A knock was heard on his door. "Come in." He said.

"Father."

Chairman s.h.i.+ turned around and walked slowly towards the visitor. "I see that you heed my advice. You still listen to me after all."

*SLAP*

Chairman's hand landed heavily on s.h.i.+ Fan Hai's right cheek. It was a slap, but it was more than a punch.

Not satisfied, he repeated it again. And again.

"Such a greeting, Father. Welcome back to me!" He sneered. "I can feel the love." His mouth tasted like metal. It was bleeding. He flexed his jaw while wiping blood from his mouth. Both sides of his cheeks were swollen and numb.

"You know why I did that."

"You lost us our fortune! Xue s.h.i.+pping! It's all but lost! Your grandfather had exerted his efforts to seal that deal. It was on our grasp – just a little bit formality - but you ruined it!"

"I'm not him, Father."

"You are him! You are who I say you are! Do you understand?"

"Surely, there's still a way to get a s.h.i.+pping company. Give me a s.h.i.+pping company! Prove your worth!"

"Just a s.h.i.+pping company, Father? Does it have to be the Xue's? There are plenty of other s.h.i.+pping companies out there. Like the Zhu s.h.i.+pping Lines, perhaps? Or the smaller ones?" He jeered.

"Apparently I would have wanted the best! But we're running out of time, we need subsidized s.h.i.+pping for our cargoes. Quick!"

"Is the outlook still grim in the oil industry?" s.h.i.+ Fan Hai asked.

"Yes, it's still the same. Trend is still downward. We are losing money for every barrel that we sell."

In petroleum, most of the oil companies follow globally acknowledged indicators such as the West Texas and Brent, both which were showing decline in crude oil prices. Contrary to popular belief, downward trend means loss and fall of business for most oil companies.

Like any other trading or business, there are two sides: the sourcing and the selling. The sourcing for oil could take up to forty five days to sixty days, and for some it could take even longer, up to ninty to a hundred and twenty days from sealing a contract, to arrival of the product. During a downward trend, a product that was purchased at a certain price will only arrive after two to fourth months, in which case, the market price had already plummeted to a new low. It meant the the product would be sold at a lower price compared to how much it was bought, thus the lost money for every volume sold.

"Don't worry, Father, I'm here now. We're at the top of the compet.i.tion. We're the last to fall among our compet.i.tors."

"I am planning to bleed the market out so that the fleas of our compet.i.tors would die first before us. Sure, we will be hurt by the blow as well, but we will survive."

Chairman s.h.i.+ grunted in approval. "Do that, but be mindful of your limit. That plan is suicidal, retract once you are almost at your limit, regardless. Or else, our company will die with those little rats."

s.h.i.+ Fan Hai's plan was simple. In any marketplace, be it the literal market where vegetable and other produce were offered, consumers would rather choose the lowest priced, given the same quality and specifications of the product.

s.h.i.+ Fan Hai was planning to give exaggeratingly low discounts on their products so that the consumers will choose theirs, compared to their compet.i.tors. They could do that, because their company was larger. Those smaller oil companies would not be able to match their lowered price because they would be bankrupt if they pushed with it. That's what he meant by killing them. A more brutal plan would be to gradually lower the benchmark price until their little compet.i.tors could not match their price anymore, and simply surrender.

Although s.h.i.+ Corporation would not come out of it, unscathed, they would be able to eliminate their other compet.i.tors and still dominate the market. It's the giant versus those small ants.

To support his plan and to sustain it, they would need an extremely sound and optimized sourcing strategy. They need to source at the lowest price too. They needed a s.h.i.+pping company's alliance also for this reason. Subsidized s.h.i.+pping means subsidized sourcing cost.

"I want you to concentrate on disrupting the market. I'm planning to get another capable, competent person to focus on the other end, the sourcing."

"We need an expert to do the sourcing for us. I've done my research. Here's my candidate for the job." Chairman s.h.i.+ pa.s.sed the doc.u.ments to his son.

Instantly, s.h.i.+ Fan Hai's face turned sour. "Father, do you know who this person is? He's my bride's stealer, who took away your daughter-in-law-to-be sneakily."

"Moreso, he has not done any commodities trading before. How can you choose him?"

"All the more reason to get him. If he does not succeed, which I doubt he would, it's easier to put the blame on him." Chairman s.h.i.+ said forbodingly. "Well, I'm sure he'll be aware of that too, if he's to agree to a contract with us, which is enough motivation for him to do well."

"While I am desperate for my business, might as well consider other benefits too. Let's look at a bigger picture."

"Father, I admire your plans, but you missed to consider one crucial thing – he will never agree to it."

"You should know the psychology of the people you are dealing with, son. That Chen Linyun, everything he had done, I've discovered, since a few years back, stemmed from his determination to… How should I put it… win his woman's heart."

"Everything for the little sweetheart. Mhmm… Interesting." His taunting smile was back on his face.

"We simply have to make it appealing to him, that's all." Chairman s.h.i.+ retorted. "Make it appear that he's given the chance to make us fall, from the inside, and that he's in control. Oh, good men can be naïve sometimes, thinking of heroic deeds and going home victorious. How ideal."

"It's all set, then."