Chapter 515: Waking Up to a Kiss

In mid-August, the heat peaked while cicadas sang nonstop.

Jiang Qin resolved the cooperation issues with Hengtong Freight and left Hangcheng with the little rich girl, returning to Jizhou.

Throughout the trip, he secured partnerships with two major factories and finalized investment stakes with Hengtong Freight, reaping significant benefits.

However, upon returning to this small county, everything suddenly slowed down again.

Then, Jiang Qin noticed that the little rich girl suddenly started asking him for hugs.

On a Friday morning, right after freshening up, she called out “Brother hug,” her expression sleepy and her eyes half-open, then tucked her hands into her pajama sleeves and wrapped her arms around Jiang Qin’s waist.

This was different from when they were traveling; during the trip, aside from stepping on his phone, the little rich girl was mostly well-behaved and even somewhat aloof.

Many times, Jiang Qin wanted to kiss her but restrained himself, pretending he wasn’t craving his friend’s body at all.

But this time, Feng Nanshu acted more clingy, seeming upset and unable to detach.

Slightly helpless, Jiang Qin tousled her hair, “What’s with the coyness today?”

“You didn’t hug me the other days.”

“Your voice is so soft. Are you even awake yet?”

Jiang Qin looked down at her, finding her just opening her eyes lazily, her long curled lashes trembling slightly: “I’m awake now.”

Feng Nanshu pursed her lips again, “Brother, I want roasted sweet potato for breakfast.”

“It’s so hot this summer. Who’s selling roasted sweet potatoes?”

“I want roasted sweet potatoes for breakfast…”

Feng Nanshu yawned, then rubbed her eyes and whispered as if mumbling in a dream before her head fell onto his chest, softly rubbing against it.

Jiang Qin went silent, then thought how a kiss was inevitable just after waking, and gently pushed her against the wall to softly kiss her moist lips.

This was a friendly kiss, gentle and proper, since intimacy between friends has its limits.

Initially, Jiang Qin’s kiss was light and gentle, very gentlemanly.

But as time passed, it was getting hard to control the intensity.

A soft touch, wandering a bit recklessly, savouring the sweet smoothness, shaping her lips into various forms.

Feng Nanshu looked a bit dazed from the kiss, curling up in Jiang Qin’s arms, her breathing grew rapid, her cheeks flushed, and she became limp, as if boneless.

Holding the 170-cm-tall little rich girl was a bit of a strain, so Jiang Qin adjusted and finally sat on the couch, enclosing her in his arms.

With her eyes closed while being kissed, she didn’t expect him to suddenly sit down, so she almost fell onto him with a cute hum, briefly separated.

But only for half a second, she tilted her face up towards him again, like set on autopilot, though her body slightly slipped down the sofa.

Jiang Qin had to pinch her rear to lift her up slightly, holding her close, kissing breathlessly.

After a long while, the old clock in Jiang Qin’s house began chiming, breaking the silence in the living room.

With a “pop,” Feng Nanshu’s lips were finally released, her expression even more dazed.

“Are you satisfied now?”

The little rich girl wiped her mouth and nodded gently, though a bit aloof, she seemed quite pleased.

Jiang Qin thought that as long as she’s happy, then stood and went to the kitchen for some water to quench his thirst: “So, what do you want for breakfast?”

Feng Nanshu looked up, “Brother, I’ve said several times, I want roasted sweet potatoes.”

“?”

Jiang Qin stared for a moment to make sure she wasn’t using some code before squinting, “You really want roasted sweet potatoes?”

“Brother, you seem a bit silly,” the little rich girl said earnestly.

“You’re the silly one. If you really wanted roasted sweet potatoes, why didn’t you say so sooner? You nearly kissed my lips sore.”

The little rich girl squinted, “I couldn’t say it; my mouth was kissed shut.”

Jiang Qin immediately frowned, “I don’t care about the rest, just want to know if you liked it.”

“Liked it, would kiss again.”

“Good. Since you liked it, it wasn’t me initiating.”

“?”

The little rich girl was puzzled for a moment before seeing Jiang Qin changing shoes at the entrance. She too rushed over, flinging off her slippers and slipping into her shoes, watching intently as he tied them.

“This isn’t breakfast.”

Feng Nanshu wrinkled her small face, seriously cautioning him.

Jiang Qin: “…”

On August 20, a weekend, neither Yuan Youqin nor Jiang Zhenghong were working; after lunch, they enjoyed the leisure of a summer day in front of the air-conditioned TV in the living room.

Feng Nanshu lay on Yuan Youqin’s lap, squinting in comfort as “mom” cleaned her ears.

“Feels good?”

