Hong Kong Storm: The King of Jobs

Chapter 505, Section 95: Luring the Enemy into the Trap (Seeking Monthly Tickets!)

After waiting for a full five seconds, Zhang Manxin still hadn't heard Fu Wenpei speak. She could only sigh inwardly, realizing that there was a world of difference between offering suggestions herself and asking for advice.

She could only curse the old fox in her heart before continuing, "I've never seen wealthy families fight over inheritance, but I've never seen pigs run, though I've seen pork."

"Hong Kong prefers the eldest son and eldest daughter; stability is paramount."

"Once the amount of silver reaches a certain level, it will not stop increasing as long as there is no major turmoil. This is something my university professor often said."

“But apart from the eldest son’s family, the other sons and daughters would find it difficult to receive enough money.”

"Master He had many children and grandchildren throughout his life. He had more than twenty sons alone. When the second branch of the He family divided the property, apart from the eldest son, the other descendants only received a small amount of wealth, which could only sustain the wealth of one generation."

“Brother Tianchuan and the older brothers and sisters above him are on different paths. If he doesn’t have his own business, he may not necessarily be more destitute in the future, but he will definitely not be happy.”

"Mrs. Wen, with you taking care of Tianchuan, everything will definitely go smoothly for him, but what about his grandson and great-grandson?"

"Reputation is priceless. As long as we establish a reputation first, even if the clinic is small now, it is still our own business and has little to do with the Wen family."

Having watched too many TV dramas about wealthy families, Zhang Manxin could always pick up a trick or two. After thinking for several nights, he finally came up with a suggestion that wasn't too outrageous.

It's naive! But it's definitely the right path!
Fu Wenpei nodded. Since it's going to be public, it needs some special design. She should hire an image consultant to do a good job. Right now, "Enjoy Yourself Tonight" is the most popular variety show.

Whenever "Enjoy Yourself Tonight" airs, housewives rush home to watch Chow Yun-fat and Adam Cheng on TV.

If his appearance on "Enjoy Yourself Tonight" is successful, Tin Chuen Tsai will indeed become famous throughout Hong Kong.

"The meat's getting cold! Let's eat first, don't worry about Tianchuan."

Fu Wenpei simply nodded, neither agreeing nor disagreeing, but told Zhang Manxin to pick up the knife and fork without waiting for Wen Tianchuan.

You've passed!

Zhang Manxin didn't take a knife and fork, but instead picked up the wine bottle, poured a glass of wine for Fu Wenpei, and then chatted with Fu Wenpei.

Wen Tianchuan walked through the entire restaurant and arrived at a corner by the window, where he found Chi Mengli and Xiren enjoying Kobe beef.

"Brother Sheng, thank you for the red wine. It seems I shouldn't have bought the flashy sports car. I should have just bought a Rolls-Royce Silver Spur and followed my example. Hong Kong may not have many other things, but it has a lot of Rolls-Royces. I guarantee you wouldn't recognize it, Brother Sheng."

"Good afternoon, Miss Xiren!"

Wen Tianchuan pulled up a chair, sat down, and greeted Chi Mengli warmly.

"We're on the same wavelength! I was thinking of trying steak for lunch today, and I didn't expect you to be at the same restaurant, Fourth Young Master. What a coincidence!"

"I heard you're with Miss Zhang, enjoying romantic moments together. I don't want to be a third wheel!"

What a coincidence! Zhang Manxin chose this restaurant because it was designed by Chi Mengli. Zhang Manxin is an artist under Bishiqiang's company, so everything that happened today was a setup.

But Wen Tianchuan didn't see through it, so Chi Mengli pretended not to know and acted as if it were a chance encounter.

"It wasn't a romantic evening for the two of us. I wanted to see my mom to discuss this year's advertising budget. I'm very grateful to you, Sheng-ge, for helping me cover the 100,000 yuan advertising shortfall."

"Daily Fresh is incredibly popular right now, it doesn't need any advertising at all, but I'll remember this favor, brother!"

Wen Tianchuan could also tell that his mother wanted to meet Liangzai Sheng, and he had also heard about Liangzai Sheng's huge order. Now his mother was in charge of the group, but the performance was very average and they were hindered by others at every turn.

But if Mom can secure this big order from Riri Fresh, the company's revenue is guaranteed to double, and the year-end will be over.

Thinking of this, Wen Tianchuan quickly continued, "Brother Sheng, you've met my dad a lot, but you probably haven't met my mom yet! There's no time like the present, let's meet today and get to know each other. After all, the seafood we have is all supplied by Tiantian Fish Farm."

While Riri Fresh does have Tiantian Fishing Port as one of its seafood suppliers, the Wen family's monthly shipping capacity is simply insufficient to meet Riri Fresh's demand. Riri Fresh's largest seafood suppliers are currently Atlantic Fisheries Company and the Japanese Chamber of Commerce.

