I'm reborn and I'm an international student again?

Under a tree not far from Zhanzhan's store, Chen Xi sat with a cigarette in his mouth, deep in thought.

He had been out of the hotel for a while, but his mind was still replaying his conversation with the Xu family.

Despite Mr. Xu's current confident and extravagant lifestyle, with investments of hundreds of millions or even billions of yuan in poverty alleviation, Chen Xi knew in his heart that it was all an illusion.

In fact, it wasn't just him, who was reborn, who understood this; many large corporations were also well aware of it.

As early as six years ago, a well-known international financial institution released a report pointing out that Hengxiao had accounting fraud and insolvency, which can be regarded as the earliest public warning.

At the time, Evergrande weathered the crisis thanks to a strong public relations campaign and continuously rising housing prices, and the report did not attract widespread attention.

Following the trajectory of his previous life, the three major international rating agencies were expected to downgrade Hengxiao's credit rating this year, explicitly pointing out its "aggressive financial policies," "fragile liquidity," and "extremely high refinancing risks." However, Chen Xi had not yet heard any such news.

It's not surprising, considering he has changed a lot since his rebirth.

For example, it facilitated the cooperation between Mr. Jia and Mr. Xu ahead of time.

For example, in the grain and oil market, Hengxiao, who was originally about to give up due to the suppression of the four major grain merchants, became Chen Xi's partner instead because of his confrontation with Chen Xi.

Did Mr. Xu himself know that a financial crisis was about to occur?

Of course he knew.

He recognized the structural risks and extreme pressures facing the company earlier and more clearly than anyone else, but he likely seriously misjudged the timing and scope for resolving the crisis, ultimately choosing a high-risk path.

Judging from the tightness of his cash flow, he has to approve huge interest payments and maturing debts every day.

The model of borrowing new money to repay old debts is extremely fragile, and as the creators of this game, the Xu family understands better than anyone that this model is entirely dependent on continuous financing and rising housing prices.

As a real estate developer, the most famous one is Li Ka-Cheng.

Xu Jia frequently visits Hong Kong, and he probably already knew the answer about housing price trends from some bigwigs.

Now he's dragging Chen Xi into Jia Yueting and Musk's projects. Chen Xi has a pretty good idea of ​​what his purpose is.

What are your thoughts on the Xu family and Jia Riting?

In most people's eyes, these two are professional money-making schemers, and Chen Xi used to think so too.

But later they gradually realized that these two were sometimes not in control of their own lives.

The cigarette in my hand burned out.

Chen Xi raised her head, looked at the three fiercely competitive dessert shops not far away, and gently shook her head.

He already knew the fate of these three shops in his previous life.

As the leading dessert brand in the Jianghuai Province, Paris Dessert suffered from a broken capital chain and defaulted on payments to suppliers, leading to the closure of many of its stores.

KURIMU came quickly and went quickly, rapidly expanding from first-tier cities to provincial capitals, but it couldn't last more than a few years before closing down one after another, leaving only a few stores in first-tier cities struggling to survive.

With its price advantage and appealing design, Zhanzhan has captured the hearts of both middle-aged and elderly consumers as well as young consumers, making it a latecomer that has surpassed its predecessors.

Inside KURIMU, two Asian girls with distinctive accents are extremely busy. Business is booming, and with few staff, the two owners have to step in themselves.

Logically, most of the people buying desserts should be young women, but the queue was mostly made up of men. The reason is self-evident.

"That short girl is so cute. Judging from her accent, she seems to be a Japanese girl. I like her."

"I like the tall one, those long legs... The lump on my left breast is throbbing..."

"That's a heart, and a tumor at that..."

Two boys in the group were whispering to each other.

There are quite a few people who share the same thoughts as them.

Buying desserts is just an excuse; admiring beautiful women is the real purpose.

Inside the shop, the petite girl, with her hair neatly tied in a bun, smiled and her eyes crinkled as she deftly packed cream puffs and mochi. The taller woman, with her slender figure, wore a simple white shirt that looked clean and crisp, her blonde hair tied back, and her profile sharply defined, was recommending new products to a customer.

Not long after, a message appeared: "Sold out for today. Sorry, please come again tomorrow. Customers who did not purchase in line can receive a discount coupon..." causing the queuing customers to sigh softly.

However, most people were just there to see the pretty girls, and they didn't care if they didn't buy anything. They took the discount coupons and left one after another.

"How come they're sold out already? I've been queuing for ages." A lazy male voice suddenly rang out after the crowd dispersed.

"I'm so sorry, please come tomorrow..." The two girls lowered their heads and tidied their things, responding subconsciously.

"I won't! You have to compensate me!" the man insisted.

"We're out of stock. What do you want?" Jin Nana asked without looking up.

"The store was out of stock, so I came home and made it for myself." "You...I...why are you here?" Saori, who had intended to reprimand the other person, looked up and immediately stammered.

She originally planned to surprise Chen Xi after achieving some success, but unexpectedly he came to her door on his own.

"Hey, you have a really good nose. You found out about Saori and me after we've only been here a few days." Jin Nana crossed her arms and snorted.

“Your store opening announcements have all spread online, how could I not know?” Chen Xi shook his head.

"I was hoping to beat your local brands and give you a surprise, but this is so boring," Jin Nana said, pouting.

"Defeat? Ha."

"What, you think it's impossible? Look at the line outside our door, and then look at Paris Dessert and Zhan Zhan, isn't it obvious who will win and who will lose?" Seeing his disdainful expression, the hot-tempered Jin Nana immediately became unhappy.

