I met my whole family through Baidu Tieba.

The TV show playing is "Delightful Girl Choon-Hyang".

As Zhou Man watched, she couldn't help but project herself onto the male protagonist Menglong's mother, feeling that the two children's characters were somewhat similar: Shen Kang, though mature, somehow always gave off a mischievous impression; Qiu Zhu, like Chunxiang in the drama, was not only beautiful but also more mature...

Out of the corner of Zhou Man's eye, she noticed He Qiuzhu staring at the TV, holding a toothpick and trying to poke a piece of apple. She accidentally poked it, and the piece of apple fell directly onto her lap. She looked down, then secretly glanced at Zhou Man. Seeing that Zhou Man wasn't paying attention to her, she quietly picked up the piece of apple and put it in her mouth.

She already had dragon fruit in her mouth, and then stuffed a piece of apple into it, her cheeks bulging. Then she stared at the TV as if nothing was wrong, giving off a sense of self-deception and smugness.

"..."

Zhou Man doesn't care; she's just mature.

At least it doesn't cause me any worry, unlike Shen Kang, who just said something about "fighting a business war with Philips and Oral-Bee," which made me think about it further.

She also thought of a book she had recently read.

Mr. Zhou no longer reads "Three Sentences to Get Your Child to Report Their Itinerary to You - A Study on the Controllability of Affection Distance" and has switched to a new one - "Sense of Boundaries: Power Transfer and Implicit Support in Families with Adult Children".

She felt that this book was more reliable.

The book says that when your children encounter a problem and tell you about it, if their tone is specific and detailed, it means they are already dealing with it; if their tone is vague and emotional, it means they may be facing pressure beyond their current capabilities.

Judging from Shen Kang's specific words just now, he is already taking action.

But Zhou Man felt too at ease: no matter how capable Shen Kang was, he was only a freshman, and what were Philips and Oral-Bee? One was a Fortune 500 company, and the other was an industry leader.

After thinking for a while, Zhou Man stopped watching TV and stood up.

"You watch by yourself for a while, I'll go see what he's doing."

When Zhou Man arrived at Shen Kang's bedroom door, she found that she didn't need to knock anymore, as the door was already open.

But she still knocked twice on the open door to let Shen Kang know she was coming in before going inside.

As soon as I walked in, I couldn't help but say, "You're a housekeeper, how come your bedroom looks like a doghouse?"

Shen Kang's usually tidy bedroom was now quite messy, with a sack lying beside him, its contents all emptied out: computer case, power supply, fan, P, and so on.

"I'm a bit busy right now, I'll tidy up later," Shen Kang said casually.

He sat in the chair with his head down, his feet tapping on the ground. Because the chair was ergonomic and could rotate, each tap turned him to the left, and each tap turned him to the right, just like riding a teacup in an amusement park.

Zhou Man's hand twitched slightly, wanting to start tidying up for him directly, but then she thought about it and wondered if Shen Kang had his own plans for these things. If she tidied them up for him, it would only "mess up" things for him.

So he didn't move, but simply said, "Thinking about something?"

Shen Kang was just sitting there, but he said he was busy. If it were any other parent, they might say something like, "What are you busy with? I think you're just sitting there doing nothing." But Zhou Man understood.

When she's thinking, she likes to sit still and twirl her pen. She also knows some people who have all sorts of quirks when they're thinking; some like to pace back and forth, some like to take a shower—I heard that one guy once almost washed himself raw while trying to figure out the key to a project.

This seemingly "idle" state is actually the busiest time for people like them.

"Um."

Shen Kang hummed in agreement.

Zhou Man asked, "Do you need my help?"

Shen Kang looked up at her, then smiled and said, "President Zhou, what you're saying makes me think of a bunch of kids fighting, and one of them even calls their parents over to help fight. That's just too ridiculous."

Zhou Man smiled and said, "Philip and Oral-Bee are not children."

At the same time, she felt a pang of emotion: just over six months ago, she had personally witnessed this young man riding a bicycle to the coffee shop; back then, he had nothing. She had also personally witnessed his company being established and his coming here to clean.

In just six months, he started to have some contact with Philippe Orby.

This gave Zhou Man a strange sense of pride, and she also inexplicably thought of her elder brother's children, who were her nephew and niece.

Their wealth may far exceed that of Shen Kang. Even if all of Shen Kang's assets were combined, it wouldn't be as valuable as his nephew's car. However, from a more important perspective, Shen Kang undoubtedly wins by a large margin.

First published and updated on Xiaoshuo.com!

Win! A huge win! We're ecstatic!

A strong-willed Chinese woman throughout her life, very...

He then continued, "One of these is a Fortune Global 500 company, and the other is an industry leader. You're the child in front of them. It's like two adults hitting a child; calling the parents is the most correct and fair thing to do."

Shen Kang said somewhat lazily, "My child is a bit different. He started eating protein powder in the womb and practiced jumping rope while holding onto the umbilical cord. Don't let his small size fool you, he's all muscle and a real muscle monster."

Zhou Man spat, "What kind of talk is that? Can't you speak more politely?"

After a pause, he asked, "Could you tell me the specifics of the situation?"

Shen Kang thought for a moment, then told her anyway, "Deputy Director Fang of the Provincial Department of Commerce invited me to dinner today..."

He kept it brief, but he got to the point, making it easy for everyone to understand what was going on.

After listening, Zhou Man fell silent again.

"...You know Director Fang?"

Zhou Man couldn't help but ask.

"Hmm. Well, that's another story..."

After hearing Shen Kang's story again, Zhou Man finally had a general understanding of the ins and outs. She couldn't help but sigh inwardly, thinking how troublesome and somewhat amusing this kid was.

"That girl probably had a crush on you, but you ended up dating her dad?"

This time, Shen Kang spat out, "President Zhou, what are you saying? My brother Fang and I are friends, and you're making things sound weird."

Zhou Man smiled but didn't reply. After thinking for a moment, she said, "It's almost the end of the year, and our company is going to give out year-end bonuses. We've been discussing it recently. I think electric toothbrushes are a good option—healthy, inexpensive, and thoughtful. They could be included in our company's year-end bonus."

Shen Kang glanced at her and thought to himself, "Wow, is this what it feels like to have a powerful backer?"

Given the scale of Shengyuan Group, even if it were just a part of Qianlin Province, it wouldn't be a problem to wipe out his current inventory of more than two thousand electric toothbrushes in one go.

However, Shen Kang shook his head. "I appreciate your kind offer, Mr. Zhou, but I'll pass."

Zhou Man looked at him and said, "I know you might feel that this is due to connections and taking shortcuts, and you're embarrassed. But think about it, how many days has your electric toothbrush been out? Even if we go back a bit, it's only been half a year since Anjia Housekeeping was founded. It's inherently unfair for you to compete with Philips Oral-B."

"And you've already done it."

"You've done everything yourself, bit by bit, since summer vacation. You seem to think that if you ask others for help, it's like all your previous work was for nothing, like you, Shen Kang, are just so-so. But you've already done a good job."

"Besides, in the business world, it's very common for you to help me and me to help you. Everyone helps each other to get started. If you want to grow bigger in the future, you need to get used to this in advance."

"Besides, when have I, Zhou Man, ever done a business at a loss? If you really feel bad about it, wait until the second batch is produced after the New Year and then sell it to me at the lowest possible price. If you sell it then, I'll actually make a profit."

Zhou Man unleashed a torrent of words.

Shen Kang listened quietly, then smiled and said, "President Zhou, what you said is really good. I'm even tempted, but it's still not enough."

Before Zhou Man could speak again, he continued, "My older brother will have to put in some effort to speak on my behalf, especially regarding sales figures. It would be best if I could make a strong impression on him, then things would fall into place naturally for him. I can't just watch others work hard for me without contributing anything myself. I'll do my best to lighten his burden as much as possible."

Zhou Man felt it—she felt as if she had entered into negotiations with a business rival, and the urge to win surged up immediately.

After quickly analyzing Shen Kang's reasons in her mind, she continued, "Then you should sell me the electric toothbrush even more. When you submit your sales report, they'll see that it's all products from Shengyuan, and they'll wonder what your relationship is with Shengyuan."

Then, clapping his hands, he exclaimed, "Thinking about it this way, wouldn't the momentum be even greater and more helpful?"

Shen Kang shook his head again: "President Zhou, if I'm not mistaken, Sheng Yuan also has enemies, right? At your level, I don't believe you don't have anyone in the government speaking up for you. After all, even my An family has my older brother protecting them now."

"Maybe if we report it normally, people won't react much. They'll just see it as a random roadside resident and won't target us. But if we're associated with Sheng Yuan, things might get complicated. People who wouldn't even glance at us before might actually look at us with ill intent."

"Of course, there are negatives and positives, but this could make things bigger and more complicated, which is not good. I think it's better to keep things simple."

Zhou Man was taken aback.

She couldn't think of any way to refute what Shen Kang had said.

However, she wouldn't give up easily and immediately started thinking again.

Shen Kang hadn't finished speaking yet.

"Furthermore, if we're bound together like this, people will definitely try to find out what's going on with my An family. As they learn more, they'll find out about our 'contract family.' That's something you probably don't want to see, Mr. Zhou."

Zhou Man fell silent.

She had completely forgotten about that.

When she took the lead in forming this family, she specifically signed a contract with them to ensure that the family's relationships would not be exposed.

Of course, that was then, and this is now. Now, she seems to vaguely feel that even if the relationship is publicly exposed, it won't matter too much.

But she couldn't bring herself to say those words in front of Shen Kang—what would it mean if she did?

She just couldn't bring herself to say it.

Even in everyday actions, it's possible to do something, but when it comes to actually saying something, it's incredibly difficult.

This is probably a characteristic of the Chinese people.

Zhou Man eventually left Shen Kang's bedroom, looking somewhat dejected as she walked out the door—how could she have lost?

After Zhou Man left, Shen Kang continued to sit in the chair, his left and right feet intermittently touching the ground as he turned around in the chair.

After spinning around for a while, he suddenly put his right foot on the ground and stopped spinning.

