Chapter 49: Chapter 49: Uncle and Nephew Debate, Attitude Changes

“Smooth talker, spouting nonsense!”

Within the “Spirit Beast Restaurant,” facing Zhou Chun’s impassioned speech, Zhou Jiasheng simply sneered and uttered these eight words.

He looked at Zhou Chun with a cold sneer, and said in a cold voice, “You say that our market’s Cultivators are eagerly discussing our practice of clear pricing, which is indeed true, but even if we didn’t practice clear pricing, would they stop talking about our Spirit Beast Restaurant?”

“Good wine needs no bush, our Spirit Beast Restaurant’s name and our key products are unique in Hongya Marketplace, we need not worry that people won’t know about us in the future!”

“So isn’t this clear pricing tactic to attract customers an unnecessary move?”

“And such an unnecessary move, other than hurting the shop’s profits by reducing its income, Elder sees no other benefit!”

From these words, it wasn’t hard to see that Zhou Jiasheng indeed had some level of competence, at least he knew clearly that a shop’s unique features attract people.

But his vision was undeniably still limited to the old business operation model. He only saw the minute profits from price fluctuations and had no idea about the huge impact of advertising on market share.

Therefore, at this point facing his challenge, Zhou Chun felt it necessary to enlighten him as well.

He immediately said, “Uncle Sixteen, don’t forget that our Zhou family holds certain secret recipes, but there is another family that holds them too, and they even have some secret recipes we do not!”

Who this referred to, Zhou Jiasheng of course knew.

His face suddenly changed.

But he quickly regained his composure and said in a deep voice, “What of it? They have not set up a shop in the marketplace yet, at least for now we are the only one selling those things!”

“Yes, but Uncle Sixteen, do you think with their power and strength, after seeing both the Li Family and our Zhou Family setting up shops in the Hongya Marketplace, they would delay entering the marketplace for long?”

At this point, Zhou Chun didn’t look at the changing expressions on Zhou Jiasheng’s face but went straight on to say, “Therefore, precisely because there is this potential competitor, we must let all the Cultivators in Lanzhou know, before they enter the marketplace, that to buy Elixirs for Spirit Beasts, Beast-Repelling Medicine, and Insect-Repelling Medicine, they should choose our Spirit Beast Restaurant!”

“You say good wine needs no bush, Uncle Sixteen, that part is not wrong; we need to build a reputation so that everyone speaks highly of Spirit Beast Restaurant, trusting that our products are the most practical and most authentic!”

Having said this, he spoke with fervent tone, “To achieve this, clear pricing might not be the only choice, but it definitely is the fastest way to help us accomplish this.”

“Under such circumstances, for the long-term benefit, what does sacrificing a little profit from price fluctuations now matter?”

When it comes to reason, it may not be that the one who speaks the most words is right.

But those who speak at length and explain their reasoning definitely make the other party think.

The premise is the other party is willing to reason and is a reasonable person.

Zhou Jiasheng at his age certainly wasn’t beyond reasoning.

Therefore, he too started to deeply consider the rationale behind Zhou Chun’s words, trying to find the flaws in Zhou Chun’s argument.

But Zhou Chun’s words had no significant loopholes, and he couldn’t find any errors for the moment.

Yet he didn’t want to admit defeat to a junior.

With no other choice, he stubbornly retorted, “This so-called clear pricing of yours is only to attract customers with lower prices, but what if they also attract people with even lower prices after they enter the market?”

Upon hearing this, Zhou Chun couldn’t help but shake his head and say, “Attracting people with lower prices, don’t they want to make money?”

Then he looked at Zhou Jiasheng and countered, “And if they keep attracting people with low prices, won’t that prove our clear pricing to be even more honest and solid?”

In the end, he looked meaningfully at Zhou Jiasheng and said, “We are running a shop, not a street stall for one-off deals. The most important thing for a shop is its reputation and word of mouth.”

“Now we set a price clearly for everyone to see, even if they find out that others are cheaper later, they can’t blame us for deceit or curse us as swindlers, but if we did otherwise, it could be hard to say!”

The profound meaning in the last words was something Zhou Jiasheng couldn’t fail to understand.

His face turned very ugly at once.

Because Zhou Chun’s words were almost like pointing at his nose and calling him a swindler!

But at this moment, he couldn’t refute Zhou Chun with the theory that everything he did was for the sake of the Zhou Family.

