Chapter 204: What Is the Layout of Mingyun Villa?
July 13th, morning.
Moyu Internet Café Flagship Store.
Li Shi sat quietly in a corner seat, sipping his coffee.
"It's gotten a lot livelier here, but… I still prefer how it used to be."
He let out a soft sigh. What he didn't know was that, on this point, he and Pei Qian were in complete agreement.
Although his last clash with President Pei had ended in total defeat—leaving him frustrated and unwilling to return to Moyu Internet Café for over a week—Li Shi still felt a lingering unwillingness, hoping he could somehow make a comeback in the future.
Besides, dropping by the café, sitting down, and having a few drinks had already become a habit.
So today, Li Shi came once again to the flagship store, wanting to see how things were going.
His first impression was that the number of customers had indeed grown.
He knew evenings would be especially busy, so he deliberately came on a Tuesday morning.
To his surprise, even on a weekday morning, the café was still fairly crowded.
Some people were quietly reading and drinking coffee in the café area, some were taking photos, while others were surfing the internet.
Business looked good.
With daily revenue, plus the split from the bar tabs whenever singers performed at night…
Li Shi estimated that the flagship store was probably turning a profit now. How much it earned was hard to say, but it definitely wasn't losing money.
That said, he personally still preferred the old Moyu Internet Café—peaceful, quiet, undisturbed.
Of course, it wasn't as if the café was now unbearably noisy. It just wasn't as serene as before.
Li Shi took another sip of his coffee, faintly feeling like something was missing.
Pei Qian wasn't around—that was to be expected.
But what about that long-faced guy, and the regional manager who always tagged along with him?
Back when Li Shi frequently visited, those two were always there, as though permanently stationed at the flagship store.
Yet today, both of them were nowhere to be seen.
"Strange."
"With business booming like this, shouldn't they be keeping an even closer eye on things?"
Li Shi had also observed Moyu Internet Café's recent developments.
The flagship store, indeed, had blown up thanks to Chen Lei, turning into a trendy internet-famous spot. Many people flocked here just to "check in" and spend money, bringing in heavy foot traffic.
But the other chain stores hadn't changed nearly as much. Although their customer flow and revenue had also increased, they still couldn't compare to the flagship store.
Reasonably speaking, while these branches might have clawed back some of their losses, they probably hadn't reached profitability yet.
So shouldn't the focus now be on the flagship store—using its success as a model to expand and apply to the other branches?
Why, then, were those two suddenly absent?
Li Shi raised his hand slightly, and the nearby server instantly understood, walking over to his table.
"Is there anything I can help you with?" the server asked with a polite smile.
Since Li Shi was a regular customer who spent generously, the staff all recognized him and treated him with extra attentiveness.
Putting on a casual air, Li Shi asked, "Your Manager Ma isn't here today?"
The server replied with a smile, "That's right, our Manager Ma hasn't been around recently—probably for about a week now."
Li Shi was stunned.
A whole week?
That meant right after the flagship store blew up in popularity, and once the busiest days had passed and customer flow stabilized, the long-faced guy had simply stopped coming.
Strictly speaking, since the flagship store already had a store manager, it wasn't unreasonable for him to leave things be.
But after all, Long-face and the others were management above the store manager level.
If they weren't in this store, then they must have gone to another one.
So what were they doing there?
There had to be something fishy going on.
…
Two hours later.
Li Shi glanced at his phone, which had just received a message from a subordinate.
"President Li, it's been confirmed—they're at the Mingyun Villa branch store."
Reading this, Li Shi was a little surprised.
But after thinking it over, he quickly understood.
Obviously, those two had seen the flagship store blow up in popularity and shifted their focus to another branch for the next stage!
Although Li Shi looked down on Ma Yang, that Long-face, and thought him rather dim-witted, he dared not underestimate him.
After all, every move Ma Yang made had to be under President Pei's direction!
After the last incident, Li Shi no longer dared to dismiss President Pei because of his youth or apparent lack of experience.
He knew very well—though Pei Qian seemed young and often acted contrary to common sense, he had extremely clear and far-reaching plans, always keeping a backup strategy in place.
Last time, Li Shi had suffered a crushing loss precisely because he had underestimated President Pei.
Rubbing his chin, he pondered over the matter.
"Last time, President Pei must have already noticed my little moves."
"That false intel Long-face gave me was definitely President Pei's doing behind the scenes."
"As expected, Long-face might be a fool, but his loyalty to President Pei is unquestionable. Trying to pry information from him was indeed a stupid mistake."
"And it makes sense too. If Long-face weren't loyal enough, how could he possibly have won President Pei's favor and been placed in such a high position?"
"This time, I absolutely can't make the same mistake again."
"The fact that Long-face isn't at the flagship store but stationed long-term at the Mingyun Villa branch most likely means President Pei's next big move is in that area!"
Li Shi had no intention of pulling his old tricks again, like trying to acquire Moyu Internet Café.
He knew very well that now, with Moyu thriving and its brand image polished so well, investing was basically impossible.
His interest in Moyu Internet Café had faded, but his interest in President Pei had not.
Ever since the last incident, Li Shi's evaluation of Pei kept climbing. He even felt that Pei Qian was already one of the sharpest entrepreneurs in the entire Jingzhou.
With such a remarkable figure right here in the city, every move was worth watching closely.
Who knew—he might discover a new business opportunity.
It was the same this time. Investigating the Moyu Internet Café at Mingyun Villa wasn't about investing or acquisition, but rather pure curiosity about President Pei's next move.
He opened his map app for a quick look.
Li Shi frowned deeply.
He really couldn't understand what was so special about this location.
"Mingyun Villa" was actually a high-end residential area in the suburbs of Jingzhou, mainly consisting of standalone villas.
But the planning of this community had some problems.
The location in Jingzhou's southeast was scenic—backed by mountains and near water.
Yet two major issues stood out:
First, the surrounding facilities were poor. Buying a villa here for the occasional vacation stay was fine, but it wasn't suitable for long-term living, since daily life would be inconvenient.
Second, the developer's strategy had serious flaws. The villas were all built as high-end properties, priced significantly higher than other villa areas in Jingzhou, but the marketing efforts were weak, and the hype insufficient.
As a result, nearly a year after completion, the occupancy rate remained low.
And the location of Moyu Internet Café's Mingyun Villa branch made even less sense to Li Shi.
It wasn't situated near the villa community itself, nor was it close to the nearby East Campus of Handong University.
For residents of Mingyun Villa or students at the university, the café was still a bit out of the way.
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