New Times, New Hell-Chapter 122 - Buying Four Floors

Chapter 122 - Buying Four Floors

According to the information that Kang Jin had “heard”, there were still a few months left before the plan was going to be officially announced. The main management would’ve gotten this information slightly earlier, but the time in between was still enough for Luofeng to act.

After confirming that they were buying instead of renting, Shang Que called together all of their company’s executive teams to have a meeting and announced this decision.

When the executives learned of their boss’s decision, they were extremely shocked. Reasonably speaking, a portion of them had joined the company fairly early on. They had strong memories of when the company had still been broke. Even though the company had made impressive progress in the past year, it had technically only been a short time since they had escaped poverty. They hadn’t wrapped their minds around this yet. To this day, a few executives still habitually haggled when buying fruit from the fruit vendor.

As for the ones who had joined the company later on, though they hadn’t experienced the very difficult startup phase, they also hadn’t reached the point where they could just casually spend their money either. Especially because Boss’s handsome figure as he fought for red envelopes in the takeout red envelope group chat was so pained and thrifty that it was hard to forget. Everyone had always believed that the company was barely managing to break even. At most, they were only doing comparatively well.

Nobody had ever thought that their company would be so bold. Just two days ago, Lu Lingxi had been complaining about the fact that the better office buildings were too expensive and had surpassed their rent budget. In only a few days, their company had directly switched from renting to buying.

In response to everyone’s shock, Yu Zhengdu gave an explanation on Shang Que’s behalf. The reason was very simple too: “Spend money where it counts.”

Immediately after, the finance manager revealed the amount of money their company currently had, in addition to their predicted renewable profits. Without this information, nobody knew – now that he was saying it, though, everyone jumped in fright. Only now did they discover that their company actually already had many hens that could lay golden eggs.

Such as their luck-changing jade stones, Underworld energy detection package deal, Underworld and mortal realm communication service, business activity planning service, debt collection service, etc. Because these products were special, they actually hadn’t ever been promoted on a large scale before. Their clientele was also a rather niche population. Even in the minds of those who worked in the internal affairs department, they had always thought that their customer flow was only so-so.

Carefully thinking back at this time, though, despite the fact that they didn’t have a large clientele, the majority of the clients they did have were either from the upper class or were huge corporations. In addition to the fact that the unit price for their products was high and many of their products needed to be repetitively bought – such as the Underworld energy detection service – just the few big companies they had long term collaborations with provided a rather large sum of stable annual income.

After such calculations, the profits from these projects were surprisingly quite impressive.

And these weren’t even the projects that earned the most money in their company. What really earned a lot of money were the products targeted at the general public that the company had invested in. These included the entertainment management line that they had already pushed onto the market and the dividends from their game IP. The viral sensations Sagittarius Band and Dream Tour of Fengdu brought their company an enormous amount of profit.

Aside from this, the Feiyu Amusement Park under Excellent Jade Corporation that Luofeng’s IP was being used for was in the middle of being constructed. It was predicted to be able to officially open for business two years later. With reference to the profits from the Feiyu Amusement Parks in other areas, they could predict that this profit amount definitely wouldn’t be small in the future.

The more trivial things, such as their own online marketing platform, Fengdu Ghost Market, and the Underworld energy purifier that they were co-developing with Qinglian Temple, didn’t even need to be mentioned.

And there was also the secret that headquarters knew about but that the subsidiary company didn’t know about: headquarters’ employees were all ghosts. Though they received a mortal wage, because of the materialistic difference between the two worlds, their salaries were way lower than the mortal standard. This included the employee benefits for headquarters’ employees, such as cars, food offerings, outfits, etc. The prices for all of these were much lower than their counterparts in the mortal realm. As such, their company could greatly reduce their labor costs.

As of now, after the finance report became publicized, everyone finally belatedly realized that their company had surprisingly already become a business with quite a lot of prowess.

Blankly, Kang Jin said, “So it turns out we’re actually so rich right now!”

The elite executives they had hired later were slightly calmer. Many of them had been executives at other companies too. Among them, some had even come from large corporations. Compared to actual big companies, these profits couldn’t be considered impressive at all. However, Luofeng’s products were very inexpensive to produce, but earned a lot. Their cash flow was actually a lot healthier than that of many other big corporations.

