I met my whole family through Baidu Tieba.

The moment Shen Kang saw Gu Jinhua, he decided against lying or hiding the fact that the An family was also selling electric toothbrushes. After all, the electric toothbrushes were going on sale tomorrow, and there was no way to keep it a secret.

Upon hearing Gu Jinhua say "I must buy one," Shen Kang seemed to remember something, slapped his forehead, and corrected himself for saying that he wanted Gu Jinhua to help him buy an Anjia electric toothbrush.

"Look at what I'm saying! How could I let you spend money, Manager Gu? I'll just deliver it to you, won't that solve the problem?"

Then, he said to Tao Yinchu, who was standing to the side with his head down, "Old Tao, hurry up and get a box of electric toothbrushes."

Gu Jinhua quickly waved her hands, "You're too kind, President Shen. I'll buy it myself."

Shen Kang held his hand, engaging in a seemingly warm and evasive exchange with Gu Jinhua: "No, no, no, Manager Gu, you are Gu Pengfei's uncle, which makes you my elder. How could I possibly let you spend money on me..."

While the two were practicing Tai Chi push hands, Tao Yinchu had already hurried downstairs.

He didn't care about anything else. Since President Shen said he would bring a box of electric toothbrushes as a gift, then he would give them to him.

They had all driven here today. Tao Yinchu quickly left Yangcheng Department Store, went to the nearby parking lot, and took a box of electric toothbrushes from the trunk of his car. When he returned to the Philips Personal Care counter in Yangcheng Department Store, he saw Shen Kang and Gu Jinhua still practicing Tai Chi push hands.

"Mr. Shen, the toothbrush is here."

Tao Yinchu walked over and gave the box of electric toothbrushes to Shen Kang first.

Shen Kang freed one hand, took the box of electric toothbrushes, and stuffed it into Gu Jinhua's arms.

"Manager Gu, please don't stand on ceremony with me. You treated me to dinner last night. If I accept your payment for everything, people will say I'm being inconsiderate..."

Gu Jinhua couldn't refuse, and Shen Kang had many reasons to accept it. Besides, it was just a box of electric toothbrushes, a few hundred yuan's worth of stuff, nothing big. So, she finally accepted it, thinking it wasn't bad. Anyway, even if Shen Kang hadn't given it to her, she would have had to buy a box later. Now that Shen Kang had given it to her, she could save the money for a few packs of cigarettes.

"Then I won't be polite, thank you."

Gu Jinhua wanted to go home immediately to find out how good An's electric toothbrush was, but Shen Kang and the others were there, so it wasn't appropriate for him to leave right away. He continued to chat with Shen Kang.

He wasn't familiar with Shen Kang, so it would have been difficult to find topics to talk about. However, Shen Kang always seemed to have a topic to discuss.

"President Shen came out to inspect the work today, and he even brought a book with him?" Gu Jinhua glanced at the book in Shen Kang's hand and said.

Shen Kang spoke frankly: "I originally planned to study all day, but Lao Tao called me early this morning, and I remembered that our toothbrushes are about to go on sale. I thought to myself, if you're going to inspect, just go inspect, why do you have to drag me along? It's like I know all this technical stuff. But I had no choice, since I'm the boss, so I had to come out. But it's not too much of a waste of time, since they're the two of them handling everything. While they're working, I just sit down and read my book, which is pretty much the same as reading at home. My learning efficiency might be a little lower, but not by much."

Gu Jinhua couldn't help but sigh, "When I got back yesterday, Xiaofei told me that you, President Shen, are a 'top student,' or even a 'super top student.' Now that I see, it's true."

Last night, after the dinner party ended, he went to his older brother's house to talk to Gu Pengfei, who had also returned home, and asked about Shen Kang's situation.

Gu Pengfei was annoyed by Shen Kang's strange behavior and didn't want to talk about him. At first, he just gave a few perfunctory answers, but under Gu Jinhua's persistent questioning, he told her everything.

Including but not limited to,

Shen Kang ranked first in his grade.

Shen Kang receives scholarships as easily as drinking water.

:

"Shen Kang, as the only representative of Qianlin Province in the open-world adventure game 'Three Creations Competition,' made it into the national finals and won the championship." (Yin Mingyang only said that he made it into the national finals, but that's how the rumor went. After passing through two mouths, it was already said that he won the championship when it reached Gu Pengfei's ears.)

"Shen Kang tries his best to keep his deskmate from dropping out, and hears the sound of the sunset on the playground at dusk..."

Gu Jinhua was completely dumbfounded when she heard what Gu Pengfei said.

He did see it that night; Mr. Shen was carrying two books with him. But at the time, he thought it was just a coincidence. Maybe Mr. Shen was buying books in the bookstore when Gu Pengfei called him out, which is why he was carrying books with him.

