The film and television city starts from the courtyard

Huanghe Road, Zhizhen Garden.

Wang Mingzhu is holding an investment promotion meeting today. She arrived at Zhizhen Garden early to prepare to welcome her guests.

She specially made a billboard, printed some flyers, and sent out many invitations. However, Wang Mingzhu waited at Zhizhen Garden for a long time, but no one came to the scene.

Only then did Wang Mingzhu finally understand what Jin Hua meant when she said she was no longer Miss Wang from No. 27 Bund. Having left A Bao and the foreign trade company, she was utterly insignificant in the eyes of others.

Thinking back to when I made those phone calls, they all claimed to support my decision to go solo, and they kept asking about my relationship with Abao. All I did was say that Abao had nothing to do with my company, and none of them showed up.

Manager Pan found Li Li and said, "Fortunately, we only kept one private room. If no one comes in later, should we let them out first?"

Li Li said without hesitation, "Keep it; we still have to give Miss Wang face."

At this very moment, Zhao Shucheng was actually on the second floor of Honglu Hotel, where he could see the private room where Wang Mingzhu was.

From 5 p.m. until a little after 7 p.m., only two people attended Wang Mingzhu's investment promotion meeting: Fan Xinhua from the Sanyang brand and Wei Hongqing, a wealthy second-generation leather tycoon.

Wei Hongqing had a special fondness for Wang Mingzhu, so he made a special trip to attend her investment promotion conference. Fan Xinhua, on the other hand, wanted to support Wang Mingzhu because Sanyang's listing had been made possible by her help, but he was too ashamed to face her and lacked the courage to attend the banquet, having previously neglected her.

Wei Hongqing naturally saw Fan Xinhua and knew that none of Wang Mingzhu's guests had come, so he directly pulled Fan Xinhua upstairs to support Wang Mingzhu.

Wang Mingzhu was quite upset today, and she knew that what was supposed to happen would have happened by now, so she packed her things and prepared to pay the bill and leave.

"I'm sorry to have troubled you all today. Please just charge the normal fee for the private room. As for the other dishes, we'll leave it at that for now."

Manager Pan said, "Should we wait a little longer?"

"No need. If no one has come by now, then no one will come."

Just then, Wei Hongqing pulled Fan Xinhua into the private room and said, "Miss Wang!"

"President Wei?"

"I am coming!"

Wang Mingzhu asked, "I didn't invite you, what are you doing here?"

"Miss Wang, I'm here too!"

"Mr. Fan?"

Manager Pan said, "Ms. Wang, General Manager Wei arrived at five o'clock."

Fan Xinhua said, "Yes, they've been standing right downstairs, all the time, acting as your greeter."

"Just participating as a friend, to share in the joy."

"No one even came, so what kind of welcoming is this? You should all go back!"

Wei Hongqing said, "Who said no one's coming? It's getting too lively downstairs. Right, President Fan?"

"It's lively, especially with President Wei around."

Wang Mingzhu said, "President Fan, there's no one here, there's no one here. You don't need to comfort me. I originally held this investment promotion meeting to see how many people I, Wang Mingzhu, could actually get without Bund 27 and without President Bao."

"The overwhelming number of people were all kept out by President Fan. He said that he had no relationship with Ms. Wang and that he had taken care of everything himself. He wanted to have an exclusive partnership with you."

Fan Xinhua gave an awkward laugh and said, "But, but I really can't compete with President Wei. President Wei is very capable and young and promising, right?"

"That's right, I'm not being modest anymore. Let me tell you, the key to investment promotion meetings isn't the number of people, but the quality of the people. What's the point of finding a dozen small business owners, each contributing tens of thousands of yuan, only to have them pass the buck when problems arise? It's better to find a big boss with a broad mind and a large business to handle everything for you. Like me."

At this moment, Minmin came into the private room, walked to Wei Hongqing's side, and said, "I'm sorry, Mr. Wei, someone drove your car away."

"Who?"

"Your dad!"

"Wait a moment!" Wei Hongqing hurriedly came to the door, but his father showed him no respect, leaving Wei Hongqing chasing after him but unable to catch up.

Fan Xinhua looked at Wang Mingzhu and said, "Miss Wang, don't listen to President Wei giving you the buffalo hide. He's unreliable. Miss Wang, to be honest, I understand that you don't want to stay at Number 27."

