The Stepmother's Counterattack: Raising a Child in a Bygone Era-Chapter 420 - 419: Meeting Sun Feifei Again, Losing a Client

Chapter 420: Chapter 419: Meeting Sun Feifei Again, Losing a Client

After Zhong Qing’s wedding, Shen Mingzhu devoted most of her energy to this year’s mooncake sales.

Last year’s mooncake sales reached forty thousand boxes, with a net profit of fifty thousand.

Her goal for this year was to increase by one third over last year, aiming for a net profit of over sixty thousand.

End of May.

Shen Mingzhu brought this year’s new mooncake packaging and flavor samples to Hengxing, ready to finalize this year’s gift box style and orders. freēwēbnovel.com

Upon arriving at Hengxing, the purchasing department’s director was still in a meeting, and the reception staff asked Shen Mingzhu to wait in the guest room.

Shen Mingzhu led Pei Qiuxia to arrange several mooncake gift boxes in a row on the conference table. She also specially opened the packaging of two new flavors this year, cut them into small pieces, and placed them on plates for easy tasting and inspecting the ingredients of the mooncake fillings.

As they were busy, someone opened the door of the guest room from behind.

"Manager Meng..."

Shen Mingzhu turned around with a smile, but her smile paused when she saw the person who entered.

Sun Feifei walked in wearing high heels, taking her time as she approached Shen Mingzhu, "Shen Mingzhu, we meet again."

"Please wait a moment, Manager Meng is still in a meeting, and will come over once it’s finished," said the receptionist before closing the door and leaving.

Sun Feifei handed Shen Mingzhu a business card with one hand, "President Shen, I look forward to more guidance from you in the future."

Shen Mingzhu glanced at the company name and position on the business card and sneered, "Miss Sun really is like a persistent ghost, following everywhere."

"Just because Shen Mingzhu can do business, does it mean no one else can?"

Sun Feifei glanced over the items on the conference table, "You’ve prepared quite thoroughly, but it’s a pity that with me here, you’re destined to leave empty-handed today."

After saying that, Sun Feifei gestured to her female colleague who came with her, "Why are you standing there looking dazed? Start setting up our products."

"Got it."

The colleague didn’t look for another space but directly placed their mooncakes on top of the area where Shen Mingzhu had already arranged her products.

Pei Qiuxia couldn’t help but confront her, "What’s the matter with you? Can’t you see you’re crushing our products?"

The colleague looked innocently, "Oh, I didn’t realize, I mistook it for some trash."

Having said this, she didn’t forget to give Shen Mingzhu a defiant look, "Excuse me, could you move your trash, oh, sorry, I misspoke, could you please move your products aside?"

Pei Qiuxia’s cheeks flushed with anger, "By what right? Ever heard of first-come, first-served? We arranged it first. The conference table is so big, couldn’t you find another spot?"

"Ha, think this is setting up a street stall? This is Hengxing, not your territory."

Sun Feifei turned to her colleague, "Why so much pointless talk? If they don’t want to move, can’t you help them out?"

The colleague grinned, understanding the hint, and then swept her hand across the mooncake boxes.

A large space was cleared on the conference table, but Shen Mingzhu’s neatly arranged mooncake gift boxes were now in disarray, some even falling to the floor.

"There, that should do," said the colleague, clearly pleased as she placed their mooncake gift boxes one by one.

Without saying another word, Shen Mingzhu went forward and flipped the opponent’s mooncakes straight onto the floor.

The colleague glared at her, "What are you doing?"

"What you’ve done, I do the same. Ever heard of an eye for an eye? Hasn’t your Chinese teacher taught you that?"

Seeing the two argue, Pei Qiuxia hurried over to Shen Mingzhu’s side to give her support but accidentally stepped on the other side’s mooncakes.

"Well, look at that, you stepped on our mooncakes!"

The colleague deliberately threw Shen Mingzhu’s mooncakes to the ground and stomped on them viciously.

Not to be outdone, Pei Qiuxia stepped on another of their mooncakes.

The conflict was set off at once, both sides beginning to stomp on each other’s mooncakes.

By the time Meng Yan arrived, the reception room was filled with a rich aroma of pastry, and the floor was covered with crushed remnants of mooncakes.

Meng Yan was stunned for a few seconds, "President Shen, Manager Sun, what’s going on here?"

Shen Mingzhu smoothed her bangs and smiled calmly, "It’s nothing, just getting bored waiting, so we had a little fun. Right, Manager Sun?"

Sun Feifei gave Shen Mingzhu a displeased glance but didn’t refute her.

Meng Yan understood and smiled, without exposing anything he instructed the janitor to clean the reception room. Then he led Shen Mingzhu and Sun Feifei to his office.

Once seated in Meng Yan’s office, Pei Qiuxia happened to deliver the new mooncakes.

As soon as Meng Yan went to the reception room, Shen Mingzhu had given Pei Qiuxia the car keys, instructing her to bring up the mooncakes from the car trunk.

That was the confidence she had to confront Sun Feifei head-on.

She never fought unprepared.

Seeing Sun Feifei’s unsightly expression, Shen Mingzhu felt a wave of dark pleasure in her heart.

"Manager Meng, this is our new mooncake gift box packaging for this year, please have a look. Also, we have introduced two new flavors this year..."

Meng Yan was clearly satisfied with the new packaging and flavors of Shen Mingzhu’s family’s mooncakes, nodding occasionally and praising with "not bad".

It was Sun Feifei’s turn.

Sun Feifei, clearly lacking extra preparation, could only present the dry details from her printed materials.

To be fair, Sun Feifei’s brochure was quite well-made, but without physical samples for reference, it was inevitably less satisfying.

"President Shen, Manager Sun, I’m familiar with both your products now. I will discuss with the leadership and give you an answer within two days."

"Alright, Manager Meng, then I will eagerly await the good news."

Sun Feifei was the first to stand up, shake hands with Meng Yan, and cast a meaningful glance at Shen Mingzhu.

A sense of foreboding suddenly weighed on Shen Mingzhu’s heart.

These past two years, her cooperation with Hengxing had been very stable. Coming here today was, by all means, just a formality.

Sun Feifei’s presence in the room was already a variable, and now that Meng Yan did not immediately commit to a decision, Shen Mingzhu couldn’t help but feel a sense of crisis.

"Shen Mingzhu, you’re sure to lose!"

At Hengxing’s entrance, Sun Feifei dropped these words to Shen Mingzhu before turning and getting into a silver Xiali car and driving away.

Pei Qiuxia stared at the departing Xiali, "President Shen, isn’t that the car that hit you last time?"

Shen Mingzhu focused on the Xiali’s license plate and narrowed her eyes.

Very well.

...

Two days later, Shen Mingzhu finally received a call from Meng Yan.

"President Shen, I’m sorry, but this year the company has decided to purchase Meixin’s mooncakes."

With her worries realized, Shen Mingzhu felt hugely disappointed but was even more puzzled.

"Manager Meng, may I ask the reason for our elimination?"

Meng Yan offered a few words of business-like comfort on the phone, "... The leaders feel that, having purchased Ronghua’s mooncakes for three consecutive years, everyone has grown tired of them, and this year they wanted a change of taste."

Shen Mingzhu didn’t quite believe this reason.

The appearance of Sun Feifei was definitely not a coincidence.

If they simply wanted a change of taste, there were so many mooncake brands; why choose Sun Feifei’s Meixin specifically?

After much thought, Shen Mingzhu couldn’t and didn’t want to give up Hengxing, a major client.

After all, in the last three years, Hengxing’s orders had accounted for half of the factory’s total mooncake sales.