Chapter 368: Sparks of Innovation

The meeting room.

Feedback on the ‘Ran Bing 001’ design proposal was mostly wrapped up.

Jiang Yuze tapped away at his computer, quickly compiling the agreed-upon adjustments. These needed to go back to the London team at ‘Pearl Cat’ by tonight.

The overall concept direction was ‘Patterns of Ice and Fire’ combined with ‘The Wall of the Great Wall’.

The upper part featured a striking mix of ‘Qingci Ice Crack Patterns’ and ‘Dunhuang Flame Patterns’, blending in the dynamic ‘IOF’ logo.

On the side of the sole, Great Wall motifs were integrated, emphasizing the ‘Wall of the Great Wall’ idea.

On the phone, Zhou Junjun added a few technical details.

These mainly covered material and production constraints on the design elements.

With that, the design direction for ‘Ran Bing 001’ was set.

This marked a key milestone for ‘Ran Bing Sports’.

Sun Aimi adjusted her round-framed glasses and chimed in:

“The ‘IOF’ logo from ‘Pearl Cat’ can blend right into our current ‘Ran Bing Sports’ logo. I’ll handle that!”

Xu Chen nodded. “Exactly! That’s the idea!”

Nie Fei kept her eyes fixed on the big screen, studying the official ‘Patterns of Ice and Fire’ design draft:

“It just gets better the more I look at it!”

From the phone, Zhou Junjun laughed and said:

“And it’s got so much character and uniqueness!

It totally lives up to the ‘National Trend Sports’ label!”

…

…

December 1st was a Friday, and also the day the Doha Asian Games kicked off.

The evening opening ceremony would air on CCTV, but due to the time difference, it was already late at night.

Xu Chen thought back; in his previous life, he hadn’t paid much attention to this Asian Games and hadn’t watched the opening.

After all, back then, Xie Bingran hadn’t even debuted yet.

And at that time, Xu Chen hadn’t been very interested in sports events either.

…

During the morning break, classmates around him were buzzing about the evening ceremony.

The college had organized a live viewing at the ‘Little Yellow Building’ lecture hall, and some girls were planning to go together.

“Jiang Zhe’s little prince” Qian Xin had already scoped out a beer bar with late-night screenings and was rallying a few guys.

Xu Chen didn’t jump in; after all, his company had its own arrangements.

In the college’s group chat, plenty of Asian Games news and hype were being shared.

Xu Chen clicked through and saw a couple of posts from local Shanghai media, covering athletes from the area.

Naturally, that included the ‘Shanghai Twins’ Bai Miao and Dong Jiajia.

Like Xie Bingran, both had qualified for the women’s 100-meter hurdles heats.

But Bai Miao was the clear favorite.

After the August National Games, Bai Miao, like Xie Bingran, got called up to the National Team and her times kept improving.

Dong Jiajia, though, hadn’t broken through much and only recently joined the ‘National First Team’, becoming teammates with Bai Miao and Xie Bingran.

Those Shanghai media reports also mentioned Xie Bingran, who studied at ‘Huahai Normal University’.

But since Xie Bingran still represented the ‘Wen Province Team’ nationally, the local coverage felt a bit awkward.

Xu Chen specifically searched Wen Province and Tiancheng media; as expected, they had detailed reports on Xie Bingran.

They listed her achievements since debuting, promoting her as the ‘prodigy girl’.

With her gold medal from the National Games, she was now seen as China’s top seed.

…

In an official-style release from the Sports Administration’s publicity department about the Asian Games, the women’s 100-meter hurdles highlighted two athletes.

Besides Xie Bingran, it was the National Team’s senior Chen Lan.

Before Xie Bingran burst onto the scene, the top two in China were Feng Youping and Chen Lan.

Feng Youping took gold at the last Asian Games, and Chen Lan got bronze.

Feng Youping had passed her peak and retired, while Chen Lan, at 24, was at the height of her competitive form.

Without Xie Bingran’s rise, Chen Lan would be China’s undisputed number one and Asia’s top force.

The August National Games was meant to be a handover from veteran Feng Youping to rising star Chen Lan.

No one expected a 17-year-old Xie Bingran to crash the party.

Not only did she win gold and shatter the 13-year-old National Games record.

Chen Lan ended up with silver under her shadow.

