Star Tycoon

Chapter 233 The Ignorant Child

During the New Year's Day holiday, Zhu Nuanyue took the opportunity to visit her maternal grandmother.

"Grandma! I'm here!"

Ruan Ziyu looked at her lively and healthy granddaughter with a kind and gentle smile on her face.

"Yueyue is here. Your mother said you've been getting healthier lately and have gained weight."

When Zhu Nuanyue heard her grandmother say that she had gained weight, she quickly touched her waist with both hands.

Her face clearly showed that she was unhappy and bothered by this.

"Have I gained weight? I've been exercising a lot lately and I haven't dared to eat rice or bread."

Seeing that Zhu Nuanyue was as concerned about her weight as all women, Ruan Ziyu laughed and said, "It's because your breasts have gotten bigger; all the weight has gone to your breasts and butt!"

Zhu Nuanyue walked into the house embarrassedly, "Grandma is just like my mom, she only knows how to say these kinds of things."

Ruan Ziyu smiled, closed the door, and went inside. She was over sixty years old, with slightly curly and fluffy short hair, a mature face, and very fashionable clothes. She didn't have obvious makeup on her face, but she had made some slight adjustments so that no one could tell that she was wearing makeup.

Unlike ordinary old ladies, Ruan Ziyu, who has worked in an office since she was young, is very well-maintained. Even in her old age, she doesn't have the hunched back and aches and pains that are common among old ladies in the fields.

She walked over naturally, wearing a bathrobe-like loungewear set.

The air conditioning was on in the room, so it wasn't too cold or too hot.

After seeing Zhu Nuanyue enter the house and pick up a lychee from the table to eat, Ruan Ziyu stood a few meters away watching her beloved granddaughter.

"Yueyue, can I smoke? Your mother said that now that you're healthier, people at your company don't have to hide from you when they smoke."

Ruan Ziyu has a smoking addiction. She was fine just now, but when she got up from the sofa to open the door to greet Zhu Nuanyue, her craving for a cigarette suddenly kicked in.

As Zhu Nuanyue ate lychees, she advised the woman who was more mature and older than her, "Grandma, smoking is bad for your health."

"This is for medical use." Ruan Ziyu tacitly accepted Zhu Nuanyue's agreement, as if casually dealing with a child, and picked up a special cigarette from the table.

Her cigarettes were the kind reserved for elderly women; they were brands that weren't commonly seen elsewhere.

After taking out and lighting a cigarette, Ruan Ziyu took a puff and then showed a relaxed expression.
The cigarette in her hand was very thin and short, the kind that would be gone in two or three puffs, and her daily limit was three cigarettes.

Zhu Nuanyue didn't smell any smoke, so she continued eating fruit and chatting with the old man.

"Grandma, aren't you bored living alone? Why don't you move in with my mom?"

Ruan Ziyu stood by the sofa, holding a cigarette in one hand and exhaling, and said calmly, "Living with your mother will shorten my life by ten years."

Zhu Nuanyue was amused. "My mom is very easy to talk to. Chengbang is a lively place with lots of people. The doctor there is also very skilled and cooks delicious food!"

Ruan Ziyu didn't take it to heart and casually asked, "How's your mother's business lately?"

"It's fine," Zhu Nuanyue replied gently.

Ruan Ziyu glanced at her and knew that this girl probably didn't know anything.

Before she had finished smoking, Ruan Ziyu squinted and took another puff, slowly pondering the matter.

“Your mother and your aunt both sold their shares in Bolan Group. Now Bolan Group’s stock price has plummeted, and I’ve lost a lot of money on my stocks.”

Ruan Ziyu started talking about money.

For elderly people of this age, money is probably more important than most people think.

Zhu Nuanyue only sent the children over early because she hadn't been here for a long time and wouldn't be coming during the New Year.

Zhu Nuanyue is just a child in terms of her mindset and behavior.

"It's normal for stocks to fluctuate; they'll go back up later."

Zhu Nuanyue, who was twenty-six or twenty-seven years old, said comforting words befitting her age.

Ruan Ziyu, who was over sixty years old, naturally had her own considerations.

"Has your group's General Manager Tian stopped trading stocks recently?"

"No." Zhu Nuanyue dared not eat too many sweets and stood up to go to the bathroom to wash her hands. "President Tian sold his stocks a long time ago. He said that others saw him making money from stocks, and banks and many financial institutions are watching our company's cash flow. It's really annoying."

Ruan Ziyu followed with the ashtray and stood at the bathroom door, saying to Zhu Nuanyue who was washing her hands, "What stocks did your mother buy recently? I asked her, but she wouldn't tell me."

Zhu Nuanyue rubbed her hands together. "How would I know about this? I don't trade stocks. It seems like none of the regular employees in our company trade stocks. Only the temporary workers like to talk about this."

Ruan Ziyu leaned against the door, pondering what was happening here.

