From Wage Slave to Tycoon

If they were veterans, he wouldn’t have to worry. He’d know their backgrounds, and Su Chen could employ them with peace of mind.

"How many people do you need?"

Su Chen pinched his chin thoughtfully. "Let’s start with a hundred."

"A hundred?" Xiao Chen couldn’t help but roll his eyes at Su Chen. A small number would have been one thing, but Su Chen was asking for a hundred right off the bat. That was going to be difficult.

The demobilization period had ended two months ago. Most of the outstanding non-commissioned officers had already found jobs, to say nothing of the other veterans scattered all over the country. How could anyone possibly find so many in such a short time?

"Sigh, alright. I’ll get them all for you in half a month." Xiao Chen felt a little helpless. He had already given his word; he couldn’t very well take it back, could he?

After a bit more small talk, Xiao Chen made an excuse about having something to attend to and left. In reality, he was worried that if they kept talking, Su Chen would think of something else for him to help with.

........

"It’s the Lantern Festival today. Why are you guys here?"

As for these two... Su Chen was at a loss. Ever since he returned to the Imperial Capital, they had been showing up to freeload on food and drinks every single day. He had originally planned to rest at home for the Lantern Festival to recharge for the tasks ahead.

Who would have thought... right after lunch, just as Su Chen was about to have some tea and take a short break in the central courtyard, he saw Jiangyang and Chen Yao walk in carrying several boxes.

"Well, since it’s the Lantern Festival, we were thinking of taking you to the lantern fair tonight. Oh, and we brought you some Lantern Festival snacks. We went all the way to Huguo Temple just to buy them." As they spoke, the two of them placed the boxes on the stone table.

"A lantern fair?" This piqued Su Chen’s interest. He had only ever seen such things on TV—admiring decorative lanterns, solving lantern riddles, and the like.

He had never seen one in real life.

"Mhm~ It’s near Shichahai, not far from your place. Let’s go check it out after dinner tonight!"

After sitting down, Jiangyang and Chen Yao quite naturally poured themselves cups of tea.

"Sure~ I’d like to go and see what it’s all about."

In the blink of an eye, it was evening. After dinner, Su Chen and the others headed out.

As soon as he stepped out of the courtyard house, Su Chen was captivated by the night view of Shichahai. It was a completely different scene from before. The railings along the embankment were adorned with small lanterns, and even the willow trees by the riverbank were hung with them.

The entire Houhai was bathed in a sea of light.

Following Jiangyang and Chen Yao, they arrived at the Lotus Market in Shichahai, where the fair was being held. The stream of tourists was endless, and it took the group a great deal of effort just to squeeze inside.

"Whoa! Holy cow, what a huge dragon!" Looking at the giant dragon lantern in the center of the venue, who wouldn’t be blown away?

"This one’s considered small. If you go over to Qinglong Lake, you can see an even bigger one. They say this year’s giant dragon lantern is over a hundred meters long!" Jiangyang said this with a hint of pride.

"Tsk, tsk, you Beijingers really know how to live it up." Su Chen couldn’t help but marvel. Back in his hometown of Fuzhou, the most they’d do is hang up a few small lanterns, and sometimes they’d just reuse the string lights from New Year’s Eve.

Besides the decorative lanterns, there were many other fun activities, like guessing lantern riddles and floating lantern boats. The whole place was incredibly lively.

Su Chen and his friends had originally thought about trying the lantern riddle game to experience the fun of the festival and see who was the sharpest. But when they saw the jam-packed riddle area, they all tacitly agreed to find something else to do.

They floated a lantern boat, which gave them at least a small sense of participation.

They stayed out having fun until after ten at night. The group grabbed a late-night snack together before heading their separate ways.

Jiangyang and Chen Yao had wanted to stay out longer, but they had to travel out of town the next day. Su Chen had probed a little and gathered that they were likely heading in opposite directions—one south, one north—but he didn’t press for details.

After the Lantern Festival, with some people leaving and others getting busy, Su Chen finally had some genuine leisure time.

During this time, Yu Qian and Wu Jing visited once, bringing Su Chen a lot of specialty goods.

The main reason for their visit was that Wu Jing’s *Wolf Warrior 2* was about to start filming officially. It was a courtesy call to let Su Chen know before he left. For this, Su Chen had to part with a bottle of his treasured collector’s grade Maotai.

’Come to think of it, the universities should have started their semesters by now.’

