Summer Mu lifted her head and gazed at the azure sky. The scorching sun made it impossible for her to open her eyes, and she squinted slightly, looking ahead at the vast lychee forest with green leaves and red fruits, hanging from the branches. She smiled lightly and thought, 'If we can really succeed, it would be like dreaming.'
Her current feeling was like walking on a suspended steel wire rope. She was a lone gambler who made a big bet with herself in an unnoticed corner.
Robert stood a few steps away from her, looking at her. They were high school classmates and hadn't seen each other for several years. But for some people, remembering them can make you feel trusted and warm. For many people, the once proud son of heaven, Summer Mu, was probably such a person. Although she was currently down and out.
Robert remembered clearly that at that time, she often wore a white dress, with clean hair combed behind her head, standing among her classmates, smiling brightly and cunningly. Now, her smile and brightness remained the same, but something had changed between her eyebrows.
That was a cold and silent change.
"H's lychees are truly famous. "Summer Mu turned back and smiled at him," Robert, give me the production of your lychee orchard next week. I also want to take the production of several other lychee orchards around me."
Robert was surprised to hear this. He had known before that Summer Mu was just a small salesperson in a supermarket.
"What do you want to do? Where did you get the money?"
Summer Mu smiled slightly and punched him, "What, do you underestimate me? Didn't I come to talk to you about business? It's like this, I'm not a salesperson anymore, I'm in the marketing department. If you can give me this opportunity, I'll go back and talk to the leader and purchase directly from you."
Robert thought for a moment, but didn't speak immediately. Although his father was still managing the lychee orchard, he had basically taken over various affairs. As long as the price was reasonable, he can make a decision. And privately, he also hoped to give Summer Mu a cheaper price. Although Summer Mu's request was a bit sudden, he trusted her from the bottom of his heart when it came to handling things.
So he nodded and said, "Okay, but as soon as possible. You know, the lychee market in H is very large, and it's the peak season now. The shipping prices are different every day. I can't give you an accurate price now, so I can only give you a small discount on the real-time price of the day."
Summer Mu looked at him with excitement and said, "I know. Thank you."
The shipping price of lychee from H's production area was constantly changing, and of course she knew it. That's why she came to H this time.
The two of them walked through the lychee trees, stepping on the sun hardened soil. Robert listened to Summer Mu calmly describe her overall plan for this time——
"When I was an assistant in the marketing department, I dealt with numbers every day. There were many, many numbers, sales market data, supply market data, production data, supplier data... Slowly, I discovered a pattern. You know, many seasonal and regional products are not directly purchased from the place of origin in our supermarket. For example, lychee, other fruits, and bulk rice. If we had to send dedicated personnel to purchase each product from other places, how many people would have to be sent out is also impossible. So, for example, lychee, we buy from suppliers. And the suppliers are purchased from your H. There is a price difference in between."
Robert nodded and said, "Yes. But if you want to directly collect now, you have to bear the intermediate shipping and labor costs yourself. You can't take advantage of anything. Why do you want to do it?"
Summer Mu smiled and said, "Who says we can't take advantage? I stare at those data every day, and I found something wrong in between. I took it to discuss with my old colleagues in the department, but they didn't care at all and thought I was just looking for trouble. But the more I think about it, the more I realize I'm right. There's an opportunity hidden in such a supply and demand market."
"What opportunity?"
"In general, if we switch to direct procurement, we won't make much profit, right? Because in fact, the intermediate suppliers didn't make much profit originally, and this is an automatic market price adjustment mechanism."
"However, I have studied the daily price changes of H's lychee production in the past five years, this season, which is the past twenty days, as well as the price charts provided by suppliers, and found a pattern. Here, prices change every day, and as production reaches its peak, prices gradually decrease. The lower and faster the decline, right? The price chart provided by the supplier also follows this trend. However, due to the mixed quality of suppliers in the middle and the geographical distance, the supplier market is not as standardized and information is not smooth. Their price adjustment speed is not as timely as yours, and there is at least a 3-5 day lag."
Robert's heart trembled inexplicably when he heard it. He seemed to understand where the "opportunity" mentioned by Summer Mu was hidden.
Summer Mu's eyes appeared particularly clear in the sunlight. Robert looked at her as if he were looking at someone else. She said, "I've looked at it, and today the production price in H is still 7.2 dollars, while the supplier in J's supply price is 8.4 dollars. Our sales prices for L and Y are both around 10 dollars. According to the sales pattern of recent years and combined with weather forecasts, H is likely to experience a peak in sales next week, and the real-time delivery price will drop below 5 dollars. However, the supplier price in J will not adjust until at least 3 days later. What I want to seize is this short-term time difference and price difference, and directly pick lychees back."
Robert asked, "How much do you plan to sell it for per kilogram?"
