Chapter 211: Restaurant Location? Already Decided
Manager Cui's mouth hung slightly open, momentarily speechless.
Not expensive?
If it really weren't expensive, then how come it hadn't sold after all this time!
In fact, this price was higher than that of many villas in Jingzhou's urban districts. What made it costly were the selling points of the design, the fine interior decoration, the standalone structure, and of course, the gimmick of being a "mountaintop villa."
As for Pei Qian thinking it wasn't expensive, that was because he subconsciously compared it to the villa prices he remembered.
Seven million for a villa this large? That really wasn't expensive!
If this kind of mansion were in Beijing, Shanghai, or Guangzhou, ten years later it would easily be worth tens of millions, maybe even over a hundred million.
What's more, Pei Qian had already confirmed with the System—it was indeed possible to use System funds to buy this!
However, once purchased, the property would count as a company asset. It could be used to open a restaurant, but Pei Qian himself couldn't live in it.
In other words, it had to be used for proper business operations, treated as production material.
And using company funds to purchase real estate was more costly than buying it as a private individual. For example, there would be property tax, no preferential loan interest rates, and if it were ever sold, value-added tax, stamp duty, and other extra costs would apply, making it even harder to get rid of.
But to Pei Qian, none of that mattered. The fact that the System was bending the rules to allow him to purchase property for a restaurant was already an unexpected windfall!
Pei Qian checked the System funds.
After the last settlement, his starting funds were 8 million. Now, three weeks had passed, and revenue from Ocean Fortress alone had brought in more than 6 million.
At the start of the month, Moyu Café had also generated significant revenue from drinks. Since rent was paid quarterly, the books had yet to show a loss, meaning all the profits went into the System funds.
Projects like Terminal Chinese Web, Shangyang Games, and Against the Wind Logistics had already absorbed large investments, but there was still more than 8 million left unspent.
Buying the villa outright was doable, but Shangyang Games and Tengda Games would need major funding soon.
After all, the budget for Turn Back Before It's Too Late had been set at 20 million, with a development cycle of at least three months. Given the revenue streams from several games, it was just barely manageable.
But if he suddenly spent 6 million on this villa, funds would become tight.
Pei Qian thought for a moment. In that case, why not let Ocean Fortress sell another epic weapon?
An epic weapon priced at 888 yuan, with a 70/30 revenue split, would require selling 10,000 units to cover 6 million.
Perfect—this would be a permanently discontinued gun, limited to 10,000 copies. Selling them all would patch up the financial hole nicely.
With that decision made, Pei Qian sent a message to Assistant Xin, telling her to come over and prepare the paperwork.
Meanwhile, he asked Manager Cui to show him around the villa.
…
There were a total of eight mountaintop villas in Mingyun Villa Estate. Each was fully detached, and they were spaced far apart to ensure absolute peace and quiet.
Pei Qian deliberately chose one relatively close to the northwest side gate. His main concern was that when company employees came over for gatherings, driving through the estate might disturb residents.
Just right—enter from the northwest side gate, eat, then leave. Very convenient.
The villa had a usable area of 580 square meters, three floors, six bedrooms, three living rooms, and three bathrooms. The ceiling height was just over 4 meters, with the living room's atrium soaring above 7 meters. The decoration was excellent, and there was already some simple furniture inside.
Of course, Pei Qian had no use for the furniture. After all, he planned to turn the villa into a restaurant. The decoration could mostly stay the same, but the purposes and layouts of the various rooms would need major changes—especially the kitchen, bathrooms, and so on.
There was even an infinity pool, offering a sweeping view down the hillside. It felt quite impressive.
Pei Qian strolled around and could only sigh inwardly.
'Being rich is great!'
'If I can manage to lose seven million in the next settlement, I'll get myself another one of these just to live in!'
'One must have dreams—what if they come true?'
Manager Cui spared no effort in touting the villa's advantages, painting a dazzling picture.
He was naturally eloquent, and coupled with the villa's genuinely impressive design (aside from the price), everything sounded extremely persuasive.
Ma Yang and Zhang Yuan followed Pei Qian on the tour, and they too shared the same thought.
Being rich is great!
After the tour, Zhang Yuan said to Pei Qian:
"President Pei, how about you and President Ma keep looking at the villa while I check out some potential restaurant locations?"
