The film and television city starts from the courtyard

Lu Meilin, accompanied by his female bosses, arrived at Zhizhenyuan in a menacing manner, specifically requesting to eat king cobra.

Li Li and Manager Pan greeted them with smiles, and Li Li even personally went to the private room to entertain Lu Meilin and the others. However, Lu Meilin and the others insisted on eating king cobra, and threatened to throw a tantrum if they didn't get to eat it.

In fact, Lu Meilin and others had already made arrangements with various shops not to have Zhizhenyuan provide ingredients, especially king cobra and dragon.

As the saying goes, "For every clever plan you have, there's a countermeasure." Abao had already guessed Lu Meilin and the others' plan, so on the surface, he had Tao Tao deliver the goods, but in reality, he had Ling Hong and the others drive the King Cobra to the back gate of Zhizhen Garden in a small car.

After the chefs finished cooking and brought the dishes to the table, Lu Mei was stunned. Li Li even openly challenged Lu Meilin and the others.

Just then, Du Honggen, who was behind Lu Meilin, led his men into Zhizhenyuan and tore off all the signature dishes from the menu, leaving only the unprofitable desserts.

Li Li argued with Du Honggen, explaining the pros and cons and promising to give the guests to other restaurants. However, Du Honggen refused to listen and threw a chair outside Zhizhen Garden, smashing the glass in protest.

At that moment, Zhao Shucheng was having dinner with foreign guests with Wang Mingzhu when he heard the sound of shattering glass. He went to the window to take a look, and then went to the door.

Wang Mingzhu was surprised to encounter such a situation while bringing foreign guests to dinner, and looked at Zhao Shucheng with some embarrassment.

Zhao Shucheng said with a smile, "It's alright, the guests next door just had too much to drink. Everyone, please enjoy your meal."

Wang Mingzhu smiled and reassured the foreign guests, introducing them to the dishes Zhao Shucheng had prepared, thankfully preventing them from leaving in anger.

Du Honggen might have been fierce, but Li Li was equally assertive. She immediately gave Du Honggen an envelope, a gift from her uncle, containing a 300,000 yuan IOU from a Macau casino.

Upon seeing the IOU, Du Honggen's imposing manner immediately vanished, and he left with Lu Meilin.

Lu Meilin was surprised that Du Honggen had started something but then backed down, so she vented all her anger on Du Honggen. Du Honggen angrily opened the IOU and showed it to Lu Meilin.

Back then, Lu Meilin's husband lost everything in Macau. Lu Meilin asked Du Honggen for money, but Du Honggen had just suffered a business failure and had no money to pay. This 300,000 yuan IOU was written by him at that time. He tried to borrow money from others, but everyone avoided him. In the end, it was Uncle who stepped in and rescued him. Therefore, Du Honggen and Lu Meilin owed Uncle a favor.

Since Uncle has given it to Li Li this time, it means that Li Li is now backed by him. Uncle and Boss Bao have a lot of influence. I am just a karaoke bar owner who has just recovered, so naturally I can't confront Uncle and them head-on.

After seeing off the foreign guests, Wang Mingzhu finally breathed a sigh of relief and said, "President Zhao, thank you so much for today. But I never expected to encounter such a thing at Zhizhen Garden today."

Zhao Shucheng smiled and said, "Miss Wang, don't be so polite. I should thank you for giving me the opportunity to meet foreign guests. Maybe one day I'll be doing business with them. But this kind of thing is quite common on Huanghe Road. Huanghe Road only cares about business, not people. As long as there's business, everyone is a customer; if there's no business, no one matters."

"However, this time, by helping Zhizhen Garden, Mr. Bao has offended the landlady on Huanghe Road. If Mr. Bao were still Mr. Bao, it would be fine, but if Mr. Bao were to fall on hard times one day, these landladys would not let him off the hook."

Wang Mingzhu smiled and said, "That day will never come. Mr. Bao will always be Mr. Bao."

Zhao Shucheng smiled but didn't say anything after hearing this, since Wang Mingzhu wouldn't believe him no matter what he said now. However, A Bao couldn't always be the victor, and besides, these landlady bosses might harbor resentment but wouldn't show it openly; they would vent it eventually.

Li Li managed to settle things with Du Honggen and get the other proprietresses to leave Zhizhen Garden, barely managing to get through this ordeal. However, she also knew that this incident had strained her relationship with the proprietresses, so she naturally had to be even more careful.

She gave Lingzi a gift to thank her for her help, and then announced on the spot that she would give every table of guests a 50% discount and hold a Hong Kong Food Week. Chef Ding and the chefs went all out to make the three dishes the latest fashion on Huanghe Road. The Crane Needle dish became the darling of the table, which made Zhizhenyuan even better.

