Chapter 164: Song Xia: I Brought a Teacher Over

When Chen Mo heard that Tang Qiu wasn’t asking him to assign tasks but had already found work for herself, he didn’t think too much and directly nodded in agreement.

It was just about registering a copyright, so let her do it. As long as she didn’t keep calling him, that would be fine.

He looked at Lawyer Tang’s glasses for a moment, then asked, “Lawyer Tang, since myopia is considered a work-related injury in our company, would you like to get myopia correction surgery? The company will cover all the costs.”

“Thank you for your kind offer, President Chen, but my myopia isn’t severe, and I have no plans to get corrective surgery.”

Tang Qiu immediately shook her head in refusal. Not only was she uncertain about potential side effects of the surgery, but the recovery period was something she couldn’t accept at the moment.

Chen Mo felt a bit disappointed when Tang Qiu turned him down.

This policy had been in place for two days, but up until now, no one had applied for myopia correction surgery. All they did was change glasses, but how much could that cost? He calculated it and realized it had only cost over 40,000 yuan in total.

That wasn’t even as much as Tianlong’s daily earnings.

The expenses for health checks and massagers, however, were quite a bit higher—over 300,000 yuan spent.

After today’s meeting, there would still be some more money to spend, but these were small matters. Tomorrow would be November, and Tianlong’s game players would soon need to purchase new monthly cards, which would bring in another large sum.

There was simply too much money coming in.

He needed to find even bigger ways to spend it, and there was still 1.2 million in Charity Funds.

Yes, 1.2 million. He had classified the 500,000 yuan spent on pet food as an investment in the Pet Park, and to his surprise, the system actually approved it.

So, the 1.2 million Charity Funds still needed to be spent. Since the charity organizations couldn’t be relied upon, he’d have to keep an eye out for other places that might need support.

After waiting in the meeting room for a while and seeing no one else reporting anything, he directly announced the meeting adjourned.

Back in his office, he sat at his desk and picked up the water cup on the table, which was surprisingly warm.

Chen Mo smiled slightly. Clearly, Shen Rou had prepared it for him while he was in the meeting.

He took a sip and began thinking about his next spending plan.

After thinking for a while, he realized the only way to burn through funds quickly would be to open a new branch of the Coffee Shop. However, the Coffee Shop hadn’t officially started business yet, so he couldn’t be sure if it was really losing money.

But last night, Song Xia had sent him a message saying that yesterday was the last day of training, and they would be returning to Jiangcheng today.

If that was the case, they could officially open in just a few days. At that point, he could observe the business situation closely and once he was sure the Coffee Shop wasn’t doing well, he’d go ahead and open a second branch.

For the second branch, it would be best to find a store that could be sold, and with the renovation, it would burn through a substantial amount of funds.

He also wasn’t sure how Song Xia’s plan to recruit coffee training school students to be employees was progressing. After all, each student could have their training fee of 10,000 yuan reimbursed.

If she managed to recruit ten students, that would be 100,000 yuan—money that would be spent without return!

With that thought in mind, Chen Mo decided to call Song Xia to inquire about the situation. However, before he could dial her number, Song Xia called him first.

“President Chen, we’ve arrived in Jiangcheng. I’ll take them to visit the Coffee Shop first, arrange accommodation, and then tomorrow, I’ll take them to the Clothing Factory to sign the contracts. How does that sound?”

When he answered the phone, Song Xia’s words made it clear that she had already recruited the coffee training school students. He was curious how many students she had managed to recruit.

“That’s fine. But tomorrow, I’ll bring the contracts personally. You don’t need to bring them to the Clothing Factory. How many Barista Training School students did you recruit?”

“President Chen, I’ve recruited a total of nine students.”

Hmm!

Only one more student was needed to meet his target of ten, which was quite good.

“By the way, the one other person I recruited isn’t a student but a teacher. The procurement form for the coffee machines was done by this teacher.”

A teacher?

Chen Mo was taken aback but quickly regained his composure.

Since this person was a teacher, they must be very familiar with coffee, so the quality of the coffee they made would likely be better.

However, he recalled that the Specialty Coffee Shop, which had already failed, had coffee that tasted better than Starbucks, but still had very few customers.

What truly attracts customers is reputation and price.

His Coffee Shop was definitely not going to beat Starbucks in terms of reputation, and as for price, his was a Specialty Coffee Shop, so it was bound to be more expensive!

With a lower reputation and higher prices, it was sure to lose out to Starbucks.

There might be some curious people or true coffee enthusiasts who’d be attracted to his Coffee Shop, but in the end, they would be a minority, not enough to sustain profitability.

But bringing in this teacher could allow him to burn through even more money.

First of all, since this person was a teacher, their salary would definitely not be the same as those freshly trained students.

With an experienced Barista in place, he could also price the coffee higher.

After all, the system had rules in place. He couldn’t raise coffee prices indefinitely. If he set a price of 10,000 yuan per cup, he could be sure no one would buy it.

But with a senior Barista on the team, it would be completely reasonable to sell coffee at a higher price because it was made by someone more experienced.

With higher prices, it would be easier to deter customers.

Overall, bringing this teacher into the Coffee Shop was more beneficial than not.

Once he figured all this out, Chen Mo felt much more at ease. After giving Song Xia some final instructions, he hung up the phone.

“Shen Rou, prepare eleven Coffee Shop contracts. We’re going to the Coffee Shop tomorrow to sign the contracts.”

Chen Mo pressed the call button on his desk, which had been suggested by designer Wang Yang. With this call button installed in each office, communication could be much easier and quicker than making a phone call.

Soon, Shen Rou replied.

Hmm, it’s really convenient.

After arranging everything, Chen Mo was about to relax when he received a call from Fang Chang.

He couldn’t help but sigh. Why was he getting busier and busier?

“What’s the matter?”

Chen Mo asked indifferently.

“President Chen, it’s about Tianlong.”

Tianlong again?

Hearing Fang Chang’s words, Chen Mo felt speechless. The last thing he wanted to hear right now was the word “Tianlong.”

It was his biggest blot on the path to losing money.

“Recently, the number of online users on Tianlong has been gradually increasing, and the original servers are no longer enough. We need to buy new servers. We need to apply for some funds.”

Ah, so it’s money-related!

Chen Mo’s mood immediately lightened a bit. Since he couldn’t stop the losses, he might as well spend a little more to minimize them.

“How much do you want to apply for?”

“President Chen, I’ve calculated it, and we’ll need at least 300,000 yuan in budget.”