92: Chapter 92 IPO Boom

September 15th, Friday. Before dawn had fully broken over Seoul, the lights were already on in the international business department's meeting room at Shunyi Foods headquarters.

When Chairman Wang Shunyi arrived, Kim Sang-woo was standing in front of the large screen munching on a sandwich. Bread crumbs fell onto his shirt, and he swiped at them twice without getting them completely clean.

Lee Jung-hoon was holding two cups of coffee. Seeing Chairman Wang Shunyi enter, he handed one over. Chairman Wang Shunyi took it but didn't drink, placing it on the table instead.

The large screen displayed the backend pages of Tmall Global and JD Worldwide side by side. The red line on the left and the blue line on the right had been climbing since midnight.

When Chairman Wang Shunyi sat down, both lines were at the five-hundred-order mark. He didn't speak, and neither did Kim Sang-woo.

Lee Jung-hoon took a sip of coffee, hissed as he was scalded, and then swallowed it back down.

When the order count jumped to one thousand, Kim Sang-woo's phone vibrated, but he didn't answer; when it jumped to two thousand, it vibrated again.

"Hey, Sang-woo, if there's a call, just take it."

Kim Sang-woo pressed the answer button. The person on the other end was speaking Chinese, and their voice was so loud it could be heard even standing nearby.

"Manager Kim, it's a hit! Our Mala noodles hit third on the Tmall instant noodle bestseller list! Sour and Spicy noodles are fifth!"

"Ah, keep watching it closely. I'm hanging up now."

Kim Sang-woo spoke to the person in broken Chinese with a heavy Korean accent.

Just after ten o'clock, Lee Jung-hoon brought in a stack of printouts from outside; they contained the data for the VIVID endorsement video.

"Chairman, the WebView video views are at 1.2 million, with 85,000 likes and 12,000 comments. Douyin is at 2.8 million, with 150,000 likes and 23,000 comments."

He flipped to the second page.

"The KOL side has also exploded. A food blogger with three million followers posted a review of the Mala fire chicken noodles, and it was shared over 30,000 times within just an hour of being posted."

Chairman Wang Shunyi looked at the numbers still climbing on the big screen, then clicked on a screenshot of the Weibo comment section and scrolled through a few.

"Kim Ye-rin looks so good in China Red! The noodles look delicious too!"

There were over three thousand comments, mostly responses from K-pop fans.

"Haha, Baby Yerin looks good doing anything."

"Exactly, exactly."

The second comment: "The Mala flavor is truly incredible; it's got more kick than some of our local noodles."

A thread of two thousand replies had formed under this one. It started off normally, discussing the taste of Sunyi instant noodles, but when someone posted "Worshipping foreign things" to start a fight, the entire thread went completely off-track.

The third comment: "Too expensive, Koreans are just ripping us off."

People were arguing under this one too.

"Uh, imports are naturally expensive. You can choose not to buy them."

Someone said: "Heh, it's just those 'Koreans' exploiting people. I can't believe people actually buy it..."

Chairman Wang Shunyi took a few glances and then closed it.

Kim Sang-woo was drenched in sweat when he returned to the meeting room.

"Chairman, the stock in the Shanghai warehouse is critical. There are only 30,000 packs of Mala noodles left. At this rate, it won't last three days. The second batch is still at sea and won't arrive until September 18th." He paused.

"Should we control the orders first? Limit it to two packs per person."

"No limits."

Chairman Wang Shunyi took a sip of water; the temperature was just right.

"When it's sold out, just mark it as 'restocking' and let the consumers wait. Scarcity marketing isn't a bad thing."

By three in the afternoon, the meeting room was full.

Choi Ji-eun, the head of the e-commerce operations team, distributed a stack of data sheets to everyone present. Her voice was low, but she couldn't hide her excitement.

"Annyeong, everyone. As of 2:00 PM, sales on Tmall Global have reached 850,000 RMB, and JD.com has reached 520,000, for a total of 1.37 million. Mala noodles account for 58% of total sales, and Sour and Spicy noodles account for 42%. The click-through rate for our products is 2.3 times the category average, with a conversion rate of 7.5%."

Chairman Wang Shunyi wrote a line of text in his notebook and capped his pen.

"What's the negative review ratio across the platforms?"

Lee Jung-hoon quickly flipped to another page.

