Chapter 86 - 85: The Ways of the Prodigal Son (Part 1)
Chapter 85: The Way of a Prodigal (Part I)
“The strategy you proposed is not bad, but the first impression seems not striking enough.” Finn Lewis stroked his chin, saying so.
“Mr. Finn, I would love to, but it’s already hard to leave an impression on her considering the number of people she meets every day. All we need to do is deepen that impression in her mind, until she’s overwhelmed by curiosity and strikes up a conversation with you first,” said the Prince, unable to suppress his laughter.
“No, that’s not what I meant. I completely agree with your strategy, just that it doesn’t seem convincing,” Finn pondered before speaking up.
“Then do you have a better one?” the Prince looked a bit helpless.
“Listen, I have the exact schedule for her commercial shooting. I can have someone watch for it, and calculate her timing very precisely. So, half an hour before she arrives, anyone of you guys should go to this shop and then buy all the Moon of West Lake pastries available, leaving only one. When I get there, I’m going to buy that one as well but leave it in the shop, saying that I will pick it up later. After she arrives and finds the pastries sold out, surely she will be disappointed. At this moment, I will transfer the pastry to her. How does it sound?” Finn revealed his plan.
Prince and Daniel Pan looked completely stunned. After a while, they managed to utter their helplessness, “Your strategy is definitely superior to ours, but are you sure that’s a good idea? Isn’t this just acting like a prodigal? Just one set of the Moon of West Lake pastries sells for 1,388 Flame Nation coins. Although the shop doesn’t make that many due to limited demand, there would usually be around ten or twenty sets.
You are utterly acting like a prodigal, aren’t you? “Alright, your strategy is even better than mine.” The Prince was rendered speechless, realizing his thinking was still confined within the old scope.
“No, it’s still not right.” Finn thought for a moment and opened his mouth again.
“Now what’s wrong? I think your method is already quite impressive.” Daniel Pan protested helplessly.
“I have a better strategy.” Finn snapped his fingers.
Prince and Daniel Pan exchanged looks. They had no idea what Finn meant about a better strategy, but soon it became clear. Finn made a call, as what he was doing was within the task scope, consulting Zero for information was completely free. So, Finn quickly got the information he wanted.
When Finn came back, the Prince and Daniel Pan saw him immediately calling a waiter over and asked, “Can you get in touch with your boss?”
The waiter hesitated before answering, “Please hold on, I will call the manager immediately.”
“Wait, I am not talking about your manager, but your boss, the owner of this shop. Got it?” Finn pointed to the shop as he spoke.
“Huh? What are you going to do?” The waiter was very surprised. He had seen people asking for the manager, but never for the shop owner.
“I want to buy this shop.” Finn exclaimed candidly.
Upon hearing this, the Prince spit out his tea, “Sorry, sorry, please continue.” The Prince hastily cleared his throat, wiping off the tea he had coughed up using a napkin from the table.
In his mind, he was absolutely dumbfounded. Was that really necessary? All that for a chance encounter, to leave a lasting impression? Do you really need to buy the entire shop for that? Was this how a tycoon went about their business? The Prince was completely overwhelmed; was this still the same frugal Mr. Finn he used to know?
The waiter was also a bit stunned, but she quickly said, “I’ll call the boss right away.” The reason she reacted this way was because the owner of this shop indeed had the intention to sell. The shop was basically unprofitable and even losing money, so the owner decided to sell it. But for a shop like this, buyers were usually only interested in the building, not the things inside.
However, this onmer valued the brand of his shop and wanted to sell the brand along with the shop. Naturally, the asking price was quite high. Therefore, he hadn’t found a suitable buyer yet. The turnover here was barely breaking even each day. There was hardly any profit and even wages for the staff were adding to the losses.
The waiter went to call the boss, while the Prince gave Finn a thumbs-up, speechless: “Mr. Finn, you’re brilliant! All of this just to leave an impression, worth such a huge expense? You are simply buying a shop out of the blue? This shop is probably worth tens of millions, right?”
Of course, Finn wouldn’t tell them that the money was from Zero, and spending it was heartache-free for him. Moreover, even if Finn sold the property later, the money from the sale would be his! Because once the task was successfully completed, all the output from the task would belong to Finn.
“Hehe, I’m just preparing for the worst! I’ve already decided to go all out. I’ve already achieved one of my life’s biggest dreams. Naturally, I need to work hard to achieve the second one,” Finn chuckled to himself.
Prince and Daniel Pan were speechless. What else could they say? They just didn’t understand the world of the wealthy.
As Finn had learned from Zero, the owner of this shop had long wanted to sell it. Now hearing that someone wanted to buy the shop, he immediately rushed over. Half an hour after the three of them waited, the shop owner finally appeared in front of Finn. To Finn’s surprise, the owner was already over sixty, with greying hair.
“Sir, nice to meet you.” Finn smiled and shook hands with the old gentleman.
“Nice to meet you, nice to meet you. My name is Dyer Gideon. May I know your name, sir?” The owner, Dyer Gideon, eagerly extended his hand to shake with Finn.
“Nice to meet you, I’m Finn. I heard, Mr. Dyer, that you want to sell this shop?” Finn pointed to the shop and asked.
“Indeed. I’m old and can’t keep up with the workload anymore, so I plan to sell this shop. But I haven’t found a suitable buyer yet,” Dyer Gideon answered with a smile.
Finn already knew from Zero why he wanted to sell the shop. But he didn’t expose the truth, instead, he smiled and asked, “Mr. Dyer, If I remember correctly, the recipes for the pastries in this shop have exclusive secret recipes. Are you selling these secret recipes along with the shop, including the shop name etc? If not, forgive my bluntness, I won’t consider buying this shop.”
Dyer Gideon was taken aback. When he tried to sell the shop in the past, most buyers desired the location of the shop rather than the Moon of West Lake brand and the secret recipes for the pastries. In these buyers’ view, there were numerous pastry recipes all over the world. The most important thing was this shop’s excellent location! It turned out that the young man in front of him was interested in the goods this shop was offering..