From Wage Slave to Tycoon

Chapter 120: Chapter 101: I’m Going to Be the King of the Sheep

"Ji Wan!" a deep voice called out from nearby.

Ji Wan quickly turned toward the sound. He saw three young men and a middle-aged man walking toward him. Leading the group was a man who looked to be about twenty-four or twenty-five.

"Chen Fei! Xiao Peng!" Ji Wan was completely surprised to see two familiar faces.

A flash of insight struck him, and he instantly understood what Xiao Chen had told him earlier.

"So that’s what he meant!" Ji Wan muttered, then hurried forward to greet them.

"Hello, Mr. Su!"

Su Chen looked at the Inner Mongolian, who was a full head taller than him. The man’s brawny arms were as thick as Su Chen’s own thighs.

"Sorry to have kept you waiting," Su Chen said, noticing the fine layer of frost on Ji Wan’s eyebrows.

’He must have been standing out here waiting for a while,’ he guessed.

"I only just arrived myself. Mr. Su, please, come inside!" Ji Wan gestured with his left hand, inviting them in.

’Who says muscle-bound guys are all brawn and no brains?’ Su Chen’s eyes narrowed slightly, a faint smile playing on his lips.

After they entered the hotel, Jiang Hui went to check them in while Su Chen and the other three men sat down on a sofa in the lobby to chat.

"Chen Fei, Xiao Peng, what are you doing here? Didn’t you join the Vanguard..." Ji Wan said excitedly, speaking a bit too quickly.

"Ahem." Chen Fei coughed lightly.

Realizing his slip of the tongue, he quickly corrected himself. "The Vanguard Training Camp, I mean. Didn’t you join that?"

Sitting on the sofa, Su Chen raised an eyebrow. His gaze swept discreetly over the three men. ’Seems like that training camp has a few secrets of its own.’

’Then again, that makes sense. What kind of training base would be so well-equipped and staffed entirely by special forces veterans?’

Chen Fei and Xiao Peng exchanged a look before replying, "We’re Mr. Su’s bodyguards and drivers now."

Ji Wan’s pupils contracted slightly at their words. He knew the kind of reputation Chen Fei and Xiao Peng had at the training camp and never imagined the two would end up as bodyguards for Su Chen.

At this thought, Ji Wan glanced at Su Chen with a complicated expression. His respect for the man deepened.

Jiang Hui checked them in quickly. Just as Ji Wan was about to ask Su Chen about his plans for the next few days, Jiang Hui’s voice sounded beside them. "Sir, check-in is complete. We can head up to the rooms."

Su Chen stood up, stretched a little, and adjusted his collar. "Let’s go. We can talk in the room. It’s pretty cold in this lobby."

Jiang Hui had booked a top-tier suite, the kind with multiple rooms. In many ways, it was comparable to a presidential suite in a major city, but the price was much cheaper—just over two thousand yuan.

In any other major city, a suite like this would cost at least five figures!

"Ah, it’s so much more comfortable in here." Su Chen leaned back on the sofa, enjoying the warmth from the heater.

Chen Fei and the others went to their respective rooms to unpack, leaving Ji Wan alone on the sofa. He watched Su Chen stretch lazily, wanting to ask him something but not knowing how to begin.

"Ji Wan."

Just as he was trying to formulate his question, Su Chen spoke.

"Mr. Su." Snapped out of his thoughts, Ji Wan instantly sat bolt upright, assuming a formal posture.

Su Chen was taken aback for a moment, then waved his hand with a smile. "No need to be so formal. We’re all friends here."

"Understood, Mr. Su!" Ji Wan’s reply was quick, but his posture remained ramrod straight.

Seeing that he wasn’t going to relax, Su Chen didn’t press the issue and got straight to the point. "Ji Wan, what’s the real situation with the Wuzhumuqin sheep? I only heard a little about it from Xiao Chen and Li Fei, so I don’t have a clear picture."

Ji Wan didn’t immediately grasp what Su Chen was asking. "Mr. Su," he asked tentatively, "are you asking about the situation across the entire Wuzhumuqin Grassland?"

The Wuzhumuqin sheep is a product of the entire Wuzhumuqin Grassland. The grassland is divided into the Dongwu Banner and the Xiwu Banner. It’s the unique geographical environment of the Wuzhumuqin Grassland that allows the sheep raised in these two places to be the most authentic Wuzhumuqin sheep—worthy of the title "best sheep in the world!"

"Yes. Tell me about the Wuzhumuqin sheep."

Ji Wan nodded. He organized his thoughts before speaking slowly. "Currently, the annual yield of sheep raised on the Wuzhumuqin Grassland is as high as a million head. Unfortunately, many of the high-quality sheep can’t find a market. They’re sold off at low prices to middlemen within the Xilinguole League."

"I heard it was due to competition within the league market?" Su Chen sat up a little straighter.

A bitter smile touched Ji Wan’s lips. "You could say that."

"Inner Mongolia is a major sheep-producing region, with an annual output of twelve million head. Every year, the various leagues and cities here fight tooth and nail for market share. Everyone claims their mutton is the best and gets locked in brutal price wars."

"Then there are the unscrupulous merchants. They sell mutton rolls mixed with duck meat under the Wuzhumuqin brand, which has completely ruined our reputation. Naturally, the middlemen use this as an excuse to drive down the purchase price."

"Ultimately... the main reason is that the entire Inner Mongolian market isn’t integrated. There’s no unified sales channel, so it’s devolved into a ’warring states’ free-for-all."

Su Chen’s fingers drummed lightly on his knee, his mind racing. He had come here with a plan: to buy up every last sheep on the entire Wuzhumuqin Grassland.