The Birth of Shanghai's First Conglomerate

Chapter 164 Yang Mi Comes to Sign the Contract

The Spring Festival in 14 was relatively late, falling in late February.

After visiting his relatives on both sides, Chen Pingsheng basically didn't want to go anywhere else.

You can relax at home, make dumplings, and then go fishing for some small fish by the lake in front of you. That's how a comfortable day goes by.

It was supposed to be a great year, and the closer it got to the end of the year, the more people returned home.

But fate had other plans; a heavy snowfall blocked the mountains three days before the Lunar New Year.

Overnight, the snow reached knee-deep.

The highways leading home were shut down, and government snowplows were seen traversing the snow-covered roads one by one.

Fortunately, they went home early this year; otherwise, given the situation, it would have been difficult for them to come back any later.

After a busy year, it's finally time to go home for the Chinese New Year.

As a result, he was stuck on the road by the snow, and you can imagine how he felt.

Chen Pingsheng and Chen An'an, one big and one small, sat on the fishing platform. The lake surface was originally covered with a thin layer of ice, but after he smashed two large craters into it with a red brick, the ice was broken.

That's barely enough to cast two fishing rods.

Unfortunately, the fish in the lake were also scared away, and not a single one took the bait after half an hour.

I'm so angry.

"Brother, what are you doing fishing for nothing? Your wife's dumplings are almost ready, why don't you get ready and come eat?"

His younger sister was right; he clearly got nowhere.

Nothing.

"Let's go inside and eat."

Chen An'an is afraid of the cold, and in winter she would like to wrap herself in three layers of blankets before going out.

A big fire was burning inside the house, and his parents and grandparents were warming themselves by the fire.

The heavy snow blocked the mountain pass and we couldn't go anywhere. Luckily, we had already visited all the relatives we needed to see a few days ago.

On the eve of the Lunar New Year, the whole village was filled with fireworks to celebrate the New Year.

The family stayed at home until the ninth day of the month, when the snow melted before they finally arrived in Shacheng.

Shacheng has two distinctive features.

Housing prices are among the lowest in first-tier cities, and wages are among the lowest in second-tier cities.

Consumption is the highest among second-tier cities.

In short, low income and high consumption mean you can afford a house but have to pay it off for decades.

Boiling Sheep has been here for almost half a year.

Gao Hu's return to Shacheng was like a wildcat entering a mouse's nest. Everyone from out of town who lived in Shacheng knew that there were many beautiful women there.

"Old Chen."

Gao Hu was still very proud. He had brought back 50 million yuan of Fei Yangyang's funds with him. It was a triumphant return home.

Chen Pingsheng accompanied him to visit the Fei Yang Yang store. It was a pity that Fei Yang Yang did not complete its Series C financing last year.

This year is different.

The Legend of Hua Qian Gu is confirmed to air this summer. What they need to do is to preemptively deploy the Boiling Sheep series in three top-tier cities.

Thus, CD completed two rounds of financing this year.

After completing its Series E funding round next year, Boiling Sheep will be able to plan a backdoor listing in Hong Kong.

Only then will the three years of preparation truly bear fruit.

He estimates that the revenue should be no less than one billion.

The Boiling Sheep restaurants in Shacheng are mainly located in physical stores, with very few in shopping malls.

People here don't like to go to big shopping malls to eat.

Unless you wandered over there.

Currently, there are 43 stores that have opened in Shacheng.

The revenue of a single store is definitely not comparable to that in Beijing; it is barely maintaining the break-even point.

This is normal, after all, Boiling Sheep doesn't have much of a reputation here yet.

It's a newly opened store again.

If you can break even in the early stages, that would be considered quite good.

Boiling Sheep's training headquarters in Shacheng is located in Hexi, in a small office building.

The model was exactly the same as in the capital. After visiting each place, Chen Pingsheng roughly understood what the situation was like for Boiling Sheep in Sand City.

"Once things stabilize in Shacheng, you should go to Guangdong as soon as possible to develop the Guangdong market."

Gao Hu: "So fast?"

"That's not fast."

Chen Pingsheng said, "If we had completed the Series C funding last year, we would have already opened stores in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Shanghai this year. You'll be quite busy this year. In the early stages, the main thing is to bring our Boiling Sheep training headquarters there. There's no rush to open stores yet. First, we need to figure out the flavors in these places."

The key to catering is to adapt to local conditions.

Every place has different tastes. If you take the spicy food tastes of people from southern provinces and open a shop in Guangdong, it's not a good idea.

They'll absolutely pounce on you so hard even your own mother wouldn't recognize you.

Having spent so long in the capital, Gao Hu is naturally very familiar with the current operating model of Boiling Sheep.

For Chen Pingsheng, he probably earned about 200 million yuan in 2014.

The main sources of income are still the two events held at Shuiyunjian and Huaqiangu, which is invested in by Tengying.

In 15, his goals were clearly much higher.

