Harvest

The first reading festival concluded successfully around noon, with encouraging results.

The number of viewers in the live stream steadily increased, reaching over 30,000 at its peak. Online sales of Su Xiaoran's works reached hundreds of thousands of yuan, with over 10,000 copies sold.

For an e-commerce platform that is still growing, these figures are already quite encouraging.

After all, their platforms are quite small, and they don't invite high-profile guests.

As for the future, even if only a portion of this increased traffic remains, it is still a very encouraging thing for the overall growth of the platform.

As for Xie Shuting, her book sold very well, and she successfully completed her online debut, making the trip worthwhile.

As soon as the broadcast ended, she excitedly asked Zhang Yang about her performance.

"I'd give you a fair 90," Zhang Yang said with a smile, looking at Xie Shuting, whose face was flushed with excitement.

"Ninety points is good, I'm very satisfied." Xie Shuting was quite content. "Oh, by the way, what about the platform's data? I didn't embarrass your platform, did I?"

"The platform data is great too," Zhang Yang said. "Come on, let me treat you to dinner."

"Goodbye, I know you've been very busy these past few days. Go ahead and do what you need to do. We'll get together again after you're done. I'll be waiting for you in Magic City." Xie Shuting waved and smiled, then hugged Zhang Yang and left gracefully.

Zhang Yang stood there, watching Xie Shuting's departing figure, and let out a soft sigh of relief.

Xie Shuting's debut is complete. The remaining four are a done deal; he just needs to wait for the task to be completed.

Well, if he were a heartless person, he could easily have given Xie Shuting the cold shoulder and ignored her completely. But he really can't bring himself to do that – only when there's trouble, and only when there's none.

"Once things are finished, I should make things clear," Zhang Yang muttered to himself.

In any case, Xie Shuting did him a great favor.

In the following days, a series of activities were held during the reading festival. Taking advantage of the momentum, several well-known authors visited the live broadcast room to introduce their books.

Riding this wave of popularity, the data for Premium Goods has been steadily increasing.

During the event, the number of viewers in the live stream reached a new high, generating tremendous buzz. Staff at Premium Goods Company reviewed the data daily and analyzed it, concluding that the number of retained and new followers over the past few days was quite encouraging.

The entire company was overjoyed and full of fighting spirit.

Zhang Yang, as one of the major shareholders, is naturally pleased with the Premium Goods, after all, it might just be a future unicorn.

However, he was more concerned about the present than the future.

Outside the live-streaming room Premium Goods, the final event of the book festival took place.

Standing outside the venue, Zhang Yang watched the hosts and guests chatting animatedly in the live broadcast room, but his thoughts were elsewhere.

"Almost there, the mission is about to be completed."

As time ticked by, the entire book festival event, planned by Premium Goods, was about to officially come to a close.

As noon approached, the author in the live stream faced the camera and bid farewell to his readers and fans.

Zhang Yang suddenly looked up, his eyes filled with joy.

Bite!

Congratulations, host! Mission: Increase the popularity of the Premium Goods livestream room (Completed)

Task Reward 1: 50 experience points

Task Reward 2: Replace the host's smallest property with a random size. (To be claimed.)

After several weeks of hard work and some setbacks, we finally completed the task without any major incidents.

The harvest time has arrived again.

Without saying a word, Zhang Yang immersed himself in the system, ready to carefully check his gains.

The 50 experience points from the first reward go without saying, since experience points are the foundation for leveling up and the basics of your character.

As for now, he only cares about the second reward.

[Replace the smallest property under your name with a random size]

"Claim reward two," Zhang Yang silently recited to himself.

Bite!

Receiving reward two:

The host's smallest business is the Shudu Roasted Duck Magic City flagship store in Shanghai, which is currently being randomly relocated.

Congratulations, host! The Shanghai flagship store of Shudu Roasted Duck Magic City has been successfully replaced by one of the seventy stores of [Soup King Hotpot] nationwide.

Zhang Yang's eyes widened slightly, and he was startled.

It's not that the industry is huge, but that he actually ate at this restaurant before.

This hot pot brand specializes in nourishing soup bases with a very authentic flavor. The impression it left on me was that the decor of the store was very upscale, far superior to that of ordinary hot pot restaurants.

