Chen Mo followed Li Zhengqi up to the fourth floor.
The fourth floor was where his eldest brother Li Zhengqi and his sister-in-law lived, while the third floor was ho to his second aunt and her husband.
As soon as they opened the door and went inside, Chen Mo saw two won sitting in the living room. One of them, the older one, was his sister-in-law Song Qing. The other was soone he hadn’t t before, though her features resembled Song Qing’s sowhat—likely the “main character” his brother had ntioned.
This should be Song Qing’s younger sister, Song Xia.
She wasn’t exactly a stunning beauty, but she had a pleasant, easy-on-the-eyes kind of look.
“Wife, my little brother’s here,” Li Zhengqi called out boisterously as he walked into the living room.
“Oh, Chen Mo’s here? Co in, sit down—I’ll go get you so fruit,” Song Qing said, imdiately getting up to greet him once she saw him.
“Sis-in-law, don’t trouble yourself. I won’t be staying long,” Chen Mo said, trying to stop her, but she had already walked off toward the kitchen.
Soon, she ca back carrying a plate of fruit.
“No need to rush—have so fruit before you leave. These are all freshly bought and nice and fresh,” she said, placing the plate on the coffee table in front of Chen Mo. Then she made an introduction.
“You ca at just the right ti. This is my younger sister, Song Xia. You two are about the sa age—get to know each other.”
“Hi, I’m Chen Mo.” He looked up at Song Xia and introduced himself with a smile.
“Hi,” Song Xia replied.
“Chen Mo ca over to ask Song Xia so questions about franchising a milk tea shop,” Li Zhengqi chid in at just the right mont.
“Chen Mo, why are you asking about a milk tea shop? Don’t tell you’re thinking of opening one too. I’m telling you now—it’s not worth it,” Song Qing said, getting a bit anxious.
Song Xia had lost a lot of money doing this, and it had caused quite a stir in the family. She didn’t even dare go ho for the holidays and had co to hide out here instead.
She had signed a two-year lease, with rent at 5,000 a month. But within less than a year, the shop couldn’t stay open anymore.
The franchise fee, renovations, machines, ingredients—plus all the other random expenses—added up to around 200,000 yuan.
And that’s not even counting the monthly rent.
Before the holiday, the milk tea shop had completely gone under—she couldn’t even afford to buy ingredients or pay the employees’ wages.
“Jie...” Song Xia muttered, embarrassed.
“What? We can’t even talk about it now? You lost so much money, and if the family hadn’t helped you out, you’d have ruined your credit already. You even took out a private loan behind everyone’s backs—so bold of you,” Song Qing said, giving her sister a glare.
Their parents had been incredibly stressed out over this ss.
Watching all this unfold, Chen Mo hesitated. He felt like if he started asking questions now, it’d be like rubbing salt in the wound.
But then—
Song Qing turned to look at him.
“Chen Mo, what are you trying to do asking about the milk tea shop?”
“Oh, I have a friend who’s also thinking about opening one. When I heard what happened with Song Xia, I ca to ask a few things—just trying to help him figure out what pitfalls to avoid,” Chen Mo answered, repeating the excuse he’d co up with earlier.
“Oh, I thought you wanted to open a milk tea shop! That gave a real scare,” Song Qing sighed in relief.
“But still, I’d suggest you tell your friend—don’t go into franchised milk tea shops.”
“Got it. I ca today to find out the downsides. When I go back, I’ll give him the full picture so he can decide for himself.”
Chen Mo responded calmly, but in his heart, he was thinking: I need to get every single downside laid out clearly... so I can step on every single one on purpose.
“All right,” Song Qing nodded, then turned to Song Xia.
“Tell him exactly how you ran the milk tea shop into the ground—especially the parts where you got burned. Be detailed.”
“Okay...” Song Xia pouted slightly, clearly reluctant, but still started explaining seriously.
“The most important thing in running a milk tea shop is location. You can’t just look at the foot traffic—you also have to see how many other milk tea shops are around.”
That, to her, was a bitter lesson.
The spot she picked actually had decent foot traffic, but there were just too many milk tea shops. On the pedestrian street alone, she later counted—there were twelve of them.
So had been there before her, so ca after.
The street was only so long. No matter how much traffic there was, the milk tea shops were all splitting it between them.
And to save on rent, she’d chosen a spot that was a bit tucked away compared to the others. She just couldn’t compete.
“The second thing is the milk tea brand. That’s also super important. So brands only care about collecting franchise fees. They don’t support their franchisees at all. The recipes are average, and the taste is just so-so.”
“...That’s pretty much it.”
“Thanks. That was really helpful,” Chen Mo nodded, quietly going over everything in his mind.
If he opened a milk tea shop, then he definitely wouldn’t do a franchise—it wouldn’t be his own business that way.
He’d need to create his own milk tea brand.
But there was one key point—the whole franchise model.
From what Song Xia just explained, most of those trendy milk tea brands made their real money off franchisees.
If he were to open milk tea shops, he had to avoid franchising entirely.
He’d only open directly owned stores.
No franchise fees—and then he’d deliberately run the stores at a loss. That’d be killing two birds with one stone.
Then there was the issue of location.
Either go for low-foot-traffic spots, or areas with lots of competition.
Actually, he already had an idea for a location. Wasn’t there a “perfect case study” right in front of him? Since Song Xia was closing down, he could just take over her store’s location.
And it was conveniently in Jiangcheng City.
Thinking this far, Chen Mo looked up at Song Xia.
“Can I get the address of your store? I’d like to take a look in person.”
“What address? Chen Mo, aren’t you heading back to Jiangcheng tomorrow? Song Xia’s going back too to deal with the shop—just go together and check it out on the way,” Li Zhengqi suddenly said, having heard that Chen Mo was returning to Jiangcheng tomorrow.
“That works out perfectly. Xia’s going back to find soone to take over the lease. Chen Mo, you going with her can be a big help—I’d feel better with soone else handling it,” Song Qing added.
“No problem,” Chen Mo nodded, his gaze falling on Song Xia.
He’d already planned on taking over the shop anyway. Now that she was heading back to sublease it, this was like soone delivering a pillow right when he was feeling sleepy.
He could just take over the store directly and turn it into his own milk tea brand.
And with that, he could begin his money-losing plan.
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