Chapter 387: People Rely on Clothes, Horses Rely on Saddles

Zhou Wenyuan had a headache. He was just a technician before, so how could he think of so many tricks.

However, he figured out a little bit about these two new projects proposed by Li Dongling. Clearly, they were all aimed at cutting foreign leeks!

This wasn't because Zhou Wenyuan had foresight, but because since Li Dongling debuted, the products he pushed out, from electronic pet machines to Shenzhou phones, to Flying Goose mini multi-functional emergency radios, Xiaolingtong mobile phones, etc., were all popular overseas and earned a lot of foreign exchange.

And the new project Li Dongling proposed for the Torch Group, Zorro high-end lighters, sold for over 50 US dollars. The country couldn't support such consumption power yet, so the consumption power in America and Old Europe was stronger.

High-end lighters were like this, and electronic cigarettes were probably the same. Zhou Wenyuan felt that the price of electronic cigarettes probably wouldn't be cheap either, and they would definitely be more popular overseas.

Zhou Wenyuan nodded. "I will start the R&D projects for Zorro lighters and electronic cigarettes as soon as possible, but..."

"The R&D of electronic cigarettes might take a lot of time. We need to invite professional pharmaceutical R&D personnel to join. In addition, in terms of funding, I'm afraid it will also cost a lot!"

If it was just launching an electronic cigarette casually, there was no need to go to such trouble. But if they wanted to develop one that was guaranteed in safety and met the medical audit standards of the country, America, and Old Europe, they needed to invite a large number of professional pharmaceutical personnel to participate, conduct a large amount of R&D, and pour in a large amount of real money.

"Don't worry about the funding. The Torch Group's board of directors will fully support these two new projects!"

Li Dongling gave Zhou Wenyuan a guarantee, which made Zhou Wenyuan let out a sigh of relief. If others gave Zhou Wenyuan a promise, he would still have to think about whether they were trying to trick him.

But Li Dongling gave a promise, and Zhou Wenyuan didn't need to worry. Dongling High-Tech was the largest shareholder of the Torch Group and the helm of the Torch Group. The Torch Group could reach this step today, which was enough to see how Li Dongling's vision was.

Not to mention, the other two major shareholders of the Torch Group, Pingyang City Investment and Hanxi State Investment, would never refute Li Dongling's decision. For these two companies, and the Pingyang City Government and Hanxi Provincial Government behind them, the Torch Group could fail, but if Dongling High-Tech moved away, that would really be losing big for small gains!

After coming out of Zhou Wenyuan's lighter laboratory, Li Dongling went to important departments like the Torch Group's marketing department and advertising department with Zhang Xiaocheng.

By the time Zorro high-end lighters and electronic cigarettes were launched, the Torch Group's operation mode would definitely have to change. By then, the Torch Group would need to establish many specialty stores overseas to sell Zorro and electronic cigarettes. This was something that had to be done.

Zorro needed to be packaged as a high-end luxury product, possessing attributes like value preservation, appreciation, and collection, just like Rolex, Hermès, and other things. These things had actually become financial products.

After buying them, they could preserve value, or even appreciate in value after a few years, and selling them could earn a profit. Naturally, many people flocked to them, and they even supported a group of scalpers and second-hand dealers who could earn a lot by flipping Rolexes, branded bags, etc.

Zorro high-end lighters didn't seek to reach the level of Rolex, but they also needed to be hyped up to let more people accept the concept that they could preserve value and were worth collecting. That would be enough.

And to achieve this, they definitely couldn't sell them on supermarket convenience store shelves like a grassroots team. The necessary status had to be there.

This required Zorro to build specialty stores, providing sales, maintenance, after-sales, and other services. At the very least, looking at it, it made buyers feel very high-end and allowed purchasers to experience emotional value.

This was also why after the arrival of the e-commerce era, so many luxury brands would rather spend a lot of money to rent stores in large shopping malls in the center of the city where there were hardly any people entering every day, and wouldn't want to close down.

Status was like an invincible golden body. Once it was broken, the die-hard supporters of the entire brand would instantly break their defenses and run away...

Li Dongling had stayed at the Torch Group for quite a long time. If it weren't for the fact that the Pingyang City Government, Hanxi Provincial Government, and Yanjing departments like the State Economic and Trade Commission were paying extra attention to the Torch Group, Li Dongling wouldn't have stayed here for such a long time.

After dealing with the Torch Group's affairs, Li Dongling also needed to return to Dongling High-Tech to deal with a large pile of things, especially as the end of the year was approaching, there were even more things that needed Li Dongling to deal with.

After sending the information he organized to the Torch Group via fax, Gu Dayang waited for news in Shanghai.

Honestly, Gu Dayang had no confidence in whether the Torch Group's senior executives could see the information he wrote and whether they would invite him to join the Torch Group's anti-dumping response team.

Especially in the past few days, the Torch Group's sales volume continuously hit new historical highs, and leaders from the Hanxi Provincial Government and various departments in Yanjing continuously went to the Torch Group for inspections. Anyone could see how much the various city governments valued the Torch Group.

Under these circumstances, whether the Torch Group would let Gu Dayang join the response team, he himself couldn't be sure. After all, there were quite a few big shots in the domestic legal circle, and even big lawyers from Hong Kong.

