Rebirth of the King of Waves

Chapter 177 The Depressed Market (Part 2)

"How dare you speak like that?" Mu Shanming was immediately enraged.

Ning Bishu didn't get angry. He was in a good mood today and said with a smile, "Friend, if the price isn't right, we can talk about it. My home is right here, in building 16, A05 and A06. I just bought them a few days ago. I paid in full at once. If you don't believe me, go ask the people at the sales office."

Upon hearing this, the gym's wealthy second-generation owner's expression turned slightly more serious.

"There are so many scammers these days..."

He was slightly embarrassed, but did not apologize directly.

Ning Bishu followed his words calmly and said, "Yes, the economy is bad, and all sorts of strange things are coming out. How about this, I'll go back and take a shower first. You probably haven't eaten yet, right? Let's sit down and chat later. The Hechen Law Firm downstairs in Building 16 is my lawyer Mu's property. Someone should be opening the door soon, you can go sit there for a while."

The shop owner hesitated for a couple of seconds, half believing and half doubting, then nodded, "Okay."

Ning Bishu then pulled Mu Shanming and left the gym directly.

As soon as he stepped out of the gym, Mu Shanming couldn't help but say, "This person has really poor manners."

"They're broke, aren't they?" Ning Bishu said casually. "Even rich kids are selling houses, there must be something wrong with their families, otherwise why would they sell? They've probably been scammed, and now they hate scammers so much they see everyone as a scammer."

Mu Shanming frowned and said, "It's so early in the morning, and I haven't done anything wrong, yet I'm being scolded like this. What bad luck."

Ning Bishu laughed and said, "Then we'll curse back later."

Mu Shanming looked at him strangely and asked, "Why has your temper become so good?"

"I've always had a very good temper," Ning Bishu said shamelessly. "I've always been very well-mannered and cultured. Unless I encounter a complete idiot or someone with ill intentions towards me, I'm always easy to talk to. Besides, I'm so rich now, in my eyes everyone is a low-class poor bastard, and their insults don't even hit the mark on me."

What pain points do you have right now? Do you have kidney deficiency?

"Oh, my dear, are you trying to goad me?"

Ning Bishu swiped her card to pass through the downstairs access control and walked to the elevator. The elevator lobby at the entrance of Building A was empty. Ning Bishu pressed the button, then turned around and suddenly grabbed Mu Shanming's big buttocks, pressing her against the wall.

Mu Shanming chuckled and let out a soft "ee-yah," only to be immediately kissed by Ning Bishu.

In the empty studio, the two were deeply engrossed in their kiss.

Unaware of what was happening, the elevator behind me came crashing down.

Then, with a ding, the elevator doors opened, and Bi Guifen stepped out.

Mu Shanming, whose eyes were glazed over from Ning Bishu's kisses, slightly opened them and was suddenly struck by Bi Guifen standing behind Ning Bishu, laughing. He quickly exclaimed "Ah!" and pushed Ning Bishu away, blushing as he called out, "Mom!"

"Huh?" Ning Bishu turned around upon hearing this, a bulge still visible on his pants. He immediately scolded, "Wow, why didn't you say anything?"

Bi Guifen said, "Seeing how engrossed you two are, I feel embarrassed to say anything."

Ning Bishu asked, "Are you going upstairs or going out?"

"I'm going to the supermarket to buy some groceries."

Bi Guifen said with a hint of complaint, "You two didn't come to my house for dinner yesterday."

Ning Bishu said, "Something came up last night, and I forgot to tell you."

Are you going home for dinner today?

Bi Guifen said, "I'll make you some old duck soup. You work so hard every day, it'll help you recover."

"No need, no need... let's talk about it tonight." Ning Bishu pulled Mu Shanming and walked towards the elevator.

Bi Guifen called out, "Take care of yourself! Don't work so hard every day. Mingming, can you keep an eye on him for me?"

"Okay, Mom..." Mu Shanming replied softly with his head down.

Bi Guifen watched the elevator doors slowly close and couldn't help but sigh.

Even though they live in the same building, she barely sees Ning Bishu a few times a week.

This life of wealth is indeed easy.

But I always feel like something's missing...

……

"Okay, Mom." In the elevator, Ning Bishu repeated what Mu Shanming had just said.

Mu Shanming was both embarrassed and delighted, and pinched Ning Bishu's arm, "Are you trying to kill me?!"

Ning Bishu suddenly said, "If you have time, it would be good to spend more time with my mom."

"Hmm." Mu Shanming nodded, then paused for two seconds before saying, "If you have time, you can also visit my hometown. Otherwise, when I have children in the future, I can't very well tell my parents that the father of my child is dead."

Ning Bishu couldn't help but smile. "Okay, let's wait until the New Year. I'll take a day or two to visit your parents."

Mu Shanming smiled and took Ning Bishu's hand.

The elevator stopped at the fifth floor, and the two entered the apartment hand in hand. More than an hour later, Ning Bishu, carrying a bag of traditional Chinese medicine, and Mu Shanming, who was now radiant and glowing with makeup, left the apartment.

Ning Bishu herself was also dressed up impeccably by Mu Shanming—a third of Mu Shanming's walk-in closet was now filled with outfits Mu Shanming had bought for Ning Bishu. Ning Bishu's current look was entirely maintained by Attorney Mu. A short while later, they entered the He Chen Law Firm. The firm, though only a little past 9 a.m., was already brightly lit.

"Good morning, Mr. Ning! Good morning, Attorney Mu!"

As soon as the two entered, the receptionist sweetly announced, "A guest has been waiting for you in the reception room for a long time."

Ning Bishu and Mu Shanming nodded and walked to the door of the reception room.

He pushed the door open and walked in. The gym owner immediately stood up and said, "Is this law firm really yours?"

