Heavy Assets

Chengnan Road, Kuishan Market, north side street in the urban area.

The streets were bustling with people in late February, and electric scooters filled both sides of the road. After all, electric scooters were a common mode of transportation for locals. Even families with cars would keep one or two electric scooters for unexpected needs.

Knowing there was no underground parking nearby, Jiang Miao directly told Ke Yong to drive to the entrance of the Tax Bureau. It was just after closing time there, and there were many empty parking spaces.

Jiang Miao and his group walked to Kuishan Market.

"Boss, you've been to small roads and small shops like this before, right?" Jiang Haibo guessed, looking at the small shop in front of them.

"Yes, my maternal uncle's family is nearby."

Entering the small shop, the four tables downstairs were already occupied. He directly asked the proprietress, "Is there a table upstairs?"

"There's one room left. Four people?"

"Yes! Four servings of Lei Cha." Jiang Miao turned his head and asked, "What do you guys want? We have fried rice, fried kway teow, fried rice noodles, and fried potato starch noodles."

"Fried rice!"

"Fried kway teow!"

"I want fried rice too!"

Jiang Miao said with a smile, "Three servings of fried rice, one serving of fried kway teow, plus one salted chicken, one bitter gourd stuffed with meat and tofu stuffed with meat combination, and one stir-fried Chinese kale beef."

The proprietress quickly jotted it down with a pen. "You can go upstairs first."

Upstairs, at the table near the window.

Jiang Miao took a seat, and the others followed suit.

Outside the window, they could see the Urban Government Dormitory Area. This was an old residential area, built when the city was established. It didn't have underground parking or elevators, but it had undergone some renovations in recent years, with elevators added.

Soon, the proprietress brought up a tea-colored ceramic Lei Cha bowl. The bowl was full of green tea soup.

"One bowl each." Jiang Miao picked up a large spoon and first served himself a bowl of Lei Cha. "Help yourselves!"

Jiang Haibo looked at the green tea soup and felt a little apprehensive in his heart. However, since the boss had called for it, he could only brace himself and drink it. He served himself a small half bowl.

Ke Yong, on the other hand, was not polite. He served himself half a bowl, drank it in one gulp, and then served another bowl.

The proprietress then brought up the sliced salted chicken and the combination of tofu stuffed with meat and bitter gourd stuffed with meat.

Jiang Haibo took a sip and found that the Lei Cha tasted quite good. It had the fresh fragrance of vegetables, was slightly sweet, and also had a hint of the bitter taste of tea leaves.

"This salted chicken is a famous Luhe Hakka dish," Jiang Miao said, while picking up a chicken wing. Among chicken meat, he liked chicken wings the most, especially the chicken wings of salt-baked chicken and salted chicken.

Soon, the fried rice and fried kway teow were also brought up one after another.

While eating, everyone chatted about everyday life.

Since Jiang Miao didn't like to talk about business during meals, the others naturally wouldn't ask for trouble.

By the time the meal was finished, it was almost two o'clock.

They walked back to the entrance of the Tax Bureau to get the car.

It was just about two-thirty.

Jiang Miao didn't go back. Instead, he had Ke Yong drive to the opposite side of the Urban Management Bureau on Erma Road.

Fortunately, they arrived around 2:30 in the afternoon. If it had been noon or evening, the roadsides here would have been almost entirely occupied by food carts and electric scooters, making it difficult for cars to pass.

They parked the car near Shanmei Middle School.

The group walked for a few minutes and saw the three connected shops that were being renovated.

The renovation master craftsman was one of Jiang Yao's men and also knew Jiang Miao. He quickly put down the woodworking tools in his hand and said, "Boss Jiang, the renovation here will take about another week."

"No problem, you guys keep busy!" Jiang Miao turned his head and instructed, "Zixuan, go buy a box of Red Bull and some bananas for the master craftsmen nearby."

"Okay." Li Zixuan nodded.

