Xia Xiaolan gave her an odd look:

“Second Aunt, you’re not satisfied with these first-day sales?”

2.72 million!

Was this wealthy madame, despite her interest in making the Asia Department Store successful, completely unable to do calculations?

For a self-operated department store like Asia, each type of merchandise had different profit margins. Among department store goods, Asia didn’t even touch the lowest-profit, highest-demand daily necessities like rice, flour, oil, and laundry items!

There was a distinction between department stores and supermarkets – Asia wasn’t positioning itself as a supermarket.

Averaging the profits across their various self-operated goods, after deducting various costs, expenses, and taxes, the net profit margin would be at least 10%.

What’s 10% of 2.72 million?

272,000.

That’s for one day!

And for a year?

After the opening excitement settled, Xia Xiaolan hoped sales would stabilize around 700,000 per day.

That would mean annual sales of 250 million.

With such sales, Asia could earn nearly 25 million annually.

Wasn’t that quite achievable?

In her previous life, Asia’s first-year sales reached 200 million, later increasing by 30% annually. Xia Xiaolan only wanted to achieve in the first year what Zhu Suizhou had achieved in his second year.

Thus, in just two years, they could recover the cost of building Commercial Asia – not a bad return on investment, as stores don’t usually fail after just two years!

Why did Zhu Suizhou expand blindly in their previous life?

If department stores weren’t profitable, he wouldn’t have been so enthusiastic!

In her previous life, Commercial Asia’s first-year daily sales were around 500,000, allowing annual sales to approach 200 million.

If Second Aunt wasn’t satisfied with 2.72 million on opening day, even bringing Zhu Suizhou back wouldn’t achieve better results than Xia Xiaolan!

Xia Xiaolan’s counter-question confused Second Aunt.

After Xia Xiaolan explained further, Second Aunt calculated mentally and realized this business had great potential.

No wonder Zhao Ji wanted to open chain department stores back then.

Unfortunately, no one supported Zhao Ji… Second Aunt compared her good son with Du Zhaohui repeatedly, unable to understand why Xia Xiaolan would help Du Zhaohui – what merits did he have?

Of course, Xia Xiaolan was just an external force. Ultimately, it was Du Chengrong’s favoritism, leaving dangerous businesses to Zhao Ji, causing him to break the law and get arrested!

“So it’s a very good result, I understand now—”

Second Aunt’s emotional fluctuations were dramatic, but Xia Xiaolan didn’t bother investigating further.

The more profitable Commercial Asia became, the less likely Second Aunt would sell her shares.

Making Xia Xiaolan work so hard for 18% of the shares while Second Aunt and Zhu Suizhou comfortably collected dividends… Xia Xiaolan felt it wasn’t worth it. Even if she raised Asia’s first-year daily sales to 800,000, making Asia earn 30 million annually, her 18% share would only yield 5.4 million!

That wasn’t a small amount.

However, Xia Xiaolan’s time had become more valuable – with the same effort elsewhere, she could earn far more than 5.4 million annually.

She needed to step back from front-line management.

Xia Xiaolan had her plans.

Today was exhausting, but as general manager, Xia Xiaolan still gathered all store employees to give praise where due and criticism where needed, preparing everyone for tomorrow’s sales push.

“No matter how difficult or tiring, we must get through these first three days. Once we do, everyone will be happy!”

“Many industry peers came to visit today, including several department stores. Why should citizens choose Asia? We must be the industry benchmark, the leader!”

“Everyone’s worked hard – think of the month-end performance, keep smiling, and persevere!”

Among those praised were Song Minglan and Tina, along with two department heads.

As for criticism… well, Old Huang wasn’t mentioned – people like him didn’t warrant Xia Xiaolan’s criticism.

This neglect frustrated him more than actual criticism would have.

It showed he was just a minor figure.

For someone as ambitious as Old Huang, being treated as insignificant was the most unbearable thing.

Old Huang was now like a buzzing fly, trying to find a gap but discovering Xia Xiaolan was like a smooth eggshell, leaving no cracks for flies. She didn’t even treat the first day’s sales as confidential, sharing them to motivate the staff.

2.72 million.

Having worked in state-owned department stores, Old Huang knew these sales were impressive!

But he refused to acknowledge this as Xia Xiaolan’s capability.

He thought he could achieve the same sales with such promotional spending.

Old Huang’s eyes darted around, landing on Song Minglan.

This woman entered through Manager Zhu’s connections, being his niece.

How could she be content watching Xia Xiaolan in power?

Old Huang believed that despite Song Minglan’s apparent obedience to Xia Xiaolan, she must be Zhu Suizhou’s spy, a landmine he planted. Zhu Suizhou placed his niece in Asia, plotting to regain control.

Song Minglan performed well, and Xia Xiaolan seemed to trust her – these two young women must be putting on an act!

The breakthrough point was Song Minglan.

When would she make her move?

Managing the performances, perhaps she was lulling Xia Xialan into a false sense of security on the first day, planning chaos for the next two days—

Old Huang wasn’t alone in his conspiracy theories.

That evening, while returning from Asia, Tina asked Xia Xiaolan:

“Do you trust Song Minglan?”

Xia Xiaolan nodded: “Of course I trust her. At least she’s completed all pre-opening tasks well. It would be foolish to suspect a capable assistant over things that haven’t happened!”

Tina couldn’t tell if Xia Xiaolan was being truthful.

But even if Song Minglan did something, Xia Xiaolan could surely handle it.

She was that kind of person – always thinking three steps ahead, seemingly able to solve any problem.

…

Song Minglan was exhausted, wanting only to collapse in bed after work.

This was just the first day.

Today was lucky without mistakes.

Asia’s performances would continue for two more days, and she had to ensure they went smoothly too.

Song Minglan was both physically and mentally drained.

Yet Sheng Xuan still called, asking about Asia’s first-day sales. After hearing the 2.72 million figure, Sheng Xuan fell silent before asking:

“Looks like you’re planning to work in Asia long-term. What are you thinking…”

Planning to become Xia Xiaolan’s capable assistant?

Weren’t you supposed to gather intelligence for Suizhou? Sheng Xuan had many questions waiting for her niece’s answer.

Song Minglan held the phone receiver but had already fallen asleep.

She did love her aunt.

But now she needed sleep.

Sleep was the most important thing!

Why complicate such simple matters?

“…Minglan?!”

Only gentle snoring answered Sheng Xuan.

This girl, surely she wasn’t pretending to sleep to avoid questions? Sheng Xuan angrily hung up the phone.