Once a brand that had its moment in the sun, the high-end ones started playing with price cuts, while mid-range ones began to fold in franchise fees, sparking a franchise fee price war.
Panda Tea, after losing its past glory, began to introduce franchise fee waivers.
For new partners opening stores, the total discount on fees could range terrifyingly between 40,000 to 270,000 yuan.
For old partners opening new stores, the total discount could also be between 90,000 to 180,000 yuan.
The later stages of the 2.0 era of milk tea witnessed frantic internal competition and price wars, and so did the 3.0 era.
However, when Shen Minglang heard Cheng Zhu casually mention "An IPO is not impossible," he immediately became invigorated from top to bottom.
He had already started yearning to become a shareholder of a listed company.
"No, I have to call Shen right now!" Shen Minglang began to grow anxious inside.
He wanted to show off to Shen, then convey his cousin’s attitude to him, and get him to aggressively raise funds for his son!
"Cousin, Ningning, you two chat first, I just remembered something, I’ll go outside to make a call," he said as he got up.
After that, he strode out with his mobile phone, full of bluster and arrogance.
At this moment, Shen over there had just ended a call.
He had just tried to borrow money from Jiang Wanzhou’s father.
The Shen family and the Jiang family were relatives, and the Shen family’s business was a bit larger than the Jiang family’s, doing better business, but the Jiang family had less tight cash flow and more ready cash on hand.
When he saw the incoming call was from Shen Minglang, the corner of his eye twitched slightly.
"Hello, what is it?" The middle-aged awkwardness spoke indifferently.
"Dad, I’ve just finished the meeting, Yue Dongyi from Pulin Capital was also there."
"Dad, don’t ’and then’ me just yet, guess who else was there!" Shen Minglang got excited.
There was silence on the other end of the phone.
The middle-aged haughty figure didn’t bother with him, thinking you can talk or not, I don’t care.
Guess? Like a child, guessing!
Ten or so seconds passed before Shen Minglang carefully asked, "Dad, are you listening, Dad?"
If it hadn’t been for something major, he definitely would have hung up right away.
That was because he didn’t have full information on his side, unaware that Ningning was also at the meeting.
Otherwise, Shen Guoqiang would definitely not have taken the call, would have hung up on Shen Minglang and called Shen Qingning instead.
Today was May 12, a particularly special day for the Shen family; he was supposed to go home for dinner anyway, so the call wasn’t urgent.
In the end, Shen Minglang murmured softly, "It’s Wang Zeng from Red Mountain Capital, isn’t the signal good here, it’s really strange."
The following second, Shen Guoqiang replied, "Red Mountain Capital?"
Shen Minglang was slightly startled.
"Dad, you’re listening?"
"Red Mountain Capital’s Wang Zeng? The one who invested in Zhou Heiya?" Shen Guoqiang ignored him, asking on his own.
The other end of the phone quickly fell silent again.
Shen Guoqiang felt an even stronger sense of pressure, and the urgency in his heart grew.
Red Mountain Capital’s golden signboard needed no further elaboration.
If Red Mountain Capital led the second round of financing for Youu Tea, simply releasing this news would shock much of the investment community!
This internet-famous milk tea brand would immediately become the darling of the capital market again.
Because the participants involved were too powerful, it even made Shen Guoqiang feel a bit nervous.
Fortunately, Shen Minglang immediately conveyed good news: "Dad, my cousin stated his position to me and Ningning, he said he has no intention of diluting our shares. As long as we’re willing to continue investing, he is happy to let us retain our current stakes."
This even made the middle-aged haughty figure a bit unable to maintain his composure: "Really?"
Shen Minglang had never seen Shen exhibit this kind of demeanor before, and immediately got excited again: "Could this be false? I’ve always thought you and Ningning were worrying over nothing..."
He began to babble on about his own views, and in the process, also repeated some of the exact words Cheng Zhu had used at the meeting, putting on another layer of showboating.
Outside the conference room, father and son were each showing off their own tricks on the phone.
Inside the conference room, Cheng Zhu and Shen Qingning were alone together for the first time in a long while.
The two, who had once developed a "lip friendship" in a car, hadn’t sat this close to each other in a long time.
Cheng Zhu looked at today’s exquisitely dressed and frameless-glasses-wearing beauty, noticing she didn’t seem interested in initiating conversation.
The arrogant girl remained as haughty as ever.
But Cheng Zhu, that dog of a man, loved to tease her.
You wanna play awkward, let’s keep it awkward then.
He purposefully took out his phone and started playing with it outright.
This rendered the conference room deathly silent.
Only occasionally could the hearty laughter of Shen Minglang be faintly heard from outside, not knowing what he was laughing at.
Finally, the prolonged silence made Shen Qingning inexplicably irritable and uncomfortable.
Netizens were fabricating sweet daily life stories of the two.
She directly spoke, "There shouldn’t be anything else today, right? If not, I’m going to head back first."
"Okay, nothing else," said Cheng Zhu, continuing to play with his phone, without lifting his head.
Shen Qingning stood up, picked up her bag from another chair, and turned to walk towards the conference room door.
Just as she was about to push the door open, she was suddenly stopped by Cheng Zhu.
"Wait a minute," said Cheng Zhu.
Shen Qingning turned around with a puzzled look, her aura of aloofness even more intense.
She was dressed rather formally today, with frameless glasses, looking quite commanding.
The haughty girl didn’t know why Cheng Zhu had suddenly halted her, and she was also afraid that Cheng Zhu would say something that might embarrass them both, like bringing up the concert ticket issue.
Unexpectedly, Cheng Zhu slowly put down his phone, looked up at her, and said,