Chapter 3518: Poison Chapter 3519: Deserving Elimination

The Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month finally came to an end.

This festival, the last lingering warmth of the Spring Festival, after this day, starting from the sixteenth day of the first lunar month, the Spring Festival is considered completely over.

Those who need to work hard, like oxen and horses, actually returned to their posts as early as the seventh day of the first lunar month, but children and students from elementary school to university only resumed classes after the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, and society as a whole will thoroughly shed the influence of the Spring Festival, entering the work and life of the new year.

Xiao Churan's company became busier, while Ye Chen suddenly had much more free time.

He no longer paid attention to the garrison of the Breaking Pure Society, nor did he have Li Yalin continue searching for clues about the Breaking Pure Society's garrison, after all, after the great blood replacement, he had already lost the possibility of subduing the entire garrison, and next time, no matter which garrison he goes to, what awaits him will only be the Embroidered Uniform Guard and dead warriors who fight to the death for their family.

He is not afraid of ordinary martial artists ganging up on him; he simply does not want to weaken Wu Feiyan's strength by launching a massacre against them.

Some people advocate the underlying logic of "one general's success is built on ten thousand bones," believing that those who achieve great deeds should not be petty and should not care about the life or death of other individuals, but Ye Chen cannot do that; he cannot be that cold-hearted.

So, he simply decided not to have any designs on the Breaking Pure Society's garrison anymore; it would be better to rest and recuperate while finding ways to enhance his own strength.

Lin Wanan's life-saving ring, the Northern Lights flashing like a damned handprint in the Nordic night sky, both contain great secrets to him; he wants to find an opportunity to retreat into seclusion and study these two matters thoroughly, to see what exactly they are.

But, seclusion is not that easy; sometimes, once one enters meditation, they forget the passage of time, closing and opening their eyes, and it might turn out that a week or half a month has passed; if he secludes himself at home, he fears being sent to the hospital for emergency treatment by his family; if he leaves home to seclude himself outside, his family being unable to contact him for such a long time would surely make them anxious to death.

Helpless, he could only temporarily put the matter of seclusion aside.

At the end of the first lunar month, Changying Automobile's He Yuanjiang sent Ye Chen good news.

On the phone, he told Ye Chen that the 1.0 version prototype of Changying Automobile's first car had already been secretly landed at the purchased Gao Heng Automobile final assembly plant, and he wanted to invite Ye Chen to attend an internal tasting event at the Gao Heng Automobile final assembly plant.

Ye Chen was very surprised and asked him: "Professor He, has the first car already landed so quickly?"

He Yuanjiang said: "Not only that, this is merely our trial-produced first-generation prototype car; we have only built the 1.0 version of the car to actually experience whether there are any oversights or major flaws in the design drawings and design concept of this car, whether there are any drawbacks in space usage that were not previously considered, to discover problems, correct them, and then proceed with the production of the 2.0 version; moreover, this 1.0 version car is powerless; we are merely assembling a framework first, and if there are no major issues in the main body design, we will then layout the power unit and conduct dynamic testing."

Saying this, He Yuanjiang assured: "However, Young Master Ye, rest assured, we will, on the basis of ensuring quality and quantity, as soon as possible increase speed; now we are concentrating a large amount of talent and resources to do this, and efficiency will be very high!"

Ye Chen praised: "Professor He, with you in charge of Changying Automobile, I feel much more at ease."

After speaking, he asked again: "By the way, when is the prototype tasting you mentioned, and how long will it take in total? I will definitely make time to go!"

He Yuanjiang said: "The Gao Heng final assembly plant we purchased is not far from Jin Ling; it takes only a few hours by car to get there; as for the tasting process, it will probably take about five or six hours; we will sort out the problems and then immediately make rapid adjustments to the prototype manually; a few days later, the revised version will be ready."

Ye Chen pondered: "Driving a few hours there and back might take up most of the day, and adding the tasting, one day might not be enough; how about this: arrange a helicopter, we can fly directly there, this way we can at least save five or six hours, and we can make a round trip the same day."

He Yuanjiang smiled: "Helicopter air service is costly, we haven't opened this channel, but since you, Young Master Ye, have said so, naturally we will follow your suggestion; are you available tomorrow morning? I will arrange the helicopter in advance, departing from Changying Automobile's Jin Ling headquarters!"

"Available!" Ye Chen agreed, saying: "I will be there promptly at eight o'clock tomorrow."

……

Since they could return the same day, Ye Chen did not greet his family.

After Xiao Churan left for the company, he took a taxi to the headquarters of Changying Automobile, where he, together with He Yuanjiang and several core executives, boarded a Bell helicopter to fly to the Gao Heng Automobile final assembly plant over two hundred kilometers away.

After the helicopter arrived at the final assembly plant, the staff led everyone to a completely enclosed workshop; here there is an open space of at least one thousand square meters, and a futuristic-looking sports sedan is quietly parked here.

