Chapter 131: Collecting Protection Fees
Outside the Boxing Market.
Fang Ping stopped talking. Lu Fengrou was driving as she said, “My bet is none of your concern. Don’t brush off your mentor’s suggestion. A mentor’s life is not easy.”
Fang Ping laughed dryly. “How can that be.”
“You seemed to be implying that.”
“It really wasn’t!”
Fang Ping quickly denied and looked sideways at Zhao Xuemei. “Sister, you don’t spend much money at university now anyways. Why don’t I help you keep it?”
Zhao Xuemei’s expression changed a few times and eventually, she shook her head vigorously, saying, “No, thank you.
“Also … can you stop calling me sister?”
Zhao Xuemei was not used to it and she had never seen Fang Ping act so enthusiastic.
“Fang Ping, why don’t you court Xuemei? Once she’s your woman, won’t her money be yours too?” Lu Fengrou said jokingly.
“Teacher!”
Even the tomboyish Zhao Xuemei felt a little embarrassed then.
Fang Ping laughed and said, “I haven’t thought about these things for now. When I start looking for a partner, I’ll give Instructor’s suggestions some thought.”
“Fang Ping!”
Zhao Xuemei glared at him.
Done with the jokes, Fang Ping laughed and changed the topic. “Instructor, are we heading back to school now?”
“Yes. You guys are still new students. It’s enough for you to come out and see the world, but there is no need to stay out too long.”
For Fang Ping and other students, it was better to study in school.
On top of that, the cultivation content would be strengthened after the special training class. Lu Fengrou was carrying out her responsibilities as an instructor when she took the two of them out on their little field trip.
“If you want to come here again, go on ahead. Although this is only good for the start of your training.
“There’s not much point returning here once you’ve reached Rank-2 or 3.
“It is not our ultimate goal to fight martial artists to kill them or for money.
“Whether it’s business or politics, the ultimate goal of a martial artist is to become stronger, to push further, and clean up the hidden dangers in the Catacombs. ”
Fang Ping nodded, understanding.
Lu Fengrou stopped talking and headed for the school.
…
Fang Ping got out of the car at the school gate.
There was an old commercial building outside of MCMAU.
Fang Ping stepped into the lobby. Distance Ltd was on the 6th floor of the building — they had rented half of the floor as their office.
Ever since renting the place and recruiting Li Chengze, Fang Ping had hardly stepped foot there.
With the back and forth transactions, plus the previous 8 million, Fang Ping had already invested nearly 10 million.
Although he was fairly certain that Li Chengze was afraid to double-cross him, he still should not ignore and leave him alone for a long time. It might tempt him to carry out a betrayal.
After he entered the elevator, he very quickly reached the 6th floor.
Exiting the elevator, to his left was Distance Ltd whereas to the right was a small loan company. It was quieter on Distance Ltd’s side while on the right, there was a clamor of noise.
There was no receptionist desk at Distance Ltd. For one thing, the company was still small. Further, it was also an attempt to save expenses. There was not much business for Distance Ltd to handle.
Fang Ping stepped forward and, without knocking, he pushed the door open and walked straight into the office.
As soon as he entered the room, some employees saw him and hurriedly asked, “Hello, who are you looking for?”
“Is Manager Li Chengze here?”
“Yes, he is in the innermost office.”
“Thank you.”
After Fang Ping gave his thanks, he went straight in; nobody tried obstructing him.
The company’s management was lax. Fang Ping frowned slightly and eventually decided it was normal.
At present, there were not many employees and the couriers were not here. The employees present were those responsible for website operation and business development. Fang Ping took a look around and estimated there were only about 30 people.
It was such a small company that was established in such a short time so it was understandable that the management was unimpressive.
…
“Mr. Zhang, I’ve said it before, the company is not mine and our boss is someone else.”
“…”
“I know an alliance would be good for us but I’m just a part-time worker. I can’t make decisions for the boss.”
“…”
“Besides, your conditions are too harsh…”
“…”
“I’ll convey it, rest assured.”
Tap, tap, tap.
“Alright, I’ll hang up now. I still have some business to deal with. I’ll call you back when there is a notice from the boss.”
“Come in!” Li Chengze called out after hanging up the phone.
As Fang Ping pushed the door and entered, Li Chengze was a little surprised. He hurriedly got up and said, “Mr. Fang, why are you here?”
“I was just out running some errands when I was passing by…”
Fang Ping smiled and looked around. Li Chengze’s office was small and crude. Compared to the Magic City Hotel, it was a lot worse.
