Reborn as a landlord in Shanghai

Chapter 53 Talking about the cafeteria

After arriving at the hospital building by car, Mao Xiaoyu first routinely registered the tenants. Once she had confirmed how many tenants would be renewing their leases for the day, she left the building and went to her usual place to eat, intending to go and rescue the person after lunch.

"Little Mao..."

As soon as Mao Xiaoyu entered the restaurant, he heard someone calling him, so he couldn't help but look over. The first thing he saw was Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei eating.

"Sister Liu, Brother Guan, Brother Zhang, hello. I'll be right over after I get my food," Mao Xiaoyu greeted politely.

After saying this, Mao Xiaoyu bought a 15-yuan set meal at the counter, then took the food bowl and filled a box with one large meat dish, two small meat dishes, and two vegetable dishes. She then placed a bowl of soup on the food plate, and carried the food plate to the table where Liu, Guan, and Zhang sat down.

"Waiter, another beer, ice cold." Seeing that Liu, Guan, and Zhang not only had boxed lunches at their table, but each of them also had a beer, Mao Xiaoyu, wanting to fit in, followed the waiter and ordered a beer as well.

Upon hearing this, the restaurant waiter brought over a bottle of beer and thoughtfully opened it for Mao Xiaoyu. Of course, Mao Xiaoyu readily paid for the beer.

Looking at the beer, Mao Xiaoyu didn't use the glass on the table. Just like Lao Guan and Lao Zhang, she picked up a beer, politely greeted the three of them, and then took a sip.

"Xiao Mao, I won't say anything to you, but you're a local, and you have nothing to do in the morning. Why don't you eat lunch at home? What's the point of coming over to eat this boxed lunch with us every day?" Old Zhang couldn't help but say when he saw Mao Xiaoyu eating with her head down after drinking alcohol.

"My home is far away, and my parents eat at the restaurant because they work. The food there isn't as good as what I get. So why should I eat at my parents' place?" Mao Xiaoyu replied to Lao Zhang while eating.

"You're a teenager with no family pressure, yet you live like us old folks every day. Why is that?" Old Guan couldn't help but ask.

After all, Mao Xiaoyu has been here for a month or two, and everyone can see that no matter the wind or rain, Mao Xiaoyu comes to rescue people every day. Compared with other young people, this is incredible.

"I work so hard to earn money, of course I want to earn more. Once I earn more money, I can retire earlier and won't have to work every day until I'm old," Mao Xiaoyu said casually.

Upon hearing Mao Xiaoyu's words, Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei were stunned for a moment, and then after several seconds, they all burst into laughter.

"Are you kidding us? How old are you? You're already thinking about retirement. We old folks haven't retired yet. Are you trying to belittle us?" Sister Liu asked with a smile.

"Yes, if I hadn't seen that Xiao Mao is only a teenager, I would have thought that he was a middle-aged man in his forties or fifties saying these words," Lao Guan chimed in.

"I must say, this kid thinks even further ahead than I do," Old Zhang said with a happy laugh.

Seeing the three of them laughing non-stop, Mao Xiaoyu swallowed the food in her mouth, then answered while drinking. "Don't laugh, I'm serious. After all, money is so easy to make now, of course we should earn more. When it becomes harder to make money, having some savings will be better. Besides, I feel my life is quite fulfilling now, at least I'm busy every day."

"Xiao Mao, the days of easy money are long gone. A few years ago it was easy to make money because there were fewer houses and fewer houses available for rent, so there was no worry about finding a place to rent. In recent years, it has become increasingly difficult to make money."

"Not to mention that in recent years, many retired doctors have left this place, leaving the houses vacant. Many landlords like us have taken them over and started doing the same business as us, causing more and more people to make a living from this," Old Guan sighed.

"If it's not easy, we'll just take it slow. There's nothing we can do about it. After all, no matter what business you're in, there will always be competitors. Everyone needs to make a living, and that's normal," Mao Xiaoyu said nonchalantly.

"It's precisely because we need to eat that we're still gritting our teeth and persevering even though business is tough. Of course, we can't put all our eggs in one basket, so the three of us were just discussing whether we should partner up and start another business to have some other income," Sister Liu said.

