Chapter 580

From the entrance of the Yangcheng Department Store, a long line snaked out like a dragon. Looking at the scene before him, Chen Zuhan doubted whether he was still dreaming.

He pinched his thigh, and the piercing pain let Chen Zuhan know he wasn't dreaming.

In the short time he had dozed off, so many people had suddenly appeared in front of the Yangcheng Department Store. Even though Chen Zuhan knew in his heart that so many people might have come for the Shenzhou Electronic Dictionary, he still couldn't help but ask his assistant, "Go and find out, are these people all here to buy..."

"They are here to buy the Shenzhou Electronic Dictionary!"

"I already asked just now; they are all here to buy the electronic dictionary. It's just that the group of people at the very front are scalpers!" Before Chen Zuhan could finish, the assistant replied directly.

Business at the Yangcheng Department Store was usually good, but it hadn't reached the point where people would line up before it even opened. Everyone who had run over early in the morning was there to buy the electronic dictionary.

These scalpers weren't plants arranged by Chen Zuhan, but had come on their own. The duck knows first when the spring river water warms; although scalpers are hated, they have a keen sense of smell. After the electronic dictionary went on sale, they were the most active.

These scalpers all thought about getting the machines to hoard them, and then when the official channels ran out of stock, they would raise the price and make a big profit!

This wasn't a whim, but based on experience. From electronic pet machines to Xiaolingtong mobile phones and Shenzhou U-disks, they had basically all been big sellers. The scene of people lining up today gave them even more confidence, and naturally, they were prepared to go all out.

Chen Zuhan got out of the car and looked at the long line of people. The scene before him was much larger than he had anticipated. Even though he had expected that many people would buy the machines today, he hadn't expected so many buyers to appear early in the morning.

The better the economy, the higher the emphasis on education. When the first generation solves the problem of food and clothing, they will certainly start to pay attention to the education of the next generation; this is human nature.

As the place with the best economy in China, Guangdong Province naturally pays more attention to education, and parents naturally invest more in the education of the next generation!

The queuing crowd, along with the parked bicycles, motorcycles, and cars, caused the traffic here to become congested. The Yangcheng Department Store and the traffic police department also sent people to maintain order, fearing that things would get out of hand.

"I want 100 Shenzhou Electronic Dictionaries!"

When the doors of the Yangcheng Department Store opened, the crowd surged inside, all heading toward the electronic product counters.

Cao Taizheng was the first to arrive at the electronic counter and said to the salesperson. He was just a small, independent scalper without a big boss behind him. His kind of scalper belonged to the "small-time" category, having to bear the losses or gains himself.

Some small scalpers had "big bosses" behind them—in plain terms, some distributors who didn't follow the rules and wanted to make an extra profit. Otherwise, how did they think so much stock flowed out?

These distributors sold goods through scalpers at higher prices, which was equivalent to eating from both sides—taking commissions from the brand and earning the price difference from the buyers.

Being a small scalper for a distributor meant not having to worry about losing money, with guaranteed income regardless of the situation, but earning less. Cao Taizheng worked alone; the risk was higher, but the earnings were also greater!

His financial resources were limited now; 100 machines, nearly 70,000 yuan, was the limit of the funds he could raise.

"100 machines?"

The salesperson was clearly stunned for a moment. Cao Taizheng didn't talk nonsense; he took off the bag he was carrying and pulled out stacks of bills from inside.

"Pack them for him!"

The manager of the electronic product counter came over at this time, and after having someone verify the bills, said to the counter staff.

Dongling Gao Ke hadn't said that scalpers weren't allowed to buy anything. Besides, for the electronic counter at the mall, they earned commissions and wished they could sell as much as possible!

Packing a full, large bag, Cao Taizheng carried the heavy bag on his back. He, who hadn't done much heavy work before, felt his adrenaline soaring at this moment and actually ran directly out of the Yangcheng Department Store carrying the bag.

The crowd queuing behind, watching Cao Taizheng take away 100 machines at once, was still a bit confused. Before they could figure out what was going on, they heard a voice from the very front, "We want 500 machines!"

The crowd, who had been a bit confused, became nervous. If those people at the front bought up all the stock, wouldn't they have lined up in vain?

"Are you buying so many machines to eat at home?"

"If you buy them all, what are we supposed to buy?"

"Damn them, they must be scalpers trying to rip us off by raising the price!"

The crowd at the back began to curse angrily, but the few scalpers at the very front weren't panicked at all. Since they were scalpers, they didn't need to worry about their reputation. If they couldn't stand being cursed at, they should change professions early. To eat this bowl of rice, one had to be bold, meticulous, and thick-skinned!

"Can't our work unit buy them as a group?"

After the scalper at the front replied, he continued to load the goods.

"These scalpers are playing a big game; aren't they afraid of choking to death? Just these scalpers have already packed away more than 2,000 electronic dictionaries!"

The assistant standing on the side couldn't help but say to Chen Zuhan. Chen Zuhan had launched 40,000 machines in Yangcheng, and 15,000 had been launched at the Yangcheng Department Store, but now, just after opening, more than 2,000 machines had been bought by scalpers.

Chen Zuhan looked at the running Cao Taizheng with some appreciation. Of course, when he made his first pot of gold, he also relied on buying and selling to earn the price difference, accumulating it slowly.