Unexpectedly, this was not a coincidence, but rather because he was truly a super learner, the kind of good student who was studying every moment!

This is quite a contrast to his identity as "President Shen"...

Gu Jinhua was still skeptical at the time, thinking that Xiao Fei's words were an exaggeration.

But today, by chance, he saw Shen Kang carrying a book with him, which made him have no choice but to believe it.

Shen Kang had no idea he'd run into him today, yet he still carried a book with him. If this wasn't a super-achiever, a diligent student who was always studying, then who was?

They naturally believed Shen Kang's claim that "they were working while I was reading."

Seeing that Gu Jinhua truly believed Shen Kang was a top student, Tao Yinchu and Zhong Weiting, standing to the side, couldn't help but look to their left and right respectively, and fell silent once again.

"..."

Gu Jinhua was still chatting with Shen Kang when she also voiced some of her doubts: "Mr. Shen, in my impression, a student like you should be sitting in the library studying every day. I've never seen anyone like you, who also came from Anjia."

Shen Kang sighed, "Who can argue with that? My original plan was to study hard for the four years of university and spend every day in the library. But I had no choice. During the summer vacation, I studied some economics material for university and came across a 'transaction cost theory.' I had a slightly different opinion on it, so I started an online community to put it into practice and see if my thinking was right or if what the book said was right. But once I started, I couldn't stop, and now all my study time is being squeezed out by these trivial matters."

Gu Jinhua then realized that Anjia was founded because Shen Kang wanted to put the theories in the book into practice and prove whether they were correct.

This sounds a bit far-fetched, but when you combine it with Shen Kang's status as a "super student," hey, it suddenly makes perfect sense.

"I admire you. When I was in school, I did question some of the theories in the books, but at most I would just discuss them with the teacher. I've never done anything like you, Mr. Shen, to personally set up a company to verify them."

"Don't even mention it, Manager Gu. My biggest regret right now is founding Anjia."

After chatting for a while, Shen Kang took his leave, leaving with Tao Yinchu and Zhong Weiting.

Gu Jinhua watched the three figures leave, and even after they disappeared into the elevator, he still hadn't looked away, his eyes thoughtful.

Last night, after the dinner, his impression of Mr. Shen Kang was that of a promising and confident young entrepreneur. But now, his impression of Mr. Shen has changed.

A super-achiever who is tied down by his career and unable to fully enjoy his studies...

Gu Jinhua seemed to see a little lamb, staring with clear, innocent eyes, and said with a grin, "I'm just a cute little lamb."

Even the boastful words at last night's dinner party have been interpreted as this little lamb arrogantly shouting, "Don't stop me, I'm going to kill the big bad wolf!"

All the details, including the two books Shen Kang brought last night and the book he brought today, and Shen Kang's honesty in telling everyone that Anjia was also going to sell electric toothbrushes, etc., all seemed to prove that his feeling was correct. Other things could perhaps be faked, but Shen Kang carrying a book with him without knowing that he would meet him couldn't be faked, could it?

:

From a rational analysis perspective, it seems to be just a lamb.

But for some reason, Gu Jinhua had a vague feeling that there was something strange beneath the smiling little lamb's skin...

After thinking for a while, Gu Jinhua simply stopped thinking about it and left with the box of electric toothbrushes.

He came here today for his routine store inspection, but now he doesn't plan to continue. Instead, he plans to go directly to Liang Siyuan and Lu Lan and tell them that Anjia also sells electric toothbrushes.

All the way, Gu Jinhua kept thinking about how to bring it up.

If you say, "Anjia is making electric toothbrushes now?" Liang Siyuan would most likely ask, "So what?" If you say, "I think we should pay a little more attention to it?" Lu Lan would probably laugh, laughing at him for treating a small local housekeeping company as some kind of major enemy.

But he still wanted to say it.

For no other reason than that he felt Liang Siyuan should know about this, since Liang Siyuan had made an assessment of the An family at the dinner table yesterday. Today the situation has changed, and he has a responsibility to convey this change to Liang Siyuan.

Upon arriving at the location, Gu Jinhua knocked on the door and went inside with the electric toothbrush box that Shen Kang had given him.

Twenty minutes later

Go to Must Search

Gu Jinhua came out again with that box of electric toothbrushes.

Just as he had expected, Liang Siyuan and Lu Lan were somewhat surprised to hear that Anjia was also selling electric toothbrushes. Lu Lan even called a few people to inquire about the situation, but overall, they didn't seem to care much.

After all, one company is a global brand, and the other is a small local company in Yangcheng; one has a 20% market share in the domestic electric toothbrush market, and the other has none; one has a very rich product line, ranging from low to high-end, while the other only has one product...

Philip was like an elephant, while Anjia was like an ant.

