Witch Special

"Sister Meili, do you want to move to a bigger store?" Lin Zhenxi suddenly asked.

"Huh?" Zhou Meili tilted her head and looked at Lin Zhenxi in confusion.

"Well, I have some money right now, but I can't find a place to spend it. Even if I don't put it in the bank, it will continue to increase in value with inflation, but that only preserves its value, not increases it. Ultimately, it's still a waste of resources."

"Now I think you and Brother Liu are worth investing in, so I've decided to use this money to help you realize your dreams. How about this? I'll fund you to open a hotel. I don't want any decision-making power, just that you pay me dividends on schedule. Since this concerns Brother Liu's ideals, I trust you won't mess around with this."

Having said that, Lin Zhenxi's mouth corners slightly raised, but his eyes were still fixed on Zhou Meili's eyes.

Perhaps because she saw that Lin Zhenxi was serious and not just saying it casually, Zhou Meili finally started to think about it seriously.

Although they had a good start, to be honest, they were not cut out for business. Expecting Liu Angxing to recreate the glory of Juxialou in their original world through hard work was probably not something he could accomplish in three to five years.

The difficulty of creating a restaurant that can be passed down for a century from scratch cannot be summed up in a few words. Even if Liu Angxing's own skills are sufficient, it is far from enough to open a restaurant with only the skills of a chef.

Resources, or in other words, money, connections, and time, are all essential. Right now, they're just starting out in all of these areas. At this point, if someone could invest in them, it would really save them a lot of effort.

So--

"Maki, can you give me a rough idea of ​​how much money you can invest for us?" The construction costs of restaurants of different sizes are completely different, but they are definitely not cheap.

Simpler ones, like their current Xinju Lower Building, had a total investment of less than one million, including renovation costs. But even for a restaurant of this size, if you wanted to buy it outright, with the high housing prices in Xinlan City, you probably wouldn't be able to do it without three to five million.

If it is a store facing the street, it would be even more exaggerated. I'm afraid I have to add one in front of the number.

If it were to be a little bigger and become a restaurant or hotel located in a prominent location on a street, the investment would probably be over 100 million.

Above that is the level of a century-old restaurant. Liu Angxing and Zhou Meili's goal is to rebuild Juxialou in this world. In the original world, after Liu Angxing took over and operated it for several years, the originally declining Juxialou has regained its glory when his mother ran it, and even reached a higher level. It has become a new-style restaurant covering thousands of square meters, with several buildings, and has begun to develop in the direction of catering, entertainment, leisure and accommodation.

In Xinlan City, if you want to build a hotel of that scale, it would probably cost hundreds of millions, right?

Zhou Meili didn't look down on Lin Zhenxi, but she honestly felt that it was impossible for her to come up with much money. How old was she? She looked like she was barely out of high school. Even if Yan Qing said she was working, she probably wouldn't have saved much.

So the money she was talking about must have come from her family. But how much could that kind of pocket money be? Hundreds of thousands? Millions? This amount might be enough for her to live lavishly, but it wasn't enough for investment.

But for them now, a few million is actually a considerable fortune, and it can even allow them to move to a better location instead of being squeezed in a small alley that is not even close to the street. If they are not short of money and cannot afford a good building, who would want to be a treasure shop that is hidden away in an alley? In the restaurant industry, customer flow is king!

Then she saw Lin Zhen looking up at the sky, and said uncertainly, "Hmm...it should be around 700 million or 800 million, right? But I have to save some for myself. I guess anything under 500 million will be fine."

With a loud "bang!", Zhou Meili punched the wall, creating a circular crack. Yan Qing turned her head to see the devastating effect of Zhou Meili's punch, and the hair on her tail stood up in fear.

Moreover, the event was being broadcast live in front. Since Zhou Meili made such a big noise, someone would definitely come to check it out. So after Zhou Meili reacted, she immediately took Lin Zhenxi and Yan Qing and ran away.

Her strength was so immense that the two people being dragged behind her felt as if they were about to be thrown into the air. The wind whistled past her ears, and the scene before her eyes quickly shifted. Before Lin Zhenxi could even react, Zhou Meili dragged her into an even more secluded corridor. This corridor was even further than the restroom, and the end was probably somewhere like an equipment room. With the Chef Challenge going on, this place was definitely deserted.

Here, Zhou Meili can ask Lin Zhenxi about the things she seemed not to have heard clearly just now.

"Um, Maki, did I hear the number you just said wrong?"

