent of orchids filled the small space.

Zhang Yunqi glanced at the girl next to him. The girl was wearing a wide-colored French velvet pleated skirt, white leather boots, and long stockings, which made her look slender and tall. She had thick hair draped over her shoulders, a long and white neck, and beautiful exposed collarbones. At this moment, she was looking at him with a smile on her rosy lips.

The two arrived at the underground parking lot, and Zhang Yunqi walked to the Passat and opened the door.

Lin Lin sat in the passenger seat: "Why didn't you drive the Mercedes?"

Zhang Yunqi said, "It hit a tree and is being repaired."

Lin Lin smiled slightly: "Be more careful when driving next time. Safety is important."

Zhang Yunqi nodded.

Lin Lin said nothing more, and the car became quiet.

The Passat passed through the prosperous Jiefang West Road. Nightclubs and bars lined up on both sides, and hungover drunkards hugged heavily made-up women flashed by from time to time. Rows of hair salons emitting red lights welcomed the busiest business period of the day late at night. Young girls standing under the street lights on the roadside were soliciting passers-by. The smiles on their faces were so cheap, yet so real.

Zhang Yunqi glanced at Lin Lin in the co-pilot seat, thought for a moment, and said, "I can see that you are a very smart girl who knows everything. If you want to know something or need my help, just tell me." Lin Lin turned her head to look at Zhang Yunqi: "Really?"

Zhang Yunqi nodded.

Lin Lin asked: "What if it's a love experience?"

Zhang Yunqi said: "I already have a girlfriend. She is in the Chinese Department of Peking University. She is very talented and is the top scorer in liberal arts in our southern Hunan Province. I received a letter from her a few days ago. She told me in the letter that she is currently writing a novel. I have been talking to her on the phone until three in the morning these past few nights to discuss the plot of the book. It feels very interesting. I am also very happy for her because many people will be quite confused and muddleheaded after entering university, but she has always known her direction and goals."

Lin Lin said: "You are not a talkative person, but you can talk so much about your girlfriend. It seems that she must be a very outstanding girl and a very happy girl."

Zhang Yunqi smiled.

Lin Lin asked again: "Where is Li Yufei?"

Zhang Yunqi said: "Li Yufei is a high school classmate of mine who has a very good relationship with me."

Lin Lin nodded. After a long while, she glanced at the night outside the window, and suddenly smiled faintly and said, "To be honest, I can't help but envy and even jealous that Yu Fei got the endorsement of Aiwa Electronics. Do you think I'm superficial and snobbish?"

"how come."

"Song Junxian thinks so."

"I know that for art students like you, such an opportunity may change your life, so it's normal for you to value it." Zhang Yunqi thought about it and said patiently: "As for Song Junxian, he may not be unaware of the importance of this to you, but he is temporarily unable to help you in these aspects, so he may show disdain. Boys of our age have strong self-esteem, I hope you understand this."

Lin Lin said: "So your rationality is because you are capable."

Zhang Yunqi had to admit that this girl was indeed smart and quick-witted. "That's not wrong. Without money, power or authority, what's the point of living? After all, it's hard for most ordinary people to survive. Of course, I didn't give Li Yufei this opportunity. I'm in business, and in the business world, we only care about return on investment and profit."

Lin Lin turned her head to look at Zhang Yunqi: "Are you saying that there is no value in investing in me?"

Zhang Yunqi said, "From a friend's perspective, I don't want to say this; from the perspective of your boyfriend Song Junxian's roommate, I want to ask you a question."

Lin Lin asked: "What's the problem?"

Zhang Yunqi tried to make his tone as sincere as possible and said, "Do you know where your phone came from?"

Lin Lin smiled faintly and said, "Do you want to teach me a lesson?"

Zhang Yunqi said, "I told you so much today for only one reason. Song Junxian is my roommate. Generally speaking, he's a good guy and quite affectionate. But since we're not the same kind of people, there's no need to make him suffer in the future. I didn't tell him these things because it would be useless to say them."

