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Tomato made a giant banner that read, "Make 30,000 fucking ones, spend 5,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000!" and hung it on the studio wall. Tomato said it was to motivate everyone to work hard, but for the past few days, Lu Kai had been frowning silently at the 5,000,000 figure on the banner, to the point that Zhao Jinghuan felt Tomato's main purpose was to tease Lu Kai, who was thrifty. After all, Tomato even suggested that the studio staff should do the same as the new barber shop at the entrance to the community. To foster team cohesion, they would march in front of the entrance every morning and chant, "Lu Kai is going to spend 5,000,000,000!" Sister Zou couldn't help but grumble, "Forget it, our neighborhood relations are already bad enough because of the exhaust issue." They could give up on the slogans, but they couldn't stop working. Sister Zou, who had originally planned to leave at the end of the month, didn't mention it anymore. The day after Lu Kai decided to gamble everything, she and Zhao Jinghuan went to the factory. The studio previously produced a batch of blind boxes for Little Freckles approximately every eight months. The next batch had already been sent to the factory, with details finalized and the contract signed. Delivery was scheduled for the end of November, allowing for a new product launch around Christmas. However, the Mini Newcomer Award was announced in August, and a late December launch clearly wouldn't be enough to keep up with the traffic generated by the award. Zou and Zhao Jinghuan visited the factory to meet with Mr. Zhou, the owner and longtime partner. Zou stated her desire to increase Little Freckles' production from 5,000 to 30,000 units, using the same molds without any additional costs. Orders surged sixfold, and Mr. Zhou welcomed the offer. He even lowered the factory price from 15 yuan per blind box to 14 yuan. Ms. Zou said, "Not 14, but 15." Mr. Zhou was stunned. "Isn't 14 an unlucky number?" Ms. Zou replied, "No, we'll give you an extra dollar, but you have to move up the delivery date. We need the goods in August." Mr. Zhou readily agreed and said he'd have his staff send Ms. Zou a supplementary agreement when they returned. However, when they returned to the office, the supplementary agreement had indeed been sent, but it only updated the delivery quantity and ex-factory price. There was no mention of moving the delivery date to August. The employee who contacted Ms. Zou said they hadn't heard Mr. Zhou mention the delivery date. He simply urged her to sign the contract first and discuss any issues later. This was sheer deception. Ms. Zou called Mr. Zhou again, but no one answered. Zhao Jinghuan asked Ms. Zou if they were trying to trick her. Ms. Zou replied decisively, "They're definitely tricking us."
Tomato made a huge banner that read: "Make 30,000 damn ones, spend 5 million damn ones!" and hung it on the wall of the studio.
Tomato said it was to motivate everyone to work hard, but these past few days, Lu Kai had been frowning silently at the 5 million figure on the banner, to the point that Zhao Jinghuan felt Tomato's main purpose in making it was to tease Lu Kai, who was thrifty with his money. After all, Tomato even suggested that the studio staff should do the same as the new barber shop at the entrance of the residential complex. To foster team cohesion, they would march in front of the door every morning and chant the slogan "Lu Kai will spend 5 million."
Sister Zou couldn't help but complain: "Forget it, our neighborhood relationship is already bad enough because of the exhaust issue."
You can choose not to shout slogans, but you cannot choose not to work. Sister Zou, who had said she would leave at the end of the month, no longer mentioned the matter of resignation. The day after Lu Kai decided to bet his entire fortune, she took Zhao Jinghuan to the factory.
The studio's previous pace was to make a batch of blind boxes for Little Freckles about every eight months. The next batch of blind boxes for Little Freckles has already been sent to the factory to finalize the details and sign the contract. It is scheduled for delivery at the end of November. Taking into account the time for distribution, it will just be time for the new products to be released around Christmas.
However, the Mini Newcomer Award was announced in August, and releasing new products at the end of December obviously cannot keep up with the traffic brought by the award.
Sister Zou and Zhao Jinghuan went to the factory to meet the owner, Mr. Zhou, with whom they had cooperated for many years. Sister Zou made it clear that she hoped to increase the OEM volume of Little Freckles from 5,000 to 30,000. The molds would all be made in the same way, and there would be no additional costs. The orders suddenly increased sixfold. Mr. Zhou naturally welcomed such a good thing, and he also took the initiative to reduce the original factory price of each blind box from 15 yuan to 14.
But Sister Zou said, "I don't want 14, I want 15."
Mr. Zhou was stunned for a moment: "Isn't the number 14 unlucky?"
Ms. Zou said, "No, we'll give you an extra dollar, but you have to move up your order. We need to get the goods in August."
Mr. Zhou agreed readily and said that he would ask his employees to send the supplementary agreement to Ms. Zou when they returned. As a result, when the two returned to the studio, the supplementary agreement was indeed sent, but it only updated the delivery quantity and ex-factory price, but did not mention the schedule being moved to August.
