Chapter 45: Boss Chen is Fully Convinced

In any campus, art students are always the most picturesque sight.

When Yu Yan slowed her pace, her eyes glanced "accidentally" toward the classroom of Class 3.

Yu Yan was far from being just an ordinarily pretty girl; the moment she cast this glance, many students in the classroom turned their heads to look as well.

The girls probably felt they weren't as pretty as Yu Yan and quickly looked away.

The boys exchanged a glance, then quickly pretended to be busy with something else, though their peripheral vision continued to chase after her...

It seemed the "object" Yu Yan wanted to see moved a bit further forward.

"You..."

Yao Jingying finally discovered the clue. "Spit it out! Were you actually planning to accompany me to the tuck shop?"

"Otherwise what?!" Yu Yan retorted stubbornly.

At that moment, Lin Cheng and Zhao Weichen were just returning from the restroom.

"...Heavenly King Lin!" Yao Jingying giggled.

"Huh?" Lin Cheng smiled and nodded at Yao Jingying. "Oh, are you here to ask for my autograph?"

"I..." Yao Jingying glanced at Yu Yan, torn between laughter and exasperation. "Right, exactly!!"

Zhao Guangtao laughed heartily. "Alright, stop messing around, class is about to start!"

Lin Cheng gave a light cough and asked, "Looking for me?"

"Oh, well, Tao Lu, the manager at Cherry Media, accepted eight of our demo tracks. Thank you. Say, do you like ice cream? I'll go buy you one in a bit!"

Yu Yan smiled, gently pinched Yao Jingying, and asked, "Um, how is your arm?"

"Huh? No big deal! Tao Lu has already started! It's so great."

"Yeah, five tracks for me, three for Jingying."

It seemed Tao Lu was a sharp and capable assistant. With this arrangement, Yu Yan's earnings would rival the average salary in Wuzhou. Hopefully, this would relieve her of financial worries for the year and ideally cover her university tuition entirely.

"Still as capable as ever! In that case, you'll have to treat me to Dove chocolate. I'm not used to eating cheap brands!"

Yao Jingying smiled and nodded. "Thanks, we're off now."

Watching their graceful retreating figures, Lin Cheng let out a long breath...

Wu Yanshu teasingly said to Yu Yan, "I knew it! Going to the tuck shop and you insist on taking the northern corridor!"

"Class is about to start. I'll buy it next class instead!" Yao Jingying said deliberately loud.

Yu Xian turned around and ignored her, the corners of her mouth curving into an imperceptible smile.

Yao Jingying rolled her eyes. "He's a top student, who knows which university he'll test into!"

Yu Yan fell silent...

Actually, she already knew from Yao Jingying's text message that Lin Cheng was fine; she just... wanted to catch a glimpse of him.

***

Cherry Media only had a handful of people, but the number of advertising clients exceeded Chen Yan's expectations.

As many as fifty companies of various kinds expressed interest.

This was largely thanks to Chen Yan's past experience as the chief editor of the *Fireworks* magazine.

He shot wherever he aimed, sometimes even getting personally involved in the field, which resulted in the initial batch of advertising revenue reaching 600,000.

After reviewing the edited sample, Chen Yan suggested: "Let's play it safe and print five thousand copies."

However, Lin Cheng insisted on increasing the print run to thirty thousand copies—his reasoning being: take advantage of the current abundant capital to rapidly enter the market. Once brand recognition is established, advertising fees can rise alongside it.

Chen Yan shook his head in disbelief at the capitalist heir's extravagant stroke.

Lin Cheng just grinned and said, "It's fine, we can afford to lose money for now! The money we lose now will all be earned back later."

The magazine used the finest coated paper, and some of the page layouts were even designed by students from the Nanjing Arts Institute.

Based on Lin Cheng's impressions of fashion magazines, the style was more exaggerated and individualistic, giving off the feel of stepping into the information age.

It was vastly different from the kind of DM magazines distributed on the streets.

Of course, both bosses tended to go make things happen at Cherry Media after school hours.