Pei Qian glanced at him.
"Restaurant location? Already decided. Right here."
Zhang Yuan froze.
Right here???
In such a remote villa district with so little foot traffic, he was really going to open a high-end restaurant here?!
Pei Qian ignored Zhang Yuan's astonishment and turned to Manager Cui.
"Manager Cui, I'd like to buy one of the mixed-use mountaintop villas to set up a private kitchen. That should be fine, right?"
Manager Cui blinked.
"You want one of the mixed-use ones? Uh… of course! That's perfectly fine!"
"These villas were originally zoned for commercial use. As long as we coordinate with the neighboring owners, there won't be a problem."
He was genuinely surprised—he hadn't expected this man to set his sights on the hardest-to-sell properties.
Those mixed-use villas were notoriously difficult to move. The foot traffic was abysmal, they were isolated from the other residential villas, and overall, they were inferior to the pure residential versions in every way.
Of course, restaurants came with potential issues like vehicle access and guest management.
But since the mixed-use villas had their own separate zone and a dedicated entrance, it wouldn't really disturb the rest of the villa district's residents.
And Pei Qian had already said the restaurant would operate by reservation and membership only, strictly limiting guest numbers, ensuring no noise or disruption to the neighbors.
As for whether a restaurant in such a remote spot could actually make money…
That was irrelevant.
Anyway, for the developers of Mingyun Villa, as long as the villa was sold and the money pocketed, that was all that mattered. Whether President Pei ended up losing money was his own problem—it did the developers no harm. In fact, it was beneficial to them.
As for President Pei—losing money? That was exactly what he wanted!
If any other issues cropped up, he could just throw some more money at them. After all, it was all system funds, nothing to worry about!
…
Not long after, Xin Hailu arrived.
She looked visibly surprised.
President Pei suddenly wanted to buy a house? And not just any house, but a mountaintop villa in the suburbs with such terrible cost-performance? And on top of that, it would be registered under the company's name as a mixed-use property?
This was quite sudden. But Xin Hailu never asked unnecessary questions—she simply followed Pei Qian's instructions, handled the bargaining, signed the contract, and took care of everything.
Meanwhile, Pei Qian sipped tea leisurely on the side and sent a message to Lu Mingliang.
"Make some time to develop a new epic weapon for Ocean Fortress. Limit it to 10,000 units, one-time release, never to be sold again."
Money should not be over-earned.
Pei Qian would never do the short-sighted thing of killing the goose that laid the golden eggs.
Ocean Fortress was in a great state right now, and the very reason so many players were flocking to it was the scarcity of its weapons, which gave them speculative value.
If something like the "Barrett · Destruction" were sold without limits, it would wreak havoc on the in-game economy.
So, after some thought, Pei Qian decided that in order to let Ocean Fortress make money sustainably, he needed to ensure that this golden goose laid its eggs rhythmically and predictably. In the future, three kinds of weapons could be sold:
Weapons like the "Barrett · Destruction," limited to 500 per month, refreshed each month. That way, their value would decline slowly, at a pace most players could handle.
Epic weapons like this new one—sold once in 10,000 units, never restocked, and designed for slow appreciation.
As for permanent, unlimited-sale epic weapons like "Fire Qilin," there were no plans to introduce a second one yet.
Otherwise, if revenue spiked too high all at once, it would be impossible to lower it again later, and it would prematurely exhaust players' spending power.
This time, with just 10,000 epic weapons sold gradually, it would be enough to fill the hole left by buying the villa. That way, the cash flow wouldn't break, and neither game development progress nor other investment projects would be affected.
Since the villa was paid for in full, there was no need for complicated mortgage procedures, so things moved quickly. In about three to five days, everything would be finalized.
Pei Qian estimated that between paperwork, renovations, and redecoration, everything would be ready by the beginning of next month.
Perfect timing—just in time for the August 1st "Best Employee" award. Then he could properly and ceremoniously bring the lucky winner here for a grand feast, joyfully seeing them off.
Still, the fact that the system had allowed him to purchase real estate for a restaurant came as a bit of a surprise.
Was it because this place couldn't be rented?
Or was it because the company's finances were now robust enough to handle such expenses?
Even though the villa couldn't be used as his personal residence and could only function as a restaurant, the fact remained: the system had further loosened its restrictions.
That was good news!
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