Would an elephant care what ants do and treat it as a major threat? That's nonsense.

In contrast, Liang Siyuan and Lu Lan were more interested in the fact that Shen Kang, whom Gu Jinhua had mentioned, was a "super student," and asked him quite a few questions with great interest.

Gu Jinhua went along with their interests and told them some things.

Of the 20 minutes, 10 minutes were spent talking about the "super academic genius," since the stories of "Shen, the academic genius, dominating all ages" sounded too legendary.

The remaining 6 minutes were spent discussing Oral-B.

For Philips, this is one of the real rivals. This Spring Festival battle in the electric toothbrush market is between Philips and Oral-Bee; no one else has a say.

Two unparalleled swordsmen are dueling to vie for the title of the best in the world. Why are you staring at some random passerby in the crowd who's eating a pancake?

Gu Jinhua felt that what Liang Siyuan and Lu Lan said did make sense.

But when he came out of his room and walked down the hotel corridor, he still didn't throw away the box of Anjia electric toothbrushes in his hand when he passed a trash can.

He still wanted to take it back and try it out to see what Anjia's electric toothbrush was like.

:

Gu Jinhua didn't know what she was thinking either.

Upon closer examination, it's probably this kind of mentality: Don't you think he's unimportant? When he truly makes you take him seriously and treat him like a formidable enemy, you'll realize how prescient I was, foreseeing everything long ago.

"What childish mentality of an elementary school student?" Gu Jinhua shook her head, both amused and exasperated after realizing her own thoughts.

He had also studied psychology and knew that this was a form of "overcompensation after being rejected."

When a person's judgment is disregarded by the group, they may unconsciously reinforce their stance and even begin to expect things to go wrong in their favor, to prove that they were not wrong in the first place. To put it bluntly, it's just acting out of spite.

Gu Jinhua had worked at Philips for over a decade, rising from a low-level salesman to Yangcheng manager. He had seen it all, yet now he was actually getting into a fight with two people from headquarters.

But the more he thought about it, the less he wanted to throw it away.

This box of toothbrushes seemed to represent the stubborn refusal in his heart to back down.

That evening, Gu Jinhua took the box of electric toothbrushes home.

Before going to bed that night, he even took it apart and used Anjia's electric toothbrush to brush his teeth.

I also casually placed the electric toothbrush on the bathroom sink.

……

The next day, in the morning

Tao Yinchu drove to Anjia's first store on Xiangping North Road early in the morning and sat down inside.

Today is the official launch of Anjia Technology's first self-developed product. He woke up automatically at five o'clock in the morning and couldn't fall back asleep. He didn't want to go to Anjia Technology, but wanted to stay at Anjia Household Services to keep an eye on the sales as soon as possible.

The reason for coming to this store is because it was Anjia's first store, and it's located in the High-tech Zone. President Shen lives nearby, so he will most likely come to this store to keep an eye on things.

The people in the store didn't recognize Tao Yinchu, but after Tao Yinchu called Zhong Weiting, and Zhong Weiting called back with some instructions, the store staff realized that this somewhat short and stout Mr. Tao was the leader of Anjia Technology. The rice cookers they sold before, and the electric toothbrushes they were going to sell now, all came from him. So they let him sit there.

Tao Yinchu sat on the sofa in the store's rest area for a while, but Shen Kang didn't come over. So he called Shen Kang and learned that Shen Kang had already gotten up, but was reading at home.

"...I won't go to the store. Whether I'm there or not, they'll still sell, and I can't help them much..."

After yesterday's incident, Tao Yinchu no longer considers "Shen Kang reading" a joke—although it sounds a bit absurd, it seems that President Shen has indeed become a top student.

Tao Yinchu was somewhat disappointed when he learned that Shen Kang would not be coming.

After hanging up the phone, he looked at the people in the store and started to stare blankly, as if he were about to die. His mind was playing out slideshows: when he was about to lose his job, he sat on the bus stop, smoking in frustration, while President Shen sat down next to him with a smile; he was busy day and night, setting up Anjia Technology; he was running around, busy with the electric toothbrush supply chain...

This is more than just a job I got when I was at my lowest point in life.

Especially after hearing Mr. Shen's amazing idea of ​​"using Anjia Household Services as a channel", Tao Yinchu felt that this was an unprecedented major opportunity in his life, a career, a real career.

If a person can have even one such career in their lifetime, it's a career that makes their life worthwhile.

:

Tao Yinchu never imagined that he wouldn't find a career in his twenties or thirties, until he finally found one in his forties that he felt was worth dedicating his life to.

However, it's not too late. Jiang Ziya didn't emerge from seclusion until he was seventy years old, while I'm only in my forties. I'm still young and it's the perfect time to strive.

And now, this is the first real test for this career.

What will the outcome be? ...

