524: Parents' hearts are full of love and worry for their children.

After the accidental death of his eldest son, the person Zhang Fengmao was naturally most worried about was his only daughter, Zhang Xuantong.

He feared that if he were to meet with an accident one day, leaving Wu Lianfang and her daughter alone and helpless, they wouldn't know how to manage Shenli Group, and could only watch helplessly as the family business was gradually eroded by outsiders.

Therefore, what Zhang Fengmao had been doing in recent years was to reduce the management difficulty of Shenli Group as much as possible, so that Zhang Xuantong could take over more easily in the future.

He no longer counted on making Shenli Group grow further; he only hoped that Zhang Xuantong could maintain what they had and successfully pass Shenli Group on to her future children.

Now that he had Ye Su as a Godson, Zhang Fengmao, who had always been worried about his daughter's future, intended to give Zhang Xuantong an extra layer of insurance.

Entrusting Shenli Group to Ye Su was naturally impossible; no matter how close a Godson was, there was still the word "god" in front of it.

Zhang Fengmao just wanted to exchange sincerity with Ye Su.

In case he closed his eyes and passed away one day, he hoped Ye Su could protect Zhang Xuantong when she encountered difficulties and not let her be bullied by others.

Of course, all of this was based on the premise that Ye Su was an upright person and would not covet Shenli Group after his death, turning around to carve up this big cake with outsiders.

Fortunately, after these few interactions, Zhang Fengmao was confident he wouldn't misjudge someone; Ye Su was indeed a trustworthy person.

He was at least much more reliable than those barnacle relatives who only knew how to suck the blood of Shenli Group... Ye Su had no idea that in just a few days, he had actually become the person Zhang Fengmao would "entrust his orphan" to.

After cashing the check, he had no more serious business this week and spent all day eating, drinking, playing, and sleeping, occasionally communicating with Chen Xinyi online to nurture their feelings; life was truly comfortable.

On Saturday, after nearly two weeks of preparation, Ye Su's first Beef Hot Pot Restaurant in Joyful Gathering also officially opened.

With Yan Ran arranging for the mall to drive traffic and a 20% discount for the first three days of opening, the prices worked out to be similar to other hot pot brands.

Some customers who went out on the weekend to improve their standard of living would walk in to try something new when passing the storefront.

Throughout the day, although it wasn't packed with every seat filled and long queues at the door, the overall turnover was quite good.

Moreover, relying on the unique flavor of the secret shacha sauce, the customers who visited on the first day all gave positive reviews to the hot pot restaurant.

Chen Xinyi didn't stay idle either; she went to the hot pot restaurant on Saturday to act as a food blogger, working hard to promote the restaurant.

According to this trend, Ye Su would soon be able to start preparing for the second hot pot restaurant.

“After returning to Yangcheng, I'll place a 'welcoming guest golden toad' in the shop, and the customer flow will increase even further. Then I can start preparing the second shop.”

“When the time comes, I'll open a few hundred stores in first and second-tier cities, raise the valuation of the hot pot brand to several billion, and then prepare for an IPO to harvest the money of retail investors with stocks!”

With the system as a backup, there were basically no problems regarding funding.

As long as everything could proceed smoothly according to plan, Ye Su was confident that within two or three years, he could open hot pot restaurants all over first and second-tier cities, and then gradually move into third-tier cities.

By then, adding the profits and the IPO stocks together, it would be possible to earn several billion!

“It's just a pity that the secret shacha sauce obtained through intelligence is placed in the shop as a free condiment for beef hot pot. This also means the hot pot restaurant's income cannot be included in the daily intelligence total income of the 'Lucky Dice'.”

“Otherwise, as the number of hot pot restaurants increases, the total daily intelligence income would be several million. Guessing the points correctly a few times a month would bring in over ten million in income.”

Regret was regret, but Ye Su also knew that he couldn't have his cake and eat it too.

Either he chose to sell the shacha sauce separately, allowing the turnover to be included in the 'Daily Intelligence Total Income' but drastically reducing the business income.

Or he could do as he was doing now, using it as a specialty shacha sauce for the hot pot restaurant; the turnover wouldn't count toward the 'Lucky Dice', but the money earned could grow exponentially.

After weighing it in his heart, Ye Su still felt that the current hot pot restaurant method was better.

Whether the Lucky Dice could guess the points correctly was entirely up to fate.

But the income from the hot pot restaurant was money that truly entered his own pocket.

“It's more practical to have the money safely in hand.”

After deciding to proceed with the current plan and not sell the shacha sauce as an independent product, Ye Su continued to live a carefree life at home, just idling away the time.

It wasn't until Sunday evening, at Zhang Fengmao's invitation, that Ye Su took his family to Zhang Fengmao's house for dinner again.

While Wu Lianfang, Su Wan, and the others were gathered together chatting, Zhang Fengmao called Ye Su to the study again.

“Godfather, did you call me up because something else happened?”

“It's nothing serious,” Zhang Fengmao smiled and said,

“When you came over a few days ago, didn't you remind me that my watch was fake? The next day, I had someone send it to the city for appraisal. As it turns out, you were right; someone used a fake to fool me.”

Being swindled by Wu Xingbang was somewhat of a family scandal, so Zhang Fengmao deliberately omitted those details.

Ye Su was already well aware of this and tactfully didn't press further, replying with a smile:

“Then I don't know whether I should be happy or not.”

Zhang Fengmao asked in confusion, “How so?”

“I should be happy that I wasn't mistaken, but since you were scammed, it's not quite appropriate for me to be happy.”

“Haha,” Zhang Fengmao chuckled upon hearing this. “It seems you're right to put it that way.”

Ye Su also gave a polite laugh, while waiting for Zhang Fengmao's next words.

If it were just to tell him this, there was no need for Zhang Fengmao to call him to the study at all.

Zhang Fengmao didn't keep Ye Su waiting long. After laughing, he took out a wooden storage box, opened it, and placed it in front of Ye Su.

Inside the box was a dazzling array of fourteen watches. Ye Su didn't even have to guess to know that the cheapest of these watches must cost several million, and the most expensive could be over ten million!

Just the collection of watches at home was worth over a hundred million. Only now did Ye Su understand what it meant to be inhumanly wealthy.

“You recognized that my watch was fake after just a few glances last time; your level in watch appraisal must be quite good.

I'm worried that besides that watch, there might be others that were tampered with when I bought them, so I wanted you to help me see if there are any problems with these watches.”

“I see.”

Ye Su didn't think much of it and agreed with a nod. He then opened the system and used the 'Item Appraisal' function on the fourteen watches in the box.

The results of the appraisal made Ye Su unable to help but grit his teeth.

[Vacheron Constantin Traditionnelle series, public price 5.3 million yuan, second-hand price approximately 2.8 million yuan]

[Patek Philippe Ref. 5002, public price 12 million yuan, second-hand price approximately 12 million yuan]

[Richard Mille RM56-02 Sapphire watch, public price approximately 19.32 million yuan, second-hand price approximately 25 million yuan]

[Audemars Piguet 26579CB.OO.1225CB.01, public price 800,000 yuan, second-hand price approximately 1.7 million yuan]

[...]

Of the fourteen watches Zhang Fengmao took out, twelve were in the million-yuan range, and the other two were as high as 12 million and 25 million!

Adding the fourteen watches together, the total price exceeded eighty million!