Hearing what Sister Liu said, Mao Xiaoyu finally understood why the three people had called her over as soon as she arrived for dinner. It turned out that the three of them were planning to start a business together, but they had encountered some problems.

"Oh, I wonder what kind of business you three are planning to start? How about I help you analyze it?" Mao Xiaoyu asked, feigning concern.

"It's not a big business, really. It's just contracting out the cafeteria," Sister Liu said.

"What? You've contracted out the cafeteria?" Mao Xiaoyu exclaimed in surprise.

You know, running a hospital cafeteria is a lucrative job. If you contract the hospital cafeteria, you can easily earn at least three to five million a year. It's like a golden goose that lays golden eggs. What's there to hesitate about?

Seeing Mao Xiaoyu's surprised look, Sister Liu knew that Mao Xiaoyu had misunderstood, and quickly explained, "It's not the hospital cafeteria here. Our hospital cafeteria is managed by someone else. How could it be our turn to manage it?"

We're talking about a newly opened health and wellness hospital in Songjiang District. It's the first medical hospital in Shanghai specializing in rehabilitation, affiliated with Tongqi University, and a cooperative hospital with the Disabled Persons' Union. I heard it's an investment of several billion yuan. The canteen we're talking about is the canteen of this hospital.

Our concern is that since it's a newly opened health and wellness hospital, and all the businesses it does are related to rehabilitation, we're not entirely sure what kind of rehabilitation services they offer. We've never heard of them before, so we don't know if this hospital will be profitable.

"Such a large health and wellness hospital, regardless of whether it makes money or not, even if it just contracts out the cafeteria, it must cost a lot of money!" Mao Xiaoyu asked curiously.

Although Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei didn't know what a rehabilitation hospital was, Mao Xiaoyu, who had been reborn, knew the terms "health and wellness" even though she had never been inside one in her previous life.

According to Mao Xiaoyu, if the top-tier hospitals open to the general public are built for ordinary people and serve ordinary citizens, then these rehabilitation and wellness hospitals serve the wealthy and powerful.

If you don't have a net worth of several million and don't have reimbursement for your wages, you might not even dare to go in when you see the signboard of these health and wellness hospitals. Of course, if you do go in, it means you're already prepared to spend tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of yuan.

After all, these health and rehabilitation hospitals have exceptionally good environments and top-notch medical equipment in China. They also have a huge number of doctors with doctoral and master's degrees. All of these factors combined make the fees here shockingly expensive.

Therefore, these rehabilitation and wellness hospitals are a paradise for the wealthy. Once you enter, you can receive the best and highest level of care, allowing you to quickly recover your physical condition and get rid of the torment of illness as soon as possible.

Therefore, Mao Xiaoyu found it somewhat laughable that Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei were asking if such a hospital could make money. How could such a good hospital not make money? The three of them were probably thinking that it was too strange that such a hospital could provide them with a cafeteria.

That's why Mao Xiaoyu was curious about how much it would cost to rent out such a cafeteria.

"The first three years are free, but we need to invest in kitchen renovations according to the hospital's requirements. Based on their budget, the renovation alone will cost around 150 million yuan," Ms. Liu said.

"So you mean you only need to invest 150 million?" Mao Xiaoyu asked a really stupid question.

"How is that possible? This time, we need to invest 300 million yuan for a 6-year contract. For the first three years, since it's a new hospital and we've already paid 150 million yuan for renovations, we don't need to pay a contract fee. However, we do need to pay a 100 million yuan deposit. The remaining 50 yuan is for the kitchen operation costs."

"After the three-year lease is up, you'll have to pay a lease fee of 100 million yuan every year. And of the 300 million yuan investment, the investor will only receive 80% of the profits; the remaining 20% ​​will go to the middleman. The middleman doesn't need to put in any capital; all he needs is connections," Sister Liu said softly.

Mao Xiaoyu nodded after hearing what Sister Liu said.

After all, such an investment amount seems reasonable. The previous 150 million was too cheap; I couldn't believe it myself.

"Are the three of you planning to invest so much money?" Mao Xiaoyu asked, somewhat surprised.

After all, 300 million is not a small amount. The three people in front of you are probably quite wealthy for an ordinary family.

