“I’m sorry, but I’m afraid that I have to reject it!” Su Tao decisively shook his head.

Ye Ling was stunned. She never expected that Su Tao would be so direct. “You can give it some consideration. If you agree to sign a contract with us, the Ye Family will give you a helping hand. I know that you wish to establish a TCM Empire, so you will definitely need resources. Coincidentally, the Ye Family can provide you with anything you need.”

“You should know the reason why I’m rejecting you.” Su Tao smiled.

“You’re just as my father predicted; you’re ambitious.” Ye Ling sighed. Indeed, Su Tao wasn’t willing to tie himself to a single tree.

“Then let’s go for the second-best option. We will sign an ordinary medical cooperation with your Three Flavour Hall. You guys just have to periodically provide healthcare services to us. But as for the price, it will be greatly reduced, we can only offer ¥5,000,000 a year.”

“Sure, ¥5,000,000 is already a huge deal.” Su Tao smiled.

The Ye Family might be powerful, but Su Tao would definitely not tie himself to a single family. As a physician, he needed to have the aspiration to treat everyone rather than being restricted. If he agreed to it, it would only limit his prospects instead.

Su Tao knew that Ye Ling was doing this to repay the favor of treating her father. For these prominent families, they would pay attention to make a distinction between gratitude and grudges. If they lose that, they would lose the unity in their family.

Su Tao was in a pretty good mood. He never expected that he would gain something from this employee gathering, despite a small incident. Aside from mediating his relationship with the Ye Family, he also became friends with the twins, not to mention that he had obtained a contract with the Ye Family.

Ye Ling wasn’t as aloof as he had imagined. She easily mixed well with the employees of the Three Flavour Hall, showing a surprising approachability.

When they ended their karaoke session, Ye Ling arranged vehicles to send everyone back.

The employees of the Three Flavour Hall were provided with residence in a district close to the Three Flavour Hall. Although three of them would share a residence, everyone was given their own room.

Su Tao did not stay in that district but picked a hotel nearby.

When he entered the room, he first took a shower before he laid on the bed and gave a call to Xia Yu, enquiring about the progress with the medicine factory.

Yu Omuri and Natsuki Sakamoto had arrived in Hanzhou City earlier than him, and they planned to set up the medicine factory in Baoyou County, mainly because Du Ping was stationed there. Du Ping was responsible for attracting investments, and if they set up their medicine factory there, aside from leaving behind a glorious mark in Du Ping’s résumé, they could also receive help from him.

“Yu Omuri, that dude is like a madman. For the past few days, his total rest did not exceed 10 hours.” Xia Yu sighed as he continued, “Give him a call if you’re free. I’m really worried that he might tire himself to death.”

“He’s a doctor as well, so I believe that he will pay attention to his own condition!” Su Tao smiled as he asked, “Oh, right. What about Natsuki Sakamoto? Have you found a job for her?”

Letting out a sigh, Xia Yu replied, “She doesn’t know any Mandarin, so it’s hard for her to find a job. I suggested to her to learn Mandarin first so that she can better integrate into our country.”

“That makes sense, and I hope that she can adapt swiftly.” Su Tao replied after a brief silence.

“Mr. Qian Honghu has been very passionate about the Chinese medicine factory, and he already helped us find several people who were technological backbones from other medicine factories.” Xia Yu smiled as he continued his report, “Indeed, many people were tempted when we released our salary. But at the same time, we’ve also become the public enemy in the country’s Chinese medicine industry.”

“It will be beneficial to the industry. Only by raising the salary, can everyone work harder.” Su Tao smiled.

“You’re the only one who dares to offer such a high salary.” Xia Yu sighed.

“That’s because I’m confident about the future.” Su Tao replied.

Xia Yu laughed out, “For me, I’m just confident about you.”

Thereafter, the two of them discussed the details of the medicine factory.

According to Su Tao’s intention, the management of the medicine factory would be handed to his third disciple, Wang Peng. Wang Peng had been in Three Flavour Hall’s concoction room, and he displayed talent in medicinal herbs. According to Su Tao’s thoughts, all of the Three Flavour Hall’s herbal-related work would be handed to Wang Peng in the future.

However, Wang Peng had just graduated from university, so he wasn’t experienced enough. Su Tao intended for him to take on the position while Xia Yu guides him from the sideline to get him familiar with management.

“How’s Bassoon and the rest doing?” Su Tao suddenly recalled his hidden power.

“They recruited a new batch of members!” Xia Yu bitterly smiled and added, “Those bunch of people has treated you as the Venerable Father, calling you Master Su Tao.”

“Didn’t I instruct you to change their mindset? Why are they still going with ‘Venerable Father’? That title itself makes me cringe.” Su Tao was shocked when he heard the report from Xia Yu.

