Chapter 244: Someone is Requesting an Audience Outside!

Shen Fei wasn’t wrong in his guess.

Although he wasn’t in a rush about the land procedure, the city authorities weren’t planning to take their time.

After all, with the scar-removal ointment being so popular, the future prospects were easy to predict.

Moreover, Shen Fei had voluntarily given up the city’s favorable policies for small and micro enterprises and was willing to spend three billion yuan to buy a piece of land…

Such a profitable deal was a huge opportunity for the municipal government of Shenzhen.

Fearing that Shen Fei might be poached by other provinces offering better conditions, they wanted to move quickly.

So, early the next morning, Shen Fei received a call from the municipal government.

Urged by the authorities, Shen Fei had no choice but to speed up the process.

Although the paperwork was going smoothly, it still meant that Shen Fei hadn’t had a break for several days.

One moment he was completing the paperwork, and the next, he was reviewing the project plan for “Life串.”

Already busy with his everyday responsibilities, Shen Fei found himself overwhelmed by all the tasks piling up.

After several days, Shen Fei finally managed to get everything sorted out.

At the same time, Shengxing Real Estate, with the help of Jiang Shengcai, had conducted a basic investigation into the factory for the scar-removal ointment in Baiyun District.

“Life串” officially started running after Shen Fei signed the equity transfer agreement with Jilu, securing 70% of the shares and the first round of funding.

Jilu, in turn, led Han Lixin to begin exploring the major first-tier cities.

Everything was progressing smoothly.

Meanwhile, Yuexin Group’s “Yuexin” series of scar-removal ointments, after being purchased and used by hundreds of thousands of consumers who gave real feedback on its effectiveness, became an overnight sensation in the beauty industry in Huaguo.

This caused the scar-removal ointment to quickly dominate the skincare market, pushing other companies in the industry into an unprecedented crisis, with sales rapidly declining.

This outcome wasn’t hard to predict.

After all, when a product with real results appeared on the market, who would still want to spend money on those flashy but ineffective products?

Nobody wanted to be the sucker.

As a result, more and more people wanted to buy the scar-removal ointment!

Even though it was now so hard to find that a single bottle was in high demand, this led to an unprecedented strange situation in the beauty industry.

But everyone knew that this was just the beginning…

Beautiful Diary

“Mr. Zhao, the sales of skincare products this week have decreased by six percentage points compared to last week!”

The head of the sales department nervously opened the door to Zhao Chengli’s office.

“Huh? What did you say? A six percentage point decline?”

Zhao Chengli suddenly stood up from his office chair, unable to believe it.

Since the scar-removal ointment was released, he had known that such a situation would arise in the beauty industry.

But he hadn’t expected this day to come so quickly.

“Yes! And according to the current report, there’s a trend of further decline. By next week, it might drop by eight percentage points! Mr. Zhao… I have to say, the scar-removal ointment is just too strong! If we don’t respond quickly, our company might have to shift to cosmetics! But cosmetics were never our main focus… we don’t have much of an advantage there!”

The head of the sales department spoke quietly.

Zhao Chengli stared at the sales chart on the screen, his fists clenched tightly.

“Mr. Zhao, what if we lower the prices of our skincare products? We can invite a few major influencers to promote them. While we might earn less, it would be better than being eliminated by the market, right? Otherwise, the survival space for our company…”

The sales head tentatively suggested a plan he had already thought through.

However, before he could finish speaking, Zhao Chengli interrupted him.

“No!”

The loud shout startled the sales head.

“Cough, cough…”

Realizing his outburst, Zhao Chengli quickly calmed down.

“You know very well that Beautiful Diary’s reputation was built on offering high cost-performance products to stand out in the skincare market! If we reduce the prices just to increase sales, what will consumers think? The word of mouth won’t reverse, and we might even get criticized by consumers and mocked by competitors. This approach is not viable!”

Hearing this, the sales department head wanted to argue but held back.

In their current situation, just surviving was already good enough, so why worry about everything else?

Even if they lowered the price, there was no guarantee consumers would buy.

But if they wanted to increase sales, lowering the price seemed like the only option.

“Mr. Zhao, what do you think we should do in this situation? The momentum of the scar-removal ointment is not going to die down anytime soon. If we keep fighting like this, we won’t have any advantage!” The sales head frowned.

This sudden question left Zhao Chengli speechless for a moment.

His furrowed brows deepened.

He then replied directly,

“Don’t worry, let me think about it!”

Seeing this, the sales head nodded understandingly and left the office.

Once the door closed behind him, Zhao Chengli’s expression turned to one of fury.

“Tang Xingwen, oh Tang Xingwen, are you really trying to crush Beautiful Diary? You have no regard for past friendships!”

He had a direct solution to their current predicament.

That solution was to get the formula for the scar-removal ointment.

This would not only solve the problem but could even put Beautiful Diary at the top of the industry.

It sounded great in theory, but reality was harsh.

After all, he vividly remembered his previous negotiation with Tang Xingwen.

If Tang Xingwen had a family, things might have been different. He could have used indirect methods to approach him.

But Tang Xingwen didn’t have a family, and with his single-minded thinking, there was no chance.

When the scar-removal ointment was first launched, the beauty industry had already started strategizing against it.

Even with all the major players involved, after a brainstorming session, no perfect countermeasure was found.

This made the beauty industry feel an unprecedented sense of crisis.

“Sigh…”

Zhao Chengli sighed helplessly and slumped in his office chair.

Suddenly, the office door opened again.

“Mr. Zhao!”

The female secretary pushed open the door.

“Leave!”

Without looking at her, Zhao Chengli barked.

The secretary was startled but understood the cause of his anger.

With the scar-removal ointment everywhere, the employees at the company were all on edge.

“Mr. Zhao, there’s someone outside asking to see you!” the secretary said, bracing herself.

“Not seeing anyone! Tell them to leave!” Zhao Chengli snapped.

“She says she’s a former classmate of Shen Fei!” the secretary added.

“Do you not understand what I’m saying? I said, I’m not seeing anyone!” Zhao Chengli shouted angrily.

After his outburst, he suddenly paused, then looked at her suspiciously.

“What did you say? Say that again!”