I Really Didn't Mean to Make Money

Jiang City.

Mingri Group headquarters.

Chen Mo arrived early at the CEO’s office.

“President Chen, here’s the Nanhe Coffee report you asked for, along with the recent income and expenditure summary.”

Just as he sat down, Shen Rou walked in with a file in hand.

Chen Mo took the report and quickly flipped through it.

He had already informed Shen Rou to prepare the recent financial data for Nanhe Coffee before he returned to Jiang City yesterday.

After a while, he tossed the report onto the desk, his expression conflicted.

As expected, Nanhe Coffee’s performance in Jiang City wasn’t as strong as in Beijing, largely due to the lower local spending power. The foot traffic here was significantly less.

Even so, the daily revenue still hovered around 3,000 yuan.

That added up to roughly 90,000 yuan a month.

But when you factored in employee salaries, utilities, and supply costs—excluding rent—the monthly operating cost came to about 130,000 yuan.

Which meant that, at present, Nanhe Coffee in Jiang City was operating at a loss of nearly 40,000 yuan per month.

There were a total of 20 Nanhe Coffee locations in Jiang City. Subtracting the two specialty concept stores, that left 18 standard shops.

Eighteen stores losing about 700,000 yuan a month.

But what if he opened more? A hundred stores would mean a monthly loss of 4 million. Five hundred stores, and the loss would balloon to 20 million a month.

Looking at it from that angle, continuing to expand Nanhe Coffee might actually be a good strategy.

Of course, the next locations would need to be in cities like Jiang City, where consumer spending was relatively low.

But that was assuming everything went according to the best-case scenario, with no unexpected developments along the way.

And could he really count on that?

Chen Mo wasn’t so sure anymore.

After all, he had once been convinced that Nanhe Coffee would inevitably become one of his biggest money-losing ventures.

But now?

A single pastry combo had shattered that illusion.

The thought made his teeth ache with frustration. He glanced at the two names crossed out on the notebook beside him.

Song Xia. Su Dan.

That’s right, it was them. He had already confirmed it over the phone yesterday.

The pastry combo idea had come from those two.

Especially Song Xia. After all the trust he had placed in her, this was how she repaid him?

Where was the woman who had once run a milk tea shop into the ground? If she had the ability to bankrupt a milk tea business, why couldn’t she do the same to a coffee shop?

The more he thought about it, the angrier he got.

Chen Mo rubbed his temples, trying to ease the growing headache.

Now he was faced with a choice. If he continued expanding Nanhe Coffee into lower-consumption cities, the shops would still lose money—just not a lot. But once the number of stores reached a certain scale, the cumulative losses would be significant.

That was good.

But there was a risk: what if something unpredictable happened again, and Nanhe Coffee became profitable?

Then he’d be stuck with yet another money-making business.

And the more stores there were, the more profit they’d generate.

He really didn’t know which path to take.

【Reminder to Host: Increased revenue detected from Coffee Shop operations. The limit of opening only five stores per month has been lifted. Beyond the first five each month, all Coffee Shop income may now be used to fund further expansion.】

Just as he was struggling to make a decision, the system’s voice rang out.

Chen Mo fell into deep thought.

If the Coffee Shops became profitable, he could now use that income to open more stores. In other words, even if the business made money, he could immediately reinvest it into expansion.

Which meant… it wouldn’t really count as profit. He wouldn’t have to find other ways to spend the revenue to avoid accumulating funds.

Of course, once expansion hit a ceiling and he could no longer open new stores, the incoming revenue would start piling up in the company’s accounts and become System Funds.

But the domestic market was massive, and he could still expand overseas. Growing to a global scale would take years.

And if he didn’t settle accounts too often during those years, maybe just once in full at the end…

His personal assets would easily reach tens of millions.

So why worry about something that’s years down the line?

With that thought, Chen Mo made his decision: continue expanding Nanhe Coffee.

Of course, he still had to stick to the rules. If he could avoid making the Coffee Shops profitable, he should.

Having made up his mind, he immediately called Song Xia and told her to bring Su Dan to the headquarters for a meeting today.

As for those two, he added them straight to his “Traitor Watchlist.”

Looking at the growing list of names in that notebook, Chen Mo felt another wave of frustration. Some of the people on that list had once been among those he trusted most.

Like Fang Chang.

And yet, it was Fang Chang who had stabbed him in the back the hardest. His game, Extreme Survival, had now surpassed ten million players and officially become a viral hit.

Monthly revenue had already broken the hundred-million mark.

Chen Mo let out a long sigh. These sly foxes were truly impossible to guard against.

Each one was more cunning than the last.

He stared at the names “Song Xia” and “Su Dan” written in his notebook. These two newly minted tricksters absolutely couldn’t be let off the hook so easily.

They needed to be properly punished.

…

Nanhe Coffee flagship store.

Song Xia slowly hung up the phone and turned to look at Su Dan beside her.

“Teacher Su, President Chen just called. He wants us to come in for a meeting.”

“When?”

“Right now.”

“So urgent? Did something happen?”

Su Dan looked puzzled. This was the first time she’d seen President Chen call such an urgent meeting.

“I’m not sure, but I’m guessing he found out about the current situation at the coffee shop,” Song Xia said, glancing at the customers dining inside.

“But we haven’t reported anything yet, have we?”

“Maybe President Chen has been keeping tabs on Nanhe Coffee all along. So once the Dragon Boat Festival break ended, he already knew.”

Song Xia’s expression dimmed slightly.

After launching the new Pastry Combo, Nanhe Coffee had indeed seen a noticeable uptick in customer traffic.

But the daily revenue still hadn’t reached the break-even point.

That’s why she and Teacher Su had been racking their brains these past few days, trying to come up with ways to attract more customers and finally turn a profit.

Then they could deliver the good news to President Chen all at once—it would’ve been such a pleasant surprise.

But before they could even turn things around, President Chen had already caught wind of it.

So much for the surprise.

Song Xia sighed regretfully.

“Let’s go. President Chen is waiting for us at headquarters.”

“Okay!”

Su Dan nodded.

The two of them walked out of the Nanhe Coffee flagship store and headed to the parking lot, where they got into a car.

This was the company car Su Dan had received from the last purchase at the 4S dealership.

As for Song Xia’s assigned car, it was still parked at her home—after all, she didn’t have a driver’s license yet and couldn’t drive it.

“Teacher Su, do you think President Chen is in such a hurry to see us because he wants to reward us?” Song Xia asked as she settled into the passenger seat.

“That’s possible,” Su Dan replied after a moment of thought, nodding slowly.

President Chen was known throughout the company for treating his employees well. Take the recent company car allocations, for example—it was a clear sign of his generosity.

And now, they had managed to reverse Nanhe Coffee’s severe losses, with a real chance of turning a profit.

If President Chen wanted to reward them for that, it wouldn’t be out of the question.