The Shadow Tycoon
Copyright© 2026 by CaffeinatedTales
Chapter 140: The Valuation No One Could Swallow
“Mr. Carter, I think there are some problems with your statement.”
Just after William had “briefly” made a short-term market value assessment for his Interstellar Trading Company, and shocked these men with his practiced technique, one of them raised a different view.
That was normal. Business was give and take. No one had ever ruled that others could not go back and forth over price.
Naturally, William would not do that either. That would absolutely not be the way to conduct business. He took out a pack of cigarettes, nodded, and signaled for the other man to continue.
The gentleman wearing a blue tie offered a somewhat different view. “I believe that valuing a company cannot take its profit as the only standard. And Interstellar Trading Company cannot possibly use every dollar of profit to develop and expand the company itself. So I think the valuation you proposed may not be very accurate.”
In truth, Blue Tie’s argument was the same as saying that a person earning two hundred dollars a month could save twenty-four hundred dollars a year. It was only an idealized method of valuation, but in practice, it was not very likely to occur.
First came fluctuations in earnings. Earnings could never remain within a narrow range forever. They would fluctuate, and sometimes fluctuate violently. That alone could create a major gap between the actual effect and the idealized effect.
Moreover, so far, the business had only been carried out in Sabine City. The earnings situation in other places was still difficult to say. Overall, this was not an easy matter.
The full equipment and materials needed to set up a roadside stall might cost only five hundred dollars, but if it could bring its owner three to five hundred dollars in profit every month, could one say that the near-term market value of that single roadside stall was worth tens of thousands of dollars?
Without an access system and threshold introduced, of course that was impossible. So William’s claim did carry some suspicion of conceptual substitution.
But as mentioned above, the reason business was so interesting in the eyes of many people was not only because most businessmen were lovers of numbers. More than that, in the process of matching wits with others, they no longer enjoyed only the increase of numbers, but also the pleasure of crushing other people.
At this moment, William lowered his head. He held a box of matches, pinched one between his fingers, and struck it. With a hiss and a puff of white smoke, he took two quick pulls, shook out the matchstick, and tossed it into the ashtray.
Only then did he raise his head with a smile and look at Blue Tie across from him. He drew on the cigarette and, while exhaling, said, “Why not?”
Without waiting for the other party to offer his own thoughts, William smiled and continued, “I will put all the money into the construction and operation of the company, making it more and more complete, and expanding its coverage as far as possible.”
He leaned back on the sofa, his left hand resting over the top of the backrest, his right hand holding the cigarette and pressing lightly against the knee of his crossed leg. His whole person was very relaxed, yet filled with a confident bearing.
“When our channels and coverage satisfy my requirements for the expansion steps, I will carry out a transformation and make it, at minimum, the largest channel merchant in this state.”
“By then, aside from choosing supermarkets and superstores, people will have one brand-new choice, and that choice can be called the best one available to them.”
“Gentlemen, this is not merely a secondhand trade business. In the end, it may even cover every corner of every person’s life.”
“The appliances they use will come from our company. The furniture they use will come from our company. Even their houses, their jobs, their food, clothing, shelter, and transportation will all come from our company...”
“Gentlemen, to be honest, when I estimated the figure of fifty million dollars, my heart was bleeding. I even wanted to raise its valuation several times over, so perhaps you would retreat in the face of difficulty.”
His expression was serious and sincere, and his voice carried some helplessness. “But I know we are standing together. At least for now, we are ‘one gang.’ I also understand how the capital game is played. Helping one another is the only reason we can stand higher than others.”
“If you feel this price is too high, then I can only express regret with joy. If you are willing to join this plan, that, on the contrary, will give me something of a headache.”
The men looked at one another. They felt that what William was saying now was a little too grand and hollow, but it was not necessarily impossible to realize. This was a very headache-inducing situation. If it were true, or if it were simply false, neither would make people feel so troubled.
William also spoke about the leasing of secondhand goods and other issues. That was an even more frightening method for resolving people’s short-term impulses for certain material needs.
The contents he discussed, along with the prospects and future he described, suddenly began to stir the hearts of the men sitting across from him.
The more they listened to William describe the company he imagined, the more they felt there was something worth doing.
William described it in too much detail, so detailed that many places they had never considered or noticed were explained thoroughly. This also made them believe that William must have a more meticulous overall plan, and that he was implementing it according to that plan.
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