Reaching the age of thirty, my income randomly doubled

"Amidst the crowd, you and I meet, get to know each other, and torment each other."

The sky was uncooperative, unleashing a torrential downpour.

After Chen Pingsheng closed all windows of the large Phantom, he also started playing music inside the car.

He experienced the million-dollar sound system of a top luxury car.

One should mention, the soundproofing of the Rolls-Royce was truly formidable.

Sitting inside during such heavy rain, he could barely hear any noise.

The roads were congested, evidently filled with people queueing to commute to work at this hour of the morning.

He was no exception.

But as he was commuting, he was also thinking.

Even after allocating two billion to Tenghui Department Store and another five hundred million to Antler Coffee...

He intended to take both brands public with an IPO in 2016.

Only going public could stimulate the random surge from Golden Finger Grandpa.

His development now seemed to have entered a virtuous cycle.

This was somewhat similar to the time when Penguin and Alibaba dominated the Internet.

Relying on the money from random surges, he continuously incubated new projects.

Even using more capital to push even larger projects.

Then, turning those projects into publicly-listed companies.

After that, he could undertake even greater projects.

In this process, his job was to build a good team and a good corporate culture.

Only a good team could drive good projects.

It was late November.

No matter how he spent it, he still had over a billion in hand.

And he hadn't completely cashed out the stocks of Bobo Milk Tea yet.

He expected to cash out about two hundred million more.

Next month.

There was also another very lucrative project, the Splendid Night at Water Cloud Space.

Arriving at the group's building.

Chen Pingsheng parked the car in his reserved spot.

If the Phantom were a bit longer, it might require a commercial license to drive.

The headquarters in Magic City, in addition to transferring a thousand people from Capital City, had also recruited more than two thousand locals.

The entire twenty-two-story skyscraper.

Now housed roughly three thousand employees.

This did not include the retail staff, referring only to the office workers at headquarters.

There were umbrellas inside the Rolls-Royce.

The security uncle personally came to open his door and held a black umbrella over his head.

With such heavy rain, not a single drop fell on Chen Pingsheng, the CEO.

It must be said, having money indeed earned the goodwill of everyone around him.

The first-floor reception area in the building had recruited six university interns, mainly responsible for internal reception and appointments.

Chen Pingsheng walked in and was greeted warmly.

"President, good morning."

He merely nodded in acknowledgment, not out of lack of desire to interact.

But because he shouldn't act like that, the workplace is a little martial arts world itself.

And he was like the Martial Arts Alliance Hierarch here, whenever he was slightly nicer to someone.

Others would think that person was about to ascend to heaven.

Then a bunch of people would swarmed over them.

Six elevators going up and down, there were quite a few employees waiting in this area.

After Chen Pingsheng entered an elevator, everyone else stood outside waiting.

Out of politeness, they wouldn't come in.

Well then, he went up alone first.

Gao Hu and Chang Fu were waiting for him here.

Chang Fu meant that since Fei Yangyang had gone public, it was time for Gao Hu to seriously find a wife and settle down.

And stop frequenting flight attendants; it was no longer amusing.

Chen Pingsheng wasn't really keen on meddling in such matters, always feeling it wasn't his place, but he couldn't help it since he had promised earlier.

"Old Chen, why is it so hard to find someone who isn't greedy for money?"

"They're not after your money, they're after a middle-aged guy with a beer belly!"

Chen Pingsheng slapped his belly, "You're not young anymore, why harbor such unrealistic thoughts? You might have had a chance if you were ten years younger."

"Mainly because girls of that age are still mostly naive, but after twenty-five, they start asking how much you earn a month, if you have a house, a car?"

Chang Fu was sitting with him and also thought Gao Hu was being too fanciful.

When it was time to play with women, you did everything to let them know you were wealthy.

Now that you want a wife, you don't want the money-hungry type.

If he really had no money, at his age, he could only look for divorced women.

Even if it's a second marriage with kids, they start with asking for two hundred thousand in dowry.

As for being wealthy, age isn't a distance.

Even at sixty, he's still a darling in the eyes of women.

"Alright, alright, let's not dwell on me," said Gao Hu.

"I'm definitely going to seriously find someone, the problem is that the women I find are too unreliable. As soon as I show a bit of my status, they're eager to sleep with me, marrying this kind of woman, if I run out of money one day, won't she run faster than a dog?"

Huh...Chen Pingsheng sensed a strong confidence in his words.

This guy needed a dose of reality or else he was beyond hope.

"I know a woman who definitely won't be greedy for your money, why don't you try pursuing her?"

"Who?"

"Liu Yifei."

"Who?" Gao Hu dug his ear, he was well aware of his own limits.

Chen Pingsheng was clearly bringing up a goddess to knock him down.

"Forget about it, a woman of the Fairy's caliber, you might stand a chance pursuing her, I wouldn't get a second glance."

Gao Hu asked him, "Old Chen, when are you going back to Capital?"

"Tomorrow, I won't be here much longer, and everything is nearly taken care of," said Chen Pingsheng.

"Last year, the two billion investment in the Water Cloud Space Employee Welfare Hotel in Capital City is almost ready, I need to go check it out."

"Alright, at any rate, you're getting richer and richer, I don't even know what you should be doing every day with so much money."

Gao Hu grinned, "Be honest, do you brush your teeth with abalone every morning?"

"Forget about it," Chen Pingsheng went to make a cup of tea, "You can't feel it yet, but if I tell you that at certain levels of wealth, you begin to take on social responsibilities, you definitely wouldn't take me seriously."

