“Why do you keep asking this? Did anyone ask you to fork out a sum?” Samuel retorted fretfully.
“Is it not true then?” Matthew chuckled. “So do you mean that we don’t have to contribute anything at all
after joining?”
“How is that possible?” asked Samuel with a trace of anger in his voice. “In order to enjoy the benefits,
you’ll have to contribute something. If everyone doesn’t contribute and only enjoys the benefits, how
could the Union continue to operate?”
“So what I want to know is, what do we have to contribute?” Matthew repeated.
Furious, Samuel questioned him, “W-What do you mean by this?”
“We just want to get a clear picture. Isn’t that a legit question?” Matthew continued, “How could we
simply join when you’re not telling us what we have to contribute?
It’s as if you went shopping and someone told you how awesome a product was, without telling you the
price. Would you buy it, then?”
Blood rushed to Samuel’s face as he finally began to take Matthew seriously; the young man in front of
him was not an easy fool at all!
Taking a deep breath, he replied, “You’ll definitely have to contribute something after joining the Union.
Everyone must share a portion of their sales. In other words, you’ll get to enjoy the profits of others!”
Sasha’s face fell when she finally understood Matthew’s concern.
Sharing of profits? Cunningham Pharmaceuticals just clinched a three billion deal. How much would they
get back if they had to share this profit? Putting it bluntly, wasn’t this just sharing the profits of
Cunningham Pharmaceuticals?
“So how much do we have to fork out?” Matthew asked.
“According to our usual regulations, the new member would have to submit fifty percent of their profits,
but as a special treatment for Cunningham Pharmaceuticals, you’ll just need to submit forty percent!”
Sasha was close to lashing out at him when he finished. For Cunningham Pharmaceuticals to submit
forty percent of their three billion sales, that would be 120 million.
In other words, even before they could enjoy any benefits from joining the Union, they would have to first
fork out 120 million for others.
It would be fine if it happened to the old Cunningham Pharmaceuticals when their sales were low; forty
percent would be a mere ten to twenty million and then it would even out when they received some
benefits from the Union. However, if they had contributed 120 million now, she estimated that they would
be making a loss of 1.1 billion!
It made sense now why Matthew kept stopping her; he must have known about this beforehand. “I’m
sorry, Mr. Hughes,” she said immediately. “Cunningham Pharmaceuticals won’t be joining the Eastshire
Pharmaceutical Union for now!”
Samuel’s face turned stone cold. “President Cunningham, you have submitted the application and we’ve
approved it.
In order to allow you to join, we even screened out others who were qualified. But now, you’re saying that
you want to back out. Are you taking us as fools?”
“The application was submitted last year,” Sasha began, clearly annoyed. “You didn’t approve it when our
sales were merely tens of millions last year.
Yet, you came right away after we just signed a three billion deal. Mr. Hughes, tell me if you don’t know
who’s taking the other for a fool now.”
Embarrassment crept over his face as she had hit a nail on the head. They only eyed the business from
Eastshire after seeing that the pharmaceutical industry was profitable, and it was only recently that
Cunningham Pharmaceuticals had caught their attention.
So they dug out their application from last year, slapped an approval stamp on it and came straight here.
Simply put, they dashed here for interests and there was no screening done at all. Still, how could they
bow down to others when they were used to being arrogant?
“Sasha Cunningham, what you just said is an insult to the Union! Hmph, how dare you insult the
Pharmaceutical Union of Eastshire when you’re in the same industry!
That just means that you’re the enemy of the whole pharmaceutical industry of Eastshire! Mark my
words, if you’re not joining the Union but are still able to continue your operations, it means that I,
Samuel Hughes, is incapable!”
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