Chapter 64: Mu Qingfeng Takes You to Soar

An Yuntian had no experience with online shopping.

Advanced in years, he was accustomed to purchasing goods at physical brick-and-mortar stores, though he was aware that young people favored online shopping.

However, he had never explored this market and knew nothing about e-commerce.

He might not understand it, but An Xin did.

"Dad, Mu Qingfeng just posted a video, and only an hour and a half has passed, but the hats in her personal showcase already have 936 orders!"

"We won't even have to wait until tomorrow; all 1,500 hats should be completely sold out!"

"Dad! You need to make adjustments right away and have the workers pause other orders tonight so they can focus entirely on producing our own 'Niemo'!"

"If we can sell 1,000 hats a day, that's 30,000 a month!"

"Dad! How much profit do we actually make per hat when we manufacture for other people?"

"If 'Niemo' keeps selling like this, the profit will be countless times higher than manufacturing for others!"

An Xin danced around with excitement.

An Yuntian, who had initially wandered over to watch the video with him, felt unsteady on his feet as he listened to those figures being rattled off, and collapsed backward onto the pile of stacked "Niemo" hats.

"Money! That's all money! Dad, get up quickly, don't flatten our money!"

An Xin grabbed him and yanked him up, making him sit somewhere else.

Dazed and disoriented, An Yuntian let the chubby young man push him around, feeling as if it were all as unreal as a dream.

He had spent his entire life making hats, but it was only today that he truly understood the towering profit margins brand owners enjoyed through brand premium.

At 46 yuan per "Niemo" hat, after deducting the 1% platform commission and 20% personal commission from Mu Qingfeng's shop for the first month, and subtracting a cost of 6 yuan, the net profit was still roughly 30 yuan.

For 1,000 hats, excluding taxes, Xinlin could earn 30,000 yuan.

According to An Xin, if Mu Qingfeng could sell 30,000 hats a month, Xinlin could pocket 900,000 yuan.

If Mu Qingfeng could maintain these steady figures for an entire year, even without growth, Xinlin could generate over ten million in revenue through her alone!

Presently, Xinlin's total annual order value was only around thirty to forty million. After deducting various costs, the profit margin was less than 10 percent.

He and Wei Lin had worked so hard, yet the company only made two to three million a year. But as long as Mu Qingfeng's figures remained stable, she alone could roughly triple Xinlin's profits!

And all they had to do was manufacture a little over 300,000 hats.

Earning extraordinarily high profits with a smaller volume of goods was something An Yuntian would never have dared to dream of before.

"Stop making a fuss! Let me sort this out, let me catch my breath!"

Listening to An Xin's ecstatic squawking, An Yuntian opened the calculator on his phone and kept his head down, continuously crunching numbers.

...

"The wealthy do not act arrogantly toward others; the impoverished do not alter their conduct; they revere the wise without shunning the unworthy."

"From Master Yan's Spring and Autumn Annals, Volume 4, Internal Chapters."

"It means that a person does not become arrogant or disdainful of others when wealthy and successful. They do not change their character or integrity when poor, nor do they commit immoral acts. They respect those with virtue and talent without belittling those of ordinary ability."

In the video, Teacher Xiao Mu wore a light gray professional suit, holding a pointer as she gestured toward a small blackboard.

On her head, she wore the white baseball cap embroidered with the characters "Niemo."

She first explained the classical text in Chinese, then translated it into English, French, and Japanese respectively. The intellectual, scholarly aura she naturally exuded formed a striking contrast with the black-and-red demonic characters on her hat.

"Nie" (Defiance) and "Mo" (Demon)—both were rebellious, unorthodox words overflowing with an unbridled, wicked aura.

Yet her temperament was the exact opposite of these two words.

Concluding her explanation, she offered a sweet smile and said, "I hope everyone studies languages diligently, and if you have the means, please support Xiao Mu's personal shop."

The video ended there.

In just an hour and a half, likes had nearly reached ten thousand, while comments, saves, and shares had all broken the thousand mark, with comments alone exceeding three thousand!

In the corner of the boxing ring, Wei Lin wore a slightly dazed expression.

Looking at the message sent by Mu Qingfeng informing him that backend orders had reached 1,135, Wei Lin couldn't snap back to reality for a moment.

The 1,500 hats rushed out by Xinlin's expedited production wouldn't even need to wait until tomorrow; they would likely sell out entirely tonight.

What about tomorrow?

How many orders would there be tomorrow?

"Tomorrow!"

Wei Lin suddenly recalled another matter.

Tomorrow was the day his contract with Zheng Zehui took effect, and the six internet influencers under Zheng Zehui's agency would simultaneously promote Niemo!

If the view count on just one of those six influencers' videos skyrocketed, he would immediately face the problem of insufficient stock.

Happiness had arrived too quickly and too suddenly, and he clearly wasn't prepared yet.

Previously, he had always worried about a lack of orders, fretting that the factory workers would have nothing to do. Now, he was starting to worry that production capacity wouldn't keep up, leaving him unable to steadily supply his own brand.

A moment later.

"Uncle An, start purchasing new equipment, put out recruitment notices, and prepare to expand the factory buildings."

Wei Lin said straight into the phone the moment the call connected.

"So soon?"

