Reaching the age of thirty, my income randomly doubled
Chapter 111: Chapter 97 Stirring Up Trouble

A storm has arisen out of nowhere.

Water Cloud Space was causing quite the stir online.

And it also whipped up a frenzy in the beauty industry.

When discussing the city with the most developed beauty industry, without a doubt, it's Magic City.

Whether it be Wenfeng or Yongqi, leaders in the beauty and hairdressing industry, they both expanded from Magic City to the rest of the country.

In Hangcheng, even those who didn't go for hairdressing were influenced by teams under these two brands.

To put it bluntly, the earliest ones in the country to play the game of running a comprehensive card-charging beauty and hairdressing shop were these two brands.

The bosses were definitely raking in countless money, while the consumers below were left crying over the pits.

The main reason for combining beauty treatments with hairdressing is twofold.

First, hairdressing is a basic need with extremely low-profit margins.

Beauty treatments, on the other hand, are different; they are not a basic necessity but belong to the high-end consumption of wellness clubs.

Although sometimes they'll introduce some very cheap promotional cards, like some 99 yuan experiences for three services.

Once you're in the beauty room, the smallest card costs thousands.

Combining beauty with hairdressing also easily resolves the issue of lacking customers for beauty treatments.

Driving beauty treatments with hairdressing has become the survival reality of this industry.

After all, those who truly understand hairdressing know that its profits are too low, unlike beauty treatments.

An absolute high-profit margin.

If you could also lead customers to medical aesthetics, then one transaction could amount to hundreds of thousands.

This is simply beyond the realm of imagination for mere haircuts.

Inside a towering building in Magic City, rippling reflections cast a display of splendid and colorful blossoms.

Nearing forty, Han Qiudong was also paying attention to the news from Capital City's Water Cloud Space.

"Knock knock," someone rapped at the door outside.

After Han Qiudong called out for them to enter, the double doors of the office swung open.

"President Han, are you also looking at the news from Capital City?"

The visitor was also a bigwig in Magic City's beauty industry, a very elegant woman.

Of course, Han Qiudong was herself a woman.

"It's quite surprising, an outsider managed to turn our beauty industry upside down in such a short period," she said.

"With the momentum they are creating, I think it won't be long before they come to our Magic City," said the woman.

"I estimate it won't take a year," Han Qiudong concurred.

She had been struggling in the beauty industry for over twenty years, starting from nothing and going through countless experiences to achieve her current position as the vice-chairperson of the Magic City beauty industry.

She would not let anyone step on her turf so easily.

"You must have already investigated, right?" Han Qiudong inquired.

Yu Jinglian, wearing high heels and a tailored blue suit, with a wristwatch worth over six million from Richard Mille, spoke up:

"I checked last month. The director listed for Water Cloud Space is Song Yanxi, but the real decisions are made by her husband. This couple's rise in Capital City is nothing short of miraculous. They also own Fei Yangyang Hotpot City, which was previously in the limelight."

"They also hold bigger ventures like Tengying Entertainment and Tengsheng Fruits. This couple is completely outside the beauty industry, but with aggressive spending, they've quickly broken into the high-end beauty market of Capital City."

"A few people I know have talked about Water Cloud Space; they say that it's totally unconventional. They managed to get Yang Mi to personally promote the events twice, especially this latest night of socialites. They even went to see it, and it was absolute madness, with at least one billion in onsite transactions."

That's indeed quite sensational.

Han Qiudong and Yu Jinglian were well aware that the beauty industry was absolutely lucrative.

And it catered to high spending.

As long as one could run a high-end beauty salon well, earning a few million in a year wouldn't be too difficult.

Not to mention the kind of ultra-luxurious beauty clubs.

Because of the characteristics of their industry, countless wealthy women came to invest.

Out of ten, ten would lose money.

It was very challenging for outsiders to break into this field.

Han Qiudong and Yu Jinglian had managed to work their way up from the earliest days as beauticians, in part thanks to the help from outsiders.

That is, their own clients.

After all, insiders wanting to open a beauty salon were one hundred percent short of cash, while outsiders lacked the technical expertise.

Only when the two combined was there a certain possibility of success.

Even so, for outsiders investing in this industry, ten out of ten would lose money, and that was no exaggeration.

It showed just how deep the waters were.

After pondering for a moment, Han Qiudong said,

"I've carefully studied this Water Cloud Space; they also started by poaching people from small places like Sha City, then rose to fame through Yang Mi. After that, as you and I know, they took over a villa in Capital City more than a thousand square meters in size to serve as employee accommodation."

With a scoff, Han Qiudong continued, "To the employees, this might seem like providing them with the best accommodation out of consideration for their well-being, but we both understand that it is an indirect form of real estate speculation. We are also speculating, just not providing housing for our employees."

"That's where we fall short of them. What truly makes me feel threatened by Water Cloud Space is their headquarters' pre-job training; they spend half a year inviting the best teachers to train hundreds of beauticians. This means they are ambitious and have completely understood our industry. To serve high-end women, one must possess top-notch qualifications.

People in our industry usually don't have high educational backgrounds, and they are now raising the bar for cultural literacy."

"Now they have gone so far as to invest heavily in a beauty academy, recruiting only from top-tier high schools. They not only provide free board and lodging during the study period but also pay a monthly salary of three thousand. Take a calculator and figure out how much money they're losing every month with this standard."

"No need to calculate, it's a baseline of five million per month."

Yu Jinglian said, "At least sixty million a year, nearly a hundred million in two years, and that's just the investment on the students. The costs of top teachers are definitely not low; I estimate that with this approach, they must invest at least two hundred million in two years."

"Yes, two hundred million," Han Qiudong said with a self-mocking smile. "When we were just beauticians, we had never encountered such an enterprise. Even now, had Water Cloud Space not emerged, we wouldn't dare imagine someone investing such a heavy sum in talent cultivation in this industry."

"But the scary thing is, what about after two years?"

"They will have a group of real top talents in the industry, those utterly loyal to Water Cloud Space. They start training from scratch, painting on a blank canvas. He can step by step cultivate employees according to his own needs. That is what's most terrifying."

"If such a group of people were to suddenly come to our Magic City, and use the resources he has with Tengying, Magic City will face a real behemoth."

"This behemoth might swallow half of Magic City's high-end market in one bite."

This was indeed terrifying.

Both of them anticipated this outcome; it was inevitable for Water Cloud Space to come to Magic City.

Only if they could gain a foothold in Magic City would they dare claim to be the benchmark in the industry.

If they couldn't make it in Magic City, they might as well go back to where they came from.

The competition in Ten Li Foreign Market had always been so fierce.

The place had money, but you also needed matching strength to pick it up.

It had taken them twenty years to establish themselves in Magic City, and they did not wish for someone else to step in and knock them down.

Whether pushed by necessity or to preemptively prevent competition from Water Cloud Space, both knew they had to improve the welfare and treatment of their employees.

If the gap was too large, their own people would directly defect to the other side, then what competition would there be?

They might as well tie their feet and be slaughtered.