Chapter 47: The Busy Su Pingnan

“You’re only one Jinxiu arcade machine away from getting rich.”

By the time that slogan occupied the main newspapers in six or seven provinces including Tiannan Province, Su Pingnan had already arrived in Xiangnan.

The fact that he had gone during a time like this prompted his subordinates to give him a new label.

“He loves his empire, but he loves a pretty girl even more.”

Su Pingnan didn’t know if that described him, but he was absolutely confident in his business. The framework was already in place, so if his subordinates still failed to perform, they deserved to be fired.

Now his operations were expanding, and more decisions required his approval. Many matters couldn’t be settled without him.

Su Pingnan also wanted to train his subordinates more. Only Zhang Lihua was performing very well so far, and the finance department was growing but remained orderly.

The car carrying five people including Su Pingnan arrived in Xiangnan at 9 p.m.. After thinking it over, Su Pingnan called Li Luoran.

Li Luoran was pleasantly surprised. She’d felt very aggrieved that day and had also vaguely sensed that Su Pingnan was busy, so him coming so quickly made her very happy.

Li Luoran wanted to come out, but her parents watched her tightly, so she could only comfort Su Pingnan over the phone.

Her father unexpectedly said a few words to Su Pingnan, calling him “Little Su” over and over, which left Su Pingnan somewhat speechless.

No one had called him that for years, but since the Li family had raised their their daughter for twenty years only to have him take her away from them, he could only bite his lip and nod in agreement.

Now his big mobile phone was blaring so loudly it was frightening. The few people who had come along with him wore strange smiles, and only after he gave them a cold glare did they run off far enough to be out of earshot.

They arranged to meet the next day at a restaurant in Xiangnan. Su Pingnan wanted to say a few more words to Li Luoran, but her father had already hung up.

Just after he hung up, a call from Jinxiu Electronics’ sales department came in. Zhang Hanping’s excitement could be felt through the phone.

“Mr. Su, deposits for 4,300 units — and that’s just Tiannan Province. Calls from other provinces are so numerous that the two switchboard girls can’t keep up.”

“Expand the sales department immediately. Don’t be afraid to spend. Keep increasing advertising investment, and assist Tiannan’s buyers with installation and operations — that will add persuasive power.”

“Okay. I’ll handle it right away.”

……

After hanging up, Su Pingnan felt there were still too few people under him who could take full responsibility. The arcade machines had to scale up quickly and seize the largest market.

He currently had the arcade machine market all to himself, but he never underestimated the local merchants’ knack for knockoffs. Also, with the New Year approaching, the smugglers who moved goods by sea had quieted down — after all, they risked their lives for money and deserved a few days of celebration. It meant that the smuggled Japanese motherboards were in a supply gap, which gave him a blank market to exploit. He had to move fast and capture most of the market before anyone could react and do the same.

Thinking of the recent order — 4,300 units, with more orders still coming in — Su Pingnan took a deep, cold breath. How much had his pine-nut business and Jinxiu Pavilion earned after all their hard work? This thing made as much in three days as his previous businesses combined!

Compared to the Japanese distributors’ price of up to 20,000, the Jinxiu arcade machine was only 8,888 a unit. The cost of making one was peanuts. Taking that into account, his 8,000 profit per unit was practically robbery — and a legal, reasonable one. As for piracy — pfft — Xia Country didn’t even have patent protections right now. What problem could there be?

The phone rang again. This time it was Guo Guangyao.

“Boss, the Head Secretary of Wucheng’s city committee is here and wants a gold card. What do you think we should do?”

Su Pingnan’s Jinxiu Pavilion had pursued a high-end route from the start, so his number of VIP cards was limited. The gold cards that allowed holders to go straight to the top-floor Tian rooms without reservations and eat anytime were especially rare.

Cards that could be tied to company accounts, like Su Wenwen’s, didn’t count. To outsiders, Su Pingnan had only issued nine cards. Apart from one given to Li Changhai after he topped up 200,000, there’d been no chance to hand out the others.

“Aren’t there eight left? This is a special person — no top-up required, just give it to him. I’ve given you autonomy on these so you don’t need to ask me, just report it to finance.”

“Brother Nan, if I had any cards left I’d have given one already. These past few days, never mind the 200,000 yuan gold cards, even the 20,000 yuan silver cards have mostly been taken — there aren’t any left.”

The number of cards was carefully calculated by a finance professor from the capital based on customer traffic. There were simply no extras.

They hadn’t expected that with the New Year, bosses from all over Wucheng would gather there. Once these people dined there once, they were immediately captivated by Jinxiu Pavilions’s décor and service.

Everyone worked themselves to the bone to make money — wasn’t it all for face and comfort? Jinxiu Pavilion provided both face and substance, and those with money immediately began to get cards.

The trend now was that if you moved in Wucheng and didn’t have a gold card to pick up guests at Jinxiu Pavilion’s Tian rooms, you couldn’t even say you were doing well in Wucheng.

“Transfer your card to him, don’t be greedy. This has been calculated. We’ll talk about the rest when I get back.”

No sooner had Su Pingnan hung up and taken a breath, did the phone ring again.