Summer Mu replied, "Y, and even all the supermarkets in J, are still selling for 10 dolllars. Only our family suddenly sells for 5 dollars, a completely unimaginable low price. What do you think customers will react? They will think it's unbelievable and rush to sell out, and then all the lychee branches in other supermarkets in J will not be sold out. As long as I can do this, L can regain the attention of customers and survive."
——
H city in the evening was humid and hot. Summer Mu stayed at a very cheap and fast hotel. After taking a shower, she changed into a wide T-shirt and shorts, laid in bed, and looked out the window at the indigo sky.
Robert insisted on letting her stay at home, but she refused. One was sorry to disturb him too much, and the other was Robert's family. It's still his father who made the decision. Staying at his house like this might not necessarily benefit future business.
Today she received a verbal promise from Robert, and with his help, she reached an agreement with another nearby lychee orchard. As long as the two parties were discussed tomorrow, she can report her overall plan to the marketing manager.
Although she was an insignificant role, she was confident that the manager would not underestimate this plan and would report it to Meng as soon as possible. And Meng would definitely agree and did his best to push this matter forward.
However, if Meng sent someone else to H to discuss procurement, he would definitely not have enough time to seize the price difference space in front of him. So we can only rely on her.
That way, she would get what she wanted.
Just, would everything go smoothly as planned? Her heart was also in a daze.
After being almost violated by Meng that night, there was a sense of solitary courage hidden in her heart. After coming up with this strategy, this solitary courage drove her forward, regardless of everything. Didn't think about how many difficulties and obstacles there would be in front of and behind you, nor did you think about how small and humble a character you were. She took a risk and just wanted to accomplish this. Damn it, other people's lives were lives, and other people's desires were desires. That's her, wasn't she?
...
However, what Summer Mu did not know was that there was another guest from J in this hotel.
The dusk outside the window was pervasive, and the setting sun leaves only a trace of residual light, dyeing the sky hazy and gloomy. Beck stood in the room, feeling a bit unhappy.
He had never stayed in such a rudimentary hotel before. Cotton sheets, curtains hanging like two noodles, and a floor with small stains that can be noticed upon closer inspection. He would feel a slight nausea if he glanced around more.
But there's nothing we can do, that woman lived here.
Regarding his sudden abandonment of Y and his decision to fly to H, Cheng expressed her incomprehension and said over the phone, "Beck, you have always been steady and reliable in your work, but this time you suddenly abandoned what I asked for. I really can't understand."
Beck replied, "I can clearly judge what is most important to me. I have already arranged the business plan for Y's follow-up, and even if someone is not around, it will continue to operate on its own. If you cannot understand, then it is your problem." After saying that, he hung up the phone.
The most important thing for him now was Summer Mu. Thinking of this, Beck's lips curved coldly. Were people in the mall relying solely on their brains? No, often it relied on intuition. That day, when he heard Summer Mu talking to Claire, she mentioned "supply and demand market", "data", and "opportunities". Beck vaguely felt that something was not appropriate. Listening to her say 'I want to tear a hole in Y's encirclement' was exactly what he didn't want to happen. So, how could he let this disaster continue to develop under his nose. It should be noted that the smaller the person, the easier it was to do unexpected things.
So he followed over. After following her for a day, he roughly knew what this woman wanted to do.
On the first floor of the hotel, there was a particularly small courtyard with a few trees planted, which was relatively quiet. At this point, it was already dark, and Beck stood by the window for a while before seeing the room across from the yard with the door open. Summer Mu walked out.
Beck slightly turned his body and stood behind the curtain, staring at her.
She seemed a bit lost in thought and walked around the yard, fidgeting with leaves, flowers, and plants twice with her hands, looking very uneasy. Finally, she sat down on the broken stone stool with her back facing Beck's window, very close apart. He could even see the skin behind her ears, fair and delicate, appearing hazy under the soft yellow light in the courtyard.
Perhaps standing in this rudimentary room for too long, Beck suddenly felt a sense of restlessness in his heart. But he remained silent, staring at her motionless.
She sat for a while, pulled out a pendant from her neck, and placed it in her palm. Beck saw that it was a small jade Buddha wearing red thread.
She closed her eyes, clasped her hands together, and whispered, "Mom, you must bless me. This is my only chance to turn over, bless me with smooth sailing and no mistakes. Bless me to make this contribution, so that no matter whether I stay or leave L, someone will respect me. I don't want to be a salesperson anymore, don't be looked down upon and insulted by others. I want to climb up and climb to where I can go in my life."
After speaking, she lowered her hand as if to deliberately relax, took a long breath, walked back to the room, and closed the door.
The courtyard suddenly became extremely quiet. The moonlight on the ground was as clear as water, and above the buildings, clouds accumulated in a dark and blurry manner. Beck suddenly curled his lips and smiled.