Hearing the question, Lin Chu smiled. "In a few days, I'll be a gym owner."
Li Zuoguo couldn't help but let out a laugh.
'What a witty answer. It shows he has high emotional intelligence, too.'
"Hahaha, my apologies. I pried. I'll take a penalty drink."
he said with a laugh, taking a large gulp of wine.
...
The meal cost a total of 310,000. Lin Chu paid the bill and immediately received a rebate of 620,000.
Bank balance: 1,330,000.
'A net profit of 310,000 just from a single lunch.'
Lin Chu decided that from now on, he'd treat Ensue as his own personal cafeteria.
'Besides, it wasn't far from the gym.'
Li Zuoguo took the initiative to invite Lin Chu to come see the place. His attitude was sincere, with no hidden tricks. Even after witnessing Lin Chu's extravagant lunch, he had no thoughts of raising the rent at the last minute. Instead, he felt a desire to make a friend.
'At the very least, this proves Lin Chu isn't the type to open a gym just to cash in on membership fees and then run for the hills.'
Lin Chu added him on WeChat, and they headed over to see the place for themselves.
Zhang Peng had sent him photos that morning, so Lin Chu already had a basic impression of the place.
After seeing it in person, he had to admit it was quite nice.
The equipment was all top-of-the-line, the pool was large and clean, and right next to it, there was even a sauna. Beside the sauna was a locked rest area. When they went in to take a look, they found it was set up like a hotel room with a king-sized bed and an en-suite bathroom.
Lin Chu shot Li Zuoguo a meaningful look, but the older man's expression didn't falter. He simply smiled, the picture of nonchalance.
Lin Chu didn't say anything more.
'So, this is the life of the rich.'
'Being open to the public wasn't the priority; the owner's personal enjoyment was what mattered most.'
"This should work. I'd say it meets my requirements."
"What are your plans for the existing employees?"
Lin Chu asked.
Li Zuoguo replied, "There are four personal trainers on the team, and I'm taking all of them. I'm used to working with them."
"As for the rest of the staff, you can hold a meeting later to see who you'd like to keep. If they're willing to stay on, they can. I'll pay severance to the rest. You don't have to worry about a thing."
He was very decisive.
He was tying up all the loose ends perfectly.
Lin Chu nodded, sighing to himself again. 'He's immigrating and taking his personal trainers with him!'
'How fucking rich do you have to be for that?'
...
「Three days later.」
The gym's reception area.
Lin Chu's newly registered business license was already hanging on the wall.
The company name was: Peng City Big Lin and His Friends Ltd.
In the lounge area, Lin Chu and Li Zuoguo sat facing each other on a sofa, each holding a contract.
"I've looked it over, and there are no issues. Shall we sign?"
Li Zuoguo asked with a smile.
"Alright, let's do it."
With a few quick strokes of his pen, Lin Chu signed his name to the contract—a ten-year lease at 900,000 per year.
He felt a tremor run through him the moment he signed, but it was a satisfying one.
'From now on, I'm a legitimate business owner. I'm really President Lin now.'
'I don't have a house or a car yet in Peng City, but I already have my own company.'
"A pleasure doing business with you."
"I'll probably still come back once or twice a year, and when I have the time, I'll treat you to a drink. By the way, to celebrate signing the contract today, I brought you a couple of bottles of baijiu. It's a sauce-aroma type, but I have gout, so I can't really drink it anymore."
Li Zuoguo said with a smile, looking at his male secretary.
The secretary immediately placed the leather liquor case he was holding onto the table.
This...
Lin Chu was taken aback for a moment.
Then he quickly understood.
'This Old Li is clearly a man of taste. He drank my Romanée-Conti at lunch, and now he was returning the favor with two bottles of baijiu.'
"Of course. You're welcome back anytime."
Lin Chu shook his hand with a smile. They chatted for a while longer before Lin Chu saw him out.
When he came back inside and opened the liquor case, his eyes lit up.
Three bottles.
Zodiac Maotai.
The 2014 Year of the Goat edition.
The market price for a single bottle was around 30,000.
