Chapter 291: Good Deeds Deserve Good Returns

Changfeng Garment Factory,
Employee Dormitory.

Jiang Cheng and his wife Wang Juan sat at a square table, studying a report.

“Looking at this report, the sales from those few clothing stores in Jiang City aren’t bad,” Wang Juan said slowly as she examined the figures on the table. “You should find out how the store managers in Jiang City are handling their sales. Maybe we can get the other stores to follow their lead.”

While the performance wasn’t exactly profitable, at least the stores in Jiang City were selling much more than those in other areas. That alone was worth learning from.

“I’ve already sent someone to look into it,” Jiang Cheng replied, nodding as he stared at the line graph on the report.

After their last discussion, he had instructed someone the very next day to compile the sales data from all the stores under the Clothing Factory. The report had finally come in today.

He had already noticed the difference with the Jiang City stores while still at the office, so he’d asked someone to get in touch with the store managers there. Bringing the report back to the dormitory was just so his wife could take a look too.

Lately, he’d realized that Wang Juan had a sharper eye for these things than he did—she made a perfect strategist.

“Good,” Wang Juan nodded, then reached over to the bookshelf and pulled out a book on economic management.

“Take a look at this today. It’s got some great content—I’ve finished reading it and found it really insightful.”

She opened the book and pushed it toward Jiang Cheng.

……

Beijing,
Inside a high-end restaurant.

Du Xiaoxiao stood up and raised a glass of juice.

“I’ll have to trouble you all with this. I don’t drink, so I’ll toast you with juice instead.”

“Xiaoxiao, come on, you’re being way too polite. We’re all friends here—don’t treat us like outsiders!”

“Exactly. It’s not even a big deal. You made a call, we helped out. That’s what friends do.”

“Yeah, and it’s for a good cause too. Don’t worry, we’ll make sure that bitter coffee gets the publicity it needs!”

“……”

Around the table, a few men and women chimed in one after another.

Du Xiaoxiao smiled faintly.

Ever since she returned from Jiangcheng, she had arranged this meetup with a few of her livestreaming friends to help promote Nanhe Coffee.

After doing some research, she learned that aside from the Cat Café and the Maid Café, which were turning a profit, the rest of the traditional specialty coffee shops under Nanhe Coffee had been operating at a loss.

That didn’t sit well with her.

The owner of these coffee shops was a kind-hearted person. Good people deserved good returns.

She wanted the coffee shops to become profitable, so the owner could use the earnings to do even more good in the world.

So she decided to help however she could.

Even if the streamers’ promotions didn’t turn things around completely, they could at least bring in more foot traffic and reduce the losses a bit.

And once Nanhe Coffee opened a branch in Beijing, she planned to recommend it to her friends and encourage them to support it.

……

Time passed,
March flew by, and April arrived.

Chen Mo sat in the CEO’s office, staring helplessly at the skyrocketing System Funds displayed on the System Panel.

That’s right—
A new month had begun, and players who had purchased the Monthly Card were back for another round of spending.

Looking back, launching that 10-yuan Monthly Card had been a huge mistake.

Ten yuan wasn’t much, but when you had enough people buying it, it added up fast!

He sighed. What was the point of earning so much when not a single cent belonged to him?

Fortunately, the Clothing Factory had become a massive money sink.

He pulled his thoughts away from the ever-growing System Funds—it gave him a headache just looking at it.

With nothing else to do, he leaned back in his chair and opened the Boring Short Video app for a quick scroll. But after just a few minutes, he exited.

It was all educational content—utterly boring.

He glanced at the viewer counts in a few livestream rooms. Hardly anyone was watching.

Just as he expected—boring short videos weren’t going to attract many viewers.

But with the number of streamers growing, the current monthly expense for Boring Short Video had already exceeded 5 million.

That was more than the combined salaries of employees at the Clothing Factory and Cangxue Games.

As long as he kept recruiting streamers, Boring Short Video could easily become a top-tier money-burning platform.

Then there was Pet Park. Two months had passed, and it was time to inject another 5 million into it.

Once construction was complete, the massive Pet Park would require a large staff. And with such a huge space, they’d need a lot of cats and dogs too.

That meant hefty monthly expenses for staff wages, pet food, and medical care.

Nanhe Coffee didn’t even need to be mentioned—he could easily invest in five loss-making cafés every month.

At this rate, he refused to believe that all these money-losing ventures couldn’t offset the profits from just two games.

Chen Mo jotted down the names of his perpetually unprofitable ventures on a piece of paper, tapping each one fondly. These were his precious darlings.

Then he wrote down “Cangxue Games” and drew a big X over it—this one was the rebellious troublemaker.

“President Chen, here’s the latest performance report from Nanhe Coffee. Please take a look.”

At some point, Shen Rou had walked over and handed him a report.

“You can go ahead and read it. I don’t need to.”

As soon as he heard it was Nanhe Coffee’s performance report, Chen Mo didn’t even bother to take it. It was always a loss—what was there to see?

Shen Rou hesitated for a moment but didn’t retract the report.

“President Chen, you really should take a look. This time, Nanhe Coffee’s performance is… different.”

Hmm?

Chen Mo paused at her words.

Different? What kind of different? Did they lose even more money?

With that thought, he took the report from Shen Rou and casually flipped it open.

But very quickly, his brows furrowed tightly.

He gave the Cat Café and Maid Café a quick glance. Although their performance had dipped slightly due to new competition, they were still turning a profit overall.

That much had been within his expectations.

What caught him off guard, however, were the traditional specialty coffee shops. He had assumed those coffee shops would be running at a steady loss.

But now, looking at the revenue graphs for those shops, he found himself genuinely surprised.

From early March to around the 20th, the revenue curves were relatively flat—almost straight lines. But after the 20th, things began to shift.

The previously stagnant curves started to rise.

Some locations were now pulling in over 10,000 in daily revenue.

These were shops that used to be doing a few hundred, maybe a thousand a day at best.

And now, all of a sudden, they were seeing this kind of surge.

A faint sense of unease crept into Chen Mo’s heart.