Chapter 188 - Fooled by Gu Hai
When all was said and done, Silvermoon City was different from the other cities. There were too many people here who liked the Dao of the Zither.
Once the Canon Rock Super Crazy Piano Version came out, it ignited a flame of pa.s.sion in countless people"s hearts immediately. With that, the somewhat deserted This Street"s First Zither House became incomparably lively once more.
In contrast, the World"s First Zither House, who had invited several zitherists, was cast into the shade.
The World"s First Zither House"s business became bleaker and bleaker, while business was booming more and more across the street.
At this moment, Jiang Tianyi and Young Master An were looking about with unsightly expressions on their faces.
When it came to sales of the zither, the World"s First Zither House had always been prosperous. Any zither stores that tried to compete with them fared pretty badly. How had things changed like this?
Young Master An angrily shouted, "Are the Zither Grand Daoists invited by you wastes? Gu Hai just used a Canon to defeat all of them!?"
"Young Master An, please calm yourself. As a matter of fact, this Gu Hai indeed is a business genius. He can mobilize the enthusiasm of the customers at the most appropriate time. He could have told everyone that the Canon"s tune could be altered a long time ago, but he has been waiting until now to give a heavy blow to us!"
"Then, what should we do now?"
"In the many years I have been in business, I have never encountered such an opponent. Young Master An, you don"t need to worry! In fact, doing business is no different than going to war. You have to be tactful and ready to employ unconventional means to win a war. Gu Hai has won this battle with his strange means, but at the end of the day, he will have to have a head-on confrontation.
“Take this Canon, for instance; it"s just a tune. Indeed, it has caused much hype among the people, but it won"t last for too long. The feeling of freshness will soon come to pa.s.s, no one will care about it. At that time, this unconventional tools of Gu Hai will also be useless.
"I have mentioned this to Young Master An earlier. Gu Hai"s zither store is lacking goods. He has done pretty good renovations, but without any goods, will that be any useful? He will become a joke!
"Let him jump for a few days. Once his zither store is renovated, I will send them gifts!" Jiang Tianyi said as the corner of his lips rose into a cold smile.
Young Master An suppressed the anger in his heart. At present, the sales of the piano were like the sun in the sky, no one could bear to touch it.
"Hmph, I guess, you are right. Let"s wait until his zither shop is renovated. Once the Canon"s hype is over, I will enjoy watching his zither shop close down!" Young Master An said in a frigid voice.
As Jiang Tianyi had expected, no matter how popular the Canon was, after one month of non-stop brainwas.h.i.+ng, the zitherists were also tired. The sales of the piano also declined slowly. The ten queues had slowly been reduced to one queue. There were even some times when no one was there.
At the sight of this, a smile finally emerged on the faces of Young Master An and Jiang Tianyi.
Long Wanqing, on the other hand, looked rather worried!
"Hall Lord, don"t you worry. This Street"s First Zither House will open for business the day after tomorrow. The piano is just one of the instruments, that"s all. There will be many different instruments in the future!" Gu Hai a.s.sured Long Wanqing with a smile.
"But what are you going to sell the day after tomorrow? Or are you going to take out another new instrument, and then presell it?" Long Wanqing asked, worried.
"Who says I have nothing to sell? You will know about it at that time!" a smiling Gu Hai stated confidently.
Long Wanqing furrowed her brow as she nodded.
"Right, it seems Grandmaster has followed Shangguan Hen out of the city!?" Long Wanqing reported to him, frowning again.
"I know, I have given another half million high-grade spirit stones to Shangguan Hen, let him go and buy some things to eat!" Gu Hai nodded in acknowledgment.
Hearing this, the nearby Mu Chenfeng continually drank tea as he suppressed the shock in his heart.
Money!? These days, how many people have tried to guess how exactly much Gu Hai has made? This is just one month! Is he a money-swallowing beast?
Mu Chenfeng knew that Gu Hai had given a million high-grade spirit stones to Shangguan Hen. f.u.c.k me! A million high-grade spirit stones! At my salary, it would take me many years to earn that kind of sum!
But Gu Hai has given it to Shangguan Hen just to buy things to eat!
Does that Shangguan Hen eat money? How can he eat so much?
"Throne...Throne Master Gu, This Street"s First Zither House has been renovated. Furthermore, in these two days, you have been advertising that after playing the piano, inviting everyone in the city to buy various other instruments... but where are your instruments?" Mu Chenfeng asked, baffled.