The three bottles were a clear nod to the auspicious idiom *san yang kai tai*—three goats ushering in prosperity.
'Old Li really is a man of taste,' Lin Chu thought again.
...
The gym originally had sixteen employees. Li Zuoguo took the four female personal trainers with him. Six more, too short-sighted to see the opportunity and lured by the triple severance package, also left. Lin Chu fired two more he wasn't impressed with, which left him with only four staff members.
One female receptionist.
And three male trainers, all with incredible physiques, covered in lean muscle and with body fat percentages well under 15%.
"My new gym is open for business. All friends, old and new, are welcome to stop by!"
Lin Chu sent out a post on his Moments.
To Lin Chu, this was more of a place to make friends than a business.
Everything from its location to its interior design was top-tier.
Li Zuoguo had been running it as a passion project, so his prices were very low. The moment Lin Chu took over, he raised the annual membership fee to 19,999.
His strategy was simple: cast the line and wait for the right fish to bite.
'With the rebate from just one fancy meal, he could cover the cost of ten of these memberships.'
'Raising the price was an effective way to filter for a certain quality of clientele.'
And yet...
After seeing the new price, two of the three remaining trainers quit the very next day.
'Who in their right mind would pay that much for a membership?'
'There'd be no commissions to be made.'
'Time to bail.'
Lin Chu didn't know whether to laugh or cry when he received their resignations, but he didn't try to stop them. If they wanted to go, they could go.
'The fitness industry is in a downturn anyway,' he thought. 'It won't be hard to hire new people.'
'Besides, they were Li Zuoguo's employees. It would have felt a little strange to have them working for me anyway.'
...
"Lin Chu, are you really not planning on coming back to work?"
He hadn't shown up at the office for five days.
His former boss, Xu Xiaolei, was on the phone. His tone wasn't accusatory, just a bit helpless.
He'd seen Lin Chu's Moments: bars, Michelin-starred restaurants, boat trips, parties... he'd even opened a gym. The guy had clearly hit the big time. It was only natural he wouldn't come back to his old job.
"Congratulations, you guessed right," Lin Chu said with a laugh.
Xu Xiaolei gave a resigned laugh. "Well, at least come back to sort out the paperwork. We were colleagues, after all. Let's have a meal together. It's on me."
'Even if the deal falls through, the goodwill remains,' he thought. Besides, Lin Chu had made it big and was definitely rich now. Maybe he could even be cultivated as a client.
Hearing this, Lin Chu was tempted to fire back with a sarcastic remark, but he held his tongue. After just a few days of living like a rich man, a lot of his former aggression had faded. He couldn't be bothered to stoop to his level. "Maybe when I get the chance. I'm busy lately, I have to make a trip back to my hometown."
With that, he hung up.
Lin Chu hadn't forgotten his plan.
He still had to buy his dad that Audi A6.
His mother passed away when he was very young, and his dad had raised him all on his own.
The old man was the type to be a little vain and enjoyed showing off. He could hold his liquor, but he also worked himself to the bone.
These days, he ran an orchard back in their rural hometown, growing kiwis and raising free-range chickens on the side. It wasn't a huge operation—only about thirty-odd mu of land—but it was more than enough to keep him busy.
The old man had talked his whole life about buying an Audi A6. It was his username on both QQ and WeChat, and his profile picture was a photo of an A6. In reality, he'd been driving a beat-up old BYD F3 for over a decade.
The story he always told was this: when he was young, a childhood friend from the village went to Xiangjiang and struck it rich. The friend wanted to return and bring a few fellow villagers back with him to give them a hand up. Lin Chu's father had been all set to go, but just as he was about to leave, his own father—Lin Chu's grandfather—stopped him, threatening to break his legs if he dared to go. Out of filial piety, he relented and ended up not going. He spent the better part of his life regretting it, as the other villagers who went had all become wildly successful.
That's why his father's lesson to him had always been: "Why insist on being buried in your hometown? Life is full of green mountains everywhere."
Go out and make your way in the world. Fortune favors the bold, and the timid starve to death!
...
...