Chapter 789 Perfect Fake

Chapter 789 Perfect Fake

"What actions have financial companies in East China taken recently?" Chen Xi asked, tapping the table.

"It's the same old story, just changing the way we raise funds and lend money." The CFO spread his hands.

He is much older than Chen Xi. He used to work in Shanghai, but was poached to work in Chiayi.

"Haha, now people don't borrow money from banks to lend money, they just transfer it from one hand to the other?"

"No, they are all under the guise of highly profitable projects, which absorb funds and then lend them out, and then make a profit from the difference..."

"Has the Yang family's financial company made any moves recently?"

"There is an APP on the market now. It has attracted many users by claiming to be an auction and investment company. According to my investigation, this project was created by Yang Dingtian. At first glance, this APP is about fundraising, but a closer look shows that this is not the case. Because many of the artworks on the platform are not antiques, but modern works. Others can see that these things have no value, but many people bid for them..."

"Well, your analysis makes sense. It's indeed more than that. What else?"

"According to what I have learned, Yang Dingtian has also invested in a non-ferrous metals exchange."

"Is it the one from Yunnan Province?"

"Hey, you know?"

"Go on." Chen Xi ignored the other party's surprise.

"This nonferrous metals exchange was established about two years ago, and it was legally licensed. The exchange is large, with a daily trading volume of nearly 20 billion and more than 200,000 members. Most investors are from Yunnan, Sichuan, and Henan provinces, and are around 50 years old, belonging to the middle-aged and elderly financial management group. The exchange attracts funds under the slogans of national strategic reserve and rare metals being more valuable than gold..."

The CFO continued to speak, and Chen Xi frowned when he heard it, his thoughts going back to many years ago.

The first time he went to Yunnan Province was when he returned from high school, and he went with Ji Qingchuan.

The provincial capital, Kunmi City, happens to be the location of the current nonferrous metals exchange. Chen Xi's first impression of this city was strange. Many buildings seemed quite old. Although traces of their former glory could be seen, they seemed to have stagnated in the past twenty years.

The prices of high-end hotels in Kunmi City are ridiculously high, often costing three to five thousand yuan a night, but the actual quality is far from commensurate with the price. The local catering consumption is also ridiculous, with overcharging everywhere.

Chen Xi still remembers that he and Ji Qingchuan found a food court similar to a vegetable market. The characteristic of the place is that there is no independent dining area, and after ordering the dishes, they eat in the public area, which is similar to food courts abroad, but the environment is much worse.

As a specialty of Yunnan Province, the restaurant has a variety of insect ingredients and wild mushrooms, as well as less popular dishes like roasted bamboo rats. Both of them stay away from insect dishes. However, because Ji Qingchuan is fat and has a good appetite, and Chen Xi is rich enough, they plan to try all the dishes.

But the problem is that every restaurant here has no menu and no price tags, and it is obvious that they are there to rip off your customers.

At that time, they chose a long table and ordered more than a dozen dishes for two people, which was as grand as a Manchu Han banquet.

Just as the two were enjoying their meal, a quarrel suddenly broke out not far away. Chen Xi looked up and saw a burly man arguing with the boss. It turned out that the dishes ordered by the other party were priced at more than 20,000 yuan, which was obviously extortion.

Seeing that the two sides were about to fight, the strong man's friends and restaurant employees all started to fight. Just when Chen Xi thought that a fight was about to break out, an unexpected scene happened. All the bosses and employees of the entire food court picked up kitchen utensils and banged them loudly, and all gathered around to put pressure on the strong man.

Just when the situation was tense, a tour guide squeezed into the crowd and persuaded the strong man with kind words. In the end, the strong man had to pay 20,000 yuan to get out.

Chen Xi and Ji Qingchuan, who witnessed the whole process, looked at each other in bewilderment. Looking at the two tables of dishes in front of them, they couldn't help but feel overwhelmed. That person ordered a few dishes and charged 20,000 yuan. Wouldn't their two tables of dishes cost more than ten times as much?
Fortunately, the boss saw that the two were children and only charged them two thousand yuan, which was a fair price.

During the rest of the journey, Chen Xi witnessed many similar cases of tourists being ripped off, especially near the jade market. Therefore, the impression left on him by Yunnan Province was that tourists were being ripped off severely. This nonferrous metal exchange was quite famous in the past life, and was known as one of the largest spot trading scams in the history of domestic finance.

Think about the nearly 20 billion daily transaction volume and 200,000 users...

"Tsk tsk tsk, Yang Dingtian really knows how to have fun."

"What's wrong, Mr. Chen? I just mentioned that Yang Dingtian has cooperation with that place, but nothing has happened to this exchange yet!"

