money player

Sin Yiu-man kept his questions to himself and responded with a light laugh, "Mrs. Tang has been so kind to invite me. It would be impolite of me to refuse you. I, Sin, am shamelessly taking advantage of Mrs. Tang's presence to meet Mr. Chen."

Wang Youjia smiled and said, "Mr. Xian, there's no need to mention the word 'benefiting' between us."

"That's true. Madam Tang and Baoshu are like sisters. It would be better if they were too distant."

Wang Youjia retorted, "You said we're like sisters, so why are you still calling me Madam Tang so formally?"

Xian Yaowen was startled. Judging from Wang Youjia's tone, it seemed that she wanted to distance herself from Tang Jishan. If we consider it individually, was it because Tang Jishan had hooked up with a new lover and chilled the heart of this proud and arrogant woman?
Wang Youjia's ex-husband was Luo Longji, one of the founders of the China Democratic League and a well-known figure in the press. Back then, Wang Youjia used Luo Longji's connections to make friends with many high-ranking officials in the Nationalist government, and Tang Jishan's business relied heavily on her connections with the upper class.

If Wang Youjia and Tang Jishan are truly estranged, he plans to extend an olive branch and have her become his public relations representative.

"Then should I call you Sister You?"

Wang Youjia covered his mouth and laughed, "Alright, I'll acknowledge you as my younger brother, and from now on I'll just call you Yaowen."

“You can call her whatever you want, Sister You.”

"Yaowen".

"Yes, Sister You."

Wang Youjia chuckled and said, "I finally have a backer in Taipei."

“My sister is coming to our house for dinner today. I’ll give you the seat of honor. From now on, you’ll be the most important person in the family.”

Wang Youjia's smile grew even brighter. "I wouldn't dare sit in your chair. I'd be happy just to sit to your left or right."

"It's all up to Sister You to decide." Xian Yaowen cupped his hands in greeting. "Sister You, we should go now."

"I was so happy I almost forgot, Yaowen, let's go over there."

"Hey."

Xian Yaowen instructed Quan Danru to entertain Jiang Shanmei, and then followed Wang Youjia to another table.

Wang Youjia invited Xian Yaowen to sit down, then looked at Chen Qingfen and said in English, "Mr. Chen, let me introduce you. This is my sworn brother, Xian Yaowen."

Chen Qingfen nodded slightly to Xian Yaowen, "Mr. Xian, I have long admired your name. It is an honor to meet you today. You are indeed extraordinary and your reputation is well-deserved."

Chen Qingfen's Mandarin has a Minnan accent and a Japanese intonation. The meaning of his words needs to be deduced from the context, which is very difficult to listen to. It is estimated that he has only been learning it for the past two years and has not been very serious about it.

Sin Yiu-man compiled information about Chan Ching-fan. The Chan family were law-abiding citizens during the Japanese occupation. Chan Ching-fan studied and lived in Tokyo for several years and had a Japanese wife. He then studied in Paris for a few more years.

He said in French, "Mr. Chen, you flatter me. I really don't deserve it."

When Chen Qingfen heard Xian Yaowen speak French, a hint of surprise flashed across his face, but he immediately said in a friendly tone, "Mr. Xian's French accent is that of a Parisian aristocrat, with a touch of the old-fashioned French accent of a Belgian aristocrat. I'm quite curious where Mr. Xian learned French."

Sin Yiu-man chuckled and said, “Don’t laugh at me, Mr. Chen. Before I planned to do business in France last year, I heard that the French were very arrogant, so I did some research beforehand and learned that the French accent was the old-fashioned accent of Parisian and Belgian nobles. So I spent a lot of money to hire a noble family tutor and studied hard for a while.”

Chen Qingfen exclaimed, "Mr. Xian's learning ability is truly enviable. I have been speaking French for over twenty years, but my accent still cannot be perfect."

"Everyone has a special talent in one area. Mr. Chen's talent is probably painting. I have attended artists' parties in Paris and heard Mr. Chen's name from Western artists. They were very generous in their praise of Mr. Chen."