After spacing out for a while, Tao Yinchu became restless and simply picked up a box of Anjia 1 electric toothbrushes and looked at it over and over, as if he could see today's sales figures just by looking at it.

Finally, his gaze fell on the number "1" on the outer packaging of the electric toothbrush.

This name was chosen by General Manager Shen.

According to General Manager Shen, "" means "p", which is "super". 1 means "Super One".

Tao Yinchu seized the opportunity to flatter him, praising Mr. Shen's name repeatedly, saying it was excellent and very cultured; he himself, Tao, could never have come up with such a good name in his entire life. Compared to Mr. Shen, names like Philip's H5351 immediately paled in comparison. His admiration for Mr. Shen was like a surging river, endless and unstoppable, like the Yellow River overflowing its banks.

But in fact, Tao Yinchu always had some strange thoughts about this name.

Old Tao, too, had appreciated some "artistic works," including some from Japan. Therefore, he knew that in Japan, there was a well-known manufacturer of "artistic works" called 1.

Even now, Tao Yinchu always feels something is off when he sees this name.

……

Just as Tao Yinchu sat in the Anjia store, restless and lost in thought, waiting for today's electric toothbrush sales figures.

Zizhu Garden, Building 9, Unit 2, 3rd Floor, Liu Min's Home

Liu Min is 36 years old and works as a teller at Yangcheng Commercial Bank. Her husband, Sun Lei, works at the post office. Her son, Sun Xiaoyu, is in the second year of junior high school. He had just finished his final exams and started his winter vacation. Liu Min dragged him to a tutoring class early in the morning.

Then, Liu Min sat in the living room, folding clothes while waiting for someone to come to her door—she had booked someone from Anjia to come and clean her house this morning.

Around nine o'clock, the person arrived.

The woman who arrived was in her early forties, surnamed Fang, wearing Anjia's blue-gray work clothes and carrying a black tool bag.

She showed her employee badge and put on shoe covers; the whole process was familiar to Liu Min.

"Let's start with the living room, then focus on cleaning the kitchen range hood, and also give the bay window in the master bedroom a thorough cleaning," Liu Min said, pointing to the living room and kitchen.

Fang Jie responded and started working.

Liu Min sat back down on the sofa and started folding clothes, glancing at them every now and then.

Fang Jie is a steady worker. When wiping the coffee table, she first puts the remote control and water cups aside, then wipes each surface one by one. She even wipes the power strip under the TV cabinet…

This was the first time Liu Min had met Sister Fang, who came today. Overall, thanks to Anjia's consistently standardized procedures, she felt reassured.

:

For example, after cleaning the bathroom, Sister Fang called Liu Min over to take a look and asked her if she was satisfied.

Liu Min went over and looked at the clean and tidy bathroom. She ran her finger across the sink, and found it spotless after being cleaned, without a trace of water residue. This pleased her.

"Okay, I'm quite satisfied."

After Liu Min finished speaking, she turned to leave and continue with her own business.

Sister Fang called out to her, "Sister, wait a moment, I want to show you something."

"?"

Liu Min stopped just as she was about to turn around and looked at Sister Fang. She saw the other woman take out a rather nicely packaged box from her tool bag. It had a cylindrical object printed on it, and at the very top was a toothbrush, but the bottom part was chubby.

"An electric toothbrush?" Although Liu Min's family still uses traditional toothbrushes, she had seen these things in shopping malls before. The ones she saw were Philips, which were quite expensive. The cheapest one cost four or five hundred yuan. Although she was quite curious, she couldn't bring herself to buy one.

"Yes, electric toothbrushes..." Following the script she was taught, Sister Fang began to explain the advantages of electric toothbrushes compared to traditional toothbrushes.

After listening for a short while, Liu Min interrupted Sister Fang without even asking the price, saying rudely, "Forget it, forget it, no thanks."

She later learned about Oral-Bee electric toothbrushes, which also cost several hundred yuan. So she knew that these electric toothbrushes were ridiculously expensive, starting at several hundred yuan.

Now she doesn't even need to ask to know that Anjia's electric toothbrush must cost several hundred yuan.

Therefore, it's better not to ask at all.

If she actually asked and then turned around and said no, what would the cleaning lady think of her? She would definitely think that she didn't buy it because she thought it was too expensive, which would be so embarrassing.

Therefore, I won't ask about the price.

Liu Min also gave a reason for "not wanting an electric toothbrush": "I've seen Philips electric toothbrushes in shopping malls, and I know all the things you're talking about, but I still don't think it's necessary."

The implication is that I won't buy anything from Philippe, so you should definitely avoid anything from Anjia.

With that, Liu Min turned to leave.

Fang Jie's voice came again.

"Philip? Philip's manager also uses one of our electric toothbrushes."

: