Chapter 130: A Turnaround from Desperation, The Beginning of Profit-Making

The situation escalated far faster than Xu Kuangdao had anticipated.

Almost ten minutes after the commercial aired, Luo Dafeng called.

“Boss, there’s a huge problem. The authorities are demanding we shut down the small workshop immediately and destroy all the toys produced there.”

“On what grounds? Haven’t I paid them off?” Xu Kuangdao was speechless. He had expected Zhang Tianfeng to make a move, but never imagined it would be this severe.

Who did he think he was, hiring Captain Ma to shoot the commercial?

Now the entire nation knew Captain Ma had sided with Blue Side Toy Factory, even highlighting the dangers of counterfeit toys in the ad.

Still pushing forward stubbornly, blatantly defying public opinion—wasn’t this just courting death?

“Boss, the officials are adamant. They’ve only given us one night.”

“If we don’t close the workshop and destroy the toys, the police will come first thing in the morning to do it for us.”

“Damn it!” Xu Kuangdao smashed his phone onto the ground in fury.

He had mobilized nearly all of the Xu family’s connections for this venture—just this portion of the investment had a potential value of tens of millions.

Add the cost of raw materials, setting up subsidiaries, hiring staff—another few million.

If this failed, the Xu family would surely disown him.

No, he couldn’t lose; no matter what, he had to survive!

“Quick, find me a phone, I need to make a call, now!” Xu Kuangdao’s roar threw the entire company into chaos.

That night, no employee at Tianlong Corporation would sleep soundly.

Likewise, the people at Blue Side Toy Factory couldn’t rest.

Once the ad aired, the first to react were the residents of Tangwan Town, who flocked to the factory gates to see if Captain Ma was still there.

Some radicals even tried to scale the walls to get inside—but the electric fence sent them tumbling down.

The retired soldiers Xiang Chen had brought stood firm, blocking the crowd from entering.

Soon after, the village chief and other factory owners arrived.

“Move aside, I want to see your boss.”

“Sorry, no appointments, you can’t come in.”

“I’m the village chief of Tangwan Town. You dare stop me?” Ji Heng bellowed.

“Even if you were the mayor of Zhucheng, without an appointment, you still can’t enter. Call our boss—we’re just workers, please don’t make things difficult.”

“Y-you…”

Seeing their unwavering expressions, Ji Heng knew today was a lost cause.

That brat, too—if he could contact Captain Ma, why didn’t he say so earlier?

Advertising for your own factory is a waste; if only you’d done one for Tangwan Town, that’d maximize the benefit.

No, he had to see Zhang Tianfeng at all costs.

After a moment’s thought, Ji Heng hurried home to make a call.

Once the village chief left, the others followed suit.

Shortly after, Zhang Tianfeng’s personal phone and the office lines began ringing incessantly.

Ring ring ring—hung up.

Ring ring ring—hung up.

Ring ring ring—

“Hello, Blue Side Toy Factory General Manager’s office. Who are you trying to reach?”

“Oh, you want the boss? He’s studying in Zhucheng, I can’t get in touch with him either.”

Before a second passed after hanging up, the phone rang again.

Zhong Xiaoyi sighed, looking at the man on the sofa. “Boss, why not just go out and meet them?”

“No. Before, they ignored me. Now, they can’t even reach me.”

“Well said. That’s exactly what the book said—I should read it too.”

“I wrote it myself,” Zhang Tianfeng said. “Tell anyone who comes looking for me that I’m not here. Have Wang Tiancai and the other three come find me.”

Zhong Xiaoyi nodded and withdrew. Not long after, the sales department’s four top men arrived.

Seeing the smiles on each of their faces, Zhang Tianfeng asked with a grin, “Feeling better?”

“Boss, you’re amazing. My admiration for you just rose another level.”

Ever since the Xu family’s capital entered the fray and started encroaching on their turf, Wang Tiancai and his three companions had been running ragged.

They’d barely managed to keep their subsidiaries open. The favorable policies were gone, and the officials treated them like harbingers of doom.

But tonight, provincial and city leaders kept calling, wanting to discuss factory matters.

One call after another, the officials’ lofty attitudes vanished, their tone now like addressing their own fathers.

This exhilarating feeling of triumph was genuinely satisfying.

“Enough laughing. Let’s talk about the supply issue—be detailed.”

Wang Tiancai nodded, pulling a document from his bag.

“Before coming in, the four of us received requests from 16 local suppliers. Preliminary statistics show they need about 1.6 million educational toys in total.”

“Have you told them the wholesale prices?”

“Yes, all of them. We also raised prices by 20% as you instructed, yet they still want to buy—even if we require payment upfront, they agree. They want to become agents, at least at the municipal level.”

Hearing this, Zhang Tianfeng laughed. These buyers were clearly not short on money.

The lowest wholesale price he had sent out was for the pictographic Rubik’s cubes—three yuan apiece.

Even without the 20% markup, that would bring in 4.8 million yuan.

And that was just tonight.

Tomorrow, as public opinion continued to stir, more people would learn about it.

The more who knew, the higher the sales.

After a moment, Zhang Tianfeng said, “Forget about agency rights. Let them franchise instead.”

The concept of franchising was still uncommon in the 1990s—even sales elite Wang Tiancai wasn’t entirely sure what it meant.

“Boss, what does franchising mean?”

“It means we provide store design, sales staff training, and products. They only have to pay.”

“But our headquarters will conduct regular inspections in various ways, mainly to prevent them from selling counterfeit goods and damaging our brand.”

“The initial franchise fee is one million yuan, awarded through bidding, with one franchisee per province or city for now, increasing later.”

“If they agree, after paying a deposit, they get goods at wholesale prices. If not, we move them to the back of the line and supply those willing to franchise.”

Zhang Tianfeng wasn’t worried about disputes with suppliers; his main concern was running out of stock.

Because from the moment the plan began, every batch of toys produced was secretly delivered by Qin Lin’s private fleet to various provincial and city warehouses.

After more than a month of full production, the factory had only made just over 30 million toys.

That quantity was definitely insufficient!

Once the funds returned, he planned to scale up production.

If this were any other boss, Wang Tiancai might have questioned it, but this was Zhang Tianfeng—a prodigy who, at just eighteen, had the Xu family wrapped around his finger.

“Alright, I’ll call them now.”

“Go ahead. Call my private number if there’s any trouble.” After handing over his latest number, Zhang Tianfeng stood. “Only give this number to you four. Don’t share it with outsiders.”

“Understood, boss.”

“Get to work. When this month ends, I’ll give you bonuses based on individual contributions. At least one hundred thousand yuan each!”

The moment they heard that number, the four men were electrified.

How long would they have to work to earn that kind of money?

“Thank you, boss. Thank you!”

Amid their expressions of gratitude, Zhang Tianfeng left the office.

He would stay at school for a few days to lay low, then return to negotiate once the first batch of funds came in.