「Inside the Rice Expo exhibition hall.」
"Holy shit! What am I seeing?!"
"Damn, if you put Yao Ming in the middle of those six, he’d look like a shorty too!
"Oh my god! So tall, so muscular, I really want to go up and feel them..."
CLICK, CLICK, CLICK. The sound of camera shutters echoed endlessly.
Wu Jun made a high-profile entrance with Little Red and the other five men. Just as he’d expected, they caused a huge commotion, instantly becoming the center of attention!
Compared to Little Red and his "F6" group, the beautiful models hired by the other exhibitors instantly lost all their appeal.
There were plenty of ways to see beautiful women. Short-video apps and live-streaming platforms had thousands upon thousands of them. Beautiful models had become a standard, almost cliché, feature at every kind of exhibition.
But giants like Little Red and his crew, all over two meters tall, were like a... mudslide crashing through the trade show.
Especially six of them appearing at once. You’d probably go your whole life without seeing a sight like that again.
With their cool suits and sunglasses, imposing physiques, and powerful strides, they couldn’t have looked more impressive.
Wu Jun led the F6 group toward the Hongyun Rice booth, a huge crowd quickly forming behind them. It was an effortless way to draw traffic.
When they arrived at the booth, everyone from Junheng Trading Co., Ltd. was utterly stunned.
This level of showmanship completely dominated the entire event. The models hired by other exhibitors looked pathetic in comparison.
Following Wu Jun’s instructions, Little Red and the others spread out, standing behind the chairs at the front of the booth.
The troublemakers felt the gazes of the six giants on them and were instantly overwhelmed with pressure. Their scalps tingled, and it felt like someone had put nails on their seats. Unable to stay put any longer, they scrambled up from their chairs and shuffled away, some with wobbly legs.
"Jun..." Qian Na stepped forward and excitedly grabbed Wu Jun’s arm. She looked up at the F6 group in awe and asked, "Where on earth did you find these Optimus Primes? They’re so eye-catching!"
Wu Jun gave a casual reply, "They’re a bunch of movers I know. I gave them a call, and it turned out they were all working nearby. So I asked them to come help out."
’A bunch of movers?’ Everyone was a little speechless when they heard Wu Jun’s explanation.
With physiques like that, they could definitely handle the job. But still, wasn’t it a bit of a waste of their talents?
Since that’s what Wu Jun said, no one asked any more questions. The details didn’t matter. What was important was that they had driven off the troublemakers and successfully attracted a huge crowd to the booth.
"Help yourselves, fellas. Eat as much as you want; there’s plenty to go around," Wu Jun said with a smile to the group of troublemakers who had been occupying the booth. "Since you’re all such big supporters of our Hongyun Rice, we won’t be stingy."
He had rented the adjacent booths earlier, so the exhibition area was now several times larger. This freed up about ten tables, and on each one sat a large, steaming platter of rice.
The gang from the auto repair shop was completely dumbfounded. ’Holy crap,’ they thought, ’even if we called everyone from our shop over, we wouldn’t be able to finish all this...’
"This rice smells amazing!" The people who had followed the giants over also caught the fragrant aroma. They stared at the platters of fluffy white rice—each grain plump, perfect, and glistening—and swallowed hard.
"I remember this Hongyun Rice. A while ago, there were all sorts of rumors flying around on social media about it having problems. But just in the last couple of days, the food safety department posted a clarification on their official website refuting them."
"Now that you mention it, I remember that too. With an official endorsement like that, the quality must be fine."
"The screening process to get into this expo is really strict, too. They definitely wouldn’t let problematic rice in."
The crowd that had been drawn in began to murmur, discussing the news about Hongyun Rice.
Someone spotted a long table covered with all kinds of inspection certificates and pointed. "Hey, aren’t those a bunch of certificates over there? We can just take a look to see if there are any problems."
"Right. To participate in a huge trade show like this, the organizers must have inspected their products. They can’t fake that." A group of potential buyers swarmed the certificate display area.
After seeing Hongyun Rice’s various test results, the crowd was in disbelief. The data was too perfect. ’Could rice of this quality really be grown within Huaxia?’
After trying a sample, the people in front of the booth became completely energized, as if they’d been shot up with adrenaline. They rushed forward, scrambling over each other to ask the staff about the price.
"What the hell? 30 yuan a jin? That’s way too expensive! Why don’t you just rob people instead?!"
"Have you lost your minds? This is domestically grown rice, but you’re selling it for more than imported rice! Who gave you the nerve?!"
"This is a total rip-off! Let’s go, let’s go. They think way too highly of themselves."
After hearing the price, the group of small-time buyers all cooled down, grumbling indignantly.
Here in North China, noodles and other wheat products were the main staple food; rice had to take a backseat to noodles. Without the right connections, this kind of high-end rice would be incredibly difficult to sell. They could very well end up with unsellable stock on their hands.
The purchase price was already over 30 yuan. They couldn’t just lose money for the sake of publicity, could they?
If they added their own markup, the price would be even higher. How could they possibly sell it then?
Besides, the notion that imported goods were always better than domestic ones was deeply ingrained. Seeing that Hongyun Rice was priced twice as high as imported Meng Zalang rice, people felt it wasn’t worth it, no matter how impressive the test data was.
"Jun, did we set the price too high?" Dong Lizhu asked, her confidence wavering as she observed the crowd’s reaction.
Before, she had been anxious because no one was asking. Now, plenty of people were asking, but they were all scared off by the price, which made her even more anxious.
"It’s fine. They aren’t our primary target audience anyway. If they want to buy, they’ll buy; if not, whatever," Wu Jun said nonchalantly. "Even if we don’t sell a single bag at this trade show, we’ll have no trouble selling it elsewhere. Just think of this as us joining in on the fun."
These small, local buyers who might purchase a ton or two were insignificant. They were expendable. They weren’t Wu Jun’s target.
Wu Jun had raised the price of Hongyun Rice by another 10 yuan per jin for the trade show specifically because his main targets were the wealthy and extravagant foreign merchants.
With the F6 group drawing a crowd, a large number of people quickly gathered around the Hongyun Rice booth. Although many were put off by the price, the booth was far more popular than before. As one wave of people left, another would come over to inquire.
Wu Jun also found an electric rice cooker and discreetly placed it behind the booth. The aroma of the Super Rice wafted out, distinct from the rest, and played a major role in drawing even more traffic.
The Meng Zalang booth, which had been bustling with activity just moments before, was now completely deserted. They had clearly spent a fortune to secure the best spot, yet now it was even less popular than a booth tucked away in some corner.
He Qingfeng stared blankly at the dark sea of people gathered in front of the Hongyun Rice booth, and at Little Red and his men, who stood out like cranes among a flock of chickens.
He felt as though his series of schemes against Hongyun Rice had all been rendered useless, and his mood soured with immense frustration.
He had just received a call. The important client he was determined to win over was about to arrive. Nothing, absolutely nothing, could go wrong!
"Brother Feng, this..." He Qiang was also dumbstruck. How were they supposed to compete with this? Even he wanted to go over, snap a few photos, and post them on his social media.
’This team of giants would absolutely blow up my feed!’