The overall appearance of the car looks very fashionable; the streamlined front face, widened body, raised rear wing, and nearly thirty-centimeter-wide tires all highlight the positioning of this car, which is primarily sporty.

He Yuanjiang said to Ye Chen: "Young Master Ye, our current product plan is to first launch five-seat sports sedans, then five-seat sports SUVs; the pricing of the sports sedans is in the range of twenty to thirty thousand RMB, and the sports SUVs in the range of twenty-two to thirty-two thousand RMB; we will maximize the cost-performance ratio of these two models, allowing consumers to feel genuine sincerity."

Ye Chen asked him: "Professor He said to maximize cost-performance, but I see many cars on the market claiming extremely high cost-performance, even some selling at a loss; if we want to achieve high cost-performance, do we also have to sell at a loss to gain fame?"

Ye Chen does not care about money, but he cares about reputation; he believes that the best development direction for Changying Automobile is market recognition, while also being able to achieve a certain profit.

Profit is not for making money himself, but to prove that Changying Automobile's product strength is high and can make money; if it is selling at a loss to gain fame, then essentially it is a failed brand and a failed attempt, which would tarnish his father's reputation.

He Yuanjiang said to him: "Young Master Ye, in fact, many car companies on the market are engaging in concept substitution; they claim to be losing money, but that is merely a financial concept substitution; many car companies will amortize early hardware investment and development costs into car manufacturing costs, which is like them investing one hundred million to build a high-end hotel, earning fifty million per year, recouping the investment in two years, clearly already making huge profits, but as long as that one hundred million investment has not been fully recouped, they can shamelessly claim externally that they are losing money, telling consumers that their rooms lose money per night booked, completely subsidizing consumers with money, making consumers think their rooms have high cost-performance, while in fact their rooms have extremely high profits."

Speaking of this, He Yuanjiang added: "Sometimes, to dilute profits, they even let the company's accounts show losses, while also splitting off a part of the company's profitable business and simultaneously increasing investment in other aspects, such as the hotel I just mentioned: one hundred million investment, earning fifty million per year, although they can recoup in two years, but they cannot withstand that after one year and ten months, they invest in a second hotel, and moreover, they spin off the catering and other profitable services of the first hotel, establishing a separate company to handle them; this way, their accounts for the third year still show losses."

Ye Chen smiled: "I understand; these companies actually amortize the tens to hundreds of billions of startup investment onto the first batch of consumers; a car, in terms of actual manufacturing cost, only needs one hundred thousand, then sells for three hundred thousand, with a gross profit of two hundred thousand, but due to the tens to hundreds of billions of prior investment, each car must bear tens to hundreds of thousands of cost allocation, making it seem as if they are selling cars at a loss."

"Exactly." He Yuanjiang nodded, saying: "Therefore, I suggest that we do not play this concept substitution game with consumers in the early stage, do not collude with them; since we want to grow big and strong, we must definitely overturn their unspoken rules and directly give them a move to drain the boiler."

Ye Chen curiously asked: "Professor He, do you have a plan?"

He Yuanjiang said: "Young Master Ye, my plan is for Changying Automobile to, like Pang Donglai, directly list out the entire cost of one car: first, the direct cost—how much is the raw material cost per car, how much is the production cost, taxes, logistics warehousing, and management and sales costs—all listed clearly; then, the hidden cost, such as the design cost, tooling cost, and production line cost of this car; this portion of cost, we will amortize for each car based on a sales volume of five hundred thousand units; if we have invested a total of five billion in the research and development and production line for this car model, then the hidden cost per car is ten thousand yuan; once the cumulative sales of this car model exceed five hundred thousand units, it means we have recovered the prior investment, so starting from the five hundred thousand and first unit, our car price should deduct this portion of amortized cost; after listing all these costs, we will then disclose to consumers our pre-tax profit margin, ensuring our profit rate remains within a reasonable range."

Ye Chen's eyes lit up, saying: "Selling cars like this, I have never even heard of it; even the so-popular Leimi Automobile has never disclosed its R&D costs and hardware investment costs."

"Exactly!" He Yuanjiang said: "Now the automobile industry has already been driven to the extreme; everyone is constantly introducing new models and offering discounts, but in fact, the pricing of many cars itself is inflated!"

"Just like those imported brands: a cost of three hundred thousand, they first sell to consumers for one million; if one million sells well, they activate the terminal price-increase mechanism; although the listed price is one million, you cannot get the car without adding one hundred thousand or two hundred thousand."

"If they gradually find that no suckers are willing to pay extra, they then sell according to the one million guide price."

"If one million also fails to sell, they sell for eight hundred thousand, seven hundred thousand, six hundred thousand, even five hundred thousand..."

"I think this practice is equivalent to directly writing the two big characters 'scoundrel' on one's own face; consumers' perception will definitely be very poor, and it will also greatly impact the brand image."

"Since we are newcomers, and moreover want to surpass the predecessors, we must do what predecessors dare not do or are unwilling to do; simply remove the fig leaf and face consumers honestly; if they cannot keep up, then they deserve to be eliminated!"