Chapter 278 - 133: New Mission: Home-style Dish, Stir-Fried Yellow Beef

Chapter 278: Chapter 133: New Mission: Home-style Dish, Stir-Fried Yellow Beef

"Here’s the contract. Do you want to have a lawyer look at it?"

"Huh?" Ling Shuyu took the stack of papers. "A contract?"

Fang Chang poured himself a glass of water and chugged it down.

"You bet! It just so happens I supply meat to the official in charge of this project. He was complaining to me a few days ago during a delivery. I casually mentioned that I deliver to a lot of hotels, and he just handed the whole thing off to me!"

"He also said that anyone willing to take on the job can sign the contract directly, provided their qualifications and assets check out. They don’t even have to worry about the financing—it’ll be handled as a startup loan."

Ling Shuyu quickly flipped through the contract.

It was just a standard template contract. There weren’t any convoluted clauses; it was all very official.

The gist of it was that Party B would secure a loan to construct a dormitory for 100 people and a canteen that could also serve 100.

In return, Party A would award the catering and accommodation contract for the upcoming sports meet to Party B, with fees to be calculated at market rates.

Ling Shuyu had a sharp mind and quickly did the math.

The room and board were for a total of seven days. The standard rate for lodging was 200 yuan per person, and meals were also 200 yuan per person.

By that math, the cost came out to 2,800 yuan per person for the week, which meant a total gross revenue of 280,000 yuan.

Fang Chang seemed to guess what Ling Shuyu was thinking. "President Ling, there are specific standards for this. The renovation standards we used for our little eatery here won’t cut it."

"What do you mean?"

Fang Chang produced another stack of papers. "These are the acceptance standards for the dormitory and the canteen."

Ling Shuyu gave them a quick look. "No wonder... If this is the case, I’ll have to discuss it with the boss."

According to the standards in the proposal, the investment for the canteen alone would require at least one million yuan, and the standards for the dormitory were even higher.

Private bathrooms, individual air conditioning units, beds, TVs... with all that miscellaneous stuff, if a floor was set up with a few dozen standard rooms, the investment for each room would be around 100,000 yuan.

Four million!

Combined with the canteen, it was an investment of nearly five million!

...

"No wonder no one wants to take on this hot potato," Su Chen said after hearing Ling Shuyu’s report.

Five million was no small sum. A revenue of just over two hundred thousand was a drop in the bucket compared to an investment of five million.

’What couldn’t a boss with that kind of capital do? Why would they choose to sink it into such a speculative investment?’

Even with an official interest-free loan, who would want such a massive debt hanging over their head?

The main problem was the poor potential for monetization.

A canteen that large wouldn’t be very useful on its own. And a hotel facility becomes outdated quickly; it would need to be renovated every three to five years and require constant maintenance. All of that meant more investment down the line.

If you couldn’t cash out quickly, it really wasn’t a good deal.

But...

"How long is the interest-free loan for?"

"I’ve looked into Jingzhou’s current policies. For a startup fund, the interest-free period is five years."

Su Chen nodded, satisfied. ’Five years, huh?’

’That’s enough.’

"All right. You’re going to have your work cut out for you. Our spaces are all just bare shells right now. We’ll site the canteen on the 3rd floor and the dormitory on the 32nd."

"Just like that?" Ling Shuyu thought Su Chen was being awfully hasty.

"Yep. It’s decided." Su Chen stood up, showing no intention of reconsidering.

’Five years is plenty of time.’

Other people were afraid to invest because the Development Zone wasn’t yet a suitable location for this type of business.

But Su Chen was different.

If a conventional food service business relies on location and foot traffic, Su Chen’s company was the complete opposite—it relied on its own formidable strengths!

From the very first Delicious custom order at Delicious, this had been the company’s development strategy!

As for the assets, there was no issue at all.

The completed hotel and canteen would be considered company assets. Add to that the two floors Su Chen’s company already owned, and there was no need to worry about meeting the qualification requirements.

"If you’ve made your decision, then I’ll get right on it."

Su Chen grunted in assent and went back to his chair.

’Man, I gotta say, this chair is so damn comfortable. Once you lean back, you don’t want to move at all!’

He had been so busy lately that he’d completely forgotten about something very important!

He looked at the three empty task slots in his mind.

’Hidden quests... they’re a matter of luck, not effort. If I don’t run into another rare find like Wang Xiaoyi, I might never get another one.’

’As for side quests...’ Su Chen was starting to get confused.

’I just committed to such a huge project, and still no quest activated?’

’Main Quest!!!’

"’Canteen.’"

A moment later, text faintly materialized in his mind.

[Search failed, please re-enter...]

’Tsk.’

Su Chen always got a headache whenever he had to input keywords to activate a quest.

It was surprisingly difficult to get a quest that actually fit his current circumstances.

After mulling it over for a while, Su Chen tried a new keyword.

"’Company growth.’"

Strictly speaking, it wasn’t really a single term, but a concept.

A moment later.

[Keyword search complete...]

Just like always, the system quickly offered two main quests to choose from.

[Main Quest 1: A Rising Star. Analysis complete: Your company is already well-known among the culinary elite, but remains obscure to the general public. As a true epicure, the food you create should be accessible to the masses.]

[Quest Objective: Launch a company delivery service within one week. Within one month, make your popularity index number one in the entire city.]