Recently, several pieces of explosive good news have been circulating in the financial media circles.
"Epic Move! Four Trillion Yuan Investment Plan to Secure Economic Growth!"
"National Promotion Plan for Home Appliances in Rural Areas Officially Launched, Featuring a 13% Financial Subsidy!"
"Color TVs, Refrigerators, Mobile Phones, and Washing Machines: The Consumption Potential of Hundreds of Millions of Farmers is About to be Unleashed!"
With the successive implementation of these two super policies—the four trillion yuan investment and the rural home appliance subsidy—the pessimism that had previously permeated due to the global financial crisis was swept away. The entire market was injected with a shot of adrenaline, instantly boiling over with excitement.
The stock market's reaction was the most direct. The A-share market spent almost the entire week in the green, surging wildly.
The home appliance sector was particularly notable. For example, Qiming Electronics, which had recently experienced a power struggle, saw its stock price perform brilliantly, with a cumulative increase of nearly 70% over half a month. A massive boon!
Of course, amidst this overwhelming wave of positive news, the global dark horse of group-buying websites, Wanhui Youxuan, unexpectedly found itself the subject of a series of negative reports.
Naturally, these negative reports primarily appeared in the financial sections.
"Wanhui Youxuan Announces Sudden New Welfare Policy, Monthly Costs Surge by Tens of Millions, Casting a Shadow Over its Path to IPO."
"Comprehensive Insurance for Delivery Riders: Is the Group-Buying Upstart Being Idealistic or Committing Financial Suicide?"
The most impactful was the headline on the financial page of a certain web portal, which gave off a truly shocking vibe.
"Wanhui Youxuan Sabotages Itself, Investors in Collective Panic: Could the Recently Completed Series C Funding be its Last?"
"Will Wanhui Youxuan's 6.8 Billion Valuation Turn Out to be a Bubble?"
Just yesterday, Wanhui Youxuan issued an announcement declaring that it would purchase complimentary accident insurance for all its delivery riders and fully cover the mandatory social insurance and housing provident fund for its full-time riders.
At the bottom of the announcement was a bright red official seal, along with the signature of General Manager Yu Xin.
The signature was very beautiful!
The content was explosive.
And the investors' mindsets were equally explosive!
...........
Downstairs at the Shunchang Building.
A black Mercedes-Benz pulled up to the entrance.
Ji Zhe pushed the door open and stepped out, looking up at the characters for Shunchang displayed on the building in front of him.
Shunchang carried multiple meanings. It could mean smooth and prosperous. Of course, it also had another implication: those who submit will prosper, and those who resist will perish.
He leaned more towards the latter, simply because this was the headquarters of the Wanlong Syndicate.
The door on the other side opened, and Chu Hai also got out of the car carrying a briefcase. He then turned to look at Ji Zhe. "President Ji, what are we going to say in a moment?"
"We will say exactly what needs to be said. This is a matter of principle. No matter how capable Liu Yutong is, she can't just act this recklessly."
After saying this, Ji Zhe strode toward the building, his back giving off a somewhat solemn and tragic aura.
Chu Hai quickly jogged to keep up. "President Ji, we just need to maintain this momentum. As long as we keep this imposing manner, we will definitely be able to overpower Liu Yutong."
Ji Zhe nodded. "Naturally, I won't let our momentum falter."
After entering the lobby, the two walked toward the reception desk. Originally, they had intended to speak politely, but seeing the receptionist actually looking down and playing on a phone during working hours, combined with the anger accumulated in their hearts, they instantly erupted. A hand slammed onto the desk with a loud bang.
"We want to see Chairwoman Liu! She must give us an explanation today!"
"Exactly! She must give us an explanation!"
However, when the receptionist raised his head, the two were instantly dumbfounded.
The receptionist wasn't a receptionist, but someone they were very familiar with: Ma Da.
Ma Da was still chewing gum. His emotionless gaze swept across their faces, and then he blew a bubble from his mouth.
With a pop, the bubble burst.
Ji Zhe and Chu Hai shuddered violently, snapping back to reality.
The next second!
The two began to smile obsequiously, like ancient eunuchs greeting their master.
"Oh my, it's you, Boss Ma. I was just wondering why the magpies wouldn't stop singing when I left the house this morning. It turns out I was in for a stroke of good luck to run into you. Boss Ma, are you personally experiencing grassroots work? Truly observing the conditions of the people, low-key and pragmatic. It makes us feel ashamed, truly ashamed!"
