Chapter 167 131: Silent Xu Huo, Heaven-Defying

However...

"But this idea... it's impossible to pull off, isn't it?"

Xu Huo narrowed his eyes, staring at Wang Chao's brilliant mind.

He almost wanted to pry it open and take a look.

But he pushed the thought away. After all, impulse is the devil.

A cold breeze seemed to tickle the back of Wang Chao's neck, but he paid it no mind. He had calmed down slightly, but his excitement was still palpable.

"Yeah, it's impossible right now. It'd be incredibly complicated to set up."

"But convenience is the current direction of internet development."

"Broadcast television, live streaming, and even express delivery are all forms of convenience. In the future, most things are bound to change."

"Shopping is no exception!"

"And since the internet is driving this change, it will naturally rely on the internet and manifest in a digital form."

"So... Brother Huo, I was looking some stuff up online last night and found something."

As Wang Chao spoke, he drew a black and white penguin.

"Penguin Coins!"

"You're familiar with these, right, Brother Huo?"

Xu Huo nodded. 'Penguin Coins... In my past life, around 2015, lots of kids would go to internet cafes to buy Penguin Coin cards to top up their accounts.'

"You can get Penguin Coins by selling premium account numbers. That's a form of transaction. So, doesn't that mean... the physical goods industry could also use this kind of method for transactions?"

Wang Chao had once again proposed a groundbreaking idea.

This time, Xu Huo couldn't stay seated. He stood up.

"Keep talking."

"Monetary exchange started with bartering tens of thousands of years ago, then cowrie shells a few thousand years ago, followed by palm-sized knife money, then thumb-sized copper coins, which eventually evolved into the paper money we have now."

"It's obvious that the core principle of this evolution is 'convenience'!"

Wang Chao explained in detail, not yet realizing just how terrifying his ideas were.

"We've reached paper money now. What's the next step in its evolution?"

"Penguin Coins gave me a bit of an idea."

"To achieve free trade between multiple provinces, across thousands of kilometers, physical currency definitely won't work. It has to be a virtual currency."

"Online transactions! You can negotiate a deal one second, complete the transaction the next, the other party ships the item a second after that, and you receive it within seven days!"

"This way, the conditions I need are highly likely to appear in the future!"

Wang Chao's gaze seemed to pierce through the constraints of time.

His vision was fixed ten years in the future.

Or even twenty!

He saw visions of virtual transactions, of convenience driving rapid economic growth.

"That takes care of the transaction and real-time information transfer aspects."

"Then what I need to do becomes very simple."

"First, I'll find some professional runners—not the kind who work for a single shop."

"Then, I'll model it after the express delivery industry and build a platform that allows the three parties—the merchant, the buyer, and the runner—to communicate."

"The platform will have real-time location tracking and information transfer!"

"Users can order food from a restaurant ten kilometers away without ever leaving their house, and a runner will accept the order and deliver it!"

"All we have to do is take a small commission from that, plus advertising and referral fees."

"One person eats three meals a day. Ten people, thirty. With the current population of 1.3 billion, even if we just get a hundred million users... assuming they all order three meals a day, and we take just a tenth of a yuan per order, that's thirty million a day!"

The more Wang Chao spoke, the more excited he became.

He laid out all the various difficulties they currently faced.

Xu Huo fell silent.

His expression was as if he were looking at some kind of monster.

'In a single speech, he just described three things that stood at the pinnacle of the Eastern Country in my past life...'

'Food delivery, the big boss behind Penguin Coins, and Ant...'

'He's being conservative with his predictions.'

'A hundred million?'

'The number of active users was six hundred million!'

The concept of food delivery had actually been around for a long time.

In the old days, waiters from inns would follow a rich family's butler to deliver meals right to their door.

Even small restaurants nowadays offered it.

It was just called "phone-in ordering."

You'd make a call, give an address, and the shop owner would send his son or someone to deliver it by bike, charging a small fee for the trouble.

However...

Combining this model with the internet was a line of thought no one had come up with at this point in time.

"So, what's the use of it right now?"

Xu Huo suddenly asked in return.

"As it stands, this thing needs the internet to develop further, but right now we're in a stage where it hasn't."

"I've thought about that," Wang Chao continued.

"That's not a weakness. For us, it's a good thing!"

