Damn it, I'm surrounded by childhood sweethearts

Chapter 127 - 121. Zhong Wenqing_2

"Damn! A pile of crappy things, I quit my job last year!"

"Ah?" Guan Biyue was taken aback for a few seconds before she caught her wits, "What happened?"

"To hell with it, there was a bald turtle who thought I was pretty and wanted to get with me, but I slapped him across the face in front of his wife."

"Pfft~" Guan Biyue couldn’t help but laugh at the thought of her best friend slapping her leader’s face.

"You’re laughing, asking for a beating!" Zhong Wenqing reached out to poke her laughter point.

"Sorry... ah... Qingqing, I was wrong, please go on." Guan Biyue pleaded repeatedly.

Xu Qingfan slowed his eating pace and covertly observed Guan Biyue’s friend, with willow leaf eyebrows, triangle eyes, and what seemed to be a height of over one meter seventy, giving off a fierce vibe typical of northern girls.

Aside from his mother, the most beautiful woman Xu Qingfan had met since his rebirth was Zhang Chunxue. The unique CEO aura she carried was a major plus: if Aunt Zhang scored 9 out of 10, then the Zhong Wenqing in front of him could probably score around 6.5.

Zhong Wenqing felt that their second-grader probably wouldn’t understand these things, and continued, "So that’s it. Reporting to the higher-ups was useless, and in a fit of anger, I printed out and distributed his disgusting messages throughout the company. Then I was fired. Now... what’s that word again, mooching off parents!"

"So what are you planning to do in the future, help out with the family business?"

"Forget it, my stepmother guards against me so tightly for fear I’ll compete with her son for the inheritance, keeps setting me up on blind dates every day, I’m almost driven nuts!" Zhong Wenqing complained.

"Pfft~ I’m not much better, acting like the sky is falling because I’m not married at 25, sigh... The days at school were better."

"I never should’ve listened to my dad and studied damn accounting, which makes it now, at interviews, once they know I was fired from a state-owned company, no one’s willing to hire me!"

"Accounting does suck, we didn’t understand back then, just three years after graduation so many of our classmates had gone into it." Guan Biyue couldn’t help but sigh.

Xu Qingfan recalled a joke he saw online in his past life, about the Tilanqiao Prison in Shanghai, where 60% of the inmates were accounting students from a local finance and economics university, leading netizens to jokingly call it the "branch campus."

"I recently heard that a Renmin University senior in Zhongguancun made a fortune from selling pirated CDs and set up an internet company that bagged millions of US dollars in funding, maybe I should just go for entrepreneurship." Zhong Wenqing said, enviously.

"I support you in spirit, quitting my current job to start a business, my mom would probably chain me up at home." Guan Biyue shrugged helplessly.

"Entrepreneurship is great, work for ten years and get nothing, start a business for three years and become a millionaire, sis, I support you!" Xu Qingfan said out of the blue.

"Go eat your food." Guan Biyue knocked him on the head, annoyed.

"Hahaha~ Guan Guan, your student is quite amusing."

"He is pretty awesome. In first grade, he teamed up with two girls from his class to publish a comic book, which has probably sold about half a million copies by now." Since Xu Qingfan and the others had never publicly shared how many copies of Hilarious Daily had sold, Guan Biyue could only estimate.

"That impressive? What’s the name of the comic book? I’ll buy a copy when I’m free to support it." Zhong Wenqing’s eyes widened in surprise.

While Xu Qingfan was wiping his mouth with a paper towel, he caught a glimpse of the duck necks in the corner, and suddenly, inspiration struck.

[Selling duck necks might be able to solve Wu Lingyu’s family’s problem!]

In his previous life, Zhou Heiya and Juewei Duck Neck were so popular that Juewei’s market value reached tens of billions later. He could replicate this brainless strategy of advertising + franchising.

"Qingqing sis, let’s put the comic book aside, I have an entrepreneurship project here, are you interested?" Xu Qingfan truly felt it was a good idea and spoke up.

"Oh? Let’s hear it." Guan Biyue and Zhong Wenqing looked at him, surprised.

"Sis, do you think these duck necks taste good?" Xu Qingfan asked, pointing to the plastic bag on the table.

"They’re okay, I quite like them, and they’re not expensive. You’re not suggesting that your business project is selling duck necks, are you?" Zhong Wenqing asked, amused.

Xu Qingfan nodded, "Mhm mhm mhm, Xiao Yu’s mother makes duck necks that are a hundred times tastier than this. If she opened a store, definitely lots of people would buy!"

