Hotpot City

Time flew by.

In the blink of an eye, it was already mid-November.

Today marked another dividend payout day for Tengsheng Fruits. Thanks to a major top-up promotion in October, the profits for this month were exceptionally high.

Song Yanxi alone pocketed 9.6 million.

Even Zhang Tao and Liu Jing each got over a million.

Unfortunately, the promotion ended in mid-October. Otherwise, their earnings could have easily surpassed 10 million.

Feeling much more at ease, Song Yanxi decided to reward her husband with a grand gift. After buying a house for Zhao Liying, her savings had dwindled. But with this sudden windfall, she had to show her appreciation.

The extravagant wife secretly bought him a luxury watch.

She had never cared about such things before. It was only after opening her high-end beauty salon that she started learning about them.

For the wealthy, luxury watches were just as essential as cars and houses.

This time, she got him a Patek Philippe Nautilus.

Price? Over 800,000.

Chen Pingsheng felt uneasy wearing it. This thing was worth as much as a nearly 200-square-meter house in Shacheng.

"When did you start getting into luxury goods?"

In the headquarters' office, after splitting the earnings, they held a small meeting the next day.

"I can't afford to study planes and yachts, but watches? You deserve at least one," Song Yanxi said.

She didn't buy one for herself and still wore her 10,000-yuan Longines. To her, that was already good enough.

Every month, her husband handed over the fruit store's dividends. Aside from real estate investments, most of the money went into buying him gifts.

Chen Pingsheng didn't dwell on it and changed the topic. "This month, everyone still gets a big payout. But starting next month, it won't be the same. From then on, we'll have to rely on steady profits."

"That's fine," Song Yanxi replied. "Now that we've raised fruit prices, the profit margin is already good. Our business is booming, turnover is high, and losses are at an all-time low. Even without promotions, we'll still be doing well."

"Good."

Chen Pingsheng chuckled. "The historical drama I invested in, The Legend of Lu Zhen, has finished filming. It's now in post-production and should air next year. If it gets picked up by Mango TV, our investment in Zhao Liying will pay off big time."

"When the time comes, I'll have her promote Tengsheng Fruits for free and get her to do some beauty treatments at Shui Yun Jian. That'll solidify our brands in the Beijing market."

Song Yanxi's eyes sparkled. "Husband, should I start preparing in advance?"

"You definitely should," Chen Pingsheng said. "Open another salon in the Second Ring Road. Don't worry about the cost. High-end beauty products that cost 1,000 can sell for 100,000. With a celebrity-driven marketing boost, I can't see how we could possibly lose money."

Luxury beauty salons were undeniably a gold mine.

Every service cost thousands, while the actual expenses were minimal—just a bit of labor, product costs, and management salaries.

If he couldn't capitalize on such a lucrative cash-flow business, that would be a real failure.

Song Yanxi was eager to get started.

This was the advantage of having money.

Even though the first Shui Yun Jian branch hadn't turned a profit yet, they could still afford to invest in a second location.

At worst, they'd take a short-term loss of a million or so—not a big deal at all.

On the other hand, if they ran it well,

Annual profits wouldn't be less than ten million, with potential earnings of 40-50 million.

Since his wife had money, why not reinvest everything to secure the future?

"Chen, if you're expanding the beauty business, what about the fruit business?" Zhang Tao asked curiously.

Chen Pingsheng explained, "For Tengsheng Fruits, I also suggest expanding into the Second Ring Road. I'm not joking—I have a feeling that once The Legend of Lu Zhen airs, Zhao Liying will skyrocket in popularity. My company, Tengying Entertainment, will also gain more influence in the entertainment industry."

"The reason I haven't pushed for expansion yet is mainly because I'm worried you guys won't have enough capital. Plus, the store managers might not be able to afford their shares."

That was a real issue.

Opening new stores was easy—fruit supermarkets weren't high-barrier businesses.

If they planned to open 20 new locations, with each store requiring a 1.5 million investment, that would be a total of 30 million.

After giving half of his shares to the store managers, Chen Pingsheng was left with just 26%.

Zhang Tao and Liu Jing also had their shares cut in half.

They had no problem putting up the money, but the store managers couldn't afford their buy-ins, which was the biggest challenge.

If the managers didn't have a stake, store operations would likely suffer.

Fruit retail was a cash-flow business.

Chen Pingsheng had no intention of turning it into a capital-driven enterprise. He needed a few stable, consistently profitable businesses for future security.

Tengsheng Fruits was one. Shui Yun Jian was another.

Instead of rushing into reckless expansion,

It was better to take a steady, measured approach.

Opening five to ten stores a month was manageable and wouldn't strain management.

That way, he could also focus on running his hotpot chain and Tengying Entertainment.

No need to rush.

Everything had to follow a proper plan. Only by maintaining stability could they achieve rapid growth.

Stability was the top priority.

No way was he going to end up like Jia Huiji.

Zhang Tao and Liu Jing weren't strapped for cash anymore.

Gao Hu had been back in Shacheng for half a month, and they asked about his situation.

Chen Pingsheng knew exactly what was going on.

"He just sold his two stores a few days ago for about 1.8 million. He should be arriving soon."

"Chen, where do you plan to open your first hotpot restaurant?"

"Of course, in Shijingshan. That's our home base," Chen Pingsheng replied. "I've already picked a location. Once he arrives, we'll finalize the interior design. A single hotpot restaurant will require around 2 million in investment, either in a major mall or a prime commercial street."

"By the end of the year, I plan to invest 10 million to open five locations."

"That fast?" Zhang Tao was surprised.

Chen Pingsheng grinned. "Times have changed, brothers. If we're still slow when opening a hotpot restaurant, how are we ever going to make serious money?"

"This is just the plan for this year. If all goes well, next year, we'll be investing at least 100 million into the hotpot chain."

Zhang Tao and Liu Jing had considered investing, but after hearing that, they realized it was way out of their league.

With their small capital, there was no way they could play at this scale.

They couldn't expect Chen to cover their share either.

Fruit supermarkets were doable. But hotpot chains? Definitely not.

They immediately dismissed the idea of investing.

Managing Tengsheng Fruits properly was their priority.

No need to be greedy.

They had to accept that they didn't have Chen's business acumen.

His terrifying ability to juggle multiple ventures was becoming increasingly evident.

Look at how smoothly he was handling all these businesses at once.

That was something they simply couldn't compete with.

Two days later, Gao Hu swaggered into Beijing with a large team in tow.

All of them were his top staff.

He had transferred his entire original crew to the capital.

Of course, Chen Pingsheng welcomed them warmly.

To accommodate them, he even had to buy several apartments in Shijingshan as employee housing.

Naturally, he left the purchasing to Song Yanxi.

He allocated 10 million to buy four fully furnished 100-square-meter apartments.

Enough to house dozens of people comfortably.

Gao Hu had just made a small fortune from selling his stores, but before he could even show off, he was immediately humbled.

Just look at this—his childhood buddy, someone who grew up wearing the same shorts as him,

Didn't even bother renting employee housing.

Straight up bought four apartments, fully furnished, over 100 square meters each.

Now that's what you call dominance.

To be honest, Chen Pingsheng was just playing it safe.

If the hotpot chain flopped, he could always recoup the losses by renting out the apartments.

His calculations were sharp—he just didn't say them out loud.

No need to shake the team's morale.