Lin Lin asked: "Do you think I'm a bad woman?"

Zhang Yunqi said: "There is no need to define yourself as 'bad'. Everyone chooses a different path. It is not good or bad. It is just a life experience. However, when experiencing it, try not to forget to forgive those who have passed through our lives."

"You are very thoughtful."

“Just generalities.”

"So what kind of woman do you think I am?"

"Want to hear the truth?"

"You've been honest enough."

"You don't want a man who can't drop gold coins."

"Do you think you know me well?"

"I wouldn't dare. I'm sorry if that offended you."

"You are indeed a very charming boy." Lin Lin retracted her gaze and turned her head to look at the hazy night that was constantly receding outside the car window. There seemed to be a trace of lonely smile on her fair and beautiful face: "In fact, a long time ago, I knew that there are only three kinds of people in this world. The first kind of people are born with favorable conditions so that they have seen through what the world is like since childhood. The world is arranged for them, with money, power, women, and everything that can satisfy their desires, such as you, Zhang Yunqi; the second kind of people have everything they want, and every hair of theirs will be cared for meticulously, such as Li Yufei; the last kind of people are born with nothing they want. They live in the mud and have to pay a huge price to climb up an inch, such as me."

After listening to Lin Lin's opinion, Zhang Yunqi smiled and said, "It is said that girls mature a few years earlier than boys of the same age. It seems that girls in the art department mature more than ten years earlier than boys of the same age. Song Junxian is probably not your type."

"Do you think I have no feelings for Song Junxian?"

"How could that be? On the contrary, I think you have deep feelings for him. I still remember what happened on the Mid-Autumn Festival in Jiangxinzhou. After returning that night, Ji Ling told me that you could kneel down in front of Liu Mingde to beg him to save Song Junxian. But the problem is, what if you have deep feelings? Deep in your heart, you have another pursuit, another desire. Reality will guide this desire that you don't have, and defeat the things that you don't know how to cherish because you have them."

"You seem to understand human nature."

"Excellent."

"But can you control human nature? It seems that there is no need for you to control it." While saying this, Lin Lin looked at Zhang Yunqi's profile. His beautiful eyes were like the night outside the window, with a hazy light.

It was unknown how long had passed, but Lin Lin smoothed her hair with her slender white hand and moved it to the armrest. It seemed that she accidentally touched Zhang Yunqi's hand holding the gear lever, and she slowly moved closer and held it, tightening her grip.

Passat crosses the Orange Island Bridge.

At this time, the night in Lijin was already very dark!
At the end of the bridge, there are golden neon lights.

Those are the colorful lights flashing from the high-rise buildings on both sides of the Xiangjiang River. Under the colorful lights, the Venus Building, Rongcheng Center, Lijin Future Modern City, Sunshine Imperial View, Xiangjiang No. 18 and other modern buildings stand tall above Lijin City, echoing with the Orange Island in the distance, and appearing stunning in the hazy night. Along the riverside viewing avenue, the new generation of reform and opening-up tycoons, dressed in neat suits and with shiny hair, embrace beautiful women with jewels and gems, walking like a weave, full of wine and sex, and indulging in the world of luxury.

This is an era of utilitarian secularization.

Under the call of "keeping pace with the world trend", the grand narrative is gradually fading away, and people's desire for material things has been fully awakened. This is not worthy of contempt and ridicule. A society oriented towards success is an upward society!

However, at least the truth of value theory should not be just a fantasy in books. If living a glamorous life is the only truth, then where will the concepts that grew out of the land of 5,000 years of agricultural civilization go?

No answer!

History rolls forward like the Xiang River flowing eastward. Whether we like it or not, it will use a silent and magnificent force to carry us who are in a panic to struggle forward in this era, and determine that we are the inevitable mediocrity of this era.

There is no choice.

Everything is born and dies, flourishing and withering.

******