"Really?"
Xu Zhanpeng was so surprised that he could hardly believe his ears. After a few seconds of bewilderment, he hurriedly called out to his younger sister nearby, "Xiao Xia, come here for a moment."
Xu Yanxia, who had just finished taking photos with some fans, walked over and asked him, "What's wrong?"
Xu Zhanpeng said excitedly, "Assistant Wen and President Lu said that we can apply for investment from their company, and it might get approved!"
"Yes,"
Wen Jiajun quickly nodded in confirmation. "President Lu said there's a good chance, and the hopes are very high."
"Is that so?"
Xu Yanxia was a bit surprised. "Doesn't the group mainly focus on technology? Would they be willing to invest in a food stall like ours?"
Lu Jingming told her, "In order to manage Jiushan, we recently established a food and beverage investment company."
Wen Jiajun chimed in, nodding to back him up, "It's wholly owned by President Lu personally, so there's a high degree of flexibility. Since it's all investment anyway, we can do high-end Chinese cuisine like Jiushan, and we can also do affordable dining. Plus, especially with the consumption downgrade in the past couple of years, affordable dining is much more popular."
"That's true."
Xu Yanxia thought for a moment before cautiously posing a question to Lu Jingming.
"Pardon me for being blunt, but food and beverage investments like yours usually have relatively strict requirements regarding profit targets, standardized operations, and equity. Setting aside profit and equity for now, just looking at standardization—like I mentioned the other day—Chinese cuisine actually has a lot of flexibility and individuality. This is especially true for food stalls like ours. If the terms in this regard are too harsh, we might lose our unique character."
"Not bad, Xiao Xu!"
As soon as she finished speaking, Wen Jiajun immediately nodded with a look of surprise. "It seems you know a lot about the food and beverage investment industry."
Xu Yanxia smiled modestly and said, "I'm making a fool of myself. After all, my family has been in the restaurant business. Back when our old restaurant in our hometown was going to be demolished, I looked into some case studies on this."
Lu Jingming nodded and said, "That's right. Ordinary food and beverage investments do indeed have strict controls over these three aspects. But as you know, I've only just set foot in this field and am not as experienced as you are, so we can negotiate the specific details of these areas."
"I also hope to ensure your maximum individuality while achieving maximum profitability. How about this: we can start with a single store. The company will provide the hardware, partial management, and even supply chain support. Oh, right, your current supplier is Wannong, isn't it? Coincidentally, the supplier for the group's cafeteria is also Wannong. In the future, the company can negotiate with Wannong on your behalf, so there might be room to lower your ingredient costs further."
He then added, "We can set an observation period of six months to a year first. If the profitability trend is good, we can talk about expansion."
...
Nearby, Wang Gang asked Luo Jiajia, "What does President Lu mean by all this? I didn't quite catch it."
Since Luo Jiajia had studied finance, she explained it simply to him, "It basically means that ordinary food and beverage investments would require us to cook according to standardized recipes and would assign administrative staff to manage us. But while President Lu's side provides us with funding, they will also give us the maximum amount of freedom."
"Then will they ask us for our secret recipes?" Wang Gang asked again.
Luo Jiajia replied, "Listening to what President Lu said, they definitely won't."
"Then what are we hesitating for?"
Wang Gang's eyes immediately lit up. "Let's just do it! Opening a restaurant is definitely better than running a street stall!"
Luo Jiajia said, "Xiao Xia is negotiating with them, so it'll definitely be fine."
...
Because business was exceptionally booming tonight, all the prepared ingredients had sold out before ten o'clock.
The crew at Xu's Teppanyaki began packing up to close the stall, and Lu Jingming and Wen Jiajun also stood up to bid them farewell.
"If it's convenient for you, you can prepare a proposal. Once I receive it, I'll have the relevant departments in the company push it forward as soon as possible,"
Lu Jingming told Xu Yanxia.
"Absolutely."
Xu Yanxia hurriedly nodded. "Since we're closing early tonight anyway, I'll draft the document for you as soon as I get back."
"There's no need to rush too much,"
He smiled again. "You woke up early this morning, so you should go to bed early tonight. You can work on it tomorrow when you're resting."
As he finished speaking, Luo Jiajia, who was not far away, nudged Xu Zhanpeng and whispered, "Look, President Lu cares so much about Xiao Xia."
