My minimum living allowance is credited to my account every day with 1000 million yuan

Chen Long's seafood buffet restaurant has now opened its second location, which is the third branch in Junxiao Plaza, Jiangzhou.

All of Junxiao Commercial Management's projects have provided locations, but Chen Long currently lacks sufficient manpower. He has to take things one step at a time; opening up all at once without management would be a huge problem.

Zhao Yi eventually compromised on his contract renewal. He didn't know that Lin Ping was deliberately messing with him. Originally, the deduction could have been reduced to 1%, but Lin Ping insisted on adding 2%, which was a lot of money, costing at least hundreds of thousands more per year.

What he didn't know was that the reason Lin Ping insisted on adding him was because when Chen Xiao came last time, Lin Ping sensed Zhao Yi's hostility towards Chen Xiao. Anyone who dared to be hostile towards his brother-in-law was dead meat.

Zhao Yi tried to see Liu Jingjing several times afterward, but was turned away each time. It wasn't that Liu Jingjing was putting on airs; she knew very well what Zhao Yi thought of her, so there was no personal relationship to discuss. As for work, it was impossible to discuss the renewal of a small shop's contract with her; otherwise, what would be the point of having so many departments?

But in the end, it was she who signed off on the renewal terms. Thinking about how Zhao Yi had gone to great lengths to pull strings, only to end up signing terms that were higher than everyone else's, she couldn't help but shake her head. It seemed his skill lay not in business negotiations, but in maintaining relationships. Once he ran out of connections, what was the point of this renewal negotiation?

Actually, this was just Liu Jingjing's assumption, given her lack of experience in attracting tenants. For a merchant whose business is so profitable, raising the rent wouldn't cause them losses; they wouldn't just quit out of spite, especially since Zhao Yi's family had made a lot of money from that store.

If Junxiao Commercial Management hadn't discouraged drastically increasing rents for merchants, the store could have added a few more percentage points. After all, their rents were already higher before Junxiao Commercial Management took over, and business wasn't as good back then.

Junxiao Commercial Management invests so much in marketing every year, bringing a huge influx of customers and spending to its merchants. It's only fair that the merchants pay more rent. Liu Jingjing signed the document and put it aside, waiting for her assistant to pick it up later.

The seafood buffet restaurant on the third floor is opening today. The mall has given this store nearly two weeks of opening publicity, and also provides exclusive consumer subsidy coupons during the opening period. Liu Jingjing checked the rental conditions of this merchant, which only have a 5% commission rate. She had only seen such conditions before at Yinuo Group and Dongjian Trade, both of which are related to Chen Xiao. So it goes without saying that this restaurant is most likely to be the same.

Miao Lei didn't mention this when he handed it over to her, but she felt it was pretty much true. She stretched, her chest appearing even more impressive, and stood up, preparing to go to that seafood buffet to take a look. She paid special attention to anything related to Chen Xiao.

Stepping out of the office, the outer office area suddenly fell silent as if a pause button had been pressed. Liu Jingjing felt a little dazed. Just a few months ago, she was a junior employee at Luocheng Junxiao Plaza, just like them, and she was extremely nervous when she saw the project manager at the time.

Several months later, she became the general manager. Fate was so magical. Even more magical was that she learned from General Manager Lin that Chen Xiao was actually the boss of Junxiao Group. After learning this news, she couldn't sleep all night.

On one hand, she was curious about how her college classmate had managed to build such a massive commercial conglomerate in just a few years; on the other hand, she realized that her success was largely due to Chen Xiao's help. Lin Ya had always been kind to her, but that was all because of Chen Xiao, or rather, it was all arranged by him.

It was almost noon, and the food court was the busiest floor in the entire mall. From a distance, Liu Jingjing could see that the seafood buffet restaurant was packed with people, and business was booming. When she got closer, she saw Zhao Yi trying to chat up a pretty girl. The girl clearly didn't want to talk to him and didn't even glance at him, just staring at the seafood buffet.