“But Old Liu and I think that it’s pretty good. It’s also easier to control them this way.” Xia Yu laughed before he sighed, “Including Bassoon, they all grew up in a terrible environment, so it’s difficult to change them. They live for conviction, and they’ll just be a bunch of zombies if you take that away from them. You can only bring courage and energy to them by being their new Venerable Father.”

“Forget it, you guys can just do whatever you guys want.” Su Tao bitterly smiled.

“According to Bassoon’s thoughts, he intends to take on the identity as your devout follower to recruit some believers from Thailand. According to him, you can become a Saint Venerable Father.” Xia Yu said as he nodded his head as well. “With your medical skills, I believe that many people will become your believers if you make a trip to Thailand.”

“What a rotten idea.” Su Tao sourly smiled.

When he finished his call with Xia Yu, Su Tao noticed an unread message in his social media account. It was a message from Asaka Ochi. She wrote, “The initial investment for the Chinese medicine factory, USD$180,000,000, has been transferred to Qihuang Charity Funds’ account, so please make a verification.”

Initially, Su Tao intended to take a sum of money out of Qihuang Charity to fund the medicine factory, but he never expected that Asaka Ochi would send the money so quickly. It sounded a little illogical for her to send the money over before the contract was signed.

Then again, there’s another possibility that Asaka Ochi was in a rush to circulate cash flow, and this was the reason why she did it with such haste.

“You’re not afraid of me taking it and not admitting to our cooperation?” Su Tao replied.

“You’re someone meant to do big things, so we trust in your person. The contract will arrive tomorrow with the lawyer, and for the clauses, you can just discuss them with him.” Asaka Ochi swiftly sent over a reply.

Asaka Ochi’s reply made Su Tao somewhat disappointed, since he initially thought that he could meet Asaka Ochi when signing the contract.

Then again, Su Tao had no idea how to express his feelings to Asaka Ochi.

Due to the fact that Asaka Ochi’s lawyer was coming to Hanzhou City today, Su Tao took the earliest flight back.

When Su Tao boarded the plane, he looked through the contract that was sent over and knew that Kohei Koizumi was pretty supportive. They practically did not determine any clauses. Aside from Asaka Ochi possessing 25% of the shares, she would not partake in the medicine factory’s investment and management.

Su Tao only turned on his phone when he got off the plane and realised that Ni Jingqiu gave him several calls. When Su Tao left Beijing, he did not inform Ni Jingqiu about it since he was in a hurry.

He immediately gave a call back to Ni Jingqiu to explain to her so that she wouldn’t be angry.

“With our deep relationship, we will definitely have many opportunities to meet in the future. So let’s not bother about these small details, shall we?” Su Tao smiled.

“You got in a conflict with Gu Yang and Shu Haonan yesterday?” Ni Jingqiu sighed. She was impressed by Su Tao’s ability to cause trouble.

Overnight, the matter of Su Tao splashing a small pot of soup on Gu Yang was swept out.

“It can be considered an accident. You should know about the cause, and I wasn’t the one who started it first.” Su Tao explained as he exclaimed about the news spread in Beijing’s circle.

“I don’t have any good impression of Gu Yang, and it was pretty satisfying with how you dealt with her yesterday. Even Gu Li called me to tell you, thank you.” Ni Jingqiu smiled as she continued, “Gu Yang was partly the reason why Gu Li went overseas. There are many conflicts in prominent families, so you don’t have to worry that you might provoke the entire Gu Family because of Gu Yang.”

At this moment, how could Su Tao not tell that Ni Jingqiu was ensuring him, so he smiled. “I’m relieved with your words. I’m afraid that I will need you to take care of the Beijing Three Flavour Hall branch for me. I’m afraid that they might do something to it and affect the operation. Furthermore, with Gu Yang’s personality, she might take revenge against that female physician, Chen Rui, so I’ll need you to pay some attention to her.”

“You’re comprehensive in your consideration. Rest assured, I will deal with Gu Yang. I don’t think that she will even dare to make any movements.” Ni Jingqiu smiled.

“What do you intend to do?” Su Tao curiously asked.

“I’ll get someone to mail her a shirt covered in chicken’s blood. I believe that with her personality, she will definitely be frightened.” Ni Jingqiu answered.

Inwardly letting out a sigh, Su Tao smiled. “I never expected that you would be such a prankster.”

“Well, you are a product of who you mix around with. What can I do with a cunning best friend like you?” Ni Jingqiu went along with Su Tao’s words.

While chatting as he left the airport, he saw Xia Yu wearing sunglasses and he waved his hand over. After hanging the call with Ni Jingqiu, Su Tao handed his luggage to Xia Yu. When Su Tao saw everyone pointing in his direction, he was surprised and looked at Xia Yu, baffled, “Is there anything on my face?”

“Nope!” Xia Yu smiled. “You’re now a celebrity in Hanzhou City, so they must have recognised you.”

Su Tao bitterly smiled. It felt pretty pressuring to be a public figure, such as digging his nose. If he wasn’t careful and had his photo taken, wouldn’t it be embarrassing?