Astral Pet Store Novel - Chapter 245
Chapter 245: Su Ping’s Advertiser
At the store.
Su Ping did more searching and realized that almost every pet shop in the city had begun preparing accordingly for the upcoming league. Cheaper services, discounted pet food and membership cards… They sure came up with every type of promising slogan to attract more customers to their doors.
As he read their ads, Su Ping came to recognize that there was much much he had to do as a shopkeeper.
He took a moment to think of a trademark phrase he could use.
Bigger words?
Fancy promises?
He was confident that he could do better than most people when it came to language tricks.
We guarantee that our customers will enter the top hundred during the city preliminaries! He typed this down in a text file.
That wasn’t an overstatement. He knew his shop was good enough to help someone achieve such a relatively easy goal… as long as they paid enough. Going for the top hundred in Longjing City didn’t sound very hard.
“What are you doing?” Joanna saw Su Ping staring at a “glowing box” with a wicked smile and suddenly felt a cold chill.
Su Ping didn’t answer.
Beep!
He picked up his phone and saw the previous manager was calling him.
“Hello again, Mister Su, I’ve gotten in contact with one of the best popstars you can find in Longjiang City. She’s Mu Shuangwan. Do you wish to talk to her?”
“Mu Shuangwan?” Su Ping wondered. He had seen this woman show up on several big signs across the streets. “I think I know her. That… ‘Everyone’s Daughter’?”
“Correct.”
“Good. Let’s proceed.”
“When are you available, Mister Su? Shall we find somewhere to talk about the details, such as expenses and the filming company that would produce our advertisement?”
“Well…” Su Ping just remembered that he was totally unprepared. “I mean, can I ask you to handle the filming work as well?”
“It’s… fine. We are always cooperating with several large-scale ad publishers. If you entrust this matter to us, we’ll later talk to them in your stead.”
“Do it then.” Su Ping was glad that there was a professional who helped him with various matters. He was rich, but he had zero experience in those things.
“Back to my question, when should we meet up?”
“How about today?”
“Oookay… Location?”
“Let’s use my shop. Can you bring Mu Shuangwan as well? I need to take a look at her up close.”
“I… will ask her about it. Please understand that Miss Mu always has a tight schedule.”
Later in the afternoon, a black, common-looking commercial van arrived at the Pixie Pet Store. It was strangely bigger than vehicles of the same type. Though on closer look, one could notice that it had been remodeled out of an armored car used by settlers.
On the co-driver seat, Song Lu opened the side window and looked at the building with a frown. She had never heard of this part of the shantytown, even though her job would often take her there.
She thought it was a mistake when she received the shop’s address from Su Ping. Or, it could be that the shop was really special so its location didn’t matter. But as far as she could see at the moment, there was nothing worth her attention, except for all the rather shiny designs.
Their car had to travel through several broken roads, abandoned houses and puddles of filth to reach that place. Why would anyone open up a pet shop in the middle of nowhere? She would have believed that she was dealing with a scammer if not for Dong Mingsong’s credit.
Since she already came… it was probably wise to continue and see what happened next.
“Let me go ahead, Shaungwan. I’ll give you a call if everything’s in order,” she said to the young lady sitting behind her, who looked a bit dismayed as she looked at the life-like dragon statues at the entrance of the shop. She felt as if they were going to move and come at her in the next second.
“… No. I’ll go with you.” Mu Shuangwan moved to get out of the car. She had already noticed that the statues weren’t the works of average craftsmen. This strange shop was like a hidden sovereign that watched over this part of the street like a king.
She put on her hood and a pair of sunglasses before looking around the vehicle. She saw nobody nearby, much to her relief.
Following the stairs, she walked to the door while feeling as the mental pressure sent by the dragon statues was apparently increasing. She felt like a lamb willingly entering a predator’s domain.
But for some reason, she didn’t feel truly threatened. She knew those were lifeless stones, not actual dragons.
She tried distracting herself by looking away and entering the shop, only to see a blond woman sitting not far from the door.
“She’s… beautiful.” Mu Shuangwan uttered those words without realizing it.
Similarly, Song Lu was also admiring Joanna with widened eyes. She had seen her fine share of beautiful ladies in her career, yet Joanna’s divine image still intrigued her.
She felt… bad. Bad as a woman, when another woman several times brighter was right there in front of her. But at the same time, she couldn’t understand why she didn’t recognize someone who appeared even more alluring than Mu Shuangwan.
“Oh, customers?” Joanna frowned at the visitors but quickly hid her annoyed look. “… Welcome.”
That reaction got Song Lu and Mu Shuangwan even more confused.
“You came from Mu’s Agency?” Su Ping spoke when he already recognized one of the women.
Song Lu heard his voice and was left in a daze again when she saw the speaker was way younger than she had expected.
“Are you… Mister Su?”
Mu Shuangwan looked at Su Ping and noticed a faint trace of astral power coming from him.
“That’s me. Let’s talk.” Su Ping stood up and moved to a fully-furnished resting area, which had been newly-added to the shop. “Joanna, kindly prepare us some tea.”
Joanna went away with a stiff face.
The tea leaves in this world were so bad that she wouldn’t use them to bathe her feet. Though she had no problem using her divine tea-brewing techniques to make something out of them for others to drink.
Once again, Mu Shuangwan and Song Lu watched in bewilderment as they saw the goddess-like lady in the shop being ordered around like a common laborer. A part of them didn’t want her to leave their sights at all.
They removed the unnecessary thoughts stirring in their minds and followed Su Ping to their seats.
Su Ping took a moment to inspect Mu Shuangwan’s natural look, which was decent without any obvious makeup. She had always used such a look in her advertisements.
“Mister Su, this is Miss Mu, the best celebrity currently cooperating with our company.” Song Lu got down to business right away as she always did. “Please note that the basic price to hire her service is 30 million, non-negotiable. You should expect to pay more if you want her full support.”
Su Ping switched his attention to the manager. “Money isn’t a problem. Is 50 million enough to pay for an all-in-one service from your company? Meaning, you’ll handle all minor affairs regarding this advertisement.”
Song Lu wasn’t expecting that.
“Let me… do some calculation first.” She feigned a troubled look and wondered how to further increase the price.
“Do be careful with your plan then,” said Su Ping, “I do not wish to waste time dealing with small troubles later.”
He meant to tell Song Lu that he wasn’t a clueless rich kid who had nothing other than money.
Mu Shuangwan spoke up, “I see no problem so far. But can I know more about your store? May I know your name?”
“Just call me Su for now.”
“Okay, Mister Su…” Mu Shuangwan went through her memory and couldn’t remember any noticeable families or clans by that last name.
“Surely you know many different platforms and manners of media, right?” Su Ping added, “If it’s alright, I want you to work with as many of them as possible to make my advertisement widely-distributed. Popular TV dramas, talk shows, movies… Reach out to everything you can think of.”
Song Lu widened her eyes. That level of campaign could cost almost a billion.
It was a good thing for both her company and Mu Shuangwan because it would certainly help them maintain their fame in the long run. In their line of work, not improving was equal to losing.
“Um, Mister Su? What you have in mind will call for several times the original expense you prepared for hiring Miss Mu, you should know that,” Song Lu reminded him. She feared even Dong Mingsong wouldn’t be able to take out a billion astral coins all of a sudden, not to mention that she didn’t know who this young man was.
Su Ping wanted to reassure her but was stopped when someone’s footsteps were heard.
“Hello again, Mister Su!” Venerable the Blade, or Leng Yingjun, entered their view with a big smile.