Yao Lingling was indeed annoyed to death by Zhao Yi. She has now officially resigned from the Chanel store and is helping Chen Long manage the operation of the seafood buffet. Chen Long is offering her much better pay than Chanel, and is even planning to set up a branch in Jiangzhou so that Yao Lingling can be stationed there permanently.

She knew it was all her cousin's idea, designed to give her a chance to get closer to Chen Xiao. The first time she saw Chen Xiao, she was immediately attracted to the refined and handsome man. However, she was also quite confident in her own beauty, feeling that as a girl, she couldn't very well take the initiative to pursue him.

It wasn't until she met Zhang Ziqian and Xiao Yuting at the Huijin Plaza in Shanghai that she realized he was surrounded by beauties. Later, when she went to Chongqing with Chen Long and Yao Li, she met He Qing and Wang Ping, two women whose looks surpassed hers, and both seemed to have connections with Chen Xiao.

The most devastating blow came that night when she met Zhao Xiangjun, the woman Chen Xiao's mother supposedly only accepted as her daughter-in-law, whom she praised to the skies. Indeed, Zhao Xiangjun was the kind of woman who made Chen Xiao lose her confidence at first glance; how could anyone be so beautiful?

She completely lost her confidence. Initially, she thought she would give Chen Xiao a chance if he pursued her. Now, however, she wondered if she was even qualified to be a servant girl to him. After all, even his assistant was a stunning beauty like Zhang Ziqian; what was she?

Fortunately, her brother-in-law Chen Long communicated with Chen Xiao, and a branch company will be established soon. The office area will be located in a section of Junxiao Huanhu CBD. This branch company will only manage less than 20 stores in the future, so it definitely won't need an entire floor. Even if more stores are opened in the surrounding provinces in the future, this branch company may serve as a regional headquarters to manage business in several provinces, but it still won't need an entire floor. They don't have many stores, and the supply chain is basically all in Shanghai. Her main focus here is on operations management, so she doesn't need many people.

The thought of soon working in the same building as General Manager Chen filled her with both excitement and nervousness. Just then, a young man next to her asked, "Beautiful lady, you don't seem to be a local from Jiangzhou."

Yao Lingling glanced at him, just like many men who like to flirt, and replied indifferently, "Not a local."

Upon seeing the beautiful woman's response, Zhao Yi immediately perked up. Today, a seafood buffet next to his shop opened, which affected his business, as most customers went to try it out. He decided to come out and take a look, to assess the situation.

He happened to see Yao Lingling, a stunningly beautiful woman, and his heart stirred with excitement. He ran over to strike up a conversation.

"Oh, you're here for work?"

"Boss, the ceiling in our kitchen is leaking, and it has damaged some of the food."

"The top?" Yao Lingling asked. "Isn't our top the hotel next door? They're dealing with the third and fourth floors. Go check on them and tell them to hurry up with the repairs. Also, register the damages and have them confirm with the mall's operations manager."

Zhao Yi was taken aback. Was this beautiful woman the manager of the seafood buffet next door? He knew what they were discussing—it was about repairs upstairs at his apartment building. How could they have broken a water pipe? He asked calmly, "Is it serious?"

The store manager didn't know who this person was, but seeing that he was with the manager, he said, "It's serious. We use only top-quality seafood, and some of the ingredients have been soaked in sewage and are no longer usable. Fortunately, we discovered it early and moved the ingredients. But it's still leaking, which is affecting the normal operation of our kitchen."

Yao Lingling glanced at Zhao Yi, wondering what he did for a living and why he was asking such detailed questions. At that moment, Zhao Yi asked, "How much is the estimated loss? Did your shop buy insurance?"

"Excuse me, who are you?"

Seeing that he kept taking over her questions, Yao Lingling couldn't take it anymore.

Zhao Yi introduced himself: "I'm the owner of the shop next door. Don't worry, beautiful lady, I won't make things difficult for you or cause you to be criticized by the company."

Upon hearing that he was the owner of the shop next door, the store manager immediately said, "That's perfect. I'll tally up the losses in a bit, and I'll need your signature to confirm them, including the compensation. Many parts of our newly renovated shop have been flooded by sewage. Luckily, it's not in the sales area, otherwise it would have greatly affected the customer experience."