Without beating around the bush, Fang Ping said, “Someone asked us for an alliance?”
“More like a proxy.”
Li Chengze explained, “Since you hit 8 million in your account, apart from the expansion of the catering delivery, the express delivery points have also expanded exponentially. At present, there are 20 express delivery points in the university city.
“In the university city, 40-50 distribution points would be sufficient to complete the regional coverage of the city.
“At present, there are several medium-sized courier companies that don’t have much business in the city.
“Hopefully, we can represent their business here.”
As he spoke, Li Chengze hesitated. “Mr. Fang, actually, I don’t think it’s necessary for us to be an agent.
“We can take on business by relying on their reputation. Of course, that is not the main point. The main thing is we can use their channels.
“Our current channels are only limited to within the university city.”
“We have no distribution points, warehousing centers, freight stations or trucks in other parts of the country.
“With these circumstances, we can’t really be accepted as a regional business of a courier company. There is no way to continue this, so we can only wait for our own expansion.
“Express delivery services and catering delivery services are different. Business for express delivery comes from all over the country while caterings are only from locals within the region.
“So, catering delivery service can be expanded gradually one at a time while express delivery service can’t…”
In fact, for delivery, laying down the channels was relatively simple and it could also be done separately.
However, express delivery would not work if there were no nationwide channels. Unless the customers were residents of the university city who were sending things to other locals. Otherwise, the business would not pick up at all.
The same city logistics was not working now. Not to mention, it was not too popular either. Express companies were almost all a customer-to-customer model.
Fang Ping groaned for a moment and said, “How about acting as a proxy for the local business in the name of Distance Ltd?
“Distance Ltd would first carry out regional distribution, mainly e-commerce. At present, such express deliveries account for a small proportion of their goods.
“Although the e-commerce business is small, it can be difficult to distribute. It targets more customers but its profits are not as good as that of bulk delivery.
“If we are acting as e-commerce agents under Distance Ltd then we may be able to act as agents for several courier companies. ”
Li Chengze immediately said, “Do you mean, we are now going to be a regional e-commerce express agent in the university city?”
“That’s right. Can it be done?”
Li Chengze thought for a moment and with a bit of hesitation answered, “At the moment, the other courier companies in the university city are not without agents…”
“Our prices are more favorable and our services are more professional. Doing business now is focused around services.
“If our services are bad even if everything else was good, it still won’t increase our public rating.
“In the current express delivery industry, I am also clearly aware that most of them are franchisees. These franchise distribution points are, to put it bluntly, no factor to our company’s reputation!
“Anyway, if there are items just send them out. No need to think about the service.
“As for Your Home Franchise, their reputation is already bad. Change the brand and join a franchise, it’s still the same courier work.
“We are different. We want to be our own brand so we definitely won’t do any deception.
“This is our strong point!”
“But also a weakness.”
“The reason why express delivery companies want others to join them is that the joining fee is meager and they also want to expand their scale and influence,” Li Chengze reminded.
“We will use our own signboards to open our own market. They will surely comprehend this.”
“I’m certain there’s someone who will agree!” Fang Ping said firmly.
Li Chengze nodded and could only say, “Large companies may not be able to, but there should be some small and medium-sized companies who could agree to these terms. Although this way, even if we take over the business in the early stage, I am afraid there will be no profit to be made.”
“That’s OK. Once we start the brand, that will be money.”
Saying this, Fang Ping continued, “How has the catering delivery business been doing up until now?”
“Not bad, but there are already others who are following suit!”
Li Chengze’s expression was slightly strained. “It’s not difficult as the cost is not too high. At present, to the east of the university city, there are other schools that have appeared in the shadow of other catering platforms.”
“Publicity, promotion, service, professionalism.”
Fang Ping said these few words and reminded, “We will do services first to give a professional impression!
“Our clothes should be new and uniform. We must pay attention to our attire or we won’t look reliable at first glance.
“Distance Ltd’s signs should be obvious and our work must be efficient. The commission for the riders can be adequately higher than other companies.
“In addition, the platform must be concise and clear. I have seen the catering platform online; it is a bit complicated. Different diets must be distinguished and divided into separate areas.
“And convenience!
“We should support cash on delivery and online payment. There are many payment methods so we should try to include all the current ones.
“One more thing, we should also prepare a mobile platform.”
“Mobile platform?”