“It’s not mine. I don’t own any shares in the law firm. It mainly belongs to my wife, Ms. Mu.”

Ning Bishu offered an explanation.

Mu Shanming didn't give the shop owner a friendly look and said directly to Ning Bishu, "Honey, I'm going to do my work now. Can you order me breakfast from that porridge shop? Their seafood porridge is pretty good."

Without saying a word to the gym owner, he turned and left immediately.

The gym owner stared intently at Mu Shanming, his gaze following her as she walked away. When she was at the gym earlier, Mu Shanming wasn't wearing makeup and was at most a 5.5 out of 10 for a class beauty. But now, with her heavy, mature makeup, her looks had instantly risen to a whole new level.

Snapped!
Ning Bishu clapped his hands in front of Zhuang Aidun.

The gym owner snapped out of his daze and immediately looked a little embarrassed. "I'm so sorry about that."

"Ignorance is no excuse," Ning Bishu said calmly. "Have you had breakfast yet?"

The shop owner said, "I don't eat breakfast."

"Let's eat together." Ning Bishu opened the app and ordered three identical seafood porridges from the same restaurant, and also ordered some other snacks from the restaurant for Mu Shanming.

After ordering, I put down my phone and asked directly, "What's your surname, boss?"

"My name is Wu Qiye," the rich young man stammered as he answered.

“Okay, then I’ll call you General Manager Wu.” Ning Bishu got straight to the point. “General Manager Wu, your gym must be putting a lot of pressure on you right now. Can the monthly profit cover the costs?”

Wu Qiye was still somewhat cautious. After thinking for a moment, he replied, "Whether or not it can be covered, if you want to use my space and manpower to make your own money, then I'd rather not do it."

“That’s not how it works,” Ning Bishu said. “It’s true that I’m lending you the venue and staff, but you have to think about it. If I didn’t lend you the venue and staff, you might not have a single customer and would be losing money.”

If I borrow your space and manpower, you can get at least 20% of the profits. Besides, my commission only applies to those I refer. You still get all the profits from those who didn't come through my referral.

If you look at it from another angle, your venue and staff are actually serving your own interests. On the contrary, I'm providing you with more customer traffic and bringing you extra profits.

Wu Qiye immediately said, "Then how do I calculate the wear and tear on the equipment in my shop? And what about when customers finish exercising and want to shower, or when they use my Wi-Fi in the shop? Water and electricity also cost money. There is some extra profit, but there are also extra expenses."

Ning Bishu smiled and asked, "How many do you want?"

After a moment's thought, Wu Qiye said, "At least fifty-fifty, right?"

Ning Bishu said, "If we can't split it 50/50, am I supposed to work for you? Don't I have to pay for attracting traffic?"

Wu Qiye hurriedly said, "Then let's split it 40/60! I'll take 40% and you take 60%, is that alright? In this environment, there are hardly any people in the gym. If there are still customers in the gym, it's basically a brothel."

"There aren't many places like mine that can provide you with a proper gym. Go look elsewhere; they're all decorated like karaoke bars, with colorful lights hanging from the ceiling. Here, there's a boxing ring right at the entrance. Such positive energy! How many places like this are there in the whole X state?"

Seeing Wu Qiye's pitiful expression, Ning Bishu calmly picked up his phone and dialed another number: "President Xu, are you up yet? Come over here for a moment. He Chen Law Firm, on the first floor of Building 16, Wangfu Jinxiu Jiayuan. Yes, this is Attorney Mu's place."

"Come here, let's talk about the physical store. Yes, the gym in my neighborhood, it would be best if we could take it over today, to set up a demonstration first. I'll send you the location, um, drive carefully and be safe."

After hanging up the phone, he smiled at Wu Qiye and said, "Mr. Wu, what I'm doing here isn't simply taking over your store. Even if we can't get this store today, we'll go and get other stores. To be honest, your store is in such a remote location that we mainly use it as a testing ground for business operations."

Wu Qiye looked bewildered and surprised, "In the current environment, you still want to open a chain of gyms? Do you have too much money to burn?"

"Hehe..." Ning Bishu said, "It's not that you have too much money to spend. But think about it, given the current market environment, it can only get this bad. Take your shop, for example. It's been over a month since the New Year, and just this morning, Mingming and I went to buy two monthly cards. That's an average of one person buying a card per month, which means there are practically no customers left. So where did all these missing customers go? Did they disappear? And what about before? Why were there customers before?"

"The economy is bad, and consumption has declined!" Wu Qiye shouted.

Ning Bishu said, "Yes, consumption has declined, but that doesn't mean there's no demand for consumption. Your store's monthly card costs 300 yuan a month, which is 10 yuan a day, brother. That's quite expensive. Some people often buy the card but don't come. Their income has already decreased, so they're most likely to be petty at times like this."

Wu Qiye said, "But we make money from those who buy cards but never come back."

“Sigh…” Ning Bishu sighed, “If you don’t consider your customers’ needs, how can they patronize your business? Mr. Wu, consumption has declined, but the demand is still there. At times like this, you shouldn’t blame the environment, you should blame yourself. You yourself are part of the market environment. If you don’t take the initiative to change yourself, you can’t expect customers to accommodate you, can you?”

Wu Qiye opened his mouth, somewhat stunned by Ning Bishu's words.

Just then, a food delivery guy rushed into the law firm.

The receptionist at the door immediately walked to the reception room, opened the door and said, "Mr. Ning, your breakfast is here."

"Oh." Ning Bishu stood up and walked out.

A moment later, he came back with a full bag, took out a box of seafood porridge, placed it in front of Wu Qiye, and then picked up the bag and walked out. "Mr. Wu, you eat first, I'll go sit next door for a while."

He left Wu Qiye behind and went to Mu Shanming's office next door.

(End of this chapter)