E-Ladies: Navigating the Wired World
Chapter 209: Episode 209 - The Being That Can’t Be Surpassed by Learning

Chapter 209: Episode 209 - The Being That Can’t Be Surpassed by Learning

"Huh?" Zhou Xueyin looked at Li Jiniang, baffled, her mind racing to recall what the other party might have told her in the past.

"Was it last month? I, Old Li, and Director Niu went out to eat, and then Director Niu told me about a Weibo marketing campaign. The price for a single copy was 100,000 yuan! He even asked me if it was true!" Li Jiniang repeated the story to Zhou Xueyin, "At that time, I even asked you about it, and you said it couldn’t be that expensive, and that you were planning to ask Sister Bai."

"Ah... uh... this..." Zhou Xueyin still wore a face of bewilderment, as if asking if Li Jiniang had actually spoken to her before.

"Forget it, your memory has really gone downhill lately. You better start eating something that’s good for the brain..." Li Jiniang looked at her helplessly.

"Has my memory really been that bad lately?" Zhou Xueyin looked around at everyone with a puzzled expression.

"It has..." everyone nodded, "But it’s fine since it’s not about anything important, so we haven’t been too concerned."

"A 100,000 yuan copy; that’s not a trivial matter. No, I need to ask Sister Bai right now if she knows anything about it..." Zhou Xueyin was ready to make a call.

"Hey, don’t bother asking. Even if you do, what difference does it make? If you ask, can you really afford to spend a fortune to poach their writer?" Li Jiniang stopped her just in time.

"Ring, ring, ring..." It was as if by telepathy—Bai Luoran called Zhou Xueyin on her own initiative.

"Hello? Sister Bai? Is there something you need?" Zhou Xueyin greeted her with respect, "Oh, the Barbour case was indeed one of our marketing projects... Successful? You’re too kind... Such marketing should only be done once; doing it again would be deceiving the public."

"Oh... okay, got it. And about that adult product... Oh, they have a team of 100 people? Alright, I understand."

"What? Really? Why? Okay, okay... I wish you all the best... Goodbye!"

Everyone watched, confused and uneasy, as Zhou Xueyin paced around the work area after the strange phone call.

After she hung up, everyone gathered around: "What’s going on? What happened?"

"Sister Bai said she sold her account company for a high price. She can’t give us discounted services anymore... The discounted prices will only last until the end of this year, and from the year 2012 we’ll have to follow the new company’s rates, with a 10% increase for each account service," Zhou Xueyin said listlessly.

"What? But why sell when it’s doing so well?" Bai Ying asked, puzzled.

"Exactly, those accounts have millions of followers, some are even nearing ten million; it’s such a pity to sell..." Li Hua said with regret.

"Sister Bai said she invested in a real estate business back in her hometown... She said that’s an even quicker way to make money," Zhou Xueyin shrugged.

"Sister Bai is smart; everyone is now supporting the housing economy, and many big shots are getting into real estate. If my family had the money, I’d buy a few more properties to wait for them to appreciate in value!" Song Yantong said resentfully.

Forget about whether or not you have money, Zhou Xueyin belonged to those content with their lot. A house from her parents and one of her own, having a place to live was enough for her, and she really couldn’t be bothered to think about anything else.

But indeed, house prices had doubled over the past two years. Taking the one-bedroom apartment opposite her parents’ house as an example, it was priced at 450,000 yuan in 2009, and in just a few months, it shot up to 600,000 yuan, and now it’s almost at 800,000 yuan.

The apartment she lived in herself was bought for 1.5 million yuan, and now it’s almost worth 2.5 million yuan.

Indeed, there was some regret about why she hadn’t bought another new house, but regret was useless now. The company had started, so she dare not think about buying a house anymore.

"Alright, alright! Who cares who Bai’s company is sold to? We should still do what we need to do and maintain our standards without losing our edge!" Zhou Xueyin clapped her hands, signaling everyone to get back to work quickly.

Originally, Bai Luoran had made a deal with the buyer’s company, offering Zhou Xueyin’s company preferential treatment with their accounts until the end of the year, but in the second month, with one quarter left until year’s end, the other party sent people to negotiate terms with their company.

One wasn’t enough, a whole group came, dressed like men in black, the one leading must be the team leader, took out his business card and handed it to Zhou Xueyin, "I represent Runxin New Media Group, my name is Yuan Weicheng. I’m here today to make a comprehensive understanding of your company’s accounts!"

"Hello, I’m Zhou Xueyin... It’s possible to understand through the internet, there was no need to come here with such a big team..." Zhou Xueyin said with a wry smile. To ease the awkwardness, she asked Sun Miao to serve tea and water to the visitors, "Miao Miao, prepare the water..."

"We have already reviewed the online part, but understanding through the internet doesn’t mean that we can fully understand your company’s situation. We need to consider comprehensively, the operational strength of your development, just in case one day the company can’t make it anymore, it’ll be good for us to be prepared if we take over, won’t it?"

Well, that was a pretty direct thing to say, who comes right out and talks about someone else’s company not being able to operate anymore.

Even though it was uncomfortable to hear, Zhou Xueyin still kept a smiling face; after all, she still needed the other party to help with promoting their accounts and maintaining an active account atmosphere.

"Yes, yes, you’re right! Just in case one day I’m too tired and can’t deal with the internet anymore, you’ll need to take over, right? So, rest assured, we will maintain the accounts very well. We won’t cause you any trouble or smear your accounts!" Zhou Xueyin followed along with the other party’s direction.

"Hmm? No trouble? When I checked the previous records, I found one that seemed to be plagiarism. How do you explain that?" Yuan Weicheng pushed up the rimless glasses on his nose.

"That was a misunderstanding, the platform didn’t say we plagiarized. You can be assured of that, the one thing we despise the most is plagiarism!" Zhou Xueyin massaged her temples.

"And... this account about romantic advice? It didn’t have this name originally, why the change?" Yuan Weicheng really asked about everything.

"It’s one of the marketing strategies... If you were in the Weibo business, you’d know why we operate it this way." It was a trade secret, how could Zhou Xueyin possibly tell this so-called sophisticated but clueless nerdy person in front of her.

"..." Yuan Weicheng was left speechless by Zhou Xueyin’s response and continued to flip through the documents, looking for something that could justify a higher price for their services.

However, unfortunately for him, he found nothing.

Not to say that Zhou Xueyin managed her business flawlessly up to now, but she was at least cautious. She knew that there were countless eyes on the internet watching her company, scrutinizing every piece of content they made. A slip could lead to total loss, hence the saying, "Be careful and you’ll sail a long way."

"Fine, we have a general understanding of your operational status. These people are editors from our company. If you could train them for free, we’d be extremely grateful." Yuan Weicheng’s attitude was condescending, not at all like someone asking for a favor.

"Sorry, we’re quite busy ourselves. I remember Tiger Brother, Zheng Huding, used to be the chief editor, and we were trained by him. You should ask him instead." Zhou Xueyin watched the other party with a smile.

"He resigned to become a screenwriter... So the training has to be your responsibility." Yuan Weicheng kept his haughty tone.

Zhou Xueyin really didn’t want to take up this task, especially seeing the other party’s attitude, "I’m truly sorry, we’re swamped with work every day, we really don’t have time to train you all... There are courses online, you can check them out for yourselves. I have a client meeting soon, so if you don’t mind, could you please leave for today?"

Zhou Xueyin issued a clear eviction order, and seeing that there really was no point in lingering, the other party led his group away proudly.

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