Chapter 13: Shen Qingqiu, the Goddess of Wealth, Returns to the Country; These Account Books Are Unreadable

The statement of account, stamped with a bright red official seal, was slammed onto the tin table with a dull thud.

Shen Qingqiu glanced down at the thick stack of A4 paper.

She didn't take Lu Jingming's words seriously at all, assuming it was just another stalling tactic from this playboy.

"A statement of account? Don't tell me you secretly sold off the chip mounters left behind by the old factory manager."

She sneered, reached out with her fair, slender fingers, and grabbed the stack of documents.

"Lu Jingming, I look at deals worth tens of billions on Wall Street every single day."

"I could calculate exactly how many spare coins are left in this factory's accounts with my eyes closed. Don't try to fool me with a fake ledger."

Lu Jingming shrugged and sat back down on the rusty iron chair.

"The seal is real, and the transaction records are real. God of Wealth Shen, if you don't believe me, feel free to call the ICBC and verify it yourself."

He reached out and tapped on the tabletop.

"Chu Xuan, go pour a glass of water for President Shen, and let her sit down and take a good look."

Chu Xuan hurriedly rushed over with a disposable paper cup, not daring to even breathe loudly.

The aura of the lady in front of him was so overwhelming that it made even a marketing genius like him stutter.

Shen Qingqiu did not take the cup.

She pulled a Montblanc fountain pen from her expensive Hermès bag and began flipping through the pages directly on the oil-stained desktop.

The first few pages were the old accounts from the past half-month.

The more she read, the narrower her beautiful phoenix eyes became, and the more intense the murderous look between her brows grew.

"April 5th, entertaining Huaqiangbei distributors on company funds, costing eighty-six thousand for one meal? Did you feed them gold bars?"

"April 10th, the factory reimbursed the maintenance fees for a Porsche?"

Shen Qingqiu suppressed her anger, her fountain pen tapping "tap-tap" against the paper.

"Lu Jingming, are you in such a hurry for this factory to die that you're using life-saving money to go out and party?"

She had received the critical illness notice from back home and hadn't even finished writing her resignation letter from the Wall Street investment bank.

She bought a full-fare ticket and rushed back on a red-eye flight that lasted over ten hours.

She had expected to return to face a useless young master crying for his daddy, and that she would have to clean up his mess and pay off his debts.

As it turned out, not only did this kid not run away, but he was actually sitting in this smoky, chaotic workshop acting like a big shot.

"These rotten accounts are unreadable! You are a hopeless spendthrift!"

Shen Qingqiu crumpled the first few pages into a ball, suddenly looked up, her chest heaving violently.

"Do you have any idea that the overdue interest on that ten million alone eats up..."

Her words suddenly stuck in her throat, as if someone had pressed the pause button.

Because her gaze had inadvertently swept to the last few pages of the statement.

It was the corporate current account transaction details, just pulled from the Donghai City Industrial and Commercial Bank today.

Shen Qingqiu blinked, thinking her vision was blurred from the long-haul flight.

She reached up to adjust the gold-rimmed glasses on the bridge of her nose, her face almost pressed against the statement.

"Units, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten-thousands, hundred-thousands, millions..."

Her red lips parted slightly as she unconsciously counted the long string of dizzying zeros.

"Nine hundred... nine hundred and ninety-eight ten-thousands?"

Shen Qingqiu's voice cracked, carrying an incredible, distorted tone.

How is this possible!

Three days ago, this broken factory's account was still in the red; it couldn't even pay for the workers' meals.

Now there was actually a massive cash flow of nearly ten million sitting there!

And this money wasn't from a loan or a usurious mortgage; it was all scattered account collections and collected payments for goods.

With her sharp, top-tier analyst's eye, she could tell at a glance that this was healthy, pure sales revenue.

Lu Jingming tapped a rhythm on the tabletop, feeling incredibly satisfied as he watched Shen Qingqiu's expression of having seen a ghost.

"God of Wealth Shen, does the amount of these 'spare coins' meet your standards?"

Shen Qingqiu had no time to entertain his teasing.

She grabbed another shipping order from the table, scanning it at lightning speed, her brain switching into frantic calculation mode.

"Shipment volume: ten thousand units... retail price: nine hundred and ninety-eight..."

Her fingers quickly slid across the paper, her fountain pen rapidly scribbling formulas in the empty spaces.

"Material cost accounting... the average price of this batch of old motherboards is only thirty?"