An executive from the subsidiary company revealed an “as it should be” expression. He said, “This is how things should be. After all, even our company’s goose can earn money.”

Everyone else looked at him, bewildered. He softly coughed and explained, “A few days ago, I saw Excellent Jade Corporation’s Boss Yang giving Peppa a red envelope……”

Everyone else: “Emmmm.”

This was one of the recent strange occurrences at their company too. Ever since returning from the holidays, many big bosses had already specially made personal visits to their company. Yet, they hadn’t come to discuss collaborations. Instead, they had come to see Luofeng’s famous goose, Peppa. According to rumors, Double Horn Technology’s Wei Xiao had told them about Peppa’s fortune-telling capabilities. None of these big bosses were lacking in money. Additionally, when one accumulated a certain amount of wealth, one would start believing in superstitions. A goose that knew how to tell fortunes was basically the equivalent of a religious master in their eyes. As such, many people directly brought enormous sums of money to come looking for Peppa.

However, Peppa kept her dad’s lesson in mind and refused to casually tell other people’s fortunes. However, the less casual she was, the more everyone thought that she was truly a magical goose. They actually valued her even more. Following a final discussion, Yu Zhengdu and Shang Que decided to have her tell one fortune every two months so that she could earn some tuition for herself. After all, it was possible that she was going to have to go to Harvard in the future. Those costs wouldn’t be low. As such, the people waiting for a fortune from her had already lined up for the next two years.

After feeling shocked about their company’s progress, everyone started seriously discussing if they had really decided to buy offices.

Given Luofeng’s current finances, buying floors of a building was actually still a bit difficult.

“You guys don’t need to worry too much about that,” Yu Zhengdu explained. “The area we’re buying from has very low prices right now.”

He opened up the powerpoint and showed everyone the information about the building they were planning on purchasing from.

As soon as the information got shown, those seated felt a bit surprised once again. This was honestly because no matter from which perspective, the area that the building was located in didn’t seem like a great choice. If one was forced to name a positive point, that would be that it was cheap.

Yu Zhengdu had already told Lu Lingxi to find the building’s developers and have a discussion. These developers didn’t really have great abilities. Back then, they had bought this piece of land and developed it mainly because it was cheap. Unexpectedly, the government’s official plan was being announced later than expected. As of now, they still hadn’t announced the next round of plans. This resulted in the search for investors to go rather bumpily after the building had been finished.

The developers’ cash flow was a bit tight. Even if they had thoughts of holding onto their property and waiting it out, their funds wouldn’t allow them to wait for too long. They had been in the midst of panic and stress when suddenly, someone came looking for them, asking to buy a few floors. This had technically resolved an immediate problem for them. Using her haggling skills that had been refined by poverty, Lu Lingxi somehow managed to get a rather impressive discount.

According to the current price that had been agreed on, they could afford to buy two floors.

But was there really a need? Could this possibly be too risky?

This was the common worry among all the meeting attendees.

Yu Zhengdu couldn’t share the information that hadn’t been announced by the officials yet either. He could only explain from a perspective that considered their company’s long term development. For any business, there was still quite a big difference between owning an office that actually belonged to them and renting an office.

And given the current developmental circumstances of this neighborhood, choosing this area to put down their roots wasn’t incomprehensible.

Upon noticing that several people still looked rather worried, Yu Zhengdu smiled and opened up the last powerpoint slide. He said, “These are the results analyzed from our system’s big data. From the analysis, we believe that in the next few years, there is a high probability that the subway line in the developmental district will pass by this neighborhood.”

The results of the system’s analysis were different from official information. This was considered an internal analysis conducted by the business itself; it could be shared with everyone.

Of course, he couldn’t say things too explicitly. Yu Zhengdu could only tell everyone that there was a “high probability.” However, he couldn’t expose the fact that the subway exit would be directly set up next to the building, nor could he expose the details of the plan for that neighborhood along with the information about the investors.

Even so, this news was enough to cause an uproar.

If the analysis was accurate and the subway line was really going to pass through that area, then forget buying the floors to be offices. It was even worth it to just buy them as an investment.

Everyone instantly had their own considerations. Even if the investment ultimately failed, at worst, they would still have fixed assets.

