Chapter 319: How Much Money Do I Really Have?

The next morning at 6:30, despite a heatwave, Linchuan suddenly turned overcast. A howling wind rose on the campus followed shortly by a drizzle tapping against the windowsills, clearing the last of the late summer heat.

Jiang Qin got up from bed, washed up, and left the dormitory.

Since it was Saturday morning, the campus wasn’t crowded. Only a few joggers scattered about the playground disappeared quickly as it started to rain.

Mr. Jiang arrived at the cafeteria, had a simple breakfast of steamed buns, and bought a soy milk, heading then to Room 208.

A full stomach meant there was work to do.

So far, Zhihu’s national expansion pre-launch had been completed. The targeted university towns in six cities were secured. The campaign to drive traffic through short videos was also on track. It was time to start reviewing the accounts.

After all, the upcoming promotions would be more scattered, and spending would increase. Understanding the full scale of one’s own resources was crucial for planning the next steps.

Of course, Jiang Qin was also curious about just how wealthy he really was.

Soon, Xu Yu arrived at 208, followed by five others, members from the cashier group and the accounting group.

The forefront condition for a company to become regularized is financial management regularization, and Jiang Qin was making these changes to separate personal finances from company finances.

After all, the profit-making ability of Room 208 was increasing, and so was its liquid assets. More regularization benefited later development and financial management.

“Good morning, boss.”

Jiang Qin nodded, “Let’s begin reviewing the accounts.”

Xu Yu sat down with the two groups, pulled out the ledger, calculator, turned on the computer displaying cashier details, and started checking all accounts.

With a series of clicks and the mechanical voice from the calculator, Jiang Qin noticed the numbers recorded by Xu Yu growing larger. Though he kept his cool, his eyebrows involuntarily raised.

He had an estimated value of his wealth, but this eight-figure number already surpassed his expectations.

Yet soon, the number started to decrease, shrinking progressively.

By 11:30, under Xu Yu’s leadership, the financial review in Room 208 concluded after nearly four hours, exhausting the members of both groups.

This was because Jiang Qin had various profitable projects under him: group-buy commissions, Zhihu advertisements, and profits from the Xitian Milk Tea Shop, among others.

They cleared unpaid due payments, calculated this month’s net profit, and finally arrived at a precise figure — four million and fifty thousand.

Seeing this figure, Jiang Qin felt like he was thrown back to the past; it seemed eerily familiar — wasn’t this the figure they calculated at the start of spring?

“What was that thirty million earlier about?”

“That was the total profit from all projects combined.”

“And what about these subtractions that followed?”

“They’re your investments and promotional expenses from the past six months plus the operational costs of the team.”

Xu Yu printed out the detailed ledger and laid it in front of Jiang Qin, allowing him to clearly see each transaction.

It included investments in Wanzhong Group, specific expenses for Zhihu’s national expansion, and operational costs for teams across four university cities, one group-buy division, and eleven milk tea shops including lease and renovation.

After all additions and subtractions, the accounts returned to the state they were in at the start of spring — when the earth revived and nature flourished.

Although Jiang Qin knew his assets had reached the tens of millions and fixed assets kept growing, seeing the almost unchanged number on the books made him feel like half a year’s loud shouting got him nowhere, earnings-wise.

“Well, this is fine…”

“So, do we still tell the outside we made only four hundred fifty thousand?” Xu Yu posed a crucial question.

After the audit at the start of spring, Jiang Qin insisted internally they portray profits of four million fifty thousand as four hundred fifty thousand, primarily to confuse and secretly grow stronger.

But this time, things were entirely different.

Zhihu’s national rollout had completed its first phase, and Jiang Qin’s strong personal charisma had tied local enterprises of Linchuan, continuously boosting Zhihu’s reputedly strong profitability.

So, mentioning four hundred fifty thousand was almost embarrassing now.

Of course, the clear-eyed knew that four million fifty thousand was merely the liquid assets on the books, not reflecting the total assets, much of which were secretly arranged, hence unpublicizable.

All that could be shown was this four million fifty thousand.

Jiang Qin pondered for a while, “Like this, make two sets of accounts. One for group-buy, another for Zhihu.”

After hearing this, Xu Yu paused for three seconds, “Didn’t we just finish?”

“That conventional method of yours is too honest, not cunning at all. Here, calculate the operational costs from the four universities, divisional operational costs, all into the group-buy costs, and the overlapping costs of Zhihu and group-buy into the group-buy account.”