The CFO felt a little strange when looking at Chen Xi's reaction.

"It's okay, you continue to keep an eye on them. I still have things to do..." Chen Xi said and stood up from the chair.

"Wait, I haven't finished yet... Yang Dingtian has done other things..." Looking at the boss leaving, the financial director muttered a few words.

In a shopping mall in Xinlu, there is the Starlight Fantasy store.

Chen Xi was a little puzzled as he looked at the empty shop. He picked up a Doupo Continent figurine and looked at it carefully. The details were perfect, the paint was precise without any overflow, and the material felt excellent.

The quality is so good, why doesn't anyone buy it?
Chen Xi couldn't help but feel confused.

"Handsome guy, this is the authentic co-branded model of Fights Break Sphere. There is a 20% discount in the store now." A young female clerk walked over quickly, with the intern badge on her chest shaking slightly.

"Why don't I see any other customers coming to buy it? Is there something wrong with this figure?" Chen Xi asked as he put the figure back where it belonged.

"Um... maybe it's because our figures are more expensive..." the girl asked hesitantly.

"I see that there are not many people in the POP MART next door. It's okay that Chinese people don't like anime from Japanese and Korean countries, but don't they like Chinese anime too?" Chen Xi pointed in the direction of the next door.

Next to it is the POP MART store. Currently, POP MART does not have its own designs. In the early days, it mainly sold overseas famous blind boxes such as Sonny Angel from Japan and Sticky Monster from Korea. Although the IP ownership does not belong to POP MART, it does not prevent them from making money.

"Well... e-commerce is very developed now, and everyone is shopping online. There are actually a lot of counterfeit products online..." The girl had just entered society, and she was the kind of person who spoke the truth, so Chen Xi just asked a casual question and she told him everything.

"Oh? So the prices are high? Then why do the Bandai and Lego stores next door seem packed? Those products seem to be much more expensive than yours..." Chen Xi asked again.

"Handsome guy...are you sure what you saw were bandai and lego?" The girl had a strange expression on her face.

"Huh?" Chen Xi backed out of the store in confusion. He stood at the door and looked at the two stores next to him.

The door signs were all the familiar bright red color I remembered, and there didn't seem to be anything wrong with the words...

and many more.

This seems a bit wrong, why is it banda and Lepin?
The more Chen Xi looked at it, the weirder it felt. When he was standing at the door of the store, he saw the label on the model box which clearly said "bandai".

When you take a closer look, you'll see that the store is bustling with people.

Chen Xi picked up an RX-78 Gundam model, and the price tag clearly stated 168 yuan. This might be sold for more than 2000 yuan in the genuine market. What's even more strange is that the trademark on the box is inconsistent with the sign. Damn, why is the label on the box different from the sign on the door?
He compared it again and confirmed it.

"Sir, these are new Gundam figures released in the island country. They are on sale now. Would you like to buy a few?" asked the salesperson.

"Why is this thing so cheap? I saw it very expensive in the island country." Chen Xi asked.

"Because this is domestic OEM, in fact, the goods from the island country are also produced domestically. We purchase the goods directly from the manufacturer and are exempt from import tariffs." The salesperson explained.

Although this explanation is quite reasonable, Chen Xi thinks it is nonsense.

Let’s not talk about whether the Japanese company will allow the manufacturer to directly take the goods out and sell them in the mainland. The cost of the joint brand is more than that. Gundam is a popular IP in the world. Look at the figures of One Piece, Naruto, EVA and the like in the store. They are not worth a hundred yuan. Although the workmanship of the figures is good, they are not authentic at all.

"Oh, let me take another look. Where do you get the goods?" Chen Xi continued to inquire.

"We don't know about that. I'm only in charge of sales." The salesperson's face darkened a little.

According to Chen Xi's memory, most of the big pirated action figures factories in his previous life came from Guangdong Province, such as ChengX Toy Factory, Yuezhou AoX Animation, etc.

Then he went to the Lepin store, where the models were similar to the original Lego. It stands to reason that knockoffs should not appear in shopping malls, but considering that it is 2013, everything seems normal.

In the previous life, some people imitated the island country's MINISO. There were stores similar to MINISO in many shopping malls across the country. Not only were the decoration styles and products similar, but even the door designs were almost exactly the same.

There was also MUMUSO, which imitated the country of kimchi, but it was later revealed to be a fake kimchi brand and all of them closed down.

Damn it, I was wondering why Starlight Fantasy’s sales were so bad recently, turns out it’s because of the rampant counterfeit products!

He took out his mobile phone and opened the Taobao App, only to find that the entire screen was filled with knockoffs of their Starlight Fantasy brand, but the advertising slogan was that they were genuine products.

