Spy game? Stop guessing, I really am an undercover agent!

Chapter 6 You Want to Do Black Market Trading

Second floor bedroom.

Chen Yang took the towel handed to him by the maid and wiped his face. Just as he was about to rest for a while, a knock sounded on the door.

Hearing the sound, Chen Yang looked up and saw his second brother, Lin Xueyi, peeking furtively into the room.

"Second brother, what are you doing?" Chen Yang asked, puzzled by his appearance.

Lin Xueyi cleared his throat and said to the maid, "Xiao Lan, you can go now. I have something to discuss with the young master."

"Yes, Second Young Master." The maid carried the toiletries out of the room and closed the door behind her.

"Second brother, what exactly are you trying to do?"

"Chen Yang, sit down. Your second brother wants to discuss something with you." Lin Xueyi said, and then sat down on his own.

"Second Brother, what do you want to say?" Chen Yang asked gently.

Lin Xueyi said with a grin, "Actually, it's not a big deal."

"You know, I don't get along with Dad and the eldest brother."

"After my mother died, my father spent all his time with the eldest son, calling him the eldest legitimate son, and hardly ever cared about me. Damn it, did he really think our Lin family had a throne to inherit?"

“I don’t have any status in this family.”

“I’m not like you. You’ve been smart since you were little and you’re blessed with good fortune. My father treats you better than he treats me.”

"Not to mention my eldest sister. Back then, she lent Gao Jianzhong's pension to Dad to start a business. In the end, she got back the deeds to more than a dozen shops. Even if she broke both her legs and hands, she could still live comfortably for the rest of her life."

"Second Brother, what exactly do you want to say?" Chen Yang listened to the other person rambling on and on, all of it complaints.

"Uh, let's get back to business." Lin Xueyi cleared his throat and said, "You've just returned to Shanghai, so you're still unfamiliar with the situation here."

"After the war broke out last year, the power dynamics in Shanghai changed. Previously, the biggest boss in the French Concession was Boss Du."

"After the Japanese won the war, they kept trying to get him to help them with their affairs, but he just wouldn't listen. Later, he even took his whole family to Hong Kong Island."

"Now that he's gone, the biggest boss in Shanghai is Boss Zhang. As for me, a few years ago I used connections to become a disciple of Boss Cao of the Green Gang."

"By seniority, I am of the same generation as Boss Zhang."

"After Boss Du left, a vacancy arose at the Sixteen Factories Wharf, and Boss Cao stepped in to help us acquire a piece of land."

"You know what's most profitable after a war, of course it's all kinds of supplies."

"Second Brother, are you crazy? You want to start a black market business like other people?" Before Lin Xueyi could finish speaking, Chen Yang already knew what he was planning to do.
"What's wrong with you? Is there any business in the entire Shanghai market that's more profitable than the black market?" Lin Xueyi said seriously, "I just want to make money."

Chen Yang frowned and said, "Second brother, I still want to advise you to think it over carefully."

“Black market trading isn’t something ordinary people can do, and besides, where did you get the capital?”

“We have no capital, but we still have you, don’t we?” Lin Xueyi laughed. “You are the future Director of the Economic Department of the Ministry of Finance of the Nanjing Reformed Government, and you can control the three provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Fujian, as well as the two regions of Nanjing and Shanghai.”

"The issue of supplies is simply a matter of you approving a note."

Wow, they're setting their sights on me.

Chen Yang shook his head and said, "Second brother, it's not that I don't want to help you, but I don't know anything about this position of Director of the Economic Department that Uncle mentioned."

"Besides, can you be sure my notes are even useful?" Lin Xueyi's face instantly darkened. "Chen Yang, we grew up under the same roof."

“When you were a child, your family was so poor that we never thought of kicking you out. Now that you've become successful and made a fortune, you don't plan to help your second brother out.”

Chen Yang frowned: "Second brother, I'd like to ask you, if I gave you goods worth a hundred silver dollars, how many would you need to sell to make a sufficient profit?"

Lin Xueyi sneered, "What? You want to test your second brother? You underestimate your second brother too much."

“I’ve found out everything. Even the lowest-profit items on the market, like grain, oil, canned goods, and cotton cloth, can be turned into two hundred silver dollars by going through the black market.”

"From one hundred to two hundred, from two hundred to four hundred, isn't that pure profiteering?"

Wow, Lin Xueyi is really adorably naive.

Chen Yang sighed and said, "You're wrong. If you want to do this business, the profit margin needs to be at least 200%."

"In other words, if I give you goods worth 100 silver dollars, you have to sell them for at least 300 to 400 silver dollars to be considered qualified."

Lin Xueyi looked at Chen Yang with a face full of doubt.

Chen Yang said in a deep voice, "Let me do the math for you. Let's say you sell your goods worth 100 silver dollars for 400 silver dollars. The 100 silver dollars is the amount you have to settle with me after you sell them. The remaining 100 silver dollars will be used as capital for the next transaction."

“Besides these two deals, you currently only have territory but no suitable sales channels, no mature transportation supply chain, and no guarantees.”

"I know you want to say that you are a member of the Green Gang and that no one will bother with you, but don't forget, this is Shanghai, a place where people eat people."

"Black market business is inherently disreputable, and even if you are targeted, you can only swallow your pride and suffer in silence."

"Therefore, you should at least give 30% of the profits for the maintenance of these things, let's say 100 dollars. The remaining 100 dollars is your team's profit."

“I will use the simplest three-tier theory based on your structure, with the upper layer accounting for 70%, the middle layer for 20%, and the lower layer for 10%.”

"Given your position, there are definitely more than just you among the higher-ups. Even if you partner with two people, and you split the seventy silver dollars equally, you'll only get a little over twenty silver dollars."

"You've taken such a big risk and done so much, and the profit you get is only 23%."

Do you think you can handle this kind of business?

"No, no, this isn't how you calculate things," Lin Xueyi shook his head repeatedly, but couldn't come up with a reason to refute it.

Chen Yang patted Lin Xueyi on the shoulder: "Second brother, listen to my advice, you're not cut out for the black market business."

"However, if you really want to do this business, I'll give you a chance to have your leader meet me."

"Your status is too low; you can't make this decision."

Lin Xueyi opened his mouth, but couldn't say anything for a long time. He silently got up and muttered to himself as he walked, "Only 23%? No, there must be something wrong with this calculation, but what exactly is wrong?"

Hearing Lin Xueyi's mutterings, Chen Yang couldn't help but chuckle to himself: "With a brain like that, he still wants to do black market business? He won't even know how he'll die."

In fact, this algorithm is obviously incorrect.

Because doing business involves cumulative calculations, rather than constant calculations like Chen Yang's.

Simply put, doing business is a process of continuous accumulation, not a fixed profit-sharing model.

(End of this chapter)