121: Chapter 121 The Needs of the Lower-Tier Market

Two days later.

It was past four in the afternoon. Liu Min was squatting on the balcony washing vegetables when the sound of a key turning in the door lock reached her.

Her husband pushed the door open and walked in, carrying a plastic bag in his hand. Sweat beaded on his forehead, and a construction helmet was tucked under his arm. He placed the plastic bag on the shoe cabinet with his other hand.

"I saw some nice strawberries on the way, so I bought a box."

He changed into his slippers at the entrance.

"I remember you love strawberries, but it seems like we haven't bought any in a long time. I passed by a fruit stall today, so I bought some for you."

The rough man didn't know how to express his feelings, so he just grinned foolishly and handed over the plastic bag in his hand.

Liu Min wiped her hands, walked over, and opened the plastic bag to take a look.

The box wasn't big, but it contained two layers of strawberries. They were good-sized and evenly red.

She flipped the box over to check the price tag, and her brow twitched. This small box, weighing just over a hundred grams, was even more expensive than what she had asked about at the vegetable market earlier.

She took the strawberries to the kitchen, her tone tinged with a bit of heartache.

"Why buy something so expensive? The fruit shop downstairs is so much pricier than the vegetable market."

"You wanted to eat them, didn't you?" Old Zhou smiled and went to the bathroom to wash his face.

Liu Min remembered Pinhaohuo and spoke up.

"I also bought strawberries online the day before yesterday. They were much cheaper than these—only fifteen for a jin."

Old Zhou's voice came from the bathroom.

"Fifteen? Even roadside stalls cost more than that. Don't get scammed. Besides, since when can you buy fruit online? I'd better help you apply for a refund; they might be scammers."

"They probably won't even ship the items, let alone deliver them."

There was no blame in Old Zhou's tone, only worry.

Although it was only fifteen yuan.

But for them, that was enough to buy quite a few things, so naturally, they didn't want to waste it.

Hearing her husband say this, Liu Min also began to feel a bit worried.

After all, it was her first time buying fruit online, and since it was so cheap, it did indeed look very risky.

However.

Just as Liu Min took out her phone and opened Pinhaohuo, wanting to see if she could get a refund, there was a knock at the door.

Old Zhou walked over to open the door.

Standing outside was a young man wearing a courier uniform, holding a cardboard box that was sealed tightly.

"Express delivery from Pinhaohuo. Please sign for it."

"It actually arrived?"

The two stood at the doorway and exchanged glances before accepting the package.

Liu Min found a pair of scissors and opened it.

Soon, bright red strawberries appeared before their eyes.

Inside the box were two layers of foam netting. Each strawberry was tucked into a groove in the netting, wrapped in soft paper, and a layer of shock-absorbing sponge was placed between the top and bottom layers.

She took them out and weighed them on the home scale; the weight was at least a jin, if not more.

Although these strawberries were slightly smaller than the ones her husband had bought, they were still very good—bright red and shiny, with not a single spoiled fruit.

She placed the strawberries one by one onto a plate and set the plate on the table to compare.

On the left were the ones her husband bought at the fruit shop; on the right were the ones bought on Pinhaohuo. If you didn't look closely, you couldn't even tell there was a difference in size.

And most importantly.

The price of the strawberries from Pinhaohuo was just too cheap. For the same price, she could buy one or two more jin on Pinhaohuo.

Old Zhou stared at the two plates of strawberries for a long while.

"Did you really buy this online?"

Liu Min laughed and nodded.

"Why would I lie to you?"

The two picked up the strawberries from Pinhaohuo and took a bite; the taste was no different from the ones downstairs.

"From now on, whenever we want to eat fruit, we'll just buy it from that, what was it, Pin..."

"Pinhaohuo," Liu Min added.

"Let's just buy it on that Pinhaohuo thing." Old Zhou smiled as well.

