I Can Turn into a Fish

“Boss, there are only forty tanks left in the store. We need to prepare new stock!”

The next morning, Chu Xian got a phone call from Zhang Xiaohua.

“I know, the materials are ready. Come over. I still need you in charge of the designs!” Chu Xian laughed.

“Okay, okay. I’ll be there soon.” Zhang Xiaohua nodded and hung up. She turned to a couple customers and apologized, “I’m very sorry. The fifteen thousand RMB aquarium you want will be here in store tomorrow. How about you come and pick it up tomorrow?”

“Really? A new store is missing so much stock!” the woman said, disgruntled.

“Hehe, we didn’t expect business to go so well!” Zhang Xiaohua smiled apologetically.

“Alright, alright. We’ll come back tomorrow!” The woman waved her hand and left.

Zhang Xiaohua shook her head slightly then said to the other sales associates, “I’m going to the boss’s place. You guys are in charge here now. Any questions?”

“Don’t worry big sis, we’ll take care of everything.” The employees nodded.

…

“Boss, we didn’t expect that our business would do so well yesterday as well!” Zhang Xiaohua said excitedly after she arrived at the villa.

“How much did we make?” Chu Xian asked directly.

“Nine hundred and thirty thousand RMB!” Zhang Xiaohua said proudly.

“Very good.” Chu Xian nodded. “We don’t have much more stock, so let’s get to work. I prepared more materials this time – enough for four to five hundred sea tanks. This should be enough for a while.”

“Five hundred. Yes, that should tide us over for the immediate future.” Zhang Xiaohua nodded then had Old Huang and Old Mu help her lay everything out. She began designing aquariums with the new materials.

Over the next few days, the store called Ornamental Aquariums went viral, and its terrifying sales records were exposed by some attentive people.

“A store with a terrifying number of sales made more than one million RMB on their opening day, and they managed to maintain sales of around a million for three consecutive days.”

“What an insane aquarium store. I went once on opening day and there were one hundred and forty-five tanks, but when I went the next day, the number had fallen by a third. Their cheapest product is still fifteen thousand RMB. My guess is that they made a million just on the opening day.”

“The dragon palace aquarium is eight hundred and eighty thousand RMB, and these are the most beautiful sea tanks I’ve ever seen. Crazy!”

The incredible success of this small store shocked every industry in Hai Qing City, and even the big companies sent people to investigate.

A million in a day – what kind of concept was that? Didn’t that mean that the sales of a month would be in the tens of millions?

If they got ten million in sales, how much was the profit? Many people started to analyze and made guesses of at least five million RMB.

Nowadays, what kind of business could make more than five million RMB a month and fifty million RMB in a year? The answer was very few, and even companies with market values over the hundred million or even billion mark didn’t necessarily have such sales.

And everyone knew this was just in Hai Qing City. If stores were opened in every big city in the country, how much would the profits be then? It would be a number that could turn your eyes red!

“An aquarium store managing such a crazy achievement – how do you think they did it?” In one company’s boardroom, the CEO asked the people around the table.

“CEO, I’ve been to this store and I even bought a sea tank!” a woman said as she looked at the CEO. “I think the reason why this store is so successful is due to the beauty and value of the aquariums and materials!”

“It’s incredibly beautiful. I liked it as soon as I saw it, and now that living standards are up, luxuries and pets have entered many households.”

“And many families can still afford it. Fifteen thousand RMB – is that really so much? It’s only a month’s salary for a white-collar worker. Many people can afford it.”

“And isn’t it just so nice to have such a beautiful aquarium in your house?”

“Many people are also hopping on the bandwagon. Other people have already bought these tanks. People look at their beauty and think ‘I want one too.’ Many people think this way. These are the reasons why this aquarium store is so popular.”

“En.” The CEO nodded. “Indeed, to be honest, my family bought one too.”

Everyone laughed. The aquariums were beautiful decorations to some people, and just imagining them glowing dreamily when the lights were off at night filled people with pleasure.

“I want to know whether we have what it takes to open a store like it!” The CEO asked the most crucial question. Everyone wanted a share of the pie; even just a little bit would be fine.

“CEO!” The middle-aged man yelled and everyone turned to him. He said, “Some of our colleagues also know that I’m an aquarist. I like ornamental fish and sea tanks. What I want to say is that unless we can figure out where they get their materials, we’ll have a lot of difficulties imitating them.”

“We used to have an aquarium store in Hai Qing City, but business wasn’t very good. Why? Because we didn’t have the quality and popularity!”

“Look at Ornamental Aquariums. They dared to open an aquarium store in the busiest location downtown. You can see the courage of their boss and how impressive their materials must be.”

“All the ingredients, whether it’s the small shrimps, the Christmas Tree Worms or the Open Brain Corals, are incredibly precious and rare. They have no replacements, and if we just make aquariums with normal sea creatures, there would be a wide gap between our products.”

“So it’s impossible to copy their store?” the CEO asked directly.

“Unless we source the materials!”

“Materials!” The CEO rubbed his forehead. “It’s not so easy to find the materials, and apparently Mayor Hong, Director Li, and Director Ge attended the grand opening. Who knows if they have stock in the business.”

Everyone looked at each other in silence.

It wasn’t just this company. Many others were holding the same meeting, but they all came to the same conclusion. Unless they found the same resources, they couldn’t compete.

And the appearance of Mayor Hong and the others stopped people in their tracks. None of them dared to act out of line.

But many people still couldn’t give up on the possibility of massive profits.

Some of the more inquisitive people also tracked down news of when they went out to sea.

Chu Xian didn’t know that his Ornamental Aquarium store had attracted so much attention, and even if he knew, he wouldn’t care.

Although the seaweed area was resourceful, there were deadly jellyfish that could kill easily. Other people who came might lose their rice without stealing the chicken, so to speak.

And if Chu Xian was just a bit vicious, the people coming out to sea would never return.