A Valiant Life

When the telephone was turned to loudspeaker mode, the crowd was still clueless as to what was happening. They wondered what Little Boss meant when he said ‘That’s interesting’.

But soon, they understood it.

“Master Lin, I found out about your situation on Weibo. As for the crazy things that you’ve done, I’ve heard it so many times that I can repeat every single one of them. It’s coincidental that our Tian Hong Commercial Street has just been built. We’re currently preparing to ask for shop owners to take over the units but I thought it’d be better to invite you over instead of renting them to others,” Huang Bin said.

He was supposed to be busy with the marketing segment after Tian Hong Commercial Street had been fully constructed. However, he had been reading Master Lin’s Weibo which caught his attention. It wasn’t because Master Lin was a superb fortune-teller or that the scallion pancakes were delicious. It was because of the Starlight incident that caught his eye. He had done some research on him and realized that Master Lin was indeed an awesome character and hence, he had been watching him closely.

At the same time, he saw that Master Lin was thinking of moving out due to the increased rental fees. Therefore, he thought of contacting him and if it was successful, the marketing segment would be resolved.

Furthermore, he was curious as to how a small shop managed to make a whole commercial street popular. Therefore, he wanted to take a look and see what was happening.

Lin Fan chuckled, “Chief Huang, you’re so courteous. How much are you charging for the rental fees at Tian Hong Commercial Street? If it’s too expensive, we can’t possibly afford it.”

Then, the shop owners outside his shop held their breaths. To them, this phone call wasn’t as simple as it looked. It seemed like someone was trying to get them to shift to his commercial street.

Liu Guo Qiang frowned. He knew about Tian Hong Commercial Street and it was only two districts away from Cloud Street. Furthermore, it was a decent location. There were many townsfolk that lived near that area.

Huang Bin replied, “As for that, don’t worry, Master Lin. We are definitely not like Xin Yu Company. They immediately skyrocketed the rental fees. We are a legitimate company and the rental fees are all controlled based on the markets.”

Lin Fan chuckled, “Chief Huang, the people in charge of Xin Yu Company are in my shop now. I guess we shouldn’t talk about them.”

Huang Bin apologized and laughed, “Alright, alright. I’ll only speak facts then. Since we’re a newly constructed commercial street, the contract lasts for three years. The first year of rental is free. The charges are based on the area of the shop. We are charging $20 per square meter daily. Then, it increases by 5% every year. Everything was formulated based on the lowest prices in the market. Everything can be written in the contract. The number of customers on the commercial street won’t matter in the future as the contract is fixed. We will follow the agreement and charge shop owners based on it. What do you think?”

Although his academic results weren’t the best, he was still pretty good at calculations. If it was based on a 40 square meter shop, a year’s rental would be around two hundred thousand dollars. For his current shop which was slightly more than ten square meters, he was already being charged over a hundred thousand dollars. It seemed like a really good deal in comparison to Cloud Street. Furthermore, the rental fees were waived for the first year. It was simply too attractive.

An increment of 5% per year was realistic and reasonable too.

Huang Bin immediately added, “As for the shop owners who are looking at the top grade interiors, we also have long-term contracts for that. The yearly increment is a little less, at about 3% per year. What do you think?”

Lin Fan was a little confused when it came to these prices. The previous example had already drained most of his brain cells.

But as for the other shop owners, they were all ecstatic and shocked.

“Little Boss, Tian Hong is good! The prices are reasonable.”

“Yeah, this is Shanghai after all. It’s a city on the front line. Only the other less developed cities would waive the first year of fees for three years of rent. If this Tian Hong Commercial Street really waives the first year of rental fees, we’re in luck!”

“The increment of fees is also reasonable. An average increment would be about 10-15% per year. This Tian Hong Commercial Street is simply managed by kind-hearted people!”

The shop owners were all extremely excited.

Initially, they had been worried about their futures but now, they weren’t worried anymore.

Liu Guo Qiang hadn’t expected things to end up like this. This Tian Hong Commercial Street sounded like an extremely good deal. The management team there must be too kind-hearted, could they still be considered as businessmen?

This type of business model wouldn’t bring about many profits in early stages of the contract.