“To put it simply, it’s a platform for mobile phones. These days, most people at the very least will carry with them their mobile phones.
“Foreign countries have already entered the era of 3G smartphones and we are quickly catching up too.
“Once personal computers are replaced by mobile phones, the mobile business will become mainstream.
“We still have time to prepare. 3G smartphones have just appeared and we need to prepare to make the switch.
“With seamless access, we should connect to the mobile phone terminal at the first opportunity to start the business.
“I am not limiting it to just catering but also including the express delivery business. Do you understand what I mean?
“The present courier services are all very cumbersome.
“In the future, when an order is placed with a mobile phone, we will pick up the delivery and build an exclusive express delivery client. We will be ahead of the others.
“Over time, once our reputation is in place, the market will also be expanded.”
Fang Ping continued, “I’m not rushing for profit because we need time for preparation. When 3G becomes mainstream and we have the preparation done, we will be able to surge ahead of the others. When the time comes, we don’t need to be afraid of having no money to earn.”
After listening for a while, Li Chengze could not help but ask, “Mr. Fang, did you consider all this yourself?”
Fang Ping was just a freshman and it turned out that he was more proficient in business than he was. Not to mention, he was well-versed in a few things and was very visionary.
Of course, he was also very bold.
At this time, 3G had only just started abroad while the domestic 3G standard had just gotten through and had not yet been officially launched.
Fang Ping laughed. “I just like to read the news when I’ve got nothing to do. We won’t be able to catch up if we only doing things safely.
“If we want to do well now, we can only find new ways.
“If it succeeds then great. If not, it won’t be too pitiful.”
Li Chengze still admired it.
After a while, he hesitated slightly, “Mr. Fang, the company now …”
“Ran out of money?”
“That’s not it. The 8 million you gave the last time won’t run out so quickly.”
Li Chengze shook his head and then explained, “Because you haven’t shown up, I was put in charge. Before that, we proclaimed that our company was run by a martial arts student and thus, everyone was a little daunted and didn’t do anything.
“However, because you haven’t been showing up while we kept expanding, there are some companies now that are beginning to make a move…
“There are many other courier companies operating in the university city, including some fast-food restaurants near the school…”
“They’re stirring up trouble?”
“I wouldn’t say stirring up trouble. There are just demonstrations and warnings.”
“Warnings?”
“Yes. Recently, there has been some feedback from the riders. Now, some schools won’t let our people into the building.
“It used to be okay and our people were very compliant but now the schools no longer allow access. With these schools, there are other companies that have started businesses.
“I’m guessing they’re playing underhanded tricks.”
Fang Ping groaned and said, “First, we should solve this in a civilized way. If we can get through to them, it will be the foundation for a better relationship.
“If not, call me and I will see how to handle the situation.”
“Alright.”
“…”
After departing some advice and warnings, Fang Ping did not stay and quickly left the company.
Looking at his wealth value that was quickly falling below 10 million, Fang Ping sighed. No money means no play! Should he find some other way to make money?
Even if the courier company could settle down and make money, it would not happen overnight.
This was Fang Ping’s investment for the future. At this stage, he needed other methods.
…
Still gloomy as he pondered how to earn money, Fang Ping returned to school.
When he arrived at the dormitory building, Fang Ping encountered many new students downstairs, like the little fat man he had seen at the beginning of school.
After hearing the new students discussing plans for the weekend, Fang Ping thought for a bit. “I wonder if I can collect protection fees from the new students?”
There were many rich students amongst the freshmen of MCMAU.
Hundreds of thousands were a small amount of money.
By receiving 100,000 yuan for one, with thousands of students, that would already make hundreds of millions.
“Collecting protection fees is also a way, provided the school doesn’t kill me for it.”
…
Meanwhile.
Fang Yuan was looking at the little girl in front of her aggressively.
“Big sis, can you accept me into the society? I’ll pay the membership fee!”
The little girl was younger than Fang Yuan and was all skin and bones. With an eager expression, she said, “If I join the Yuan Ping Society, I will be obedient. Big sis can do whatever she wants!
“Even … even in a group fight … although I can’t fight, I can give big sister a boost!” The little girl clenched her fists with a little flush on her face.
Fang Yuan’s face had a greenish tinge and after a while, she bitterly said, “Little girl, have you misunderstood something?”
“This is not a gang!” Fang Yuan roared in her heart!
‘This is a prototype avenue for commerce, do you understand? Do you?’
Why the hell would someone want to pay protection fees and join Yuan Ping Society?