Chapter 49

Time: August 17th, Tuesday, morning.

Location: The streets of the capital city.

Autumn has already begun, but the "autumn tiger" is no less fierce, especially in a big city like the capital. The sun is scorching, the asphalt roads are scalding, and the air conditioners on the sides of the roads are constantly emitting hot air. Every car that passes by brings a wave of heat mixed with the smell of gasoline... Even at around eight or nine in the morning, standing on the street for three minutes would make you drenched in sweat.

Liu Xiangdong stood outside a music and video store, wearing a T-shirt and shorts, holding a stack of printed A4 papers.

As a professional investigator, his task today was to complete 100 survey questionnaires. Considering the possibility of invalid, damaged, or other unexpected factors, to ensure that he could recover more than 80 valid questionnaires, he was actually given 120 questionnaires.

This was a survey about the sales of a singer named Liao Liao's first self-titled album, "Liao Liao." The company organized twelve people to participate in this survey, with eight of them from other cities, and the four responsible for the capital city, including him.

His assigned survey area was in the eastern part of the city, with specific locations to be chosen by himself. Any music and video store, bookstore, convenience store... In short, as long as he could find people who were buying or planning to buy the album "Liao Liao," he could ask them to fill out the questionnaire.

This was not an easy survey to conduct, as the sales of items like records and books are quite scattered. If it were a big-name singer or author releasing a new work, it would be easier. The most challenging part was conducting sales surveys for lesser-known singers or authors, as you might wait for an hour at a music and video store without a single person buying their work. In comparison, they, as investigators, preferred to take on movie review survey jobs, as they only needed to stand outside a cinema for three to five hours to collect 100 valid questionnaires.

And Liao Liao, along with her album, clearly fell into the category of challenging tasks.

Since Liu Xiangdong himself enjoyed listening to music, and due to the nature of his job, when everyone else went into the cinema to watch a movie, he and his fellow investigators had to wait outside until the movie ended, which usually took at least an hour and a half, sometimes even two hours. During such long waits, listening to music was the best way to pass the time. When stationed at bookstores or music and video stores, they didn't even need to bring their own music players, as the stores always played music.

Therefore, he was quite familiar with the popular songs and singers, especially those for whom he had conducted related surveys. Even for those he hadn't surveyed, he was still quite familiar with them.

To put it bluntly, their job was on the periphery of the cultural and entertainment industry, so they naturally had a certain level of familiarity and understanding of this circle.

But the name Liao Liao... He had never heard of it.

So he knew that this job would likely take him two full days, just like before.

This time, he chose a private bookstore he had visited many times, which was quite famous in the eastern part of the city, called "Zuozhao Bookstore." It had four floors, with the ground floor selling books, music, and video products, and the upper floor being a teahouse. Even if you didn't buy a book, you could order a pot of tea and take a few books upstairs to read while drinking.

The bookstore wasn't very large, but it was located near two universities, a supermarket, and a cinema, and within a two-kilometer radius, there were three residential areas. Therefore, it never lacked customers. Every time he came here to conduct a survey, he could complete his work relatively quickly.

When Liu Xiangdong arrived, it was just 8:30, and the bookstore had just opened. He waited patiently outside, and the owner, after inspecting the store, saw him standing there and invited him in.

He had come to this store for surveys at least thirty to fifty times in the past two years, so they were already familiar with each other. Plus, it was extremely hot outside, so Liu Xiangdong didn't hesitate and went inside to wait by the fan.

Soon, the crowd started to increase, and he quickly found his first survey subject.

It was a young man, who looked to be around twenty years old, probably a student from one of the nearby universities. As soon as he entered, he asked if they had the tape of the album "Liao Liao." The staff member gave him the tape, and after paying, he was about to leave happily. Liu Xiangdong quickly approached, explained his job, and invited him to fill out a survey questionnaire. The young man readily agreed, and a few minutes later, Liu Xiangdong had his first valid survey.

Then, to his surprise, in just about an hour, he had already distributed and collected over twenty questionnaires, all of which were valid.