"The negative review rate is 6%, which is two points lower than when the classic noodles were launched. Negative reviews are mainly concentrated on price and spiciness. Some feel it's still too expensive, while others find it too spicy to handle. Positive reviews are focused on the taste and packaging. I can understand 'numb and spicy enough,' 'beautiful packaging,' and 'Kim Ye-rin is pretty,' but some are just strange."

Someone in the meeting room chuckled. The corners of Chairman Wang Shunyi's mouth curled up slightly, but he quickly stopped.

He looked at the line of text written in his notebook:

"Localization isn't about pandering; it's about being yourself. If you do your best, they will follow."

The handwriting was a bit scribbled.

Shortly after six in the evening, Chairman Wang Shunyi changed into a light jacket and drove to Park Min-ji's home.

It was the same apartment. Chairman Wang Shunyi was already familiar with the route, and he was also planning to buy her a new house in a while.

She opened the door wearing loose loungewear, her hair tied up casually, and her apron stained with red spots of chili sauce.

There were more dishes on the table than usual: Hanwoo BBQ, Seafood pancake, Kimchi soup, and a bottle of red wine already opened and breathing there.

She pushed him down into a chair and poured him a glass of wine.

"No work talk today. Let's drink."

He took a sip, let the liquid swirl in his mouth, and swallowed. She sat down opposite him and also took a sip, her eyes looking at him with a sparkle.

He took another sip and put the glass down.

"Minji, you work at the company all day and then have to cook when you get back. I feel like you'll be exhausted... So, I'm planning to hire a housekeeper starting tomorrow to take care of these trivial chores."

She placed a piece of BBQ meat in his bowl and said nothing.

Chairman Wang Shunyi lowered his head to eat the meat and glanced at his phone. Sales had gone up and orders had increased, but stock was insufficient. He said softly, "They've gone up again."

Park Min-ji smiled and responded, "Let them go up. You can't stop it anyway."

"I can't stop it, but I have to think clearly about what to do next. The stock won't last more than a few days, and the second batch is still at sea. The production lines are already running night shifts, and Kim Tae-ho said he could open another line, but he needs two weeks."

She put down her chopsticks and looked at him.

"Then open it. What you lack isn't money; it's production capacity."

"Opening a line costs money."

"Do you lack money?"

He looked at her and didn't speak. She poured him more wine, picked up her own glass, and clinked it against his with a crisp sound.

She said, "China is so big, yet you've only opened two warehouses in Shanghai and Guangzhou. What about a Chengdu warehouse? Or a Wuhan warehouse? The place where Mala noodles sell best is Sichuan, but it takes two extra days for your goods to be shipped there from Shanghai."

Chairman Wang Shunyi sighed. "One step at a time."

"Everything about you is good, but you're too steady. Sometimes you don't need to be that steady. It's good for a boss to be steady, but if you're too steady, opportunities slip away."

He finished his wine and the glass was empty, but she didn't refill it.

He also finished the rice in his bowl. She got up to go to the kitchen to ladle some soup; when she brought it over, he reached out to take it, but she didn't let go immediately.

The hands of the two met on either side of the soup bowl. He looked at her, and she looked at the soup.

"It's hot, be careful."

He took the bowl and had a sip. It wasn't hot anymore; the temperature was just right.

After finishing the meal, he helped her clear the table and rinsed the dishes by the sink while she dried them with a cloth and put them in the dish rack.

The two of them were squeezed together in the kitchen as the water splashed.

"I'm going to China in October. Are you coming?"

Her hand paused, and the motion of drying the dish stopped.

"Yes, why wouldn't I?"

"Then it's a deal."

She didn't speak. He dried his hands, picked up his coat, and walked to the door.

She followed and leaned against the doorframe, watching him put on his shoes, her apron still not removed.

He opened the door and looked back, saying, "Go back inside, it's cold out here."

"I know. Drive carefully."

He left. The motion-sensor light in the hallway turned on and then off, his footsteps echoing in the empty stairwell.

She closed the door and cleared the leftovers from the dining table. There was still a little less than half a bottle of red wine left; she poured it into her glass, finished it, washed the glass, and put it in the dish rack.

Outside the window, Seoul spread out in the night, the dense lights extending to where they could no longer be seen. She stood for a while, then drew the curtains.