Darkstone Code-Chapter 968 - 966: Difficult to Handle

The launch of Black Gold Venerable immediately made Shi Haoyun and Duocai tense.

Previously, Every Moment’s main battlefield was always focused on Kleve. They never had a strong desire for managing the cigarette business.

Running the cigarette business was like managing an accessory to Kleve, even on the counters displayed in Every Moment’s storefronts, Kleve occupied the most prominent spot—either solid color or multicolor—with cigarettes surrounding it.

But now, it’s different.

A punch directly hit the two cigarette companies, leaving them unsure of how to respond. Moreover, Every Moment Company’s lawsuit is back on the agenda.

This time, the initiative on both sides changed notably, with Every Moment holding all the initiative.

The most crucial point is that Every Moment didn’t breach the contract, which is the core issue of their mutual lawsuit, whether there was a breach.

If they can prove Every Moment breached first, they couldn’t continue to supply various cigarettes and Kleve, it would mean Every Moment breached first, and the matter of removing counters in stores wouldn’t be considered a breach.

According to Federation’s contract law, if either party violates the agreement, the other party can terminate the contract at any time.

But now, Lynch’s delivery note has already reached all buyers, which means Lynch did not breach the contract.

If Lynch did not breach the contract, then the shops removing counters, does this mean they breached first without dispute?

As for the shop owner’s claim of fraud?

Who can prove it was fraud?

Regardless, this lawsuit will go on until someone concedes, and by the way, the cost of conceding is extremely heavy.

"Can we get some samples?" A senior executive of Shi Haoyun, somewhat defeated, said. "Everything was supposed to be perfect."

Every Moment itself made a mistake, exposing its fatal flaw. Now, everyone entered the scene, together to crush it, then divide the wealth and stuff left behind. The plan was quite perfect.

But ironically, even those who shouldn’t side with Every Moment suddenly stood with them, causing Shi Haoyun and Duocai’s plan to completely fall apart.

Now it’s not just falling apart, they plan to fight back, and their first move has already put them in an extremely severe situation.

Another person shook their head, "At the latest it will be next week. All stocked stores are experience stores, and their cards have already been distributed, others can only wait..."

The speaker sighed. He has sighed more in the past few days than in the entire year before, "Do you know how much those cards are worth outside now?"

Without waiting for a reaction, he mocked, "At least five thousand bucks, and no one is selling!"

Everyone can do the math. When people know that their card in Every Moment’s experience store can exchange for a thousand bucks, their price expectation for the card has already multiplied.

Then everyone calculated, twenty packs of the best cigarettes, one pack for one hundred and fifty, twenty packs were three thousand bucks, at an eighty-five percent discount, saving four hundred and forty-five bucks per cycle.

Adding the benefits and surveys before new product launches, and other activities, each card’s ideal annual value is about eight hundred to one thousand bucks.

This is not a small amount anymore; they will also hold regular events, maybe the price will be a bit higher.

Exchanging three to four years of rewards for this card, yet not many are willing to trade, they are waiting, waiting for Every Moment’s next performance.

Maybe these cards’ prices will soar to unimaginable heights because they represent a privilege!

This is precisely what Lynch wants these people to feel, the thing isn’t necessarily better in abundance; sometimes, less is better!

"Can’t get even a bit?" Shi Haoyun’s director seemed confused, "What about money, I don’t believe they have a number for every stick, there must be a way to get some, we can’t wait too long."

As a company’s director, a wealthy person, he doesn’t believe anyone doesn’t love money.

If money can’t solve this problem, it simply means the offer is too low.

"If hundreds aren’t enough, how about thousands? If thousands don’t work, tens of thousands? If tens of thousands still aren’t enough, then hundreds of thousands. Eventually, someone will be tempted." He said carelessly and somewhat anxiously, belittling others’ character.

In fact, everyone knows that next week, Every Moment’s products will directly face the market, and they will face the first and most brutal impact completely unprepared.

If they can get some of Every Moment’s cigarettes in advance, not to speak of resisting this wave, at least they can prepare in advance.

Don’t underestimate this roughly one week’s difference; it’s this one week that can often determine a product’s future in the market.

A few people discussed till the end but couldn’t come up with a good plan. Every Moment wouldn’t let them succeed so easily.

In the end of the meeting, someone asked again, "What about Every Moment’s next lawsuit?"

