153: Chapter 153 When the girl you like is your cousin's biggest fan!

Chapter 153: When the Girl You Like Is Your Cousin's Little Fangirl!

The employees of Jiuxiang Catering arrived at Spark Fitness and were immediately greeted by the front desk.

Lu Wanwan greeted them with a smile, "Brother Zou, you're here to work out again?"

"Yes!" Zou Hucheng nodded with a smile. "Are there still machines available?"

"You guys arrived quite early, so there definitely are!"

"This is also an employee of Jiuxiang Catering, and my good friend Chen Xuebing," Zou Hucheng introduced. "Help him activate his gym card."

"Okay!" Hearing that he was an employee of Jiuxiang Catering, Lu Wanwan's smile grew even sweeter. She took Chen Xuebing's gym card and asked, "Brother Chen, do you want to participate in Spark Fitness's fifth-anniversary challenge? Participants have a chance to win a grand prize of one hundred thousand yuan~"

Chen Xuebing was a bit curious: "Has anyone actually won the hundred thousand yuan prize?"

"Of course, our shop has one such lucky fellow!" Lu Wanwan said with a smile, "Besides, our boss isn't short on money!"

"That's true!" Chen Xuebing nodded in agreement. "Then I'll sign up for it!"

The boss's reputation was excellent.

To the boss, one hundred thousand yuan was just a drop in the bucket!

Since it was a free event anyway, he was naturally willing to participate.

After setting up his membership, Chen Xuebing followed Zou Hucheng into the gym.

At this time, the number of people working out in the gym had increased, and Chen Xuebing saw several company colleagues.

There were also people from the Spark Fitness headquarters; everyone greeted each other with smiles!

Zou Hucheng asked him, "Have you ever been to a gym before?"

"No!"

Zou Hucheng said with a smile, "Then I'll teach you!"

"Okay!"

The next day, Su Yang met Song Fuchang, the head of Shengfeng Investment, at the Jiuxiang Catering headquarters.

He was a middle-aged man dressed in a formal suit and leather shoes, wearing black-rimmed glasses and looking quite shrewd.

Looking at the young man in front of him, Song Fuchang felt a bit sentimental.

In today's catering industry, it was rare to encounter such a young entrepreneur.

Young people nowadays preferred to work on internet startup projects.

The first person to notice Rongcheng's Jiuxiang Catering was actually an employee at his company.

After he did a bit of investigating, he was directly startled.

Without anyone noticing, Jiuxiang Hotpot Restaurants had already spread throughout all of Rongcheng.

The number of branches had likely reached twenty.

Furthermore, through his investigation, he discovered that business at all twenty Jiuxiang Catering branches was quite good!

Some were even incredibly popular!

Currently, the entire catering industry was somewhat sluggish, but Jiuxiang Catering was bucking the trend!

Looking at the customer reviews for Jiuxiang Catering, their reputation was excellent.

Song Fuchang had even personally taken his employees to eat at several Nine Fragrance Hotpot locations.

The service was outstanding, and the taste was even more superb.

It tasted better than any chain hotpot restaurant they had ever eaten at!

Thus, Song Fuchang became interested in Jiuxiang Catering!

Great taste was Jiuxiang Catering's strongest moat.

In terms of service, Jiuxiang Catering employees indeed weren't as formidable as the industry giants known for their service.

However, this kind of friendly service that maintained a certain distance was actually more enjoyable for Song Fuchang!

He believed that if Jiuxiang Catering continued to develop, it had the potential to become a hotpot chain giant.

Even if investing in catering was relatively risky and it wasn't easy to go public with a compelling story,

Song Fuchang was still tempted.

But he also knew that Jiuxiang Catering appeared to have ample funds and didn't seem to be in desperate need of money.

So, he decided to handle it personally!

After Su Yang and Song Fuchang exchanged pleasantries for a while, they got straight to the point.

"Our valuation for Jiuxiang Catering is thirty million!" Song Fuchang said in a low voice. "We at Shengfeng Investment have come with sincerity; we are willing to invest ten million to purchase a 33% stake in Jiuxiang Catering."

When Jiang Yuzhen heard 'thirty million,' her hand trembled.

This figure was still too large for her.

She truly hadn't expected Jiuxiang Catering to be worth thirty million!

After all, under the name of Jiuxiang Catering, there were only those twenty-odd shops.

And the shops were all rented!

She looked back at her boss, only to see him very calmly smiling and shaking his head.

Song Fuchang was also watching Su Yang's expression. Seeing Su Yang shake his head, he continued, "President Su, this valuation is very sincere!"

"I'm not short on money!" Su Yang laughed easily. "What else can Shengfeng Investment bring to Jiuxiang Catering?"

"This..." Song Fuchang took a deep breath, feeling that Su Yang was even harder to deal with than he had imagined, but he was also prepared: "We can provide Jiuxiang Catering with more experienced executives, and we can also provide more promotional channels so that Jiuxiang Catering's franchised stores can spread across all of China. We can even help Jiuxiang Catering go public to raise funds!"

Seeing that the expression on Su Yang's face remained flat, Song Fuchang felt things getting difficult!

Going public to harvest the 'leeks'!

Isn't this the ultimate dream of Chinese startup bosses?

Song Fuchang said with some reluctance, "President Su, once the company goes public, you could gain hundreds of millions in income just by reducing your shareholding a little!"

Su Yang looked at Song Fuchang and explained softly, "Manager Song, Jiuxiang Catering will not open franchised stores, nor will it go public!"

"What?"

Song Fuchang was stunned.

He looked at Su Yang and asked, "President Su, are you serious?"

