Chapter 154: A New Problem

“You… you… you…” Yang Yunhua’s face darkened with anger, his trembling finger pointed unsteadily at Jiang Hao. Yet at this moment, he could not utter a complete sentence.

After a long struggle, he finally managed to say, “Just you wait. This isn’t over. Sooner or later, you’ll come begging me!”

With that, Yang Yunhua gave a heavy wave of his hand and turned around, striding away.

Watching Yang Yunhua’s retreating back, the two female waitresses wore expressions filled with fear and worry.

Su Qingli sighed helplessly.

Approaching Jiang Hao, she forced a bitter smile and said, “Jiang Hao, by offending the Yang family like this, Yang Yunhua definitely won’t let it go easily.”

“What can it do if he doesn’t let it go? Qingli, don’t be afraid of him. I’ve got your back. What can he really do to you? Besides, we have no business dealings or financial ties with the Yang family. If he wants to target us, he can only resort to bribing other restaurants for malicious competition, which hasn’t been effective anyway. So there’s no reason to be afraid.”

Jiang Hao spoke confidently, a bright smile lighting his face.

Seeing Jiang Hao so calm and composed, Su Qingli’s worries finally eased, the gloom on her face dissipating.

A couple of days later, the restaurants that had been conducting discount promotions to maliciously compete with and ostracize Su Qingli’s health therapy eatery all ceased their discount activities one by one, returning to normal operations.

It seemed Yang Yunhua was clever enough to realize that such tactics wouldn’t cause any substantial harm to Su Qingli and Jiang Hao, so he stopped early.

Seeing this, Su Qingli finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Without these trivial troubles, she no longer needed to personally inspect and manage the restaurants daily, instead working every day at the headquarters of Qingli Health Therapy Company in the Central Tower.

Since she no longer had to work at the store, Su Qingli now wore tailored suits and skirts to the office, regaining the aura she had when working at the Su family’s traditional Chinese medicine company. From head to toe, she exuded the strong presence of a professional career woman.

“Finally starting to look like a beautiful CEO,” Jiang Hao said cheerfully, sitting on the sofa in Su Qingli’s office while sipping tea.

Hearing Jiang Hao’s words, Su Qingli’s cheeks flushed slightly.

She pretended to be annoyed to mask her embarrassment. “If you have nothing else to do, why don’t you go home and rest instead of hanging around here all day?”

“I don’t have much to do at home either,” Jiang Hao said with a grin.

Hearing this, Su Qingli was at a loss.

Jiang Hao currently had no fixed job and no worries about income, so he had plenty of free time, most of which he devoted to accompanying Su Qingli.

Knock knock knock.

A knock on the door interrupted them. Su Qingli composed herself and said, “Come in.”

A young woman with short hair entered, holding a thick stack of documents.

This short-haired woman was Chen Lili, the female assistant Jiang Hao helped Su Qingli recruit to handle statistics and accounting tasks.

Because the company was still small, there was no separate HR, finance, or logistics department; most of the work was done personally by Su Qingli, with Chen Lili and another female employee assisting her.

Entering the office, Chen Lili glanced at Jiang Hao leisurely drinking tea on the sofa, then quickly turned her gaze to Su Qingli. “President Su, here are the financial reports I’ve compiled. Please take a look.”

“All right,” Su Qingli nodded.

After Chen Lili set down the documents and left, Su Qingli picked up the papers and carefully reviewed them, signing once she confirmed everything was in order.

“How’s the business doing?” Jiang Hao asked casually.

Su Qingli answered promptly, “Without the malicious competition from those restaurants, the original store—the first branch—has returned to normal operations, earning around fifteen hundred to two thousand five hundred yuan daily. The second and third branches, along with the first branch in Donglin City, each make about two thousand yuan daily.”

Jiang Hao nodded in satisfaction upon hearing this.

With four stores in total, daily revenue was about eight thousand yuan, roughly two hundred forty thousand yuan a month.

This was the gross income; after deducting rent and utilities for the four stores, the headquarters rental, ingredient costs, and all employee wages, the net monthly income was about one hundred thousand yuan.

This was quite good.

It would take only six months to a year to recoup all initial investments.

Moreover, restaurants are inherently long-term profit ventures; expecting large short-term gains was unrealistic.

Su Qingli felt satisfied, her face glowing with a rosy smile.

Seeing her in such a good mood, Jiang Hao took the opportunity to say, “Qingli, you’ve been staying at that small inn recently, which must be inconvenient. Why don’t you come stay at my place?”

Since opening the branches and renting a floor in Central Tower for the company headquarters, Su Qingli no longer lived at the store but stayed at a nearby small inn with Jiang Hao.

Although they slept together every night, nothing physical had happened between them yet.

Hearing Jiang Hao’s words, Su Qingli hesitated.

After spending this time together, she truly sensed Jiang Hao’s sincere change of heart and genuine care for her.

Though she had been deeply disappointed and even despairing before, Jiang Hao’s efforts now almost made up for his past mistakes.

Given that, there was no need to keep her distance.

With this thought, Su Qingli nodded gently, feeling shy as she said, “Well… I…”

Before she could finish, a sudden urgent knock sounded.

Jiang Hao grew annoyed.

Chen Lili had come at the worst possible moment—what trouble was she causing now?

Su Qingli quickly composed herself and said, “Come in. What is it?”

Chen Lili hurried in, clutching her phone, looking as if she had just finished a call.

“President Su, the first branch just called. They’re out of ingredients today, and the supplier hasn’t delivered!”

Upon hearing this, Su Qingli’s expression immediately changed.

She had signed a six-month contract with Baifeng Food Supplier in Maple Leaf City, under which the supplier was supposed to deliver vegetables and meat daily to the three branches.