After finishing dinner, while Murong Yanran was washing the dishes, Xie Baolian feigned tiredness and retreated to her room to rest, her intention quite obvious.
After taking a bath, Murong Yanran did not ask Li Haochen for a massage. Instead, she massaged Li Haochen.
"I want to sell the hotel."
Li Haochen was taken aback. "Why?"
"I don't want you to be too tired."
However, Li Haochen saw a hint of reluctance in Murong Yanran's eyes.
"Ask yourself, do you really want to sell?"
A hint of struggle flickered in Murong Yanran's eyes. The hotel held too many memories for her. She also wanted to manage it well and didn't want her mother's hard work to go to waste. But she didn't want Li Haochen to work so hard to help her.
"I..."
Li Haochen reached out and covered Murong Yanran's mouth, shaking his head and saying, "Let's talk about everything after the competition. Perhaps an opportunity will arise."
Before long, both felt drowsy and retired to their respective rooms to sleep.
The next morning, Li Haochen woke up to find that the two women had already gone to work. Of course, their loving breakfast was being kept warm in the pot.
The breakfast was quite rich: a dish of dried salted pork bone congee and steamed wontons. The congee wasn't perfectly cooked, but it was still good. The wontons were likely made by Murong Yanran herself; their appearance was a testament to that, and the taste was decent.
Although the breakfast wasn't astonishingly delicious, it was filled with love and the warmth of home. Li Haochen ate slowly, savoring the sweetness of love.
After breakfast, Li Haochen walked to Butterfly Bay. He spent the entire morning scouring the conch shells on the reefs within the bay, collecting over two hundred catties.
There was no other way. Murong Yanran's hotel was facing a shortage of seafood, so he had to fish like this. After this sweep, it would take at least a year for the conch population in Butterfly Bay to recover.
There were too many conch shells, so Li Haochen divided them into several net bags. He carried them to a hidden spot and brought them into his space. When he reached the exit, he entered the space again to bring the conch shells out.
Fortunately, he had the space. Even with the walkways prepared, bringing out these conch shells would not have been easy.
Li Haochen called Yang Tao, and within ten minutes, a seafood procurement truck from Binhai Grand Hotel stopped at the end of Dalong Village.
Yang Tao and a young man walked over. Upon seeing the more than two hundred catties of conch shells behind Li Haochen, they were greatly surprised. "Haochen, where did you get so many conch shells?"
"I picked all of them from Butterfly Bay. Let's take them back to the hotel for now to fill the shelves."
Li Haochen handed out cigarettes to Yang Tao and his subordinate. "Brother Yang, how did that method from last time work out?"
As soon as Li Haochen brought this up, Yang Tao couldn't help but get excited. "Hahaha, that method was awesome! Now I go over every day to confront Liu Yaowen. He's even raised his procurement prices quite a bit. In the last few days alone, he's spent at least another million or two. It feels so good just thinking about it.
"Moreover, I've spread the word that all fishermen in Binhai are sending their catches to sell to them. The volume is really substantial. Let's see how long they can keep this up, hahaha..."
"Heh, don't push it too hard. Be careful he doesn't turn the tables on you. By the way, how's the procurement in the neighboring city going?"
"Ai, those detestable vampires. Our purchase prices have increased by nearly sixty percent. At this price, the hotel will still lose money when selling them."
Yang Tao was also filled with righteous indignation, but there was nothing he could do. It was a willing buyer and a willing seller.
"Still increasing?"
"They haven't increased anymore. They're after profit, not self-destruction, and they wouldn't dare go too far."
"Oh, I see. Logically, they should know that the Mu family is buying at such high prices. Why don't they sell directly to the Mu family and make more money?"
"Although it's the neighboring city, the journey here is still very long. Transportation costs and losses are also significant expenses. When you calculate it, it's about the same as selling to us. Who would bother transporting it? Unless the Mu family's price is exceptionally high, then it's another matter."
As soon as Li Haochen heard this, an idea struck him. He immediately pulled Yang Tao aside and said, "Brother Yang, since that's the case, why don't we use the Mu family's money to reduce our losses?"
"You mean..."
Li Haochen nodded noncommittally. "Let's go to the neighboring city and buy more. Then, find a few trustworthy people to resell this extra purchase to the Mu family. It would be great to supplement our household expenses, hehe..."
Yang Tao's eyes lit up upon hearing this. He almost kissed Li Haochen. After a brief chat, he impatiently got into the truck and sped off towards the neighboring city.
"This Brother Yang is really something, why the hurry? It's not like they're short on time."
However, Yang Tao's reaction made Li Haochen very satisfied. With such an employee, as long as they weathered this difficult period, Murong Yanran's hotel would surely prosper.
"You have your clever plans, and I have my countermeasures. Mu family, we'll see about that, hehe!"
At this moment, Mu Zhengtao was furiously scolding Liu Yaowen. "Damn it, are you an idiot? You're buying at such a high price?"
Liu Yaowen had already cursed Mu Zhengtao's entire ancestry in his heart. "F*** your mother, you scoundrel who told me not to buy a single fish or conch for Binhai Grand Hotel, and now you're complaining about the price? Damn it."
"Mr. Mu, there's no other way. Yang Tao has started to compete with us. They're matching our offers. Didn't you say not to buy a single fish for them? So, we had to raise the price."
Mu Zhengtao felt incredibly wronged. What kind of subordinate had he hired? What if someone offered tens or hundreds of times the price... As Mu Zhengtao thought about it, he couldn't help but worry about the billions he had entrusted to Liu Yaowen.
Liu Yaowen had been his subordinate for many years, so he decided to save some face. "Yaowen, I was just angry just now. Don't take it to heart. How about this, from now on, we won't buy anything that's more than double the price. Let them have it. They'll still lose quite a bit at that price."
"Alright, Mr. Mu. I'll be going now." As soon as he left the Mu family, Liu Yaowen cursed Mu Zhengtao's entire ancestry again in his heart. "Damn it, still thinking of making a fortune this time and going abroad, this damned old fogey."
Zhang Ziqi saw Mu Zhengtao looking displeased and sulking. She made a cup of ginseng tea and walked over. "Have some ginseng tea to cool down."
"How is Shaoyang doing over there?" Mu Zhengtao asked after taking a sip of the ginseng tea.
"He's settled in. With Old Liu there, it should be fine."
"Hmm, I hope so."
Meanwhile, in the wealthy district of New York in the Western Hemisphere, Mu Shaoyang was living a life of extreme leisure and pleasure. Furthermore, Liu Zhenhua, who was responsible for supervising him, had long since been bought off with his sugary words.
Freed from Mu Zhengtao's constraints, Mu Shaoyang was like a fish in the ocean, indulging in nightly revelries with a constant stream of beautiful women, living as leisurely as one could possibly imagine. Just recently, he had sent away two blonde, blue-eyed beauties.
"Young Master, this cannot go on. We've already spent over a hundred thousand US dollars in just a few days. The remaining funds won't last until the end of the month."
"No way, that fast?" But then again, it made sense, with nightly revelries and extravagant spending.
"Does Old Liu have any way to make money? How will we survive if this continues?"
Liu Zhenhua thought for a long time and then feigned difficulty. "Young Master, I have a plan. I don't know if I should speak it."
"Hurry, hurry, tell me." Mu Shaoyang urged impatiently.
Liu Zhenhua leaned closer to Mu Shaoyang's ear. "Young Master, let's find some foreign actors and stage an accidental conflict, pretending to be gangsters... If we do this, the old man should pay a ransom, right?"