Chapter 327: Bidding the Sky-High Price
Su He couldn’t be bothered to pay attention to the system. Her primary reason for wanting to work part-time at the meat processing plant was for the ultimate partner to instant noodles… ham sausages!
Ham sausages and instant noodles were the two titans of the convenience food industry, and their future prospects were incredibly bright!
Currently, there was no ham sausage project in China. To be more precise, the kind of ham sausages from later generations did not exist anywhere in the world yet.
Japan did have a type of fish sausage, which was somewhat similar to the ham sausages of later generations.
Ham sausages could not only be sold domestically but could also be exported, and the Capital North Province Meat Processing Plant was perfectly suited to launch this project.
The plant already had a luncheon meat production line as well as a slaughterhouse. Once the equipment and technical issues were resolved, they could go into production very quickly.
Of course, Su He would not mention any of this to Section Chief Niu right now. Even after onboarding, she wouldn’t bring it up immediately.
She needed to interact with the leadership of the meat processing plant first to see if they were on the same wavelength before proposing it.
If they weren’t, she might as well set up a new ham sausage production line at the Anxin County Food Factory instead.
Although that might be a bit more troublesome, differing management philosophies could create massive headaches down the line.
Take Director Feng of the Textile Factory, for instance. On top of expanding her business, she constantly had to engage in a battle of wits and courage with him. Wasting her energy on internal friction simply wasn’t worth it.
By now, Section Chief Niu had snapped out of his shock and hurriedly said, “Little Su, our factory has never had a precedent for part-time employment. However, you are a rare talent, and I believe the factory leadership will definitely be willing to make an exception for you!”
“How about this? Once our factory director arrives, I’ll request instructions from him and give you an answer.”
Su He replied with a beaming smile, “Great, then I’ll wait for your good news!”
The two chatted for a bit longer before Su He strolled back to her carriage.
At around three o’clock in the afternoon, the train conductor, Wang Qiang, came looking for Su He.
“Little Su, that fellow Jim said he wants to talk to you.”
Su He thought to herself: And here I thought Jim could hold out until tonight. I didn’t expect him to lose his footing so soon!
The system popped up to flatter her: [Host, when it comes to the art of composure, he is far beneath you! If you claim to be second, no one would dare claim to be first. Your composure is even better than a ten-thousand-year-old snapping turtle!]
Su He: “Get lost!”
The system: … It seems the flattery landed squarely on a horse’s hoof!
Su He arrived at the vestibule connecting the soft sleeper carriages but didn’t walk inside.
Although no one would say anything if she entered—after all, she had stayed in there before—a person needed to maintain a sense of propriety.
Sure enough, when Ji Tong saw her behavior, his impression of her improved by a few more notches.
Just as Su He exchanged a few polite words with Ji Tong, Jim walked over.
“Su, after careful consideration, I feel your enterprises won’t be able to complete the order I require with guaranteed quality and quantity.”
“First, you have never made pearl hair accessories and brooches before. Due to your lack of experience, the yield rate cannot be guaranteed.”
“Second, pearl hair accessories and brooches require a very high standard of adhesive. Can you resolve this problem?”
Su He was all too familiar with this playbook. Jim had actually already been won over, but to give himself a graceful way out, he had intentionally thrown out two difficult problems.
As long as Su He provided the answers, he could naturally move forward with the collaboration.
Su He said with a smile, “Mr. Jim, you don’t have to worry about the yield rate at all.”
“Because we have a strict internal control system, we absolutely will not allow defective or substandard products to leave the factory. What you receive will certainly be fully qualified items.”
“As for the adhesive issue, it isn’t difficult to resolve.”
“Currently, hair accessories generally utilize hot-melt adhesive, which indeed carries a certain rate of breakage, but it’s well within the reasonable margin of wear and tear.”
“In addition, I wonder if you noticed that the accessory samples I showed you rarely use adhesive.”
“This is also one of the defining characteristics of our ‘He’ brand accessories—we are dedicated to pure handcrafting. Therefore, during the design phase, we avoid bonding processes as much as possible, opting instead for techniques like inlaying, riveting, and stitching.”
“Adhesive, after all, is a chemical product, and some customers might not particularly like it.”
“Of course, pure handcrafting means the production cost will be relatively higher. The decision of whether to use adhesive lies with you, and we can discuss the details further.”
After listening to Su He’s words, Jim fell into deep thought for a moment before saying, “Su, your explanation has dispelled my concerns, and your performance yesterday left a deep impression on me. So, let us proceed to talk about the order!”
Su He drew several sheets of paper from her briefcase, all filled with sketches of hair accessories and brooches.
“Mr. Jim, I’ve added a few more designs. You can make your selections, and then I will provide a quote.”
Jim was utterly shocked!
In such a short span of time, she had actually designed so many patterns? Furthermore, every single piece was an absolute eye-opener!
What an incredible artistic talent!
“Su, you must have graduated from one of China’s top design academies, right?”
Su He smiled very modestly. “I am… self-taught.”
Jim: “…”
It seems the claim that Chinese people are reserved and humble is nothing but a rumor!
This Su He is even more confident and expressive than us foreigners!
Jim picked and chose, but in the end, he kept all of them because he couldn’t bear to discard a single design.
Su He immediately began quoting prices. Every item was divided into two pricing tiers: adhesive-bonded and purely handcrafted.
The purely handcrafted option was quoted at fifty percent higher than the adhesive-bonded one.
Jim: “…”
Why do I feel like I dug a hole for myself?
Ji Tong also caught sight of Su He’s quote sheet, and he thought to himself: Good grief!
The cheapest pearl hair accessory was listed at 2 USD per piece, while the most expensive pearl brooch actually reached 15 USD per piece!
Those in the know would recognize they were made with standard-grade pearls; those who didn’t would think they were crafted from solid gold!
While pearls sounded incredibly valuable, China had already established artificial seawater pearl cultivation bases as early as 1958. After the successful development of seedling breeding technology in 1965, pearl cultivation had stepped up to an entirely new level.
Therefore, the price of standard-grade pearls was not high at all.
Wasn’t Su He simply bidding a sky-high price?!
Though shocked to his core, Ji Tong kept a perfectly calm composure on his face as he observed Jim’s reaction.
To his surprise, Jim did not display an expression of excessive shock or anger. Instead, he pulled out a pen and paper and began calculating back and forth.
Ji Tong: “…”
Are people overseas all just easy targets to rip off?
This was a classic case of conventional thinking.
Unlike domestic conditions where the population’s basic food and clothing needs were still being addressed, several developed countries had already shifted a massive amount of their attention toward fashion and personal grooming.
However, many domestic enterprises failed to grasp this point, not daring to produce high-value-added products, and their quotes were always timid and overly cautious.
Su He possessed this kind of vision on one hand, and on the other, she wasn’t worried in the slightest about scaring Jim away.
Because she had absolutely no competitors.
Across the entire Canton Fair, only the Anxin County Textile Factory possessed hair accessories, to say nothing of the pearl accessories and brooches Jim wanted.
Furthermore, she had absolute confidence in her design (stolen) sketches.