Wang Mingzhu said, "President Fan, you will support me, right?"

“We’re friends, so of course I’ll support you. But if you’re starting from scratch, the pressure will be immense. If you’re short a few tens of thousands of yuan in working capital right now, I’ll have my wife wire it to you immediately, and you won’t have to pay it back. But if you’re going to invest in a new project, that requires hundreds of thousands, even millions of yuan. I can’t help you with that. My factory has money, but that’s factory money. If that money were my personal money, I wouldn’t even blink an eye; I’d take it out to support your business.”

Wang Mingzhu said, "President Fan, no matter what, I still want to thank you for coming here today."

Fan Xinhua said, "Ms. Wang, I'm telling you, newcomers to the industry encounter a lot of setbacks. The road ahead might be longer than Nanjing Road, and you don't even know who put that particular obstacle in your path. You've been at Number 27 for so long, living comfortably. I'm not trying to advise you, Ms. Wang, but being a section chief, sitting facing south, isn't that great?"

"Now that I'm out, I'm not going back."

Fan Xinhua asked, "What if no one is doing it with you?"

"I can do it myself!"

Wang Mingzhu didn't really care whether anyone wanted to cooperate with her; after all, she just wanted to see how much influence she still had in other people's eyes. Besides, even if others didn't cooperate with her, Zhao Shucheng had repeatedly expressed his desire to work with her, though she didn't know if Zhao Shucheng was still interested. "But what about the money?"

"I can find a way! People can come up with solutions."

As she was speaking, Wang Mingzhu stood by the window, looking outside, and inadvertently saw Zhao Shucheng standing on the second floor of Honglu across the street.

Zhao Shucheng raised his glass to Wang Mingzhu, indicating that he would be there in a moment.

Wang Mingzhu shook her head, implying that Zhao Shucheng didn't need to come over.

She didn't want to rely on Zhao Shucheng's influence to make this investment promotion conference possible. In fact, this was also a test for those old customers or manufacturers to see who could cooperate, who would add icing to the cake, and who would kick someone when they were down.

Wei Hongqing waited outside for his father to bring the car back, but he didn't see the car return until Wang Mingzhu left Zhizhen Garden.

Wei Hongqing said, "I'm sorry I couldn't help you today, but I believe in the saying that gold will always shine."

'Are you gold?'

Wei Hongqing said, "I am gold, and you are diamond, you know? We are just one step apart. My dad drove the car away, but he is about to lose a thoroughbred horse."

Hearing Wei Hongqing's words, Wang Mingzhu naturally couldn't believe them. She smiled and said:

"Mr. Wei, it's just a matter of driving the car away. You can go back and have a good talk with your father. Just like me, no one believed in me going it alone, but I made something of myself."

Wei Hongqing said, "Miss Wang, how about we go into business together? I'll provide the capital, and you can provide the labor. Let others see what we're capable of."

Wang Mingzhu shook her head and said, "I'm sorry, Mr. Wei, I actually already have a potential partner in mind, but I only wanted to test my own influence before. Now it seems that without Bund 27 and Mr. Bao, people look down on me. But I don't believe I can't achieve something, so next, I'm going to find my partner and let those people know that even if Wang Mingzhu leaves Bund 27, she's still Ms. Wang!"

Wei Hongqing looked at Wang Mingzhu in disbelief and said, "How is that possible? Miss Wang, I know you're lying to me. You think I'm penniless now because my father took away my car, and I'm starting from scratch like you. But if you had a business partner, why isn't he here today?"

"If he really were here, the fact that he didn't show up at an event like today, leaving you all alone to be laughed at, shows he doesn't care about you at all. What's the point of cooperating with someone like that? You'd be better off cooperating with me. Although I don't have much money, but..."

Wang Mingzhu said, "President Wei, who said he didn't come? He did, and he's been keeping a close eye on the investment promotion conference; you just didn't see it. President Wei, I'm very grateful for your help today, but my partner isn't what you think. I don't want to use his name to do business, so please don't speak ill of him. I have other things to attend to, so I'll be leaving now!"

Wei Hongqing originally thought that Wang Mingzhu meant she was going to take a taxi home when she said she was leaving, but unexpectedly, Wang Mingzhu crossed the road directly and entered the Honglu store on the other side.

When Zhao Shucheng saw Wang Mingzhu enter, he smiled and said, "Ms. Wang, so you've decided to cooperate with me?"