Restaurants on Huanghe Road followed suit and launched Hong Kong-style Cantonese cuisine, but because they were not authentic, they could not compare with the popularity of Zhizhenyuan.

At this moment, Zhao Shucheng had no time to worry about what was happening on Huanghe Road; he was busy preparing for the opening of his supermarket.

Wang Mingzhu has obtained the contact information of many export trade company leaders through the foreign trade headquarters at No. 27 Bund, and has also introduced many manufacturers' products to Zhao Shucheng.

Because this is the first supermarket in Shanghai, Zhao Shucheng naturally wanted to do his best, so he personally inspected almost every product to ensure the highest quality.

In order to meet customer needs to the greatest extent, Zhao Shucheng rented a large piece of land in Pudong to build his own warehouse center, which he plans to use to supply supermarkets in Shanghai after the supermarket chain is established. Later, he will be able to use this warehouse to serve the East China region.

In order to acquire this land, Zhao Shucheng made many preparations, including bidding against others, donating teaching buildings and cigarettes to the school, and even donating twenty vehicles to the police station.

As the saying goes, having connections in government makes things easier. Zhao Shucheng thus made contact with city leaders, who, after understanding his ideas, realized they could help Shanghai create jobs and therefore expressed their support. More importantly, the money Zhao Shucheng settled this time was all in US dollars, essentially generating foreign exchange for Shanghai, which naturally gave him the green light.

Zhao Shucheng was busy preparing for the opening while also working on the construction of the warehouse, so he was immediately thrown into a frenzy.

At this moment, A Bao arrived at Zhizhen Garden. The reason he helped Zhizhen Garden was because he remembered Li Li revealing the matter of counterfeit San Yang T-shirts. However, this time he came to eat, partly to support Zhizhen Garden, but more importantly, he wanted to ask Li Li a question: did she know Mr. A from the Shenzhen gang?

Li Li was stunned for a moment, but vehemently denied that this person was who he was.

Abao naturally realized she was lying, so he told Lili about his grudges with Mr. A.

Back in 1991, after the Shenzhen Stock Exchange significantly expanded its IPO market, Mr. A and his private equity fund, which he had built from scratch, suffered severe losses due to the huge drop in stock prices after the expansion, which forced them to sell their shares at low prices.

A Bao took over some of the stocks, after which Mr. A disappeared. A Bao knew Li Li was from Shenzhen and even had some unclear connections with the Shenzhen clique, which is why he inquired about her. Li Li's relationship with Mr. A solidified her decision to do business in Shanghai.

Li Li readily admitted to this, and even felt that it was somewhat unworthy for A Bao to think of exchanging this information using Du Honggen's 300,000 yuan IOU.

Abao didn't really care what Li Li was doing there; he just wanted to find out the real purpose of the Shenzhen gang coming to Shanghai to steal business.

Unfortunately, Li Li was tight-lipped, so he couldn't find out any information and had to leave disappointed.

Uncle advised Abao not to get involved in Huanghe Road matters anymore, since he had no business there. Last time, Abao had been tricked by the Huanghe Road shop owner who spread rumors about his relationship with Jin Fenghuang, but this incident at Zhizhen Garden could be seen as retaliation. Abao's focus should be on foreign trade and the stock market; if he could earn 300,000 yuan, he would let go of everything else.

Of course, A Bao knew that Uncle was joking, after all, Fan Xinhua had already brought in a new batch of T-shirts, 400,000 pieces, which would definitely set off another buying frenzy on Nanjing Road.

Zhao Shucheng was in his office on the top floor of his supermarket on Nanjing Road, so he naturally saw the bustling scene at the Hulian Department Store.

Moreover, this time Fan Xinhua's Three Sheep T-shirts were not only available at Hulian Department Store, but also at Zhongbai No. 1 Store and New World Department Store. In fact, they were launched at ten sales points in the five major business districts of the city—Nanjing Road, Huaihai Road, Xujiahui, Wujiaochang, and Sichuan North Road. This attracted people to buy them, and the sales volume quickly exceeded ten million yuan, which made A Bao extremely excited.

The immense popularity of the Sanyang brand immediately attracted the attention of those with ulterior motives. Distributors from all over the country flocked to Abao, trying to acquire the distribution rights for Sanyang.

Therefore, Mr. Xu, the general manager of Hulian Department Store, reminded Abao to be careful of Fan Xinhua's self-production and self-sales.

