Chapter 767 - 786: Qian the Coward: Timid in Victory, Scared of Losing
Chapter 767: Chapter 786: Qian the Coward: Timid in Victory, Scared of Losing
Who knew good business could bring so many problems?
Qian Song considered every angle, and his head felt like it was about to explode.
He was just so damn scared of the competition.
He thought back on the past six months, ever since Qian Xingxing had struck out on her own—
Qian Xingxing launched Taobao Food, so he launched his own version of Taobao Food.
The project ended up losing so much money that Qian Duoduo looked at him like he was a dog.
Later, their rival New Star got into charity work, and he followed suit, only to be accused of being a copycat.
He finally managed to develop a cooking class that was actually earning some income, but then a lawsuit cropped up, and their rival kept stealing their menu ideas. The whole mess damaged Federation Live’s reputation and sent its stock price plummeting. Qian Duoduo had nearly beaten him to death over it.
After taking so many beatings, he’d learned his lesson.
Looking at that crab roe noodle dish, he had a flash of inspiration: turn it into a Nutrient Liquid.
The new proposal received unanimous approval from the management team. However, some felt the plagiarism was a bit "borderline." Of course, it wasn’t moral condemnation they were afraid of.
They were afraid of making headlines again. The investors and shareholders absolutely did not want any more bad press that would tank the stock price.
So, Qian Song came up with another idea: establish a subsidiary, find a puppet to run it, and frame the relationship between the two companies as a partnership.
If the "partner" was hit with a scandal, Federation Live could distance itself from the fallout.
And that was how the project had stumbled its way to the present day.
You could say that Qian Song had poured his heart and soul into this project for the entire year.
But now, just as it was starting to show results, Qian Song was worried all that success would be washed away. "Don’t tell me they have a stockpile of crabs?"
"Their Taobao Food also does food delivery... I heard they have their own dedicated factory. It’s not impossible that they have a batch of crabs in storage."
"If we sell out all our sauce, there’s bound to be a four-day gap in the market. If they start selling their own crab roe sauce during that time—"
’Qian Xingxing loves to start price wars, driving the cost of everything down so low.’
’Plus, Jiang Qiuqiu has a huge following in the food world. If they use her to build up hype through word-of-mouth, our next batch of product will definitely take a hit.’
This—
Wang Nian Nian sighed internally. ’This boss thinks way too much.’
A part of her felt that it was no wonder he was an illegitimate son—he just wasn’t cut out for the main stage.
’His ideas are decent, but when it comes to managing the company, he’s such a worrier. He can’t make a firm decision to save his life.’
"Mr. Qian, I don’t think that’s possible—"
"We’ve been monitoring the number of crabs from the very beginning." Afraid of any unexpected variables, they had paid someone off early on to keep an eye on the crab numbers. "Only the Agricultural College is farming them, so the quantity is absolutely limited."
"According to the data we have, even if New Star does have a stockpile, it would only be one or two thousand crabs at most."
"Besides, these posters they’re putting out are probably just to vent. Maybe they saw how well our crab roe sauce is selling and felt like they were being copied..." Realizing she’d spoken too freely, she quickly added, "...felt it was unfair, and just posted something related to sauce out of spite."
"If they could really produce it, they would have started selling it long ago. Who wouldn’t want to capture an empty market?"
She did make a certain amount of sense.
Presented with a logical, evidence-based analysis, Qian Song couldn’t help but lean on it. "So, in your opinion, what’s our next move?"
"Mr. Qian, I think we should be magnanimous about this. Have Ling Chen release all the purchase slots, and then we issue a statement—"
A deeply moving statement from the factory itself, written in simple, heartfelt language.
"We can say that because raw materials are scarce, we had to use up too many crabs while fine-tuning the recipe to get the most satisfying flavor, which means the amount of finished product is very limited—"
In short, the goal was to play the victim.
To sell a narrative of "integrity" and "craftsmanship."