Chapter 117: The Crisis of Entrepreneurship

Trying to lift the jadeite watermelon, it weighed over ten pounds, just as Li Ping’an had said—it would be quite troublesome to bring it home. However, knowing that jadeite would appreciate in value gave Su Mu abundant motivation. In the end, he selected a few jadeite ornaments: a full-green bracelet with 108 beads, a full-green pendant carved into a Maitreya figure, and a matching bracelet of the same color, likely cut from the same piece of raw material and sold as a set.

At the counter, holding the bracelet labeled “jadeite” and further marked as a modern craft, Su Mu asked, “Boss, this is genuine jadeite, right?”

“You want an invoice? If it’s fake, come find me,” the antique shop owner replied without much interest. After all, it was a few hundred dollars’ worth of business. To reassure Su Mu, he added, “Jadeite isn’t worth much now. Who would bother forging it? Across the street at the Burmese shop, you can get cheap pieces for a few dollars; the most expensive go for two or three hundred. See that pile of stones at their door? All jadeite rough stones. No one wants them just sitting there; only Chinese folks like us and some tourists buy them.”

His tone was indifferent. These days, jadeite wasn’t valuable at all, its price far below that of other jade materials. Older antique jadeite was slightly more expensive but not by much.

Hearing that he could get an invoice, Su Mu nodded and told the middle-aged owner in front of him, “Alright, I’ll take these. Please wrap them up for me.”

“Okay, this watermelon…” The owner chuckled upon seeing Li Ping’an carrying the jadeite watermelon, amazed that someone was actually willing to buy it. It had been kept at his father’s house since childhood, but last week, when moving, his wife complained it was too heavy, so he brought it to the shop and casually tagged a price.

After punching numbers into the calculator and adding the two old jade pieces Li Ping’an bought, the total came to over eight hundred dollars, mostly for the jade. The owner packed everything carefully into a box.

Su Mu carried the heavy box out and crossed the street to a jadeite shop run by a Burmese man.

The owner’s English was poor, but Su Mu carefully picked through several fine items.

Since this was for collection, he naturally chose the highest-grade materials for pendants and decorative pieces. Trying on a vividly red ring, the Burmese boss, seeing Su Mu’s skepticism, brought out a large rough piece of red jadeite to show him, swearing that the ring’s face was cut from that very stone.

Wow, Su Mu immediately fixed his gaze on this extraordinary red jadeite rough.

He tried to persuade Li Ping’an to buy it, but the fellow stubbornly refused, considering it a complete waste of money. Su Mu didn’t press it and spent over six hundred more dollars on a bunch of so-called “junk,” which he stored with the jadeite watermelon in the box to take away.

In a moment of impulse, they had come to New York. On November 24th, they left decisively.

Boarding the plane, both sighed in relief, thinking of the warm comfort awaiting them back in California. They hadn’t even surveyed the market. Su Mu found over a dozen high schools and other schools like New York University in a thick phone book, planning to call them later to inquire if they intended to purchase computers.

What Su Mu didn’t know was that shortly after his departure, an old man hurried to the antique shop, hoping to buy that jadeite watermelon.

The old man had seen it before in the shop. The more he thought about it afterward, the more he felt it resembled one of the two watermelons favored by Empress Dowager Cixi. He hadn’t noticed the red inside initially, so he dismissed it, but how many naturally flawless jadeite watermelons could there be? Even if it wasn’t that one, its value was still high.

Regretting the missed opportunity to make a bargain, he left the shop dejectedly.

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After Thanksgiving, December arrived. Menlo Park High School was nearing vacation, and Su Mu once again asked the teacher for leave, feeling a bit embarrassed.

But this time, it was necessary—he had to secure the agency rights from IBM.

Not a secondary or tertiary agency, but direct procurement rights from IBM itself. If successful, Penguin Company’s profits could increase further.

Considering that they could now sell about seven hundred computers daily, even an extra twenty dollars profit per unit would amount to several thousand dollars. Currently, that profit was all going to the suppliers.

In December, with Christmas approaching, and thanks to Black Friday, the daily sales at FunBuy Supermarket soared above sixty thousand dollars!

Their net profit hovered around five thousand dollars. Adding income from computer sales, Su Mu’s pre-tax daily income exceeded ten thousand dollars, with Penguin Company taking the lion’s share.

Still, no matter how profitable Penguin Company was, it remained a traditional supplier relying mainly on sales promotion to maintain the market and was vulnerable to sudden problems. For example, this week, four salespeople had resigned one after another.

FunBuy Supermarket, however, was different. With substantial investment and a novel business model, its long-term development prospects suggested a market value far exceeding its current worth.

“They’re ruthless enough. After learning from our company, they want to do this business themselves. Others are getting tempted, and what’s worse, they’re even poaching our staff!”

Li Ping’an was nearly furious, coming to complain to Su Mu early in the morning. Since Penguin Company’s opening, this was the first major crisis, and if mishandled, it could quickly bring the company down.

Su Mu had long anticipated this but had no solution. Now, with the predicted trouble arising, he rubbed his temples and asked, “Who told you they’re poaching? Do you know what conditions they’re offering?”

Li Ping’an’s tone was angry. “Mr. McKay told me. Someone tried to lure him away—it was those who resigned from our company! I don’t know the specifics… The news hasn’t spread yet. Shall we go to the company?”

McKay had made tens of thousands at Penguin Company and was now a supervisor with over twenty salespeople under him. His interests were closely tied to Su Mu’s, so it was natural for him to betray the company and share this information.

“Alright… I’ll go with you now. I have a meeting with IBM at 10:30; I’ll head there afterward.” Su Mu hurriedly finished his sandwich, wiped his hands on a piece of paper, and continued, “When a company makes money, people get jealous. Selling computers isn’t hard—just coordinate with suppliers and find customers to make a profit. The market’s huge; they can’t affect us.

“I always knew this business was short-lived, a one-off deal. When it’s good, it’s very good; when it’s not, it’s over. We need our own brand.”

Seeing Su Mu so calm, Li Ping’an relaxed a bit.

He was now helping at the company, with Su Mu calling the shots on everything. He lacked managerial talent and was currently having headhunters search for a professional manager but hadn’t found anyone suitable yet.

He nodded. “Yeah, I just came to tell you.”

“I’ll go change clothes and handle things at the company.

“Can you help me ask the San Francisco Chronicle how much it would cost to run an ad for three consecutive days, taking up half a page? It’s a computer sales advertisement…”