Upon hearing that there was also damage to the renovation, Zhao Yi was no longer as generous as before. He had thought that the loss of some food could not amount to much money. He figured the insurance company would pay some, and he could make up the difference himself. He didn't want to put this beautiful woman in a difficult position, and he might even make friends with her because of it. But if the renovation was damaged, the compensation could be quite substantial.

"Renovation is bound to break down sooner or later. As long as it doesn't affect usability, it's fine."

Yao Lingling glanced at him with some disdain. How could this person be so shameless? When he had little money, he pretended to be generous, but when he had a lot of money, he acted like a scoundrel.

Too lazy to waste words with him, I said to the store manager, "You should find the mall's operations manager. The mall should coordinate this matter."

Seeing that they were not willing to give up, Zhao Yi said with a hint of threat, "It's fine to find the mall manager, go ahead and do it. The general manager of this store is my classmate."

Yao Lingling glanced at him disdainfully. "The general manager is your classmate. Do you believe she wouldn't dare to help you?"
Liu Jingjing walked around for a bit, then returned to her office, afraid of being bothered by Zhao Yi. Therefore, she was unaware of the damage caused by the leak at the seafood buffet restaurant.

Following Yao Lingling's instructions, the store manager called the mall's operations manager, Manager Yang. Manager Yang happened to be having lunch in the mall at that moment. Upon hearing that something had happened at the newly opened store, he rushed over to check it out.

Seeing that he was about to lose money, Zhao Yi stopped flirting with the beautiful woman and rushed to greet Manager Yang who was walking over from a distance. "Manager Yang, are you on your rounds?"

Manager Yang had already heard about it on the phone. It was about Zhao Yi and the newly opened seafood buffet restaurant. Of course, the main issue was that Zhao Yi had broken a water pipe on the floor during renovations upstairs, causing water to leak down.

"Mr. Zhao, what's going on? Why are the renovation workers working in broad daylight? Did you get a construction permit?"

Zhao Yi paused for a moment, then smiled apologetically and said, "Oh dear, it's just a small repair job. Do we need a permit since we're so familiar with each other?"

“Mr. Zhao, construction is no small matter. If something goes wrong because you started construction without a permit, I will be held responsible. Besides, now that something has really happened, it’s someone’s newly renovated shop, and today is their first day of business. You’ve caused a leak. That’s going too far.”

Knowing he was in the wrong, Zhao Yi whispered, "I accidentally caused this mess. Manager Yang, could you help coordinate something? How should the other party go through insurance and get compensation for the food loss? Let's just forget about the renovation."

"Mr. Zhao, this isn't something I can decide. It depends on how easy it is for them to talk to. It's their first day of business, and you're doing this. There's little chance they'll forgive you." "Manager Yang, you're a manager at the mall. They're doing business here, and they wouldn't dare not give you face since you've just started. Here's what we'll do: you try to mediate first. If you can't, I'll go talk to Ms. Liu. She should at least help with this small favor; we're classmates."

Manager Yang stopped, glanced at him, and smiled disdainfully. He used to boast about being classmates with Liu Jingjing from the region, how close they were, and Manager Yang had always been accommodating. But since Liu Jingjing took office, Manager Yang had become even more polite to Zhao Yi.

As a result, when he went to see General Manager Liu about the last contract renewal, he wasn't even allowed to enter the door. Manager Yang immediately realized that this guy was quite the big shot. Especially this time, he heard that Lin Ping had raised the rent for him quite a bit, but General Manager Liu hadn't said a word in his defense. Now he's even bringing up General Manager Liu to make things up. Doesn't he have any shame?

From a distance, Yao Lingling saw Zhao Yi walking this way with someone in a shopping mall uniform, and asked the store manager, "Is that the shopping mall manager?"

The store manager nodded. "It's Manager Yang from the mall. It seems like the store next door is quite familiar with him."

"Don't worry, we're the victims, we're not looking for trouble with them, so why should we care if we know them or not."

