86: Raising prices and huge advertising fees!

“This is Huaxia News Agency. Do you want to place an advertisement?”

A very casual voice came from the other end of the phone.

Not only that.

Li Mubai also heard a hint of blame in the female voice, which made him frown slightly.

Perhaps the other party had been answering calls all day and was too tired, which was why she sounded like that...

After finding a seemingly very reasonable excuse for the other party.

He then responded, “Yes, I...”

Beep beep beep—

Mid-sentence, Li Mubai’s voice abruptly stopped.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to continue, but the call had already been hung up.

From his momentary daze to his speaking, only a few seconds had passed.

The other party just hung up the phone like that!

Was it because she was too busy, so the customer service couldn't be delayed for too long?

Li Mubai found another reasonable explanation for the other party.

Then he dialed the number again.

This time.

After waiting for quite a while, the call was finally connected.

“This is Huaxia News Agency. If there’s nothing urgent, please don’t occupy valuable call time.”

“If you intentionally make harassment calls, we will blacklist your phone number!”

Upon hearing this.

Li Mubai’s eyelids twitched, and he inwardly exclaimed, ‘Good heavens.’

Are newspaper offices nowadays all this arrogant?

Was it not just being three seconds slow when answering the first call?

Was it necessary to speak in such a warning tone?

Despite feeling utterly speechless, he immediately replied:

“Hello, I am the owner of Guo Li Steel Factory. I have some very good news here that I think you might be interested in.”

“Guo Li Steel Factory? Then tell me what the news is first.”

The arrogant tone came through again.

Such a tone made Li Mubai feel very uncomfortable.

However, as the other party was the largest newspaper office in the country and could bring excellent publicity to Numerical Control Machine Tools, he could only suppress his temper:

“Our factory has developed a high-precision Numerical Control Machine Tool. The level of this Numerical Control Machine Tool far surpasses that of all Numerical Control Machine Tools in other countries internationally. If you publish this news, it will surely bring huge subscription revenue to your newspaper office!”

Two snorts of disdain came from the other end of the phone:

“You mean, you want to publish news in our newspaper office to promote your factory’s products?”

Li Mubai rubbed his nose: “You truly have sharp eyes.”

“Heh! If you want to publish news in our newspaper office, how can you do it without showing sincerity?”

Li Mubai asked in confusion: “What kind of sincerity do you want?”

He had actually guessed what the other party wanted.

He asked this just to see what number the other party would quote.

“It’s simple. Since we’re helping you promote, you can just pay five million for the publicity. Our newspaper is popular nationwide, so charging you five million is already a good deal.”

Five million, and I should thank you?!

Hearing this number, Li Mubai was a bit dumbfounded.

He had already expected that the other party would not publish the news for free, and he had also budgeted for it.

His budget was within five hundred thousand.

In this era, five hundred thousand was already a considerable sum.

An ordinary family, even if they worked for more than ten years, would likely not earn that much money.

But he never expected the other party to quote five million!

And the tone of voice was still so understated, as if it were as simple as eating and drinking!

It seemed that to the other party, five million was as cheap as a few tens of yuan.

Even for the number one newspaper office in the country, just publishing a piece of news shouldn't cost this much!

Isn't this price gouging?

If he agreed to this.

Wouldn’t he become a huge sucker, a big idiot?

“This... can’t it be less? After all, by publishing this news, we can also be considered to be cooperating for mutual benefit.”

Li Mubai wanted to negotiate the price down.

“Cooperating for mutual benefit?”

“Our newspaper office doesn’t need to cooperate for mutual benefit.”

“We are already the most widely subscribed newspaper office in the country. Even without your news, wouldn’t people still subscribe to our newspaper?”

“Aren’t you a bit too naive?”

“You are begging us now, not the other way around. Whether you want to pay this five million is up to you.”

“Anyway, our newspaper office isn’t lacking your five million.”

The female voice from the phone was extremely arrogant.

Five million, will getting on your newspaper make me an immortal or something?

Li Mubai really wanted to retort sharply to the other party.

But in the end.

He still held back and didn’t speak his mind: “Five million, that’s too much. Can you make it a bit less?”

Immediately, a mocking tone came from the phone.

“What, five million is still too expensive?”

“If you can’t afford it, then don’t come to our newspaper office! Why are you pretending to be a big shot here?”

“Can’t even afford five million, your factory is really useless.”

“I think you should just close down. Why even bother running a factory?!”

Upon hearing this.

Even with Li Mubai’s good temper, he couldn’t take it anymore.

He immediately took a deep breath, wanting to harshly rebuke the other party.

But before he could speak.

The phone suddenly made a ‘beep beep’ sound.

The call was hung up again.

“I!!!!”

Li Mubai’s hand gripping the phone tightened sharply.

Fortunately, the phone in his hand was a Nokia.

Otherwise, with such a forceful squeeze, other phones would have surely broken by now.

“Don’t be angry. If they don’t want to take our news, then we’ll just find another one.”

Ruan Xiu comforted him.

The conversation earlier was on speakerphone, so she heard the entire process clearly.

She was equally angered by the words of the newspaper’s customer service.

However.

What good would being angry do?

Just as the other party said, they were the largest newspaper office in the country and didn’t lack their news.

Even if they didn’t publish their factory’s news in the newspaper.

It still wouldn’t change the fact that they were the largest newspaper office in the country.

Would the public stop buying their newspaper because of this incident?

Not at all.

“National Daily is the second-largest newspaper office in our country. Although this newspaper office’s popularity isn’t as high as Huaxia News Agency, it still has a lot of public support, which will still have a miraculous effect on our plan.”

Ruan Xiu explained while looking at the information on the computer.

Hearing this.

Li Mubai also nodded: “As things stand, this is all we can do. I just hope this newspaper office doesn’t price gouge like Huaxia News Agency. Find the contact information for this newspaper office.”

Ruan Xiu made an ‘uh’ sound.

She quickly found the contact information for National Daily.

Then.

Li Mubai dialed the phone number listed on National Daily’s official website.

This time.

The call was connected after only a short while.

A sweet, vibrant, and energetic female voice came from the phone.

“Hello, welcome to National Daily, how may I help you?”