"Boss Ma, your complexion today is truly vigorous and full of restrained dominance! And this chewing gum... hmm... at first glance, it's clearly a major international brand. Even the bubbles it blows are different!"
Ma Da looked at the two wrinkled, chrysanthemum-like faces before him and asked with a half-smile, "Looking for the Young Lady?"
"Yes, yes, yes!"
"We just have a tiny, insignificant business issue we want to discuss with Chairwoman Liu... no, report to her. We absolutely don't mean anything else. What just happened was a misunderstanding. It's an old habit of mine; whenever I get excited, I can't control my hands. Don't worry, I'll chop this useless hand off as soon as I get back!"
"Right, right, we didn't do it on purpose."
The two hastily explained.
Ma Da stuffed his phone back into his pocket, stood up, and spat his chewing gum into the trash can with a ptui sound.
"The Young Lady is upstairs. Also, keep your voices down when you're downstairs, so you don't cause any more misunderstandings."
Ji Zhe and Chu Hai went stiff all over, the fawning smiles on their faces growing even thicker.
"Understood! Understood! Thank you for the reminder, Boss Ma! Look how clumsy I am!"
"We will definitely keep it down, keep it down!"
Ma Da nodded and said, "I'll be taking off then. Make yourselves at home."
"Take care, Boss Ma!"
"Get back to your busy schedule!"
It wasn't until Ma Da's figure disappeared out the front doors that Ji Zhe and Chu Hai simultaneously let their shoulders slump, letting out a long sigh of relief.
Then, the two looked at each other and scratched their heads in a bit of embarrassment.
"So, shall we go up?"
"Alright!"
The two tacitly refrained from mentioning anything about overpowering Liu Yutong with their momentum again. After all, Ma Da alone had scared them half to death.
After stepping into the elevator.
Making sure no one could eavesdrop, Chu Hai finally spoke up. "President Ji, what do you think Chairwoman Liu is thinking? Wanhui Youxuan's group-buying business has been running for less than a year, and the model hasn't even been fully validated yet. Shouldn't we be putting all our effort into expanding into new cities and seizing market share right now? After all, we have the first-mover advantage. But instead, she suddenly decides to buy insurance and pay social security for all the delivery workers. Isn't this just messing around?"
When he first saw the announcement issued by Wanhui Youxuan, his immediate reaction had been: Why on earth is Your Majesty rebelling against herself!
Ji Zhe replied, "I want to know even more than you do. We just raised 300 million dollars in Series C funding, and the investors are eagerly waiting for us to push for an IPO next year. With this single move, she has completely blown a hole straight through our income statement."
"Yeah, our future is completely up in the air now!"
As capitalists, they knew very well how massive the risk of Liu Yutong's actions was, because it completely inverted the priorities of the two core elements of the internet industry: costs and expansion.
Right now, the domestic internet sector believed in a single golden rule: In the world of martial arts, only speed is invincible.
The primary purpose of the frantic injection of capital was to buy speed and scale—to open up new cities faster and to snatch up market share more fiercely.
Under this premise, any expenditure that could not be directly converted into growth data was viewed as an invalid cost, let alone spending on the grassroots group of delivery workers, whom they considered to be highly replaceable.
Right now, Wanhui Preferred held a distinct first-mover advantage. As the very first group-buying platform both domestically and globally, this was the time to burn cash relentlessly to acquire traffic and seize market share. According to their projections, Wanhui Preferred was on track to go public next year, and they would all get to ring the opening bell at NASDAQ.
Yet, at this critical juncture, Wanhui Preferred had chosen to focus on building a welfare and security system for its delivery riders—a move that contributed absolutely nothing to their growth metrics, or at least, that was how the investors saw it.
The group-buying model had been around for nearly a year. In that time, the market had exploded from Wanhui Preferred being the sole player to hundreds of competing platforms, with the numbers still climbing rapidly.
For Wanhui Preferred to suddenly pull a stunt like this at such a crucial moment was akin to a sprinter stopping to tie their shoelaces in the middle of a hundred-meter dash. They were at serious risk of losing their absolute dominance and being directly overtaken by competitors, which would inevitably drag out their IPO process.
From the perspective of these investors, this was an absolute nightmare!
That was exactly why the two of them had traveled all this way, ready to drop to their knees and beg Liu Yutong for an explanation!
