"Heh, if you don't want us to smash things, that's fine, but pay us back. If you don't pay us back, then don't blame us."
The bald man sneered, completely ignoring the pleas of the Du family father and daughter. In his eyes, all the handicrafts here were worthless.
"We really can't come up with five million..."
Du Fengjun said helplessly, "Even if you sell him, he's not worth five million."
"Hehe, since that's the case..."
As he spoke, the bald man gave a look to his henchmen.
The henchmen gripped their sticks tightly and strode to different display shelves, ready to make their move. The atmosphere suddenly became tense.
At this crucial moment, Ye Chen spoke:
"It's only five million, I'll pay for it for him."
In an instant, the bald man and his henchmen all turned their attention to Ye Chen.
"Can you come up with five million?"
The bald man looked incredulous. Could a twenty-year-old kid really come up with such a large sum of money all at once?
Ye Chen didn't answer anything, but took out a checkbook from his bag and wrote a check on the spot.
"Take this five million and get out."
After finishing writing, Ye Chen threw the check directly to the bald man.
The bald man quickly caught the check and, upon closer inspection, saw that it was from a major domestic bank and contained five million.
"Okay, okay, I'll leave, we'll leave right away."
Upon receiving the money, the bald man beamed with joy. He was willing to crawl out of the house, let alone leave.
"Leave the IOU."
The boss's daughter spoke up.
Yes, yes........
The bald man placed the IOU on the table.
"Walk."
Soon, the bald man and his henchmen quickly left.
"Thanks."
After the bald man left, Du Fengjun came to Ye Chen and bowed deeply to him.
"Thank you."
Du Fengjun's daughter also expressed her gratitude.
"I will do everything I can to repay you the five million as soon as possible, plus interest."
Du Fengjun quickly assured him.
"You don't need to pay this money back."
To his surprise, Ye Chen waved his hand, indicating that he didn't need to pay it back.
This greatly surprised Du Fengjun. He couldn't understand why Ye Chen, a complete stranger, would help him so much.
"What do you mean? Please tell me."
Du Fengjun asked.
"Oh, I've taken a liking to your shop. I want to buy it and hire you as my employee."
Ye Chen answered.
Ye Chen planned to buy the shop and then bring Du Fengjun into his service.
"What, you're buying my entire shop?"
Du Fengjun was not surprised. To be honest, when he heard the first half of Ye Chen's sentence, Du Fengjun was somewhat reluctant, but when he heard the second half of Ye Chen's sentence, Du Fengjun hesitated.
This old shop, and the art of copper inlay, are his whole life.
"Sir, I don't want to lie, but if you buy this shop, you will definitely lose money. Our business is not doing well."
Du Fengjun didn't want to deceive Ye Chen, so he said it specifically.
“I didn’t intend to run this shop. I was drawn to the Wutong Zouyin technique and intend to promote it so that people all over the country and even the world would know about it.”
Ye Chen explained that it wouldn't matter to him whether there was a small shop or a hundred or a thousand; what he valued was the long-standing craft of black copper inlay.
"What?!"
After hearing Ye Chen's words, Du Fengjun was stunned. He hadn't expected this young boss to have such a broad vision, wanting to make Wutong Zouyin known throughout the country, and even the world.
"Okay, I agree."
Du Fengjun agreed.
Firstly, the boss had just helped him, and he had to repay that favor. Secondly, if he were to rely solely on himself and his struggling old shop, his family would not be able to make a living normally. He had to bow to reality.
Secondly, since this boss genuinely wants to promote and develop Wutong Zouyin, this veteran craftsman is willing to support it, as it is one of his dreams.
“I will buy this shop for ten million and pay you an annual salary of five million.”
Ye Chen spoke.
Five million would definitely be too much to hire just an ordinary craftsman, but Ye Chen's high price had another deeper meaning.
"Boss, this is too much, too much. My shop isn't even worth five million."
Upon seeing this, Du Fengjun quickly waved his hand, feeling ashamed to accept such money.
"Don't rush to refuse. I'm giving you this money and hiring you at a high price not just to buy this shop, but also to give you other things to do."
Ye Chen spoke.
“Since we want to carry forward the Wutong Zouyin, we certainly can’t rely on just one inheritor like you. I want you to gather all the people you know who understand Wutong Zouyin. I’m willing to pay a high price to hire them.”
If Ye Chen wants to develop the business in the future, Du Fengjun alone is definitely not enough. He wants to use Du Fengjun's network of connections to bring all the other people who know about black copper and silver under his command.
This is another meaning behind it.
In this way, he could easily acquire a large number of technical talents without much effort or by spending a little money.
"I see..."
Du Fengjun fell into thought.
"I believe most of them would be willing to work for you, boss."
Many of the artisans he knew were in the same situation as him. Now, someone was willing to hire them at a high price, and it was all for the purpose of promoting Wutong Zouyin. Everyone was happy that they could continue to create.
Immediately afterwards, Su Ningshuang helped draft two documents: an employment document and a shop acquisition document. The two signed them, and the employment relationship began. After everything was settled, Ye Chen wrote Du Fengjun a check for 15 million, which Du Fengjun accepted with great gratitude.
"Boss, please feel free to give any instructions."
"Hire as many people as possible, the more the better, money is not an issue."
Ye Chen spoke.
A trillion-dollar conglomerate cannot rely on just one product. Ye Chen certainly doesn't expect to create a super company with just Wutong Zouyin. That would be ridiculous.
The "Black Copper Inlaid with Silver" technique was just an experiment for him. He first invested a small sum of money, tens of millions or hundreds of millions, to test the waters and see how it went. If it was successful, he would expand the scale, look for similar techniques, and begin to develop them vigorously.
If the results are poor, even if it's only tens or hundreds of millions, the loss won't have any impact on Ye Chen.
Ye Chen doesn't plan to use the "I can see the rate of return" feature right now; it would be too wasteful.
It's a small matter of tens of millions or hundreds of millions. It would be a waste to use this ability. The value of "I can see the rate of return" is far more than hundreds of millions. Ye Chen plans to wait until he sees the effect before making any decisions. If it's good, he will use "I can see the rate of return" to make predictions.
Ye Chen seemed to remember something and spoke up deliberately:
"Oh, right, there's one more thing."
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