The biggest shortage Cherry Media currently faced was personnel; preparing for the SuDa Campus Singer Competition made the entire company feel as if it were facing an amphibious landing operation.

After finishing his arrangements, Chen Yan walked over to Lin Cheng and said, "Director Lin, aren't we moving a bit too fast?"

"Master, let your disciple expound on the scriptures of business. Would you spare a moment to listen?"

The two men laughed heartily. Through several exchanges, Chen Yan had developed immense respect for Lin Cheng's business acumen!

After all, he himself was still somewhat of a passionate idealist in this regard!

"I want to learn too." Tao Lu was sweating profusely from busyness, but her eyes shone brightly as she held a small notebook in her hand.

As the assistant to the two bosses, she was more than qualified; her slender frame seemed to house a built-in motor.

This was perhaps yet another trait deeply engraved in the DNA of Jiangnan women: not only fast-minded, but also fiercely hardworking!

For many years to come, Tao Lu would remain an indispensable figure by Lin Cheng's side.

"Alright! Grab a chair, you really should listen to this." Lin Cheng opened up:

Take a judicial auction property with a market value of 1 million, for instance. After failing to sell twice, the starting bid drops to 300,000.

Why?

Maybe the reserve price was too high, maybe the location was poor, or perhaps it was considered a stigmatized house where tragic events occurred.

In short, this is a common occurrence in real estate auctions.

You buy it directly, and then use it as collateral for a bank loan.

Note: Banks don't care whether the location is good or bad, nor do they care if it's a stigmatized house; they will lend you 50% or more based on the market appraisal value.

You use the 500,000 obtained from the loan to do business.

Scenario one: You suffer a loss, causing the house to be put up for auction again.

After this cycle, you've already utilized the bank's 500,000, and even if property prices drop, the house still fetches at least 300,000 at auction—theoretically, you've made a profit of over 200,000.

Scenario two: Your business doesn't lose money.

Suppose you use 500,000 to buy steel. The steel can also be mortgaged to the bank to secure a loan of about 70% of its value.

Thus, with your 500,000 worth of steel, you get an additional 350,000 in loans.

During this period, as long as you keep your capital flowing and ensure you can pay the 3 to 5% bank interest, you can repeatedly utilize this 350,000.

How much money have you mobilized by this point?

850,000!

There is a crucial factor at play here—property prices have been rising steadily over recent years.

You quickly pay off the housing loan, and then mortgage the house a second time. The new loan might be 600,000, and then you repeat the cycle...

Of course, this is an ideal state: you start with 300,000 and cyclically leverage 500,000 or more in bank funds.

The result is that you need to continuously pay back the principal and interest. The faster your capital turns over, the more money you end up utilizing.

Moreover, because of your continuous operations and rapid cash flow, the bank will actively seek you out and may grant you a credit line of 1 million.

Have you ever calculated how much capital that actually amounts to?

Chen Yan was left utterly dumbfounded. He knew Lin Cheng was formidable, but he never imagined money could be played like this.

"But..." Tao Lu was momentarily speechless as well.

She felt her mind had been thoroughly shaken by this knowledge. "Since you're so smart, why aren't you doing it?"

Lin Cheng replied, "We're short-handed right now. First, we need to recruit people—legal and financial staff are both a must. Second, considering that Teacher Chen and I still have a few months left before our school commitments wrap up, so..."

Tao Lu chimed in, "I have time, Big Boss?"

Lin Cheng grew more and more fond of this assistant!

She was daring yet meticulous, proactive, and frequently complained that her workload wasn't heavy enough.

Chen Yan was used to being waited on by students at school, especially capable ones like Zhou Luoyao who could handle multiple fronts independently!

Consequently, Chen Yan didn't much care for handling paperwork, always procrastinating until a document was desperately needed before dumping the task onto her.

Tao Lu had even raised a complaint with him: Director Chen needed to delegate work promptly, otherwise she felt too idle.

In reality, she was busier than anyone else!