In the office, Fang Yuan and I sat facing each other. His expression revealed no particular emotion, and he was dressed as impeccably as always, exuding the grace of someone in a high position. But this was precisely what I disliked the most. I always thought about the means he had used to achieve his current status. In my mind, the Fang Yuan of our college days—the one who shared ideals with me while lying on the same bed—was already dead. The person before me now was merely an embodiment of desire and greed.
“Zong Zhao, I came here today to discuss a collaboration with your company. I’ve already prepared the cooperation proposal. I hope you won’t rush to reject it. Please take a look first. Additionally, the proposal includes a detailed investigative report analyzing the current luxury market’s various sales channels’ market shares and predicting future sales trends. This report was jointly completed by our group and the most authoritative data research institution. It’s the most authoritative and detailed report available in China right now. Even if you decide not to collaborate with our Wanshen Group, I believe you will find this report quite interesting, considering we’re both in the same field,” Fang Yuan said, handing me a folder from his briefcase.
I accepted the folder from him but didn’t rush to look at the cooperation proposal. Instead, I started reading the investigative report first. In fact, our company also had similar market research reports. However, I had to admit that the data in this report was much more professional. It was clearly the result of significant time and human resources. Some of the data presented were even quite useful to me. For example, the amount spent by domestic tourists on luxury goods overseas last year was something we had spent a lot of effort investigating, but we only managed to obtain a rough estimate. This report, however, even detailed the spending patterns of each province. Indeed, it was a helpful investigative report.
Fang Yuan continued, “Zong Zhao, the current luxury market really has many issues. First, luxury brands are experiencing serious inventory buildup, and discounting or disguised discounting has become the norm. Additionally, with increasing market competition, brands are launching more advertisements, either voluntarily or under pressure, which gradually erodes the mystique of luxury goods. Furthermore, the diversification and personalization of consumers have caused structural adjustments within luxury brand lineups. Especially as consumers mature, their desire to consume specific brands declines. All these factors are driving traditional luxury goods toward mass-market appeal. Most seriously, due to the rampant counterfeit goods in the domestic market and the price differences between domestic and international markets, the domestic market is gradually being abandoned by both luxury brands and consumers. Currently, luxury consumption by Chinese consumers overseas has reached 76% of their total luxury consumption. What a terrifying proportion!”
Fang Yuan’s expression turned grave as he paused before continuing, “Zong Zhao, if we are forward-looking business strategists, what we should absolutely do at this moment is not fight each other, but rather maintain the market and find a way out together. If our collaboration could change the consumption ratio by ten percentage points, the benefits we would gain would be immeasurable. Therefore, for the sake of a mutually beneficial future, please give us both an opportunity to collaborate, okay?”
I didn’t respond to Fang Yuan. Instead, I picked up the cooperation proposal and started reading it. Just from the beginning, I knew this proposal was personally written by Fang Yuan, as I was very familiar with his writing style. In this proposal, he suggested leveraging Wanshen Shopping’s existing physical resources to provide high-end customized services, thereby avoiding the loss of high-end consumers after luxury goods become increasingly mainstream. He also proposed multiple online and offline collaboration plans between our two websites, aiming to integrate resources from both companies to capture sales shares from both the physical and overseas markets.
I had to admit that this cooperation proposal contained many highlights and aligned with the broader development strategies of both websites. If both parties were genuinely committed to collaboration, given the current scale and resources of our respective companies, it was entirely possible to achieve a win-win situation. However, I could not accept this cooperation proposal. My reason had never changed: my principles would never allow Fang Yuan to be a collaborator.
I placed the cooperation proposal back on the table. Fang Yuan stood up and sincerely said to me, “Zhao Yang, please trust me just once. Give both platforms an opportunity to collaborate. We can join hands and do something even better. We Wanshen Group can invest more resources, which is fine. The goal is to open up the market together. The remaining matters can be secured through contracts to ensure interests and legality, achieving mutual trust. You have absolutely no need to worry…”
“Mr. Fang, this is not what I want. You understand this more than anyone else.”
“Zhao Yang…!” Fang Yuan’s face showed pain. After a moment, he softened his tone and said, “Over these years, I’ve made many mistakes. I know that no words of mine can redeem the actions that have hurt your feelings. I… I just hope we can reconcile and give me a chance to make amends… If we can work together, we can achieve something in this uncertain world… Continuing this conflict will only lead to mutual destruction, and I don’t want to see that happen!”