But if you were to look at this in the long run, according to Shanghai’s rate of development, this commercial street could likely be popular very soon.

No company would be stupid enough to invest a huge sum of money to build something on a no man’s land.

Zhu Xiu Qin was also stunned. It was as if her confidence had vanished.

She had initially been very forceful and she even had the backing of the people in the headquarters. Furthermore, she knew that these people would definitely surrender to her.

Which commercial street in Shanghai would be able to contain one to two hundred shop owners? They hadn’t expected Tian Hong Commercial Street to come in with this lucrative offer.

Zhu Xiu Qin was in disbelief. Then, she asked, “Which company built Tian Hong Commercial Street? That is simply impossible. How could you still make money from this?”

Huang Bin chuckled, “We are from Qi Ming Commercial Real Estate Company. We are looking at a long-term business, unlike Xin Yu Company which only looks at the short-term profits. Shop owners wouldn’t even make any profit if you suppress them like this. Any commercial street wouldn’t last long like this regardless of how good the business is. We are looking at achieving a win-win situation. We can make money along with the shop owners.”

Then, people started to clap.

Lin Fan clapped and said, “Chief Huang, your company is very considerate.”

Zhu Xiu Qin’s face was as black as thunder. She just stood there and didn’t say anything.

At a certain villa in Shanghai.

Lu Li packed his things and prepared to go to his company. As he walked down the stairs into the living room, his father called him.

Lu Zhong Ming said, “Come over here for awhile.”

Lu Li didn’t know what he wanted. He walked over to his father. “Dad, what is it?”

Lu Zhong Ming put on his glasses. “Xin Yu Real Estate Company is owned by us?”

“Yes, I am confident that the development of commercial streets will be extremely profitable. Hence, I started Xin Yu Commercial Real Estate Company which specializes in the construction of commercial streets,” Lu Li replied.

Even though he didn’t care much about Xin Yu Company, it brought in a lot of profits every year.

Lu Zhong Ming nodded. “When was Cloud Street developed?”

Lu Li didn’t know why his father would ask such a question. After all, his father hadn’t asked about the organization for about eight years already. “It was constructed in 2012. It’s been about five years.”

“Look at this news article,” Lu Zhong Ming said as he passed the phone to his son. Then, he sat there and didn’t say anything.

Lu Li took the phone over and read it. He gradually furrowed his eyebrows. “Dad, this…”

He didn’t really care about Xin Yu Company but when he read the news, he was shocked. A 100% increment of rental fees did seem like a problem.

But this matter shouldn’t be managed by him as it was too minor. He was handling billions and trillions of investments nowadays. This was simply peanuts to him.

“One step at a time. If you take too big a step, your testicles might tear,” Lu Zhong Ming said.

Lu Li was a little embarrassed. His dad wasn’t exactly a cultured man but his words always made sense.

“Even the smallest issues can cause big problems in the future. You have to be more cautious as your company grows. If your business fails, you can still try again. But if you lose your reputation, it’s practically impossible to continue. Read the news more when you’re free. Don’t be too caught up with work. You have to know what’s happening in the sub-companies as well. Do you understand what I mean?” Lu Zhong Ming said.

Lu Li nodded. “Dad, I understand that.”

“Alright, go have a look and manage it well,” Lu Zhong Ming said.

Lu Li was stunned. “Dad, I have an important meeting to attend, I can get my subordinate to…”

“You have meetings every day. You don’t have to be impatient. You can only manage greater things when you’re able to resolve small things like this. You’ve been progressing too quickly ever since you took over the company. Go and resolve this issue and take a look at the company. If there’s a problem, get rid of it. Don’t let them behave as if there’s no higher management. If you can’t manage one or two of them, fire them and rebuild the team,” Lu Zhong Ming said sternly.

Lu Li nodded. “Alright, dad. I think there shouldn’t be a problem in the company.”

Lu Zhong Ming looked at his son and warned him, “There wouldn’t be this situation if there wasn’t a problem. Go and tell me the situation when you get home tonight.”

Lu Li could only nod at his dad’s words. He knew that he was still miles apart from achieving his dad’s feats. There were a lot of things that he still had to learn from his dad.