However, when it comes to investment, these three people are practically penniless. Let alone 300 million, they would be lucky to come up with 200 million, and the bulk of that would be from Sister Liu.

"How could that be? Even if you sold the three of us, you wouldn't get 3 million. This contract was arranged by Sister Liu's husband. They saw his skills and connections and wanted him to bring people to contract the canteen, so they gave him a 300% share," Old Zhang explained.

"Sister Liu, is your husband not going to work here anymore?" Hearing Old Zhang's words, Mao Xiaoyu looked at Sister Liu.

"He's reached retirement age and is about to retire. He's afraid that he'll be bored at home after retirement, so he thought about taking over the canteen," Sister Liu explained casually. As for the details, Sister Liu certainly wouldn't say.

"A 100% share is about 1 million yuan. Hmm, it seems alright. There's a good chance of making money from this investment. After all, hospitals in Shanghai rarely lose money, even rehabilitation hospitals. Not to mention, this is the first rehabilitation hospital in Shanghai, so the value of this investment is even more significant," Mao Xiaoyu explained to the three of them.

"Xiao Mao, would you like to invest?" Sister Liu asked expectantly after hearing Mao Xiaoyu's analysis.

"No way, you can't even finish your 30% share?" Mao Xiaoyu found it a bit unbelievable.

Upon hearing Mao Xiaoyu's words, Lao Guan and Lao Zhang involuntarily lowered their heads, while Sister Liu shook her head helplessly and said...

"It's not that easy to divide. To be honest, this is my husband's first time doing this, and he's not entirely confident either. So he plans to keep only half of the 1% share and give the other half to his relatives and friends to see if anyone wants to invest."

As for how much money to invest, let's do it this way: if the shares are divided into 100 shares, each share is worth about 37,500 yuan. My husband will take 15 shares, which means he will pay 562,500 yuan. The remaining 15 shares will also cost about the same amount.

My husband plans to give two shares each to the five chefs he brought over, and he can't handle the remaining five shares because our relatives are all in other provinces and can't invest in Shanghai.

So I was planning to give the remaining five shares to Lao Guan and Lao Zhang, but they don't have that much money, so we're stuck here. If you want them, that would be even better."

Upon hearing Sister Liu's earnest words, Mao Xiaoyu fell into deep thought, wondering whether she should invest in the cafeteria.

Honestly, even if investing in a cafeteria were profitable, Mao Xiaoyu wasn't very interested. After all, she didn't understand it. In her view, investing in an industry she didn't understand was simply throwing money down the drain. People in that industry could easily fool her with a few simple tricks. Besides, investing in a cafeteria was nowhere near as profitable as investing in real estate.

But now Sister Liu's question is different. After all, Sister Liu has a good reputation, and it would be fine to invest a little less. After all, this canteen is the canteen of the Shanghai Rehabilitation Hospital, and it is the first rehabilitation hospital in Shanghai. If you invest a little money, and in the end you can get to know some doctors in this hospital, even if you don't make money, you will still gain connections.

After all, Mao Xiaoyu knew that sometimes connections are more important than money. Moreover, this was the first rehabilitation hospital in Shanghai and one of the top rehabilitation hospitals in China. The connections these doctors had in the country would be invaluable.

In that case, Mao Xiaoyu asked, "So, how many shares do Lao Guan and Lao Zhang hold now?"

"Old Guan is going to take two shares, and Old Zhang is going to take one share," Sister Liu said a little embarrassed.

Hearing Sister Liu's words, Mao Xiaoyu twitched her lips. "Damn it," she thought, "after all that talking, the two of them only got three shares, and I still have two left."

"Then let me ask, if we invest our money, when will we receive dividends?" Mao Xiaoyu asked again.

"We might get a share of the profits before the Lunar New Year this year, since it's already June. Next, we'll sign the contract and do renovations, so we won't be able to open until at least September. If business is good, we should be able to get some profits after a few months," Sister Liu said hesitantly.

After all, this is a dividend.

Yes, dividends are only distributed when money is earned.

Why would you give out dividends if you don't make money?

That's why Liu Dayong spoke with uncertainty when the topic of New Year's bonuses came up.