"Didn"t I borrow a thousand subordinates from you? These days, they have been helping me find the suppliers! You will see the day after tomorrow!" Gu Hai said with a smile.
"Uh!?" Mu Chenfeng nodded in a daze.
The entire city had received the news. A fair number of cultivators were clear on Gu Hai"s situation. Could an outsider truly withstand the pressure of the World"s First Zither House?
Where will he find the supply?
Will he be selling pianos on the day of opening?
On the streets, the owners of many shops had long been waiting, wanting to see whether he would make a fool of himself today or not.
A sea of people began to gather outside This Street"s First Zither House.
Meanwhile, after a wait of one month, the World"s First Zither House had also regained some of its popularity.
The manager, Jiang Tianyi, had long asked his subordinates to prepare gifts. With a cold smile on his lips, he was looking at the closed doors of This Street"s First Zither House from the distance.
The style of the renovation of This Street"s First Zither House was very novel. The entire structure was built from polished marble, mainly white, which gave it an extremely gorgeous and luxurious look.
The Great Han officials and the Ascendant Hall disciples were already standing outside the store.
"The auspicious time has arrived!" Immediately, a series of firecrackers rang out.
Amid this lively scene, Gu Hai and Long Wanqing gradually made their way to the front.
"Start the ribbon cutting ceremony!" a Great Han official shouted.
At the sight of the entire set of opening ceremonies, the crowd of onlooking cultivators widened their eyes in astonishment.
Where did this group of turtles come from? What kind of opening ceremony is this? So strange!?
Gu Hai"s style of opening the store was the custom he brought from Earth. The onlooking crowd of cultivators watched the ceremony in a daze.
Gu Hai and Long Wanqing used the scissors to cut the bundle of ribbons.
"Start the business!" Gu Hai shouted with a smile on his lips.
With a series of firecrackers, This Street"s First Zither House was officially open for business!
The gates were immediately opened with a bam.
The interior was renovated using a transparent style. At the center, sunlight could pa.s.s through the roof, illuminating the inside, making it look extra bright and s.p.a.cious.
"Ladies and gentlemen, for the next three days, all the goods in This Street"s First Zither House will be sold at a ten percent discount, the price is marked; there will be no counter-offer, no selling on credit. We sell the best zithers in the entire city at the lowest prices here at our store! We sell the best zithers in the entire city at the lowest prices here at our store!!" Gu Hai broke into laughter as he announced the sale.
Ten percent discount!?
Many cultivators quickly swarmed inside the store. Jiang Tianyi had prepared some special gifts to deride Gu Hai. But Gu Hai"s peculiar gifts had thrown off all his plans, and those gifts had also become invalid.
"He has truly opened the store! Impossible! Where did he find the goods? Are they really good products?" Jiang Tianyi made his way inside skeptically.
"Hey, it is all filled with instruments, the entire five floors are full of instruments. So many instruments!"
"There are only guqins on this floor. The quality of these guqins is not worse than that of the World"s First Zither House, ah!? This price!? It"s just half of the World"s First Zither House!? What!? Ten percent discount on half the basic price? I want it, I want it!"
"This xiao isn"t that bad, its quality is the same as the World"s First Zither House, and its price is only seventy percent of theirs!? What, there is also ten percent off on it!? I have long wanted it, give it to me, I want it!"
[TLN: style="">"What, take the receipt and pay there? There is also a receipt!"...
All five floors were paved with polished marble, even the walls were decorated with marbles. It looked particularly bright. More importantly, Zither Daoists had been invited and were playing soothing music inside the store, making the customers roaming in the store extremely comfortable.
The salespersons were also very polite, introducing the advantages and the disadvantages of the instruments.
However, the floors inside were further divided into many small stores.
"This… isn"t this the erhu shop at the end of the street!? How is it selling here?" Jiang Tianyi"s face twisted in shock.
[TLN: style="">"That is the guqin shop from the next street, their drums are the best and now, he is selling his drums in a specially designated area!"
"Over there, over there, those are all the specialty stores of Silvermoon City!? Why have they become organized and opened their shops here?"
Looking at each and every store, Jiang Tianyi looked astounded.
