Chapter 0802: Short of Money

Ever since Zhang Qian came along, Zhao Fusheng had indeed become much more convenient—at the very least, someone was available to drive him around, and he no longer had to worry about encountering troublemakers on the road.

If they did run into trouble, Zhao Fusheng even wondered whether one or two thugs would be enough for him and Zhang Qian to handle.

Although Fan Baobao was a bit unaccustomed to having an extra 'third wheel' in the house, she was easygoing and quickly adapted. Especially after tasting Zhang Qian's excellent cooking, she even considered asking him to stay longer. After all, neither she nor Zhao Fusheng had much money at the moment, and they couldn't afford to buy the apartment across the hall.

Speaking of this, Zhao Fusheng couldn't help but laugh. At present, he held shares in two future listed companies, Tencent and Shanda. Although the former could not be diluted and the latter would soon be worth a fortune, the problem was that neither could be cashed out.

Even Future Advertising was the same. That woman Zheng Yao was crazy about expanding the scale of Future Advertising, and it would be good enough if she didn't ask Zhao Fusheng for more investment.

As for Ninghai, the money from the arcade went to the Red Star Welfare Home, and Zhao Fusheng had no intention of touching the money from Brilliant Technology. That was the startup capital he left for Tan Kaixuan, and how far it could go depended on Tan Kaixuan himself.

After careful calculation, Zhao Fusheng found that the only money he could use now was the monthly advertising revenue of a few tens of thousands from the my123 navigation webpage.

That's right, the internet situation had improved a lot recently, and the number of users of the navigation webpage had gradually increased. Now, if you wanted to advertise on my123, the minimum cost was a few thousand, and for a better spot, it could be tens of thousands.

So, although Zhao Fusheng had been so poor before that he could only use Fan Baobao's bank card, now he still had over a hundred thousand yuan at his disposal.

"Money is scarce when it comes to using it." Zhao Fusheng blinked, sitting in Dong Chenxi's office, complaining to her.

Dong Chenxi rolled her eyes and looked at him helplessly: "So, you're short on money again?"

She now saw through Zhao Fusheng; this guy only took advertising planning seriously when he was in need of money. After all, as a gold medal planner, Zhao Fusheng was different from ordinary advertising planners.

To put it metaphorically, it was the difference between a buyer's market and a seller's market.

An ordinary advertising company, or an ordinary advertising planner, needs to work hard to win clients, gain the favor of advertisers, participate in bidding and other activities, hoping to get opportunities.

But for a gold medal planner like Zhao Fusheng, a top-tier presence in the industry, there was no need to look for clients; advertisers would flock to him.

The reason was simple: advertisers were not fools. What a gold medal planner meant in the industry went without saying.

When it came to advertising, if you could choose a gold medal planner with a higher success rate, why would you choose someone with a low success rate, no reputation, and who had never proven themselves?

The answer was obvious.

But the problem was that there were not many people in the industry who could be called gold medal planners, and they were all the pillars of their respective companies. Even Zhao Fusheng, if he hadn't produced more than a dozen major plans in a year and a half, wouldn't have been qualified to be called a gold medal planner.

Moreover, planning this kind of thing requires inspiration, so sometimes the advertising business isn't so easy.

In a business plan, the most attractive elements are the selling points and profit points. Selling points are what draw people in; for the advertising industry, finding a selling point in a plan is like looking for a needle in a haystack, while profit points, as the name suggests, are where the money is made.

The ability of a top-tier planner is to maximize the prominence of a product's selling points, thereby enabling the company to profit.

Logically, Zhao Fusheng's business should be doing quite well.

But in reality, the guy was just too lazy. In Dong Chenxi's words, if Zhao Fusheng wasn't in need of money, taking on two projects a year would be considered a lot.

And today, Zhao Fusheng appeared again at Future Advertising.

"Look at you, why do you have to talk like that?" Zhao Fusheng clearly didn't agree with Dong Chenxi's words. He poured himself a glass of water, then looked at Dong Chenxi: "Tell me, are there any good deals lately?"

Dong Chenxi shot him a helpless glare, then looked through the papers on her desk and said, "The World Expo organizing committee is openly recruiting proposals. Want to give it a try?"

"Hah, a few thousand bucks for a proposal, and I'd have to revise it a dozen times for those officials? Am I crazy?" Zhao Fusheng said irritably.

Shanghai was bidding for the World Expo. Zhao Fusheng actually remembered the slogan: "Better City, Better Life." But the problem was, he had no interest in such official business. The big shots up top wouldn't care whether you were a top-tier planner or not; in their eyes, serving the people was your honor, and contributing a proposal with a bit of compensation was already generous.

It was as if they took it for granted that they deserved high-end treatment: chauffeured cars, housing benefits, and even after retirement, tens of thousands in monthly income.

The word "public servant" was seen by many as an iron rice bowl, but they had long forgotten its true meaning.

"Then what about this?"

Dong Chenxi wasn't surprised by Zhao Fusheng's answer at all. She now understood him well enough: the guy was a cynic at heart, the kind who couldn't stand even a speck of dust in his eyes. He always kept his distance from certain ugly phenomena in society.

There was no choice; since he couldn't change anything, this was the only way.

He wasn't in power, nor did he have the ability to make a last-ditch effort to change the entire era. The only thing Zhao Fusheng could do was try to influence the people around him to live a little happier.

"Stomach medicine?"

Zhao Fusheng frowned as he glanced at the documents Dong Chenxi handed him.

"Yeah, a product from a listed company. It's quite effective for treating gastric ulcers and such." Dong Chenxi introduced as she spoke: "They're eager to expand their market share, so they're very strict about advertising. I heard they've contacted several ad agencies, including Dongfang Advertising and Wanmei Advertising, but none of the proposals seemed to satisfy them."

"Oh, looks like a picky client," Zhao Fusheng laughed. Clearly, the more demanding a client was about proposals, the bigger their ambitions for advertising. In simple terms, it meant another opportunity for him to make money.

When it came to making money, Zhao Fusheng was always serious.