Reborn in America, I am a legendary short seller on Wall Street.

Chapter 192 Magical Clash Leads to Price Hike
The next morning, after having breakfast, Larry took a horse-drawn carriage to the small square of the train station.

At this time, although it was only 8 a.m., the convenience store in front of the train station was still packed with customers and very lively.

Mr. K wasn't at the convenience store. Inside, an Italian clerk wearing a store manager's vest saw Larry arrive and hurried out to greet him.

“Where is Mr. K?” Larry asked.

"Mr. K went to get more stock... There's nothing we can do; our little shop has advantages that other small shops don't have," the shop assistant whispered to Larry.

"A third convenience store opened near the old North Church. Mr. K said that was the area with the highest foot traffic, so business would definitely be good. And sure enough, he was right..."

Larry nodded, turned around and looked at the crowded people in the store, then at the various items for sale on the counter. His eyes suddenly stopped, and he stared at a machine and examined it carefully.

Seeing Larry's interest in the machine, the convenience store manager smiled and introduced it, "A cash register! This thing is so useful, we can't live without it now. Grocery store owners often come over to ask where we bought this machine."

Larry nodded, thinking to himself that no machine was more insignificant yet more convenient for the retail industry than a cash register. It was a great invention, and Matthew had fully grasped its spirit. This 19th-century version of the cash register was a faithful reproduction of the later, more advanced version, and it was indeed quite convenient to use.

After visiting the convenience store, Larry rushed to the city center. He knew the location of the newly opened convenience store; it wasn't far from the pyramid scheme gambling den where he had previously made his deal.

When they arrived at the new convenience store, Mr. K, with a cigarette dangling from his lips, was cursing and instructing the new store's employees on stocking shelves and serving customers.

"Business is good!" Larry walked up to Mr. K, his eyes fixed on the bustling scene in the convenience store, and casually remarked.

When Mr. K saw that it was Larry, he quickly stood up straight, threw the cigarette in his mouth on the ground, and stomped it out.

"Boss, you're here. Did you just get back to Boston?"

After finishing his statement, Mr. K continued to describe the current situation of the convenience store, taking advantage of Larry's question.

Larry was a little surprised, feeling that Mr. K was becoming more and more well-behaved around him, which was quite different from his previous reckless personality.

Larry had previously made a discovery: ever since the three of them smoked cigars behind the wall of the old North Church, Mr. K had actually started calling him "boss" every time he saw him, even in front of his young men, without any hesitation, and didn't seem to feel embarrassed at all that he, at his age, was calling him, a young man, "boss."

Larry smiled and pointed to the storefront, saying, "It's doing great. The convenience store looks to be doing very well. Anyone causing trouble?"

Mr. K couldn't suppress a smile. "How could that be! This is the stall I'm in charge of, and Logan's dad gave me a heads-up. What kind of fool would dare to come here to collect protection money... Oh, right, there are still petty thieves, there's no way to completely eliminate that..."

Larry nodded and then asked, "Are your supply channels all good? Are there any items that are constantly out of stock?"

“Yes, cigarettes!” Mr. K pulled out a pack of Bull cigarettes from his pocket, waved it, and said with a smile, “You know what, I’ve gotten used to smoking this stuff now. It’s strong, saves time, and sometimes when I’m busy and tired, a few puffs can make me feel really good.”

Larry had a sudden thought, took the pack of cigarettes, and said, "How many packs of this can you sell a day?"

"We make at least 200 packs. The convenience store in front of the train station sells up to 610 packs a day, and we make 5 cents per pack."

Larry nodded, thinking to himself that this stuff comes in a box of 12 and retails for only 20 cents. Now that it's just started selling, it's already making a 5-cent profit, which is pretty good.

If we sell in larger quantities in the future, we can continue to negotiate prices with American Tobacco Company!
In addition, I should also think about how to buy more shares of American Tobacco Company and make a long-term investment.

Sometimes investing isn't difficult. It's simply about sticking to the industries you're familiar with, seeing which companies are quietly making money, buying their stock, and holding it long-term.

After Larry finished reading, he casually handed the cigarette back to Mr. K, only to find that Mr. K was still staring at him with a gentle smile on his face.

