Chapter 242: Liu Yongheng Wants to Start a Business

That evening, after getting some rest, the group left the hotel.

They soon discovered that most of the restaurants were packed.

"Yongheng! This is all your fault! If you hadn’t insisted on leaving to take a dump, we would’ve gotten a table ages ago!" Li Shiming nagged incessantly in Liu Yongheng’s ear.

Liu Yongheng put on an innocent expression. "You can’t blame me! Who knew the chili peppers here would be so vicious! Ugh, my asshole is going to be killing me tomorrow! Diarrhea on top of all that heat... This is torture!"

Lai Yi said with concern, "Honey, I’ll go buy you some medicine later! We can’t have you suffering from diarrhea again tomorrow!"

"*Mwah*... Honey, you’re the best!"

Watching this sappy exchange, the others all pretended to gag.

After a long wait, the group finally got a table.

After handing the ordering duties over to the girls, Liu Yongheng asked with a conflicted expression, "Boss! Do you think now is a good time for me to start a business?"

Wu Yun was a little taken aback by the question. "What made you think about starting a business?" he asked.

Liu Yongheng smiled. "Ever since you left school, I’ve found myself really envious of you. I’m enjoying college life, but I also want to build something of my own."

’If it weren’t for his rebirth, Wu Yun knew that if he had tried to start a business on his own, he would’ve just been running around like a headless chicken with no real goal.’

"How much capital can you raise? Do you have a specific direction or industry in mind? Are you looking for a stable income, or do you want to take a big risk?"

Wu Yun’s rapid-fire questions left Liu Yongheng momentarily stunned.

The four girls, having finished ordering the food, fell silent, eager to hear what Liu Yongheng had to say.

’This was the first time Lai Yi had ever heard him talk like this. It looked like he’d been waiting specifically for Wu Yun’s return to bring it up.’

"Uhm... after buying the car, I only have a little over two hundred left!"

If the term "humblebrag" had been in vogue back then, Liu Yongheng’s comment would have been a textbook example.

Everyone except Wu Yun rolled their eyes. They knew his "little over two hundred" meant over two million.

"Just listen to you! Yongheng! Are you even speaking English? What are people like us, who don’t even have five figures in our bank accounts, supposed to think?" Li Shiming was sure Liu Yongheng was just showing off.

Wen Meng cut Li Shiming off. "Excuse me, but my savings from New Year’s money are already in the five figures!"

"Alright, alright! Let’s let Yongheng finish," Wu Yun said, stopping Li Shiming before he could say more.

"Boss! Chicks before dicks, huh?" Li Shiming muttered under his breath.

Liu Yongheng tapped his fingers on the tabletop. "I briefly mentioned to my dad that you started a business, Boss. He was really supportive of me and said he could give me ten million to get started."

"Whoa! Yongheng, I love you! Let’s get gay married!" Li Shiming said, fawning over him.

"Get off, get off! Shoo!" Liu Yongheng pushed Li Shiming off him and continued, "By the way, Boss, after all this time, we still don’t even know what your business is."

Liu Yongheng’s question thoroughly piqued everyone’s curiosity.

Wu Yun glanced at Wen Meng. He could tell from her expression that she had done a great job keeping his secret. He smiled and said, "Little Red Car."

"What!"

"Huh?"

It was important to remember that Little Red Car was no longer the obscure little company it had once been. Even this group, living in their ivory tower with little knowledge of the business world, understood the power of a nationwide company like that!

"Boss! I’m putting all my faith in you! Quick, help me figure out what I should do!" Liu Yongheng sat up straight, his body thrumming with excitement as he looked at Wu Yun expectantly.

Wu Yun rubbed the stubble on his chin, thought for a moment, and asked, "Do you want to make money the easy, stable way, or do you want to take a risk?"

"What’s the stable way?" If he could win effortlessly, Liu Yongheng certainly wouldn’t object.

Wu Yun smiled. ’He thought about the real estate prices in Rongcheng. While not as high as the established first-tier cities, from 2014 to 2022, prices in prime locations would skyrocket to thirty thousand yuan per square meter. Right now, excluding villas, the average price for a high-end, unfinished apartment was only eight or nine thousand.’

"Buy real estate in a big city now. I guarantee you’ll win effortlessly. If you buy in Rongcheng, by the time you graduate, you’ll at least double your twelve million in capital. If you pick the right spot, breaking a net worth of thirty million won’t be a problem!"

Wu Yun looked at the clearly tempted Liu Yongheng and asked, "What do you think? Want to go with that plan?"

Although he was very tempted, Liu Yongheng hesitated before asking, "Boss! I know property values are going to go up, but how do you know they’ll rise that much so quickly?"

Wu Yun couldn’t very well tell him he knew because he was reborn, so he just smiled. "It’s based on my analysis from multiple angles. Just think, how many new subway lines are planned for Rongcheng? Once those are built, aren’t the property values along the routes going to skyrocket?"

"And think about how property values developed in the established first-tier cities! In the coming years, Rongcheng is going to leverage the resources of the entire Sichuan province in its bid to become a new first-tier city."

"With all that, how could Rongcheng’s real estate prices not explode?"

As he spoke, Wu Yun glanced at the others at the table. "If any of you have the ability to convince your families to buy property, the sooner the better! You won’t lose money, even if you have to take out a loan!"

Wen Meng then smiled and added, "Wu Yun himself bought two apartments in the complex where we’re living now, including the one we’re staying in."

’This was the advantage of foresight. If someone in his past life had given him a sound reason to buy property, he absolutely would have done it! He wouldn’t have ended up in a situation where the money he’d saved up from working still wasn’t enough to pay in full.’

"Boss! So what’s the riskier option?" Liu Yongheng’s question broke the others from their reverie.

Wu Yun hesitated for a moment before saying, "I have a few ideas I can recommend."

"You know about bike-sharing, right? So why not car-sharing? Or shared power banks?"

"Of course, if you want to do a sharing-based product, I’d recommend shared power banks. For one, the initial cost is low. It wouldn’t cost that much to get widespread coverage in a single city."

Seeing Liu Yongheng’s pensive expression, Wu Yun chuckled. "It’s not that I’m worried about you getting into bike-sharing; it’s that you don’t have enough capital to really make a splash in that market, and the risks are huge! Right now, aside from bikes, the rest of the sharing economy is a blank slate. If you play your cards right and expand nationwide, the company’s valuation could reach ’soonicorn’ status at the very least."

"Boss! What’s a unicorn?" Li Shiming asked curiously. He had already decided to just coast; his family owned several properties in Rongcheng, and after hearing what Wu Yun said, he was just going to sit back and wait for them to appreciate in value.

"A ’soonicorn’ is a company that’s less than 10 years old with a valuation between 100 million US dollars and US$10 billion."

"Boss! Any other ideas?" Liu Yongheng asked, his curiosity piqued.

"Get into live streaming! I know you love watching game streams! The boom in live streaming is already here. Of course, I’m not telling you to create a streaming platform, but to make money off the ’golden geese’ who do."

Wu Yun glanced at Lai Yi, who was sitting next to Liu Yongheng, and decided not to get into the messy details about managing female streamers. Instead, he just talked about some future development trends.