He didn't tell Su Yang the benefits of opening franchised stores; he believed Su Yang definitely knew them!

Su Yang nodded: "I'm very serious!"

Setting aside opening franchised stores, other than collecting some money, there were no other benefits for him.

The employees wouldn't be his!

As for going public, that was quite far-fetched.

Even if it went public, he estimated that the shares of Jiuxiang Catering in his hands wouldn't have much left.

It was also impossible for him to be like other listed company bosses, using various methods to reduce his shareholding to 1% or even lower!

Even if he could maintain more than 50% of the shares, he estimated that other shareholders would demand he cut costs and increase efficiency to boost company profits!

If the number of employees decreased and wages were lower, the salary and welfare returns he received would also be lower.

Instead, it would just fatten up those shareholders.

Su Yang really couldn't bring himself to do something that harmed himself to benefit others.

Unless those shareholders were very useful and wouldn't interfere with his company's operations!

At this moment, Song Fuchang really wanted to dig open Su Yang's brain to see what he was actually thinking.

Although the two sides did not reach an agreement, Su Yang still gracefully saw Song Fuchang out of the company.

After returning to the office, Jiang Yuzhen asked curiously, "Boss, is our Jiuxiang Catering really worth thirty million?"

She had just calculated it with a calculator; her current monthly salary was ten thousand.

She would have to work for two hundred and fifty years without eating or drinking to save up thirty million.

It was quite despairing!

Su Yang laughed casually, "A thirty million valuation is definitely too low!"

"Ah?"

"With me at the helm, it's worth at least a hundred million!"

Jiang Yuzhen couldn't help but laugh, "Boss, you really have confidence!"

"I still have this much confidence!" Su Yang said with a smile. "It's only been half a year since my first hotpot restaurant opened!"

Hearing Su Yang's words, Jiang Yuzhen couldn't help but gasp.

Her little heart couldn't help but pound fiercely!

If Jiuxiang Catering continued to develop so smoothly, a market value of one hundred million was entirely possible!

"Work hard!" Su Yang said to Jiang Yuzhen with a smile, "Boss will give you a raise in the future!"

"Mhm!" Jiang Yuzhen nodded. "Thank you, Boss!"

Su Yang glanced at Jiang Yuzhen's loyalty; it had already exceeded eighty.

After seeing off Song Fuchang, Su Yang chatted with Ji Guoxiong for a bit.

Ji Guoxiong wasn't surprised at all that Jiuxiang Catering didn't accept Shengfeng Investment's investment.

When he first became the company's general manager, Su Yang had already mentioned his business philosophy to him.

Not opening franchised stores and not going public was enough to make many venture capitalists stay far away!

He actually hoped the company could go public.

If the company went public, his income would definitely increase significantly.

But he also knew how difficult it was for a catering company to go public.

There was no need to indulge in this daydream!

Besides, he felt that working under Su Yang was quite pleasant!

Su Yang wouldn't treat him poorly either!

What Su Yang discussed with Ji Guoxiong was still about the Chinese fast-food restaurant.

He needed to understand the work progress of Jiuxiang Catering.

After finishing the work at Jiuxiang Catering and not long after lunch, Su Yang received a call from Yin Zhiyang.

Hearing Yin Zhiyang's work report, Su Yang said with some surprise:

"So, He Zhiheng succeeded?"

Yin Zhiyang said with a smile over the phone:

"I can only say it's a good start. He managed to get a date with Wang Juan yesterday, and the two of them had lunch together. When they just left the shop, they looked like they were talking and laughing. Now they are walking towards the shopping mall; I've already taught him about the entertainment projects there."

Su Yang let out a long breath and said, "You've put in a lot of effort!"

It was clear that Yin Zhiyang had designed and rehearsed the route for this date.

"I can only say that He Zhiheng's performance today was somewhat beyond my expectations!"

Su Yang asked curiously, "How so?"

"He actually doesn't know how to talk; he's a bit of a quiet person. I was most worried that he wouldn't know how to chat... but I found out he and Wang Juan actually get along quite well!"

"Oh!"

He was also very clear about his cousin's weaknesses.

He indeed didn't know how to talk, was a bit too honest, and didn't know how to coax girls!

Hanging up Yin Zhiyang's call, Su Yang casually sent his cousin a text message.

It wasn't until seven in the evening that Su Yang received a call from his cousin.

Su Yang chatted with his cousin for a few sentences and found that there was still a hint of excitement in his tone.

He was probably blinded by hormones...

Su Yang praised, "I heard from Yin Zhiyang that you and Wang Juan had a great chat. It seems you've made a lot of progress recently!"

"It was just a coincidence!"

"Common hobbies, common language?"

"I guess so!"

"What common hobbies? Novels? Games? Or anime?"

His cousin's hobbies were limited to these!

"Uh... it's the boss!"

"???!" Su Yang was a bit dazed. "What do you mean?"

"She knew I work at the Jiuxiang Catering headquarters, so she mentioned you... then we started chatting!"

"Ah?"

Su Yang didn't expect he also functioned as a lubricant!

He glanced at Wang Juan's loyalty; it had already exceeded 80.

For simple-minded young girls, loyalty increased relatively quickly.

Their shop probably hadn't received a bonus yet; once they did, loyalty would definitely rise again!

"She seemed a bit curious about you and asked if I could see you often... When we talked about you, I wasn't that nervous anymore."

Speaking of this, He Zhiheng felt a bit sour in his heart.

The girl he liked seemed to be his cousin's little fangirl.

This made him both happy and helpless!

Fortunately, Wang Juan's feelings toward his cousin were only curiosity and respect!