"After their delivery note arrived, local courts already asked us if we want to continue appealing. If we do, they want us to prepare submission times and follow-up evidence. If we don’t, then the case is closed."

This is also a problem. When they helped those store owners sue Every Moment, they wanted to drag Every Moment’s energy down with thousands of lawsuits, while further attacking Every Moment’s image in people’s minds to shake shareholders’ confidence for an easy acquisition.

Some things always happen beyond people’s expectations; in this matter, they completely lost their initiative.

Even if they continue to sue Every Moment now, it makes no sense, as this lawsuit will inevitably end in Every Moment’s victory.

Even a young lawyer fresh out of school can’t lose; as long as they’ve supplied the goods, the case is over, and soon they will supply the goods.

The director of Shi Haoyun shook his head and looked at the people from Colorful; Colorful’s director also shook his head, indicating not to continue the fight.

To drag it out, spend more money, and leave the public with a bad impression, why bother?

As for those shopkeepers?

Sorry, that was their own decision. Shi Haoyun and Colorful merely saw their need for help and provided a lawyer unrelated to Shi Haoyun and Colorful to offer free legal assistance.

Now the lawyer believes they’ll lose; there’s no need to continue. If they don’t want to accept this result, they can continue the lawsuit against Every Moment themselves!

The speaker nodded and noted these things in his notebook.

He has many things to do every day; the best way to avoid forgetting an important matter is to record it in the notebook.

Afterward, he asked, "Then the litigation Every Moment filed against those shops..."

The president of Shi Haoyun looked baffled, "Does this have anything to do with us?"

The person shook his head, "No, sir."

"No is the best!"

Shortly afterward, the director returned home with a heavy heart; he didn’t go out for social engagements as he wasn’t in the mood.

Every Moment’s counterattack is unimaginable; they originally thought they would continue to move on Kleve’s side, which is exactly their area of expertise.

But no one expected they would delve into the field of cigarettes, seemingly planning to go big.

Every Moment’s cigarette pricing has reached them; even the worst are mid-range cigarettes; they haven’t entered the low-end cigarette market, which doesn’t seem too bad.

But this news is actually the worst; the director even hoped they’d enter the low-end cigarette market because that’s precisely Shi Haoyun and Colorful’s turf.

If they really entered this seemingly high-demand market with tremendous potential, Shi Haoyun and Colorful could use their rich experience accumulated from years of mutual competition to defeat Every Moment, who doesn’t understand low-end cigarettes.

They didn’t do this; they started with more profitable mid-range cigarettes, meaning the profit margin Shi Haoyun and Colorful can achieve in the mid-to-high-end cigarette market will begin to shrink.

To what extent it will shrink is still unclear; it’s definitely not good news because declining sales of the most profitable products mean their lean profit policy in the low-end market won’t work.

Public companies don’t completely rely on selling products to make money, including those in the real economy; they mostly sell "the future."

This is difficult to understand but not that hard.

If their financial report looks good this year, such as a year-on-year increase in marketing compared to last year, setting records, and achieving several small goals, then stock prices will rise.

The real profit source is the rise in stock prices.

Take Shi Haoyun; its company is always worth four or five hundred million, with a yearly net profit from cigarette sales of just one or two million.

But because its performance was maintained well, the stock rose by ten percent, raising the company’s overall value by tens of millions, bringing far greater benefits than selling goods.

If their performance is bad, such as a decline in net profit, then even if they make money this year, but just a little, leading to a lack of faith in the stock’s future.

A three percent drop in stock price could mean a wasted year, and the overall company value shrinks by tens of millions.

The current situation is just that; to shareholders and the market, the first to be impacted by Every Moment entering the cigarette field are Shi Haoyun and Colorful; their stocks have begun fluctuating downward.

If they can’t come up with good strategies soon to restore shareholder confidence, they’ve already lost.

The director returned home frowning, and his wife instructed the servant to bring a basin and towel.

"No social engagement tonight?"

The director shook his head, "No..." He glanced at his wife, slightly surprised, "Did you go out?"

His wife nodded, "My sister, you know, her family invited me to dinner."

The director suddenly remembered, "I remember they invited us once before; it was when her son went to university."

His wife confirmed his words, "Yes, in botany. He just returned from Nagariel, completely sunburned, and his body was bitten with several large bumps by something, really scary!"