"In this day and age, the bold are stuffed to death, and the timid are starved to death. If you open a business, can you be afraid of people eating too much?"

Chen Zuhan shook his head. Scalpers were indeed not good things, but sometimes, having them around could play an unexpected role.

Just like now, after the few scalpers at the front snatched the machines, the emotions of the crowd queuing behind were clearly stirred up, fearing that the electronic dictionaries would be snatched up.

This thing was just like snatching up houses. Even knowing that the sales office had plants, once the emotions were stirred up and they feared they wouldn't be able to snatch one, they would start howling to buy a house with a 30-year mortgage. The interest was so high that Li Zhongtang of the Qing Empire wouldn't dare to sign it, yet some people would sign it without blinking an eye.

Cao Taizheng left the Yangcheng Department Store, hailed a taxi, and headed straight for the house he was renting, hiding all 100 Shenzhou Electronic Dictionaries under his bed.

Whether his net worth would double before the New Year or he would lose everything and be in debt, depended on this one time. At this moment, Cao Taizheng stayed in front of the TV waiting for news.

It would only take a day or two to get the results. When the TV news reported the sales volume of the Shenzhou Electronic Dictionary, whether the electronic dictionary would sell out in Yangcheng would be the moment that decided Cao Taizheng's fate.

If one were to look down from the sky in Yangcheng, one could see that at this moment, the major department stores in Yangcheng, especially the electronic malls, were all queuing up.

And on the streets, one could see couriers wearing Oriental Express vests from time to time, riding motorcycles and tricycles, shuttling through the streets and alleys of Yangcheng to deliver goods, a significant portion of which were Shenzhou Electronic Dictionaries!

The same scene was also happening in major cities like Yanjing, Shanghai, Pengcheng, Jin Ling, and Hangzhou.

With the Shenzhou Electronic Dictionary going on sale, the Dongling Gao Ke concept stock sector on the A-share market was also jumping up and down today.

In the stock market, news was transmitted from time to time. At 10:10 in the morning, it was suddenly reported that the 50,000 electronic dictionaries launched in Yanjing had been snatched up by parents, elementary schools, middle schools, major universities, and people wanting to study abroad in Yanjing.

Once the news came out, Dongling Gao Ke concept stocks soared across the board, but were subsequently "refuted." When the media swarmed in, the Yanjing branch of Dongling Gao Ke claimed that they hadn't sold out yet.

Then there was news that the sales of the Shenzhou Electronic Dictionary had suffered a setback, and the Dongling Gao Ke concept stocks that had just soared plummeted. From this gossip, all kinds of news began to fly around the A-share market.

The A-share investors, who had been harvested like leeks back and forth, realized that someone was washing the market, deliberately concocting news to harvest them. But by this time, a significant portion of the leeks had already jumped off the train midway and been harvested by the dealers.

By 11:30 at noon, Dongling Gao Ke concept stocks began to hit the daily limit again, but this time, many small investors and leeks were a bit scared by the back-and-forth harvesting in the morning and didn't dare to follow.

The result was that at 11:30, when the A-share market closed, Dongling Gao Ke concept stocks rose by more than 8% across the board, with some stocks hitting the daily limit directly.

Subsequently, the news released by the CCTV Finance Channel at noon made countless leeks regret it so much that they beat their chests and stamped their feet.

"From 8:00 last night to 10:00 tonight, the Focus Media TV shopping platform received over 93,000 orders for the Shenzhou Electronic Dictionary in China!

In addition, in places like Hong Kong, South Korea, Siam, and Singapore, the preliminary orders for electronic dictionaries received by Focus Media's local TV shopping platforms are 35,000 units; the specific sales volume still needs subsequent tallying!"

Li Yan, who had just returned to Yanjing, said in an interview with the Finance Channel, "The Focus Media TV shopping platform guarantees that the products will be delivered to users within one week. Users in cities like Yanjing, Shanghai, and Yangcheng will receive their products for the first time today!"

The cities covered by Focus Media's TV shopping platform in China were mainly first and second-tier major cities, where transportation was relatively convenient. Coupled with Oriental Express's self-delivery of goods, the speed was relatively fast.

But once the news from the Finance Channel came out, it still caused a huge stir in China's electronic industry and the A-share market!

One must know that TV shopping was not yet the mainstream shopping channel, yet the Shenzhou Electronic Dictionary had already achieved sales of nearly 100,000 units on the domestic TV shopping platform channel, and even sold 30,000 to 40,000 units overseas.

Just from one sales channel that wasn't even mainstream, Focus Media had contributed 128,000 units for the Shenzhou Electronic Dictionary. How much could the offline channels sell?

The Shenzhou Electronic Dictionary selling out was almost a certainty. At this time, even though the first-day sales hadn't been tallied yet, the media had already begun to throw out news headlines about the Shenzhou Electronic Dictionary selling well!

After the A-share casino opened in the afternoon, Dongling Gao Ke concept stocks basically hit the daily limit across the board, and various stocks began to crazily ride the popularity of the Shenzhou Electronic Dictionary.

Chen Zuhan didn't wait until the evening. At noon, not knowing how the news spread that the Shenzhou Electronic Dictionaries in Yangcheng were about to be snatched up, more people flooded into the major shopping malls and electronic counters in Yangcheng to snatch the machines. Before 4:00 in the afternoon, Chen Zuhan's phone began to ring incessantly.