As for the average order value, it's almost on par with a certain hot pot chain. In today's hot pot market, which is worth hundreds of billions, it's already one of the few that has stood out.

"It's this store! The system wasn't lying to me!"

Although he had expected it and knew that the system generally wouldn't cheat him, the assets he received this time still surprised him somewhat.

This is Soup King Hotpot.

Even if it can't compare to Haidilao or the most popular restaurants in major shopping districts, it's not unknown either. In some special circumstances, it can be considered a minor queue king.

The system indicated that the relevant equity shares were being processed, and Zhang Yang could now simply wait for the process to complete.

He trusted the system to handle things.

With nothing else to do, he decided to check out the publicly available information about Soup King Hotpot.

Soup King Hotpot, headquartered in Liangxi, currently has seventy stores nationwide, mainly concentrated in Jiangsu Province, Magic City, and Zhejiang Province.

Last year, the total revenue of the seventy stores was around 1.1 billion yuan, with a net profit of over 100 million yuan and a net profit margin of over 9%.

It's another huge industry.

In addition to these seventy stores, Soup King Hotpot has also built a soup base processing plant and two central kitchens, with a total of thousands of employees.

It's not surprising that there are many employees, after all, it's the catering industry. A single store of a certain hot pot restaurant usually has around a hundred employees. As for Soup King Hotpot, its scale is naturally not comparable to that of a certain hot pot restaurant, but a single store still needs at least several dozen employees to operate.

Including the base material processing plant and two large central kitchens, there are naturally several thousand employees.

To be honest, the thought that several thousand people will depend on me for their livelihood gives me a profound sense of responsibility.

"The industry scale has increased again," Zhang Yang muttered to himself.

Including Soup King Hotpot, his current business scope covers office buildings, commerce, hotels, catering, and investment, spanning several major industries.

His total annual income, including his annual cashback, must be over 400 million yuan.

This doesn't even include the growing assets and returns brought about by the venture capital firm's annual investment of 300 million.

With assets worth several billion yuan and an annual income of over 400 million yuan.

Looking back, he has gone further and further down the path to becoming a tycoon, and his path has become wider and wider.

For a moment, Zhang Yang couldn't help but feel a surge of emotions, a feeling of boundless freedom and boundless adventure.

Of course, with such vast assets, one's own abilities must also keep pace. Zhang Yang decided that his next step was to complete the cameo role with Tian Chuxi as soon as possible, since one of the rewards for completing that role was a beginner's experience book for a Fortune 500 CEO.

Although it's only at the beginner level, I'm more than capable of managing my current business scale.

"Huh? What's this?" Just as he was lost in thought, Zhang Yang's phone suddenly rang.

He looked down and paused slightly in surprise.

It turned out to be a message from Xie Shuting.

"I just watched the live stream. Are you finally done with work? Do you have time to hang out with me?" Xie Shuting asked.

"Sure, I happen to have some free time." Zhang Yang thought for a moment and readily agreed. "I'm free this afternoon."

"Okay, see you this afternoon then," Xie Shuting replied cheerfully.

After leaving Premium Goods, Zhang Yang went straight back to his home in COFCO Seaview No. 1 and then went into his walk-in closet.

All the luxury brands I bought are neatly categorized and piled up here.

He looked around and picked out a Hermes bag, worth about 200,000 yuan, which he planned to give to Xie Shuting later as a return gift for the clothes she bought him last time.

Then, some things need to be made clear.

In the afternoon, Zhang Yang drove his Cullinan straight to the Taikoo Li, where he had arranged to meet Xie Shuting.

He met Xie Shuting outside an outdoor coffee shop.

Today, Xie Shuting wore a long dress and light makeup, looking delicate and graceful.

"Hey, Zhang Yang, you're here." She waved with a smile. "What would you like to drink?"

"Same as yours, right?" Zhang Yang sat down, casually placing his bag on the table and pushing it towards him. "Oh, right, this is the bag I gave you."

"A bag? Hermes?" Xie Shuting's eyes widened slightly as she took out the bag. "Zhang Yang, this bag is definitely not cheap. Are you crazy to give me such an expensive bag?"

"Just a return gift," Zhang Yang said with a smile.

"Just give me a small return gift. Why send something so expensive? Did your company give you a bonus?" Xie Shuting gently picked up the bag and stroked it lightly, her eyes filled with undisguised delight.

