"What about the 'silkworm eating' method?" Jiang Ye asked.
"I'll tell you about the 'silkworm eating' method after I take a shower. You can wander around for now and check out my new house. It cost quite a bit," Tian Rao said, stomping her foot to stop the treadmill.
"It's not good for your body to shower right after strenuous exercise," Jiang Ye said.
"My bathhouse is different from ordinary ones. It's imported from Heinlein Star and has a specific process: first, hot air dries the sweat, then bath oil is sprayed all over the body, followed by a water bath, with air massage in between," Tian Rao joked. "Want to see it?"
"No, thank you. I'll just look around your house. Are there any rooms I shouldn't enter? Please tell me in advance."
"No, feel free to explore, make yourself at home."
Tian Rao came downstairs, still sweating profusely.
Jiang Ye began to wander aimlessly around the house.
To be honest, the house was too large. Although the lighting was bright and the decor exquisite, living alone still made it feel very empty, giving him a sense of unease, as if it were haunted.
Most rooms were still vacant, with only disc-shaped sweeping robots diligently cleaning the floors. The furnished rooms lacked any sense of lived-in comfort; everything was brand new. The sofa covers were completely unwrinkled, making them look like exhibits in a furniture showroom.
The sound of rushing water and a faint mechanical hum emanated from the bathroom. As Jiang Ye passed the bathroom, he turned his head in the opposite direction. However, opposite the bathroom was a large mirror, which perfectly reflected the bathroom door. The frosted glass door emitted a yellowish light, and a white shadow could be vaguely seen moving inside.
Jiang Ye felt that the situation was a bit awkward. A man and a woman alone in a house late at night, with one of them showering…
It might not sound good if word got out, but as long as he had a clear conscience, it would be fine.
He finally found two rooms that had a lived-in feel.
One was a study, which Tian Rao seemed to use as an office. The room was filled with file boxes. Stacks of documents on the desk resembled buildings, and the bookshelves were full of data and memos in plastic cases. Bundles of files on the floor looked like sandbags for flood control, reminiscent of a teacher's office piled high with student assignments at the beginning of a semester.
The window was covered with many photos and sticky notes, connected by red string, like a clue wall in a police investigation of a murder case in a TV drama. Jiang Ye leaned closer to look. They were strategic goals for the company's development and major issues that needed urgent resolution.
Jiang Ye had expected the major issues to be related to product development, funding, inventory turnover, and so on. But upon closer inspection, they were all about people.
"So-and-so is trying to jump ship," "So-and-so is dissatisfied with their equity," "So-and-so is suspected of being a corporate spy," "So-and-so plans to break away and go solo," "So-and-so has been embezzling company funds for a long time…"
The people Tian Rao had pinned to the window were basically the top executives of her branch companies on various planets.
Looking at the names and positions, Jiang Ye felt that Tian Rao's job as a boss was not easy, with so many problematic subordinates. Moreover, many of them were people she couldn't dismiss directly due to the intricate web of vested interests. She could only find ways to resolve the issues slowly.
Jiang Ye envisioned a scene:
Tian Rao, dressed in formal attire, attending a company meeting. The subordinates in the conference room were all respectful and smiling. Tian Rao also smiled and praised them, creating an appearance of harmony and warmth. However, in the depths of their eyes, there was a hint of coldness, each thinking viciously about how to get rid of the other. Beneath the facade of false unity in the entire conference room lay suspicion, hatred, contempt, fear, and anger, with everyone wearing a ferocious expression.
The second room with a lived-in feel was Tian Rao's bedroom.
It was messier than he could have imagined.
Clothes were everywhere. Sets of formal women's wear were piled on the desk. High heels and flats crowded the corner of the wall like a herd of small animals with different fur colors. Stockings and wool socks of various colors were draped over the back of a chair to dry. Underwear rolled into small bundles was visible in the open drawers.
On the bed were several opened bags of snacks. The goose-yellow duvet was half dragged onto the floor. Novels and small toys lay on the pillows, and the creases on the bedsheet resembled waves on the sea.
Out of politeness, Jiang Ye did not enter the room. He just pushed the door open, took a glance, and then closed the door and left.
However, the impression of slovenliness had been established. Despite living in such a large house, Tian Rao probably spent most of her time lounging in bed, groggy from sleep. Upon waking, she would eat snacks and play on her phone, casually tossing aside clothes once taken off, not caring about them for half a year, as she had hundreds of new outfits in her walk-in closet.
Finally, Jiang Ye went to the rooftop to admire the scenery around the house. To the south were lush trees, and to the north was a white sandy beach and the sea. Stars twinkled on the sea surface, and luminous ships passed in the distance. It truly looked like a place with good feng shui.
"Want some peaches?" Tian Rao's voice sounded from behind him.
Jiang Ye turned around. Tian Rao was on the rooftop, holding a fruit platter. She was wearing a smooth white silk nightgown, her shapely legs clad only in small white socks. Her hair was fluffy, her face clean, and her skin was as delicate as a young girl's in a cosmetics advertisement.
"Thank you," Jiang Ye said, taking the fruit platter and picking up a sliced peach. "Tell me about the 'silkworm eating' method?"
"The core idea of the 'silkworm eating' method is to gradually occupy territory until a certain influence is formed. The main territories are already occupied by local companies, so we can only start with marginal industries," Tian Rao said, bending over and leaning on the railing, revealing her pink shorts and a section of her fair, slender waist. "For example, the film and television industry."
"The film and television industry?" Jiang Ye was stunned.
"The fashion and film and television industries are naturally closely related. We will have some celebrities wear our clothes to film festivals, then use media to promote them, and also create co-branded celebrity outfits. Some popular celebrities will also set up fashion studios under our company, perhaps as a fallback for their future. The celebrities claim that the studio's clothing is all designed by them, embodying their hard work, and recommend fans to buy them. In reality, it's just a name-lending arrangement, with the design done by our company's people. It's a form of indirect endorsement, but with closer cooperation," Tian Rao explained.
"Besides the film and television industry, we invest in or even directly acquire various entertainment industries," Tian Rao paused. "For example, novels and games can feature subtle advertising for our brands, which helps lead trends. Moreover, these investments and acquisitions can be reused. Once successful on one planet, we can directly spread related films, games, and novels to other planets, so it's quite cost-effective."
"Besides the visible industries, we also 'silkworm eat' the invisible ones," Tian Rao said. "For example, yesterday I just acquired a small company, Baihua Company on Longjing Star, for five billion. That company produces packaging paper and bags, supplying packaging for all clothing stores on the planet. With this company, we can know the order volumes of different clothing companies on Longjing Star and also influence costs to some extent. Even if our clothes don't sell well on Longjing Star in the end, we can still recoup our investment by selling packaging paper."
"And dye companies, shoelace companies, button companies, zipper companies, fabric companies, transportation companies – we try to acquire anything related. We also try to control some clothing associations, such as associations that審定 whether clothing is environmentally friendly, associations that determine whether fabric can be worn by infants and toddlers, and associations that test dye toxicity. We even directly control raw material sources, such as plantations and farmlands that produce natural dyes, and we sign ten- or twenty-year agreements with local villagers."