You know, their Starlight Fantasy products have never been sold online.

"Fuck, what the hell is this Starlight Fantasy flagship store? What does Lao Feng do for a living? How could the platform pass the review so easily?" Chen Xi cursed.

An hour later, he arrived at the Xinde factory.

"Ha, if Wang Defa knew that we dismantled his equipment and improved it to make better ones, I wonder if he would faint from anger." Chen Fu shouted excitedly while rubbing his hands while standing in front of a machine.

In recent years, Wang Defa’s JMM company has launched many new models with great ideas, but they have stagnated in subsequent development. In other words, the practicality of the equipment is not outstanding, as if the technology tree was wrong.

Xinde purchased a variety of models in succession, disassembled them, reintegrated and transformed them, and created several new products.

"What's wrong? You look so bad." At this time, Chen Ran saw Chen Xi coming over and couldn't help but look confused.

"I just went to the Starlight Fantasy store..." Chen Xi told what happened before.

"Well, Zhang Youting is busy with this! I heard that he is preparing to collect evidence to shut down those pirated factories. At present, the number of pirated Chinese cartoons is actually not as many as the Japanese cartoons. Another reason for the poor sales is that Chinese people think that Chinese cartoons are not high-end. We grew up watching European, American and Japanese cartoons. To be honest, the current level of domestic animation is generally poor, and the censorship is very strict. Some characters with bold clothing are not allowed to be put on the shelves, which leads to some otakus not liking it very much..." Chen Ran wiped the sweat from his forehead and explained slowly.

Chen Xi also felt that it made sense after hearing this.

Look at the figures from the island countries, they are either in nurse uniforms or short skirts, and most of the female characters have their breasts half exposed. Chinese animation has been relatively conservative since its production, which has led to the loss of most of the old perverted consumers.

"Well, let's go for the cute route..." Chen Xi scratched his head and thought of an idea.

There are ways to be conservative, just don't go for the sexy route.

If that doesn't work, make an overseas version, just like some games. There are censored sets in China, but they are stripped out when they go abroad.

Chen Ran thought this was a promising idea. He had played some games before, such as Naval Battle, and the flags of the warships in the national version could not have the Rising Sun Flag or the Swastika Flag, but the international version would not castrate these.

"Take a quick look at the new products we have developed. I think inkjet printers will fade out of history in the future, and photo printers will dominate the world. They are suitable for flexible materials such as car stickers, light box cloths, and soft films. Our environmentally friendly solvent-based photo printer uses low-VOC (volatile organic compound) solvent ink, and the accuracy is increased to 1440dpi, which is close to photo-level effects. There are also UV flatbed printers, digital signage machines, smart light boxes, holographic projection advertisements..." Chen Fu pointed to several things in front of him and introduced them one by one.

He is right. In the past, buildings were all covered with inkjet advertisements, but with the changing times, these will be replaced. The diversification of advertising machines has also been applied to various places. Now some people buy machines directly from equipment manufacturers to build factories, and then receive orders from e-commerce platforms. Then the factory customizes and ships, which is cheap and convenient, and has a tendency to impact graphic stores.

Thinking of the impact on the industry in the future, Chen Xi had previously considered asking someone to take over the graphic store. However, this deal was too big, and he needed to find someone with deep pockets to take over.

"Buzz!" At this time, Chen Xi's cell phone rang.

He picked it up and looked at the number on it, with a strange look on his face.

After pressing the call button, an anxious and excited man's voice was heard immediately: "Mr. Chen, Mr. Chen, do you remember me? I'm Li Weibin. Do you remember the new energy vehicle project I discussed with you last time? At that time, you asked me to attract some big guys to invest, and I did it. Now all that's missing is you buying in..."

Listening to the man's words, Chen Xi didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

At that time, he just wanted the other party to raise investment to build a factory so that he could sell batteries to them.

But what this guy was thinking was that he wanted to invest money in it.

In his previous life, Li Weibin talked a lot about the bright prospects of his project in front of him.

He rejected the other party at that time, and in this life he still thinks that this project is not worth investing in.

"Mr. Li, if you want to make a car in China, you have to give it a good name. You can't use BY...Zhu Bajie or something like that, otherwise the sales will drop. What name did you choose?"

"Future, our brand is called Future!"

Li Weibin shouted into the phone. The voice on the other end was a bit noisy, obviously he was outside.

Indeed, Li Weibin had just attracted several bigwigs to invest in Future Car, so he immediately couldn't wait to call Chen Xi.

"Wow, nice name." Chen Xi smiled.

"Mr. Chen, you also think it's a good name, right?"

"What a coincidence! This is the same name as my education company in Australia." Chen Xi joked. (End of this chapter)