Zhu Nuanyue and her grandmother didn't have much to say to each other, they just said whatever came to mind.

"Grandma, Xiangxiang's grades have improved a lot. Wangzhuang Junior High School is very strict, and now Xiangxiang knows how to study on her own. Auntie often says that the teachers at Chengbang are very good."

Ruan Ziyu knew about this and asked, "Do you still only help the children of permanent employees arrange schools there?" Zhu Nuanyue raised her hand and tidied her hair in front of the mirror, especially the hair on both sides of her face.

"Yes, they only care about the permanent employees, not the temporary employees. However, they do provide for the temporary employees' children's food, milk powder, and medical expenses. Many of our employees get pregnant right after joining the company, and the company still provides them with food and drink."

After Zhu Nuanyue finished tidying up, she went out and saw Ruan Ziyu standing at the door.

"Grandma, is something wrong?"

Ruan Ziyu nodded and stubbed out the cigarette in the ashtray.

“I have two companies that do foreign trade, and both have been affected recently.”

The two went back to the sofa and sat down. Ruan Ziyu crossed her legs and briefly told Zhu Nuanyue about the companies she had invested in.

Constrained by the tense international situation, some export industries are gradually feeling the chill of winter.

The most obvious example is foreign trade, where many garment factories and low-end factories are moving to places with lower labor costs.

In recent years, technological development has been rapid, and the emergence of AI has led to the unemployment of models, illustrators, and programmers.

In particular, the birth of the King of Cotton in the Cotton Market restored several percent of the industrial capacity of the Lighthouse Nation.

The advantages of four super artificial intelligence systems are too great. Coupled with the coordination of tens of thousands of highly efficient rolling mills and the popularization of mechanical automation, the cotton city has enabled a population of hundreds of thousands to achieve the productivity of ten million people.

The biggest problem with the United States used to be its inhumanity; it didn't treat outsiders as human beings, nor did it treat its own people as human beings.

The Smiths treated their own people as human beings, and they also treated outsiders as human beings.

They can transfer the industrial chain to Africa, control local security to protect workers' safety, and pay wages on time.

Absolute military strength, the ability to use violence at will, and the coordination of highly qualified personnel.

In the past, workers could pick cotton and watermelons; now, they can sit down and learn cultural knowledge.

The United States has too many advantages for Black people. Out of a hundred Black people, ninety-nine and a half would choose the United States. The remaining one would almost certainly choose China unless his father is Chinese.

Cotton City and Watermelon Town are dream destinations for Africans; what is China compared to them?
In recent years, cotton and watermelon have long ceased to be sensitive words, just like the people of Zhongzhou in China today. John Smith removed watermelon and cotton from the sensitive word list for Black people.

Everyone knows that the United States is a bandit-like country, but that doesn't stop most people from wanting to join it.

The Smiths were able to do what other countries couldn't, easily gaining the support of Third World countries.

Now that the Smiths are able to continue the Smith Group's business in North Africa, the nearest European countries are naturally willing to follow suit.

A leader who leads his underlings to make money and enjoy life must have unparalleled cohesion.

The emergence of these "kings of the board" has severely impacted the first and second largest foreign trade finance groups.

Most of the businesses in China are located in a few powerful countries, not in North Africa.

The shift in industries and job opportunities is already very evident, and wealthy groups like Nguyen Tze Ngoc are among the first to feel the impact of this downturn.

Bolan Group is a clothing group that focuses on women's apparel, with business scope including jewelry, accessories, handbags, and women's clothing.

Now Chengbang Gold specializes in gold, and also has a dedicated mid-to-low-end women's clothing line. Bolan Group simply cannot compete with it based on its other luxury goods businesses alone.

Its competitors are not only Chengbang, but also several other jewelry groups in the market.

In the end, Ruan Ziyu was unable to get help from Zhu Nuanyue, who was too well protected and knew nothing about the situation.

After Zhu Nuanyue returned, Ruan Ziyu lay on the sofa and smoked another cigarette, carefully looking at the property panel on her phone while smoking.

The real estate market continues to thrive.

Ruan Ziyu wanted to invest in real estate, but she didn't dare to.

Even this man in his sixties felt that the current real estate market was too strange.

Just as Ruan Ziyu was hesitant to continue investing in real estate, the real estate market experienced another small boom.

During the peak sales season of September and October, housing prices rose slightly by 10% again within a month.

Major real estate groups are all using the guise of investing in Africa to attract investment, but in reality, apart from the City Group, none of the others can get in.

But as long as others don't know, it's fine. They're all fabricating stories about entering overseas markets, but in reality, they're all rushing to run away.

As a result, the real estate market continued to stagnate, much like the build-up of energy before each impending price surge.

Ruan Ziyu couldn't resist the temptation of rising prices and bought several luxury homes in first-tier cities that were considered valuable investments, becoming a sucker who ended up holding the bag.

Three generations of this family, not one of them is smart.

(End of this chapter)