Peninsula Steel Love

Chapter 827: Repairing the plank road in the open, but crossing Chencang in secret

"President Su is joking. Sika and I were just talking about clothes, bags and cosmetics. We couldn't understand what you were saying."

"Oh? Is that so? Hehe."

Yuri grinned and responded to Su Xia with a cheerful smile, which almost made Zhou Jing lose his composure.

Well, Kwon Lao Liu, you really are a liar, talking nonsense. It seems that becoming a top idol is no easy feat. Little did he know that Yuri was smiling on the surface but was cursing inside.

What? Translate? Forget it, she's not doing that. Do you think she's crazy?

Yuri was very clear about Jessica's purpose in bringing her along on this trip. Although she did not know beforehand that she would encounter a big shot like Luo Bing, Jessica felt that someone who could be personally introduced by Su Xia was no ordinary person.

Yuri will be active in China next, which will be a good opportunity to make connections, whether she uses them or not. As the saying goes, "Don't miss out on any opportunity that comes your way."

So from the moment she sat down, Yuri knew how she should behave tonight: first, to dutifully act as Jessica's translator, and second, to occasionally chime in and liven up the atmosphere.

But now Zhou Jing actually asked her to give her opinion on the business matter between Samsung and Xiaohe. Even though she mostly relayed Jessica's views, Yuri still politely declined.

Please, this involves Samsung. It's harmless for a mere artist to mutter a few words behind her back, but there's no need to bring it up in public.

In short, please leave us alone. Everyone here is either Chinese or American, but she is 100% Made in Korea. Samsung is practically the king in this country, so she wouldn't dare to mess around.

Well, Zhou Jing somewhat understood Yuri's concerns and had to admit that it was indeed his oversight. Fortunately, Yuri wasn't as carefree as she seemed, and she dealt with it in a few words.

Of course, Su Xia and Luo Bing would never believe her story. Who were they? Could Yuri's little tricks fool them? Impossible. She just didn't want to talk about it.

Interesting. Luo Bing and Su Xia exchanged a glance and then tacitly chose not to ask any further questions. Seeing this, Zhou Jing took the opportunity to steer the conversation back on track.

"Mr. Luo, I'm sorry, I don't know much about your industry, but there's one thing I'm curious about: are OLED screens only supplied by Samsung?"

In fact, Jessica was just trying to explain the logic behind Samsung's move to Yuri using unspoken rules of the supply chain, and she mentioned a key point in that.

Suppliers typically prioritize customers based on their importance. For example, Samsung manufactures high-end phones and also supplies Apple. Unless they have sufficient production capacity, they will prioritize meeting their own and Apple's needs.

Therefore, tactically extending delivery time is a common tactic used by suppliers for minor customers when they have insufficient capacity. The question is, how should OEMs respond?
Needless to say, you can't put all your eggs in one basket. That's where the value of alternative suppliers comes in, and that's exactly what Jessica doesn't understand.

It's worth noting that she not only handles the division sign but also takes care of the work of SM's brand department. She deals with various suppliers quite often, so similar situations are not uncommon, if not frequent.

Therefore, these factors must be fully considered in the initial stage of the project, but what puzzled Jessica was that Robin never mentioned this matter from beginning to end.

It was for this reason that Zhou Jing wanted to find out the truth through Jessica, but Yuri intercepted the request, leaving him no choice but to take matters into his own hands.

As it turned out, his heart tightened as soon as he finished speaking, because Luo Bing's eyes had already lit up, while Su Xia inadvertently revealed a strange smile.

"Damn it, I've fallen into the trap after all," Zhou Jing thought, eight words immediately popping into his mind: "Openly repair the plank road while secretly crossing the Chencang pass."

"Mr. Zhou, that's a good question. Actually..."

The one who spoke was Assistant Zhang, who had been silent all along. After receiving Luo Bing's approval, he began to report to Zhou Jing in detail. After listening, Zhou Jing felt like cursing.

You cunning Su Xia, you're more shrewd than a lotus root! You were just waiting for him all along, all this time.

Samsung is not the only company producing OLED screens; another brand in the industry that can rival them is LG.

Overall, both Samsung and LG have excellent OLED screen technology, but the two companies have different focuses.

Samsung's AMOLED screens are undoubtedly the best in the mobile phone screen market, but LG's POLED screens are the undisputed king in the flat-panel TV market.

So Xiaohe Technology wasn't without backup plans, but they encountered a very awkward situation because LG had approached Xiaohe Technology to discuss cooperation earlier than Samsung in the early stages of the development of the Xiaohe 5 phone.

After comprehensive evaluation, Xiaohe Supply Chain ultimately chose Samsung, but unexpectedly, this happened, and now they are truly in a dilemma.

The Samsung supply cut has caused a great stir in the industry. Luo Bing did consider contacting LG again, but the other party's response was extremely cold, which left Luo Bing and Xiaohe Technology at a loss.

At this point, Zhou Jing finally understood Su Xia's strategy for organizing the gathering tonight. On the surface, it was related to Samsung, but if things didn't go smoothly, they would settle for second best, since Zhou Jing was better able to handle LG.

Some things are only clear to those in the know. For example, outsiders all think that Zhou Jing has a close relationship with Samsung, but in reality, he is closer to LG.