As for the bet with that Huang Gaoqun, whether he won or lost, the decision-making power was not in Gu Dayang's hands. At the very least, more voices from the outside world currently believed that Huang Gaoqun's chance of winning was much higher.

Still the same sentence: before, no domestic company had dared to fight an anti-dumping lawsuit like this with a foreign company. This kind of facing the Old European trade department, where the entire industry could be wiped out overseas, made many people feel fearful.

"Professor Gu, someone is looking for you!"

Just as various thoughts were popping up in Gu Dayang's mind, someone from the school affairs office suddenly came in and said to Gu Dayang.

"Professor Gu, I am the person in charge of Dongling High-Tech's Shanghai office. This time, I am disturbing you presumptuously, representing the Torch Group, hoping that you can go to Pingyang!"

The person reported his name. The Torch Group hadn't established an office in Shanghai yet, but Dongling High-Tech had established an industrial park base for producing Xiaolingtong mobile phones in Shanghai, as well as an office for handling other businesses.

Hearing about going to Pingyang, Gu Dayang was stunned for a moment, and then immediately reacted. "No problem, I can go to Pingyang!"

"Professor Gu, you've worked hard to come here!"

After taking a plane to the capital of Hanxi Province, Gu Dayang was directly taken to the Torch Group. After entering, he saw several "acquaintances." Although he had only met them a few times before, Gu Dayang recognized several of them as big shots in the domestic legal circle. This time, it was clear that they were also invited over together with Gu Dayang.

After being taken to an office, seeing Gu Dayang enter, several people in the office stood up. The leader, with a smile on his face, said to Gu Dayang.

Li Dongling stood up and said to Gu Dayang, and then introduced Zhang Xiaocheng and other senior executives of the Torch Group to him.

"Being able to contribute a little bit to the anti-dumping lawsuit will not be in vain for what I have learned for so many years!" Gu Dayang said to Li Dongling and others.

"At this juncture, there are not many people in the domestic legal industry who dare to stand up and challenge Old European companies, trade departments, and lawyers!"

Li Dongling shook his head and said. Now it was not just the economic industry. There were many people who held the same attitude as Huang Gaoqun and were not optimistic about the Torch Group. The legal industry was even more so.

Li Dongling and Zhang Xiaocheng looked at each other. Zhang Xiaocheng went straight to the point and said to Gu Dayang, "Professor Gu, we hope that we can invite you to serve as the domestic legal representative for the National Lighter Association's anti-dumping lawsuit!"

"Me?!"

Gu Dayang was clearly taken aback. On the way here, he had thought about being able to join the anti-dumping legal team, but he hadn't expected that the Torch Group would actually let him serve as the domestic legal representative in the legal team.

"We have all read Professor Gu's high-level discourse on the anti-dumping case, and we have also had it reviewed by professional international trade dispute lawyers in Hong Kong. It is feasible. Having Professor Gu serve as the anti-dumping representative, with domestic lawyers as counsel, is the most suitable arrangement!" Li Dongling said.

Gu Dayang was somewhat hesitant, but also somewhat tempted. To be honest, this was an opportunity to become famous in one battle. If he could win this lawsuit, then this anti-dumping litigation case would definitely be written into domestic international trade and legal teaching as a classic textbook to be learned.

And Gu Dayang could basically leap to become the number one person in international law in the domestic legal industry. Not to mention fame, in the future, as long as the country was involved in international trade legal affairs, it was estimated that they would all need to consult his opinion.

Even, domestic relevant units, when formulating certain laws related to international trade, might need to refer to Professor Gu's opinion and invite him to be a legal consultant.

As for profit, as long as he won this lawsuit, and it was with Gu Dayang as the domestic legal representative, then in the future, when domestic companies encountered overseas lawsuits, the first thing they would think of would probably be to invite Gu Dayang to come out of the mountains. The lawyer fee given would definitely not be low!

As long as he could win the lawsuit, fame and fortune were within reach for Gu Dayang. Of course, if he lost, apologizing to Huang Gao on television was a small matter.

The key was that it might still be included in the international economics and international law textbooks of major universities, but it was estimated that it would be a negative textbook, and it would be written on it that it was Gu Dayang who fought the first anti-dumping lawsuit after the country's reform and opening up...

"This..."

Gu Dayang smiled bitterly. "My personal fame and fortune are not important. Regardless of winning or losing, if I have to take responsibility, I can take it. But the key is, I'm afraid of affecting the domestic lighter industry. Then I would really become a sinner!"

"Professor Gu is overthinking. Even if we lose the lawsuit, it's impossible to blame one person!"

"Besides, with the high-level discourse written by Professor Gu, doesn't the Torch Group have a winning chance this time?!"

Li Dongling said, "This time, not only are we inviting Professor Gu, but also several lawyers with great achievements in international law in the country to join the anti-dumping legal team together.

In addition, we will also invite lawyers and public relations teams from Hong Kong and Old Europe to join and respond to the anti-dumping case together. The Torch Group's board of directors expects to invest over 3.5 million US dollars in funding for this lawsuit!"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 388 =====