Xu Zhanpeng gave a hum of agreement and continued moving tables.
Xu Yanxia, however, remained completely oblivious. She simply smiled and said, "It's fine, I'll send it to you once I'm done. Should I send it through the company system or WeChat?"
"Either is fine,"
He raised his hand to wave goodbye to her. "Head back early once you've finished packing up. We'll be leaving now. See you tomorrow."
The crew at the stall quickly joined Xu Yanxia in waving. "Take care, President Lu, Assistant Wen. Goodbye."
They crossed the street and arrived at Jiushan's parking lot.
Wen Jiajun sighed to Lu Jingming, "I have to say, even though you're making this investment mostly for Xiao Xia, with her brains and abilities, you most likely won't lose money."
"What are you talking about?"
Lu Jingming raised an eyebrow. "I definitely won't lose money."
...
By the time he dropped off Wen Jiajun and returned home, it was almost ten-thirty at night.
Housekeeper Zhang was still waiting for him at the entrance to the living room.
Lu Jingming was a bit surprised and called out, "Aunt Zhang, you're not asleep yet at this late hour?"
Aunt Zhang smiled and said, "As you get older, you need less sleep. Have you eaten?"
Others might not have noticed, but she could tell that he was clearly starving when he went to drop off Xu Yanxia earlier.
Lu Jingming didn't hide it from her. He nodded and said, "I ate. I had something at Xiao Xia's night market stall."
Aunt Zhang asked again, "Is Xiao Xia doing alright?"
"She's fine,"
Lu Jingming said in a relaxed tone. "It was just a minor hiccup, it didn't really affect her."
"That's good."
Aunt Zhang smiled and went on, "Xiao Xia is different from other girls. Perhaps because she grew up without her parents, she has a more independent and rational personality."
"You definitely need to have a little more patience with her."
Lu Jingming was taken aback for a moment, then smiled and nodded. "Thank you, Aunt Zhang. I will."
Aunt Zhang also smiled, nodded, and returned to her own room.
The living room was completely quiet. As Lu Jingming stepped upstairs, he couldn't help but sigh inwardly—
It seemed that just as Wen Jiajun had said, the whole world could see it.
She was the only one who hadn't realized it yet.
...
After packing up the stall, returning to the rented house, and taking a shower, Xu Yanxia opened her laptop and started writing the proposal.
Luo Jiajia kept her company, chatting with her. "Why did you suddenly get a day off today?"
Keeping her eyes fixed on the computer screen, Xu Yanxia typed as she spoke, "The Lu family is hosting a family banquet on Wednesday. The Madam was worried I'd be too busy, so she told me to take my day off in advance. I'll go back to work tomorrow night."
Luo Jiajia let out an oh and asked her, "How is Mrs. Lu? Is she easy to talk to?"
"She's great!"
Xu Yanxia nodded. "The Madam is very well-cultivated, and she has a chivalrous spirit about her. She originally had an investment in Jiushan, but last time, when she found out Jiushan was bullying us, she immediately told President Lu to withdraw the investment. She didn't play favorites at all."
"Oh, right,"
Hearing her say this, Luo Jiajia remembered a question and hurriedly asked, "Listening to you guys chat earlier, did President Lu acquire Jiushan?"
"Yes, he did."
Xu Yanxia nodded again and said, "Jiushan's business hasn't been good for the past two years anyway. Plus, they recently had that public relations crisis after bullying us, so their shareholders wanted to pull their investments, which drove the price down incredibly low."
"We went to do a tasting and thought they still had some value, so President Lu bought them out. Oh, right,"
she added to Luo Jiajia, "he even asked me to be their Quality Director next."
"Oh my god!"
Luo Jiajia exclaimed. "This is straight out of a billionaire romance novel! The rival bullies his sweetheart, so the domineering CEO turns right around and buys out the rival company, leaving it at his sweetheart's disposal! That is so swoon-worthy!!!"
"..."
Xu Yanxia was exasperated. "What sweetheart? He just knows I can cook and that I understand the industry pretty well. It's not like he's stupid!"
"He's not the stupid one, you are!"
Luo Jiajia shook her head and sighed. "I hate to say it, Xiao Xia, but for someone who has always been a top student since childhood, how can you be so dense about this stuff?"
"President Lu obviously likes you, okay!"