Larry was startled and quickly asked, "Why are you looking at me like that..."

Mr. K pursed his lips, smiled and exclaimed, "Boss, you're such a good person... I always make money working for you."

"What's going on? What do you mean I'm making money?" Larry was a little confused.

Mr. K, however, said with a smile, "Carnegie Steel really did fall, it dropped by a full $3 in two days!"

Larry thought to himself, what's so surprising about $7? This stock was previously at $45. Even if you had $5000, with 4x leverage, you could only buy 440 shares. If it dropped $3, you would only make $1320.

While the amount of money was considerable, it certainly wasn't enough to elicit such joy from Mr. K...

Is it really true that seeing yourself is like seeing the God of Wealth?

Larry turned to look at Mr. K's fawning smile and instantly understood.

"Did you place an order at the betting company?" Larry asked with a smile.

Mr. K nodded heavily and said with a smile, "Now the betting companies only let their clients make 2 points before closing out their positions, but Logan and I made a whopping $1.2 this time."

"You made a total of $1.2?"

"No, each person earned about $1.2, after deducting the delivery fees for the young men..." Mr. K said with a smile.

Larry covered his face and laughed, thinking to himself that he had specifically told them to open an account with a legitimate securities company, but once Pandora's box was opened, it could not be easily put back in.

With a profit margin of 2%, the two of them each made $1.2. How many betting companies did they ruin?
Having finally managed to stop smiling, Larry cautioned, "That's enough, don't get too flashy!"

Mr. K replied with a strange smile, "It's unavoidable now... Several betting companies have closed down today."

"Pfft!" Larry couldn't help but laugh again, thinking to himself that this was truly a case of trying to fleece someone only to have them suffer the most...

Mr. K went on to explain that the young men who now run errands for him at the gambling dens are all very ambitious, knowing they can make a lot of money by following him, so they are extremely loyal; Logan has also recruited a few young Irish men who are paid $20 a day to run errands and have sworn to follow Logan.

"Money is such a wonderful thing!" Mr. K exclaimed.

Larry gave Mr. K a meaningful look, thinking to himself, "Aren't you the same?"

They've become increasingly respectful of me because they know I can make money with them.
.
After visiting the convenience store, Larry and Mr. K chatted as they walked towards the city center. They first discussed the convenience store project. Originally, Larry had named the convenience store "The Daylight Grocery".

The name implies "We're open from dawn till dusk," and it's also approachable, like a friendly and hardworking neighborhood shop.

But ordinary Americans don't understand this. Instead, because Larry imitated the signboard of the "7-11 convenience store" from his previous life and created "7-17", everyone calls this convenience store "717".

Larry had a toothache. He hadn't originally planned to scare the teacher to death. Besides, "711" means from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., and I named the convenience store "717" because it's open 7 days a week and works 17 hours a day.

In the end, the experience from the previous life came into play. Ordinary people found "717" catchy and started calling convenience stores "717 Convenience Stores".

Larry sighed and smiled wryly, then instructed Mr. K to immediately register the "717" trademark.

After talking about the convenience store, the two started talking about Logan's bubble tea shop.

The steamed milk tea shop is ready to open, and even the brand image store in Chinatown has been renovated. Now all that's left is for Congressman Kennedy to return and contact the church so that it can officially open for business.

These past few days, Logan has been spending all his free time in Chinatown watching the renovations of the main store; he's really taking his work seriously this time.

Mr. K would visit him whenever he had free time, especially these past few days when the two of them shorted Carnegie Steel together, and they would spend every day together like best buddies.

Larry walked and talked, and immediately spotted Paine Weber Securities Company.

“Let’s go in and take a look!” Larry doesn’t have any contact information now. When people want to contact him, they leave a message or send a telegram to the Paine Weber Securities branch.

As soon as Larry entered the sales office, he saw Tom standing in front of the quotation machine, constantly reading out quotations.

Tom was very busy and only had time to wave to Larry when he saw him from afar. But the clever Samuel Wallace still had a Thanos-like expression and didn't say much when he saw Larry.

