Color Shadow Company

Evening.

Piles of face masks and various cosmetics were arranged on the coffee table.

Su Qianmo and Gu Chenan leaned back on the sofa, each wearing a face mask.

"Is it time yet?" Gu Chenan asked resignedly.

Su Qianmo glanced at the time: "Two more minutes. This is the last brand."

"Finally, it's over."

Gu Chenan breathed a sigh of relief. Since finishing breakfast until now, he had applied at least seven or eight different face masks.

He felt like his face was about to float away from all the moisturizing.

But there was no choice - even if he didn't want to, he had to do it. This was a crucial decision point for which company to acquire.

"Alright." Su Qianmo removed her mask, tossed it in the trash, then opened the window and stood in front of it, letting the gentle breeze caress her face.

According to her, all face masks only had short-term effects. No matter how much collagen the mask claimed to contain, it couldn't actually be absorbed by the skin.

So, what mattered for face masks was the hydration rate - the longer the moisturized state lasted, the better the mask.

Gu Chenan also removed his mask and joined Su Qianmo by the window, both enjoying the breeze from outside.

After a while, feeling her cheeks starting to dry, Su Qianmo checked the time and returned to the coffee table to record the data.

After writing it down, she compared the figures and her slender finger pointed to a company called Caiying Beauty.

"It's decided. This one."

...

Early the next morning.

At the reception desk on the first floor of Caiying Beauty.

Gu Chenan straightened his clothes and walked towards the front desk.

"Hello sir, who are you looking for?" the receptionist asked.

"I'm looking for your boss."

The receptionist smiled professionally and said, "Do you have an appointment?"

"Uh... no." Gu Chenan felt a bit awkward.

"In that case, may I ask what business you have with our CEO, Mr. Wang?" The receptionist took out a notepad.

"I... I'm planning to buy this company," Gu Chenan said seriously.

Hearing this, the receptionist raised an eyebrow, looking at Gu Chenan with a mix of disbelief and curiosity.

At the moment, Gu Chenan was wearing ordinary casual clothes, without any hint of wealthy demeanor.

But the receptionist didn't look down on him because of his appearance. She maintained her professional smile and said, "Alright, please wait a moment while I contact our CEO."

She picked up the phone, dialed a number, explained the situation, then hung up and said, "Please follow me."

Led by the receptionist, Gu Chenan followed her to an office door.

Knock knock knock~

"Mr. Wang, that gentleman is here," the receptionist announced.

"Come in," a muffled male voice came from inside the office.

"Sir, please enter," the receptionist opened the door and made a "please" gesture.

"Thank you," Gu Chenan nodded and stepped inside.

The receptionist closed the office door and muttered to herself, somewhat surprised and confused, "Buy our company... Is this guy joking?"

"He's so young..."

Inside the office.

The owner of Caiying, Wang Youcai, was a chubby middle-aged man wearing glasses. He was about to stand up to greet the visitor, but was taken aback when he saw Gu Chenan.

He's so young!

And judging by his appearance, he doesn't look like someone wealthy at all.

"Hello, please have a seat," Wang Youcai invited.

Gu Chenan sat down across from Wang Youcai. Before he could speak, Wang Youcai poured a cup of tea from the tea set on the desk and pushed it towards Gu Chenan, saying, "Please, have some tea."

"Thank you," Gu Chenan took a sip of tea and said, "Mr. Wang, I'll get straight to the point. I want to buy your company. Please name your price."

"Certainly, certainly," Wang Youcai nodded with a smile. "May I ask your surname?"

"My surname is Gu, Gu Chenan."

"Mr. Gu," Wang Youcai said, "To be honest, Mr. Gu, our company's performance has been declining continuously, and we're on the verge of bankruptcy. I really don't understand why you want to buy my company."

Wang Youcai was right. Before coming here, Gu Chenan had already roughly understood Caiying's situation.

To put it bluntly, it could be described as terrible.

Forget about expanding beyond Shanghai, even within the city itself, not many people had heard of Caiying.

Although their products were decent, they lacked brand recognition and marketing. As a result, in a vicious cycle, the company's profits kept decreasing.

In fact, Wang Youcai had long wanted to sell the company and cash out, but no one was interested in acquiring this local small company teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.

"You don't need to worry about that, Mr. Wang. Just focus on whether you want to sell or not," Gu Chenan said with a light smile.

His tone was calm, but his words carried a hint of authority.

Although in reality, Gu Chenan was just an ordinary person, his two previous roles in the novel world weren't for nothing.

In other words, if he wanted to, he could make everyone believe he was the young master of some mysterious family.

To put it another way, he was both an ordinary person and a rich young master.

Gu Chenan's aura made Wang Youcai slightly stunned. He secretly observed Gu Chenan out of the corner of his eye.

Gu Chenan appeared completely at ease, as if buying a company was no big deal to him.

Suddenly, an outrageous yet plausible idea popped into Wang Youcai's mind.

Could this Mr. Gu be an exiled scion of some big family?

Perhaps he wanted to buy this half-dead small company to demonstrate his abilities to his family, hoping to return to the fold?

Otherwise, why would he suddenly want to buy such a small company?

Thinking of this, Wang Youcai searched his memory for families with the surname "Gu."

But after racking his brains, he shook his head.

There didn't seem to be any prominent Gu family in Shanghai.

Or... was he overthinking it?

Wang Youcai snapped back to reality. Regardless of why Gu Chenan wanted to acquire his company, as long as he could safely cash out, that was all that mattered.

"Well, Mr. Gu, it's like this. Of course I want to sell, but before that, we should have someone do a proper valuation of the assets. And I also need to know if you have the financial capacity to buy my company," Wang Youcai said as he refilled Gu Chenan's tea.

"There's no need for all that trouble."

Gu Chenan shook his head, leaned forward towards Wang Youcai, and raised an eyebrow. "How much do you want to sell for?"

"I..."

Wang Youcai was stunned. He thought for a moment, then smiled easily. "Mr. Gu, you're putting me on the spot. Of course, I'd like to sell for as much as possible."

"Fine," Gu Chenan nodded. "Name a figure."

"Huh?"

Wang Youcai was dumbfounded.

His eyes flashed with disbelief.

Could it be...

Could it be that this young man was indeed from some mysterious wealthy family, just as he had imagined?

What was with this outrageously lavish attitude?

Was he really willing to pay whatever price I asked? Shouldn't he bring in a third party to evaluate my company's worth, and try to lowball the price?

Thinking of this, Wang Youcai swallowed hard.

"Mr. Gu, may I ask if your family supports your decision?"

Wang Youcai wanted to probe into Gu Chenan's background.

Gu Chenan took a sip of tea and said, "My family doesn't know about this..."

Then, Gu Chenan smiled and said, "By the way, Mr. Wang, what does my family have to do with this matter?"