“Then take out part of group-buy’s profits as promotional costs and calculate them into Zhihu’s profit.”

Under Jiang Qin’s guidance, the cashier and accounting groups recalculated. The total figure was still four million fifty thousand, but the classified account statements showed drastic changes.

The group-buy’s profits went from sixteen million to four hundred fifty thousand, while Zhihu, with added promotional costs from group-buy, showed a profit of eight million three hundred thousand. After deducting operating and promotional expenses of three million eight hundred thousand, the remaining was three million six hundred thousand, accounting for about eighty percent of the balance.

The investments in Wanzhong shares were categorized under group-buy, considered fixed assets not part of the overall account.

Thus, what seemed wildly profitable for group-buy was barely breaking even, while Zhihu shone brightly, looking lucrative.

“That’s it, use the second set of accounts for external reporting. Zhihu is awesome, group-buy sucks.”

Xu Yu swallowed, thinking to himself that the boss was forcing group-buy not to make money and turning Zhihu’s losses into profits, “Boss, these accounts might not fool professionals.”

“It doesn’t matter. Over time, people will forget the numbers and only remember that group-buy barely survived while Zhihu has great potential. That’s enough. As for some potential competitors, even if they understand the trickery, they’ll just scoff at us.”

“I understand.”

Jiang Qin nodded then settled into his executive chair, lost in thought.

Now, the disposable funds were just over four million, which was enough for Zhihu’s further promotion. But you can’t spend all on that, group-buy’s operational costs were also a large part.

Seems like I need to save some money from others’ pockets again.

Jiang Qin had performed very well at yesterday’s reception, establishing himself as a leader, especially when the little rich girl came to pick him up, displaying the grandeur of a Rolls-Royce leading the way, which was quite striking.

Now, it’s time to ask others for some money too.

Jiang Qin quickly typed out a draft of Zhihu’s First Station Marketing Plan on his computer. In simple terms, Zhihu’s national promotion had shown initial success, and he planned to use its influence to promote the brands of strategic partners.

Obviously, it wouldn’t be for free. After all, everyone knows nothing good comes without a cost.

After drafting the proposal, the first brand that came to his mind was Gadoge.

The bosses in Linchuan probably all knew by now that Gadoge had received a customized promotion plan from Jiang Qin, and many were looking forward to its performance.

Jiang Qin decided to set Liu Jiaming as an example for the affluent in Linchuan.

However, coincidences do happen in life. Just as he had this idea, he received a call from Liu Jiaming.

“Sorry, Mr. Jiang, I was too excited last night and left without discussing it thoroughly. When would you have time for a meal to talk about the consulting fee?”

“You’re too polite, Mr. Liu. I like making friends with like-minded people. Starting with money is too vulgar for my taste.”

“I know Mr. Jiang is generous, even without settling conditions, you provided your planning ideas. The more you act like this, the more I feel I should be grateful.”

Indeed, Liu Jiaming had been too excited last night; after leaving the reception, he immediately returned to his company and started instructing his secretary to call people.

That night, Gadoge’s management stayed up late to prepare new promotional materials and finalized the design concept for the new packaging. Once this part was done, Liu obtained Jiang Qin’s number from He Yijun.

Thus, they scheduled their meeting for tonight at seven at Longkai, with He Yijun attending as the introducer.

After hanging up, Jiang Qin smiled slightly, thinking Liu had timed his call well; otherwise, he might have made another example like Wang Laobao, which would have made him cry.

He picked up a piece of paper from the desk, folded it into a paper airplane, and threw it out the window.

This action quite reflected his current mood: setting sail with the wind, flying further and further.

“Hey, where did that document about the latest management regulations of the Entrepreneurship Base I left on the desk go?”

At that moment, Professor Yan entered, looked at the bare desk, and his face showed a hint of confusion.

Since visiting to enjoy the AC during summer, Professor Yan hadn’t returned much, considering it was still hot in September, so he spent most of his time here working.

Yesterday afternoon, he spent three hours writing the latest management regulations for the Entrepreneurship Base, planning to have a student help enter it into the computer today, then print it out and distribute it to activity classrooms. How could it have disappeared overnight?

Hearing this, Jiang Qin restrained his smile and turned to look out the window, “Professor, do you believe it might have grown wings and flown away?”

“Nonsense, come and help me look for it!”

“How about we look outside? I doubt we’ll find it in here.”

“I left it in here yesterday; how could it possibly run outside?”

Back in Shenzhen, found the bed moldy, had to stay at a hotel temporarily, unbelievable!