Chapter 146: Chapter 145: A Sense of Being Lord Ximen

He Meng was in a small conference room at the company, clattering away on her keyboard while working on a proposal. She’d occasionally take a sip of coffee and had to fight the urge to scratch her head.

Her hair had been falling out a little too much lately.

The filename on her computer desktop was: Product Line Proposal (Fifth Draft).

The character count was 34.

She’d originally written over five hundred characters, only to delete over four hundred of them. She felt like a web novelist pulling an all-nighter, completely unable to string a sentence together.

The themes of the first four drafts had been: "Reclusive Mountain YouTuber Making Traditional Handicrafts by Hand," "Dialogue: Finding and Interviewing Artisans of Intangible Cultural Heritage," "Documented: Filming an Intangible Cultural Heritage Documentary and Behind-the-Scenes Footage," and "Morning Blossoms Gathered at Dusk: The Lavish Court Life of Antiquity"...

After discussing them in the group chat with Lin Chu and Zhang Peng, they all agreed the ideas were feasible but not quite good enough. They wondered if they could be optimized further.

He Meng also felt that she was getting bogged down in the details of this "assigned essay," as if she’d taken a wrong turn somewhere.

The more she aimed for something grand and impressive, the more she felt herself sinking into a self-indulgent, insular niche.

"Come to my office."

Just then, her phone chimed. She’d received a message from Lin Chu.

Saving the paltry remains of the proposal, she stood up, coffee mug in hand, and headed for Lin Chu’s office, her high heels going CLACK CLACK CLACK on the floor.

She entered.

Lin Chu looked up at her, and for a moment, he was slightly taken aback. "Go buy yourself some La Mer eye cream later. The company will reimburse you."

He Meng: Hmm.

She licked her lips, and her irritation instantly subsided as a smile touched her lips.

’Seriously, I’ve developed dark circles from staying up these past two days. I even felt anxious looking in the mirror this morning. President Lin is so generous.’

"Thank you, Boss."

"A boss as considerate as you deserves to strike it rich, ring the IPO bell, and make the Forbes list."

She offered up a piece of smooth, practiced flattery.

Lin Chu chuckled and waved her off. "Sit."

"It’s fine, I’ll stand for a bit. Just came to bum a cup of your coffee. My butt hurts from sitting all day. If I end up with hemorrhoids, the company’s gotta pay for the surgery, too."

She walked over to the coffee machine and poured herself a cup.

’This young woman is remarkably casual,’ he thought, ’carrying herself with an air that says she’s perfectly at home. A fearless firebrand, right from her first interview.’

"Fine, we’ll reimburse it. We can throw in an appendectomy for you too."

Lin Chu said with a laugh.

She replied, "Oh, my deepest thanks!"

"Okay, okay, I’ll be serious. Boss, you have orders for me?"

Her spirits visibly lifted. Leaning against the wall with her coffee, she asked her question.

Lin Chu: "Here’s the thing, I have a new plan..."

Speaking rapidly, Lin Chu laid out his plan for a "private board of directors."

As she listened, He Meng froze for a second, a playful glint appearing in her eyes. She didn’t rush to object, however, waiting until Lin Chu was finished before drawing a sharp breath.

"Hold on..."

"A private board... isn’t that just a scam, President Lin?"

"Of course, there might be an element of mutually beneficial cooperation, but isn’t it essentially about milking the members? At least, that’s what most of them are. Otherwise, they just devolve into distribution channels for franchise brands."

She said bluntly, expressing her indignation at such schemes designed to harvest suckers.

Hearing this, Lin Chu instantly understood where she was coming from.

"Is it illegal?"

Lin Chu asked.

She faltered for a second before shaking her head. It wasn’t illegal, of course; it was just a business model, and business models are neutral.

"Can it create genuine value? If it’s not just about fleecing people."

Lin Chu asked again.

Out of habit, she started to shake her head, but then caught herself and nodded. "If it’s managed properly, it’s possible."

"Are you opposed to working on this? For a 20% commission. Ideally, I plan to charge 500,000 per person per year in membership fees. The initial budget will be one hundred million to create a whole suite of services: private jets, sports cars, yachts, golf, a travel-and-study club, top-tier Chinese-style luxury experiences, and on top of that, personal IP branding and marketing. The target demographic? The young, rich kids from big cities, moderately successful young entrepreneurs, influencers... anyone with assets in the eight-figure range or higher."

Lin Chu asked his third question.

He Meng sucked in a sharp breath, her eyes suddenly gleaming. A grin worthy of a top-tier bootlicker spread across her face. "You’re putting me on this? You want me to lead it? To be in charge of the whole project? Or be the on-camera personality?"

’Talking to smart people is so much easier,’ Lin Chu thought with a chuckle and a nod. "Any of those roles are on the table. It all depends on what you can do. But first, draw up a plan. We need to find the right angle to approach this from."

"You got it!"

"Suddenly, the ideas are flowing!"

"Damn, are we thinking too big with this?"

She exclaimed with excitement. Just the thought of it was a rush. A big move. An absolutely huge move. The difficulty, of course, would be just as massive.

’What rich person isn’t sharp as a tack?’

