Upon hearing that an "export" that would never cause any disputes could yield seven times the profit, Lin Hongmei wholeheartedly agreed to withdraw all "Life Movement No. 1" products from the domestic market. Maximizing profit with limited resources is simply the approach any competent businessperson should take.
As for the fact that it cannot serve domestic patients, Lin Hongmei doesn't care. In her mind, "Life Movement No. 1" is still a drug, even though she knows that's not actually the case. But the idea that rich men who are healthy will do bad things influences her thinking. This kind of drug that she is ashamed to mention should be sold abroad to make money from foreigners.
For wealthy men in China, it would be better to exercise; taking medicine is not the best approach!
The withdrawal of "Life Movement No. 1" from shelves sparked nationwide outrage. While some media outlets and reporters came forward, former patients and potential customers who intended to register for memberships remained silent. Despite Min Hong's repeated emphasis that this drug was not aphrodisiac, its efficacy was undeniable; what man would willingly admit to being "impotent"?
Minhong did not respond much to these accusations, only explaining that due to insufficient production capacity and scarce raw materials, this internally supplied traditional Chinese medicine was temporarily suspended from supplying the national market, and even Chengdu stopped selling it. This left the passionate media empty-handed. They had originally hoped that Minhong would be forced to put the medicine back on the shelves under pressure, but unexpectedly, Minhong had no intention of continuing and simply gave it the cold shoulder.
In Minhong's mind, since the state of pharmaceutical companies and clinics nationwide is already like that, this kind of drug, which is impossible to mass-produce, cannot save the market. Putting it on the shelves will not help, and withdrawing it from the shelves will be more profitable. There is no need to consider which option to choose.
There are four channels in China that allow continued access to "Life Movement No. 1": obtaining it privately through connections within Minhong, getting some from Sheng Hong, the Party Secretary of Yuanmou County, buying it from Yang Shouren, a Minhong distributor in Beijing, and purchasing it from Minjian Pharmaceutical, a Minhong agent in Hunan.
Among them, only Hunan Minjian Pharmaceutical had a larger supply volume, because Lin Yao gave special favor to the Hunan market. The reason was that after cooperating with Minhong, Minjian Pharmaceutical suffered huge losses, which directly caused them to lose their hospital procurement business, which they had been focusing on developing. Therefore, Lin Yao supplied Minjian with a large quantity of the already well-received "No. 1" product, simply to make it easier for them to conduct public relations.
For Jinkang Pharmaceutical, the Beijing distributor, such treatment was unnecessary. Playing dirty tricks in the capital is risky, and there's less room for shady dealings in hospital procurement. The partnership with Minhong didn't significantly impact Jinkang Pharmaceutical. On the contrary, the withdrawal of "Life Movement No. 1" from the shelves allowed their general manager, Yang Shuren, to cultivate relationships with many powerful figures.
Compared to the limited production of "Life Movement No. 1," which had just begun to gain recognition in the national market, the withdrawal of the drug from shelves has attracted more public attention than Minhong's new initiative: the launch of a new drug.
A beauty drug that Minhong "distributed" was put on the shelves. The new drug, named "Whitening and Skin-Nourishing Powder", appeared in the national market and quickly set off a hot storm.
Although their goal is to guide and promote the moral character of the whole society, Luo Jimin and Lin Hongmei still want to do something practical for the people. This so-called practical thing is to let as many people as possible benefit from Minhong, so that they can stay away from diseases and gain health.
Therefore, Minhong's production focus is more on therapeutic drugs than on beauty products.
Lin Yao agreed with this point, so he transferred all the first batch of approved cosmetic drugs to Longcheng Pharmaceutical. He defined the production and sales of Minhong as contract manufacturing and agency sales, and the price was quite high, which was in line with Longcheng Pharmaceutical's profit-making principle, since most of the profits would be given to Longcheng. This also provided a reason and return on investment for the huge amount of money to be transferred from Longcheng to Minhong.
Beauty has never been what Minhong pursues, nor does she want to pay too much for it, so she will not help people at cost price like medicines for treating common diseases.
Priced at 365 yuan, this "beauty whitening powder" remains remarkably inexpensive in today's beauty market, yet its effects are quite significant. This medication can temporarily adjust the body's metabolic capacity, altering the production and deposition of melanin on the skin and affecting the skin's keratinization process. This has caused a major upheaval in the entire beauty market.