Su Chen looked at the two résumés in his hand. He planned to go to Xi’an to secure the semiconductor expert from Northwestern Polytechnical University first, then head to Harbin Institute of Technology, making a detour to check on his industrial park along the way.

The Zheng Island Industrial Park now belonged to Su Chen. The day after the Lantern Festival, Xiao Chen had sent over all the relevant documents and paperwork.

After putting the résumés away, Su Chen had Chen Fei contact the private jet’s pilot and arrange a flight to Xi’an.

He himself went back to his study and tinkered around for a while before emerging with a tote bag in hand.

......

Xi’an, the ancient capital of thirteen dynasties. Su Chen’s strongest impressions of the city were Roujiamo and the Terracotta Army of Emperor Qin Shi Huang.

It was already three in the afternoon when they landed at the Xi’an airport. Just as they walked out of the private terminal’s security check, they saw a hotel employee holding a sign with Chen Fei’s name on it, looking around.

This time, they had once again booked the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. He had stayed there a few times before and found it quite nice.

After Chen Fei confirmed with the hotel staff, they were led to the hotel’s dedicated airport shuttle.

The airport in Xi’an is a bit far from the city center; the drive takes about half an hour.

Throughout the ride, the driver was as chatty as an old acquaintance, explaining all the fun places in Xi’an. The most interesting part was his advice not to join any tour groups. He said that nine out of ten tour groups were scams, and the tenth was the biggest scam of all.

Su Chen had thought he wasn’t a local, but upon asking, he learned that not only was the driver a local, but he had also worked as a driver for tour groups before. He knew the ins and outs of the business like the back of his hand.

Su Chen’s jaw dropped in surprise, especially when he learned that there were even fake Terracotta Army attractions in the area.

’Doesn’t the tourism department do anything about this?’

The answer he got was that they couldn’t. As for the reason... that remained unknown.

Su Chen learned a lot of interesting things from the driver, like which places were fun and which ones to avoid. He now had a much better sense of the city.

After settling in at the hotel, Su Chen and Chen Fei didn’t rest. Having come to Xi’an, a city of culinary delights, it would be out of character for a foodie like Su Chen not to go out and explore.

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel where they were staying was located on Keji Road in the Yanta District, very close to the Great Tang Night City—just a few minutes’ drive away.

It was now around six in the evening. Just as they got out of the car, they saw the lights of the Great Tang Night City switch on.

"Good heavens, this Great Tang Night City is something else! When the lights come on, it’s so magnificent. Anyone who didn’t know better would think they’d traveled back to the glorious Tang Dynasty." It was Chen Fei’s first time seeing such a sight, and for a moment, he was completely stunned.

Although it was now the post-holiday work period, there were still a ton of people here. It might not have been a sea of people, but it wasn’t far off.

After half an hour of watching the "Tumbling Doll" performer and some other small talent shows, Su Chen found a restaurant that looked pretty good and went inside.

Su Chen ordered three Roujiamo and two servings of Yangrou Paomo.

The funniest part was the surprised look on their faces when the waiter placed a bowl and a piece of flatbread in front of each of them, which made quite a few onlookers laugh.

It was an older man at the next table who cleared up their confusion: when you eat Yangrou Paomo in Xi’an, you have to break the flatbread into tiny pieces yourself.

The flatbread didn’t look very big, but it still took Su Chen a lot of effort to finish breaking it apart.

"Sigh, I never thought eating a meal could be so much work," Su Chen lamented, rubbing his slightly sore fingers.

This time, the waiter was much quicker. In a moment, the two bowls of Yangrou Paomo and three Roujiamo appeared on the table.

"As expected, everything tastes best when you eat it locally!" Su Chen took a big bite of his Roujiamo. The flavor was simply indescribable.

One word: "delicious!"

Many places in Xi’an that make Roujiamo are Halal, using either beef or mutton. Compared to the pork used in other regions, the flavor is indeed much better.

Three Roujiamo were nowhere near enough for Su Chen and Chen Fei, so they ordered three more.

By the time the two of them left the restaurant, they were both clutching their full stomachs.

The reason was simple: they had eaten way too much.

Full and satisfied, Su Chen was no longer in the mood to continue exploring, so they decided to head back to the hotel.

’It’s nine o’clock. I imagine he hasn’t gone to sleep yet,’ Su Chen murmured to himself, standing before the floor-to-ceiling window in his room and gazing at the distant lights of the Great Tang Night City.

After a moment of contemplation, Su Chen took out his phone and made a call.