The branch was quite crowded, noisy, and packed with customers; the entire branch of Paine Weber Securities was almost full.

Larry was a little surprised. He thought to himself that he had been here for less than a year, but he had never seen the business in the sales department so good. Could it be that Mr. Wallace was a good manager?
But I didn't see any free black tea!

When Larry met Mr. Wallace and asked him about it, he laughed again; it was still related to him.

Because all the betting shops in the Metropolitan Area were shut down, many customers who had placed orders there had no choice but to return to regular brokerage branches. Now, the three regular brokerage branches in Boston are all benefiting greatly.

Speaking of this, Mr. Wallace's face beamed with a happy smile, then he sighed,

"Since Monday afternoon, the number of customers has increased by at least 30%. I was quite surprised at first, and after asking around, I found out that half of the other betting shops have also closed down... Oh, thank God!"

Larry smiled, thinking to himself that it wasn't God's blessing, but rather Mr. K and Logan who had bankrupted the betting company.

Mr. Wallace smiled, then, as if suddenly remembering something, stood up and offered his seat to Larry, saying...
"Oh, I almost forgot. Give Mr. Potter a call; he says he needs to speak with you."

Larry raised an eyebrow and, without any hesitation, sat down in the chair behind his desk and called Mr. Potter.

“Hello, this is Saul Potter!” Mr. Potter’s voice came through the phone.

"Mr. Potter, this is Larry. What can I do for you?"

“Oh, Larry! That’s wonderful! I was just worried about not hearing from you. I have some good news for you…” Mr. Potter then told him about how the mine owner named Cecil Rhodes wanted to rent all five of Larry’s shops!
"You said he's from South Africa? Sells diamonds?" Larry frowned, thinking about that diamond company, S.S., whose sales plummeted in his previous life because of synthetic diamonds.

Of course, this also shows that the diamond industry did not decline until more than 100 years later, and during those 100 years, business was still booming.

“Yes, his company is called De Beers. Oh God, I have a very bad impression of that man; he’s a shallow fellow who talks about the glory of the British Empire all the time,” Mr. Potter complained.

Larry nodded, thinking to himself, "I don't care who he is. If it really is De Beers, then I can't miss this opportunity if he wants to rent my shop."

After thinking for a moment, Larry asked, "Mr. Porter, are the people at the remaining three shops willing to terminate their contracts early?"

"Yes, Mr. Rhodes promised to give each store $1000, and all three businesses were willing to move to a different location."

Larry thought for a moment, then frowned and said, "I suspect this is a trap. Once we terminate the leases of the three tenants, he'll take the opportunity to lower the rent..."

Mr. Potter on the other end of the phone paused noticeably before slowly saying, "How could you think that? Larry, is that even possible?"

Larry chuckled and continued, "Based on your description, this is a bully whose mind is only on exploiting Africans. How could he be so kind as to clear out our old customers first and then offer a high price to rent our shop? This kind of person is ruthless; how could he be so merciful?"

Mr. Potter paused for a long time before saying in a deep voice, "You're right! Larry, I was almost fooled by his appearance. He's probably just like you said, waiting until we get rid of the tenants and the prime time for renting out the property, then he'll take the opportunity to rent our shop at a low price."

Larry nodded and said, "Yes, they'll ask for an exorbitant price, lure the opponent into making a mistake, and then apply extreme pressure. They might even make us advance the $1000 severance pay to the tenant, then disappear, dragging out the contract until late April when they take advantage of the situation and force us to accept a lower price..."

“Yes! Yes! Absolutely right! Larry Livingston, what’s wrong with your brain? How could you see through such a trick?” Mr. Potter exclaimed repeatedly on the other end of the phone.

Larry smiled but didn't say anything, thinking to himself that he was only able to be on guard against this because he had heard about it and seen it firsthand.

"So what should we do? Reject his offer?" Mr. Potter continued to ask.

Larry thought for a moment, then shook his head and said, "No! Tell him the rent for these five street-front shops is $2.5 a year, no bargaining. And it has to be paid in gold coins or gold!"

Larry thought to himself, "You want to play the extreme pressure game? Then let's have a magical showdown."

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(End of this chapter)