…

This report framed the Asian Games as a showdown between Chen Lan and Xie Bingran.

At the National Games, Xie Bingran came out of nowhere with dominant times.

But in the following two or three months, Chen Lan from the Beijing Team saw her own times soar.

In the October National Indoor Athletics Championships, Chen Lan set a new personal best of 12.62 seconds and claimed victory.

That time matched Xie Bingran’s record-breaking run at the National Games…

And it was close to her 12.58 seconds from the September Osaka East Youth Games.

Based on their current personal bests, both were at the Asian elite level.

So, the Asian Games would see a real battle for the top spot.

From Chen Lan’s perspective, Xie Bingran’s sudden emergence was a total surprise.

Without her, Chen Lan would be China’s clear leader and Asia’s peak competitor.

Even Feng Youping’s best, around 12.80 seconds, was already left in the dust by Chen Lan…

And Xie Bingran, at just 18, might still have room to grow.

Who knew if Chen Lan felt that mix of admiration and regret, like ‘Why must there be another bright star?’

…

…

As Xu Chen scrolled through the news, Huang Hao in the front row turned around and asked Qian Xin and Xu Chen:

“You two got your travel sorted?

Are you going or not…?”

Qian Xin: “I’ve booked it! Same flight and hotel as the main group!”

He then looked at Xu Chen:

“What about you, Boss Xu?”

Xu Chen: “Which flight and hotel are you on?”

Qian Xin pulled out his phone: “I’ll forward it to you!”

Xu Chen glanced at it and smiled: “We’re on the same flight there, so we can travel together!”

Qian Xin: “Awesome!

I’ll drive to the airport, and you two can ride with me!”

Huang Hao: “Perfect! Then I won’t have to cram into the college bus!”

Xu Chen felt a twinge of awkwardness but just smiled without saying more.

After all, as ‘Young President Xu’, he was driving himself.

…

In the afternoon, the college student union’s academic department head reached out to Xu Chen again.

It was to confirm the itinerary for the late December ‘China Advertising Festival’ and arrange train and hotel bookings in advance.

Xu Chen thought it over and replied:

[I’ll handle my own travel, no worries!

Just send me the schedule for those two days.

We’ll meet up in Kun City then…]

[Are you sure?

If you book your own train tickets and hotel, the college won’t reimburse it…

You’d have to cover all the costs yourself.]

[Yeah, I’m sure! I’ll take care of it!]

…

The reason ‘Young President Xu’ wanted to book his own travel was for comfort.

The college’s arrangements would focus on budget, like trains and probably subpar hotels, maybe even sharing with some random upperclassman.

Now that he was ‘Young President Xu’, he figured he’d keep things up to standard and make it enjoyable.

…

The Friday class meeting ended quickly, leading straight into the program rehearsal.

Today was a full-class run-through, quite the production.

Xu Chen and his roommate Hong Xiaoqiang played a tree and a city wall, respectively…

They practiced their positioning and movements seriously.

The deputy class monitor, Huo Dashan, who handled props and costumes, brought over the rented outfits today.

So, the main actors eagerly slipped into their costumes.

When ‘Xiao Qiao’ and ‘Zhou Yu’ appeared, everyone was impressed, murmuring in awe.

Su Rong as ‘Xiao Qiao’ had that gentle, pitiful charm, no wonder she was seen as the class beauty.

And class monitor Min Siyang cross-dressing as ‘Zhou Yu’ drew screams from the girls.

She really pulled off that elegant, dashing young lord vibe…

After a fun-filled rehearsal, what started as a rough program actually shaped up nicely.

Even Xu Chen found it entertaining.

The creators, Su Rong and Min Siyang, proved their skills.

…

The rehearsal ran until nearly six, with dusk settling in.

The students were starving, so they laughed and dispersed.

The project was clearly progressing well, and as the lead, Su Rong let out a relieved sigh.

…

…

Ten minutes later, in the office.

The meeting room table was loaded with food and drinks.

Tacos, pizza, fried chicken.

Popcorn, chips, fruit…

“What took you so long?”

Wu Feifei saw Xu Chen and Su Rong walk in and said with a smile.

Before Xu Chen could answer, Su Rong offered an apologetic look:

“We were caught up in rehearsing the program…”

Wu Feifei grinned and pulled her to the table:

“Dig in quick, it’s getting cold!”

