I met my whole family through Baidu Tieba.

"Manager Zhong, aren't you leaving yet?" the woman asked the haggard-looking man in the office, her tone tinged with concern.

The woman's name was Ding Shanshan, and the man in the office was her boss, Zhong Weiting.

Zhong Weiting looked up at her, forced a smile, and said, "I still have some work to do, I'll leave as soon as I'm done. You can go now."

Ding Shanshan hesitated for a moment, but still said, "Work should be done in moderation; don't ruin your health."

"Thanks."

Zhong Weiting habitually thanked him, then lowered his head and continued looking at his things.

Seeing his expression, Ding Shanshan hesitated, but ultimately remained silent. She simply sighed inwardly, turned around with some frustration, and walked out of the company entrance toward the elevator.

Behind Ding Shanshan is the company's signboard—58.com Yangcheng Branch.

Unlike some purely online internet companies, 58.com has established offline branches in dozens of cities, as well as offices in many smaller cities.

Because this company provides local services, they need offline staff to develop their business, move various local offline services online, and sell their various online services to shop owners.

After Ding Shanshan left the company.

Zhong Weiting sat in his office, finished his cigarette, stubbed it out, and looked at the things in front of him, his brows gradually furrowing.

That was information on several local housekeeping shops in Yangcheng, collected by several employees sent by Zhong Weiting.

Zhong Weiting has some similar information and materials.

The local housekeeping shops in Yangcheng that he collected all have one thing in common—they all operate on the home improvement model.

In fact, Zhong Weiting even collected information on Anjia Household Services.

Back in September, Zhong Weiting had already noticed this local housekeeping company in Yangcheng.

After initial research, Zhong Weiting felt that this company's model was well-suited to 58.com. Therefore, Zhong Weiting further collected detailed information about Anjia Home Services, including its service model, operational model, and so on.

The more Zhong Weiting learned, the more excited he became—he felt that Anjia Housekeeping's model was very suitable for 58.com, and its tone was extremely compatible!

If 58.com adopts this home service model, it could open up a new business channel in addition to its existing paid online services. Conversely, this extension of offline home services could further support, strengthen, and promote 58.com's other businesses!

After considering these points, Zhong Weiting immediately wrote a proposal and then reported it to headquarters.

"Maybe I even have a chance to lead this new business!"

Zhong Weiting was very excited.

To his disappointment, after reviewing his proposal, headquarters replied that "further discussion is needed," and then there was no further communication.

Zhong Weiting waited patiently.

During this period, he was not idle. In addition to the company's daily business, he also collected more relevant information, not only about Anjia Household Services, but also about those household service stores that copied Anjia's model.

Yes, back in September, housekeeping shops that replicated the Anjia model had already appeared in Yangcheng.

However, through Zhong Weiting's continued investigation, he discovered that the Anjia model was not easy to replicate, and those housekeeping shops that copied the Anjia model were all doing quite poorly.

"The profit margin of this business model is ridiculously low, it's outrageously low!"

This is a complaint from the owner of one of the housekeeping shops that replicated the Anjia model.

Compared to his previous small housekeeping shop with almost no costs, Anjia Housekeeping's model has much higher costs and greatly squeezed profits.

……

"Low profit margins are one thing, but there are only so many customers, and they're all from Anjia Housekeeping, so it's hard for us to compete with them."

This is a complaint from the owner of another housekeeping service store that replicated the Anjia model.

Indeed, Anjia Home Services has a first-mover advantage. Given similar service quality and prices, why would someone abandon the familiar and reliable Anjia Home Services and choose your unfamiliar little shop instead?

……

"Lowering prices doesn't work either. The profit margin is already low, and lowering prices would mean losing money. To avoid losing money, we have to cut the salaries of cleaning and inspection staff. As a result, many people have left. Those who didn't leave aren't working as hard, and customer complaints have increased dramatically. Many customers have stopped buying from us."

This is yet another sigh from the owner of a housekeeping service store that has copied the Anjia model.

……

Zhong Weiting has collected a lot of information like this.

Some of these shops have now closed down, some are barely surviving, and some have gone back to their old housekeeping model—at least their old housekeeping model had almost no costs and high profits, which allowed them to survive.

The collection of this information allowed Zhong Weiting to further refine his plan and determine a path: if 58.com wants to implement the Anjia Housekeeping model, it's best to avoid Yangcheng first and start from other cities, such as Yanjing or Xiahai.

