Chapter 1796 — The Situation Is Dire, Part One

"What?" Tang Yun had not expected Kang Divine Physician Pharmaceutical Company to strike back at a time like this, nor had she expected the counterattack to be so thorough. For a moment she did not know what to do. "Mr. Lai, could you wait a little? Let me discuss it on my end and then get back to you?"

"Fine, little sister, I'll wait for your call!" Fatty Lai said.

Tang Yun hung up. Gu Mengyao saw that Tang Yun's expression had turned somewhat grim and asked, "What happened?"

"Kang Divine Physician Pharmaceutical Group has cut the price of their Golden Wound Salve, and on top of that they've rolled out a whole string of specific medicines to go head-to-head with Dr. Guan Pharmaceutical..." Tang Yun relayed what Fatty Lai had said to Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu, then added, "Yao Yao, Wei Zhao is unconscious right now, and something this big has blown up at home. What are we supposed to do? Even Fatty Lai can't make up his mind..."

"Then... can't we just cut our prices too?" Though Gu Mengyao was a daughter of the Gu Group, her grasp of business matters was only half-formed. "If they lower their prices, we go lower still. That ought to win us back some of the market, shouldn't it?"

"That... I don't know either..." Tang Yun cast a worried glance at Wei Zhao. At last she understood that old saying — misfortunes never come singly. Everything had been fine before, and then hardly had Wei Zhao succumbed to his qi deviation than trouble came knocking.

"Sister Yun, why don't you have Fatty Lai call Uncle Chu and talk over a countermeasure? Uncle Chu has been in business for years, after all — he's rich in experience..." Shen Yushu suggested.

"That's right! Daddy could help think of something!" Gu Mengyao's eyes lit up at Little Shu's words. "Even Wei Zhao doesn't understand business all that well — that's why he left everything to others. If cutting prices can work, why not let him and Daddy look into the rest of it together?"

"All right, then I'll call him back right now!" Tang Yun dared not delay, and hurriedly dialed Fatty Lai again.

"Big sister, any news?" Fatty Lai asked.

"Wei Zhao really can't do it right now — he can't take a call. But Yao Yao, Little Shu and I have talked it over. You could call Uncle Chu and discuss how to respond. Or else — should we cut our prices too?" Tang Yun asked.

"Discuss..." Fatty Lai smiled bitterly. He was a seasoned hand at business himself, and the Liu family was hardly short of commercial prodigies — the second son of the Liu family was a veteran of the trade as well. But as things stood, without a matching lineup of new products to hold their own against Kang Divine Physician Pharmaceutical Group, cutting prices alone would not win back many customers. Were they supposed to undercut Kang Divine Physician Pharmaceutical Company even further?

Kang Divine Physician Pharmaceutical Company's Golden Wound Salve was currently priced at forty-nine, while Dr. Guan Pharmaceutical's wound medicine was ninety-nine — a twofold gap. Unless Fatty Lai sold at twenty-nine or thirty-nine, there was surely no way to turn the situation around.

But at twenty-nine or thirty-nine, once the channel fees were stripped out, almost nothing would be left. And Fatty Lai was now up to his neck in debt: practically every production plant had been mortgaged the moment it was built, then a loan taken out to build the next. Had this mishap not occurred, Fatty Lai's model of expansion — though it yielded little profit at first — would have filled his coffers to overflowing over the next few years.

But who could have known that Kang Divine Physician Pharmaceutical Company would thrust a spoke in the wheel, leaving him now stuck astride a tiger with no way down? If Wei Zhao could roll out a few more specific medicines, then even if the wound medicine turned no profit, it could still be sold. But at present, Dr. Guan Pharmaceutical's entire revenue stream consisted of the wound medicine and the painkillers, and those two were precisely the products for which Kang Divine Physician Pharmaceutical Group had exact counterparts — at half the price of Dr. Guan's!

This was plainly aimed at Fatty Lai, and Fatty Lai was certain that if he cut his prices, Kang Divine Physician Pharmaceutical Group would dare to sell even cheaper. After all, they had other flagship products to prop them up: the deluxe edition Golden Wound Salve and the weight-loss pills alone had already earned Kang Divine Physician Pharmaceutical Group a fortune in silver. The Golden Wound Salve and the All-Pain Relief were merely auxiliary products.

"What's wrong?" Tang Yun had caught the hesitation in Fatty Lai's voice and asked, a little puzzled.

"Nothing..." Fatty Lai smiled bitterly and said, "I'll think of something else. If the boss has a moment, please ask him to call me back as soon as he can..."

"All right, I understand!" Anxious as Tang Yun was, nothing mattered more at this moment than Wei Zhao waking up. If the company lost money, it could earn it back; but Wei Zhao's condition admitted not the slightest delay.

Fatty Lai sighed. Though he had no idea what exactly had happened to Wei Zhao, if even now he could not take a call, then things must truly be bad...

"How did it go?" Guan Xuemin might only hold a nominal post at the company, but the company was Wei Zhao's after all, and he still cared deeply about it.

"The boss didn't pick up — he's probably caught up in something more important," Fatty Lai said with a bitter smile. "I've already told big sister to have the boss call me the moment he's free!"

"Mm... then let's hold on for now. Hold on until Little Yi gets back — he'll surely have a way." Guan Xuemin had faith in Wei Zhao. "The formulas in Little Yi's hands are more than just these — there are many more, and every single one is a treasure beyond price!"

"For now, holding on is all we can do!" Fatty Lai nodded. So long as they gritted their teeth and weathered this storm, once Wei Zhao returned, they could launch a desperate counterstrike against Kang Divine Physician Pharmaceutical Group!

But... the situation seemed even worse than Fatty Lai had reckoned. He had assumed that even if Wei Zhao did not call today, he would call within two or three days at the latest. Yet no call came. Worried as he was, Fatty Lai had no choice but to grimly announce that the factories would halt production for the time being.

Even with production halted, however, the workers would still draw their wages — unless they were laid off. But many of the workers had only just signed their contracts, which had not yet expired. Dismissing them would mean paying a hefty penalty for breach of contract, and for Dr. Guan Pharmaceutical at this moment, that would be an enormous sum.

So for now, they could only shut down the lines, not let anyone go. Fatty Lai figured that so long as they held out until Wei Zhao returned, none of these problems would be problems anymore. But if the workers were dismissed — though he might scrape together the severance money for the moment — what then?

After Wei Zhao came back, how would the factories resume production?

While production was suspended, Fatty Lai, with no other choice, could only lower prices to boost sales. Dr. Guan's wound medicine, originally ninety-nine yuan, was now on promotion: buy one, get three free — which worked out to thirty-three yuan a bottle.

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