Chapter 261 Something's Not Right

　　As the end of the year approached, the company was swamped.

　　Even though Su Yehao didn't need to handle everything personally, it still took a long time to go through all the documents each day.

　　The morning passed before he knew it.

　　Su Yehao didn't spend time with Jiang Yu and the others. He had Linda Yun buy boxed lunches, and he ate together with Assistant Zhuang Wei and others.

　　It was a little after twelve noon.

　　At this time, Zhuang Wei opened her lunchbox and said with a smile:

　　"Today, we're benefitting from the boss. A roasted pigeon set meal for eighty-eight dollars? Bought from Dafu Tea Restaurant on the next street, right? I often eat their bento boxes, but mainly the braised pork rice and pork chop rice for thirty-six dollars each. The curry chicken rice is also thirty-six dollars. It's said that they have a total of five or six branches, and they can sell tens of thousands of boxed lunches every day."

　　Su Yehao opened his lunchbox and also saw roasted pigeon, plus a braised chicken leg and tea egg.

　　He said:

　　"It smells delicious. These fast-food restaurants often have good cooking skills to compete for customers. When the Cyberport Digital building is renovated and the smell dissipates, we'll move the company over there. It will be more convenient to eat, since the building will have its own restaurant."

　　Assistant Zhuang Wei asked with interest, "So, will the employees buy their own meals, or will you pay, Shao Ye?"

　　Su Yehao hadn't considered this issue much. He replied at this moment:

　　"If we calculate twenty working days a month, providing a forty-dollar meal allowance each day should be about right, right? What's the standard at other companies?"

　　Zhuang Wei nodded and said:

　　"If the food in the company cafeteria isn't too expensive and has a good mix of meat and vegetables, forty dollars can cover about two meals. After all, it's just a work meal, so it should meet the needs of most employees. It's already very good. If you only eat one lunch in the cafeteria, then forty dollars is definitely enough. Not many companies offer cafeterias, especially in Central, where rent is too expensive. It's better to use the money for renting a building as a meal allowance, directly giving it to employees so they can take care of it themselves."

　　After listening to her words.

　　Linda Yun said, "I also think forty dollars is enough. Giving too much would be a waste. The supervisor level can get a little more, but I doubt whether they will eat in the company cafeteria every day. A one-hour lunch break is enough to order takeout or go somewhere else to eat."

　　"We'll study it later. Zhuang Wei, please keep an eye on it."

　　Su Yehao was eating lunch when an employee from the public relations team suddenly knocked on the door and reported, "That... President Su, *Xin Lian Daily* called and wants to invite you for an exclusive interview."

　　"What's the topic?"

　　"Mainly about the Internet and next year's economic forecast, as well as some content about charitable causes. The interviews in the mainland are more reliable and won't suddenly stab you in the back. They made an appointment a long time ago and are available at any time."

　　"Okay, I happen to be free this afternoon and can spare about an hour."

　　After Su Yehao finished speaking, he was thinking about mainland China's economy next year, which should be stable and progressive, when suddenly an event popped into his head, startling him.

　　If he remembered correctly, 2003... wasn't that the year SARS appeared?

　　At the thought of this, Su Yehao felt that even the roasted pigeon wasn't fragrant anymore.

　　He was still young at that time, and he didn't understand the specific situation. He only knew that SARS came suddenly and caused a significant impact.

　　The problem was that Su Yehao couldn't prepare in advance.

　　With his current influence, if he predicted the results before the appearance of a certain disease, it would definitely arouse people's suspicion and doubt, and it would easily backfire.

　　After all, Tang Laoma ran a hospital and also invested in pharmaceutical research and development and chain pharmacies. If someone used it even slightly, Su Yehao wouldn't be able to clear his name even if he jumped into the Yellow River.

　　And besides reducing contact and prevention, there wasn't much he could do. He could only donate money and supplies, and make people pay attention to it in advance.

　　After hurriedly finishing lunch.

　　Su Yehao went online to search for relevant news, but there was no information.

　　Thinking that it might not have started yet, or that it had been eliminated by his butterfly wings, he temporarily wrote down the matter.

　　The public relations department communicated with the *Xin Lian Early News* and scheduled the interview for two o'clock.

　　During this period, he communicated with Jack Ma, tried out the revised website on Taobao, and in Vera's name, bought two mugs, a few dolls, half a catty of flower tea, plus hair ties, cotton slippers, handmade oil paper umbrellas, and so on, a total of more than a dozen products with decent sales online.

　　They were all from different stores, and the shipping locations were all over the country, all sent to the villa in Pengcheng.

　　Su Yehao also sent an email to Vera, asking her to help count how many days it would take to receive the goods. Online shopping was still very new in this era, and users were more tolerant due to the lack of competition.

　　If they could receive the goods they bought within a week, the speed wouldn't be too slow, because most of the goods were transported through the postal channel due to the lack of smooth logistics channels.

　　It was difficult for others to negotiate a business deal, but Su Yehao could handle it from top to bottom.

　　For example, with the cooperation with the post office, the two parties had already established a joint venture subsidiary in mid-last year, successfully lowering the price of express delivery and re-formulating a more reasonable freight price list.

　　He provided the money, and the post office provided the people and effort, with a start-up capital of up to 200 million RMB. This year, another 300 million RMB was added, mainly responsible for the transportation of small items in some small and medium-sized cities and remote areas.

　　Of course.

　　In order to improve efficiency, his own logistics channels also had to be built.

　　Even if only considering seizing the market in advance, these 500 million RMB were very worthwhile in his eyes.

　　After trying out the revised Taobao, Su Yehao felt that if SARS appeared, it might be used to alleviate the shortage of materials and meet users' shopping needs.

　　This idea made him think about moving his own Earl Pharmacy online. Perhaps he could also use the name of preventing air pollution to purchase a batch of masks in advance and supply them at a limited price at that time.

　　Economic development inevitably causes pollution, and the air quality in some cities happened to be relatively poor. Using it as an excuse was reasonable. If it came in handy, people would only think it was a coincidence.

　　Besides Taobao.

　　In August of this year, Su Yehao waited for a long time and Jingdong didn't appear, so he conveniently incubated a "Red Panda Electronic Mall." The logo was based on the red panda he raised. It was temporarily unknown and mainly cooperated with Suning to develop 3C e-commerce.

　　At that time, he used 5s Asset Management to finance Suning with a 49% stake, and helped Suning obtain another 1 billion RMB in low-interest loans. As of now, this company already has 39 stores, and this year's turnover is estimated to be more than 5 billion RMB, with a chance to achieve profitability for the first time.

　　In the Red Panda Electronic Mall, Suning owns 30% of the original shares, but if no additional financing is added later, it is likely to be diluted.

　　This electronic mall, similar to Amazon and Jingdong's business, has built a warehousing center in the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta in recent months, sharing a logistics channel with Taobao.

　　The advantage of concentrating Internet companies in Su Yehao's hands is to prevent duplication of resources and avoid many unnecessary wastes.

　　With the current situation, it seems that some new businesses other than 3C can also be opened through the Red Panda shopping mall, purchasing a batch of commonly used daily consumables, but in Su Yehao's opinion, it is best not to use these preparations...