Jiang Miao and Jiang Haibo then discussed the shops.

These shops were diagonally opposite Hongwei Primary School and were previously used for selling electrical appliances. However, the landlord's son lost several million yuan gambling online in October last year. To pay off his son's debt, the landlord had to sell these three storefronts.

The first floor of the shops has an area of 144 square meters, and the second floor, which was converted from the original residential area, has an area of 156 square meters, totaling 300 square meters.

The purchase price was 4.5 million yuan.

Currently, Jiang Miao has purchased three properties in the urban area: the Erma Road shops (300 square meters), a self-built house on Chengnan Road, and a self-built house on Hai Bin Avenue near Fengshan Mazu Square, totaling 17.39 million yuan.

The reason for purchasing these properties was actually Jiang Haibo's suggestion, as he believed the company's current cash flow was very sufficient and this money should not be left idle.

Although Hai Lu Feng Company is registered as an agricultural technology company, its business scope actually includes supermarkets and department stores, agricultural products, catering, and more.

To enhance the company's risk resistance, Jiang Haibo suggested that while purchasing properties, they could also use these properties to open some affiliated shops.

After consideration, Jiang Miao decided to purchase these three properties, but they are under his father Jiang Dahai's name and then leased to Hai Lu Feng Company for use.

Regarding the direction of the shop operations, he didn't act arbitrarily but consulted his brother-in-law, father, Jiang Haibo, and others. After a few days, they finally had a general direction.

First, the property they are currently at, due to its sufficient area and important location (Erma Road is a famous local internet-famous street and food street), will be used for eel rice and a company product specialty store.

As for the self-built house on Chengnan Road, the first-floor shop area is only 60 square meters, and the five floors combined are 320 square meters. Therefore, Jiang Haibo suggested opening a gold shop.

The reason for choosing a gold shop is naturally that Hai Lu Feng Company has a large amount of cash. If they want to reasonably avoid taxes, opening a gold shop is a very good tax avoidance method.

After all, purchasing gold and processing it into jewelry becomes inventory. Moreover, the profit from gold shops is also good.

The last property is a self-built house on Hai Bin Avenue. The first-floor shop area is 120 square meters, but it only has three floors, with a total area of 400 square meters.

Jiang Miao plans to use this property as a private clubhouse, making it convenient for himself, his family, and company personnel to have a place to stay in the urban area when they come for business.

At the same time, it can also be used to entertain business partners from other places.

In fact, this kind of heavy asset operation is a very good investment strategy for a cash-rich enterprise like Hai Lu Feng Company.

As for investing in finance and the like, Jiang Miao doesn't have a talent for finance because his math is very average. Coupled with the notoriously rebellious A-shares, investing in foreign finance is even riskier, and he doesn't want to be a leek waiting to be harvested.

He is even a little uneasy about borrowing from banks.

After all, many companies die from high debt and broken capital chains.

In Jiang Miao's view, many private enterprises are too aggressive and blind in their investment strategies, often borrowing money to expand their scale without restraint.

If they encounter a good market environment, they will naturally soar.

However, if the market environment deteriorates or there are policy changes, it could instantly explode.

He didn't understand the mindset of many entrepreneurs, why they were so aggressive, as if they would be eliminated by competitors tomorrow if they didn't expand today.

Or perhaps they were misled and invested in a bunch of PPT projects without conducting any research reports, feasibility studies, market research, etc.

Jiang Miao's investments seemed very aggressive.

In reality, however, they were within a controllable range. The company's cash flow had always been very abundant. Without taking out loans, no matter how the company invested, it wouldn't face a severe financial crisis.

If there were loans, they couldn't make overly aggressive investments, as they would have to consider the risk and consequences of a broken capital chain.

Many entrepreneurs' investments were actually gambling, betting that the market would improve so they could be pigs flying in the wind.

It's just a pity that they only saw the pigs flying up, but subconsciously ignored the pigs that fell to their death before the wind arrived.