Vera answered Lynch’s question. She wasn’t sure if she should do as Lynch suggested, but her answer seemed to conceal another layer of meaning, a response to other questions.
She was confused, a bit at a loss.
"Don’t think about these unpleasant things for now. If you have time, consider it carefully. I won’t stay in Sabin City for long this time. Shall we find a place to eat tonight?"
He raised his wrist to glance at his watch, "Maybe I can wait for you to get off work. We can talk about those financial issues during this time."
During the next period, Vera was explaining to Lynch exactly how wealthy he presently was, and how much cash he had.
Cash, money, wealth—these words don’t mean the same thing. They are independent terms, and the content they express is entirely different. This is the value of accountants, as ordinary people simply can’t figure these out.
While introducing these assets, Vera mentioned a problem the company was currently facing, "The cash flow speed of Interstellar Trade Company’s second-hand goods auction has significantly slowed compared to before, and the transaction volume has dropped sharply..."
She felt it necessary to tell Lynch about this situation, and in fact, this phenomenon has been ongoing since the second half of the year.
Aside from cities that just started holding second-hand goods auctions still contributing decent funds, some older places, like Sabin City, find it challenging to motivate more people to step into the second-hand goods auction and frantically snap up those items.
Even in the capital where Richard resides, the turnover has been declining for the past few months.
This situation isn’t abnormal, just that the market is beginning to reach saturation, and Lynch never thought this business could last a lifetime.
The second-hand goods trade has a lifecycle; it’s an industry that "eats at both ends." Simply put, during the initial phase of an economic downturn, second-hand goods are highly favored by people.
The reason is simple: people’s incomes start to decrease, money in their pockets keeps reducing, yet their desire to consume and mindset don’t keep up with the decrease in money. They still have the desire to shop, and at this time, the existence of second-hand goods auctions satisfies their shopping needs and desires.
After a period of economic downturn, people’s desire to shop will unprecedentedly drop to the freezing point. The desire to consume is defeated by the desire to survive, and even cheap second-hand goods cannot attract people’s shopping desires. The entire industry will enter a slump.
On the other hand, in the infancy of economic recovery, the suppressed shopping desires during the economic winter start to gradually revive as incomes rise. A period of rapid consumer spree will occur.
Regardless of what it is, as long as they find it suitable, even if they don’t need it, as long as they think this thing is good, they’ll buy it.
That will become a new growth point for second-hand goods transactions, but this period is also brief. Once this retaliatory consumption mentality ends, second-hand goods transactions will begin to enter a stable period, which can also be called a new low.
People have more money in their pockets, and they’re less willing to buy second-hand goods, except for very practical and family-essential items like houses, cars, and televisions, which some families can’t afford new ones, so they remain popular while others are still hard to sell like now.
With the development of technology, constantly changing, those eliminated second-hand goods eventually become hard to even give away.
Lynch had foreseen this from the start, so he took advantage of this trend to make his first real sum of money, then quickly completed the most primitive accumulation of capital with it.
Actually, even now, it can’t be said that these businesses aren’t profitable; they just don’t make much. After all, he has no costs, which is why he’s making money.
If he had employed many employees, just paying their salaries would have caused a huge financial deficit, fortunately, he only has partners, no employees.
Moreover, regarding transportation and storage issues, he has made basic facilities, has his own transportation team, his own warehouse district, and although the left hand to right hand transfer game isn’t pretty, but things still stay in his pocket.
Instead, the second-hand transaction market, which was lukewarm at first, has started to shine and heat up, which is also the future trend. Such second-hand goods auctions will be replaced by more flexible free trade markets.
Vera talked a lot with Lynch, and at the end, Lynch found out that the most profitable business on his books was his thirty percent stake in Fox Film Corporation!
This year, several bestsellers and the upcoming releases of "Lynch’s Adventure 1" and "Lynch’s Adventure 2," based on true stories of Lynch, will earn him nearly eighty thousand!
It’s incredible, especially making such money during an economic depression, which can surprise many people, also showing why capital is moving towards entertainment and the pan-entertainment industry.