He was a bit surprised and recalled that out of every seven or eight people who came to the store, one was specifically looking for the album "Liao Liao" — which surprised him because, in his memory, Liao Liao was a very unfamiliar name, definitely not a big-name singer. However, based on the sales in just this one hour, her album was performing like a top-tier singer's.

Before his surprise could fully sink in, an unexpected event occurred. When another person bought a tape of "Liao Liao," the staff member suddenly reported to the owner that the tapes were out of stock.

This was a rare occurrence!

Generally, before items like books, tapes, CDs, and video tapes are placed on the shelves, the production and distribution parties would have already estimated the market performance and arranged production accordingly. Usually, these items wouldn't be out of stock when they were first released.

Since they were out of stock, there was only one explanation: the production and distribution parties had severely underestimated the market performance, leading to insufficient production, inventory, and distribution.

Specifically, for the album "Liao Liao," the distributor had not anticipated that it would sell so well!

Liu Xiangdong was very surprised and wanted to ask how many items the bookstore had stocked, but before he could speak, another person came in to buy "Liao Liao." When they heard the tapes were out, they asked for a CD instead, only to find that there were only two left, which they immediately bought.

Liu Xiangdong was even more surprised!

By now, he had already distributed and collected nearly thirty questionnaires in less than an hour and a half. Upon careful reflection, these thirty questionnaires represented about forty sales of "Liao Liao" tapes or CDs at Zuozhao Bookstore.

Inside the bookstore, the owner was on the phone with the distributor, getting increasingly agitated, almost to the point of arguing. After hanging up, the owner turned to Liu Xiangdong and said, "Young man, since you do all these surveys, you must know someone in the record company, right? Can you help me get some more tapes and CDs of 'Liao Liao' from inside?"

Liu Xiangdong, who had no such ability, quickly explained that he was just a professional investigator with no connections in the music industry. The owner then complained that he had noticed "Liao Liao" selling very quickly since the day before yesterday and had been calling for restocks, but the distributor kept saying they were out of stock. As a result, the store only had two almost unsold vinyl records left, and all the tapes and CDs were sold out, leaving them to watch other stores with stock continue to profit!

After complaining to Liu Xiangdong, the owner asked the cashier, "Why did you change the CD? Where's 'Liao Liao'? Put that on!"

Then, Liu Xiangdong heard the album "Liao Liao" for the first time.

At first, he thought it was quite ordinary, just the kind of urban love songs you often hear on the streets. However, this singer had a unique voice, adding more flavor to the songs compared to other singers.

But when he heard the fourth song, he was suddenly moved by its lively rhythm and unique lyrics — it was actually a country-style song!

Then, the sixth song gave him a huge surprise!

After listening to the song, he eagerly asked the owner what it was called. The owner was delighted and said, "You like this song too? It's called 'Persistence'! I love it too! There are two other songs with a similar style, and they are also fantastic! Oh, and the country song was also great, right? It's called 'My Passionate Hometown'! Oh... Look at your questionnaire, I bet many people came for that song!"

Liu Xiangdong flipped through the collected questionnaires and found that indeed, many people had chosen "My Passionate Hometown" and "Persistence" as their favorite songs from the album. Additionally, two other songs, "Cheers, Friend" and "Wildflowers," were also popular.

Thus, the rest of the time suddenly became enjoyable!

With "Liao Liao" playing in the store, listening to the sometimes lazy, sometimes gentle, but always rich and beautiful voice, and the captivating melodies and rhythms, Liu Xiangdong's work progressed rapidly!

The store had no more "Liao Liao" to sell, but that didn't mean only those who had bought it could fill out the questionnaire. As long as you intended to buy it, you were a suitable survey subject. Perhaps because the store's speakers were playing songs from "Liao Liao," the proportion of people asking about it in the next hour was even higher than before.

After a busy period, it was just noon, and Liu Xiangdong was surprised to find that he had already distributed and successfully collected 104 questionnaires.

