“Amazing!”
After reviewing the reconciliation results sent by the female official, and discovering that the results were exactly the same as the dividend details she had received the day before yesterday, scrawled in children's crayons, Queen Veronica couldn't help but raise her head, looking at Melanie in front of her with disbelief, and said:
“You didn't even miscalculate a single number… and isn't your return rate a bit too high? The companies I invested in with royal funds, which handle large transactions with the Northern Territory, only yielded a little over forty percent, and you've managed to push it up to almost double?”
“This is still low!”
Facing her sister-in-law and current biggest investor, Melanie hummed, then wiggled her delicate nose, and said with a bit of smugness:
“The companies you invested in,嫂子, mainly supply materials; making money isn't the biggest goal. But I'm different. If I had enough money, could hire more people, and could handle more orders, I could probably increase it by another 50% or more!”
It could still increase by another fifty percent?
Hearing Melanie's words, Veronica, who had mostly been humoring her, couldn't help but raise her eyebrows slightly, a genuine look of surprise appearing in her eyes.
Although the so-called “dividends” that Melanie provided could only be considered child's play, insignificant compared to the wealth she controlled, not even a drop in the bucket, the return rate on this “investment” was indeed astonishingly high.
Even her female official said after looking at it that although the child's “operation” was clumsy, her eye for opportunity was excellent. Even if she were in the same situation as Melanie, without exploiting her power to take shortcuts, the profit she could obtain would probably be the same.
And if what Melanie said was true, and the child was confident in extracting an additional fifty percent from the current profit, wouldn't that mean her ability in this area had rivaled or even surpassed her carefully cultivated female official?
“Tell me about it?”
Staring at Melanie's smug little expression, vaguely feeling that she wasn't talking nonsense, Veronica couldn't help but become interested, extending her little finger and smilingly hooking it with Melanie's:
“First, tell me how you earned a double return rate. I'm very interested in this, and if you can still increase it by fifty percent on the existing basis, I'll invest twice as much in you next time!”
“Okay!!!”
Faced with the proposal of further investment from the gold master, Melanie couldn't help but feel a surge of energy, quickly extending her soft little finger, hooking it on Veronica's little finger, stretching out her thumb and trying hard to make a stamp, then said with a confident expression:
“When I was called to the office to be… ahem… lovingly helped, I saw the newspaper on Victor's teacher's desk and knew that you had ordered most of the factories to be moved out of the city.
Especially those noisy and smelly factories, which must be moved to the industrial area outside the city. And the end of Shipbridge Street, where I live, just happens to have one, so it must also be moved.”
“Not bad.”
Slightly nodding to show her approval, Veronica blinked and asked:
“But does this have anything to do with you borrowing money to buy fluorescent agents and light bulbs, and finding people to assemble those light boxes and signs?”
“It has everything to do with it!”
Melanie wrinkled her nose, revealing a matter-of-course expression:
“Shipbridge Public School is the best school in the old city, even in the new city it's top-notch. Almost every morning, evening, and noon, there's a considerable and fixed flow of people…嫂子, don't you think something is missing around Shipbridge Public School?”
Something is missing?
Veronica thought for a moment, then answered with some understanding:
“A commercial street?”
“That's right!”
Tapping her little head, Melanie raised her head, her eyes sparkling:
“So many people pass by every day, logically speaking, there should have been a commercial street long ago, but the end of the street has a factory that starts work from time to time, not only is it noisy and smoky every day, but it also occupies the area with the most foot traffic.
This factory drives away potential shoppers, and occupies suitable parking spots for carriages, forcing many people to detour to the other half of the street to park their carriages, and they don't even pass through Shipbridge Street. Without foot traffic, shops naturally can't open.”
So that's how it is…
Recalling the scene she saw when she came over, focusing on recalling the old factory site that had been converted into Charles Department Store, and the carriages parked full across the street, Queen Veronica couldn't help but nod in agreement, then said with an appreciative expression:
“So whether it's a newly opened shop or a renovated facade after gaining customers, they must make signs and other things. So you found a classmate whose family makes signs, ordered a batch of materials in advance, and then asked me for people to set up a temporary small workshop?”
“It's a company! A make-money-every-day company!”
“Okay, okay, a company!”
Hearing the regretful company name, the corners of Veronica's mouth couldn't help but curl up slightly, then she suppressed it under Melanie's puffed-up gaze, and then said with a smile:
“I know what happened after that. You gave the newly popular light box signs to several shops near the street entrance for free, and luckily, the businesses of those shops you chose were particularly good, so your light boxes…”
“It's not luck!”
Melanie said with some dissatisfaction:
“I specifically took people to investigate. Those shops weren't good before, but it was just because there were few people, the products themselves were fine.
And their locations were very advantageous. People who walked in from the street entrance were either almost tired when they got to their shops, or they had already been to several shops and compared prices, so they naturally bought things casually.”
“So when their business got better, naturally more people bought your light boxes.”
After finishing the last sentence for Melanie, Veronica clapped her hands, then said with a smile:
“Amazing, amazing, I underestimated you. So what other ways do you have to increase the profit by another fifty percent?”
“I can also take William to the public school at night and secretly pour water on the north gate's hinges.”
“???”
“The north gate's hinges are very old, the waterproof paint has long peeled off, and the school's gatekeeper is very lazy, only taking the door off to lubricate it once every six months, so as long as the two of us pour water on it for a few days, the north gate will be completely rusted, and then no matter which direction the parents come from, if they want to pick up their children, they will have to detour to the main street.”
After explaining her method, in Veronica's somewhat amused expression, Melanie hummed with regret:
“The school's gate hasn't been replaced for seventy or eighty years. Repairing it requires disassembling the whole thing, which will probably take at least ten days or half a month, and during this time, seeing the foot traffic that has soared several times, more people will definitely decide to replace their signs.
It's just that I don't have enough money and can't handle so many orders, and the shop owners who can't wait in line will also go to others, otherwise we would definitely earn more this time!”
“……”