’Getting a group like that together would be no easy feat.’

Lin Chu took a sip of his tea. "Where there’s money, there are tycoons. Where there are tycoons, there are beautiful women. And where there are beautiful women, there are young, second-generation rich kids... That’s the pathway."

He Meng mulled that over for a moment, then nodded.

"Boss, I bow to your wisdom! I’ve been enlightened!"

"Now go work on the proposal!"

Clowning around, she gave him a traditional, cupped-fist bow and then spun around and darted out the door. She felt like she was overflowing with inspiration, the ideas coming in a torrential flood.

Watching her leave, Lin Chu couldn’t help but shake his head and smile.

’Will this work?’

’I’m not really sure myself.’

’But hey, might as well give it a shot for now.’

Even the heroes of *Water Margin* only numbered 108, and they managed to start a whole rebellion.

’If I could gather a hundred "brothers," I could just treat them to dinner and drinks every day, and that alone would be enough to keep the money-spending system happy. It would be just like Lord Ximen.’

’*Jin Ping Mei* really is a great book.’

...

Lin Chu hadn’t mentioned this to Liu Junfeng yet; he would wait for him to return.

His main function was shooting the shit and schmoozing in person—a professional schmoozer, so to speak.

Of course, the kind that sells his craft, not his body.

’But what if some rich cougar takes a shine to him? You never know, right?’

Imagining the scene, a slightly wicked grin spread across Lin Chu’s face. ’You know,’ he thought, ’a scruffy, bearded uncle-type like Brother Feng might actually be quite popular among a certain demographic of wealthy women.’

’What was that joke about the "flower language" of a steel wool ball again?’

—’May you blossom into wealth and prosperity!’

...

"Brother Chu, the people from private banking are here. They’re at the front desk."

Zhang Peng sent a message.

’CMB’s private banking division was surprisingly quick,’ Lin Chu thought. ’Direct, at-your-door service. They really go all out. Not that they had to worry about a wasted trip, with the whole company located here.’

Seeing the message, Lin Chu left his office and saw a man and a woman waiting at the front desk. The quality of their uniforms was much better than that of the two outsourced credit card agents from before.

"Hello, President Lin."

The man was well-mannered and clean-cut, with a pair of glasses and a dapper suit. He stepped forward to offer a handshake.

After exchanging a few pleasantries, Lin Chu led them to the conference room.

He had the materials in both print and digital formats. He handed the paper documents to Lin Chu first, who glanced at them casually before setting them aside.

"You guys screwed me over once before. My original 30,000 credit limit was instantly dropped to 5,000. I had to pay back 25,000 all at once. I almost lost my mind."

’A traumatic memory from his own experience, a tale of blood and tears from his wage-slave days that he couldn’t bear to look back on.’

’Back then, I was just another poor sucker caught up in consumerism.’

The man’s expression became slightly awkward, and he forced a smile. "Thank you for your criticism, President Lin. Our bank’s risk control can be quite strict at times. With credit cards, there can occasionally be some false positives. However, when it comes to large sums of money, our security is beyond question."

He had high emotional intelligence, skillfully turning a complaint into a selling point.

’In reality, that kind of credit limit reduction only happens when a client is about to max out their card, which triggers a risk alert. But I obviously can’t say that to President Lin. After all, who hasn’t been dirt poor before?’

Lin Chu had no intention of dwelling on it. "I’m interested in the advantages of your funding channels. Sign me up for the fifty-million tier. And one more thing: don’t call me to pitch wealth management products or funds. No sales calls, period. You call me once, and I’ll transfer all my money out and close the account."

The man... hissed, drawing a sharp breath.

He was thrilled and miserable at the same time.

The thrilling part was that private banking clients had several tiers. The lowest threshold was ten million, and fifty million was the highest.

The miserable part was that recommending products like wealth management and funds was actually where the highest commissions came from; it was their main source of profit.

’This "President Lin" clearly understands the ins and outs of the business. He’s far too shrewd.’

’He just wants to freeride and get all the perks for free.’

’He’s not willing to give an inch.’ 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

But... of course, he couldn’t refuse the business.

"Of course. I’ll make a special note of your request."

"What did you do before this, President Lin?"

The man nodded in agreement and asked casually.

Lin Chu smiled. "You could say we were sort of in the same business."

The man smiled and nodded. ’No wonder,’ he thought. ’That explains why he knows all the tricks of the trade.’

Lin Chu couldn’t help but scoff internally. ’I knew all this from my wage-slave days. I knew all the games you could play once you got rich; I just didn’t have the money back then...’

After finalizing the agreement in the conference room, Lin Chu went with them to the bank to complete the paperwork and verify his funds and identity.

Once the process was complete and he received the physical black private banking card, Lin Chu thought for a moment and had them issue five supplementary credit cards, each with a limit of 100,000.

With fifty million sitting in the account, this was a very simple request.

Under normal circumstances, these supplementary cards were meant for "family"—for a wife’s grocery shopping, or an underage child’s allowance. The core principle was: "You can spend my money, but I have to see the bill."

After all this was done, Lin Chu left.

「Returning home.」

At home, a certain "policewoman" was waiting for him.

...

...