Chapter 814: Chapter 290: Vision, Linna’s Grand-Scale Operations!_3
That was the night of the birthday party, but back then they’d only met once in passing.
Li Mengning was secretly amazed.
President Su really has insane connections—just a casual meal and he’s got the helmsman of Ah Li sitting here!
With a network like this, there’s basically no reason any business he does wouldn’t succeed!
She was increasingly convinced how wise it had been to jump ship to Lina Fashion.
Besides Old Ma, there was another senior executive from Ah Li and his female secretary.
This female secretary was a different type than Song Yuwei—she was purely there to work for Old Ma and, on top of that, to drink on his behalf.
A lot of people think Old Ma didn’t really drink in Ah Li’s early days. Back when he was just starting to raise funds, at some dinner a coal boss said if Old Ma could down nine shots of baijiu in one go, he’d invest 500,000. Old Ma was actually in a bind then, because he couldn’t hold his liquor, and this was nine consecutive glasses of strong spirit—anyone with a weaker tolerance would collapse. In the end, his secretary picked up the glasses and blocked the drinking demand for her boss, downing 27 shots.
Ever since then, whenever Old Ma went to certain dinners, he’d always bring his secretary along as his "designated drinker."
But by now, Old Ma could actually handle a bit of alcohol himself. For Ah Li to get to where it is, schmoozing is inevitable, and there are some key clients where you can’t use a stand-in—you still need some tolerance yourself.
Later on, Old Ma really did become a drinker; he even took a post as vice president of the "National Liquor Maotai Cultural Research Association." Once he invited boxing champion Pacquiao to visit Lin’an, and during the banquet he was literally swinging the liquor pot and drinking straight from it—his alcohol tolerance had been completely trained up.
The other executive there was also someone who could really drink.
Neither of these two were strangers. Previously, when New Era dropped five million to buy Ah Li’s newly launched value-added services, after signing the contract they all went out for a banquet; that executive and the secretary had both been there.
"Younger Brother Su, have you been super busy lately? How come I haven’t seen you come by for tea?"
As soon as Old Ma walked in, he didn’t bother with any polite small talk with Su Zelin, just sat directly in the seat beside him.
Su Zelin really had gone over to Ah Li a few times for tea. This future Mr. Ma—he needed to build that relationship; there could be a lot of cooperation opportunities down the road.
And through Old Ma, he could also meet more contacts that would help his own businesses.
Old Ma was usually busy too, but he genuinely liked occasionally having tea with someone like this "hustler," or more precisely, liked shooting the breeze with him.
Su Zelin was very good at talking big, but not in a completely off-the-wall way. In Old Ma’s eyes, his bragging was full of foresight. People in this era might find it unbelievable, even think it’s pure fantasy.
Old Ma wasn’t an ordinary person; his vision was long-term too.
He felt that the things Su Zelin bragged about were all things that could actually come true.
They had a lot of common ground, so they really hit it off; besides business cooperation, their personal friendship was quite solid.
Li Mengning was even more shocked.
With Old Ma’s status, he was actually calling President Su "brother," and the two of them looked extremely close.
Su Zelin chuckled and said, "Haha, yeah I’ve had a ton on my plate lately. Haven’t seen Brother Ma for so long, so tonight I had to call you out for a good chat!"
"Busy like this... Younger Brother Su, are you planning to build New Era out of just the Jiang–Zhe–Hu region and push nationwide?"
After a few rounds of meals and tea where they’d talked and joked, Old Ma had gotten to know quite a bit about Su Zelin.
This kid who’d just graduated from college was a bona fide man of ambition!
New Era expanding across the country was only a matter of time, and likely not far off.
Because the Jiang–Zhe–Hu regional market was already fully developed, the home base was solid, so naturally it was time to take the next step.
"Haha, yeah, that’s the plan."
Su Zelin didn’t deny it.
"Nice!"
Old Ma gave him a thumbs-up, his tone full of genuine praise.
He really appreciated Su Zelin.
Because Su Zelin was a smart guy, and a fellow ambitious type like himself.
There was no way he’d be content to stand still for too long.
Even though this was a good era, business competition was brutal, and the times were always shifting. In these waters, if you don’t move forward, you drift backward.
Then he noticed Nanaz, sitting beside Su Zelin.
"Eh, isn’t this your classmate?"
Old Ma was a very down-to-earth person. On the night of Su Zelin’s birthday, he had even made a point of putting down his status, going over to the student section to chat with everyone for a bit. He had some impression of Nanaz.
Su Zelin nodded and said, "Yeah, my classmate Ding Linna. She recently started a company called Lina Fashion."
"Hello, President Ma, please take care of us!"
Nanaz hurried to greet him politely.
"Hold on, the name of your company—I feel like I’ve heard it somewhere!" Old Ma suddenly remembered something. "You’re in the streetwear business, right?"
"Yes. Where did President Ma hear about us?"
Nanaz was a bit surprised.
She hadn’t expected that even the helmsman of Ah Li would know about her little company.
"With that level of aggressive operations, you’ve already broken out of your niche. How could I not have heard?"
Old Ma had a habit of keeping up with the daily news, reading all kinds of articles online. He turned to the executive next to him and said, "See, I told you—there had to be a master behind this company’s moves. Turns out it’s Younger Brother Su!"
At this point he also understood what Su Zelin’s real purpose was for setting up this dinner. It wasn’t just to shoot the breeze with him; there was business to discuss, and unsurprisingly it had to do with this clothing company.
"Haha, not gonna lie, I did give President Ding some ideas, but the main work’s been handled by the company’s operations director, Li Mengning."
Su Zelin modestly shifted the credit to Li Mengning. Right now, it wouldn’t do for him to hog the spotlight; he had to take care of the operations director’s pride, so she wouldn’t feel like a mere puppet.
Old Ma nodded slightly.
Lina Fashion’s director might have played a role, but he believed these kinds of tactics were mostly coming from Su Zelin. This was very much his style—he was just too good at playing the marketing game.
Chances were, he definitely held shares in this company, and not a small percentage either.
As for this lady boss, she probably wasn’t "just a classmate" either.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have specifically brought the two of them to this dinner.
With Old Ma’s sharp eye, it wasn’t hard to see through something like that.
...