After all, it was he who first assumed that competitors would compete with “Spirit Beast Restaurant” by offering lower prices.

If the assumption held, the items previously sold at non-transparent, high prices would inevitably spoil the reputation of “Spirit Beast Restaurant” in the eyes of those customers, who would then stop shopping here in the future.

Seeing Zhou Jiasheng silent and speechless, Zhou Chun also knew that he had nothing to say.

He immediately gave him a way out, speaking in a calm tone, “After all, fixed pricing was a suggestion I made to the Clan Leader. If this causes the shop’s profits to fall short of expectations, and the Clan Leader is to blame anyone, it would surely be me. Uncle, why not just sit back and see how it turns out?”

“Fine, I’ll see whether you truly have wisdom or if you’re just good at theorizing on paper!”

Zhou Jiasheng gave Zhou Chun a cold glance and turned away from the counter.

According to Marketplace regulations, depending on its size, each shop could have one or more permanent shop assistants.

For instance, the Zhou Family’s “Spirit Beast Restaurant,” including the shopkeeper, had three such positions.

These three people belonging to the shop could stay in the Marketplace indefinitely, cultivate in their own shop’s backyard whenever they wished, freely enter and exit the Marketplace without paying any additional fees or undertaking any tasks assigned by the Marketplace.

Therefore, Zhou Jiasheng and Zhou Chun usually took turns watching over the shop.

However, since the shop was newly opened, Zhou Jiasheng, the shopkeeper, was excessively concerned about the shop’s revenue. He preferred to neglect a month of cultivation to watch over the shop every day.

Zhou Chun was happy to see this and didn’t mind.

And as Zhou Chun had said, in the following half a month, a large number of Cultivators who had heard about “Spirit Beast Restaurant” visited the Marketplace and came to look around.

Even if most of them only looked, as long as one or two out of every ten made a purchase, the small amounts added up to a considerable revenue for the shop.

Especially after half a month, the Cultivators who bought the secretly-made beast-repelling and insect-repelling medicines found their effects to be truly excellent and came back to repurchase, which also drove a number of initially hesitant people to buy.

As a result, the sales for the latter half of the month saw a significant increase.

When the business had been running for one full month, Zhou Jiasheng and Zhou Chun totaled the month’s sales and found that they had reached 2,637 Spirit Coins, far exceeding the pre-opening estimate of 2,000 Spirit Coins.

Now Zhou Jiasheng had nothing more to say about fixed pricing.

He might be a bit stubborn, opinionated, and set in his ways.

But he was not foolish.

In the face of actual profits, how could he still cling to his original strictures?

He just couldn’t swallow his pride to apologize to Zhou Chun!

Of course, Zhou Chun didn’t need his apology, as long as he accepted the results.

Moreover, Zhou Jiasheng was indeed very skilled. In the past month, his discerning purchases of various Spiritual Objects did not go wrong, which allowed Zhou Chun to learn a lot.

“Not bad at all. I didn’t expect the shop to be doing so well just one month after opening, and even within the family, I’ve heard those Loose Cultivators discussing the presence of Spirit Beast Restaurant—it’s quite reputable!”

Within Spirit Beast Restaurant, Zhou Daoquan, the third Elder of the Zhou Family, had traveled from the family to the Marketplace for resupply and purchases after a month’s gap. After reviewing the accounts and the collected Spirit Coins, he too showed a look of surprise and was quite astonished by the outcome.

In the face of Zhou Daoquan’s praise, Zhou Jiasheng simply said, “The good performance is due to the family’s exceptional secret medicines; we dare not take the credit.”

At these words, Zhou Daoquan chuckled and said, “Heh, whether you deserve credit, that’s for the Clan Leader to judge, not for me to say.”

After finishing his remarks, he shook his head and said, “In any case, I’ve brought the goods the Clan Leader asked me to deliver, and I’ve taken the items you’ve bought. Keep up the good work.”

Then he left the Marketplace without saying anything more.

After sending Zhou Daoquan off, Zhou Jiasheng glanced at Zhou Chun, who had been silent throughout, and suddenly said, “From now on, if someone comes to sell Spiritual Objects, you will be the first to assess and set the price. If you’re uncertain, then report to me for a final decision.”

Upon hearing this, Zhou Chun immediately showed a smile and respectfully thanked him, “Thank you, Uncle, for your mentorship. I will strive to learn from you.”