I met my whole family through Baidu Tieba.

Chapter 120 The fire spreads outwards

Shen Kang originally planned to have Yang Yunhan drive his car to run errands, but when he asked, he found out that Yang Yunhan did not have a driver's license, so he told her to take a taxi and he would reimburse her for the fare.

After finishing these tasks, he strolled back to his dormitory. As soon as he entered the small dormitory, he found that Feng Moquan was not there. In addition to Jin Chao, there was another boy in the dormitory who was talking to Jin Chao.

Shen Kang also knew this boy; he was Jiang Yateng from the next dormitory room and also a classmate of their E-commerce Class 2.

After greeting him, Shen Kang sat down at his desk, intending to browse the internet.

Jiang Yateng, however, took the initiative to strike up a conversation with him: "Shen Kang, I heard from Jin Chao that you sold a lot of trial vouchers for the 302 study room last night?"

"Hmm, what's wrong?"

Jiang Yateng asked, "Are you still selling today?"

Shen Kang turned to look at Jiang Yateng, and seemed to understand what he meant. "You want to buy it?"

Jiang Yateng chuckled, "If the price is right, I'd like to buy some too."

The reason he also wanted to buy a trial voucher dates back to two hours earlier.

Jiang Yateng was surfing the internet in his dormitory at the time.

Jiang Yateng's family was relatively well-off. During the summer vacation, Jiang Yateng instilled a lot of ideas in his father that "college students need computers," such as "Now it is the Internet age, college students all need to have computers, and I heard that some teachers assign homework by computer."

His dad actually listened to him, so Jiang Yateng's family bought him a laptop, which he brought to school.

Jiang Yateng also learned about Yangbei Forum through others, and would occasionally go to the Yangbei University of Science and Technology campus to learn about campus activities. However, he had never used the second-hand section, so he was unaware of the "experience voucher war" that had been taking place in the second-hand section these past few days.

Just two hours ago, when Jiang Yateng was browsing the Yangbei Forum, he noticed the GG on Xianyu.com. He clicked on it and discovered that the only secondhand items on this website were experience vouchers for the 302 Study Room.

This piqued Jiang Yateng's curiosity.

Because of the information spread by Feng Moquan and his group, everyone in E-commerce Class 2 now knows that Room 302 is also run by Shen Kang. So Jiang Yateng came over to ask about the trial voucher. Wasn't it supposed to be given out for free in the laundry room? Why are so many people buying and selling it?

As it turned out, Shen Kang wasn't there; only Jin Chao was, using Wang Pan's computer to look at information about online trial vouchers.

Upon seeing this, Jiang Yateng immediately asked Jin Chao what the experience voucher was all about.

Jin Chao's page was open, so he couldn't say he didn't know. So he told Jiang Yateng about it.

Moreover, Jin Chao explained things in great detail and didn't hide anything.

This is mainly because Shen Kang said today that "the rules of the game have changed," and Jin Chao has thought about this for a long time and has come up with his own opinion:

In the previous gameplay, everyone bought low and sold high, and acted immediately, so the fewer merchants involved and the less competition, the better.

However, under the new gameplay, if you want to make money, you need to push up the future price of the experience vouchers.

Jin Chao felt that this was like stock trading; the more people and the more money that came in, the better the price could be pushed up.

So he told Jiang Yateng everything, including his earnings over the past two days, without hiding anything.

Jiang Yateng was indeed very interested after hearing this, which is why he asked that question, hoping to get some trial vouchers.

Upon hearing that Jiang Yateng also wanted to buy trial vouchers, Shen Kang gave him a definite answer: "I will be giving out trial vouchers again tonight, but I need to check the specific prices first. Wait a moment."

"It's okay, you take a look first."

Shen Kang then opened the Xianyu website and took a look.

The two rows of 16 product listings at the bottom of the Xianyu.com homepage are now full.

He clicked into the "Tickets" section, scrolled through it, and the data was immediately clear:

There are a total of 27 product information for trial vouchers.

There are 21 blue vouchers for selling experience vouchers and 6 red vouchers for buying experience vouchers.

As for the prices, you don't even need to click in; you can see them clearly on this section page: those selling experience vouchers are mostly between 2.7 and 3.2, with a few at 3.8 and 3.9, which are obviously posted by merchants like Jin Chao.

Most of the posts offering to buy experience vouchers are for 2 yuan, with only one post offering 2.2 yuan.

After browsing Xianyu.com, Shen Kang checked out Yangbei Forum and found that the posts in the second-hand section of Yangbei Forum offering to buy trial vouchers were offering slightly lower prices than on Xianyu.com, ranging from 1.7 to 2 yuan. However, the selling prices were higher, ranging from 4 to 4.5 yuan.

After reading this, Shen Kang had a better understanding. He turned to Jiang Yateng and asked, "I'm planning to sell them for 2 yuan each. Do you want some?"

Two yuan each?

Jiang Yateng had just heard Jin Chao say that Shen Kang sold a lot of experience vouchers yesterday for about two yuan each, which was a good price.

However, he didn't rush to answer. Instead, he looked at Jin Chao and asked, "Jin Chao, are you still accepting payments today?"

