Old Li broke out in a cold sweat. At first he stared at Lin Huai in contempt as he saw how young Lin Huai was. However, the aura exuded by Lin Huai at that moment was horrifying as his boss, Gong Zhenglong but in fact even more terrifying than Gong Zhenglong!
Old Li quickly lowered his head and with an apologetic smile, said, “Brother Huai, you are right. Of course we did our bookkeeping but what I meant was that we are not highly educated so the bookkeeping done by us cannot be considered formal accounts. They could only be ledgers.”
Lin Huai’s expression changed and he patted Old Li on the shoulders as he said, “Li Zheng, you are much older than me so I am sure you are experienced and have a wide range of knowledge. Thus, I believe you understand when you should be obeying orders and there is no need for me to repeat that you should not be thinking about any tricks and schemes.”
“Yes, yes.” Old Li immediately nodded his head like a chicken pecking on rice grains. The other eight thugs left behind in the arcade stared at Lin Huai with a hostile attitude. However, they kept still as they saw that Old Li had given in and succumbed to Lin Huai.
Lin Huai then said, “Let’s go and look at the ledgers. Dao Zi, help me make a call and gather all our men over here.”
“Alright!” Dao Zi gave a cold stare toward Old Li before taking his cellphone out as he walked to a corner and made the phone call.
Old Li gave an apologetic smile and said, “Brother Huai, your office is on the second floor and it has been vacant all this while. Only Big Boss Lei or Brother Long would take a seat there if they drop by occasionally. Let me bring you over there as the ledgers are in your office.”
“Alright, lead the way.”
The arcade had two floors whereby the first floor was the gaming area and the second floor was the office area with a lounge that had a few pool tables.
Lin Huai followed Old Li into the office located on the second floor. Old Li walked to the office desk, pulled open the drawer and took out the ledgers to pass it over to Lin Huai.
Lin Huai took the ledgers from Old Li and took a seat on a chair. Old Li on the other hand stood respectfully next to him as he was shocked by the aura exuded from Lin Huai. It was uncertain as to how long this deterrence would last as Old Li was definitely left behind to make life difficult for Lin Huai. If Old Li had been deterred and shocked easily, Gong Zhenglong would not have chosen to leave him behind.
Lin Huai flipped the ledger open and only took a look at the records from the most recent month. He knew there was no point in looking at the records in the past as there was not much reference value anymore. Upon seeing the record, he gently nodded. Although the revenue here is not much at the very least there was a revenue of roughly a hundred thousand each month. There should be some net income left behind after the deduction of utilities and the salary paid to his followers.
Lin Huai looked at Old Li and asked, “Is this all the revenue generated?”
Old Li rightfully replied, “Yes. In today’s day and age, everyone would head to a cybercafe and nobody comes to an arcade anymore. Fortunately, we still have a few lottery machines which is the only thing sustaining our business and that was enough for me.”
“Okay.” Lin Huai nodded. Although the revenue generated was not high, it was still decent. The only issue right now is that I have too many followers and it’s unrealistic to feed all of them with merely an arcade. Looks like I have to come up with something else.
Lin Huai said, “Alright, I understand. You may leave now. Ask Dao Zi to come in after his call.”
“Okay.” Old Li acknowledged as he got ready to leave.
Lin Huai suddenly asked, “Oh right, based on the ledgers, despite the revenue not being high, it wasn’t as terrible. So why are there no customers today?”
Old Li replied, “I also have no idea. Sometimes, things like this happen.”
Lin Huai snorted and said, “You may leave now.”
“Alright.” Old Li smiled and walked out of the room.
He walked out of the office, went down the stairs, headed towards Dao Zi who had just finished up his call and said, “Brother Huai is upstairs and he wants you there.”
“Okay.” Dao Zi coldly replied and immediately walked upstairs.
The other thugs that were downstairs gathered around Old Li and babbled away. “Brother Li, are we going to succumb just like that? Brother Long left us behind to make life difficult for him.”
“Exactly. Brother Li, we cannot cooperate with him. Instead, we should try our best to make him leave within the next two days.”
Old Li sneered, “On paper, he is still our Big Boss and we are his followers. Being disrespectful towards our boss in the underworld is a huge taboo so we have to prevent him from complaining and reporting our actions to Big Boss Lei.”
“Then what should we do?”
“Haha, after a few days he would give up and retreat away from here. After all, there would be no businesses everyday just like today so there is no way he could afford to feed so many of his men. Without a source of revenue, he would have no choice but to leave. Does he think it’s easy to make money? Wait till he looks at the ledgers in detail before realizing the enormous expenses on a daily basis!”
As expected, Lin Huai looked into the ledgers in detail once Old Li left. Upon closer inspection, Lin Huai realized that he was too optimistic. On the surface, it looked as if the revenue generated every month was around a hundred thousand, the miscellaneous expenses around ten thousand, Old Li and the other men’s salary would be three thousand each so in total the expenses was only around forty thousand. Of course, the fees paid to his own men were excluded. However, there was a major expense written in the ledger whereby they had to bribe the police twenty thousand every month. Otherwise, the police could easily shut down the operations of the place due to the existence of the lottery machines.
