After a casual lunch, the kitchen staff prepared stir-fried eggs with tomatoes, braised chicken with edamame, tea tree mushrooms fried with beef, and winter melon sparerib soup for him.

Feeling satisfied, he took a nap on the sofa.

When the other employees resumed work, Su Yehao wandered around, learning about the development of each company.

This year was known as the "official internet year," and many departments were beginning to connect to the internet.

Around four o'clock in the afternoon, Chu Jun came over and discussed the details of the upcoming personal computer procurement tender. This field used to be Liangxiang's backyard, but Huangzuan Computers was now planning to disrupt the market.

Before heading to inspect the temporary Huangzuan Computers factory, Su Yehao also spoke with the heads of the legal departments of tAt and tot.

He learned that since the beginning of the year, they had initiated nine lawsuits, winning four so far, with the opposing parties paying a total of more than 1.3 million RMB in compensation. However, the losses were clearly greater than the compensation they received.

The authorities had not yet issued targeted documents addressing online infringement, and they could only use copyright law as a starting point, which was not very effective.

Someone had even directly copied the code of tAt's instant messaging software, creating a product with over 90% similarity, and using tAt's name to trick users into registering.

The importance and urgency of formulating laws and regulations related to online intellectual property rights became increasingly apparent as illegal activities continued to rise.

To this end, Su Yehao specifically contacted an editor he knew from the *Xin Lianzao Bao* newspaper, wanting to ask them to write several related articles. As for other matters, he would probably have to send someone to Si Jiucheng to take care of things.

Laws and regulations should be amended in a timely manner to close loopholes when they no longer keep up with the times.

Su Yehao only hoped that relevant policies on online intellectual property rights could be introduced as soon as possible. He believed there wouldn't be any problems, so he didn't plan to interfere too much...

————————

On the way to the temporary Huangzuan Computers factory.

Su Yehao rubbed his temples and said with a smile:

"As expected, I haven't been coming over enough. I don't recognize many of the senior managers, and I can only smile awkwardly when I greet them. Issues such as the protection of online intellectual property rights should have been taken seriously a long time ago. They probably didn't think it was a big deal and didn't report it to me."

"You really haven't been here much. Pengcheng lent us the factory buildings, and you haven't visited even once, right? I've been the one in charge, busy with everything. Fortunately, you still remember you're the boss and often send some assistants to help me. Recently, I noticed gray hairs when I looked in the mirror, and your sister-in-law also said I look haggard."

More than complaining, Chu Jun was actually trying to take credit.

As the CEO of Huangzuan Computers, Chu Jun was only receiving a salary and bonuses for helping out this time, and did not hold any shares in the company.

In the past, he had purely agreed to Su Yehao's invitation because he was bored and wanted to find something to do.

However, now that Huangzuan Computers' situation was becoming clearer, it was receiving constant praise from netizens. Even before the products had started selling, distributors had already approached them, trying to become agents for Huangzuan Computers.

If Su Yehao hadn't been trying to lower prices and avoid distributors making a profit margin, initially planning to adopt a direct sales model in major coastal cities, he believed that selling agency rights alone could have brought in a considerable amount of capital.

Chu Jun had already regarded this job as a new career, so he naturally wanted Su Yehao to understand his efforts, so he wouldn't end up with nothing to show for it.

The workplace was a deep ocean, and it was easy to suffer if you only knew how to work hard.

After listening, Su Yehao looked at the tower cranes along the road and said, "Once the company is on the right track and I'm done with recent matters, I'll lend you my private jet, and you can take your sister-in-law to the Maldives for a vacation, okay? I know you've made great contributions, and I'll give you a big bonus at the end of the year."

Chu Jun happily said:

"That's great. I finally have a chance to experience being a wealthy man. My wife will definitely smile from ear to ear. Next time I make her angry, I'll tell her about this again, so it's like using good steel on the cutting edge. Oh, and let's talk about something serious. Are you sure you'll only do direct sales and not find any agents? I can't guarantee the speed of expansion if we rely solely on ourselves to distribute the goods. We might even be jointly boycotted by other brands."

"...My idea is to open direct-sale stores in the initial stage to accumulate some experience. When production capacity catches up and we've built up our reputation, wouldn't it be easier to sell franchise rights at a high price? Besides, we're giving profits to customers, which makes it difficult to guarantee the profit margin for franchisees. Wouldn't it be a disservice to others to bring them in before we're sure we can make it work?"

After Su Yehao finished speaking, he sighed, missing the online stores of the future.

Opening physical stores offline was incomparable to the ease of doing business online, where you only needed to advertise directly to millions of people and then sit back and wait to collect money.

But offline, store employees, rent, logistics, and so on, were all cost expenses.

Honestly, if Huangzuan Computers' sales were unsatisfactory, Su Yehao doubted whether they could break even with a mere 5% gross profit margin.

Fortunately, even if the computer business suffered losses, they could rely on mobile phones and other accessories to support it in the future. If they invested more in the initial stage and bought all the self-operated stores, they could not only save on rent but also likely see the stores themselves appreciate in value.

Up until now, his investments had mainly been in finance, the internet, and real estate. He really didn't have much experience in the retail sector.

If he took a longer-term view, even if he lost money for a few years, he would still have a chance to recoup his investment with interest in the future as the number of internet users expanded and the online shopping industry boomed.

To avoid disappointment, Su Yehao didn't dare to have too many expectations for Huangzuan Computers. His current goal was just to break even and make money from the internet business by cultivating the user base.

After listening to him, Chu Jun nodded and continued:

"As long as we get official and corporate purchase orders, the situation shouldn't be too bad. The computer price is still high for retail customers, but fortunately, I heard that component manufacturers are significantly increasing production capacity, so costs can be reduced. You mentioned internet cafes to me before, have you considered whether we should invest in them ourselves? In my opinion, if we can capture the market share of internet cafes, we can save a lot of money on advertising."

Su Yehao wasn't interested in the meager profits from operating internet cafes, especially since market competition would intensify in a few years.

He made a decisive decision and replied, "Forget it. Operating internet cafes requires attention to cost expenses. As long as our computers are cheap, we won't have to worry about people buying from us..."

They visited the factory buildings arranged by Pengcheng, which were quite spacious.

The first batch of production equipment had just arrived, and people were assembling and debugging it. The trainees were also listening to lectures and learning. The components in the warehouse were worth over 180 million RMB.

Just as Su Yehao was testing the prototype in the R&D department, he received a call from a relatively unfamiliar number with the note "Manager Chen" on it.

After thinking for a moment, he remembered that this was a senior executive from the Maotai distillery. The batch of liquor he had custom-ordered from Maotai was still stored in his residence, which was currently being used as a warehouse.

Originally thinking that they were calling to ask if he would order again this year, he answered the call and after a few words, Manager Chen asked with a smile:

"I remember you, Su. You asked us before if we would accept financing, right? Our company's general manager and deputy general manager are both beside me now. We just decided to expand production capacity at a meeting, and we happen to be worried about funding. I wonder if you still have any interest in investing in us?"

"???"

For a moment, Su Yehao thought it was a scam call.

Because in his opinion, the famous Maotai distillery should not be short of money, let alone actively seeking investment from him...