Chapter 302 - 300: Go to Hell, Copycat

Seeing Xu Yue glance at her phone from time to time, Yang Xun felt a bit helpless. The two of them ultimately headed back to the company.

At this point, the trial sample request page had been live on the company’s backend for three hours, and Xu Yue had been waiting for the data the entire time.

"President Xu!"

Zhou Miao pushed the door open and walked in, holding a tablet. Her face bore an irrepressible excitement. "The data for the trial samples is out. All five thousand portions have been claimed! The customer service team is swamped with people asking when the next batch will be available."

Xu Yue looked up, a trace of surprised delight in her beautiful eyes. "They’re all gone?"

Zhou Miao handed the tablet over, her voice brisk and cheerful. "Yes, and a few of them are beauty bloggers who said they’d post detailed reviews after trying it out."

Xu Yue took the tablet and quickly scanned the data charts, the corners of her lips curling up unconsciously. She was highly confident in Ninghua Cream’s efficacy. Now that they had garnered enough attention, she had no fear of poor sales.

"Once the feedback from the first batch of trial users comes in, that’ll be the real moment of truth," Yang Xun said with a smile.

After all, it was a skincare product priced at fifty thousand yuan a bottle. Even if the trial sample was only one milliliter, snagging one was equivalent to getting over two thousand yuan for free. He believed everyone would want to take advantage of such a bargain. Once it sparked a trend, it would naturally draw in a crowd eager to join the hype.

Over the next two days, the Ninghua Cream trial samples began arriving in the hands of the users who had claimed them. The first batch of feedback videos quietly surfaced across major social media platforms. At first, it was just one or two inconspicuous posts, but they soon spread rapidly like a lit fuse.

"Sisters, I’m seriously not a shill! I’ve only used this sample once, and when I woke up the next morning, my skin was visibly brighter!"

"A scar on my face has faded so much, and this was something I couldn’t fix even after spending a hundred thousand yuan!"

"I tried it just for the heck of it, but the results were unexpectedly amazing. Now I’m staring at my phone every day, waiting for the official release."

Rave reviews flooded in. Almost every post was a genuine, heartfelt recommendation, and some users even posted before-and-after photos.

Sitting in her office, Xu Yue scrolled through the feedback posts one by one, the light in her eyes growing brighter. If she hadn’t been absolutely certain that she didn’t hire a ghostwriting army, she would have thought these reviews were paid for.

She let out a long exhale, then picked up the landline on her desk and dialed Zhou Miao’s number. "Have the marketing department prepare to launch the second batch tomorrow. But don’t release them all at once. Open it up in time slots to create a sense of scarcity and high demand."

"Understood."

After hanging up, she leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes, savoring a rare moment of relaxation. Then, she picked up her cell phone and texted Yang Xun.

"The feedback for the first batch is excellent. The second batch of five thousand will go live tomorrow. Thank you for always supporting me, Hubby."

Yang Xun quickly replied, "You’re the amazing one; I just gave a suggestion. Let’s celebrate tonight."

Looking at the words on the screen, Xu Yue couldn’t help but smile softly, her ears growing slightly warm. She sat alone in her office for a while, phone in hand, before diving back into her work.

In the blink of an eye, it was the next day. Just as the second batch of trial samples was launched, negative comments began to surface online. Initially, there were only a few sporadic remarks, barely noticeable amidst the sea of praise. But by the afternoon, several posts with clear negative biases had been pushed to the trending page.

"For such an expensive skincare product, the raw materials are actually very cheap. They’ve had quality control issues before, too. Anyone who buys this is an idiot."

"I heard from an internal employee that Ninghua Cream’s actual cost is just a few dozen yuan. It’s a total idiot tax."

"The people from the first trial batch were all paid shills, right? My friend’s face broke out completely after using it."

These posts were quickly upvoted to the top, followed by a growing chorus of skepticism and doubt.

At that moment, Yang Xun was sitting in the lounge of a bathhouse. As he looked at the screenshots Zhou Yuan had sent him on his phone, his gaze gradually grew cold. He called Zhou Yuan. The call connected quickly, and he got straight to the point. "Is there movement on Cheng Ye’s end?"

"As expected of you, Xun." Zhou Yuan had just been about to call and report when Yang Xun asked on his own initiative. "I figured that punk wouldn’t let it go, so I had someone tail him for a few days. Yesterday, they photographed Cheng Ye meeting with Chen Junhao at a private club on the outskirts of the city. The two of them were together for nearly two hours.

"Furthermore, I dug into the accounts behind those negative comments. The job was taken by a single internet ghostwriting agency, and the payer’s affiliated company happens to be a subordinate distributor for Meiyan Biotechnology."

"It seems they’re trying to play the same old trick." Yang Xun’s voice was low, laced with a heavy chill. "Ninghua Cream hasn’t even officially hit the shelves yet, and they’re already waging a war of public opinion."

"Xun, I just got word that Meiyan Biotechnology released information about a new product. The price and target demographic are very similar to Ninghua Cream, and their promotional slogan is ’high-end repair, brightens skin tone.’ It’s clearly aimed at the Xu Family. What do we do now? Should I hire a batch of shills too? We can just fight fire with fire," Zhou Yuan suggested.

"There’s no need. If we use ghostwriters, they’ll use them too. In the end, it just becomes a contest of who has more money. It’s pointless." After saying that, Yang Xun asked curiously, "Is the efficacy of their new product actually as good as Ninghua Cream?"

"It’s just extravagant promotional copy. Meiyan Biotechnology’s products have always been more gimmick than substance. The results absolutely cannot compare to Ninghua Cream."

Hearing this, Yang Xun set his mind at ease and said coolly, "Then let them jump around. The higher they jump, the harder they fall."

He hung up the phone and texted Xu Yue: "Meiyan Biotechnology is launching a new product to compete with the Xu Family. Keep an eye on it."

Xu Yue quickly replied: "I know. Their promotional slogan is almost exactly the same as Ninghua Cream’s, and even the packaging color scheme is similar.

"Those copycats can drop dead!"

Yang Xun chuckled, not having expected Xu Yue to swear. He called her and said softly, "Then we’ll change our packaging. I actually thought the previous packaging was a bit tacky anyway. This time, let’s use the Morandi color system and make the packaging boxes more exquisite. After all, it’s a skincare product that costs fifty thousand yuan a bottle. We have to make the customers feel like they’re getting their money’s worth."

"That’s a good suggestion. I’ll have someone get on it right away. We’ll aim to have a preliminary design today, finalize the plan in a meeting tomorrow, and then start production. The full-sized products must hit the shelves within three days, or Meiyan Biotechnology will seize the market."

After the two ended their call, Xu Yue went to a meeting.

The company’s senior executives had all seen the negative news online. Now, learning that Meiyan Biotechnology was about to launch a new product, it was inevitable that everyone felt panicked and uneasy.

"I said earlier that we shouldn’t have given away trial samples! Rather than spending that money, we should have rushed to develop a new product. Now Meiyan Biotechnology has also developed a repairing and brightening product. We have no competitive edge at all." The speaker was the Director of the Marketing Department, He Zhixue, his tone full of blame.