Chapter 225 - 197: Tea Beverage Brand Concept

Chapter 225: Chapter 197: Tea Beverage Brand Concept

"You want to start your own tea drink brand?"

Yang Yangyang looked up at Chen Yuan, caught off guard by what he’d just heard.

"Do it ourselves. Win or lose, at least whatever we build belongs to us."

Chen Yuan nodded as he spoke.

Yang Yangyang studied him for a long moment. No wonder this brother-in-law of his had managed to grow the fishing pond to this scale in just over a month — a man with ambitions like that was never going to be content sitting still.

He took a few more drags and flicked the cigarette butt outside, then looked back up, his expression dead serious.

"If you’re going to build a brand and take on the supply chain yourself, then we’ll need to rework our current arrangement."

"Sure, go ahead."

Chen Yuan snapped his own cigarette butt away.

He was fine with people speaking their minds. The last thing he wanted was someone bottling things up — that was a problem waiting to happen.

But Yang Yangyang wasn’t that kind of person.

"You lead on the tea drink side. I’ll play a supporting role — twenty percent cut is plenty for me."

Chen Yuan laughed.

Anyone else would’ve tried to grab as much as they could, but Yang Yangyang was doing the opposite — stepping back and asking for just twenty percent.

That was a far cry from how their current arrangement worked.

"How about this — I take 51%, and you and my sister split the remaining 49%. You get 25, she gets 24. That’s final."

After a bit of back-and-forth, Chen Yuan put his foot down.

Originally, he’d planned to hand the whole thing over to his sister and Yang Yangyang, keeping himself in the background as a raw materials supplier — the same setup they had now, just taking a twenty percent cut.

But Yang Yangyang had flatly refused, insisting Chen Yuan be the one in charge.

They were family. Nobody was going to get shortchanged.

"Come on, let’s go handle the prize redemptions together."

They’d been talking for a while. Chen Yuan checked the time — not yet two o’clock — and they headed over to start the redemption process. Since Yang Yangyang was with him, he needed to learn not just the redemptions, but the whole check-in and check-out flow as well.

"We’re paying out tens of thousands per session, aren’t we."

Yang Yangyang followed Chen Yuan and listened as the amounts for each fishing spot were tallied up. By his rough count, it was somewhere around thirty to forty thousand.

Two sessions a day — that was over seventy thousand.

"More or less. But overall, we’re definitely making money."

Old Pond brought in over forty thousand per session in fishing fees. A normal mandatory buyback ran just over thirty thousand, but if a lucky angler happened to land a fish over 60 jin, factoring in the value of the free-catch fish, it could push up to thirty-something thousand.

If someone got really lucky and pulled in something in the 80-to-under-100 jin range, once you factored in staff costs, a single session would basically break even.

That said, they hadn’t seen fish in that range yet. The 60+ and 70+ jin catches had come up a few times, but the 10+ and 20+ jin ones were by far the most common.

Daily net profit was at least five figures.

"Shuttling guests around is actually pretty straightforward. There’s no fish to deal with at Old Pond — just walk them to their fishing spot when they arrive and escort them back to the parking area when they leave."

Once the prize redemptions were sorted, Chen Yuan walked Yang Yangyang through the session wrap-up and changeover process.

"Once the construction here at Old Pond is finished and the place is fully up and running, there’ll be an underground parking garage. That’ll make everything even smoother. After that, you’d just need to check in on Old Pond every now and then — oh, and one more thing: the lucky draw machine."

With the changeover handled, Chen Yuan led Yang Yangyang over to the lucky draw machine.

Yang Yangyang was going to be family sooner or later — he needed to get familiar with the operations and how everything ran. If Chen Yuan was ever tied up, Yang Yangyang could keep an eye on things at Old Pond.

"Once the session changeover is done and the lucky angler has been drawn, Old Pond pretty much runs itself. Staff patrol the pond and log any catches, then it’s just meal delivery and seeing guests out."

After going through all of it, Chen Yuan pulled out his pack and offered Yang Yangyang a cigarette.

None of this was really a big deal anyway. Once the underground parking garage was up, shuttling guests in and out would be a lot easier — it would save everyone a ton of hassle.

"Got it. I’ve got the general flow down. I can keep an eye on Old Pond whenever I’ve got free time."

Yang Yangyang took the cigarette. They smoked and chatted for a bit longer, then he ground out the butt underfoot and said, "It’s past four, Yuan. I need to head back."

"Head back for what? Just stay here — you’re free labor, you know."

Chen Yuan tried to keep him around.

"I’ll definitely be back, but I’ve still got stuff to take care of over there. And I didn’t bring any of my things with me. Let me go pack up and I’ll come back tomorrow."