“It’s comfortable but a bit ticklish.”

Feng Nanshu spoke softly, her eyes drifting towards the maid’s room.

Jiang Qin was in the maid’s room reviewing end-of-the-month reports from various branches. The door was open to catch the living room’s air conditioning. The main idea was to save where possible and spend where needed.

The group-buying market in first-tier cities was still relatively calm. Only the Southern second and third-tier markets were currently experiencing a three-way fight.

Lashou was aggressively competing, now going head-to-head with Nuomi, while Wowo Group couldn’t sit still and started investing in lower-tier markets.

Jiang Qin had just heard that Lashou went south, slightly regretting, “You run off, how am I supposed to compete for the market? How can people be so ruthless?”

“I thought we were friends, and now, in my time of need, you just leave?”

He was really upset, feeling betrayed.

But then, he could somewhat understand Lashou’s reasoning.

They were still hanging on in Kyoto market, but facing Group-Buy’s aggressive tactics, everyone knew they couldn’t last much longer. For the sake of business volume, they had to move south to develop second and third-tier markets.

What Jiang Qin didn’t know was that Lashou was still planning to integrate Alipay then strike back and take over Group-Buy.

But really, Lashou was just unlucky, even getting a bad deal when they just drink water.

When they first entered the southern market, they were quite arrogant because Nuomi had been their underling. Back in the day, with all of Shanghai’s resources, they couldn’t beat them, so Lashou didn’t take Nuomi seriously at all.

Just put it this way, as long as it’s not Group-Buy, they’d fight anyone.

But recently, Nuomi suddenly launched Baidu’s mapping service, causing Lashou’s business to stall again.

Group-Buy hadn’t expanded much in the southern second and third-tier cities, so Nuomi became the first choice for consumers due to convenience, and once again with Baidu’s funding, they started actively developing the southern market.

With money and technology, Lashou was brutally cornered, completely baffled.

After Nuomi pushed Lashou out of the market, they settled in Guangzhou and began taking over Wowo Group’s market, as if saying, “You Lashou are nothing; our competitor is Guangzhou’s Wowo Group.”

This made the team leader, Robin, utterly frustrated.

“When is Alipay coming in?”

“Soon, our technicians have been following up on this. They say it’s almost ready.”

Robin took a drag on his cigarette, nodded at this news, then released a puff of smoke, the anger from being oppressed by Nuomi slightly dissipating.

Thinking back to last year, Lashou was unmatched except by Group-Buy, never having faced such humiliation.

But no worries, after September, with the integration of a third-party payment platform, Lashou would return and Nuomi could only laugh till that day.

“However…”

Robin’s brow furrowed slightly, “It takes time to promote Alipay. Remember how the group-buying market burned so much money and took over eight months to cover the entire market?”

Cui Yiting pursed her lips, “Big factory’s money is plentiful; their promotion is definitely faster. I heard Mr. Pang has even negotiated the promotional channels.”

“Can it be popularized within half a year?”

“I’m not sure, but first-tier cities will definitely be the first to roll out. After all, consumers in first-tier cities are more receptive to new technologies.”

Robin nodded after hearing this, smoking as he pondered.

Once Alipay integrates with Lashou, they will promote in first-tier cities, aiming directly at Guangzhou to settle Nuomi’s score.

Then, they would return to Kyoto to recapture their lost business areas. In this way, Lashou might recover to last year’s peak status.

This would probably take about half a year. By then, the adoption rate of Alipay would be quite impressive, and moving into second and third-tier markets would likely be as easy as riding the wind.

“Don’t run promotions for now, just loosely lay out plans for neighboring cities and save some expenses.”

“Yes, President Luo.”

Cui Yiting nodded and then pushed open the door, stepping out of their temporarily rented office in Xingcheng.

Actually, she had wanted to resign last month. After all, she wasn’t short on money and was just curious about the outcome of the group-buying war. But now that Lashou was pulling such moves, she lost interest in staying.

However, just as she was about to submit her resignation letter, news about Alipay soon integrating with Lashou spread internally.

Technological innovation is like a storm, easily overturning the whole market.

Group-Buy’s GIS service and Nuomi’s GIS service had already caused this kind of impact.

And this time, the arrival of mobile payments would have an even greater impact than mapping services.

She couldn’t help feeling worried for Group-Buy, wondering how the website would respond.

Yes, Jiang Qin was indeed very capable, something she had accepted long ago.

Especially their layout in Kyoto, leveraging offline community group-buying to effortlessly establish the Kyoto market and squeeze out Lashou.

But faced with third-party payment tools, a kind of dimension-reducing policy barrier, even big factories might not be able to overcome.