Chapter 119: Cousin

Li Mochen set off for Baxley City in the afternoon, having spent the entire morning busy meeting and exchanging words with the company's employees, followed by a meeting with Kadiren Jebson and Li Mei.

After a week, Kadiren had completed a thorough market survey and was now in a state of extreme excitement, full of fighting spirit. He felt that Li Mochen's comprehensive chain store plan was not only feasible but had a high probability of success, even believing that without external interference, the plan could not possibly fail.

This man was even more aggressive than Li Mochen, preparing to persuade Li Mochen to mortgage part of the company's assets, take out an additional loan of 2.5 million gold shields, and then inject another million gold shields, expanding the number of comprehensive stores to nine to cover the entire upper city area with a population of 1.7 million.

To Li Mochen's surprise, Li Mei, the financial manager, was also persuaded by Kadiren and agreed to the latter's plan.

This was quite different from Li Mochen's original idea; he had intended to keep some reserve funds to prepare for unforeseen changes. More stores, while further solidifying the first step of Sunrise Company's rise, would also lead to greater risks.

If they encountered an opponent like the Blood Hand Gang again, the difficulty of protecting seven stores versus nine stores would be vastly different.

But this was just Li Mochen's thinking a week ago. After a week, he now had a decent private armed force in hand, and a magic sniper rifle of level fifteen or above would soon be in his possession. This greatly boosted his confidence. After asking Kadiren for some details, he went along with the plan.

Li Mochen believed that although Kadiren's attitude was aggressive, the plan on paper was fairly complete. The key was that he and Sunrise Company had the strength to realize Kadiren's ambition.

The subsequent agenda involved store location selection, employee expansion, and sourcing of goods. Due to his student status, Li Mochen could only participate to a limited extent, but he placed particular emphasis on store location selection and was prepared to follow the entire process. He believed this was the key to the success of the comprehensive store plan. The store locations needed to be sufficiently bustling with a certain flow of people, and safety also had to be considered. Kadiren thought it best to open near several police stations. In America, due to frequent crime, the commercial atmosphere and public security near police stations were usually the best in a city. However, the rent in these areas was also higher, which would increase costs. Of course, the final choice of location would have to consider all aspects comprehensively.

As for employees, Li Mochen's attention was very limited. He believed that with the old foundation of Sunrise Company, the employees could not be too bad no matter what.

He planned to first post a few recruitment ads in the newspaper, have Kadiren Jebson and Li Mei handle the first few rounds of screening, and finally make the final decision himself.

Wen Jian Taoran was proficient in multiple disciplines and had some skill in mental illusions; he was capable of selecting suitable candidates for Sunrise Company from among these people.

As for ability, Kadiren and Li Mei would not let mediocre people enter his sight.

Regarding sourcing, all three agreed that they needed to hire two or three industry specialists to help the company understand prices and market conditions and to connect with upstream suppliers—preferably those who could also help train employees in sales.

Kadiren planned to prepare on two fronts: on one hand, try to organize the supply chain themselves; on the other, contact headhunting companies.

The discussion among the three lasted until three in the afternoon before ending. Li Mochen finally extricated himself from the company and drove with Li Mei in his Lotus 350 sports car toward Baxley. Qi Tai and the other followed in an off-road vehicle.

"I consulted a few neighbors, and they were very interested in the stores you described. This gave me a lot of confidence."

Sitting in the passenger seat of the sports car, Li Mei smiled and explained to Li Mochen: "The key is that I know Kadiren; he has always been a cautious and methodical person with a very prudent character. When your father was still alive, he twice gave up orders worth millions of gold shields due to unpredictable risks. At this time, unless he sees hope and has considerable certainty, he wouldn't be so excited. He agrees with your view that the coming era will be one where channels are king. Once we have certain commercial channels, even those powerful large manufacturers will have to bow to us. But—"

Li Mei paused, a hint of hesitation in her eyes: "But Kadiren also mentioned to me privately that he doesn't really have high hopes for your complete plan."

Li Mochen became curious: "I don't quite understand. I see—Kadiren is referring to the later part?"

"That's right. He thinks the plan to continue expanding to twenty stores in half a year, covering most of Atlanta, is very unrealistic."

Li Mei sighed: "As Boss said before, there are too many sharks and crocodiles in Atlanta. We probably won't last that long. But this can make us a quick profit. After achieving some results, we can package and sell these stores to large companies. Kadiren estimates this could yield a profit of 20 to 30 million gold shields. I think so too, so he's very aggressive—the more stores we open, the more the company is worth, isn't it?"

Li Mochen couldn't help but smile; if it were just to earn twenty or thirty million, he might as well continue the Archibald Apartments project, at least without having to invest so much energy in company affairs.

However, from the perspectives of Kadirun Jebsen and Li Mei, such thoughts were inevitable.

After all, although he had now secured a top sponsorship contract from Nathan Sports Group, in the eyes of outsiders, he was still just a teenager with top-tier talent. Neither his own magical profession level nor the power he wielded was sufficient to support this comprehensive store plan.

So Li Mochen just smiled and made no further comment.

He would deal with future matters later; at least for now, the two of them were walking the same path shoulder to shoulder with him.

The success of the comprehensive store project would take at least three months to materialize. By that time, Li Mochen would naturally let them see the hope of holding onto this foundation.

If after three months he still couldn't hold onto what was his, then he would truly be unworthy of his title 'Immortal King.'

Half an hour later, the two cars arrived in Baxley City and, following Li Mei's instructions, drove to Baxley Riverside High School located in the suburbs.

It was just dismissal time, and many students were walking out of the gate. Li Mochen slowly parked the car across from the school gate and observed the flow of people through the car window.

"That little girl is Hazel, isn't she? Incredibly beautiful—"

At that moment, Li Mochen felt a hint of stunning surprise.

He thought to himself that the saying 'a girl changes eighteen times before reaching womanhood' was indeed true. The girl walking out of the school gate was completely different from the Hazel in the original owner's memory.

She was entirely a beauty in the rough—delicate features, a slender figure, all making her stand out among her classmates like a crane among chickens. Only her slightly sallow skin slightly detracted from her appearance—likely due to malnutrition.

The reason Li Mochen could recognize the girl was because of the slight resemblance in their features.

"You Wiltons are all handsome men and beautiful women."

Li Mei's expression was somewhat dazed: "I think when she grows up, she will look a lot like your mother. Elena was a great beauty; photos couldn't capture even a tenth of her beauty."

Li Mochen recalled the voice and appearance of Elena Wilton and thought Li Mei was right.

It was mainly a matter of temperament. No matter how good one's face and figure were, there was always a limit. But temperament was a multiplier of charm, capable of greatly influencing people's perception. Elena Wilton's temperament and charm were undoubtedly top-notch.

Then Li Mochen frowned slightly: "You're right. Her situation now might indeed be very bad."

Although they were all wearing school uniforms, Li Mochen still noticed some details. There were two patches of bruising on Hazel's cheek, likely from being hit. Her hair was also very dry and yellow—confirming Li Mochen's guess that the girl's diet was probably terrible.

Then there were Hazel's shoes—very old, with the soles starting to come unstitched, and her socks had patches. It was clear that the person who sewed them was quite rough and inexperienced.

Li Mochen found it strange. Hazel's parents had only recently passed away; how had she fallen to such a state?

He immediately opened the car door and walked toward Hazel. But before he could take a few steps, Li Mei grabbed him.