Chapter 135 - 125: Blackmail

Chapter 135: Chapter 125: Blackmail

She hadn’t taken a single bite the entire time, just watched Gao Yuan eat.

In truth, the meal Lin Wanyu made was decent enough. It wasn’t a complete culinary disaster. The only downside was probably that she’d added too much water to the rice, turning what should have been steamed rice into congee.

After they ate and rested at home for a bit, the two of them drove straight to the Lin Group headquarters.

Gao Yuan wasn’t here today to discuss product supply. He was here to fleece them.

The last time they discussed the loan, Lin Hongnian had already mentioned wanting to speed up the process for other skincare products. Back then, Gao Yuan had only given him the secret formula for an eye mask.

But now, plans had to change with the circumstances, and he also needed to speed up the development of his product line.

Recently, customer service had been reporting that many people were asking if they had other products. A single face mask wasn’t enough to cultivate loyal customers; after all, one mask couldn’t possibly satisfy all of a user’s needs.

Only by rounding out GY’s product line could they maximize the bond between the brand and its users.

Besides, relying on just the face mask to make money was still too slow. Other skincare products, especially gift sets, were the real cash cows. Therefore, he also wanted to get other product lines on the schedule as soon as possible.

The Lin Group might not have been hogging the spotlight recently like Gao Yuan’s Yuanfang Company, but they were a massive, well-established enterprise.

Not only did it have numerous brands under its umbrella, but it also had its own offline distribution channels. Its casual daily shipping volume was something Yuanfang Company couldn’t even hope to match.

The Lin Group was even more eager than he was to produce a full line of products. This was why Lin Hongnian had pressed him again to accelerate the development of his product line when Gao Yuan had brought up the loan.

So,

Gao Yuan had come to the Lin Group this time fully prepared.

Since Elder Lin had made a profit and was eager to roll out other skincare products, Gao Yuan was fairly certain his attempt to fleece him would succeed.

Of course,

Gao Yuan wouldn’t go too far. He only planned to get the recent product payments waived.

It wasn’t that much money—only a few million. Compared to the fortune the Lin Group stood to make after rolling out the entire product line, it was less than pocket change.

Lin Hongnian’s Office.

The four of them were sitting on the sofa. Gao Yuan and Lin Wanyu sat together, with a beaming Lin Hongnian to their left and an openly delighted Lin Sida to their right.

There were no outsiders present, so the four of them spoke directly, without beating around the bush.

"Brother Yuan, trending online this time must have been a big help to Yuanfang Company, right?"

"The GY brand has really skyrocketed!"

Lin Sida’s words were tinged with jealousy. The moment he finished speaking, Lin Hongnian shot him a glare.

Gao Yuan just smiled, not letting it bother him. "Eh, we only sold over ten thousand orders on the first day. It hasn’t been great since."

Visibly disappointed in his son, Lin Hongnian told Lin Sida, "Talk less, learn more!"

He wasn’t Lin Sida; his perspective wasn’t limited to what was right in front of him.

From the moment Lin Wanyu had asked for a chance for Gao Yuan to perform on stage, he’d had his suspicions, but he never expected Gao Yuan’s singing talent to be so impressive.

Yuanfang Group’s sudden explosion in popularity this time was an unexpected event.

For the past two days, he’d had his head of e-commerce monitor GY’s sales. The first day was indeed gratifying, but starting from the second day, sales performance plummeted by 90%.

This reaffirmed his belief that for a domestic skincare brand to make a name for itself and build brand power, a single, accidental viral moment wasn’t enough.

The Lin Group had never intended to take that path from the beginning, instead sticking to a steady and solid approach, slowly carving out its market share.

"Xiaoyuan has already done very well!"

"He should ride this wave of popularity, find ways to expand traffic, and steadily increase the store’s visitor flow. Next year will definitely be a bountiful year."

Gao Yuan naturally understood this principle.

He hadn’t let it go to his head. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have partnered with TikTok to build his brand, let alone bought a year’s worth of naming rights from Jay Chou and Old Xue.

But he wasn’t going to expand the market with the same steady, deliberate pace as Lin Hongnian. Their starting points were completely different and couldn’t be compared.

In fact, as long as his next step went smoothly, he would immediately launch a full-scale online product seeding campaign.

He would pour huge amounts of money into product seeding marketing on every platform that could reach his brand’s target audience.

This included the major live-streaming platforms. Even if it meant sacrificing most of his profits, he was determined to get influencers to start selling his products.

The priority was to sell the products first and worry about the rest later. As long as his products were in users’ homes, and as long as they were willing to use them, that would be a victory.

However, slashing prices was something he wouldn’t consider for the time being.

Once you started cutting prices, there would be no end to it.

But Gao Yuan wasn’t one to go into battle unprepared.

All of this depended on the Lin Group guaranteeing his product supply. If the supply chain ran into problems, then all the money he’d spent so far would truly go down the drain.

After chatting for a while, Gao Yuan began to lay the groundwork for the real purpose of his visit.

"Uncle Lin, how are things going for the Lin Group?"

Lin Hongnian didn’t hide anything, directly showing Gao Yuan the sales report from the past week.

In just one week, the Lin Group had managed to double its sales performance across all channels thanks to the new product. This was especially true for their online channels, where total sales had already surpassed twenty million since the launch.

"Brother Yuan, this is all thanks to your face mask. If we had the full product line, our growth would be even more incredible."

This time, Lin Hongnian didn’t criticize his son for interrupting. Instead, he kept his eyes fixed on Gao Yuan.

What Lin Sida said was exactly what he wanted to express, but he had just proposed producing the full product line to Gao Yuan a few days ago, only to be rejected.

He was actually a little embarrassed to bring it up again, as it would make him seem overly eager.

However, when he saw Gao Yuan nodding along, his hopes began to stir again.

"Xiaoyuan, what are your thoughts on this?"

Lin Hongnian hesitated for a moment, but asked anyway.

The stakes were simply too high for him not to swallow his pride and ask.