If you can whiten your skin by taking medicine, and it's medicine sold by Minhong, then who would bother with the trouble of going through the trouble of phototherapy, laser treatments, physical skin resurfacing, or even hormone-based treatments to achieve a whitening effect?
Women who love beauty are not unaware of the harm that using highly effective chemical whitening products can cause to their health. Some products with high lead content are effective, but there are also many reports of cases that have greatly affected their health. They are also aware of the damage caused by laser and physical methods. However, for the sake of temporary beauty, women are willing to bear any risks, but they always hope that bad results will not happen to them.
Now, with Minhong's guarantee that it is lead-free and hormone-free, and at a very "low" price, with effects lasting for three days, this product quickly caused a frenzy among women. For the first time, Minhong hospitals and clinics across the country saw a surge in customers, and membership registration reception areas immediately became extremely busy.
So it turns out that membership in Minhong requires application.
It turns out that Minhong can produce more than just medicine.
No one believed Minhong's claims of contract manufacturing and distribution, because no one else was producing it except Minhong, and apart from Minhong's own outlets, any distributors and beauty institutions that intended to represent the product were directly rejected by Longcheng Group. It even got to the point that the phone numbers published by Longcheng Group were either busy or unanswered.
Minhong sincerely reciprocated the gratitude of its first batch of distributors who supported it. As long as they operated according to the standard specifications and installed the system equipment designated by Minhong, Hunan Minjian Pharmaceutical and Beijing Jinkang Pharmaceutical both obtained the agency rights for "Whitening and Skin-Nourishing Powder". They can open chain pharmacies in their respective regions to exclusively sell this product.
Of course, the two companies that own the products are not qualified to recruit members. The signing and registration of Minhong members' agreements must be carried out in their own hospitals and clinics in the local area. The cooperative pharmacies they open can only provide extended sales services, which can be regarded as diverting some customers for Minhong. After all, there will be many products to be launched in the future, and these healthy people cannot be allowed to gather in places that treat and save lives.
In addition to Beijing and Rongcheng in Hunan Province, where hospitals are located, Minhong dispatched special personnel to other areas of Hunan Province to sign agreements on-site to recruit members. To the surprise of the Minhong staff who arrived in various cities on the selected dates, they found themselves at the sales sites of instant lottery tickets, and all the "lottery buyers" were women.
Lin Yao approved the application to open an agency sales outlet in Yuanmou County, as a gesture of respect to the county party secretary, Sheng Hong, and arranged for someone to visit and register members.
Perhaps it was because Wang Lei's local advertising was very effective, or perhaps it was because Min Hong's brand was reassuring, or perhaps it was because the women of Yuanmou were more concerned with beauty, but a temporary on-site membership registration kept the staff who arrived in Yuanmou County busy for five days, resulting in the signing of more than 22,000 agreements, which greatly surprised Lin Hongmei and her husband.
Signing the agreement was free, but the costs were high. Many women, thinking they had to sign the agreement even if they didn't buy the medicine yet, rushed in, making the small sales point of only ten square meters extremely crowded. The county had to send police to maintain order to prevent a riot.
Some are happy while others are sad. After Minhong became the "sniper" of the hospital's "infant and child health department" and "pediatrics department", the title of "sniper of the beauty industry" has once again fallen on Minhong's head. In fact, most of these private enterprises and institutions have begun to organize people to cause trouble at Minhong's hospital clinic. A storm is brewing over Minhong.
"Causing trouble? Have Ge Yong instruct the security teams in various places to investigate thoroughly and find out who the organizer is." Lin Yao had just finished fighting with Yi An and another Yi family elder when he heard the news. He turned to the First Elder Yi Potian, rubbing his sore arm, and said, "First Elder, when the time comes, have the Yi family members come to collect the debt. If they dare to cause trouble for Min Hong, we'll smash their shops. Just do it discreetly. We're not afraid of being suspected, as long as we don't leave any evidence."
Lin Yao thought to himself that he had just adjusted the two kinds of medicines, creating a combination of strategies, and had made some progress in Minhong's outlets in various places, but he had already encountered this kind of person who used unorthodox methods.