The shop assistants here are all locally recruited. They all know that the boss is from Shanghai. They feel that since they have come to Jiangzhou and are unfamiliar with the place, even if they are a dragon crossing the river, they will have to be cautious. Seeing how familiar Zhao Yi and Manager Yang are, they are a little apprehensive.

"Hello, who called me just now?"

"It's me, this is our company leader, General Manager Yao."

Yao Lingling is the general manager of the Hanjiang region. Manager Yang didn't know what kind of "general manager" she was; nowadays everyone is called "general manager." Seeing how young she was, he assumed she was an operations manager or something, but he still greeted her, "General Manager Yao, I heard from General Manager Zhao on the way here that this accident was something no one wanted to happen. I think both sides should try to resolve the issue by negotiating. We'll all be neighbors in the future, and we can look out for each other."

"Manager Yang, we have no intention of escalating the matter. We invited you here so that all three parties can witness the process, collect the damaged items, and sign the relevant documents. I hope that General Manager Zhao can compensate us for our due losses, and we request that the shopping mall supervise the implementation of this agreement."

The reason for asking the shopping mall to intervene is that, since the shop is rented from the mall, the mall has an obligation to ensure that the premises are in good condition. Now that Zhao Yi is carrying out construction, it seems to have caused losses to the seafood buffet, but in fact, it has also damaged the mall's existing facilities.

"That's fine, it's the proper procedure."

The group went into the shop's kitchen and found that water was still pouring down. The shop had moved the food from that area, but the damaged items were still lying around. Several buckets and basins were on the floor to collect the water, and the walls were also damaged by the water.

Zhao Yi was also quite unlucky. The sewage had ruined a lot of salmon, whole-cut steak, sashimi, and other items. He asked Yao Lingling about the value of the food, and the head chef said, "The initial estimate for the ingredients alone is over 5 yuan. The renovation is quite troublesome. We are already open for business and cannot close for renovations, so it is quite troublesome for us to come and deal with it."

Upon hearing that the food would result in a loss of over 5 yuan, Zhao Yi quickly said, "These can still be used after washing, right?"

Yao Lingling said, "Mr. Zhao, our restaurant has high standards for ingredients. They must be fresh and hygienic. If these ingredients are contaminated, we cannot use them anymore. After you pay the compensation, you can take them with you if needed, and you can use them yourselves."

Manager Yang glanced at Zhao Yi and thought to himself, "Is he going to serve food from his own shop to the customers? If they have problems eating it and complain to the mall, that would be troublesome."

He quickly replied, "Mr. Yao is right. If it's contaminated, we shouldn't use it. We have to be responsible to our customers. This is the consistent business philosophy of Xinyue Plaza."

Zhao Yi glanced at him with a grim expression. With the renovations included, it would cost over ten thousand yuan in compensation, which was too painful.

The store manager has listed the losses and asked Manager Yang and Zhao Yi to sign off on them. This list only specifies the quantity and unit price of each ingredient.

Zhao Yi asked, "You can't ask me for compensation based on the sales price, can you?"

The store manager felt that the boss was incredibly rude. It was their first day of business, and he had done this to them without even apologizing. Instead, he was dragging his feet on paying compensation. The manager immediately said angrily, "The prices we listed are all purchase prices. Do you think we expect to make money off you from these prices? Do you know how much business you've affected on our first day of business?"

Manager Yang then said, "Mr. Zhao, how about this, if you're still worried, let's confirm the amount of the loss first. They need to determine the renovation losses in the next couple of days, and then we'll confirm the specific amount of the loss again."

Yao Lingling said, "The renovation won't take more than a few days. I've already contacted people from Manhua Decoration Company, and they'll come over immediately to give us a quote based on the extent of the damage."

Zhao Yi hurriedly said, "No way, Mr. Yao. Manhua Decoration is known for its high prices in Jiangzhou. Can we switch to another decoration company?"

The store manager looked down on him, saying, "We had this company do our renovations, why are you changing companies? If you don't want to lose money, why didn't you pay more attention to the construction? We haven't even asked you for business losses yet."

Zhao Yi looked at Manager Yang, who said, "Mr. Zhao, let's do as they say. Manhua Decoration is now the most well-known decoration company in Jiangzhou. Our Xinyue Plaza also cooperates with them, as do Yinuo Group and Dongjian Trading. You can trust their reputation; they won't overcharge you."

