Chen Yang was stumped by Su Lin's question. This was an idea Ye Feng had mentioned to him in the car before. He had not thought much of it at the time, but later, bored at home, he looked it up. It would have been better if he had not—once he did, he realized that the business model of chain supermarkets was genuinely impressive.
He then spent the entire night reading materials about chain supermarkets.
Although he had improved on it quite a bit himself, Ye Feng had been the one to propose the idea.
"Brother Lin, this is actually..."
Su Lin waved his hand. "I don't care who came up with the idea. As long as it makes money, that's enough."
After saying that, Su Lin asked, "If we built a supermarket like the one you described in Jiangning District, how much do you think it would cost?"
Without even thinking, Chen Yang replied, "If we keep it small, two hundred thousand will do. If we go bigger, it'll take five hundred thousand."
"What if we buy the property instead of renting it? Build it to the standards of the Jialegou you mentioned."
"Brother Lin, at Jialegou's scale, we'd need at least one million. Most of that would go toward buying the building."
Su Lin nodded. "How about this? Find time to conduct a detailed survey, then make a report and see exactly how much money we'll need."
"Brother Lin, does that mean you agree to do this too?" Chen Yang asked excitedly.
Su Lin nodded. "I think it has potential. We can start by opening one in Jiangning as a test. If it really makes money, we'll increase the investment and open one in every district of Zhongjiang City, turning it into a chain."
What a joke. Conglomerates like Walmart and China Resources had built their fortunes on supermarkets. How could he possibly look down on chain supermarkets?
The profits in this business were terrifyingly high.
Hearing Su Lin's words, Chen Yang's blood immediately began to boil.
A supermarket in every district of Zhongjiang City—what an enormous business that would be.
And he would have a share in that business too.
Su Lin said seriously, "Yangzi, think this through. There's no turning back once the arrow leaves the bow. If we're doing this, we need to move quickly and get the supermarket open before the college entrance exam. That way, your grades...?"
Chen Yang waved his hand. "No problem, Brother Lin. I barely study after getting home from school anyway. There's always a mountain of things to do at home, and my grades have never slipped."
"Alright. If that's the case, go for it."
"Oh, and when you have time, chat with Ye Feng more. Just don't tell him about the business venture."
"Ah?!" Chen Yang stared at Su Lin in surprise, unable to understand how Su Lin knew his idea had come from Ye Feng.
That idea definitely had not been Chen Yang's. He did not have that kind of business sense yet. So who else had been in contact with Chen Yang?
It had to be Ye Feng.
Su Lin's purpose in having Chen Yang build a good relationship with Ye Feng was simple: he wanted to keep tabs on the guy.
Otherwise, if he let his guard down for even a moment and Ye Feng got his first pot of gold, it would become much harder to restrain Ye Feng's development.
Su Lin patted Chen Yang on the shoulder. He had no intention of exposing the matter and simply said, "That guy has been bothering me and Xiao Yu lately. Handle him."
"So that's what this is about." Chen Yang suddenly understood.
Su Lin nodded. "When we set up the company, I might bring Xiao Yu in as well. Yangzi, be prepared for that."
Chen Yang said with some disappointment, "Brother Lin, aren't you going to participate personally?"
Su Lin smiled. "Of course I will, but not much. Mainly, I want Xiao Yu to get some experience."
"Brother Lin, you and Xia Shiyu..."
"It's exactly what you think."
"What about Lin Xiaowan?"
"That too."
Chen Yang: "..."
The herbal medicine business fell through too? Please send flowers and tickets.
After school that afternoon, Su Lin planned to invite Xia Shiyu to ride home in his family's car and drop her off at the hospital on the way. But when he reached the school gate, he found that Liu Yong had not come. Li Hongyang was there instead.
After waving goodbye to the two girls, Su Lin walked over to Li Hongyang. "Brother Yang, why are you here? Where's Uncle Liu?"
Li Hongyang smiled. "I had Old Liu stay home. I wanted to talk to you about something, and I figured I'd pick you up on the way."
Seeing the urgency on Li Hongyang's face, Su Lin guessed why he had come looking for him in such a hurry.
Su Lin nodded. "Alright, let's talk in the car."
"Okay."
Once they got into the car, Su Lin went straight to the point. "Brother Yang, are you here to talk about selling the Gastrodia elata?"
Li Hongyang nodded. "Young Master Su, I really have to admire your eye. We wouldn't come across Gastrodia elata once in ten years, yet you thought of going to the countryside to buy it."
Su Lin chuckled. "I only got the idea after hearing about it from a classmate."