“Mr. Fang, you are not worthy of using the word redemption, because some mistakes cannot be redeemed. For example, that poor child, can you give him (or her) back their life?”
Fang Yuan’s face turned pale. He remained silent, painfully swallowing his saliva… Two years had passed, yet he hadn’t completely moved past this incident. If he still had any humanity left, it was reflected in his sorrow and guilt over the child.
I casually handed the cooperation proposal back to him and immediately issued a dismissal order. Fang Yuan chose to be considerate this time. He picked up the proposal that had fallen to the ground and walked toward the office door. Meanwhile, I felt an indescribable pain in my heart, yet I still firmly believed that rejecting him was an irreversible fate between us! However, the sense of pain became increasingly real, so I lit a cigarette for myself.
At that moment, the little kid who had just been playing with toys in the corner came to my side. He sternly reprimanded me for smoking in the office, citing his proud father as his reason, since his father also smoked but had never done so in front of him.
I smiled and extinguished the cigarette. Then, I deeply reflected on my actions with him, promising to learn from his father and not smoke in front of him anymore.
However, my reflection did not earn his forgiveness. He pointed at me and said, “Uncle, you’re a bad person!”
“Tuantuan, Uncle already put out the cigarette. Why do you still say Uncle is a bad person? Uncle has already corrected his mistake!”
“Because you were very mean to your friend… You are not a good person!”
Only then did I realize that this little kid had witnessed everything between Fang Yuan and me. I was momentarily at a loss for words. After a while, I patted his head and replied, “Tuantuan, being a good or bad person isn’t determined like that…”
“What’s ‘determined’?”
“It means to distinguish.”
“What’s ‘distinguish’?”
I smiled, realizing I didn’t have the ability to explain it to him. I also discovered that a child’s world was so simple. I couldn’t convey adult values to him, and I questioned myself: who between Fang Yuan and me was actually the bad person? In reality, there was no such thing as a bad person; it all depended on the perspective from which you viewed things. Sometimes, the world was just so subjective, and we all found it difficult to present ourselves as good people in everyone’s eyes.
…
After Fang Yuan left, I immediately called Chen Jingming, who had already gone home to rest, and convened a two-hour meeting with the company’s senior management. Since there was no possibility of collaborating with Fang Yuan, I had to move ahead of him and implement the O2O business model. At the same time, we would collaborate with large shopping malls, officially launching high-end customized services online and offline with the website as the main platform, further expanding our market share.
At that moment, I indeed became a bad person because I betrayed Fang Yuan’s trust by adopting the business model and creative ideas he had proposed in his cooperation plan, directly targeting him… But isn’t that just how business works?
Had Fang Yuan not anticipated this? He must have thought about it, but why did he still trustingly present the survey data and cooperation plan before me? I could be certain that once the models and plans he proposed were solely used by me, there would be no commercial traps involved. So what was his true intention?
Could it be that he genuinely wanted to negotiate cooperation with me?
I closed my eyes, unwilling to think further. I felt a sense of guilt in my heart, but there were many things I had to do because I was in a stage of eagerly awaiting results. When it came to dealing with someone like Fang Yuan, I couldn’t convince myself to be merciful or to be a principled gentleman who strictly adheres to moral standards.
Perhaps, Fang Yuan’s approach was to take this risky method of sacrificing his own interests to gain my trust, creating a psychological burden for me, thus leading me to collaborate with him and ultimately giving him a chance to catch his breath during this critical phase.
Unfortunately, I was no longer the Zhao Yang who could be completely controlled by him. His proposal and business ideas provided me with further strategic insights. I would implement these plans before Wanshen did and deliver a devastating blow to him… If his visit to me was a gamble, then unfortunately, he had already lost.
The next day, I flew with my assistant, Yeluo, to the headquarters of Hengyang Department Store in Shenzhen, carrying the ideas I had been brewing in my mind. Regardless of whether Mi Cai had acquired Hengyang Department Store, I wanted to reach an agreement with them first for the high-end customized service points. I aimed to comprehensively suppress Fang Yuan’s Wanshen Group and leave him no chance to recover and cause trouble again.
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