If that’s the case, how much money is left? Forty thousand? Haha, and to think that’s excluding the fees paid to my men. Fortunately this arcade is owned by Big Boss Lei and not a rented area. Otherwise, there would really not be any money left.
Lin Huai rubbed his temples as his head began to ache. Although he could dig into his savings, that was ultimately his own savings and he could not possibly dig into his own reserves forever. Looks like I have to come up with ways and ideas to generate more revenue through this arcade. Otherwise, I will have to come up with other sources of income.
Just then, Dao Zi walked in. Lin Huai lifted his head and with a sigh, asked, “Have you notified all of them?”
“They will be here at night.” Dao Zi hesitated for a moment before saying, “Although this arcade is large, there is no need for eighty men to be here.”
Lin Huai bitterly smiled and said, “Yes, we don’t need many people. If all eighty of them came to work inside the arcade, not only would I not make money instead within two months, the arcade would have to be winded down due to losing all of its initial capital.”
Dao Zi asked, “What’s your plan?”
Lin Huai massaged his head and bitterly smiled. “I’ll think about it. I’m sure there will be a way. Truth be told, even though it looks like it was a great bargain for me to be given an arcade by Big Boss Lei as well as half of the shares of this place, at the end of the day I couldn’t possibly sell this arcade right? Thus, it means that I still have to run the business and no matter how, it is most likely going to suffer a loss and that is the biggest problem.”
Dao Zi said, “Is Big Boss Lei afraid of your rapid growth?”
Lin Huai nodded and said, “Yes. Big Boss Lei still hasn’t trusted me fully yet. On paper and in reality, it seemed as if he has done a lot for me. However, he has also restricted my growth. This is even clearer in this case whereby he chose to give me an arcade that used to belong to Gong Zhenglong. He knows that Gong Zhenglong hates me the most yet… Ah, forget it, let’s not talk about this. We never know if someone could be spying on us…”
Dao Zi nodded his head in acknowledgement.
Lin Huai stood up and paced around the room slowly as he murmured to himself. “How should I generate more income?”
In order to gain a firm foothold in Thunder Gang, I have to strengthen my own forces. In order to do that, I have to generate more income for my followers. Otherwise, the only thing keeping us together is loyalty and I can’t possibly ask them to survive without money. That might work for a couple of days but as time goes by, people would lose hope in me and leave.
Very soon, the sounds of people chatting and laughing could be heard below. Lin Huai walked to the door and pushed it open as Dao Zi followed behind him, staying true to his side.
Lin Huai stood on the second floor as he looked down, he waved his arms and asked, “Everyone, how do you all feel about this place?”
Chu Wenxing said, “Wow, Brother Huai, I did not expect us to be able to own such a nice place. Is this going to be where our base of operations is in the future?” He was the number one fighter of Wu Shanhe from the business major back in Yulan College. He was even more powerful than the four Red Canes of the sports major and the only reason he was not as popular was because the business major was not famous as the sports major. Now he is Lin Huai’s second most powerful fighter and is behind Dao Zi out of Lin Huai’s four Red Canes.
However, Wu Jun and Wu Mengjie stayed behind in Yulan College when Lin Huai left so he was left with two Red Canes by his side, Dao Zi and Chu Wenxing. Both of them were considered to be Lin Huai’s right-hand man.
Lin Huai waved his arm and with a smile, said, “Come here.”
Chu Wenxing acknowledged and walked up the stairs. Lin Huai looked at everyone downstairs and said, “Today we are not going to open so all of you can party and have as much fun as you want. I will bring everyone out for supper later. Old Li, distribute the gaming chips to everyone!”
Old Li acknowledged but deep down in his heart he sneered. Upon your arrival, you all begin to enjoy life. Haha, that’s great, but you all will begin to suffer after a few days.
Lin Huai knew the thoughts going on in Old Li’s mind. However, there were no customers today anyways so in order to boost his follower’s morale, he had to announce that business was closed today instead of mentioning the truth. That was Lin Huai’s strategy.
As for tomorrow… The very least based on the ledgers, it was impossible to have zero customers completely. I shall see what Old Li and his men are up to the next day.
Everyone began to have fun and enjoy themselves including Old Li and his men. After all, they did not plan to work anyway so having fun coincides with their plan.
Once Chu Wenxing arrived on the second floor, Lin Huai looked at him and said, “I want you to stay behind with a few men tonight in this arcade. Is there a problem with that?”
Chu Wenxing nodded his head and excitedly said, “No problem.”
“Alright,” Lin Huai sneered, “Begin to look for customers first thing in the morning. Also, make sure to keep an eye out on the few unfamiliar faces as I want to see what they are up to.”
A cold glare flashed Chu Wenxing’s eyes as he glanced at Old Li and his men downstairs. He asked, “Aren’t they one of our own? Do you need me to kick them out?”
Lin Huai shook his head, “It’s okay. Now’s not the time.”
Although it wasn’t the right time to kick them out, Lin Huai knew that he was not going to allow spies to be present in his team. Thus, it was inevitable that they were going to be kicked out and Lin Huai was adamant about it!