Chapter 831: Jiang Xue’s Thoughts!

The General Manager’s office wasn’t in the front courtyard, but in a separate garden.

This place was originally a princely mansion; though it lacked nothing in terms of pavilions, towers, and gazebos, it was unsuitable for office work.

This was because the various courtyards were not clustered together but were scattered quite widely.

If there were only a few staff members, it would still be manageable.

But with a large staff, the layout became impractical—which was precisely why the Education Bureau had sold it off.

After winding through several turns, Jiang Xue finally arrived outside the General Manager’s office.

The office door was ajar, and from inside came the sound of Lan Xinyi on the phone; her awkward Mandarin was rather hard to listen to.

Of course, at the branch office, this accent—which sounded as if someone were squeezing her throat—was a symbol of senior management.

Although they had hired a large number of local employees here, the management positions were mostly held by people from Hong Kong Island.

This wasn’t because Lan Xinyi, Cai Bingyan, He Tiansheng, and others were engaging in nepotism or deliberately suppressing local employees.

Rather, it was because the mainland employees knew virtually nothing about modern corporate management—the people from Hong Kong truly were like “a monk from afar who knows how to chant the sutras”!

Jiang Xue didn’t rush inside but stood at the door for a moment.

Only after she heard the sound of a phone being hung up inside did she knock on the office door.

Although Jiang Xue was the boss’s wife, she knew exactly why she was there, so she always conducted herself as an ordinary intern.

Inside the office, Lan Xinyi saw Jiang Xue enter and immediately smiled, saying, “Xiao Xue, you’re here?”

Jiang Xue nodded with a smile, then handed over the documents she was holding and said, “Sister Lan, Manager He asked me to give these to you!”

Lan Xinyi took the documents, glanced at them, then shook her head and said, “He Tiansheng really knows how to play his cards. He knows I won’t hold up your application—he didn’t even bother to come in person for the approval of a 50 million yuan funding request!”

“Fifty million?”

Stunned, Jiang Xue hurriedly said, “Sister Lan, I’m only here for an internship. You can’t break the rules just for my sake!”

Lan Xinyi nodded and replied, “It’s not exactly breaking the rules, but lately, I’ve been signing off on every application you’ve submitted the moment I receive it. This has made the finance department a bit too lax when it comes to reconciling the accounts!”

With that, Lan Xinyi picked up a document from her desk and handed it to Jiang Xue.

“These are all the expenses since the branch opened. Take a look!”

“Sister Lan, this is company confidential information. Is it really appropriate for me to look at this?” Jiang Xue asked, feeling a bit uneasy.

“Xue, you’re the boss’s wife—he’s yours, after all. What’s there to be inappropriate about looking at this?” Lan Xinyi said with a smile.

Jiang Xue’s face flushed slightly, but upon reflection, she realized Lan Xinyi had a point. She took the document and began to look through it.

She hadn’t realized it until she looked, but the moment she did, she was genuinely startled.

The thick stack of documents contained detailed expense records for every single item. When she saw the final total of 86 million, Jiang Xue’s throat involuntarily tightened, and she instinctively swallowed.

During her internship in the finance department, she had dealt with these accounts the most and was well aware of the company’s substantial expenses.

For instance, this office space alone had cost a full five million yuan, and the expenses for furnishing it and staffing it had added up to over 100,000 yuan.

In addition, the company had purchased a large plot of land on the outskirts of the city to build its new headquarters; the 800 mu of land had cost the company nearly 30 million yuan.

To ensure the headquarters was built properly, the company specially brought in a design and construction team from Hong Kong Island, which required an additional investment of several million.

Even so, Jiang Xue never imagined that in just three short months, the company’s total expenses would reach as much as 86 million.

And that doesn’t even include the 22 million yuan that Manager He requested today. If that amount is added, the company’s total expenditure for the three months will reach a staggering 100 million yuan.

“Sister Lan… have we really spent that much in just three months? That’s way too much, isn’t it?”

Jiang Xue looked at Lan Xinyi in astonishment, her eyes filled with disbelief.

Lan Xinyi smiled and said, “It’s not that bad. While we’ve certainly spent a lot, our spending pace is still a bit too slow—it doesn’t meet the boss’s expectations!”

“Slow… do you mean ‘slow’ in the way I think you do?” Jiang Xue asked, stammering slightly.

“Yes, exactly—we’re spending money too slowly!”

Lan Xinyi continued, “You might not know this, but the boss gave us a target of 500 million yuan in investments this year. It’s almost July now, and we’ve spent less than 100 million. The second half of the year is going to be a real challenge!”

“5… 500 million yuan?”

Jiang Xue knew Li Yi was wealthy and that her husband was in the habit of spending lavishly, but she hadn’t imagined his spending pace was this terrifying.

Seeing the look of shock on Jiang Xue’s face, Lan Xinyi smiled and said, “Does that scare you a little?”

Jiang Xue nodded slightly and said, “Yeah, a little. I usually only see numbers that big when I read government financial reports in the newspaper!”

“Actually, it’s not that bad. For an investment firm like ours, spending money is an art—often, the faster we spend, the higher the company’s profits!”

Lan Xinyi continued, “500 million yuan is indeed a huge sum to us, but in the boss’s eyes, it’s probably not even a drop in the bucket—not even enough for him to make a single move!”

Jiang Xue was stunned once again by Lan Xinyi’s words. Is that really how you use the phrase “a drop in the bucket”?

“500 million yuan isn’t even enough for your boss to make a single move? Isn’t that a bit of an exaggeration?” Jiang Xue asked.

Lan Xinyi replied immediately, “It’s not exaggerated. Last year, the boss took us to New York, and on that trip alone, we invested 2 billion—in US dollars!”

“Right now, the boss is investing in futures in London. They’re putting in even more money this time—reportedly over 60 billion Hong Kong dollars, which converts to nearly 20 billion yuan!”

Whoa!

“He… he really invested tens of billions over there? Isn’t he afraid of losing it all?” Jiang Xue said, both shocked and astonished.

While deeply shaken, Jiang Xue also felt that her decision to major in accounting had been incredibly wise.

That rascal needs someone to keep a close eye on his money; otherwise, no amount would be enough to keep up with his extravagant spending.

Just then, Lan Xinyi’s voice reached Jiang Xue’s ears again: “Investment firms all have risk mitigation measures in place. Even if there’s a misstep, the company won’t bear the full loss—and besides, the boss is an investment genius. So far, we’ve never seen him lose money!”

“So how’s he doing over in London?”

Lan Xinyi replied immediately, “Rumor has it the boss is on a roll again, but I don’t know exactly how much he’s made. What I do know is that the rate at which we spend money can’t even keep up with the rate at which the boss makes it…”

Hearing this, Jiang Xue gained a new appreciation for her man’s ability to make money.

Thinking about her upcoming vacation and the fact that she hadn’t seen Li Yi in several months, a sudden thought crossed Jiang Xue’s mind: she was going to go find her man.

The moment that thought took root, it spread rapidly through her mind, so much so that she didn’t even pay attention to what Lan Xinyi said afterward…

……….