"This thing will require a huge amount of money for promotion. A few hundred thousand wouldn't even be enough to get our foot in the door. A few million might barely be enough to get it up and running."

"My plan is to start within ten years. Between now and then, we'll use the time to raise funds for the project, pull in investment, and look for supportive government policies!"

"How do we raise the funds?"

"By opening a chain of food shops! I've tasted Sister Chu Xi's cooking. It's guaranteed to be a bestseller!"

Wang Chao slapped his chest, making a guarantee.

"One shop, two shops, three shops!"

"We'll turn the shops into a brand that sells all sorts of products: cakes, desserts, snacks, hot pot—we'll sell everything."

"Then, when the time is right, we'll ride the wave of the era to promote the runner platform, using our existing physical businesses to establish the concept of delivery runners."

"We'll slowly penetrate all the snack streets and popularize the idea."

"As long as we can establish it in two provinces, even if we do nothing afterward, other businesses will start asking to join on their own."

Wang Chao explained again.

When he finished, he looked at Xu Huo hopefully.

"Brother Huo, what do you think? Can we do it?"

Xu Huo was silent for a long moment. What could he say?

After a good while, he finally spoke with a sense of resignation.

"Okay."

"I'll put in more capital. Let's change the investment from ten thousand to two hundred thousand. We'll build the first shop as fast as possible."

Two hundred thousand?

Wang Chao was stunned.

"No, no, that's not necessary! Last night, I found a really great spot."

"The rent is three thousand a month. Factoring in renovation, materials, advertising, staff wages, and equipment costs..."

"Thirty thousand is more than enough to get started."

"Sister Chu Xi's shop is a guaranteed money-maker!"

Wang Chao was deeply moved.

'To make a man spend two hundred thousand on him after just one conversation! Who else in the world could pull that off?'

Wang Chao stared at Xu Huo's face, his gaze growing more and more emotional. His body started to fidget awkwardly until a slap from Xu Huo brought him back to his senses.

"Alright, go ask Xiao Xi."

Wang Chao scrambled to follow behind him.

"KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK~"

The sound of knocking followed.

"CREAK~"

Chu Xi glanced through the peephole, then quickly pulled the door open, appearing in the gap.

Xu Huo glanced at Wang Chao, gesturing for him to speak.

"Sister, I have a plan!"

Wang Chao said to Chu Xi, bursting with excitement.

He laid out his business empire and also explained the difficulties they would face in the future.

Chu Xi furrowed her brow and tilted her head.

"What he means is, let's go open a cake shop," Xu Huo explained.

"Okay!"

Chu Xi's eyes lit up, and she immediately beamed with delight.

"I've already picked out a location! Come on, let's go check it out now!"

Wang Chao, still feeling very emotional, grabbed Xu Huo and started heading out.

All three of them had free time on their hands with nothing urgent to do, so they could act immediately on a decision made on a whim.

As for the location...

You had to hand it to him, the spot Wang Chao picked was really something.

He had chosen a place near a snack street, but closer to an office building.

It was below the office building, with a middle school and a residential complex in the distance.

The location was excellent. The foot traffic from the office workers alone was at least a thousand people, and the school and residential complex provided even more.

Correspondingly, the price was also very high.

The monthly rent was three thousand. For some migrant workers with low incomes, one month's rent was almost half a year's salary!

Furthermore, the contract wasn't for monthly rent; the minimum lease was one year, which came out to thirty-six thousand, almost forty thousand yuan.

When Xu Huo heard the price, he first asked Chu Xi to calculate how long she'd have to work as a police officer to afford it.

While she was busy calculating, Xu Huo immediately sealed the deal and signed the contract.

By the time Chu Xi realized what had happened, all she could do was stare wide-eyed at Xu Huo.

"There, from now on, this is our business," Xu Huo said with a smile.

"I'll go find someone for renovations and also take care of the business licenses and such."

He had to handle procedural things like the business license.

As for Chu Xi...

Her situation was more complicated.

Unlike a freelancer like Xu Huo, who could do whatever he wanted, she still had her identity as a police officer.

Xu Huo had her contact Chu Linhai to resign from her police position.

As expected, Chu Linhai gave her a severe scolding.

Xu Huo was used to it. He only hung up after hearing the little old man on the other end grumblingly agree.

As for Wang Chao...

"Next up, it's my time to shine!" Wang Chao declared.