Caught off guard by Xu Qingfan’s remark, Wu Lingyu stopped using her chopsticks and looked up to see everyone staring at her, leaving the little girl momentarily at a loss.

"Well... it’s okay, the duck necks my mother makes are quite spicy..."

"Aunt Li’s duck necks are indeed tastier than these, not by a hundredfold, which is ridiculous, but probably twentyfold!" Xia Xiaoxiao said earnestly.

Zhong Wenqing was naturally a gluttonous cat and, goaded by the two, suddenly wanted to taste the renowned Xiao Yu brand duck necks.

"Starting a business isn’t child’s play. Opening a store is not as easy as you think," Guan Biyue didn’t even have to think before feeling that Xu Qingfan’s idea was unreliable.

Zhong Wenqing’s family was in the cold-chain business and did not underestimate the profit margin of duck necks. "Sister also wants to open a braised duck neck store, but sister doesn’t have that much money," she said.

Working for two years and counting the subsidies from her family, Zhong Wenqing’s savings had just exceeded one hundred thousand.

"Sister, you don’t need to put in any money. I can find investors. You just need to be responsible for recruiting, finding a location, supervising construction, sourcing ingredients..." Xu Qingfan was truly trying to convince the other, completely forgetting that he still had the identity of an eight-year-old child as he rambled on about his grand blueprint.

"Do you understand?" Xu Qingfan finished his glass of water in one gulp.

*Pfft~*

"That’s enough. If you keep going, not even Asia will be able to contain you," Zhong Wenqing and Guan Biyue smiled, teasing him.

"What does your family do, kid? How do you know so much?" Zhong Wenqing asked with a smile, ruffling Xu Qingfan’s hair.

"What’s so special about that? You can learn anything on the internet. Qingqing sister, wouldn’t you consider it?" Xu Qingfan sincerely invited.

"It does sound quite interesting. Let’s wait until after the New Year. Tickets aren’t easy to come by now. After the New Year, I’ll go try the duck necks made by Xiao Yu’s mother and see if they’re really that good," she decided after being swayed by Qingfan’s last point that "if KFC and McDonald’s can be successful, why can’t we?" Zhong Wenqing felt that a duck neck chain was worth pursuing.

"Are you serious, Qingqing?" Now it was Guan Biyue’s turn to get unsettled.

"I think what your student said makes sense. Why not give it a try? Are you planning to stay and find an honest man to marry?" Zhong Wenqing tossed her hair dismissively.

Xu Qingfan nodded in satisfaction. To start a chain store, he needed a project manager who was bold, decisive, and didn’t drag her feet.

Of course, he wasn’t inviting her on a whim. Judging from Zhong Wenqing’s actions, giving leaders a piece of her mind, and sending printed text messages throughout the company, she had the nerve, and coupled with the meticulousness unique to an accountant, she was undoubtedly an excellent team leader.

If Xu Qingfan knew that she had also served as the head of the external relations department at her university, he would have been even more satisfied.

"Qingqing sister, you must come!"

"Don’t worry, I’ll do what I promised. Just make sure you can really bring in the investment and don’t fool your sister," Zhong Wenqing said with a smile, patting Xu Qingfan’s head.

"I absolutely won’t deceive you. The investor I just mentioned is my aunt. Write up a business plan, and I’ll take you to her!" Xu Qingfan patted his chest confidently.

"The one with a million US dollars?"

"Yep!"

Seeing that Xu Qingfan didn’t seem to be lying, Zhong Wenqing nodded, "Okay then, I believe you."

...

Xia Xiaoxiao and Wu Lingyu didn’t understand what Xu Qingfan was talking about. They felt as if they were listening to an obscure text, still looking bewildered.

After the group was full and had returned to the hotel, Xia Xiaoxiao grabbed Xu Qingfan’s arm and bombarded him with questions: "Xu Qingfan, what were you talking about just now? Why are you suddenly thinking about opening a duck neck store, and what’s this about KFC?"

"It’s about starting a duck neck franchise, like my mom’s convenience store, opening countless branches all over the country."

"That must require a lot of money, right?"

"No need to spend money, people will be paying us!" Xu Qingfan said, patting the little girl’s head.

"You’re incorrigible~"

"Watch out for my tickle-fighting prowess!"

"Xu Qingfan!!!"

Watching the two playfully chase each other in the hallway, Wu Lingyu felt envious.

At this moment, the little girl didn’t realize that Xu Qingfan’s words that evening would bring a revolutionary change to their family.