The meeting ended here. Everyone accepted this decision. Of course, it wasn’t like they could reject it. Shang Que was the only one who owned Luofeng stocks. He had full decision making power. He had only explained to everyone because he wanted them to understand the logic behind the company’s decision. It didn’t mean that anyone could change his mind.

However, there was still that old saying. As long as anything was based on a probability, there was the possibility of failure. Because of this, many people still couldn’t help feeling worried.

As for a few bolder ones, they were already secretly pondering in their hearts and preparing to keep up with their company’s footsteps by investing in a house in that area or something.

The aforementioned described the thought processes of most of the executives who had attended the meeting. There were also some people who had different thoughts. As their company’s vice president and one of the people responsible for tech, Zhao Ruola had a much deeper understanding of their system’s calculating abilities than others.

She realized that Yu Zhengdu and Shang Que’s decision definitely wasn’t a risk. As such, after the meeting, she privately sought out Yu Zhengdu and Shang Que to confirm the situation.

Yu Zhengdu revealed a bit more information because it was Zhao Ruola. Given her intelligence, it wasn’t hard for her to understand the logic behind this situation.

“If that’s the case……” Zhao Ruola pondered in silence for a moment. “I suggest our company directly buy four floors.”

They had suggested buying two floors in the meeting. This was a decision that had been reached after considering Luofeng’s current finances. However, Zhao Ruola had worked for many years at tech giants overseas. Her perception of finances was different from Yu Zhengdu, who had only worked for a short period of time.

“Currently, our company’s business abilities are quite good. In the future, we will also have an impressive amount of continuous earnings. We can be a bit bolder,” Zhao Ruola said.

Yu Zhengdu briefly thought about it before understanding her thought process. Zhao Ruola wasn’t wrong. Their company had the ability to continuously gain profits, which also meant that they had solvency. They could entirely use financial leverage as a means of making investments.

And this was under the circumstance that Zhao Ruola didn’t know that these results weren’t only a probability given by the system, but were technically already one hundred percent confirmed.

Yu Zhengdu glanced at Shang Que. Shang Que nodded. “Okay.”

After confirming this, Yu Zhengdu said with a smile, “Erica has inspired me in one regard.”

Zhao Ruola and Shang Que turned around to look at him. Yu Zhengdu gently tapped the table. “After our system gets upgraded again and its analysis abilities reach a certain level, we might be able to use this function to make investments.”

The limitations of Luofeng’s current products were too obvious. To truly earn money, they still needed to rely on products that were marketed towards the general public. However, Luofeng was naturally limited in this regard. This had originally been a barrier that their company had been unable to break through.

But now, they had the system. Its powerful calculative abilities could help them break through this barrier. In the market, information was always the most valuable.

With information, they could enter several industries that they originally weren’t familiar with. For example, the game industry, amusement park industry, etc. that they had previously bought stocks from and collaborated with.

Yu Zhengdu rubbed his hands together. “Perhaps in the future, we’ll really be able to own a building all to ourselves.”

At the same time as the great floor-buying plan was commencing, Yu Zhengdu received a phone call from the ultimate authority in Song history, Wang Gezhi: Old Mr. Wang.

Previously, Yu Zhengdu and Shang Que had disrupted Menghua Auction House and Gou Shiwang’s conspiracy at the Song history discussion forum. They had also covertly prevented Gou Shiwang from auctioning off the Gou family’s antiques. Old Mr. Wang was extremely grateful towards them. Since then, he had always kept in contact.

However, the contents of this phone call surprised Yu Zhengdu a bit.

“The Luo Corporation wants to buy《Trip to Songfeng Pavilion》?” Yu Zhengdu slightly furrowed his brows.

Just recently, he had heard Ming Peiran mention Luo Wanxiang and the Luo Corporation. In the blink of an eye, the Luo Corporation was suddenly asking to buy《Trip to Songfeng Pavilion》from them. He kept feeling like this was too much of a coincidence.

“I told them that you and Boss Shang aren’t selling it, but Elder Luo said that it’s his younger son who wants it. He’s asking me to ask no matter what the response is,” Old Mr. Wang said.

Yu Zhengdu: “Luo Wanxiang?”

