Don't Turn from Summer Chapter 8

Don't Turn from Summer (莫负寒夏) by Ding Mo (丁墨)
Chapter 8

Three in the morning, the night is serene. A few stars dimly hang above the buildings.

But in Le Ya supermarket, there is a totally different scene. Bright, busy, and people scurrying around.

Mu Hanxia and some other office employees are also “descended” to the store, helping with inventory check and arrangement. In fact, all employees are here tonight, secretly making preparations.

After being busy for several hours, Mu Hanxia is all sweaty, leaning against some merchandise stacks to take a rest. He Jing approaches carrying a box of fruit, leans beside her, and also takes a break.

“Hey,” He Jing says, “You say, this grand promotion of ours, will it really beat Yong Zheng?”

Mu Hanxia replies slowly, “Not necessarily beat. But definitely will give them a heavy punch.”

“Why?” He Jing is still confused about the whole fuss, “Can’t Yong Zheng do grand promotion too?”

Mu Hanxia grins at her, “You think Manager Meng is simply starting a price war with them?”

He Jing pauses.

Mu Hanxia raises her hand and points to the cup nearby, “Sweetie, get me the water first.”

He Jing gives her a stare, but still serves her with the water before hearing her explain in an unhurried voice, “Very simple, for a new store, the opening image is very important. Just like us shopping, won’t the first impressions the stores give us affect our decision of whether or not to go back to them long after the first experience?”

He Jing nods, “Yes.”

“When Yong Zhen opens their store, they will do some promotion to give the customers an impression that they sell good products with low prices, they have good environments, services, and quality. Right?”

“Right, Yong Zheng is like this...”

“Now we suddenly do a very attractive promotion, which happens to be a week before their opening. What effect will it have on them?”

He Jing stares at her blankly, “What effect?”

Mu Hanxia smiles a little, takes out two fruits from her case, tossing them casually in her hand: “First, our promotion is very sudden, definitely out of their expectation. If they are not prepared and can’t do their promotion with the same vigor, the customers, whose memory is still fresh about our promotion they have just experienced, will certainly feel that their prices are not lower at all and it is not worth going. In that case, even if they do better in other aspects, they can hardly save their store image.”

“Makes sense. But what if their prices get even lower than ours?” He Jing asks.

“Second, even if their prices are lower than ours, they can’t be much lower, right?” Mu Hanxia says with a relaxed tone, “The greater part of the profit margin is used by us, and the expectation of the customers are fairly satisfied by us. So customers will only feel that they are not much cheaper than Le Ya, and won’t get too excited about shopping there. In another word, because of our attack, Yong Zheng has to spend much more money but can only get a little marginal effect. All in all, their goal of establishing a strong and attractive image before the customers at the opening becomes something very difficult to achieve.”

She talks in a natural and fluent manner, but He Jing goes silent, digesting for a long time and finally understanding what she means. It seems to make a lot of sense.

He Jing can’t help but ask, “Where did you get these ideas? From someone in your office?”

Mu Hanxia shakes her head and lowers her voice, “I’m but a nobody, why would they discuss these things with me? I just figured it out myself.” She grinned.

He Jing looks at her attentively for a moment and sighs, “Hanxia, you appear to be careless and cheerful like me, but inside, you are more certain than anyone else what you want. Good for you. ”

Mu Hanxia suspends and hesitates a little, “Are you complimenting me or criticizing me?”

He Jing titters and gives her a poke on the forehead with a finger, “Complimenting! Complimenting! Keep acting like a sheep and gulping the wolf, way to go! I will always support you.” 

Mu Hanxia feels the warmth within but looks calm outside, “OK.”

He Jing looks round at the ongoing bustling and says, “Don’t know what will happen tomorrow...”

Mu Hanxia says nothing. In her mind, however, pops out that guy.

The analysis she made just now is all correct, she thinks. But if the opponent is Lin Mochen, who said he would smash Le Ya in three months, with those legends about him...Mu Hanxia has no idea how he will take control of the situation.

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The next morning.

Yong Zheng’s building is newer, more spacious, and more stylish than Le Ya across the street. Right this moment, Lin Mochen is sitting in the General Manager’s office on the top floor of the Yong Zheng Building, a hot cup of coffee in hand and back against the big chair, watching the US stock market.

Outside the door, the managers and employees are all ready for the opening in a week.

“Thump, thump--” someone is knocking.

Lin Mochen looks quiet and indifferent, “Come in.”

Several managers of the core departments, also Cheng Weiwei’s trusted ones, walk in with worried looks.

“Chief Lin!” One of them says, “Le Ya has started a grand promotion today! The prices are very low; some are ridiculously low! The whole store has gone crazy with sales and the customers nearby have all rushed to them!”

Lin Mochen raises his eyebrow slightly but says nothing. Another manager says, “They do it on purpose! Purposefully setting us up. Earlier information was always that they would only do a 5% off. They hid the information so deep and suddenly launched the grand promotion, apparently intending to give us a head-on blow!”

They all start to echo furiously and then all look in Lin Monchen’s way, waiting for his response.

Out of their expectations, Lin Mochen just drinks his coffee with his head lowered and says coolly, “What to be frantic about? Aren’ t we hiding our plans too?”

This remark makes everyone quiet down. Right, talking about the plans Lin Mochen made in the last few days, the expression on everybody’s face become rather hard to describe. Ai, it feels like holding a bomb against one’s chest, not knowing when it may explode, whether the one who dies is the opponent or oneself...

Lin Mochen just ignores their confusion and hesitation and raises his head to ask, “What surprises me is that, according to the past information, Meng Gang has always been conservative. What is it that makes him change his ways, giving up relatively mild 5% and suddenly turning to the all-out attack?”

They look at each other. Someone ventures hesitantly, “Chief Lin, I heard some thing from the grapevine, not sure whether it’s ture...It’s said that a store assistant at Le Ya made suggestions to Meng Gang that you are a tough one and 5% is not enough...”

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Mu Hanxia worked through the night and is exhausted. At noon, she hides in the warehouse where there is no one else and lies directly on the merchandise stack to take a nap. It is a little cold in the dimly lit warehouse. Her clothes have collected much dust, but she doesn’t care. Back in high school, even though the family didn’t have much money, she could at least keep herself tidy and pretty, earning her the title of Class Flower. These years she has always been doing messy and tiring work, and has long stopped to care about the appearance. Whatever the conditions are, she can always cope with.