Putting aside other things, he plans to invest between 2 billion and 2.5 billion yuan in Teng Hui Department Store alone.

This is a family business that will never go public and can be passed down through three generations.

The groundwork must be laid properly.

In addition, the market for Shuiyunjian in Beijing is already saturated. After ceasing to open new stores, he also plans to spend 15 billion yuan to buy most of the Shuiyunjian storefronts.

Besides these two major investments in commercial real estate, the most crucial task is to advance the listing plans for Boiling Sheep and Bobo Milk Tea.

If the groundwork is laid this year, the company can successfully go public next year.

Then next year, he can earn more than 30 million yuan a year just from these two sources.

Add the others.

With that income, he was tempted to impulsively jump on the bandwagon and get into the new energy industry.

Instead of trying to change the world, let's see if we have the ability to build a world-class company.

A so-called world-class enterprise must be among the Fortune 500.

To be honest, once men have money, there are usually two things they want most.

They seek power through money, using investment in the real economy to gain maximum influence.

The second one is women.

He wasn't very interested in that. His wife was so beautiful, he couldn't love her enough, why would he want other women?

It is worth mentioning that once he passed the year, his biological age reached 33, and his physical age also increased by one year.

By age 29.

Although he was still young, at twenty-eight, he could beat his wife until she screamed.

Twenty-nine could only last thirty minutes, and his wife was still a little unsatisfied.

It's a pity that the profit margin for Boiling Sheep is too low.

The high-salary framework has already been established, and it's no longer possible to improve employee well-being through further salary increases.

Gao Hu also wanted to hold a class reunion for him in Shacheng, to gather all the old classmates who used to refuse to come, and to show off to them.

Chen Pingsheng waved him away and sent him to Guangdong. He was already so rich, why did he have to show off in front of his classmates who only earned 20,000 yuan a month?

Only this guy could come up with something like that.

If you're going to put on an act, do it in front of exceptional women like Yang Mi.

The level is completely different. They've seen plenty of big bosses, and they can earn a small goal every year.

It's only fun to show off in front of such a stunning woman.

Gao Hu is clearly not up to the task.

He looks like a little kid; why don't we send him to Guangdong?

He didn't stay in Shacheng for long. After his older sister and the others arrived, he took a Coaster bus to Beijing.

……

Beijing.

The small villa in Shijingshan remains quiet and peaceful.

Once the family returned, things immediately became lively again.

Time flies.

The year has passed and it's already the end of February 15.

In three months, Chen Xinyi will be a one-year-old baby.

She can now crawl on the ground by herself.

The little guy crawls from one side to the other every day, having a great time. It will probably take another two months before he can stand and walk properly, albeit unsteadily.

They're just little kids, everyone grows up like that.

The return this year is a bit earlier than last year, mainly because all ten Shuiyunjian stores will be officially opened on the same day after the Lantern Festival.

We will also be holding Shuiyunjian's annual internal meeting later.

There's a lot to do.

After quickly tidying up the house with Song Yanxi, Chen Pingsheng drove to Tencent Entertainment.

His white Phantom has been returned.

After spending over 100,000 yuan on repairs, the young woman found an honest man to take over the business, and then swindled him out of over 100,000 yuan to compensate her for the damages.

This woman is undoubtedly talented; it's just that there are too many honest people these days.

The sucker doesn't care what you've done; after being coaxed by those sweet, innocent girls, he'll still hand over his money.

Also no one.

Chen Pingsheng drove to Tengying Entertainment.

Tengying had a holiday in early February and officially started work at the end of February.

A month of annual leave makes those crazy, competitive companies next door green with envy.

Of course, there is one exception.

After Yang Mi successfully terminated her contract with Jiaxing, she was almost dumbfounded when she saw Teng Ying's behavior.

What's going on with Jiaxing? He's been frantically getting roles for her.

She's filming 390 out of 365 days a year.

On the other hand, everyone here is just browsing Xianyu (a Chinese online marketplace for secondhand goods).

Look at these people, on the first day back to work after the New Year, they openly watch TV series on their computers.

She even chased after him until she was in tears.

What's even more infuriating is that not a single person watches her shows.

This company, Xianyu, is probably only a month away from bankruptcy, right?
Did she come to the wrong company?

Yang Mi seriously doubts whether terminating her contract with Jiaxing was a mistake.

She's a true workaholic; she feels restless if she doesn't work for a day.

Such a diligent person suddenly went to a top-tier company like Xianyu.

You can slack off for a day and then take three days off.

This can no longer be described as working only sporadically.

She needs to reconsider the necessity of signing with Tencent Pictures.

"Bai Xin, where's your boss?"

"Going home for the Chinese New Year, still on my way back."

Yang Mi, this is Yang Mi herself sitting right in front of her.

Bai Xin was very nice, and Yang Mi was dressed very beautifully, wearing high-top leather shoes and a black mini skirt, with her long legs stretched out straight out.

