465: Business is tough.

"Forget it. I haven't even completed the task once yet, so knowing what it is won't help."

After realizing this, Ye Su stopped worrying about this unexpectedly triggered task. After closing the system, he opened the menu and ordered a few more dishes.

The Regent Hotel that Chen Qi chose had quite reasonable prices.

The four of them ordered eight dishes, one soup, and a bowl of fried rice in total; the whole meal came out to less than a thousand yuan.

After placing the order, the four of them started chatting while playing on their phones.

Ye Su looked at the three of them and asked curiously, "You three busy people, how do you have time to meet for dinner tonight?"

Chen Qi pointed at Wan Yuanliang, "What kind of busy people are Mingjun and I? We just slack off at the company all day; we can sneak out whenever we want. It's Yuanliang who closed his shop early today, that's why we have time to eat with you."

"Sigh—" Wan Yuanliang sighed, "You guys have it good. With your big family businesses, you can hire people to help at the company, so you at least have some freedom."

"Unlike me, I'm stuck with that old man. Now he dumps everything on me and goes off to feed the fish with a box of bait every day. He's almost fed every fish in Yangcheng."

Clearly, the group had a good relationship, and Wan Yuanliang had complained about Wan Bowen's fishing skills in front of them more than once.

So, besides Ye Su, who had witnessed Wan Bowen coming back empty-handed, even Chen Qi and the other were not surprised by Wan Yuanliang's words.

Yu Mingjun also started complaining bitterly, "Don't mention it. What big family business? My family's business is hard to do right now. I reckon only Chen Qi is living the most comfortable life."

Yu Mingjun was not wrong in saying that.

Excluding Ye Su, among the three of them, Chen Qi indeed lived the most comfortably.

Just the used car dealership he was currently managing belonged to the first tier in Yangcheng; it had a mature trading chain, the business was always stable, and he didn't need to worry much.

The only drawback was that this industry was asset-heavy; most of the capital had to be tied up in used car inventory, so the pressure on the capital chain was very high.

Fortunately, besides running the used car dealership, Chen Qi's family was also involved in other investment industries, so they didn't put all their eggs in one basket.

With multiple sources of income, they could mobilize funds in a timely manner, which greatly alleviated the financial pressure on the used car dealership.

Therefore, among the three, only Chen Qi had the "leisure" to occasionally drive a used porsche from the dealership to pick up college girls and small internet celebrities.

In contrast, Wan Yuanliang and Yu Mingjun—one specialized in antiques, the other in medicinal materials—had significantly weaker risk resistance than Chen Qi's family, and their "hobbies" were not as extensive as Chen Qi's.

Hearing Yu Mingjun inexplicably shift the topic to him, Chen Qi quickly deflected the fire, "Compared to Boss Ye, my life is nothing. He drives a Lamborghini now and lives in the Apartment Complex. I've grown up this big and haven't even smelled what the Apartment Complex is like."

Chen Qi then pointed at Ye Su's wrist, "Look, just the watch on his wrist could buy several of my cars."

Just before Ye Su arrived, Chen Qi had already told the two of them the bombshell news that Ye Su lived in the Apartment Complex.

So upon hearing Chen Qi's words, Wan Yuanliang and the other didn't express surprise, only nodding repeatedly in agreement, "Indeed, Boss Ye's life—let alone seeing it, even just hearing about it makes me feel like my own life is dull."

"Exactly, exactly."

Seeing the three of them teasing him again, Ye Su laughed and scolded, "Get lost."

After scolding them, Ye Su looked at Yu Mingjun curiously, "Isn't your family in the medicinal materials business? Why are you saying business is hard to do?"

In Ye Su's understanding, one of the best industries to be in right now was definitely the pharmaceutical industry.

After all, there was more and more technology and ruthless work nowadays, and many office workers worked during the day and played on their phones at night, lacking effective exercise for a long time.

This situation was definitely beneficial to the pharmaceutical industry.

Not to mention anything else, Ye Su could see many pharmacies just by taking a stroll outside.

Logically speaking, Yu Mingjun's family's medicinal materials business shouldn't be bad, right?

"Sigh, don't mention it." Asked by Ye Su, Yu Mingjun shook his head and gave a bitter smile, "Competition in every industry is getting more and more intense now, and our line of work is the same. It used to be fine; we had stable medicinal material suppliers and buyers. We weren't rich, but we at least had a living."

"But in the last two years, some capital has entered the market. Relying on their financial advantages, they threw money around to hoard various medicinal materials, causing the prices of medicinal materials to rise again and again."

"Like the natural bezoar you sold me yesterday, and common medicinal materials like bupleurum and angelica—the prices have risen by about three times in the last few years."

"The more expensive the medicinal materials become, not only is our profit getting smaller and smaller, but because the capital pressure is increasing, we don't dare to purchase many high-quality medicinal materials, and they end up being bought by other buyers who pay more."

"In order to grab high-quality medicinal materials, all the money in my family has been invested into the company, and we are even preparing to take out another loan from the bank."

Yu Mingjun sighed again with a worried face, "Compared to two years ago, although the money the company earns hasn't decreased, the capital investment has indeed more than doubled. I'm under immense pressure right now!"

Seeing Yu Mingjun's expression, the three knew he wasn't just pretending to be poor, so they didn't tease him.

"It seems business in every industry is not easy to do right now." After listening to Yu Mingjun's complaints, Wan Yuanliang felt content; he felt his current life was actually not bad.

Although he didn't earn as much as them, he won in terms of being worry-free and effortless; he only needed to maintain good relationships with his old customers.

"Who's to say it isn't?" Yu Mingjun looked at the three jokingly, "How about you guys put up some money and buy a stake in my company? I can't guarantee how many times the return will be, but given my family's reputation in this area, at least you won't lose money."

Wan Yuanliang shook his head first, "You know what my family's situation is like. We only have that much working capital; it's unlikely we could take any out to invest."

Chen Qi also shook his head, "My family's situation is about the same. We're just relying on the income from several companies to maintain a balance; it's about the same as having a few credit cards and using them to pay off each other at the end of the month."

"If we were to temporarily withdraw a large sum of funds, we might run into problems, so this dude is unable to help."

"Alright then." Yu Mingjun knew they were telling the truth. Asking them to invest just now was just a casual remark; he didn't expect them to really buy a stake.

But when Ye Su heard Yu Mingjun's words, his mind started turning.

He had quite a lot of cash on hand; he still had over 30 million now.

After deducting the expenses needed for the self-media company and the Beef Hot Pot Restaurant, he had at least over 20 million in idle money.

Moreover, with the intelligence system, he could normally get an extra tens of millions in cash every month.

Leaving so much money in the bank to earn interest seemed like a waste no matter how you looked at it.

That was why he had been thinking about where he could invest the money to let it make more money for him.

Now, hearing that Yu Mingjun needed investment, Ye Su immediately started calculating whether he should take this opportunity to buy a stake in his family's medicinal materials company.