If you play by the rules, we'll follow them; if you don't, we'll go even further. This is the approach Lin Yao decided to take. Otherwise, if he doesn't show Min Hong's unique style, he'll encounter even more trouble in the future.
“Sir, even a powerful dragon is no match for a local snake. If our people withdraw, the other side might retaliate even more fiercely.” Elder Yi Potian nodded in agreement and continued to analyze the situation. “Should we have the Yi family leave some people in each provincial capital city specifically to handle these kinds of matters?”
“Alright, leave some people in each place in the early stages, and then withdraw them after Minhong’s reputation is established.” Lin Yao pondered for a moment and agreed to accept the Yi family’s help. “Just don’t make a name for yourself or cripple anyone. For those who are just causing trouble but not hurting anyone, we’ll just smash their shops and let them suffer some losses. We won’t hurt anyone.”
“Alright, I’ll leave this to Yi Zuojun. Don’t worry.” Elder Yi Potian agreed, glancing at Yi Zuojun who had been standing guard beside him.
He had to send Yi Zuojun away temporarily because he needed to balance the various relationships within the Yi family.
It's said that wherever there are people, there's a world of its own. Even within the seemingly monolithic Yi family, competition exists among its members. Everyone's a martial arts fanatic; who wouldn't want to be faster and stronger? Following Master Yi has great benefits, but such opportunities aren't available to everyone, and they don't even entirely depend on the Yi family's assignment. Therefore, many people are envious of Yi Zuojun.
Lin Yao even used his own healing true energy to help Yi Zuojun regulate and heal his bones and muscles without using any elixirs, allowing him to advance from the early stage of the Earth Realm to the middle stage. Although this mainly relied on Yi Zuojun's life-risking cultivation, coupled with the assistance of the shamanistic medicine techniques he learned from the Daika tribe, the fact remains that Yi Zuojun was clearly stronger than his peers. How could this not arouse envy and jealousy from the other disciples?
Upon hearing Elder Yi Potian's arrangement, Lin Yao secretly glanced at Yi Zuojun, who was somewhat dazed beside him. In a flash, he understood the Elder's intention.
He had also noticed the behavior of the other elders these past few days. They all tried their best to treat him well, and some of the older elders would often mention in front of him how much their children admired him. They would occasionally mention their talents and their impatience with their lack of strength. All of this was an indication that Lin Yao should lend a helping hand and take special care of their children.
Lin Yao felt somewhat helpless about this.
There are over four thousand members of the Yi family. How could he possibly give special attention to them all? Just implementing witchcraft to improve the physique of each member of the Yi family is already extremely tiring and busy. He also needs to intensify his own cultivation. He has been so busy lately that he hasn't even had time to sleep. He only hopes that his alchemy skills and witchcraft can be further improved in the future, so that he can have an easier time then.
Lin Yao nodded in agreement to the Elder's suggestion. Although he felt that Yi Zuojun, whom he was already quite familiar with, was easy to manage, it was time to replace him. Most of the Yi family members were hardworking and always treated him with respect and courtesy. It would be fine to replace him with anyone else, even though he didn't actually need their service.
"Sir, regarding the Jiang family..." Elder Yi Potian didn't continue, looking at Lin Yao with a serious expression.
Yi Potian had long wanted to take revenge on the Jiang family. The blood feud involving hundreds of names had weighed on the Yi family members for decades. Now that the Yi family's strength had increased and the Jiang family's Heaven-level expert had disappeared, it was time for revenge.
Lin Yao kept delaying his departure, and he was also worried about leaving Lin Yao alone. He felt it would be better to take Lin Yao with him to seek revenge.
"Wait a little longer. I need some time to recover. You can take your revenge however you want then. For now, it's best to protect me. I don't have the ability to protect myself yet." Lin Yao smiled, but he was puzzled by Xiao Cao's seclusion. She should have come out of seclusion long ago. Could something have happened to her?
Lin Yao didn't dare to contact Xiao Cao, because Xiao Cao had told him not to disturb her before she went into seclusion.
When I first found the Earth Mother, I went into seclusion for three days. At that time, I went into seclusion with Little Grass, and I didn't even feel the passage of time. During the later fusion stage, Little Grass didn't need to go into seclusion. She would talk and laugh with me on weekdays. But why is she so quiet for so long this time?
Protector? Self-defense ability? Yi Potian found it strange.