Yang Yangyang laughed, knowing Chen Yuan was joking around.

On the topic of moving in, Yang Yangyang did bring something up — he hoped they could set aside a private room at the milk tea shop for him to stay in when he was here.

"Are you serious? It’s not like we don’t have rooms at home. Why on earth would you stay here?"

Chen Yuan shot it down without a second thought. There was no shortage of space at home — the storage room had been cleared out ages ago, and the guest room was always available.

"It’s not that simple. Your sister and I only just got together. Moving under the same roof right away — people will talk."

Yang Yangyang explained his concern.

Chen Yuan didn’t think it was a big deal. Things were different in the village now compared to when he’d first come back — given the scale the fishing pond had reached, and the hiring Uncle Bin was currently doing, who was going to have the nerve to gossip?

Besides, living under the same roof wasn’t the same as sharing a room.

But Yang Yangyang wouldn’t budge.

He wanted to wait until things were more settled — at least until they were properly engaged.

Chen Yuan genuinely respected that. His future brother-in-law was still the same stand-up guy he’d always been, always keeping his sister in mind, always treating her with respect.

"Alright, fair enough. I’ll sort out a room for you. But you’re not leaving today — head back tomorrow morning."

Chen Yuan agreed to Yang Yangyang’s arrangement on where to stay.

Everyone had their own principles. Just because something didn’t bother you didn’t mean you got to override someone else’s. And on top of that, Yang Yangyang was thinking about Chen Li.

"If you leave now, how am I supposed to explain that to Mom and Dad? They’ll think I was a bad host. And my sister might think I said something to you and ran you off. Besides — you two only just got together, right?"

Chen Yuan cut him off before he could get another word in.

"Yeah, just these past few days."

Yang Yangyang nodded.

When Chen Li had first come back, she’d gotten annoyed more than once — frustrated that this blockhead Yang Yangyang couldn’t see what was right in front of him and just make a move already.

And Yang Yangyang had just mentioned that he’d tried to use fishing as an excuse to come see Chen Li, but both ponds were fully booked every single session — there was never a spot available.

He’d actually thought Chen Li was blowing him off.

In the end, he’d worked up the nerve to just say it outright, and that was how they finally made it official.

"There you go. Absence makes the heart grow fonder — you two just got together, you’re in the honeymoon phase. You can’t just show up and leave the same day. My sister’s going to overthink it."

Chen Yuan waved Yang Yangyang into the car and drove him over to find Chen Li.

Safe delivery, mission accomplished.

Then he rode his bike home.

He walked through the front door into the main room and found Chen Jun and Tang Ying sitting there, each holding a cup of tea, taking a rest. The air conditioning wasn’t on — just a single fan humming away.

"Where’s Yang?"

When Tang Ying saw Chen Yuan come in, she stood up and looked toward the door. No sign of Yang Yangyang.

"He left."

Chen Yuan said it with a straight face as he wandered over to the mini fridge, grabbed an ice-cold Coke, twisted the cap off, and chugged a couple of big gulps. Instantly felt ten degrees cooler.

"What do you mean he left?"

Chen Jun was baffled. Tang Ying immediately started asking what happened.

"Just messing with you. My future brother-in-law is with my sister right now. He’s a good guy — honest, hardworking, and most importantly, he actually thinks about what’s best for her."

Chen Yuan laid out everything he’d observed, straight down the line.

Truth was, having Yang Yangyang tag along during the day wasn’t just about getting him familiar with the pond’s operations — it was also a chance to carry out his parents’ unspoken assignment.

After all, they’d asked him to "take a look" the day before. What they meant by that went without saying.

His parents couldn’t exactly pry directly — some things were better left to him.

Not that Chen Yuan needed to dig for anything. He already knew Yang Yangyang’s background inside and out. This was really just about having some one-on-one time and giving his parents the read they were looking for.

"Sounds like Yang’s a decent kid."

Hearing Chen Yuan out, Chen Jun nodded his approval of Yang Yangyang.

"He seems very thoughtful. He knows how to treat Li right and look after her. If they do end up getting married and building a life together, I don’t think he’d ever mistreat our daughter."

Tang Ying was satisfied too.

Material circumstances were secondary.

Back in the day, when they were just a simple rural family, they might have worried — if a guy came from a noticeably better background, they’d always have that nagging fear that their daughter might end up on the losing end.

But now, with the fishing pond business booming, things were different. It wasn’t overnight riches by any means, but their situation had improved significantly.

Money wasn’t something to worry about anymore.

What mattered most was the person.

And from everything they’d heard, Yang Yangyang was genuinely a good one.