In the past, although these small shops had always been far worse than the World"s First Zither House, when all was said and done, they still had some pretty good instruments which they were selling at This Street"s First Zither House.
A win-win situation was born!
"Well, Manager Jiang, you are here as well. I am selling flutes here! Didn"t you use to boast in the past? You can come and take a look, my store is best known for them!" an azure-robed man said with a smile, looking at his own small counter, and then turned his gaze back on Jiang Tianyi.
"You… Shopkeeper Chen, didn"t I tell you earlier that you aren"t allowed to provide instruments to Gu Hai? Did you forget?" Jiang Tianyi said as his voice grew colder.
Shopkeeper Chen immediately smiled apologetically and said, "I didn"t, we didn"t supply anything to him, we are opening our own store. Look, my sign is also hung outside, the Little Chen"s Flute Shop!"
"What do you mean? Isn"t this equal to providing your goods? Look, you are selling the goods, but the money is being handed to Gu Hai"s men!" Jiang Tianyi said with wide eyes.
"It"s not like that! Manager Jiang, the money will be returned to us!" Shopkeeper Chen stated with a smile.
"Oh?"
"Gu Hai said that this is similar to some big malls, we can sell our brand in here! This store is quite popular, as long as we have better quality goods, we can sell for any price as we wish, it depends on our skills. The only rule of the mall is deduction points. For us, it"s twenty percent of our gross sales," explained Shopkeeper Chen.
"Deduction points? Can your brands enter freely?"
"How could that be? It"s up to Gu Hai. Any shoddy product isn"t allowed to enter! Anyone who sells counterfeit and shoddy products will be fined! We are issuing receipts and asking customers to pay at the counter only for better accounting!" explained Shopkeeper Chen.
Manager Jian"s face distorted madly. "Mall!? Mall!? Deduction points? Gu Hai, you have actually thought of such a surprising method!?"
"Manager Jiang, I will leave you alone, today"s business is particularly good, I will visit your World"s First Zither House some other day!" Shopkeeper Chen gave a bow before taking care of his customers.
The first day of business had already drawn countless cultivators.
Excellent goods with reasonable prices, along with the invoices and guarantees, and a new business model, had immediately made countless cultivators quickly empty their pockets.
Many people were rus.h.i.+ng to buy the instruments, like they simply didn"t care about the money.
A long line of customers had already formed at the payment counters, everyone lining up to pay.
The pre-sale counter of the piano was deserted at this moment, but the mall was filled with a hubbub of voices.
The news quickly traveled in every direction like it had grown wings.
Scared out of his wits, Jiang Tianyi somehow made his way out of the This Street"s First Zither House, constantly muttering, "Finished, finished, the World"s First Zither House is finished!"
Cost!? Gu Hai simply doesn"t need any costs, all he has to do is take good care of accounting and management and he can count on money rolling in every day!
His supply of instruments, he simply doesn"t need them! As the long as the stores have tasted the sweetness of the mall, they will swarm to this mall!
What I fool I was by trying to block Gu Hai"s supply. This… this simply cannot be blocked!
These small shops are indeed not as good as the World"s First Zither House, but they have their own specialized instruments which are not worse than ours. Furthermore, they are much cheaper!
Those cultivators are not fools! They can easily judge which side is better! They will give up on our World"s First Zither House!
A despondent and down-cast Jiang Tianyi muddle-headedly returned to the World"s First Zither House.
At this moment, the entire World"s First Zither House was completely empty, only a few customers could be found inside.
"Manager Jiang, the zither house across the street is open for business today, many people have gone to watch, you also went. What do you think? Aren"t their instruments a pile of rotten goods? How long will it take them to close down!?" Young Master An, drinking green tea, broke into laughter upon sighting the entering Jiang Tianyi.
A bitter smile immediately emerged on Jiang Tianyi"s face as he replied, "Young Master An, Gu Hai isn"t just a business genius, but a prodigy! The piano he has been playing these days was all to build up the momentum for today. The money from selling the piano was just a cherry on top, that"s all. It was all for building up the momentum. We have been fooled, we have been fooled!"
"What? Building up momentum?!" Young Master An"s eyebrow twitched momentarily.
"Yes, selling the piano was just for building up the momentum. This Street"s First Zither House is the most terrifying money-swallowing beast. Our World"s First Zither House is in danger!" Jiang Tianyi bitterly reported.