These two large companies are the reason why Daily Fresh can offer special prices every day.

These two companies have more than a dozen converted live cargo ships and seven aquaculture farms in the near sea. Whatever orders are placed by Daily Fresh, the two companies can fulfill them, and can even source goods from Bangkok and transport them to Hong Kong by air.

The world is still in the age of the ocean, and transportation capacity determines everything.

Chi Mengli handled all the work at Daily Fresh, down to the smallest detail. She had a clear understanding of the company's development. Daily Fresh's profit margin was very thin, only a mere four percent.

With a large workforce, numerous warehouses, and high consumption, if the turnover slows down, Daily Fresh will explode within three days.

Because of the high turnover of RiriFresh, it is necessary to pay for goods, employee wages, electricity bills, water bills, regulatory fees, and prepare a large sum of money every month to give to the RiriFresh franchise owners.

Daily Fresh is like a large truck on fire with no brakes, moving forward, only forward.

However, Chi Mengli also made a fortune, as the high property management fees, shop management fees, employee membership fees, garbage disposal fees, and advertising fees were enough to make him very rich.

"Alright! There's no time like the present, I'll go see Mrs. Wen right now."

The plot has progressed to this point; any further hesitation would be pointless!

Chi Mengli picked up a napkin, wiped her mouth to remove the grease, stood up, and followed Wen Tianchuan slowly toward the private room where Fu Wenpei was.

Xi Ren watched the two leave, cut off a piece of Kobe beef, put it in her mouth, and chewed it slowly.

Good food is worth the wait, and good meat is worth the chewing!

Once the trap is set, there will always be fools who come knocking.

“Mommy, this is Chi Sheng, Chi Mengli, the boss of Riri Fresh Supermarket. Chi Sheng, this is my mother, Ms. Fu Wenpei.”

Wen Tianchuan introduced the two, and after he finished speaking, he pulled up a chair and invited Chi Mengli to sit down.

“Hello, Ms. Fu. My name is Chi Mengli, and people in the martial arts world like to call me Asheng.” “You are an elder, and I, Asheng, am also working for the Wen family. You can call me Asheng or Shengzai.”

Chi Mengli sat down in the chair, adopting a humble posture, like a江湖人 (jianghu person) who eats the food of a boss.

Fu Wenpei nodded reservedly. Chi Mengli's attitude was correct. No matter how big your business is, you, handsome Sheng, are still a lackey of the Wen family. The Wen family also has shares in the Daily Fresh Supermarket.

When you drink water, remember the well-digger; be kind and generous in your conduct!
“Ah Sheng, you’ve been making headlines lately. Everyone in the association knows about your huge seafood order, and they’re all eager to get a piece of the pie, even the foreigners.”

“I don’t think you’re a person who doesn’t follow the rules, Ah Sheng. What did the old man say?”

Fu Wenpei hadn't seen Wen Hailiang for the past two days. After all, communication was difficult once they were on the boat. Wen Hailiang was a very focused angler; he wouldn't give up until he caught a big fish.

Without communication between the two parties, their pace cannot be aligned, and the company cannot take any action. They can only wait for Wen Hailiang to return from the sea so that everyone can discuss it again and come up with a plan to compete for the order.

The problem now is that the Lunar New Year promotion will start in just over ten days. To win orders, we need to act quickly. After all, the Wen family's cargo ships have already arranged shipping orders and are preparing to help Swire with freight during their rest period.

“I went to the sea to see Uncle Wen in person and told him about this order. He wasn’t very interested, so I spread the word through a friend that I was going to hold an auction.”

Seeing that Fu Wenpei had directly steered the conversation toward the orders, Chi Mengli chuckled inwardly, but still put on a show of trepidation, indicating that he had already discussed the orders with Old Man Wen.

But seeing that the order was too urgent and the quantity was too large, Old Man Wen neither said he wanted it nor he didn't want it, he just said he would think about it.

Time waits for no one, so it's only natural and reasonable for Chi Mengli to make the announcement directly to the public.

Not very interested?!
Fu Wenpei sneered inwardly. The group's accounts were all managed by Wen Laogui's mistress, and Wen Laogui knew perfectly well how much the group had lost this year.

The group has suffered losses for three consecutive years, which has affected the dividends of the Wen Family Foundation.

The group belongs to the Wen family, not the eldest branch. If there are losses, the second and third branches can demand an audit and a change of leadership. Once the eldest branch loses its leadership, the whole family is finished.

Once you lose your position as the person in charge, who knows when you'll be able to get it back?