He was also wearing a black beret.

Her wavy hair fell naturally below her chest, and she wore a white sweater.

Both stylish and suitable for everyday wear.

"What day is it already? Why hasn't he come to work yet?"

Bai Xin really wanted to say, "Uncle, it's not just a matter of not coming for a month, it's common for him to not come for several months."

Besides, the boss rarely assigns them tasks.

My only task lately has been to help Bobo Milk Tea with online promotion.

Jiang Yilei is in charge of this, and she's doing a great job.

"Sister Honey, Uncle..."

"Oh...a rare guest indeed."

Before Bai Xin could finish speaking, Chen Pingsheng came over, and Yang Mi gave him a charming and seductive eye roll:

"Chen Pingsheng, you're being way too casual about your job. The entertainment industry is so competitive these days. I'm worried you'll bankrupt yourself if you keep doing this!"

“Hmm…that makes sense.” Chen Pingsheng nodded.

Just then, Lin Jia entered, holding a report in her hand: "President Chen, your Tenghui Department Store, which you invested 1 billion yuan in in Beijing, will open in mid-March. President Shen asked me to ask you if you want to make any special arrangements for the opening day?"

"I don't think so."

Chen Pingsheng said, "It's just a few department stores. We can let Liying go shopping there when she gets back."

"Okay." Lin Jia came quickly and left even faster.

The boss has just arrived at the company, so there's definitely still a lot to do.

Didn't you see there's a big star sitting on the sofa?!
Chen Pingsheng asked curiously, "Xiao Mi, didn't you just say I was going bankrupt? Can you analyze why I'm going bankrupt?"

Yang Mi was speechless. This guy had actually invested another billion to build a large supermarket. If she hadn't heard the report from here, she would have been completely unaware of it.

She didn't say that on purpose; she just came to sign the contract today and noticed how lazy he was as a boss.

"Chen Pingsheng, why are you investing a billion to open a superstore? Do you need a spokesperson? Just give me ten or twenty million, and I'll be your spokesperson."

Yang Mi crossed her arms over her chest; anyone with eyes can see how valuable she is.

Tens or twenty million isn't too high, but it's certainly not low either.

Chen Pingsheng laughed at her: "What endorsement? The storefront is my own, how could I possibly lose money?"

He bought all the storefronts; no wonder he invested so much money.

Yang Mi was too lazy to argue with him about this topic, so she decided to talk about her own things.

"I've signed the contract, are you ready?"

"Of course I prepared it a long time ago. Bai Xin, take a look at it."

Yang Mi took the contract from Bai Xin and looked at it very carefully, but the more she looked, the more confused she became.

Is this a contract, or is it to let her be her own boss from the start?
According to these terms, she would simply be affiliated with Tencent Pictures and establish her own studio.

She can take on any project she wants.

Tengying will not make any demands.

In addition, whether she's filming movies or participating in variety shows, Tencent Film Studio only takes 10% of her personal salary.

No need to look, it's definitely the lowest in the industry.

In addition, there are many benefits to joining Tencent Film.

Freedom goes without saying; if you want to act, you can take on any role yourself. With Yang Mi's current reputation, scripts will be delivered to her every day of the year, as long as she wants to act.

After reading Tencent Film's contract terms, there was only one thing that came to her mind.

People are now free.

In addition, Tengying also gave her many benefits. When she came across a script she liked, she could apply to Tengying for investment.

The specific amount to invest depends on the boss's decision.

Anyway, from Zhao Liying's perspective, as long as he's willing to invest, he'll almost always get the lion's share.

This is completely different from the high-level employee contract she signed before.

Tencent's approach is more about collaboration.

He doesn't need to promote many new talents; he just needs to collaborate with top-tier celebrities.

With me, you are completely free.

He may not have all the resources he wants, but he'll still invest in whatever he needs to.

Making a profit at a loss is definitely not an option.

He doesn't rely on celebrities to work for him to make money; he only makes money through investments and off-stage business with celebrities.

Different profit models naturally lead to different ways of cooperating.

"Chen Pingsheng, is Zhao Liying also signed with this company?"

Yang Mi asked curiously.

"Yeah, about the same as you."

Chen Pingsheng said, "Now that you're such a big name, there's very little help we can offer you. We don't have a boss-employee relationship; we're just partners."

"Row."

After reading it, Yang Mi promptly signed her name.

"From now on, I am a member of Tengying. I hope to create new glories under your leadership, Mr. Chen."

"Haha, everything is about money."

Now that Yang Mi had made the decision, he notified Yang Qian and the others to come over for a meeting.

"Don't rush into filming. Take your time choosing scripts. We need you to do some work for Bobo Milk Tea."

Yang Mi nodded and waited there without saying anything.

When Chu Qiuyan and Yang Qian arrived, a major marketing campaign for the milk tea industry began.

(End of this chapter)