Zhang Yang smiled but did not answer.

"Okay, I'll accept the package. Thank you, Zhang Yang," Xie Shuting said earnestly. "By the way, my trip to Magic City is over, and I'm planning to go back now."

"So urgent?" Zhang Yang asked in surprise.

"Yeah, no one's asking me to stay, so what am I supposed to do but sit here?" Xie Shuting asked, looking at Zhang Yang. "Do you... want me to stay?"

"Let's not talk about that for now." Zhang Yang paused for a moment, then spoke up, "Let's talk about something else."

"What are you doing, acting so businesslike?" Xie Shuting smiled, gently stirring her coffee. "Speak, I'm listening."

"Actually... I lied to you quite a bit," Zhang Yang said.

"What could you possibly be lying to me about? You didn't swindle me out of my money or my body." Xie Shuting reached out and grabbed Zhang Yang's hand. "Tell me, what did you lie to me about?"

"Okay, I'm actually not an employee of Premium Goods; to be precise, I'm a shareholder," Zhang Yang said. "Those things about resigning were all lies; they were just excuses to get you to come out."

Xie Shuting was taken aback for a moment, but her reaction wasn't particularly strong.

"No wonder, you were using this as a feigned retreat to advance, weren't you? Well, you're trying to gain my sympathy. I thought you were an office worker." She lightly patted Zhang Yang's hand and muttered, "So, you're actually quite wealthy, aren't you?"

"Yes, they're very rich," Zhang Yang said quite frankly.

"You really have no modesty at all," Xie Shuting couldn't help but say. "Don't you know how to be a little more humble?"

"You might not have understood what I meant. What I'm trying to say is that I actually took advantage of your feelings for me... Do you understand?" Zhang Yang, no longer bothered to lie, simply stated frankly, "I'm not single either; I have a girlfriend."

The scene fell silent instantly.

The shop assistant brought over the coffee, and upon seeing the couple in front of him, he immediately held his breath, sensing that something was amiss.

"You... have a girlfriend?" Xie Shuting's voice suddenly became a little dry.

"Yes, from the moment I came to find you... you know I came with a specific purpose," Zhang Yang said directly.

"Your purpose is just to ask me to come out?" Xie Shuting's eyes widened slightly as she stared blankly at Zhang Yang.

Zhang Yang nodded.

"What merit do I have to trouble you so much? Is there some reason why you absolutely must ask me?" Xie Shuting took a deep breath. "Then I'll ask you one last question."

"Go ahead and ask," Zhang Yang said, taking a sip of his coffee.

"What I thought... was really just a deliberate illusion, just my own wishful thinking? You never had any feelings for me at all..." Xie Shuting stared into Zhang Yang's eyes, waiting for the final answer.

Zhang Yang didn't know what to say.

Because they had ulterior motives from the very beginning, their relationship was impure from the start.

"I understand now. No wonder I was so proactive that night, and you still..." Xie Shuting nodded, her face a little pale. "Then I thank you for not touching me."

"You..." Zhang Yang wanted to say something more.

Xie Shuting suddenly stood up, threw her Hermes bag into his arms, and then, without looking back, covered her mouth and ran away.

"What kind of mess is this?" Zhang Yang muttered to himself, shaking his head, unsure of what to say.

He fully understood the power of those words. They had utterly shattered all his beautiful fantasies into pieces.

Looking down at his phone, Zhang Yang felt a pang of reluctance and wanted to send a message.

The first one has been sent.

The second one, marked with a red exclamation mark.

Zhang Yang thought for a moment, then looked down and deleted the chat box. Forget it, let's just leave it at that.

He didn't know where Xie Shuting was going next—whether she would return to Wuyuan Huangling to continue writing in the misty, rainy inn, go home, or go wherever she pleased.

"If this trend continues, won't the parts about me in her novel be ruined?"

Zhang Yang muttered to himself, knowing that this was no longer his concern.

Later that day, he called the hotel to inquire and learned that Xie Shuting had checked out of the hotel shortly afterward.

As for where they went, nobody knows.

In the evening, Zhang Yang cooked a simple dinner at his home in COFCO Seaview No. 1. After finishing his meal, he suddenly noticed the suit on the coat rack and paused for a moment.

That was a suit Xie Shuting bought for him while they were shopping. It wasn't expensive, and it fit him perfectly.