In other words, he had completed a task that was supposed to take two days!

This was more surprising than anything else!

So, when he thanked the owner and was about to leave, he thought for a moment and turned back. After some negotiation, he finally bought the last CD, which was priced at 8 yuan but had been played many times, for 20 yuan.

Liu Xiangdong left with a smile, having spent extra money on the CD, while the owner, who had made a profit equivalent to several CDs, looked somewhat pained.

And on that day, in the capital, in Songjiang, in Guangzhou, in Chengdu, in Shenyang... all the investigators responsible for surveying the sales of the album "Liao Liao" completed their tasks in just the morning.

Thus, by the afternoon, all the survey results were compiled and fed back to the survey company. Two hours later, after being analyzed by professionals, a comprehensive survey report was produced.

However, what was not included in the survey report was that out of the twelve investigators, nine of them, whether professional or temporary, bought a tape or CD of "Liao Liao" after completing the survey, with seven of them paying a high price for second-hand items.

But strangely, none of them felt cheated.

On the contrary, the store owners who had sold the demo CDs in a moment of confusion were later quite depressed and frequently called the distributors to vent their frustration.

...

August 18th, Wednesday, morning.

In the general manager's office of Changsheng Records, Zheng Changsheng was shocked when he received the delivery notice from Dongguan Bookstore from the marketing department manager, Liu Zhongxin. His face was full of shock and surprise.

The phone call from the manager of Dongguan Bookstore had just ended, and the formal delivery notice had already arrived, indicating how urgent the situation was!

Zheng Changsheng swallowed and rubbed his forehead, waving the delivery notice, his tone a mix of surprise, confusion, and excitement, or perhaps all of the above, "Two hundred thousand tapes? Dongguan Bookstore alone wants two hundred thousand tapes? ... Are they crazy, or am I crazy?"

He shook his head and slapped the delivery notice on the table, staring at Liu Zhongxin, "How much did we initially supply to Dongguan Bookstore?"

Liu Zhongxin immediately replied, "15,000 tapes, 1,500 CDs, and 500 vinyl records, a total of 17,000 sets."

Zheng Changsheng unconsciously rubbed the delivery notice under his hand, then suddenly bent down, opened a drawer, and found a file, muttering to himself, "Last week they reported sales of 4,386! The week before... let me see, it was 1,128, yes, that's right! My math isn't good, I might have made a mistake, Old Liu, Xiao Wang, can you help me calculate the total sales for the past two weeks?"

Old Liu was stunned for a moment, but Secretary Xiao Wang, who was used to following the boss's casual instructions, quickly calculated, "A total of 5,513."

Zheng Changsheng pointed at her, "Right! 5,513! Now, can you help me calculate 17,000 minus 5,513?"

Old Liu was stunned again, but Xiao Wang answered, "11,487."

"Slam!" Zheng Changsheng's hand slapped the table hard, "11,487! Damn! As of last weekend, they still had over 11,000 left, and now, in just two days, they tell me all 11,000 are sold out! You, you... can anyone tell me if this is real? How can I wrap my head around this! Is this Liu Mingliang's album? Zhang Chang's? Or... has Zhen Zhen made a comeback? Or... has the Flying Band joined our Changsheng Records?"

Secretary Xiao Wang and marketing department manager Liu Zhongxin exchanged glances and remained silent.

Of course, it was understandable why General Manager Zheng was so agitated and even a bit irritable, as the situation was truly too rapid and too unbelievable! It was even bizarrely rapid and unbelievable!

Even a few days ago, who could have imagined that a semi-new female singer's first album would sell out in less than two weeks!

And it wasn't just selling out that was scary; the speed was the main issue!

Selling quickly wasn't scary either, but what was scary was that... the company had internally assessed the market prospects of this album. When the company's top management collectively listened to the album, they all believed that its sales should be estimated conservatively!

In other words, the company unanimously thought the album might not sell well!