Though startled, An Yuntian raised no objections, his voice sounding slightly shaky as he asked, "Linzi, is e-commerce stable? Will this really work?"

"The other six influencers I signed will have futures no less stellar than Mu Qingfeng's, and they start pushing Niemo tomorrow," Wei Lin said in a calm, flat tone. "Imagine if those six influencers can reach Mu Qingfeng's level, we..."

"That's another sixty million added!" An Yuntian declared heavily.

"What sixty million?" Wei Lin was taken aback.

"Every single one of them can bring Xinlin sixty million in profit each year! Add this Mu Qingfeng to that, and Xinlin might rake in seventy million every single year from now on!" An Yuntian had already figured it out.

Wei Lin froze, then said, "What if Mu Qingfeng's follower count continues to surge, and what if the follower scale and engagement of those six surpass Mu Qingfeng's in the future?"

At these words, An Yuntian fell silent.

After a long while, he finally seemed to recover his wits, and with a gasp, he said, "Linzi, don't scare me like this!"

...

Zijin Garden.

In Teacher Xiao Mu's study.

"Pure-Hearted Contractor followed you."

"5fish followed you."

"Andy followed you."

"Franklin followed you."

Looking at the list of newly added followers over such a short period, Mu Lanyan felt somewhat baffled.

It had taken her nearly two years to accumulate 970,000 followers, but after posting today's video, she had gained over 20,000 new followers in just two hours.

"Did Wei Lin pay for traffic promotion on my behalf?"

Observing the backend data and seeing that orders had already reached 1,320, Teacher Xiao Mu also felt it was a bit surreal.

For every hat sold, her 20% commission amounted to 9 yuan and 20 fen.

With 1,320 hats, she could make 12,000 yuan in just this short span of time?

She didn't possess exceptionally high material pursuits, but earning so much money so suddenly still excited her and left her somewhat at a loss.

"Should... should this be able to help those factory workers of his?"

Teacher Xiao Mu was still rather uncertain.

...

That night, in a small private dining room at a local restaurant.

Hua Feng and Ding Weizhi sat with gloomy expressions, drinking yellow rice wine, picking at their dishes, and continuously airing their grievances.

"What on earth is your plan regarding Tang Qiang's side?"

Hua Feng of Mumu Wood puffed on a cigarette, his sparse hair ruffled until it looked like a bird's nest as he scratched his head. "Qifeng starting to take small orders is simply not leaving us a way to survive!"

Ding Weizhi had an even more volatile temper. He downed his cup of wine in one gulp and cursed, "In the past, Qifeng only ate the meat, but now they won't even let us drink the soup!"

Ever since Qifeng decided to accept small orders, Tang Qiang had acted with swift and decisive execution. The identical pricing led to an immediate, sharp drop in orders for Mumu Wood and Zhijie.

The two companies were in miserable straits and were about to face the grim prospect of having zero orders to work on.

"Tang Qiang said those small orders can be handed over to us to manufacture, but the prices will be set by them. I looked at the two price quotations he provided. Hengyuan's 10,000 orders—Tang Qiang's unit price is 5 yuan."

"Hengyuan used to be handled by us at Mumu Wood, and the unit price was always 6 yuan. That's also what we quoted Hengyuan."

"Qifeng snatches our orders using that same unit price, and then hands them back to us to produce at 5 yuan. Isn't this bullying people?"

"5 yuan? What kind of money can we even make off that?"

Even the mild-tempered Hua Feng couldn't help cursing now.

"Big fish eat small fish; the business world has always been this cruel." Ding Weizhi sighed and said, "That kid Wei Lin is the reliable one after all. Fenglin's orders came with a 9-yuan quote for us, allowing us to easily turn a nice profit."

"Indeed. A 6-yuan cost with a 3-yuan profit margin left for us—that kid Wei Lin is loyal." Hua Feng sighed with emotion, then added, "It's a pity Fenglin's orders are limited. Once Tang Qiang starts choking off the source, Xinlin will face the exact same problem with us. Once their small orders dry up later on, their own production capacity will only be able to supply Fenglin."

"How do you actually plan to reply to Tang Qiang?" Ding Weizhi asked.

Hua Feng retorted, "And you?"

Ding Weizhi let out a cold snort. "I'd rather have zero orders to work on than take Qifeng's orders at a low price!"

"5 yuan—though we won't make much money, at least the factory can stay alive." Hua Feng wore a bitter smile, sighing, "If we have no orders, the factory will just have to go under. That's a guaranteed dead end. Have you thought it through?"

At these words, Ding Weizhi instantly deflated. Crestfallen, he muttered, "We still have a few orders for now anyway, so we'll cross that bridge when we come to it and see what happens later."

The two small-business owners heaved sighs and drank their sorrows away all night.

...

The next day, November 18th, Monday morning.

Waking up, Wei Lin didn't check the love value in his mind right away this time; instead, he quickly opened Teacher Xiao Mu's Douyin page.

Followers: 1.02 million.

After a single video, separated by just a single night, "Teacher Mu Qingfeng Teaches You Languages" had gained 50,000 followers!

In her product showcase, the white baseball cap embroidered with the characters "Niemo" displayed: 1,973 sold!

"Holy crap! I'm afraid the factory's production capacity won't keep up!"