Chen Qingfen chuckled and said, "Mr. Xian, you flatter me. I am unknown in Paris, how could anyone remember me?"

"Mr. Chen is too modest; everything I said is true."

Chen Qingfen knew that Xian Yaowen was being flattering, so he didn't continue the conversation and instead said, "Mr. Xian, a new tea shop called Jin Hai Tea Shop suddenly opened in Taipei a while ago. I heard it's one of your businesses?"

"Mr. Chen must have misunderstood. Jinhai does have a connection with me, but it is not my business. I only have a tiny, insignificant share in Jinhai."

Xian Yaowen knew that Chen Qingfen was testing him, but he did not intend to hide it "completely." The fact that he had a connection with Jin Hai could not be kept secret.

"Oh? Mr. Xian isn't a major shareholder? May I ask who the major shareholder is?"

"Mr. Chen, please forgive me." Xian Yaowen clasped his hands and said, "The major shareholder has some unspeakable reasons and it is inconvenient to mention his name."

"Sorry, I was presumptuous."

"It doesn't matter."

At this point, the pleasantries came to an end, and the reins at the table were handed back to Wang Youjia. Xian Yaowen and Fei Baoqi spoke in hushed tones.

"Sister, I brought you a gift. It rained the other day and I didn't want to go out. I'm coming home for dinner tonight, so please take it back with you."

Fei Baoqi chuckled and said, "It hasn't been that long, and you've become so perfunctory towards your older sister?"

“We’re all family, why should I be so polite to my elder sister?”

"I like hearing that," Fei Baoqi said in a low voice. "What's going on?"

Sin Yiu-man knew that Fei Po-ki was asking him about his relationship with the Wang You family siblings, but he gave an irrelevant answer: "I have food, clothes, and cosmetics. My sister will definitely like them."

Fei Baoqi glared at Xian Yaowen and said coquettishly, "You're good at this."

Xian Yaowen chuckled and turned his gaze to Fei Baoshu. "A meeting this afternoon?"

"We agreed to play eight laps."

"Oh, let's keep track of the time, Sister You is coming over for dinner tonight."

"Play it at home."

Fei Baoshu was very curious about the origin of the nickname "Sister You," but refrained from asking.

"Dinner is at six o'clock, I'll get home early."

"Ah."

After the hot dishes were served, Sin Yiu-man and Chan Ching-fen had a couple of drinks before saying goodbye and returning to their own table.

He served food to Jiang Shanmei again, but his enthusiasm cooled down, so he stopped serving her food to avoid making her feel uncomfortable.

We ordered too much food and couldn't finish it, so we left our address and asked the restaurant staff to pack it up and deliver it to our home.

Back in his office at Prince Enterprises, Xie Tingyun made a phone call home, instructing that the food be sent to someone else and not kept for himself.

In the afternoon, Sin Yiu-man had a chat with Francesca Rothschild.

After Prince Investment acquired a stake in Mingxing Chemical, its second investment was in Yao Hongying. It wasn't an investment in the company, but in the person. It invested in her expansion of her laundry shop, her sweater trading business, and her future business ventures. It is highly likely that Prince Investment will also follow suit.

To put it bluntly, Prince Investment believes that Yao Hongying can achieve great things in Taiwan and is willing to be her benefactor for a long time, supporting her in developing her business until she finds a business that can be regarded as a career.

Of course, blind investment is not an option. Prince Investment evaluates every investment. If they are not optimistic about a project, they will advise Yao Hongying to give up the idea. If she does not listen to their advice, they will conduct a second evaluation to determine whether it is necessary to throw money into the water and continue to wait for the results.

The third investment was in Lajia Foods, founded by Yen Kun-chung, a Taiwanese man who returned from Tokyo. He only brought a business plan when he entered the door of Prince Investment, and Francesca immediately decided to invest NT$100 million, acquiring a 48% stake in Lajia.