"Polycarbonate casing cost twelve? Resin for the potting process only two?"

As each cost was stripped away, Shen Qingqiu's breathing began to quicken.

She suddenly looked up, staring fixedly at Lu Jingming as if looking at a monster from outer space.

"You're crazy! The entire hardware cost of one mobile phone has been compressed by you to less than eighty?"

"And you actually dare to resell it for nine hundred and ninety-eight? The net profit margin is as high as ninety percent!"

Shen Qingqiu gasped, and the fountain pen in her hand dropped onto the table with a "clack."

"Lu Jingming, do you know that even that Apple company across the ocean with the bite taken out of it doesn't have such a perverse profit margin as you!"

This isn't doing business; this is practically legal robbery!

Profiteering! Unimaginable profiteering!

Chu Xuan, who had been playing the role of an invisible bystander, couldn't help but interject, his face full of pride.

"President Shen, that's not even the end of it."

"Our President Lu didn't spend a single cent on marketing just now; it was all thanks to the competitor next door helping us advertise for free online."

"Those ten thousand units were snatched up online in ten minutes."

Shen Qingqiu was completely stunned.

She snatched the disposable paper cup from Chu Xuan's hand, tilted her head back, and gulped down a large mouthful of cold water.

The cold water flowed down her throat, which barely managed to suppress the shock in her heart.

She re-examined the young man in front of her, who was sitting with his legs crossed.

Wearing dust-covered rough work clothes, sleeves rolled up high, a lazy smile still hanging on the corner of his mouth.

Was this still the same useless young master from her memory who only knew how to hit clubs and race cars, and only knew how to call his daddy when he encountered trouble?

What earth-shattering thing had he done behind her back!

"What about Brother Biao's ten million in external debts? How do you plan to fill that hole?"

Shen Qingqiu bit her lower lip, forcibly steadying her mind, and continued to ask, unwilling to let it go.

"Financial officer Xiao Zhang has already gone to the bank to transfer the money. Not a penny less, both principal and interest have been cleared."

Lu Jingming spread his hands, looking as if it were a matter of course.

He stood up, strode over to Shen Qingqiu, and looked straight into those beautiful phoenix eyes.

"Right now, Xinghai Electronics Factory doesn't owe anyone outside a single cent."

"And there is still eight million in available working capital sitting in the account."

The workshop was so quiet that only the buzzing of the exhaust fan could be heard.

Shen Qingqiu looked at the bright red official seal on the statement, then looked at the group of workers outside the door, full of joy and loading trucks.

She let out a long, heavy breath and reached out to pick up the fountain pen that had dropped on the table.

"Fine, I'll admit I had eyes but failed to recognize a genius just now."

This Wall Street career woman knew how to take things in stride, and she admitted her mistake cleanly and decisively.

She pulled over a broken iron chair next to her and sat down, her two slender legs elegantly crossed.

"From today on, I am taking over the financial authority of Xinghai."

Shen Qingqiu stuffed the statement into her bag, her tone regaining that unquestionable coldness.

"From now on, every needle and thread in this factory must pass through my eyes."

"Whoever dares to report accounts recklessly like before, I will personally break their legs."

Lu Jingming chuckled, pulling a lighter from his pocket and playing with it in his hand.

"I couldn't ask for more. With a God of Wealth Shen like you guarding the rear, I can finally put my heart completely at ease."

He was dying for a professional to manage the money so he could free up his hands to focus on technology research and development.

Shen Qingqiu adjusted her gold-rimmed glasses, staring intently at Lu Jingming.

"Just looking at the ledger is useless; these numbers are very illusory."

She stood up, her high heels making crisp echoes on the concrete floor.

"You used a pile of junk to modify such a highly profitable product; the assembly line definitely isn't being run in the conventional way."

"Take me to the production workshop to see the actual product."

She walked to Lu Jingming's side, her eyes filled with intense curiosity.

"I want to see how you, Young Master Lu, turned a pile of industrial waste into this kind of money-printing machine."

Lu Jingming curled the corner of his mouth and stuffed the lighter back into his pocket.

"We can go to the workshop, but you'd better be mentally prepared."

He deliberately paused, then turned and walked toward the passage leading to the inner processing area.

"Why?" Shen Qingqiu raised an eyebrow and strode after him.

Lu Jingming pushed open the heavy fire door, turned his head, and dropped a light remark.

"Because the thing we're building isn't a mobile phone for people to use at all."