"No. I have a lot of money, more than I can spend in my lifetime. It's just that they are still in this form and cannot be used directly." As he said that, Lin Zhenxi stretched out his hand to Black Cat. Black Cat cooperated and took out a gold bar that looked very heavy from his arms, put it on his belly, and used the rebound of his belly to pass it to Lin Zhenxi's hand.

Lin Zhenxi handed the 6.125kg gold bar, made from half a standard gold brick, directly to Zhou Meili. The moment the bar landed in her hand, Zhou Meili could tell its composition by its weight and luster.

Gold, and it is gold of very high purity.

"What is this...?" Zhou Meili knew that it was gold, but she had never seen anyone carrying gold bars with them. Could it be some stolen goods of unknown origin?

Compared to Zhou Meili's bewilderment, Yan Qing's reaction was even more exaggerated. She leaned her head forward, two "￥" symbols practically popping out of her eyes.

"Wow Maki, you went and robbed a bank? You could easily pull out gold bars and you said you had no money to eat, that's too much!"

"Banks won't store gold like this. I'm robbing the national treasury." Lin Zhenxi told the truth in a joking tone.

After a pause, Lin Zhenxi continued to explain, "Besides, I really don't have any money in my account right now. I even paid for the hovercar on credit."

Zhou Meili returned the precious metal, worth over two million yuan, to Lin Zhenxi, pursing her lips as she pondered. Lin Zhenxi took the gold bar and, seeing Yan Qing almost stretching her neck, rubbed it in her hands.

Anyway, Zhou Meili also mastered the extraordinary power of Qigong, so it was not against the rules to show one's strength in front of her. It could even be considered a display of sincerity and strength, making the road to future cooperation between the two parties smoother.

A magical aura blossomed in Lin Zhenxi's hands. She cut a tiny piece from the gold bar, then used Transfiguration to shape and sculpt it. A moment later, Lin Zhenxi's palms opened, one holding the slightly shortened gold bar, the other holding a shimmering golden phoenix hairpin.

The head of the hairpin features a hollowed-out golden phoenix, carefully layered with thin gold threads to create a three-dimensional flying phoenix shape. The phoenix with its wings spread stands on a similarly hollowed-out flying cloud, making the hairpin look very exquisite.

If Lin Zhenxi had her magic wand, she might be able to make this golden phoenix hairpin even more exquisite and beautiful. She could even replace the gold with gemstones of other colors, making the hairpin no longer just pure gold. But the conditions don't allow it now, so she can only make do with this for now. Besides, it looks pretty good, doesn't it?

Lin Zhenxi stuffed the gold bar back into Black Cat's pocket. Something this dense couldn't possibly be used in real life; its only destination was a bank or a gold shop. Lin Zhenxi herself picked up the golden phoenix hairpin and approached Yan Qing.

"Maki, what are you doing?" Yan Qing stared at the beautiful hairpin in Lin Zhenxi's hand, and even her meowing voice became a little lower.

"This is a gift for you. We haven't seen each other for a long time. Come here and let me see if it fits." Lin Zhenxi put the hairpin in her mouth, grabbed Yan Qing, turned her over, then tied her hair into a bun, and inserted the golden phoenix hairpin into the bun to secure it.

When Lin Zhenxi was putting the hairpin up for her, Yan Qing's body was as stiff as a piece of wood, and she fiddled with it here and there. After Lin Zhenxi put the hairpin in place, she turned Yan Qing over and found that her face was as red as a monkey's butt, and her eyes were already turning into mosquito coils.

"Waaaaaaaaa." Yan Qing couldn't even speak clearly now.

What the hell is this cat doing... Lin Zhenxi didn't realize anything was wrong. She simply drew a circle with one hand to make a magic round mirror and placed it in front of Yan Qing.

"Look at how it goes. I'm pretty good at tying a bun now. Let me tell you."

"Hey...Maki." Black Cat complained from behind, "Why did you have to give me a hairpin when there are so many other things to give me?"

"Because of her current outfit, I feel like it would look better with a hairpin." Lin Zhenxi compared Yan Qing's current golden and red cheongsam. Although it looked good with her hair down, since the cheongsam is a dignified dress, it would be more suitable to put her hair up.

Although Lin Zhenxi herself doesn't like to dress up, she still has an intuition about how to dress more beautifully as a woman.

"But the hairpin also means walking hand in hand. It's used to tie a hairpin. Please don't complicate your relationship, okay?"

"Uh..." Lin Zhenxi finally understood why Yan Qing behaved so strangely, as if she was the one who lacked common sense.

So, did she just confess her feelings to Yan Qing?