Chapter 8: A Small Goal

Zhao Rongrong immediately bit her lip, the slight sting instantly clearing her mind.

Damn it!

She had almost fallen into the trap of lust.

As a woman in finance, staying clear-headed was always her top priority.

Otherwise, she’d be caught in all sorts of traps—drained dry and still helping others count their money.

Taking a deep breath, Zhao Rongrong took a step back and asked, “Is there anything I haven’t explained clearly?”

In his previous life, Lu Yao had learned from painful experience and studied the stock market thoroughly.

He understood the basics and the operations well.

So he shook his head. “Your introduction was excellent.”

After saying that, he stood up. “I have some other matters to attend to, so I won’t keep you any longer.”

“Mr. Lu!” Zhao Rongrong quickly stood as well. “Let me add you on WeChat; that way, we can get in touch immediately if anything comes up.”

At this time, WeChat was still relatively new, with many features incomplete.

Because of features like Drift Bottles and Nearby People, many regarded WeChat as a hookup app.

For a long time, WeChat’s reputation was somewhat tarnished.

However, with continuous support from Nanshan’s Penguin company, WeChat’s user base kept soaring.

Later on, the first wave of entrepreneurial stay-at-home moms with sharp business acumen discovered the commercial potential of Moments on WeChat.

These moms began reselling overseas products, cosmetics, secondhand goods, food, luxury items... thus pioneering the micro-commerce market, transforming WeChat from a simple chat tool into a platform with commercial value.

But micro-commerce in this era was chaotic, lacking formal business models and product safety guarantees.

It was mostly about aggressive spam selling.

By the next year, micro-commerce profits would continue to grow.

Various small and even unregulated products would begin flowing through micro-commerce channels.

One by one, rags-to-riches “wealth legends” would emerge.

But all of this was merely part of a scheme orchestrated by Nanshan’s Penguin to develop WeChat—a scheme strikingly similar to the housing market bubble.

Therefore, Lu Yao had no intention of getting involved in micro-commerce.

Suppressing the swirling thoughts in his mind, Lu Yao looked at Zhao Rongrong.

When a girl takes the initiative to add you on WeChat, the intention is obvious.

Even ten years later, when WeChat had become an indispensable part of daily life, a girl you just met asking to add you still carried a special meaning.

So Lu Yao didn’t refuse and added Zhao Rongrong on WeChat.

He had no romantic interest in her.

But he couldn’t deny that Zhao Rongrong had feelings for him—both serious and playful.

There was no need to spell out these adult nuances explicitly.

After a friendly exchange, Zhao Rongrong walked Lu Yao downstairs.

Lu Yao then got into a Mercedes-Benz and quickly drove away.

Watching the taillights of Lu Yao’s CLS, Zhao Rongrong’s eyes lit up!

Sure enough!

He was a big catch!

This month’s performance was looking secure...

It was just that this younger man seemed too straightforward—and way too handsome.

Unlike those greasy middle-aged men who were easier to handle.

Zhao Rongrong even felt a strange illusion that winning him over would cost her dearly.

“Strange.”

Though she couldn’t quite figure him out, Zhao Rongrong turned around in a good mood.

Sure enough,

Looking at a handsome man lifted one’s spirits~

If only every client were as fresh and dashing as that younger man just now~

...

Lu Yao left the securities company and returned to Sister Wang’s apartment.

The apartment was high-end.

The rooms were tidy.

But a place with just one person felt a little cold.

Was this what it felt like to be a kept man?

No wonder so many kept men raised by powerful patrons end up going out and finding their own lovers.

That feeling of waiting for a turn was actually quite unpleasant.

Lu Yao took out his phone and checked his bank balance:

[1378.6]

He felt a pang of pain.

This amount wasn’t even enough for his living expenses.

Sister Wang’s money was all invested in the stock market.

The shares of Fenda Technology would take at least another six months to cash out.

He couldn’t keep asking Sister Wang for money all the time, could he?

That wouldn’t be appropriate.

Although outsiders saw Lu Yao as a kept man living off a wealthy woman—and he had indeed done what such a man would do—

Lu Yao’s inner view of himself was not that of a kept man.

He always considered himself an independent entrepreneur.

Sister Wang was his business partner.

So,

Without living expenses and with stock liquidation taking time, Lu Yao needed to find a part-time job.

Preferably something that could make quick money in the short term.

But in 2013, ordinary people had few chances to get rich quickly.

Even if there were, it required time and capital to operate.

So what should he do?

Lu Yao pulled out the “Get Rich Diary,” a book filled with various pieces of information, and began sorting through what he knew along a timeline.

After much thought,

There was only one path that involved low startup costs and suited his actual situation—e-commerce.

Among the many categories in e-commerce,

Two fields were notably profitable.

One was green plants.

Shangnan City, situated in a prosperous province in East China, had unique local specialties and pillar industries in every prefecture-level city.

The green plant industry directly drove the development of a township in Su Province, generating over a billion yuan in annual output before the e-commerce green plant market was regulated.

However, in pursuit of extreme profits,

That township resorted to fraud and selling inferior goods.

Eventually, the largest e-commerce platform had to issue regulations specifically targeting those merchants.

The township then collapsed overnight.

This scandal was huge at the time; Lu Yao only learned about the green plant industry’s profitability from online news reports.

Green plants posed a risk of sudden collapse.

So Lu Yao thought it over and gave up on it.

The other highly profitable e-commerce industry...

Was QQ products.

How profitable was this industry?

It was profitable enough to lift a poverty-stricken county out of poverty.

In the following years, the industry rapidly expanded, reaching annual sales of two billion yuan.

The county even earned the prestigious title of “World QQ Underwear Capital.”

Lu Yao was quite tempted by this sector.

And his interest wasn’t a mere whim of an old pervert.

This sector was market-validated.

First, the supply came from a place not far from Shangnan City.

Second, these products sold on emotional value, with minimal materials and poor quality, resulting in extraordinarily high profits!

If managed properly, profits could reach 70 to 80 percent.

Most importantly,

What mattered most to customers buying these products was the design.

They didn’t fear poor quality.

They didn’t mind minimal materials!

In fact, the less material, the more excited the buyers seemed to be.

Consequently, these products rarely faced returns.

Statistics showed that this sector had the lowest return rate among all e-commerce products!

This solved the biggest headache for e-commerce sellers.

Why did many women’s clothing e-commerce stores later fail?

Because women’s clothing had too high a return rate! Impulse purchases would lead to disappointment upon trying on, and customers would choose to return items within the seven-day no-questions-asked period...

High return rates often caused cash flow problems and eventual collapse.

But QQ underwear had none of these worries.

Once used, how could one return them?

Of course, returns did happen.

But products returned after use only served to increase the value of QQ underwear!