The employee who contacted Ms. Zou said that he had not heard Mr. Zhou mention the scheduling issue, but just kept urging Ms. Zou to sign the contract first and communicate later if there were any problems.
This is a dead giveaway.
Zou went to call Mr. Zhou again, but no one answered. Zhao Jinghuan asked Zou if they were fooling us, and Zou answered decisively: "They are definitely fooling us."
In fact, this is not difficult to understand. Adjusting from 5,000 to 30,000 is certainly a good thing, but Mr. Zhou's factory has no shortage of orders, and the assembly line is running non-stop, which is already in an oversaturated state. Adjusting the schedule will be much more complicated.
It wasn't until the end of the evening that Mr. Zhou called back. After hearing Ms. Zou mention the missing schedule in the contract, Mr. Zhou hypocritically complained about his employees, saying they couldn't even write a good contract, even though he'd repeatedly emphasized the scheduling issue. Then he added, "Ah, it's so troublesome to keep changing the contract. Just sign it. If that doesn't work out, I'll send you a message on WeChat to prove we negotiated the schedule. Isn't that what you sign when you buy car insurance? It's legally binding. Don't worry."
Sister Zou insisted on including the schedule in the contract, but Mr. Zhou on the other end was a little annoyed: "We have been working together for so many years, don't you have any trust in me at all? Why do you act like I'm a liar? This is boring, I said I would send you a message on WeChat, why are you so stubborn? Whatever, you guys think about it, I have a meeting here, so I won't say anymore." Then he hung up the phone.
When Zou and Mr. Zhou were talking, they were on speakerphone, a rare sight for the studio staff. When the call ended, Lu Kai was so angry he could only smile helplessly, "One coaxing, two deceiving, three getting angry. Each of them is practicing the same Sunflower Manual."
Zhao Jinghuan was a little speechless: "Since he doesn't want to change the schedule, why can't he just be open and clear?"
Lu Kai said, "Maybe that's what they taught me. Two basic principles: 'never refuse' and 'never be sure of anything.'"
They gathered together and cursed for a while, which was considered satisfying, but the problem was not solved. Lu Kai couldn't think of a good solution for a while. Seeing that it was almost 6 o'clock, he waved his hand and said, "It's come to this. Let's go home first."
A group of people packed up and left. Zhao Jinghuan needed to wait until everyone left before completing her disguise in the bathroom, so she deliberately lowered her head and rummaged through the drawer. When she looked up again, she found that only Dorasi had not left and was looking at her seriously.
Zhao Jinghuan felt guilty when she saw her and asked her what was wrong. Dorasi said nothing, walked over and patted Zhao Jinghuan on the head, as if to express his approval of her, and then skipped away.
Zhao Jinghuan was confused and didn't know why this sudden recognition came about, but she thought it was not a bad thing after all, so she didn't care too much.
However, after arriving at the studio the next morning, Zhao Jinghuan always felt that something was wrong, but she couldn't tell what it was. She once suspected that Dorasi's head-patting move contained some kind of magic. After all, Dorasi didn't come to the studio that morning. But then she thought again, it was not surprising that she didn't come to work, and her strange feeling might not be because Dorasi touched her head.
When it was almost ten o'clock, Mr. Zhou called again and asked Sister Zou why she hadn't signed the contract yet. This time his excuse was a little fresher. He said that he could squeeze out a schedule for Little Freckles, but it was difficult to determine the specific deadline.
"You said our contract states August 20th, and I can't deliver until August 21st. Even though it's only one day late, wouldn't I still be in breach of contract? Xiao Zou, think about it, you guys suddenly want to move up the date, and I've gone to so much trouble to change the schedule for you, and I still have to take this risk. Don't you feel bad?"
To sum up, they are still being treated as fools.
Sister Zou had a blank expression on her face and said that we could change the delivery date to August 22, giving you one more day's margin.
This was actually said out of anger.
In the end, the two sides still couldn't reach an agreement. Sister Zou put down the phone, and Lu Kai also sighed.
Ultimately, they're the ones most anxious, not the factory. After all, the deposit has already been paid, and they can't transfer the work to another factory. Finding another factory to produce the same designs isn't reliable either. The same blind box, with two different quality control systems, could easily cause serious problems after it's released.
Sister Zou rubbed her aching temples and asked Tomato to close the door. "Why is it so cold today?"
Tomato ignored her, and Zhao Jinghuan quickly stood up and said, "I'm going to close the door."
She walked to the door and suddenly froze, then leaned out to look, turned around, and finally even reached out her hand and grabbed a handful of something out of thin air.
Seeing her standing stupidly at the door, Sister Zou asked her, "Bao'er, what's wrong with you?"
Zhao Jinghuan looked at the empty door frame with confusion.
She finally knew what that strange feeling that had troubled her for almost the entire morning was.
"Um... why is our door gone?"
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