"Indeed."

Gao Hu clearly didn't have this sentiment, but still he asked, "I haven't seen you donate much either, have I?"

Other than his hometown, Chen Pingsheng had never donated a single penny to society.

Chen Pingsheng looked at him seriously, "Donations, do you know how many procedures it takes for me to donate a hundred million until it reaches the people who really need it?"

"Let me tell you, out of a hundred million, it would be pretty good if even ten million actually gets used for its intended purpose."

He paused, then continued, "Moreover, my many employees, do they all drive luxury cars and live in mansions? No, they don't.

"As a businessman, my first responsibility is to ensure that my own employees lead a happy and beautiful life. If you can't even satisfy them and you simply donate money to gain fame, it's simply putting the far before the near and engaging in meaningless activities."

"The company belongs to everyone; it's not something I can raise by myself. Therefore, every penny earned here must first go to increasing their benefits."

"When they no longer have to worry about money, then we can consider donating to gain some little fame outside!"

Gao Hu felt that his understanding was quite profound; definitely not something he could match.

No wonder Old Chen never made donations to the outside.

In his eyes, perhaps personal fame was far less substantial than genuinely bringing happiness to his employees.

That's also the reason why he kept increasing the salaries for his employees.

You should know, Fei Yangyang now had nearly forty thousand employees.

Each store had no fewer than thirty employees.

Even a cleaning auntie got paid 7500, working an eight-hour shift.

One day off per week, with meals and accommodations provided, as well as comprehensive social insurance coverage.

Such benefits were unmatched in the industry.

The advantage of paying well is that the employees truly dedicated themselves to their work.

You don't even need to prompt them; they solve problems more proactively than anyone else.

Employees care more about your business than you, the boss, because they fear what would happen if your store went under.

The reason is simple: once your store collapses, where would they find another shop that offers such benefits?

The advantages are clear, but the drawbacks are also obvious.

With such good business, the turnover rate kept increasing.

Yet the store's net profit hovered around 3%.

It could never go higher.

You should know that a typical restaurant's gross margin is at least 60% and above.

That means if a dish is priced at 60, not including labor, rent, or other expenses,

The cost of the dish alone definitely wouldn't exceed 35% of the selling price.

With such high gross margins and good business,

The net profit was stuck at 3%.

One million in revenue a month only nets thirty thousand.

The main reason is that the labor costs are too high.

Far exceeding the industry average.

Before going public, Tong Zelan also came to discuss this.

The capital market suggested halving the welfare benefits of Fei Yangyang employees.

Just by halving employee welfare, the net profit of each store could remain over a hundred thousand per month.

That would be about 1.2 million a year, plus they have over a thousand directly-operated stores.

Annual profits could reach around a billion.

Under such circumstances, applying for an IPO could start with an estimated valuation of 12 billion.

At least twice as high as now.

Chen Pingsheng just didn't agree.

If he really did that, wouldn't he be betraying the welfare of tens of thousands of employees for the benefit of one person?

What's more important, him making more money, or ensuring forty thousand employees can work at Fei Yangyang with peace of mind and stability?

Without a doubt, he chose the latter.

When you have more money than you can ever spend, if you still only think of making more and utterly disregard the welfare of your employees,

Such a boss will undoubtedly become a public enemy and even a target in this land.

With that much money, could you really sleep peacefully?

The eventual outcome will most likely be taking the money and fleeing abroad.

He certainly didn't want to do that; he was a man who had risen from this land.

And having earned money here, in the end, it must return to this land.

Gao Hu still found him hard to understand.

Why Bobo Milk Tea was abandoned by the Xiangjiang stock market, besides someone scheming from behind,

The more crucial issue was a report published by an investment institution, which showed the income of Bobo Milk Tea's employees compared to other brands in the same industry.

It was more than double.

Let's put it this way, other brands might pay a tea shop server up to three or four thousand at most.

And that's for a ten-hour work day.

Whereas at Bobo Milk Tea, it starts at six thousand five, for the same eight-hour day.

And at the end of the year, they could get about three months' worth of annual bonuses.

Such benefits, in the end, would absolutely backfire on the brand's survival space.

This means, it's not working for capital.

But rather serving the employees.

A company serving its employees means abandoning capital, and naturally, capital will abandon you too.

It can be said, every one of Chen Pingsheng's companies had set salary standards far above the industry norm.

Even if not favored by the capital market, he hadn't touched this aspect. Stay connected with empire

He could only constantly research and optimize his brand, serving the market.

When a brand can't even maintain basic employee benefits, he felt it was not necessary to keep it going.

Many people came to him asking for donations, all kinds of associations.

He turned down every single one.

With that money, wouldn't it be better to build a public welfare hotel for employees in Magic City?

That's what he did.

Chen Pingsheng invested three hundred million in Magic City to build a hotel focusing on employee welfare.

Staying in this place cost too much, and employees' parents traveled from afar, only to leave in humiliation because of the cost of several hundred per night.

He simply wanted to change this aspect, unable to service the public.

Couldn't he at least serve his own employees?

Chen Pingsheng instructed Bai Xin to post an official notice on the group's internal website.

He felt that at his level, true luxury shouldn't cater just to him or his family.

But should be aimed at his tens of thousands of employees in the Magic City region.

Only that way, it would really be accepted by the company, the employees, and society.

The three hundred million investment in the employee welfare hotel also needed at least twenty million a year in maintenance.

That's what truly defines luxury.