With its inherent size advantage, 58.com Home Services is definitely faster than Anjia Home Services.

If the worst-case scenario occurs, and the higher-ups lose their minds and insist on starting from Yangcheng, Zhong Weiting has a solution: burn money.

58.com is spending money to subsidize cleaning and inspection staff, so that while ensuring service quality, it can offer lower prices to customers than Anjia Home Services, using "high quality and low price" to seize Anjia Home Services' market share.

By burning through cash at a loss for a period of time, we can bankrupt Anjia Housekeeping and then restore prices.

After that, things proceeded normally, and a bright future lay ahead.

No matter how they try, Zhong Weiting has a plan, and he's just waiting for approval from above.

But the above is what has been discussed all along.

……

In the office, Zhong Weiting lit another cigarette.

After finishing his cigarette, he stubbed it out, took out his phone, and made another call: "Hey, Manager Fang, how's the discussion going with my proposal?"

Manager Fang on the other end of the phone was quite troubled when Zhong Weiting brought up the matter again. "Weiting, have some patience. You know this matter involves some significant aspects, so it needs to be handled carefully. Naturally, the discussion will take a while."

Zhong Weiting said urgently, "But I recently received new information that bank people went to Anjia Household Services to investigate. They are very likely to get a loan and leave Yangcheng, and they are moving faster and faster! If this drags on any longer, it could become very troublesome."

Manager Fang replied perfunctorily, "Yes, yes, I understand how you feel, but headquarters is different from your local offices. Every decision involves many aspects..."

Manager Fang kept repeating the same old things, while Zhong Weiting kept emphasizing the importance of timing.

This time, Zhong Weiting was particularly stubborn, which surprised Manager Fang.

Finally, Manager Fang, left with no other option, sighed and said, "Weiting, to be honest, things aren't going well here either. The financial crisis has had a huge impact; even financing has become very difficult. President Yao has even started selling domain names!"

Zhong Weiting was stunned.

Of course he knew about the financial crisis, and he also knew that Mr. Yao started his business by selling domain names, which was Mr. Yao's original profession.

But how many years has it been since President Yao did this?

Now, forced to return to its old ways, just how difficult is the company's situation?

"Don't tell anyone about this," Manager Fang instructed over the phone.

Zhong Weiting absentmindedly hummed in agreement, but still didn't give up: "Actually, if we're going to start, we can start with Xia Hai. We don't need too much money, a few hundred thousand will do. At worst, we'll just run a little slower..."

"Weiting!"

Manager Fang interrupted Zhong Weiting, "You can't forget what's important! Our top priority right now is to protect the company and our existing business; that's our foundation. We can talk about expansion later, once we've survived."

Finally, Manager Fang sighed, "Weiting, you're a bit obsessed with this... Why don't you take a few days off and get some rest?"

"……Need not."

After making the call, Zhong Weiting sat there motionless for a long time, Fang's words still echoing in his mind—"You're a bit obsessed."

After being reminded by Manager Fang, he realized that he seemed to be a little obsessed.

Perhaps it's because I've always been following orders from above, and this is the first time I've found a promising project, so I've become a bit fixated on it.

As I continuously track information, devise solutions, and optimize, I invest more and more energy into it, and this obsession deepens to the point of becoming an obsession.

Zhong Weiting now even feels that he must do this.

Otherwise, if in the future, such a model or a company establishes itself across the country, but you are not involved and can only listen to its stories... missing out on this opportunity might lead to a lifetime of regret.

Half a day later, Zhong Weiting finally got up.

He walked to the window and looked at the city lights outside, as well as the dark, vast night sky.

How insignificant humans are in the face of the sky.

Similarly, how insignificant a person is in the face of the times.

A financial crisis made financing more difficult than ever before, leaving companies focused solely on self-preservation and unable to attend to other matters.

If it were at a different time, perhaps my proposal would have been approved?

Zhong Weiting watched silently, thinking for a while, then turned around, walked back to his desk, and finished the remaining work as quickly as possible. He then got up, went to the office door, and glanced back at his office.

Finally, I turned off the lights and resolutely left.

After leaving the office building, Zhong Weiting walked down the street, the neon lights of the shops along the way casting colorful glows on his body.

He took out his phone and made a call.

"Hello, Mr. Kang, I know you're planning to expand, so you must be in need of manpower, right? I'd like to apply."