Chapter 497 – Old Ma’s grudge
Feng Yu returned to the hotel room and continued his discussions with Kameda Masao on the company’s future plans. Kameda Masao was mainly the one who does all the talking, reporting to Feng Yu. Feng Yu was only nodding as he was not familiar with running a company. He was not as good as Kameda Masao when it comes to managing a company! Kameda Masao wanted to use Hong Kong as a stepping stone to enter the Chinese market. He wants to target the coastal regions and Beijing first.
Feng Yu thought for a while. There were already lots of ladies wearing stockings and knee-length skirts on the streets now. That means the Chinese were getting more open-minded. The mini skirts will only appear in China after Hong Kong’s return.
Kameda Masao was thinking of asking Feng Yu to help. Feng Yu had an established sales network in China, and if he could make use of this network, it will be easier for him to enter the Chinese market.
Feng Yu hesitated, but still gave Kameda Masao the contacts of the distributors. Tai Hua Trading will still not get involved in this business yet.
Feng Yu does not want to interfere in this. It will be up to the distributors on whether if they’re going to sell these products.
After this, Feng Yu continued with his school as usual. He had to prepare for his examinations. Kameda Masao also started to visit the distributors personally and at the same time, monitor the Chinese market.
Maybe it was because of the advertisements or the capabilities of the sales representatives, the sales of Bing City’s Pharmaceutical health products started to increase steadily.
Some of CCTV viewers had noticed that the advertisement slots of those fake products were changed to Bing City’s Pharmaceutical Enterprise, Songjiang Motors advertisements. All these products were all manufactured in Bing City!
When the sales of Bing City’s Pharmaceutical Enterprise increases, Zhang Ruiqiang was overjoyed. This shows that the restructuring of the pharmaceutical industry in Bing City was a success.
But soon, he found out that Bing City’s relationships with the other cities had soured. Even Shenyang City, who had a good relationship with Bing City in the past, had stopped some joint projects.
Zhang Ruiqiang thought back to what had happened and soon understood why this was happening.
Where was the Ma Family Army originated from? Shenyang! They were not the National team. They were the Shenyang Provincial team, but they enjoyed the same benefits as the national team. This was the reason why Shenyang got to enjoy the same honor whenever the Ma Family Army won any competitions. The city can also enjoy a portion of the advertising and sponsorships of the Ma Family Army. The Ma Family Army was the front of Shenyang!
Now, the reputation of the Ma Family Army was tarnished by CCTV and why was all the advertisement slots changed to Bing City’s products? Who would believe that Bing City had nothing to do with this incident?
Of course, Coach Ma also played a huge role in this. When Coach Ma brought his athletes to participate in a competition, he knew that he will be caught up in this incident.
While he was overseas, he heard of this incident. But he needed to concentrate on the competition and had no time to look into that scandal. From his point of view, he had so many achievements under his belt and what could happen to him? He had only endorsed a product, and the commercial and advertising message was thought up by others. He just needs to say that he does not know about all these and he will be fine.
The Ma Family Army had shown outstanding results at the competition again. When they arrived back in China, they were surrounded by reporters the moment they touch down. Coach Ma thought that it would be like in the past and the reporters will be congratulating him on his team’s results. They will be asking him how his team was able to achieve those results and what will be their future targets, etc. He had already prepared the answers to these questions.
But this time it was different. He was furious by the reporters’ questions!
“Coach Ma, is the Chinese Turtle Essence the reason for the Ma Family Army winning so many medals at the competition?”
“Coach Ma, what do you think of CCTV exposing the Chinese Turtle Essence was actually water with sweeteners?”
“Coach Ma, the Energy of Life was verified to be just a normal product with some vitamins and proteins. This is just an ordinary product and not some mysterious and special product. Why are you able to sell this formula for 10 million RMB?”
“Coach Ma, as a graduate from a vocational school, how are you about to develop the formula for the Energy of Life? Is it true that this formula was developed by your team doctors and you took credit for that?”
“Wang Junxia, you had won the gold medal in this competition. What was the contributing factor that let you win? Is it because of the Chinese Turtle Essence? Did all of you pack the Chinese Turtle Essence in your luggage whenever all of you participate in overseas competitions?”
All the questions by the reports were like wooden stakes piercing through Coach Ma’s heart. This was the first time he had experienced the cons of being famous.
“Sorry. Our athletes had just completed a tiring competition, and we still need to prepare for the upcoming IAAF World Championships in Athletics. Please do not disturb us.” Coach Ma said.
“Coach Ma, are you avoiding our questions? Wang Junxia, what’re your views on these questions?”
Wang Junxia and the rest of the athletes had been unhappy with Coach making use of their results to make money and his rigid training schedule. All the athletes were tied together on the waist and was dragged behind a motorcycle ridden by Coach Ma. Even if they fell, they had to get up and continue running. Who could stand such training methods?
But in front of the reporters, Wang Junxia and the rest of the athletes did not say much. All of them were escorted by the assistant coaches to their cars and left. But Coach Ma was the only who was not able to board the vehicle as he was still surrounded by the reporters.
“I am also the victim. I still have many questions myself. I have just returned from overseas. I will answer all your questions after I know what actually had happened.”
When Coach Ma returned to his training camp, he was called to Shenyang leader’s office.
Coach Ma was furious when he left the leader’s office. Why does he need to hand over all his money? It was those businessmen that cheated the consumers. I am not involved! Why should my salary be docked, and bonuses forfeited?
But the governor of Shenyang just asked him one question, and he got nothing to argued: “You really do not know that those products were not as wonderful as what was claimed in the advertisements? Have you drunk the Chinese Turtle Essence yourself? Do all the team athletes really drink this Chinese Turtle Essence?”
Coach Ma had no choice but to surrender the 10 million RMB he got from selling the formula to Le Bashi and the 1 million endorsement fees he got from the Chinese Turtle Essence. This amount will be used to compensate the victims.
Also, Shenyang city was reprimanded by the higher-ups for failing to monitor their staffs. They had let their coach endorse for products and resulted in this incident.
At the training camp, Coach Ma opened up a copy of the newspaper on his desk. Half the page were articles criticizing him, and the other half was Bing City’s Pharmaceutical Enterprise’s advertisements.
Coach Ma crushed the papers in anger. But he suddenly thought of a way to divert the public’s attention from him.
He immediately called the governor and claims that he was the victim in this incident. The entire health product industry were victims, and the only winner was Bing City’s Pharmaceutical Enterprise!
Even though this incident had blown up, Coach Ma was not worried that his status would be affected. It will be the World Championships soon, and then it will be the National Games of the People’s Republic of China, followed by the Asian games. As long as his athletes continued to achieve good results in these competitions, people will forget about his involvement in this scandal.
But what Coach Ma did not know was that there was a bigger storm coming his way.
Translator’s notes: Here’s more information about Shenyang