Yan Kunzhong was originally an employee of Dongyang Shiye Foods. He was selected by Xian Yaowen to return to Taiwan to establish a hidden subsidiary of Shiye. The La family will replicate the businesses of Dongyang Shiye and Hong Kong Shiye and develop it into a large food company in Taiwan.

Regardless of location or stage of economic development, foreign and domestic companies will present different faces. In the initial stage, foreign companies can reap many benefits, but as domestic companies of the same type grow, it is inevitable that they will face difficulties.

To identify areas for long-term development, it's best to cultivate both internal and external strengths, adopting a two-pronged approach: one involving both foreign and domestic companies.

The La family is the domestic business, and food is the external business; both will be developed in Taiwan. If they can't walk on two legs in the future, perhaps one leg will break the other.

The fourth investment was in Sanyi Soy Sauce Factory, which operates the brand "Ghost Goddess" that Sin Yiu-man had seen at a Yangchun noodle stall in Fuzhou.

Sanyi Soy Sauce Factory is located in Sanchong, not far from Huaguang Garment Factory. There are many soy sauce factories in the surrounding area, and almost all the soy sauce consumed in Taipei and the surrounding areas comes from there.

At present, there are no MSG factories in Taiwan, and not many people consume MSG. Before 49, a small amount of MSG was imported from Japan. After 49, imports almost stopped, with only a small amount being smuggled in through smuggling channels. Due to its high price, MSG consumption is mainly concentrated in restaurants, hotels, and a few high-income families, and it has not yet become popular among ordinary people.

Soy sauce is arguably the most essential condiment in ordinary households today. It is by no means just a supporting role in enhancing flavor, but rather plays a major role in providing saltiness. There may be no salt in the kitchen, but there is definitely soy sauce.

This was a choice made out of necessity. Resources were scarce in Taiwan, and ordinary families ate relatively simple meals. Soy sauce could effectively enhance the flavor of dishes and was the cheapest condiment to accompany rice, so its consumption was very high.

Moreover, the soy sauce at this time had a characteristic: it was very salty. Because of its extremely high salt content, unopened soy sauce could be stored for several years, but once opened, it would spoil within a few weeks. A white film would grow on the surface of the soy sauce, and it would taste sour. This forced consumers to consume the soy sauce as soon as they bought it, which to some extent increased the sales of soy sauce.

If we only consider condiments, investing in soy sauce is the best choice at this time.

The fifth investment is still in talks. There is a man named Yan Qingling who studied mechanical engineering. He had run a machine factory in mainland China and was capable of manufacturing diesel engines. After traveling around Europe and America, he returned to Taiwan and had the idea of ​​responding to Chiang Kai-shek's "engine-saving the country" initiative. He planned to start a car manufacturing company and even had a name in mind: Yulon Motor.

Xian Yaowen thought the name sounded familiar and told Francesca to continue following up, not to rush, to take her time, even if it took two or three years.

Given the current situation in Taiwan, it is not very suitable for manufacturing cars. Moreover, investing in car companies cannot just involve investing money; it is best to also invest some technology. He needs time to go around Europe and America, find a car company that is about to go bankrupt, tidy it up, and then come to Taiwan to form a joint venture.

He was interested in building cars, but he originally planned to wait two years until he had more resources before getting involved. For now, he wanted Tongqu to build up its technology reserves by developing electric toy cars, and also to collect technical information from other electric car companies so that his grandson could use some "evil magic" to tap into a trillion-dollar market in the future.

His original idea was to first build up the technology for electric vehicles and then gradually develop gasoline vehicles. However, when circumstances pushed him to move faster, he didn't mind taking advantage of the situation to speed things up.

After leaving Francesca's office, he was still thinking about the car manufacturing project. If he could get involved earlier, it would be best to find another "Jorge Guinness" to invest in him. Guinness was a wealthy but reckless spender; then he wouldn't need to resort to tricks, he could just patiently wait for Guinness to run out of money and sell his assets, and the shares would naturally flow back to him. (End of Chapter)