Now, well, the singer and the album were the company's, and selling well was a good thing, but the frustrating part was that despite the constant calls for restocks and delivery notices, everyone was still in a daze, with no one knowing what was happening with the album or why it was selling so well!

Of course, Zheng Changsheng was no ordinary person. He had entered the industry alone, with no background in music, and had developed Changsheng Records to its current scale over a decade. He was not a simple man.

Moreover, the stock-up notices from all over the country that started coming in yesterday had already given him some time to adjust, so he wasn't too shocked.

So, although the news of Dongguan Bookstore selling out 17,000 albums made him momentarily lose his composure, after sitting down and smoking half a cigarette, his mind became clear again.

Liao Liao was an artist under his company, and the album was released by his Changsheng Records. Every additional sale meant more profit for him... Why should he be unhappy about making money?

Thinking this, his mind suddenly opened up.

Then, the excitement that had been suppressed by his shock suddenly surged up!

Damn! Two hundred and twenty thousand tapes and CDs, and they sold out in less than two weeks!

Liao Liao is going to be a star!

And a big star!

Last week, he was still sighing while looking at Dongguan Bookstore's sales rankings, wondering when his company would produce a star like He Runqing, and now, it happened!

He Runqing, who was so popular, only sold about 150,000 copies a week.

Liao Liao's album isn't any worse!

Thinking about this, his face gradually became excited and enthusiastic.

Just then, someone knocked on the door. He shouted, "Come in," and looked up to see Zhao Meifeng and the deputy marketing manager, Yang Fan, entering together.

"Is there something?" he asked.

Yang Fan opened the file and handed it over, saying, "We just received the survey results from the survey company."

"So fast?" Zheng Changsheng was somewhat surprised as he took the file and began to read it carefully.

1. Where did you first hear about the album "Liao Liao"?

A. Through TV and radio programs (37.2%)

B. A friend told me (47.7%)

C. I had heard Liao Liao's songs before (5.2%)

D. Other (9.9%)

...

4. Which song in the album "Liao Liao" is your favorite? (Multiple choices allowed)

A. "That Summer" (14.3%)

...

D. "My Passionate Hometown" (59.4%)

...

F. "Persistence" (89.2%)

G. "Wildflowers" (81.5%)

H. "Cheers, Friend" (82.2%)

...

J. "Unfinished Love" (51.4%)

...

By this point, Zheng Changsheng was completely stunned.

The song "That Summer," which the company generally favored, only received 14.3% of the votes, while the other songs that everyone had been worried about, and which almost made him, the general manager, terminate the album's production, were all huge hits! Especially "Persistence," which received 89.2% of the votes!

This meant that out of every ten people who had heard the album, nine liked this song!

The positive word-of-mouth was simply... terrifying!

At this moment, Zheng Changsheng quickly glanced at the four people in front of him. When his gaze fell on Zhao Meifeng, she seemed to want to say something, but he was too preoccupied to ask what it was.

He looked down again and saw that the survey had distributed 1,109 questionnaires to fans who had already bought or intended to buy the album, and 1,084 valid questionnaires were collected. For a small-scale market survey, this sample size was already representative, especially since the total distribution of the album to the market was only 220,000 copies.

He handed the file to Liu Zhongxin, indicating for him to read it.

At this moment, Yang Fan quickly said, "The survey company also mentioned, although it wasn't part of the survey, that they felt it was necessary to highlight the album's extremely positive word-of-mouth. The survey results show a very high listening rate and strong purchasing desire among fans. Therefore, they believe that once the album is restocked, its sales are likely to explode!"

Zheng Changsheng nodded slowly, and before he could say anything, there was another knock on the door.

"Come in!" Zheng Changsheng shouted, then added, "Leave the door open, don't close it!"

For the first time since the company opened, his general manager's office was bustling like a market. But at this moment, Zheng Changsheng felt no annoyance, only boundless enthusiasm!

People often say, "Horses don't get fat without night grass, and people don't get rich without unexpected wealth." Now, he knew that his unexpected wealth—

Had arrived!

***

6,000-word chapter, please recommend!