A Bao didn't care about this. After all, Fan Xinhua was able to get where he was through his own efforts. If he became arrogant because of this, then San Yang would eventually just become an ordinary person.

Seeing how well the Three Sheep T-shirts were selling, Lingzi naturally had her own ideas and wanted to become a secondary distributor. She trained a group of salespeople and even came up with sales slogans, hoping to make a quick buck.

Ah Bao, however, felt that her impulsive behavior was unwise and that she should focus on running Night Tokyo properly.

But Abao remained unmoved, so Lingzi could only plead and beg. Abao couldn't resist and had to make an excuse to go find Wang Mingzhu before leaving in a hurry.

Fan Xinhua was extremely pleased with himself. If he had been the object of admiration at Zhizhen Garden before, it would have been solely because he was A Bao's business partner. But now, he was the object of admiration simply because he was the factory manager of Sanyang T-shirts.

Seeing the endless stream of people coming to see A Bao, Uncle was worried that Fan Xinhua would abandon A Bao, his primary distributor, and start his own business. He asked A Bao to remind Fan Xinhua not to get too arrogant.

Abao simply didn't believe that Fan Xinhua could get rid of him. After all, he still had Wang Mingzhu as his trump card. As long as Wang Mingzhu had control over Fan Xinhua's overseas sales targets, Fan Xinhua would never dare to abandon him.

Because of her help in selling San Yang, Wang Mingzhu became a famous brand in Shanghai. As a result, many customers tried to curry favor with her, either hoping that she could help them obtain export quotas or that she could help them get the distribution rights for San Yang from A Bao.

Wang Mingzhu said directly, "I work for the imperial government and I don't take any kickbacks. If any of you still want to pay for me, don't come to No. 27 to find me next time."

As he spoke, he threw a ham that a customer had given him away, and then burst into laughter.

When Wang Mingzhu turned around, she saw Wei Hongqing, the man who had once been at odds with A Bao.

"I heard that delivering ham to number 27 means you'll be thrown out. I didn't believe it, so I came here to try it out, and it's true."

Wang Mingzhu asked, "Is there something you need?"

Wei Hongqing said, "Of course I have business to discuss with Miss Wang. We can join forces. Both T-shirts sell well, but what's this? It's a fur coat. Feel it!"

Wang Mingzhu said, "Fur? That's an animal product. You need to go to the animal health department and talk to them!"

Wei Hongqing didn't expect Wang Mingzhu to be so blunt, and pressed on, saying, "Ms. Wang, we're almost in the 21st century. What we lack isn't products, it's concepts. Ms. Wang, Ms. Wang!"

Zhao Shucheng happened to see this scene and couldn't help but laugh.

Wei Hongqing was shocked that someone would laugh at him so openly, and he glared angrily at Zhao Shucheng, saying, "Does Mr. Zhao find it funny?"

"No, I just think Mr. Wei has come to the wrong person. Although the fur industry is also part of the clothing industry, and can be considered a branch of the textile industry, it's always better to stick to what you know. Since you want to do foreign trade, you should naturally find a way to open up sales channels first."

As Zhao Shucheng spoke, he picked up Wei Hongqing's leather coat, looked at it, and said, "No brand name or logo? Thumbs down! Mr. Wei, if you really want to create your own brand and expand your fur glutinous rice balls overseas, then it's best to have your own independent brand, especially one that leaves a lasting impression. Of course, if you only want to operate in the domestic market, then perhaps we can cooperate."

"You want to cooperate with me?"

Zhao Shucheng smiled and nodded, saying, "That's right. My supermarket is about to open, and the third floor is the clothing section. We can reserve a counter for Mr. Wei. If the cooperation goes well, we can reserve counters for Mr. Wei in all our future stores."

Wei Hongqing said dismissively, "Thank you, but I don't need it!"

After Wei Hongqing left, Mei Ping chased after him and said, "President Wei, President Wei! Miss Wang is usually quite busy. She can take care of President Bao, but she can't take care of President Wei."

"That's true, both are major clients. Let me think about it some more!"

Mei Ping said, "I have some free time here. If Mr. Wei needs it, I can start making it for him first."

Wei Hongqing was taken aback by Mei Ping's response. He turned around, glanced at her, and asked, "Who are you?"

"Meiping!"

"Xiaomei, I have a principle: either I don't do it, or I do it the best. Xiaomei, keep it up!"

Mei Ping was surprised that Wei Hongqing also looked down on her, and a sinister look flashed in her eyes, but it quickly disappeared under her smile.

Wang Mingzhu frowned when she saw Zhao Shucheng appear outside her office and asked, "What are you doing here?" (End of Chapter)