Chapter 43: The Location of This Storefront Is Quite Good

In the evening, Chen Zhou went home and chatted with his wife about the junior martial arts sister.

Learning that she was coming over for dinner on Saturday, Ms. Lin looked quite happy.

Moreover, she wanted to prepare a few of her signature dishes to entertain her guest.

A healthy salad, and a mixed vegetable platter.

"Aren't these basically the same dish?" Chen Zhou asked.

Ms. Lin shook her head earnestly, "Not at all. The salad is sweet, and the mixed vegetables are savory."

Hearing this from the side, Chen Taochao furrowed her brows.

Seeing this, Ms. Lin had no choice but to turn back to Chen Zhou: "You should just handle it instead."

She didn't mind being a little lazy.

Thus, the task of picking up the junior sister and bringing her home was delegated to Lin Yifan.

Ms. Lin then suggested, "Drive her back home after dinner as well. It's not easy for a young girl out there all by herself."

Chen Zhou nodded in agreement.

Vaguely, he detected a trace of empathy in his wife's words toward the junior sister.

Come to think of it, Ms. Lin's hometown wasn't in Seaside City either; it was even farther away than Zhao Yilin's. Back when she was a young girl herself, had it also been quite difficult?

At this moment, Chen Taochao chimed in, "Mom, I want to go too."

Lin Yifan smiled and said, "Alright, we'll take you along."

Anyway, as long as there was an outing, the little girl was more than happy to tag along wherever they went.

She wasn't alone anymore...

On quiet nights, Chen Zhou liked to check his intelligence system before going to sleep.

It was still at level 3, which realistically meant he had completed the beginner stage.

Although the conditions for the next upgrade sounded somewhat exaggerated,

this precisely indicated that there was still plenty of room for him to maneuver and grow.

The points he had accumulated recently amounted to 1,224, which allowed him to appropriately upgrade his culinary skills and initiate the next targeted intelligence gathering.

Chen Zhou locked his target onto [Market News] regarding the selection of a shop location for his future business.

Besides intelligence enhancement and culinary skill upgrades,

points could also be used to redeem trivial minor skills and snippets of knowledge.

Chen Zhou found a hefty tome costing 5 points, titled "Interpreting Capital from the Perspective of the Catering Industry," and began reading it in his mind.

"...The socially dominant wealth can manifest as a massive accumulation of food..."

It worked like a charm; after reading just two sentences, sleepiness washed over him.

...

The next day.

A person, a cat, the living room, and a dazed Chen Taochao.

Chen Zhou checked the newly refreshed gourmet intelligence.

[Ingredient Express]: To make delicious mixed vegetable dishes and salads, you need fresh vegetables paired with well-balanced dressings. The currently recommended dressing formulas are brand XX...

The recipes for the mixed vegetable platter and salad didn't even count as rare intelligence!

However, the difficulty of making them was indeed very low.

The second piece of intelligence remained—

[Diner Dynamics]: The proprietress of the breakfast shop downstairs will patronize your steamed bun shop tomorrow.

What was bound to happen would eventually happen.

After all, Chen Zhou's steamed buns had already gained quite a reputation around the residential complex.

Whether as a competitor or simply as a curious passerby, someone from the breakfast shop was bound to come over and have a taste.

Chen Zhou hoped this would be a friendly exchange and mutual learning experience.

Judging from Tony's previous chats, however, that family didn't take their business too seriously and were fairly honest in their dealings.

The only outrageous thing they might have done was "accidentally" moving the trash can a few times.

If there were anything worse, Tony wouldn't have been able to resist gossiping about it with him.

Finally, Chen Zhou's customized intelligence—

[Market News (Targeted)]: The listed price for Class A commercial spaces measuring 35 to 45 square meters in the Sunshine City residential complex back then was 35,000 per square meter, with the actual average transaction price around 32,000 per square meter. There are still three vacant 45-square-meter shops available at the leasing and sales center. Their bottom-line selling price is 25,000 per square meter, while the bottom-line rent is 55,000.

Chen Zhou had previously chatted briefly with Tony the barber and the couple running the tobacco and liquor shop.

Tony's barbershop was operated entirely by himself for haircuts and styling. The rent was 50,000, and the space was small—a compact unit.

The rent for the tobacco and liquor shop was 60,000, spanning 45 square meters.

Meng Da and his wife were doing quite well with their business, had some savings, and planned to buy out the shop they were currently renting, currently negotiating the price with the landlord.

This piece of intelligence provided Chen Zhou with much more detailed information.

The prices at the leasing center back then, as well as the current expectations and bottom lines.

One had to admit, the drop in real estate prices had been truly ruthless.

Properties bought with hard-earned money a few years ago had depreciated by twenty or thirty percent just like that.

It was hard to imagine how heartbroken those owners must feel.

Actually, there was no need to imagine; Chen Zhou felt heartbroken too.

It hurt so much.

Because he had bought his own apartment as well.

It just wasn't a commercial storefront.

Recovering from the shock, Chen Zhou saved this price information in his memo.

With his current financial strength, buying was definitely out of the question, but renting was pretty much within his budget.

Moreover, given the current market trend, renting was far more sensible than buying.

A new item was added to Chen Zhou's to-do list: find some time recently to visit the leasing and sales center.

He wondered if those three vacant shops had been renovated; if they were still bare concrete shells, they wouldn't be very suitable.

...

"Breakfast is ready!"

Ms. Lin called out to the two generations of men spacing out on the sofa.

She then turned to Chen Zhou and said:

"What is wrong with you two lately? Does spacing out actually contagious? First it was you, then the cat, and now Taochao has picked it up too."

Chen Zhou said solemnly, "We are researching business secrets."

"Let's just pretend I believe you."

"Let's talk about serious business," Chen Zhou looked at his wife. "What do you think of the storefronts around our residential complex? I'm thinking of opening my shop around here when the time comes."

Ms. Lin began to analyze.

Choosing a nearby location was the best option because Chen Zhou's customer base primarily consisted of residents from the surrounding neighborhood.

If they chose another location just to save on rent, they would have to build their reputation from scratch all over again, and secondly, commuting back home would be inconvenient.

Staying right by the neighborhood was genuinely a great idea.

His wife's support always gave Chen Zhou a greater sense of reassurance.

"I'm planning to carve out some time to visit the leasing center, and we can stroll around together later."

Ms. Lin nodded, signaling them to eat first.

As the matriarch of the household, she also had her own dignity and bottom line.

Although Chen Zhou's culinary skills were indeed quite good, she also needed to ensure her family received comprehensive nutritional health.

Besides, Chen Zhou was already taking charge of family dinners and most weekends.

Therefore, breakfast was Ms. Lin's main battlefield.

And on this main battlefield, her signature dishes were indispensable.

The large basin on the table looked lush and green, and the amount of dressing used was strictly restrained, making it undeniably healthy.

Chen Zhou took a couple of bites, applying what he had just learned, and recommended the salad dressing mentioned in his intelligence report.
"I'll try that next time. Let's finish what's already in the fridge first."

Chen Taochao couldn't quite appreciate her mother's painstaking efforts.

She wanted Chen Zhou to take her out to eat instead.

"No way, Taochao. Look at kids your age—their average height is already 1.17 meters. You need to eat properly so you can grow tall!"

...

On the way to drop their daughter off at school, Chen Taochao muttered discontentedly:

"Daddy, I'm just a little bunny. I'm eating grass every day."