"You have no idea. I only finished buying it this morning, and by the afternoon, someone had already called to buy it from me. They didn't even haggle—they told me to name a price, and said they'd take however much it cost."
Su Lin understood. "No wonder you came looking for me."
"Heh! I don't know much about this stuff either, so I ignored him and hung up directly."
"Hm. Brother Yang, are you saying you want to take care of selling my share too?" Su Lin raised an eyebrow.
Su Lin had provided the money for buying the Gastrodia elata, while Li Hongyang had provided the manpower. In less than a day, they had earned over two hundred thousand. Having tasted the benefits, Li Hongyang naturally wanted to ask Su Lin for the right to handle the sale.
**Probe Technique!** Li Hongyang: Age 27, Height 175 cm, Weight 67 kg, Current Loyalty 70↑ Rising
His loyalty was already high enough for him to be trusted.
Su Lin could not figure out why Li Hongyang's loyalty was so high when they had not interacted much. He guessed that Su Zhenguo must have had something to do with it.
"Brother Yang, are you interested in working for me?"
"Ah! Young Master Su, what did you say?"
"I said, stop working for my dad and come work for me." Su Lin smiled.
Li Hongyang shook his head. "Young Master Su, unless the boss tells me to come, I can't possibly come over on my own."
"Alright, I understand."
Su Lin thought to himself that it was as expected. His cheap dad had probably done Li Hongyang a favor, or there was some other reason.
"Since you're unwilling to come, Brother Yang, I won't force you. Handle this batch of Gastrodia elata however you see fit. Three hundred is enough. Same as before—the excess is your payment for the effort. If you can sell it for four hundred, you'll make several million."
Li Hongyang smiled bitterly. "Young Master Su, stop teasing me. I don't even know how you timed this so precisely. You let me make money, but not too much. The balance is just right."
Su Lin smiled. "I investigated it beforehand. Otherwise, would I dare gamble around with several million so casually?"
Li Hongyang nodded. At this point, he definitely would not treat Su Lin as some useless rich second-generation heir.
People said they were not afraid of rich second-generation heirs squandering money; they were afraid of rich second-generation heirs starting businesses.
But there were quite a few rich second-generation heirs who succeeded in business.
Meanwhile, Ye Feng jogged all the way home. In his mind, if his father had strictly followed his instructions today, there should have been several million worth of Gastrodia elata in their house by now. Once they sold it tomorrow, they would have everything.
But the moment Ye Feng got home, he saw Ye Weimin sitting at the table smoking, his brows tightly furrowed and his face full of worry.
"Dad! What's wrong? Why does the house smell so strongly of smoke?"
The moment Ye Weimin saw Ye Feng, his anger flared. "This is all because of you, brat."
"What did I do, Dad? Didn't I tell you to go buy Gastrodia elata? I haven't done anything."
"Hmph. You told me to quit my job and focus on buying herbs. But today, I went to three towns and seven or eight villages, and there wasn't a single piece of Gastrodia elata left." Ye Weimin let out a long sigh.
He knew that taking his anger out on Ye Feng was merely venting his emotions.
Ye Feng had not done anything wrong, but there was nothing he could do about it. He was unemployed at home now, and the new work had fallen through too. All he could do was worry.
Ye Feng frowned. "How is that possible? How could there be none left? This is supposed to be a bumper year for Gastrodia elata."
"Ah..."
"Xiao Feng, you don't know this. I didn't buy a single piece today. Later, I asked around and found out that a wealthy businessman had come yesterday. He drove around himself, weighed and paid for everything on the spot, and bought up all the Gastrodia elata in the countryside. I was one step too late."
"One step too late? So that's what happened."
Ye Feng carefully recalled the Gastrodia elata purchases from his previous life, only to discover that his once-clear memories had become blurry.
He only remembered that around this time, a major medicine dealer had come to buy Gastrodia elata.
But he could not remember the exact day.
"Yeah. Those unscrupulous medicine dealers are too ruthless. They drove around Zhongjiang City in circles and bought up everything they could."
"What about what we had? Did we sell what we had?"
Ye Weimin nodded, and his expression improved a little. "We sold it. We made two hundred thousand."
Only then did Ye Feng notice the two stacks of cash wrapped in newspaper on the table.
He walked over and picked up one stack. "Dad, I'm taking this stack."
Ye Weimin slapped the table. "Put it down."
"Dad, I need it for something."
"You need it? What could you possibly need it for?" Ye Weimin frowned at Ye Feng.
Before you continue