Xu Chen felt his stomach growl and grabbed a taco wrap, biting in heartily.

…

…

After eating, Xu Chen and Nie Fei were called over by Sun Aimi.

“For ‘Ran Bing Sports’ teaser site, I’ve got three design options. You two pick one!”

Sun Aimi opened a design document.

This teaser site was timed to launch with the Asian Games buzz.

Xie Bingran’s event was on December 10th, and the site would go live then too.

It would be the first public reveal for ‘Ran Bing Sports’ and ‘Ran Bing 001’.

The plan was to ride Xie Bingran’s Asian Games hype, announcing her personal brand and a new sneaker line…

‘Ran Bing Sports’ hadn’t shot new endorsement material for her yet, so they reused footage from ‘Chenfeng Ice Power’.

Back then, Xie Bingran wore simple athletic wear against a green screen, easy to edit.

The ‘Ran Bing 001’ design wasn’t finalized, so the teaser just showed a shoe silhouette, nothing full-on.

Sun Aimi had three variations, mostly differing in layout and color tones.

Xu Chen and Nie Fei discussed briefly and quickly chose one.

“This one’s solid. The background’s darker, giving it more of a mysterious vibe…”

“Using Bing Ge’s close-up works well.

The facial shot staring at the camera really grabs attention…

And for the hair, maybe add some dynamic effects if possible, but no pressure.”

“The shoe silhouette looks good like that. See if you can add a floating animation to make it pop more!”

…

The accompanying text was simple:

“Born Unbeatable, Heaven-Sent Ice—Ran Bing 001”

[National Trend Sports: Ran Bing Sports]

At the bottom, there was a [Pre-order] button link.

Sun Lingfeng wandered over and explained:

“The ‘pre-order’ feature will link to the official store. Users can leave their phone number or email…

We’ll use it to send updates on product launches.

We’re also looking into letting pre-order users buy early, but we’re still checking with the site builders if that’s doable…”

Sun Lingfeng updated them on the online store setup.

The Taobao shop was already in progress and could launch on December 10th.

But it depended on Zhou Junjun’s production timeline, so they’d push forward accordingly.

For warehousing, logistics, and customer service, Sun Lingfeng had lined up a local Shanghai provider, ‘Bao Zun Network’.

They’d send outsourced staff to help with ‘Ran Bing Sports’ online operations…

Xu Chen listened to Sun Lingfeng’s report; it all seemed well-planned, so he just nodded with a smile.

Nie Fei dove deeper, giving Sun Lingfeng some specific feedback.

…

…

That evening.

The meeting room buzzed with laughter and chatter.

Waiting for the opening ceremony to start, the young crowd snacked, talked, and played ‘murderer’ games.

Xu Chen and Nie Fei stayed in the adjacent general manager’s office, each with a glass of red wine.

Nie Fei lit a slim cigarette and said:

“We haven’t really talked about sales targets for ‘Ran Bing 001’ yet.”

Xu Chen was straightforward: “I don’t have a clear picture.”

Nie Fei smiled: “It’s great having a boss like you without strict KPIs.”

Xu Chen: “I just trust you, Fei Jie.”

Nie Fei clinked her glass with his.

She took a sip and continued: “I’ve crunched the numbers with Zhou Junjun on production capacity and with Fang Jun on launch models.

Plus, I looked at sales data from hits like Nike, Li Ning, and Anta…

Our goal is to hit 100,000 pairs a month for ‘Ran Bing 001’ within ten months.”

Xu Chen sipped his wine, mulling over that figure.

Nie Fei: “We’re eyeing a price range of 260 to 290 yuan.

After subtracting all costs—production, distribution, marketing, staff— we’re aiming for a 20% profit margin…

At 100,000 pairs a month, that’d mean monthly sales around 28 million yuan and profits of about 5 million yuan.”

Xu Chen: “So, over 300 million in annual sales and 60 million in profits…”

Nie Fei nodded: “That’s just for ‘Ran Bing 001’.

Actual results depend on how well the team executes, but I’m optimistic…

Expand the product line later, and it’ll grow even more.”

Xu Chen chuckled, clinked glasses again, and said in his not-so-perfect Cantonese:

“May fortune smile on us!”

…

…