When Li Tongwen got back from his site visit, he went looking for Lü Cheng to ask for material on how franchise brands are run — but Lü Cheng didn't have anything like that on hand either. With no other option, Li Tongwen went to Xu Ye.

He knew Xu Ye didn't have it. But he also knew Xu Ye knew a lot of people.

Xu Ye called Zhao Ming right away. Zhao Ming's family business was large enough that material of this kind was everywhere; he dumped a compressed file of over two gigabytes on Xu Ye all at once, and then started complaining that Zhang Ruowei's temper had been short lately and she kept ignoring him over nothing. What was he supposed to do now?

All Xu Ye could do was talk him down. "Women. It's perfectly normal for them to lose their temper now and then."

"I text her, I call her, she ignores all of it."

"Then go find her in person."

"She won't come down from the dorm. I can't even get in front of her."

Xu Ye laughed. "Their dorm's on the second floor. Just stand downstairs and shout her name."

"Isn't that completely shameless?"

"I've done it, and it works."

Zhao Ming gritted his teeth. "Fine. I'll try it."

Xu Ye forwarded the material to Li Tongwen, who dug into it immediately. On his way to shut the door, Xu Ye glanced at his laptop screen and asked him offhand. "You think that shop has investment potential?"

"Yes!"

Li Tongwen nodded quickly. "Ge Pingping and I staked the place out for two days. The first day business really was excellent, and I was worried the owner had planted shills, so I deliberately stayed an extra day — and the second day business was just as good. I watched how they make the food. It isn't hard to learn. If they had a proper set of franchise rules and a management system, the room to grow would be enormous."

Xu Ye smiled and didn't take it much to heart, but he asked one more…