“You know him?” Wang Gezhi seemed a bit surprised. There weren’t actually a lot of people in the general public who knew that the Luo family had a second son. There were even less people who knew that Luo Wanxiang was that second son. “Young Mr. Luo has spent his time in temples since childhood. Elder Luo has always cherished him greatly……”

According to Wang Gezhi’s explanation, Luo Wanxiang had displayed extraordinary talent from a young age. Additionally, he never joined in the fights for their family’s wealth. His father, Luo Sen, always felt like he owed the other something, so usually did his best to satisfy any of the other’s requests.

Wang Gezhi said, “Young Mr. Luo has always been someone with few wants and needs. It’s rare of him to reveal that he’s interested in Qu Lanzhi’s authentic work. Elder Luo specially came looking for me.”

Yu Zhengdu: “My sincerest apologies.”

First disregarding the fact that Shang Que had never considered selling his antiques, this《Trip to Songfeng Pavilion》was actually a token of their love. No matter what, it was impossible for them to sell it.

“I understand. I already explained to Elder Luo.” Wang Gezhi hesitated for a moment before continuing, “However, Elder Luo kept pleading with me. He said that even if he can’t purchase it, he hopes Young Mr. Luo can personally see it once.”

Since the other had already said this, Yu Zhengdu couldn’t keep rejecting him anymore. Additionally, he was slightly curious about this legendary Luo Wanxiang.

If Ming Peiran hadn’t been exaggerating and Luo Wanxiang’s cultivation level was already so high that all Buddhists accepted him, even believing that he had already opened the Buddha Eye, then he truly was worth seeing once.

“That’s no problem,” Yu Zhengdu said. “But you’ll have to wait a few days.”

Luofeng’s annual party was scheduled to be occurring soon. At the very least, he needed to wait until the annual party was over.

Upon noticing that the other had taken a step back, Wang Gezhi sighed in relief too. He immediately responded, “No problem. Elder Luo said that Young Mr. Luo is holding a ceremony in Ledu next month. It’s not far from Fu City. If you guys agree, Young Mr. Luo can make a stop in Fu City.”

Yu Zhengdu didn’t have any objections, so set up a time with Wang Gezhi. Luo Wanxiang seemed to be in a great rush. At the last discussion, they scheduled a meeting for the day after the annual party.

After hanging up, Yu Zhengdu walked over to Shang Que’s office and told him what had just happened.

Shang Que also furrowed his brows after listening to Yu Zhengdu’s retelling. “Something’s wrong.”

“Un,” Yu Zhengdu nodded. “《Trip to Songfeng Pavilion》was with the Gou family for so many years, yet no one ever heard that Luo Wanxiang liked Qu Lanzhi. I don’t think this reason is very believable now that he’s suddenly bringing it up.”

But no matter what the truth was, they needed to wait to see Luo Wanxiang in person to get an explanation.

As of now, they needed to pay attention to the upcoming annual party instead.

The location of Luofeng’s annual party was a newly opened five star hotel in the developmental district. They had directly booked an entire floor that contained many different halls and rooms. Aside from using the lobby as the main room, the other little halls had been set up as entertainment areas with different themes.

The Ghost King of Luofeng set up barriers once more. Anyone who walked into this area, regardless of if they were humans or ghosts, could see both the Underworld and mortal realm. This way, the employees at Luofeng’s headquarters and subsidiary company – Amazing Future – could attend the annual party together.

Aside from employees, Luofeng had also invited their VIP customers who had spent an enormous amount of money last year. For example, Double Horn Technology’s Wei Xiao, Excellent Jade Corporation’s Yang Xin, celebrity Qin Yuejian, etc. had all been sent invitations. Luofeng had already become famous in the industry for their planning skills. As such, aside from those who were exceptionally busy or who were working out of town and couldn’t get back in time, those with free time had basically all come.

Especially Wei Xiao. He had previously missed out on Luofeng’s Ghost Festival Garden Party during the Ghost Festival. Upon hearing that Luofeng had also made a small-scale garden party this time, he had brought his daughter Wei Mo along. They arrived very early.

In the past, Wei Mo had been more prone to encountering Underworld creatures because of her health problems. She hadn’t even dared to attend preschool. With Luofeng’s products protecting her, though, she was now already the same as a normal child. She had also become much more extraverted and was preparing to attend elementary school this year.

Wei Xiao was considered a VIP guest. As soon as he arrived, he received a special welcome. Very quickly, Yu Zhengdu came over to greet him too. With a smile, Yu Zhengdu shook hands with the other, then squatted down to greet Wei Mo. Only after doing all this did he lead the father-daughter pair into the elevator to head upstairs.