Wang Mingzhu nodded and said, "Yes, after today's experience, I understand that I am a useless person in other people's eyes. But President Zhao let me go out on my own a long time ago, and even wanted to invest in me and cooperate. I naturally know who I can trust as a partner."

Zhao Shucheng said with a smile, "Miss Wang, aren't you worried that I, like everyone else, am just all talk and no action, but actually dare not cooperate with you?"

Wang Mingzhu laughed and said, "Of course I'm not worried. After all, if President Zhao were joking, he wouldn't have appeared at Honglu, let alone waited until now."

"So, Ms. Wang, what are your thoughts on the cooperation method?"

Wang Mingzhu said, "We'll be partners, but you'll only be responsible for the investment. Everything else will be handled by me, and no one else can know that you're partnering with me. We'll split the shares 50/50. What do you think?"

Zhao Shucheng said with a smile, "Why not let others know that we're partners? You know, my name, Zhao Shucheng, carries some weight in Shanghai. It should be somewhat beneficial for the opening of our new company, right?"

"I want to build my own business, not rely on your name, Mr. Zhao, to attract customers. Besides, if I really want to start a company from scratch, I naturally have to start everything from the beginning. I can't rely on your connections and resources from the start and not be able to train my employees' abilities. How will the company develop later?"

Zhao Shucheng realized that Wang Mingzhu's decision was not impulsive or made on a whim, and only then did he believe that she genuinely wanted to run the company well.

"Alright, there's one more problem. With the shares split 50/50, we won't have absolute control over the company. If we disagree on how to operate the company, whose opinion should we follow?"

Wang Mingzhu said, "Then let's discuss it and listen to whoever is right."

Zhao Shucheng laughed and said, "Ms. Wang, you're overthinking it. This isn't child's play; this is starting a company. Starting a company is about making money, not about who's right. Besides, often it's a matter of each side having their own version of the truth, making it impossible to clearly distinguish between them. Furthermore, I'm investing in you as a person, not in the company itself, so splitting the shares 50/50 isn't important. If I had too many shares, I might as well have started my own company."

Wang Mingzhu looked at Zhao Shucheng with some hesitation, not understanding what he meant. In her mind, since she had Zhao Shucheng invest in starting the company, splitting the profits 50/50, she was actually the one who benefited.

"Then what do you mean?"

Zhao Shucheng smiled and said, "Actually, although I contributed money to this foreign trade company, you contributed manpower and effort, so it should be considered a technology-based investment. After all, you are very familiar with foreign trade and have a strong network of contacts at Bund 27. You might need to ask your former colleagues or friends for help later. So you own 51% of the shares, and I own 49%. The company's development and operation will be entirely up to you. Unless there is a major decision-making error, I will not usually participate in the company's management."

"How can that be? You contribute money and effort, and I own more shares. It's not appropriate to prevent you from participating in the company's operations."

Zhao Shucheng smiled and said, "That's perfect. You know I have a lot of business here—supermarkets, the stock market—I have to keep an eye on all of it myself. So I probably can't be there to oversee the foreign trade company as often. In fact, I'm basically a hands-off manager; you're working for me."

Seeing that Wang Mingzhu was about to say something, Zhao Shucheng waved his hand and said, "Alright, there's no need to argue about those things anymore. Next, we should discuss where you plan to open the company."

Wang Mingzhu hesitated for a moment and said, "I haven't thought about this question carefully yet. After all, the investment promotion conferences we held before were also for raising funds. There are ways to do things when you have a lot of money, and it's just starting from scratch when you have little money."

Zhao Shucheng said with a smile, "Alright, since you don't have a good office space yet, how about borrowing my office on the fifth floor of the IKEA supermarket on Nanjing Road for now?"

"Opening on Nanjing Road? That's not appropriate, is it? Besides, foreign trade companies should operate independently. It's a bit unreasonable to put it inside a supermarket."

Zhao Shucheng smiled and said, "I think it's perfect. You know that most of the products in IKEA are export goods, which will allow you to quickly understand their prices and quality. More importantly, if you get a new export order and the product is good, our supermarket can also cooperate with you to get it sold in our store—a win-win situation."

"Of course, more importantly, if you can establish good overseas connections and get more export quotas for the supermarket's branded products, it's a good thing for both the foreign trade company and the supermarket, and even more so for the manufacturers." (End of Chapter)