"So, how much do I personally have now?" After listening to Vera’s long explanation, Lynch raised a concluding question. He checked the time, almost ready to find a restaurant for dinner.
Sitting beside him, Vera, wearing glasses and flipping through the ledger she usually keeps in a safe deposit, showed a playful expression, "Sadly, Mr. Lynch, your personal account has no money, and you owe the bank a big amount!"
This answer wasn’t unexpected for Lynch, and he cooperatively exclaimed, "Am I bankrupt? Am I so wretched?"
Vera nodded as if it were true, saying, "Sadly, it’s true!"
Then they both laughed. Vera only had a general guess about how much money Lynch had. Lynch didn’t entrust all his accounts to her for management. As far as she knew, he also had some overseas accounts not entrusted to her, nor to anyone else.
Besides, what they were talking about was limited to cash, the kind that can be withdrawn from the bank anytime, anywhere. In fact, Lynch was far from "bankruptcy," specifically those bonds he held in banks were an astonishing figure. This was just some banter, some fun.
"It’s about time. If we leave early, will anyone talk?" Lynch stood up, extending his hand very gentlemanly, palm facing up.
This is what men do when helping women who need to stand up, with the back of the hand up being the most gentlemanly gesture. Only intimate people would use the palm.
After all, during the prevalence of such etiquette, there wasn’t any feminist movement, nor could anyone propose natural liberation and freedom of choice.
"You really are a gentleman!" Vera didn’t hesitate much, placing her hand on the back of Lynch’s hand for support as she stood up.
As a woman, interacting with Lynch was a very peculiar experience. She constantly sensed Lynch’s closeness to her and an indescribable, somewhat ambiguous feeling. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ 𝔫𝔬𝔳𝔢𝔩⟡𝘧𝙞𝙧𝙚⟡𝘯𝘦𝘵
But at the same time, he maintained a gentlemanly demeanor and attitude on detail issues, which was somewhat contradictory but also extremely appealing to women.
Lynch smiled as he withdrew his hand, "I don’t do this for everyone."
The words were correct, but... they inevitably led to some other thoughts. Vera exhaled lightly, walked to the coat rack to get Lynch’s coat, and said uncertainly, "I don’t know how to refuse you."
She looked at Lynch, but Lynch didn’t show any displeasure or other expressions at her words, no different from before, "You know, I’m living alone now, and the child has grown up. My divorce from Gap caused him a lot of harm."
"If I don’t go home tonight, he might get worried. He thinks all of this is because of him, and I might abandon him!"
This is a problem with leaving children to be raised by their grandparents. Previously, their child was always brought up by Gap’s mother. The elderly woman, on the one hand, liked the child, and on the other hand, provided the couple enough space.
But what happened later made their child feel abandoned, and sometimes he thought that because of him, he and his mother were abandoned.
This is a common psychological issue in single-parent families, with no good solution, only waiting for the child to grow up a bit, mature a little, and maybe there will be some change.
"Then bring him along!" Lynch promptly added, "If he worries about these issues, bring him with us."
"Can I?" Vera was somewhat uncertain, "Sometimes he can be quite annoying..."
Under Lynch’s gaze, Vera finally decided to bring the child along to have dinner with Lynch, which made the entire dinner atmosphere somewhat peculiar.
It’s clearly not a date, as it’s evident; no one would bring a child to a date, even if they actually had children.
Secondly, it didn’t resemble a company superior-subordinate work meal, with a high-end restaurant, red carpets, a skillful band, and waiters dressed in red vests and black bow ties.
The people around were conversing in low voices, clearly in the hall surrounded by other tables and guests, yet not being affected by them at all.
Only by seriously listening to the surroundings could one hear some whispered conversations amidst the soothing and melodious music.
All of this was meticulously crafted: the music just rightly covered the conversation from the other tables, without needing to deliberately lower one’s voice, normal conversations, those not noisy music could protect people’s privacy.
The three of them, led by the restaurant manager, arrived at a relatively good spot. Along the way, Vera’s child kept observing Lynch, with eyes full of curiosity.
He seemed to wonder, who is this handsome guy?