I am a Big Player
Chapter 284 - 282. High Guiding Fees (First Update)_1

Chapter 284: 282. High Guiding Fees (First Update)_1

This time, Ren He’s journey to Mount Everest was something he had to undertake alone; he couldn’t record any more videos. After all, if Liu Erbao and the others could all make it up to Mount Everest to shoot videos, they would truly be breaking through the skies...

Therefore, the only way Ren He could prove he had been there was to plant the flag of TK at the summit and take a photo with the Red Scarf.

Although compared to the previous two times it was far too crude, when you reach that place called the Forbidden Zone for Life, that’s all anyone could do...

As An Si was about to hang up the phone, Ren He suddenly remembered something and blurted out, "Also, help me contact a local guide company in Nepal."

An Si hesitated before responding, "At your age, and without any climbing experience above 6,000 meters, I’m afraid no guide company would want to take your order."

Yes, Ren He knew An Si was right. The guide company industry in Nepal is a complete and highly professional industrial chain.

Since the mid-1990s, an entire industry chain related to Mount Everest climbing has thrived in Nepal: at the top are the Western mountaineering adventure companies, who are adept in marketing and sell Everest expeditions directly to climbers around the world, especially those in Western developed countries, easily charging tens of thousands of US dollars; next are the Nepali brokers and small-scale local agents, who are responsible for arranging airport pick-ups, flight bookings, processing climbing permits, carrying luggage, supplying oxygen cylinders, and other specifics, taking a certain commission from these services; at the bottom are the Sherpa guides, who earn low wages and face high risks, making as little as $1,000 per person during a golden climbing season.

Long ago, the Nepali government used to open a fixed number of quotas each year. However, when they realized the Chinese had developed the climbing route on the north slope within China’s territory, they completely lifted the quota restrictions. By the 21st century, the cost for a guide had already reached over $50,000, and even more.

Guide companies give the registered and paying climbers basic training, including physical and psychological training, before being led by a team leader up the mountain.

For someone inexperienced like Ren He, the guide companies were quite resistant back in 2006, fearing that the death of a climber on Mount Everest could damage their business reputation.

Ren He said, "Raise the registration fee to $100,000 US dollars, someone will take the order."

In fact, before Ren He traveled to this world, the Everest guide companies were increasingly profit-driven; concerns for life or not, if you had the money, they dared to take you to the summit.

There was even a joke: if you have the money, the Sherpa people could carry me up there.

The Sherpa people are the natives of the area.

Ren He thought that those who said such things were truly fearless of death; in a previous life, a tragic event unfolded where several people paid to climb Mount Everest, only to encounter a black storm, with just two survivors out of a team of eight.

This was all too common.

Right now, Ren He had no way to prove his strength to the guide companies, but he had money, and didn’t need to prove anything to anyone. In the eyes of the guide companies, he might just be an undisciplined young brat with a death wish.

But when he himself climbed Mount Everest, the facts would prove everything.

It was even possible that not even the native Sherpa people had the low-oxygen endurance and high physical strength like Ren He. However, a guide was still essential; after all, Ren He was not familiar with the routes on Mount Everest. He couldn’t just climb up in a straight line; that was an impossible task for anyone.

After discussing these matters with An Si, everything was prepared by An Si. An Si felt that his role as the President of TK Greater China was quite interesting, almost like being Ren He’s assistant...

However, the reality was that because he had discovered Knight and maintained close contact with them, the sales in TK’s Greater China region had soared, and his voice at headquarters had become much firmer.

Indeed, that was the case. When Li Ning lit the Olympic torch in 2008, Lee Ning’s sales skyrocketed by more than tenfold. Although the market was eventually lost, it was enough to prove how substantial the benefits brought by the celebrity effect could be.

Now, Ren He is the first Chinese person to reach the summit in the field of extreme sports, and such a reputation in the field is truly awe-inspiring. Currently, domestic sports enthusiasts feel a sense of pride when mentioning "the Captain"; a Chinese extreme sports superstar crushing foreigners is the source of their pride.

So those wealthy cycling aficionados are willing to buy TK bikes, even if they just ride them for fun.

In fact, there are really quite a lot of wealthy individuals in China—a glance at luxury car sales makes this clear.

Therefore, An Si thoroughly enjoys his role as an assistant, since he himself is a fan of extreme sports, only hampered by his own injury from practicing it.

The US$100,000 registration fee for the guide company moved even the most unscrupulous profiteer without exception, and An Si started to arrange for friends to begin purchasing the remaining equipment according to Ren He’s requirements.

Ren He hadn’t even arrived in Nepal yet, and he had already paid a price of 200,000 US Dollars for this Mount Everest expedition, which according to the current exchange rate, amounted to over 1.6 million RMB.

But he felt it was all worth it.

Since these things had started to develop in a clear direction, Ren He himself also needed to hurry up and finish his own affairs.

During the period Elder Zhou returned to Capital to recuperate, he kept thinking about the grand vision Ren He had described to him: organizing a teaching team and offering first-tier city standard salaries? Substantial funding flows? Zhou Wumeng even thought that if what Ren He said was true, he would wake up laughing from his dreams.

At that time, Zhou Wumeng suddenly suggested an even better idea to Ren He: to break away from the Capital Journalism Group and have the Qinghe Fund manage the copyright collaboration itself!

In fact, whether it was chasers of kites or the Three Character Classic, putting these copyright earnings through Capital Journalism Group meant giving them a 30% cut. Though Elder Zhou was the chairman of the Capital Journalism Group, he always thought how much better it would be if that money could be invested into the Qinghe Fund!

Elder Zhou might have been the chairman of Capital Journalism, but the problem was that the owner of Capital Journalism was the Capital city’s finance department, and Elder Zhou was just appointed a civil servant-like figure, earning a fixed salary.

Therefore, at this time, Elder Zhou suddenly started asking Ren He, "Do you really have confidence?" His query about confidence stemmed from the grand vision Ren He had painted for him: a revenue over one hundred billion US Dollars, even an industrial chain worth a trillion US Dollars.

What kind of novel is this? Elder Zhou had never seen such a book before! If Qinghe Fund really could own the rights to such books, he felt he could make more significant changes to his career focus!

But... should he really trust Ren He?

Ren He laughed over the phone, "Whether or not it can happen as I’ve said, let’s just wait and see, right? It will all become clear within a year or two at most." This was even a conservative estimate from Ren He.

But Elder Zhou could not wait. How old was he now? The older he got, the more he felt there wasn’t enough time, and using a bit meant having a bit less.

Elder Zhou sat in his study, gazing out the window, lost in thought, and reminiscing about the many miracles Ren He had brought since his arrival, as if it was all true, as if he could accomplish anything he said he would.

It seemed he had made up his mind.