Chapter 136

Chapter 136: Buying the Stores

A person who is not envied is a mediocre man.

A person who is not remembered is an ordinary man.

Yuan Zhou was neither a mediocre man nor an ordinary man. He was just a moneygrubber.

“Xiao Guang, you go investigate the background of that Yuan Zhou’s restaurant,” with a neatly combed hair and a conspicuous pair of jet-black eyebrows, a good-looking man dressed in a showy white suit said while holding the phone.

“What’s the matter?” From the other end of the phone passed a languorous voice. Anyone listening would be able to tell he was not fully awake.

“Xiao Guang, why are you still sleeping?” The man frowned and wasn’t pleased.

“Xie Xuesi, I’m always sleeping at this time of the day.”

The man called Xiao Guang likewise didn’t have a good temper, hence directly shouted back.

“Wang Fengguang, if you continue playing like this, you’ll definitely see the end of your life sooner or later,” Xie Xuesi stood up and said affirmatively while looking at the flow of traffic outside the window.

“Enough, it’s none of your business. What’s the matter?”

Wang Fengguang finally got out of the quilt and walked around in the room barefooted while wearing nightclothes.

“Help me investigate the background of the Yuan Zhou’s restaurant at the Taoxi Street,” Xie Xuesi no longer asked about Wang Fengguang and directly brought out his purpose.

“Ok, I will give you the information one hour later,” then from the other end of the phone came a busy signal. With a frown, Xie Xuesi looked at the phone in his hand.

He sat back on his seat and lightly knocked on the solid wood tabletop with his fingers, emitting a sound of “Du Du Du”. Unfolding on the table was the business report of this month.

The decrease of the turnover was not a lot, but neither was it very little as well. Therefore Xie Xuesi summoned the general manager to enquire. It was by then that he got to know the cause of the event.

Yeah, that’s right. Xie Xuesi was the boss of World Foodie Hotel, which was only one of the restaurants owned by his father. He was still undergoing training for experience now, but even so, it was unacceptable to him that the turnover fell as soon as he took charge of the business.

“Yuan Zhou,” while reading the scheme on the business plan, Xie Xuesi murmured in a low voice.

There were two proposals made by the managerial team of the restaurant, one was acquisition and the other was to recruit talented people.

Xie Xuesi was responsible for considering which proposal to take while Wang Fengguang helped him to investigate the preferred candidates. Anyhow, such superb culinary skills were definitely passed down from a master. From the master to his students, it would for sure be easier to pull the strings.

Good fortune never comes in pairs while misfortune always comes alone. Yuan Zhou finally experienced such a feeling in person today.

In the last few minutes of the lunch time, there were only a few customers apart from several regular customers.

“I heard Boss Yuan sends flowers to those who eat here recently. Is it true?” Wu Hai teased while smiling.

“Yes, but none of your business,” Yuan Zhou nodded and then added.

“Ha Ha, bad luck, Brother Wu. I have already gotten one,” Man Man revealed a proud expression.

“Boss Yuan, what exactly do you mean? Why is it none of my business?” Just as Wu Hai finished uttering the words, a phone suddenly rang, emitting a very ancient sound of “Ling Ling Ling”.

“Sorry, my call,” Yuan Zhou apologized and immediately hung it off without answering.

“It’s alright, go ahead and pick it up.” The few regular customers made it known that they didn’t mind.

“Never mind. There are only five minutes left. I will call back later,” Yuan Zhou said carelessly.

“Err….” the several customers immediately choked up.

Instantly, they habitually disregarded Yuan Zhou and talked among themselves.

Yuan Zhou called the phone number back when all the customers left five minutes later.

“Hello, Boss Yuan. I’m sorry, but I want my store back. So…?” Once the phone was connected, Yuan Zhou received bad news from the person on the other side of the phone, whose store was the one that the system was currently decorating and that Yuan Zhou had intended to use as the place for the business at night.

“Why did you change your mind?” Yuan Zhou didn’t really worry about that as they had signed the contract for a few days already and it was definitely impossible to change his mind today.