Then, he picked up his phone and called Tao Yinchu.

It rang for quite a while before the call was finally answered.

Shen Kang immediately asked, "Old Tao, where are you right now?"

"As for eastern Guangdong, I'll come here again to look for Li Ren. At this rate, we won't be able to hold on for much longer, so I'm coming back to try again..."

Tao Yinchu's words came from the other end, a mixture of joy and sorrow.

The good news is that after the Anjia electric toothbrush went on sale, the "try it for free for seven days, or return it if you're not satisfied" strategy played a key role, and the results were good. More than 200 toothbrushes have been "sold" in the past few days.

Although most of them are free trials, the hardest part about electric toothbrushes is taking the first step. Once that first step is taken, based on the information Shen Kang and his team have gathered, they conservatively estimate that over 60% will eventually make a purchase, which is more than a hundred toothbrushes.

This number may seem small, but it's actually quite good, considering this was in 2009. The total shipment volume of electric toothbrushes in the domestic market last year was roughly in the hundreds of thousands, a far cry from the millions of units sold by a single brand in later years.

These days, selling over a hundred units in a city within a few days is already quite impressive.

Shen Kang and his team's three thousand units, at most, would only last for two months, and most likely not even that. This is why Tao Yinchu went to eastern Guangdong again; he had to negotiate production capacity, otherwise the supply wouldn't be able to keep up.

This is the happy part.

The worrying part is really hard to talk about.

Even though Tao Yinchu compiled the sales data from the past few days and showed it to others, and treated them to meals and drinks every day, including a variety of meat dishes, there was still no substantial progress.

People were indeed surprised when they saw their sales figures, but they had already made arrangements with Philips. It would be unwise to go to Philips just for such a small order as a house.

So, we'll eat and drink as usual, but as for production capacity, I'm sorry, we need to discuss it further. We'll try our best for you, Lao Tao, but don't have too high expectations.

"...That's basically the situation."

Tao Yinchu explained the situation in detail.

After listening, Shen Kang asked, "So, our production capacity is still insufficient?"

Tao Yinchu said cautiously, "That's certainly the case at present..."

He was even prepared to steel himself and make several pledges, fearing that Shen Kangjue might not be capable enough and might prevent him from continuing on this journey or throw him into some idle position, which Tao Yinchu could not accept.

To Tao Yinchu's surprise, Shen Kang laughed on the other end of the phone.

"Insufficient production capacity? That's a good thing!"

"...?"

Tao Yinchu was taken aback.

He even suspected that Shen Kang was being pressured by insufficient production capacity, so he quickly reassured him, "President Shen, don't worry, I, Lao Tao, here to guarantee you, this production capacity..."

He stopped mid-sentence.

Having worked in the supply chain for so many years and seen so many people, how could he not see that Libian genuinely couldn't provide the production capacity? Therefore, this pledge seems like something that really can't be made lightly.

Tao Yinchu hesitated, but Shen Kang shook his head on the other end of the phone, "Old Tao, I'm not being sarcastic, I really think it's a good thing."

Then, he began to talk about his plans.

"Please take notes. I will make the following arrangements."

"Old Tao, while you're in eastern Guangdong these days, don't talk to Li anymore. Go find some other factories and see how things are going..."

The deployment had barely begun when Tao Yinchu cautiously interrupted it.

"Mr. Shen, there are only a handful of companies in China that can make the motors we need, you can count them on one hand, and Lishi is one of them. We can find other factories to make them if we really want to, but they'll be completely useless, just toys to look at. If we send these out, I'm afraid our return rate will be 100%, and they'll all be returned on the same day they're tried out."

Shen Kang didn't interrupt him. After he finished speaking, he said, "Old Tao, look, you're in such a hurry again. Did I tell you to find a factory to make sonic motors for electric toothbrushes?"

Tao Yinchu was taken aback. "Then what else should we do?"

Shen Kang said, "You can make other things. Electric fans, electric heaters, dehumidifiers, etc., you can ask about those."

"Shall we start now?"

Tao Yinchu was taken aback. "Isn't it a bit too early?"

He knew that Anjia Technology would definitely expand into a full-category product line in the future, but he didn't expect it to happen now. If the electric toothbrushes they've made start working immediately, wouldn't all their efforts over the past six months be wasted?

Shen Kang said, "It's a bit early, but there's nothing we can do. Since there's no production capacity, we can't just wait around. We might as well make something else, like dehumidifiers. The barriers to entry are lower, and they're easier to make than electric toothbrushes, which require half a year of research and development. We can get started quickly. Yangcheng is also quite suitable for dehumidifiers; it's always very humid, so dehumidifiers sell very well..."

Tao Yinchu listened for a while, but something seemed off. He said, "Based on my understanding of you, Mr. Shen, this seems a bit sudden."

Shen Kang laughed and said, "Old Tao, you really understand me, but Li Ren doesn't."

"In addition, since the production capacity of electric toothbrushes in Yangcheng cannot be reduced, this batch of goods is our only shipment."

As he spoke, he sighed, "These are electric toothbrushes from the greenhouse; we should cherish them and sell them."