Don't forget that Su Xia met Zhou Jing at the banquet hosted by the second young master of the Ju family, but he has never appeared in any public occasions hosted by Samsung.

"Brother Zhou, don't mind me, I'm just a few years older, so I'm addressing him like Old Su," Luo Bing said, filling his glass before standing up and going to Zhou Jing's side. "Please."

After personally pouring wine for Zhou Jing, Luo Bing held his glass and waited silently for a response. The private room became extremely quiet, and everyone's eyes were turned to Zhou Jing.

Logically speaking, given Luo Bing's humble attitude, Zhou Jing should have responded, even out of politeness. However, what happened next surprised everyone.

"Tap tap. Tap."

Zhou Jing not only did not respond, but also did not even glance at Luo Bing beside him, and tapped his fingers lightly on the table.

Was this a blatant rejection? Luo Bing suddenly felt a little embarrassed, so he immediately looked to Su Xia for help, but to his surprise, she smiled and gestured for him to look in the other direction.

What does that mean? Although Luo Bing didn't understand, he still followed Su Xia's gaze. After noticing Luo Bing's gaze, Jessica quietly raised her left hand and made a downward gesture without saying a word.

The meaning is clear: be patient and wait for good news.

Is it true or not? Looking at Jessica's beautiful face, Luo Bing felt a sudden sense of relief despite his unease, while also inwardly grumbling.

Judging Zhou Jing's thoughts from just a small gesture? Damn, who would believe you two aren't having an affair? But what shocked him even more was that Yuri made a similar move even though she couldn't see Jessica's hand movements.

Good grief, did I accidentally stumble upon some juicy gossip? Luo Bing's mind went blank for a moment, wondering to himself that both of these beautiful women were... well, you know.
Little did he know that while Jessica was well aware that Zhou Jing would unconsciously tap his fingers when weighing the pros and cons, Yuri's ability to accurately detect it was for a completely different reason; she had noticed this habit of Zhou Jing during the yacht incident.

As Yuri continued to interact with Zhou Jing more and more, she came to a conclusion: the fact that Zhou Jing was tapping his fingers meant that he was seriously considering the pros and cons, which meant that he wanted to make this happen.

If Zhou Jing knew Yuri's judgment, he would probably break out in a cold sweat. He never expected that, apart from Jessica and Seohyun, the only one in Girls' Generation who could understand his thoughts was Kwon Yuri.

Getting back to the point, Jessica and Yuri's deduction was correct; Zhou Jing was indeed struggling with a problem: how to help Luo Bing and Xiaohe Technology.

Some might wonder, what's there to hesitate about? When the time is right, strike decisively and conquer the Nine Provinces with gusto.
You're oversimplifying things. Don't we need to consider a whole host of other factors behind this?
Let's review this matter again. Xiaohe Technology was forced to fly to Seoul by Samsung's supply cut-off. Under normal circumstances, he should have sought help from the embassy first.

People in China may not be aware of this, but Zhou Jing, who lives in South Korea, has firsthand experience of it. Outsiders jokingly say that the most powerful government agency in South Korea is not the Blue House, but the embassies of China and the United States, which shows how influential they are.

Zhou Jing had just met with Counselor Xiu from the embassy that morning, and the latter hadn't mentioned a single word about it, clearly indicating that the embassy didn't intend to openly intervene.

Zhou Jing could understand this. The embassy's involvement would be too much of a commotion, and the Blue House and Samsung would probably be so scared that they wouldn't be able to sleep at night.

Another intriguing aspect is Su Xia. Logically, Rong Jin, who has a cooperative relationship with LG, could have easily put in a good word for him compared to Zhou Jing. However, Su Xia went to the trouble of connecting him with Luo Bing instead. Haha.
Rongjin is not a simple private enterprise. In theory, they are in competition with Xiaohe Technology. So, ultimately, the reason for having Zhou Jing take the lead is because of his special status.

Was he being used to indirectly put pressure on these high-tech companies in South Korea? Zhou Jing's tapping stopped abruptly, and then his eyes hardened as if he had made a decision.

"Brother Luo, I wish your Xiaohe 5 a successful launch." Zhou Jing smiled, stood up, and clinked glasses with Luo Bing.

"Thank you, my kind words are appreciated, haha."

Luo Bing was overjoyed that a huge weight had finally been lifted from his shoulders, but the next second, even more surprises awaited him.

"As the saying goes, there's no time like the present. Today is the first day of the Lunar New Year. Brother Luo, you don't mind having an extra pair of chopsticks tonight, do you? Hehe."

"Brother, you..."

Half an hour later, Lee Boo-jin was tidying up in her office, preparing to go home, when Ahn Jin-hee suddenly pushed the door open and entered without knocking.

“Representative, Director Zhou and his group have new guests in their private room.”

"Oh?" Lee Boo-jin was quite displeased with Ahn Jin-hee's rudeness, but her good upbringing prompted her to calmly retort.

"Who are the guests?"

"It's Director Lee Tae-hyun of BDK Trading Company, and..."

“BDK? Lee Tae-hyun?” Lee Boo-jin was about to pick up her handbag, but her expression immediately tightened upon hearing this name.
"Who else?"

"Um, it's Executive Director Koo Kwang-woo."

"Moragu? The LG family?"

"Inside"

(End of this chapter)