After the successful grand opening of Wanlong Plaza, its popularity remained high for several consecutive days.
As a newly opened commercial complex in Pearl City, its level of modernization was much higher than those older department stores. Whether it was the environment or the shopping experience, it was far superior. Coupled with numerous and rich promotional activities, it naturally attracted a large number of visitors for shopping.
On the opening day alone, the foot traffic exceeded 80,000. The cumulative foot traffic over three days approached 200,000, and total sales broke the twenty million mark.
Among them, Wanlong Supermarket performed the most brilliantly, accounting for nearly one-third of the total sales.
On the afternoon of the fourth day, Liu Yutong brought her assistants, Su Mansu and Lan Die, to inspect the mall again. Though she called it an inspection, she actually just wanted to go shopping herself, so she didn't notify anyone.
After buying some clothes in the mall, she made her way to the third floor and saw her old classmate Guo Yani next to the Yuyuefang branch restaurant.
Liu Yutong had not expected Guo Yani to open her branch near Yuyuefang, even launching a free hand care service right at the restaurant's entrance, creating a collaboration with them.
It was worth noting that Yuyuefang was now one of the top-ranked chain restaurants in Pearl City in terms of reputation.
Achieving this level of success was because Yuyuefang had perfected both its service and its flavors to the extreme; it would be hard for it not to be popular. During holidays, the restaurant would even see spectacular scenes of customers waiting in long lines for a table.
To soothe the waiting customers' emotions, the restaurant had long ago thoughtfully introduced a series of services, including providing seats, free tea, and snacks.
Guo Yani had precisely spotted the business opportunity and foot traffic here, choosing to locate her branch right next to the restaurant. She offered free hand care services to ladies waiting for their meals, using this as a way to promote her own beauty salon.
When Liu Yutong saw Guo Yani, the girl was wearing her work uniform, focused entirely on giving a customer a free hand treatment.
To be honest, the girl was quite smart, knowing how to leverage the traffic from Liu Yutong's restaurant—something Liu Yutong had never taught her.
Liu Yutong waited until the customer left before walking over.
"Boss Guo, business is booming, I see."
Hearing the voice, Guo Yani looked up. The moment she saw it was Liu Yutong, she immediately stood up.
"Oh my, has my big boss come for an undercover inspection? Why didn't you give me a heads-up so I could line everyone up to welcome you!" she joked with a smile.
"Save it."
Liu Yutong smiled and sat down in the chair opposite her, naturally extending her hands. "Just finished shopping and my hands are a bit dry. Care to serve me personally, Boss Guo?"
"It would be my honor, my generous investor!"
Flattering her, Guo Yani took out her tools. She first used a warm, damp towel to carefully wipe Liu Yutong's hands before beginning the care routine.
"How does it feel? Have you adapted well these past few days since the new store opened?" Liu Yutong asked.
"Couldn't be better."
While applying exfoliating cream to Liu Yutong's hands, Guo Yani expressed her gratitude.
"Yutong, thank you so much. If you hadn't invested money and reserved a spot for me, I probably wouldn't have dared to dream of opening a shop in Wanlong Plaza in this lifetime. Just look, my employees and I have done hundreds of free treatments over the past few days. More than thirty of them converted into in-store consultations and membership sign-ups. The preliminary revenue is almost catching up to a whole month's earnings at my old store."
"Oh right, I've transferred your share of the profits to your card on time. Don't forget to check your account, big boss."
The largest investor in Guo Yani's beauty salon, named Elegant Times, was none other than Liu Yutong. According to their initial seventy-thirty split agreement, Liu Yutong could take seventy percent of the profits without having to do a thing.
"No rush about the money. Could I possibly not trust you? Seeing your business get on the right track puts my mind at ease."
"You're really easygoing, but I'm truly honored!"
"..."
Guo Yani then applied hand cream for her, performing the final massage steps, and casually asked a question she had been pondering for a long time.
"Yutong, my chain store is up and running now, and business is pretty good, but I still feel a bit uncertain inside. How should I proceed to make the business more stable and larger? Could you point me in the right direction, big boss?"
After thinking for a moment, Liu Yutong said, "You can pay more attention to online channels. Take Wanhui Choice, for example; there are huge opportunities there. You can set up shop directly on it and launch some promotional packages for online booking and offline experiences. This way, you can attract more online customers to spend money in your physical store. You can also sell your store's well-reviewed skincare products on e-commerce platforms. It's still quite easy to make money in e-commerce nowadays."
"Really?"
"Just remember one thing: the future of business will definitely be a tight integration of online and offline."
"I get it! Yutong, you are truly amazing! Why didn't I think of this? Once I get back, I'll research how to set up group buying and online shopping."
Speaking of this, Guo Yani suddenly remembered something.
"Oh, speaking of which, Yutong, let me tell you something. Just a couple of days ago, a few foreign guests came here, and they actually knew about you! I never thought my big boss's name would have spread overseas."
Hearing this, Liu Yutong narrowed her eyes. "Is that so? Did they say anything?"
Guo Yani thought for a moment, then shook her head. "Those foreigners were speaking a foreign language most of the time, so I couldn't really understand them. But they seemed quite interested in you. Could they be wanting to visit you? After all, you are the most outstanding young entrepreneur in Pearl City."
"Oh right, one of the foreigners was even injured. His head was wrapped in bandages, like he had been beaten up."
"Beaten up?"
"Yeah, it looked like it. But I think it's normal. That guy talked way too much, chattering non-stop like a chanting monk. He was so noisy I wanted to slap him just to make him quiet down for a bit," Guo Yani said jokingly.
A chatty foreigner?
A name instantly popped into Liu Yutong's mind: Jesse, the foreigner she had briefly met in Great South City.
After the hand care was done, Liu Yutong chatted with Guo Yani for a few more minutes before leaving.
As soon as she got into the car, she instructed, "Call Ma Da first and tell him to come see me at my house."
"Yes, boss," Su Mansu replied.
Over ten minutes later, at the Qiongyuewan Villa District.
Upon returning in her car, Liu Yutong saw a black sedan parked at the entrance of her house. Yaya jumped out of the car carrying a small backpack.
Seeing Liu Yutong step out of the car behind hers, the little girl immediately sprinted over in excitement.
"Sister!"
Liu Yutong crouched down, opening her arms to catch the little cannonball plunging into her embrace.
"Yaya, are you back from the zoo?"
"Mhm!" Yaya nodded vigorously. Looking up with her small face and big, blinking eyes, she started chattering away about the animals she had seen at the zoo today.
Listening to her story, Liu Yutong held her hand and walked into the villa.
The housekeeper had already prepared dinner. Just as Liu Yutong and Yaya finished washing their hands and sat down to eat, Ma Da rushed in like a whirlwind.