Jin Chao said directly to Shen Kang, "Old Shen, I'll buy them for two yuan each. How many can you sell me?"

Shen Kang thought for a moment and then gave a number: "50."

"Okay, I'll take it."

As Jin Chao spoke, he took out his wallet, pulled out a red 100-yuan bill, and gave it to Shen Kang.

Shen Kang also took out his key, opened the wardrobe, counted out about 600 vouchers from the box where the vouchers were kept, put them on the table, and then counted out another 50 vouchers and gave them to Jin Chao.

Seeing how decisive Jin Chao was, Jiang Yateng no longer hesitated, "Shen Kang, I'll buy it too—"

When it came down to it, he hesitated for a moment. After all, it was his first time doing something like this, and he had only heard about the whole process of getting the vouchers from Jin Chao. So after hesitating for a moment, Jiang Yateng gave what he thought was a safe number: "Let's buy 20 vouchers."

Twenty tickets, only 40 yuan. Even if he lost them, he could afford it, Jiang Yateng thought. He then returned to his dormitory and took the 40 yuan.

The money was given to Shen Kang, who in turn gave him 20 trial vouchers.

It was Jiang Yateng's first time doing something like this, so he was a little nervous but also excited. After getting the voucher, he didn't leave for a while and even pulled Jin Chao aside to chat about the voucher again.

At this moment, Feng Moquan also returned. Shen Kang asked him to register an account on Xianyu.com and post a product information for selling experience coupons for 2.5 yuan. He also asked him to post a thread for selling experience coupons for 2.5 yuan on Yangbei Forum.

Soon after, Feng Moquan's phone rang.

Before Feng Moquan went out to sell coupons, Shen Kang asked how many coupons the other party wanted. After learning that it was four coupons, Shen Kang created an Excel file on his computer and recorded the number in it.

After that, every time someone came to buy coupons, Shen Kang would ask them how many coupons they wanted to buy at once, and then record it in the spreadsheet.

Jiang Yateng also left their dormitory at this time. After returning to his dormitory, he did not sell the experience vouchers on Yangbei Forum and Xianyu.com. Jin Chao said that the price of this thing would rise, so he should hold onto it for a couple of days and see how much it could rise. If things didn't look good, he should sell it quickly.

Although he didn't sell it, Jiang Yateng still couldn't control his nervousness and kept checking the price of the experience voucher on Yangbei Forum and Xianyu.com.

Meanwhile, Wang Yulan was also looking at Xianyu.com in her dormitory, hoping to find some low-priced coupons.

She's already collected 12 coupons today. She originally planned to stock up on more for later use, but she just couldn't stop collecting them: "Anyway, the price of these trial coupons keeps going up. Even if I collect more than I can use, I can sell them later and make a profit."

At the same time, in addition to Wu Chenhui, Jin Chao and other original businessmen, more than a dozen people suddenly appeared at the dormitory management stations of Yangke University, scanning for low-price coupons on Xianyu.com.

More and more people are participating, like sparks falling on a grassland, starting to burn outwards.

Those who participated in these trial vouchers also became the first users of Xianyu.com.

Shen Kang, the instigator, started today's family game time, but he had only been playing for a short while when Yang Yunhan called.

After answering the phone, Yang Yunhan's voice came from the other end: "Boss, when I bought the tea leaves earlier, I said I wanted to make milk tea to sell, and the tea seller said that milk tea sold outside is made with tea powder, not real tea leaves. Did you know that?"

"I know, but our milk tea is different; it's made with real tea leaves," Shen Kang said, tilting his head and holding his phone to his shoulder while operating the game character.

Yang Yunhan on the other end of the phone continued, "Also, the boss said that using real milk won't work. Back in 04, there was a melamine scandal, and nobody dared to buy domestic milk powder anymore, which also affected real milk. If we use real milk, we won't be able to sell it, and we'll lose a fortune!"

Shen Kang laughed, "The owner of this tea shop is quite enthusiastic. He talks to you so much just because you're buying tea." He then added, "But that was back in 04. Several years have passed, and the country has implemented very strict legislation on the milk powder and milk industry. Consumer confidence has almost recovered, so the problem isn't as serious as you think."

According to Shen Kang's memories from his previous life, Heytea, the first well-known "new tea drink" brand in China, was founded in 2009. It started by using real milk and real tea leaves to make milk tea and made this its selling point, which led to great success.

Making milk tea with real milk and real tea leaves represents a new market segment with virtually no technological barriers. The reason why a successful brand didn't emerge until 09 is not only due to the country's economic development level but also related to the melamine scandal.

The melamine scandal caused public panic about dairy products, which to some extent delayed the launch of this new tea drink made with "real milk and real tea leaves".

However, it is already the end of 08. According to Shen Kang's memories of Heytea's success in his previous life, the public's panic about dairy products has been largely digested.

Hearing Shen Kang's reply on the other end of the phone, and seeing that Shen Kang had considered all of her points, Yang Yunhan didn't say anything more: "Since you've thought of everything, then that's settled. I'll continue with my shopping."

(P.S.: In reality, the melamine scandal occurred in 08, while Heytea emerged in 2013. This further proves that this book is set in a parallel universe, a parallel universe, a parallel universe! Hence the discrepancies.)

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