“I don’t want to conceal the current situation from you but someone else wants to buy my store and I also want to sell it. I will give the rent and the assignment charge back to you, ok?” The person spoke quite politely with slight embarrassment in his tone, yet he brought out his purpose directly.

“No, the decorations are already ongoing,” Yuan Zhou refused bluntly.

“The buyer is bidding a very high price. It has been only a few days, why did you decorate the store so hurriedly, Boss Yuan?” It seemed that he didn’t believe in him.

“Let’s do this. I can also buy the store. Tell me how much you want?” Having thought for a while, Yuan Zhou felt he should have already bought the store out. Otherwise, there would be no such troubles at all now.

“Really? I’m so grateful to you, Boss Yuan. I know you are doing a big business and care little about this little money.”

Immediately, the tone of the man became flattering. Moreover, he continuously complimented Yuan Zhou for several words.

“You don’t need to speak anymore. At three o’clock in the afternoon, I will meet you in Shui Yi Tea House. Just remember to bring your identification card and the documents.”

Yuan Zhou straightforwardly brought out the time and address of the meeting, discourteously.

“No problem,” the man agreed readily.

Seeing this one was almost done, Yuan Zhou thought for an instant and likewise made an appointment with the other one saying he would buy out his store. It was pretty nice to solve all the problems in one go.

The man who had just hung off was nevertheless fairly pleased. He turned his head and said proudly.

“See? Honey, am I so great? I sold that shabby store out.”

“Not really. It’s me who is so smart to go to check who’s renting our store, which hasn’t been rented out for 5 months,” his wife went up and picked up her phone and then started to search for something.

“Look at the long line. If it wasn’t that we were leading a comfortable life now, I might also go to steal some the business from him.”

The woman showed her husband the photos of the long line of customers at the entrance of Yuan Zhou’s restaurant in her DCIM and said in a raspy voice.

“That’s true. Are the dishes really so delicious as mentioned by others?” the man murmured in a low voice.

“What are you murmuring? It’s good that the store is to be sold. We can overcharge him a little bit. Otherwise, we sell it to other people. Let’s just see what he can end up with,” the woman appeared to be proud and shrewd. She turned her head and instructed her husband again carefully.

“I know. Don’t worry. I have settled the price on the phone. This number,” while pointing his fingers straight up, the man said proudly.

“That’s good. Then we can buy an apartment now and finally have a new house of our own.”

After that, the two persons couldn’t help but start to dream about which area they would buy the apartment from. While they were talking about adding some money more to buy an apartment in the downtown area, they also talked about buying one in the suburb area. All in all, they just wanted to get a large amount of money from Yuan Zhou this time.

However, how was it possible that Yuan Zhou didn’t do any prior research to such emergency and straightforwardly rushed into the decision?

Speaking of money, Yuan Zhou had always been cautious. Paying was one thing, being blackmailed was another.

“It’s so hard to earn money,” while enquiring the specific circumstances, Yuan Zhou thought in his heart.

On the other side, the investigation of Wang Fengguang also bore fruit.

[I’m sending the results of the investigation for you to check. By the way, there’s nothing extraordinary about this person. His ancestors might be the ones that are really extraordinary?] from Feng Shou, the internet nickname of Wang Fengguang.

He added a line of mocking words at the beginning of the email. It seemed he had gotten out of the wrong side of the bed.

[Let’s have dinner together some other day.] from Xue Hai Never Stops, the internet nickname of Xie Xuesi.

Then he conveniently typed these few words in the email and replied Wang Fengguang. After that, he began to look through the information.

The information collected and received by Xie Xuesi was probably even more than what Yuan Zhou knew about himself. Everything that could be collected about Yuan Zhou had been listed on the email, including the information concerning his deceased parents.

Listed in the email were all about his former life, however, the culinary skills, which were the most important thing, did not have much information..

“He once worked in the kitchen of a three-star hotel as a handyman. Talent on culinary skills is still unknown. There’s no record of him learning to cook from anyone. The reputation has been extremely high since he opened the restaurant. But until now, he is still a nobody.”

While reading the remarks, Xie Xuesi habitually started to knock on the tabletop with his fingers. This was his habit when thinking over something.