He then gave up, feeling resentful that Manager Yang hadn't helped him. He didn't consider what would happen if Manager Yang held him accountable for starting construction without a permit.

After signing the papers, he returned to his shop looking unhappy, thinking that he still needed to find Liu Jingjing when he went to work in the afternoon, otherwise the loss this time would be no small amount of money.

He sent a sincere message: "Mr. Liu, I have something I'd like to report in person. It concerns some issues between us and the newly opened store next door, and I hope we can resolve them amicably and peacefully."

He no longer dared to call her Jingjing, addressing her as President Liu instead. Liu Jingjing initially didn't want to acknowledge him, but upon hearing that it was related to the seafood buffet restaurant next door, and that the two establishments had apparently had some friction, she began to take it seriously, as the restaurant next door clearly had a close relationship with Chen Xiao.

Zhao Yi was surprised that Liu Jingjing actually replied, asking him to come to her office at 2 pm. Zhao Yi was overjoyed after receiving the reply and quickly stopped Manager Yang, who was about to leave: "Brother, put this matter aside for now. I have an appointment with your boss, Liu, to go to her office at 2 pm to talk."

Manager Yang's eyes narrowed, probably not expecting this guy to actually manage to get a date with President Liu. Could it be that President Liu really treats him well, and the last time was just an accident?
"Okay, okay. Go report to your supervisor, I'll wait for instructions."

Zhao Yi glanced at Yao Lingling not far away and smiled smugly, as if to say, "See? My classmate is Boss Liu."

Yao Lingling didn't even bother to look at him, turning her head away and bumping into Chen Xiao's smiling eyes. The slight downward curve of his eyes naturally carried a hint of gentleness, clearly exuding a refined scholarly air, yet his well-defined hands were casually tucked into the pockets of his casual pants, revealing a section of his pale wrist with bulging veins.

The air from the central air conditioning swept across his hair, blowing the stray hairs on his forehead into a fluffy golden-brown halo, and also disrupting Yao Lingling's heartbeat.

Chen Long texted him early in the morning to tell him that the seafood buffet at Junxiao Plaza's third store opened today. He happened to be free today, so he came over to take a look. He originally planned to visit Liu Jingjing as well, but unexpectedly ran into Yao Lingling.

"When did you arrive?" Yao Lingling asked happily, smoothing her long hair over her shoulder.

"Just arrived. How about you treat me to lunch?"

Yao Lingling smiled like a hibiscus flower, "It's my honor."

Watching from the side, Zhao Yi mentally exclaimed "Holy crap!" This Chen Xiao is such a ladies' man! Why is it that I've been trying to woo him for ages and he completely ignored me, even causing a scene that cost me money? But Chen Xiao just shows up, smiles, and strikes up a conversation. And the worst part is, he even expects the beautiful woman to treat him to dinner! Has he no shame?

What's most infuriating is that the beautiful woman actually agreed, and even seemed honored. He turned and went back to his shop. Chen Xiao hardly talks to him anymore, and he's too lazy to bother with him. Who does he think he is? So what if he's a little handsome? He's a boss with an annual income of millions; is he less charming than Chen Xiao? He just hasn't met a woman who appreciates his worth yet.

Led by Yao Lingling, Chen Xiao entered the seafood buffet restaurant. It was incredibly crowded; even though it was almost 13:00 PM, all the seats were still full. Yao Lingling arranged for someone to reserve a table, while she, at Chen Xiao's request, showed him around the restaurant's decor and layout.

"With such good business, we can expand the store area in the future."

“My brother-in-law said it was too big and would affect the revenue of Junxiao Shopping Mall, so we asked for the standard size.”

Chen Xiao chuckled. Chen Long was so meticulous! This shop was 1500 square meters, and according to the current rental rate at Junxiao Plaza, it was 200 yuan per square meter per month, equivalent to 30 yuan in rent per month. With such a large area, Junxiao Plaza was indeed at a significant disadvantage. (End of Chapter)