Yu Zhengdu introduced, “We specially set up a kids’ area. Momo can stay in the kids’ area and play with the other children.”

Wei Xiao: “As expected from professional planners. How thoughtful.”

Yu Zhengdu smiled, but didn’t say anything. Had they actually been thoughtful? This was all because the Great Ghost King had requested for a special area that Peppa and her friend George could play in. Ever since Peppa had reincarnated into a goose, she had forgotten her good friend George. George had only just managed, with great difficulty, to recently become friends with Peppa again. Shang Que felt like he needed to do something for their friendship that spanned two lifetimes.

Just as they were speaking, a few more people squeezed into the elevator. These were the programmers from the subsidiary company.

The programmers instantly started causing a ruckus upon seeing Yu Zhengdu. They asked, “Leader, Leader, is the new female assistant from headquarters going to be here today too?”

Yu Zhengdu was in the middle of feeling perplexed when he heard Liu Wei add, “That H-H-Hu Xiaoyue!”

He was already stuttering from excitement.

Yu Zhengdu sweatdropped. It had to be said that Hu Xiaoyue truly was a fox demon. After previously making a few trips to drop off files at the subsidiary company, the programmers of the subsidiary company had all become completely mesmerized by her. There were a few who kept yelling for Hu Xiaoyue to get transferred over to the subsidiary company.

Yu Zhengdu facepalmed. “She’s here. She’s the MC for today.”

Roars subsequently sounded out throughout the elevator.

Wei Xiao was the boss of a tech company too. He naturally understood these programmers’ thoughts. In response, he smiled and inquired, “A beauty just joined your company?”

In exasperation, Yu Zhengdu said, “Yes, she’s very pretty.”

Liu Wei instantly argued on Hu Xiaoyue’s behalf, “Should that be ‘very pretty’? It should be ‘extremely pretty’! She’s the most beautiful young woman in the entire technology park!”

Everyone immediately nodded in agreement.

Their exaggerated descriptions piqued Wei Xiao’s curiosity. Wei Xiao teased, “I’ll have to take a good look later then.”

When they reached their floor, everyone squeezed out of the elevator. Yu Zhengdu led Wei Xiao and Wei Mo to the kids’ area. He just so happened to see Hu Xiaoyue off in the distance. She was wearing a smile while leading a goose and George into the little hall. Yu Zhengdu grinned and said, “What a coincidence.”

Wei Xiao cocked an eyebrow in confusion.

Yu Zhengdu didn’t explain anything. He only led them into the hall that was the kids’ area. While walking, he called out, “Peppa, George, I brought a new friend over for you guys.”

After calling out and entering the small hall, Yu Zhengdu finally said to Wei Xiao, “Didn’t you want to see our new……” Female assistant?

Halfway through his question, he immediately stopped speaking.

Only to see three little human-like ghosts sitting in the small hall: George, Guilong, and Bei. Off to the side stood a big goose and a white fox with pointy ears.

Five tiny things stared simultaneously at the three people who had just walked in.

Yu Zhengdu: !!!!

It had already been a long time since he had seen Hu Xiaoyue’s human form!

Ever since being threatened by Shang Que, Hu Xiaoyue had started instantly returning to her true form after hearing Yu Zhengdu’s voice.

Wei Xiao asked, bewildered, “New what?”

Yu Zhengdu expressionlessly answered, “New……creature.”

Wei Xiao looked between the goose and fox in confusion. Then, his eyes widened. “This is a fox, right? Isn’t it a bit……inappropriate for you guys to keep a fox around?” And not locked up either?

Yu Zhengdu calmly said, “No, this is a Samoyed!”

Wei Xiao’s expression read “you’ve got to be kidding me.” He questioned, “Do you think what you’re saying is logical?”

Those pointy ears. That small, long face. You’re telling me this is a Samoyed?

Wei Xiao felt like his intelligence was being humiliated.

“Of course.” Yu Zhengdu was completely fearless. He glanced at the fox. “Samoyed, hurry and prove yourself.”

Hu Xiaoyue: “……Wang wang.”

Wei Xiao: ???

Yu Zhengdu: = = He had wanted Hu Xiaoyue to secretly transform into something more similar to a Samoyed!