"Let's go eat first." Chen Xi glanced at the still busy shop assistants and waved to the two women.

An hour later, at a restaurant.

“My mom loves pretty desserts, so she asked me to buy some, and I just happened to run into you guys. I really didn’t expect you to open a shop here.” Chen Xi took a sip of her drink.

"Judging from what you said, and considering your expression in the store earlier, it's as if we're committing suicide by opening this shop." Jin Nana was still somewhat dissatisfied with Chen Xi's attitude.

"Sending them to their deaths? More like it. Let me ask you a question and you'll understand. Have you ever seen a foreign bakery chain achieve the overwhelming success in China that Starbucks has in the coffee industry? Aren't most of them just a flash in the pan and then disappear?"

“I thought you were going to say something! Of course we did market research before opening this shop. Saori, you tell us.” Jin Nana wasn’t good at analyzing these things, so she nudged her friend.

“Ahem, I’ve investigated both of your major bakery brands. Paris Dessert is the leader, but they use a prepaid card discount model. Top up 500 and get 200-300 free—this kind of tactic is very common here. It leads to constantly raising prices to offset costs, and they’ll lose more and more loyal customers. So they can only keep opening new stores and expanding, and their cash flow will inevitably break down, just like a financial product collapse. Zhanzhan takes a cost-effective approach, with low-priced goods targeting middle-aged and elderly consumers. Their supply chain costs are already low, but not as low as ours. We have agricultural cooperative support, and the cost advantage of imported raw materials and local manufacturing is something they can’t compete with…” Saori chimed in.

"Hmm, that's a good analysis. The main reason why foreign baking brands can't compete in the domestic market is their low cost-performance ratio. They continue to use high-end ingredients and a central factory model, which makes it difficult to reduce costs and quickly penetrate the market. Secondly, their product iteration is slow, failing to keep up with consumers' pursuit of new flavors and categories. Yours is considered a trendy product. I observed while I was queuing earlier, and most of the customers were young men. They were pretending to buy cakes, but really they were looking at women's figures." Chen Xi nodded.

"That's because we're both beautiful. Is there anything wrong with being beautiful?" Before Chen Xi could finish speaking, Jin Nana smoothed her bangs and smiled happily.

"But you can't just stay in the store every day, can you? What about the other branches?"

"Ha, you've reminded me! From now on, we'll only hire pretty girls, like the flight attendants you have here. Don't those people like looking at pretty girls? Let them look to their heart's content, as long as they pay for their services." Jin Nana's eyes lit up, and she clapped her hands and laughed.

"..."

Chen Xi was speechless for a moment.

He wanted to remind them what to do if an unforeseen event occurred, preventing people from leaving their homes and shops from operating.

Unexpectedly, Jin Nana responded in a way that completely deviated from the expected script.

"Alright, alright, the shop's already open, so don't worry about it." Saori picked up a piece of beef and stuffed it into Chen Xi's mouth.

Just as Chen Xi and his friends were having their meal, outside the KURIMU store...

"I'm late! I'm late! It's already closed! What time is it... It's all your fault, Tongtong! Everyone else leaves on time, but you don't slack off at get off work, and you leave later than everyone else. The boss isn't even here, who are you trying to impress?" A girl pointed at the "Closed" sign and complained angrily.

A girl who looked remarkably like Xia Lian pouted, "How can you slack off at work? The boss has it tough too. We get paid, so of course we have to work hard. We can't just sneak away when the boss isn't around, can we? The office hasn't even been cleaned yet. Besides, a cream puff costs over ten yuan, enough for a rice bowl. How much do you earn in a month? You should use that money to buy something for your parents."

"Alright, alright, I have nothing to say about you, you're such a model employee and dutiful daughter. The shop's closed, so let's find something else to eat... By the way, didn't your dad say the house's going to be demolished for compensation? You'll be a rich kid from that demolition compensation, so why are you being so frugal?"

"What nouveau riche... I heard that now when Xinlu is demolished, they don't give money, they give housing vouchers instead."

"Housing voucher?"

"Yes, it's just issuing you a voucher with the amount written on it, so you can buy a house in the new housing development in the city within a specified time."

"Holy crap, this is outrageous!"

"So, you still have to be down-to-earth when it comes to making money, don't always think about getting rich overnight." Tong Yin smiled and poked her best friend's forehead.

The two found a small stall by the roadside, sat down, and ordered two bowls of beef vermicelli.

"By the way, Tongtong, you're not getting any younger, you should find someone. Are you still waiting for that ex-boyfriend who went abroad? I don't think he has any intention of coming back, he's probably already forgotten about you. I've never seen anyone as silly as you..."

"..."

Tong Yin lowered his head and ate his food, his expression darkening slightly, and he didn't reply.

Seeing this, her best friend quickly changed the subject: "Wow! Look at this news. Several Chinese companies and banks are engaging in illegal arbitrage, and bank presidents are keeping mistresses... Tsk tsk, these mistresses aren't even as pretty as me! What do you think these old men are after? Looks like things aren't so great these days. Maybe I should try finding a bank president myself sometime..."

She pointed to several photos on her phone.

Several middle-aged men with receding hairlines and ruddy complexions were chatting and laughing with several young women.

"Oh dear, I forgot to tell you. I've found a huge money-making project, and we'll both be rich! You're my best friend, and I'm going to help you get rich!" The girl suddenly remembered something and excitedly patted the child's shoulder.

"All you ever dream about is getting rich. Money doesn't just fall from the sky," the child's voice kindly advised. (End of Chapter)