"Hehe! My husband hasn't been involved in the group's official business in recent years. Now, I'm in charge of the Tian Tian Fish Farm business. We're all in the same boat, so how about we give this order to Tian Tian Fish Farm?"

Fu Wenpei originally intended to conduct business in a proper manner, but by chance, she met Chi Mengli today. Fearing that things might change over time, she directly brought up the Wen family to pressure them.

“Since Mrs. Wen has spoken, I, as her younger brother, will of course agree without hesitation. But Mrs. Wen, this order is particularly large. The down payment alone will be at least HK$30 million.”

“I haven’t seen Tian Tian Fishing Port’s offer yet, and I don’t dare to make a final decision. I’m just a puppet on a string; the boss behind me tells me to do something, and that’s how I do it.”

"Riri Fresh isn't just owned by one family; it also has shares in the Japanese Chamber of Commerce, the Wang family, and various other triads, both overt and covert. We all eat from the same pot, but my handsome son Sheng is greedier. He's never full and always has to eat at a hundred different places!"

This huge order is something that no one but Atlantic Fisheries Company could handle alone, and Chi Mengli would definitely not give it to a single company.

How much of a share the Wen family will get in the future depends on their asking price.

"Ah Sheng, don't worry about that. The Wen family's prices are guaranteed to be the lowest. But since we're in business, nobody wants to do something at a loss. We need to leave out a little more profit."

“You need to give an explanation to the shareholders behind Riri Fresh, and I also need to give an explanation to the major shareholders of the group.”

"How about this: scallops, squid, frozen squid, and oysters are all traditional projects of the Wen family. Give these projects to the Wen family, and profits and quality can be guaranteed."

"As for the salmon, geoduck, and French oysters in the order, they probably weren't prepared for Daily Fresh!"

Fu Wenpei has been studying the orders for Ri Ri Xian for several days. She knows which seafood has high profit margins and which has low profit margins.

"Mrs. Wen has a keen eye. To be honest, these high-end seafood dishes are prepared for high-end Japanese restaurants, izakayas, and sushi restaurants. I have already negotiated with Shanghai City that from now on, the seafood platters and fruit brands will only use Daily Fresh."

"Shanghai City caters to the big spenders of Shanghai. They are all rich guys who can easily spend over 100,000 yuan a night. They can order more than ten seafood platters at a time, each costing several hundred yuan."

"In business, you have to make money from the rich. They only care about the taste, not the price."

The best stuff is reserved for the Shanghainese, of course. These rich young men spent three million just at the Dragon Palace Nightclub to support Young Master Wang.

After finishing their business at the company during the day, the wealthy young men would arrive at the Dragon Palace Nightclub on time in the evening to watch AKB48's boxing matches and place bets of tens of thousands of dollars at a time.

Wang Dashao, the son of AKB48, also owns shares in the company. He also receives a 2% commission from the Dragon Palace nightclub, which provides the venue. Don't underestimate this 2% commission; he can earn tens of thousands of dollars every week.

Chi Mengli did not hide anything, because the entertainment industry was controlled by triads, and neither Chinese nor foreigners could get their hands on it.

Even if the company wants to intervene, it has to find a triad to do it. If it wants to forcefully intervene, all the triads in Hong Kong will turn their guns on it and cause trouble together.

Porcelain can't compete with tiles. The major chambers of commerce are too busy with their legitimate businesses to care about small businesses like seafood platters.

The handsome young man was very frank, which greatly reduced Fu Wenpei's doubts. This batch of orders was very large and varied, with the initial deposit alone requiring at least 50 million.

Even if Tiantian Seafood receives the first payment, it still has to advance hundreds of millions of yuan of its own funds. Even if it only takes a portion, the total weight will still reach 120 tons. It is unknown whether Tiantian Seafood can sell out several hundred tons of seafood.
This is exactly what Wen Hailiang is worried about. The business is too sudden and the quantity is too large. Riri Fresh's own funds cannot support it.

If the funding chain breaks, the entire fishing market in Hong Kong will collapse.

“Ah Sheng, greedy people always end up in a terrible state. As a senior in the business world, I think this is too risky. There are only a dozen or so stores in the daily fresh food market right now. Even if we run promotions every day, we still can’t handle all this stock.”

"But judging from your confident demeanor, you don't seem like you're just talking big. You must have a plan in mind. We're all on the same side, so why not share it? We can all make money together!"

The risk was too great, and Fu Wenpei dared not make a decision lightly. She needed to know clearly what kind of tricks Liangzaisheng was up to before she dared to follow up.

It's important to understand that while the Wen family group is a large business group in Hong Kong, they only have less than 100 million in funds at their disposal. Any amount exceeding that requires loans.

If all the money is used for purchasing goods, any problem that arises will be a major disaster, like the house collapsing.

(End of this chapter)