"The fruit on here is so good, and we can buy vegetables too. In the long run, we'll probably save a lot of money." Liu Min even felt a bit regretful about why she had only just found out about Pinhaohuo.

She didn't know yet that she was already among the first batch of users for this app.

Afterward, Liu Min looked toward the room.

"Oldest, Second, come out and eat strawberries."

...

That same afternoon.

Across the country, cardboard boxes printed with the Pinhaohuo logo appeared at the doorways of many households.

In a residential complex in the old district of Shudu, a retired auntie moved a cardboard box into her kitchen and took out the apples inside to inspect them one by one.

She put on her reading glasses to check for bruises, then picked one up and sniffed it after finishing, finally nodding in satisfaction.

She took out her phone, confirmed receipt on Pinhaohuo, and forwarded the link to several old friends in her community square dance group.

In a rented apartment in Hangzhou.

A young girl who had just graduated opened a box and pulled out a bag of potatoes and a bag of onions. She lived alone, so she couldn't buy too much whenever she went to the supermarket, and carrying it back was exhausting.

On Pinhaohuo, she could buy by the bag at a cheap price, and it only took two or three people to form a group.

She pulled a colleague in to complete an order. The two placed their orders separately, and the items were shipped to their respective addresses. It was more convenient than going to the supermarket together, and most importantly, the goods were very cheap—perfect for graduates like them who didn't have much money.

At the exact moment these scenes were unfolding.

Anli Group had discovered absolutely nothing.

Simply because they were still focused on the recent moves of Douyin Mall.

Douyin Mall had opened a new entrance for merchants to join and had even offered significant concessions. However, under the intimidation of Anli Group, there were still not many merchants willing to sign contracts with Douyin Mall.

Meanwhile.

Douyin Mall had also integrated a portion of JD.com's logistics and warehousing. In several pilot cities, delivery times had already been shortened to same-day or next-day delivery.

All these signs indicated.

After acquiring JD.com's logistics and warehousing, Douyin Mall was finally about to start making big moves.

Although the new merchant entrance hadn't been effective because of Taobao, Anli Group knew that Douyin would certainly not stop there. This was just the first step for Douyin to fully expand its mall business!

At that time.

Because the logistics and warehousing had been snatched away by Qin Mo, it had caused huge losses for Taobao.

Therefore, after returning to Anli Group, Old Ma specifically assigned people to keep an eye on the actions of Douyin Mall; as long as there was any movement, he would have Taobao take action.

Now.

Douyin Mall was officially utilizing the JD.com logistics line, which naturally could not be hidden from the eyes of Anli Group.

A few days later.

A negative trending topic suddenly appeared on all major social media platforms.

The topic name was simple and direct: "The Overconfident Douyin Mall."

Clicking into it revealed a long analytical article that compared the scale of Douyin Mall with Taobao.

Monthly active user data, number of merchants, category coverage, payment systems—the gap in every single item was laid bare.

The conclusion at the end of the article was very direct: Douyin Mall is a giant in the Short Video field, but in the e-commerce track, it can't even touch the shadow of Taobao.

Even JD.com couldn't beat them back then; for a small mall built into a Short Video app to want to turn the tables is simply a fantasy.

The comment section was filled with voices of disapproval.

"Is Douyin Mall really going to make a move against Taobao? Are they that bold?"

"They offended Xiao Ma before, and now they're offending Lao Ma again. Langchao Group really isn't afraid of death."

"However, this Douyin Mall wanting to challenge Taobao is indeed a bit overconfident. That's Taobao, after all. I think Langchao Group should just sell the logistics line."

This negative trending topic naturally had the fingerprints of Anli Group.

Almost everyone was pessimistic about Douyin Mall being able to threaten Taobao's position.

Even after Douyin rolled out more concessions for merchants, not many chose to join.

But what everyone didn't know was.

Just as Douyin Mall was being criticized onto the trending list and attracting external attention, Pinhaohuo was in the lower-tier markets, relying on group buying and low-price designs to crazily increase its user count!