The Baoping Power Plant had thousands of construction workers, but they were divided among different project departments. Yang Jian's project department was mainly responsible for building construction, including office buildings, dormitories, and apartment buildings, as well as some commercial housing that the power plant intended to use for rapid capital recovery.
The meal tickets for the entire power plant were universal, but the canteens and convenience stores were all operated by individual project departments, with contractors being relatives of the project bosses.
Chen Xiaoli was the niece of the project manager, Chen Shou. The convenience store was actually opened by Chen Shou, and Chen Xiaoli was merely working for her uncle.
When Yang Jian and San Pang came in to explain their purpose, Chen Xiaoli dared not make the decision.
"Yang Jian, where did you get so many meal tickets?"
Chen Xiaoli was clearly excited by Yang Jian's arrival. Although she refused their request, she still wanted to chat with him more.
"We plan to open a barbecue stall outside the construction site. The construction site's meal tickets can be used for consumption, but I'm afraid if we accept too many meal tickets, our carpentry team won't be able to digest them. So, I was thinking of asking for your help to digest some of them. I'm willing to pay a service fee, so please talk to Manager Chen."
Yang Jian told a small lie. There were quite a few barbecue stalls outside anyway, so Manager Chen wouldn't be suspicious.
"Yang Jian, you're really capable. You're a boss at such a young age, and now you're planning to open a shop. Then I'll get a discount when I buy barbecue from you in the future."
"No discount needed. My Brother Jian hasn't dated anyone yet. If you become his girlfriend, you'll be the boss's wife at the barbecue shop."
San Pang egged them on from the side, making Yang Jian blush.
Chen Xiaoli, however, was quite generous. "Yang Jian, I'm twenty-two this year. How old are you?"
"Twenty-three."
This girl had a good personality. Although she didn't meet his standards for a girlfriend, he could try dating her. After all, life on the construction site was too monotonous, filled with only men, which was truly uninteresting.
"Then leave your phone number. I'll call you back after I discuss it with my uncle."
There were many people buying things at this time, and Chen Xiaoli didn't have time to chat with Yang Jian.
After leaving his number, Yang Jian left with San Pang. If he couldn't digest the extra meal tickets here, he would have to try other project departments.
By the time it was almost quitting time in the afternoon, Chen Xiaoli called back, saying that her uncle agreed to help him digest 30,000 yuan worth of meal tickets each month, but he could only give 10,000 yuan in cash. The rest would be settled at the end of the year. She didn't mention any service fee.
Yang Jian immediately agreed. The convenience store, like the main canteen, operated on an advance payment basis. The amount of cash that could be exchanged at the project department each month was planned. Giving him 10,000 yuan meant that the convenience store's cash quota was being used.
With the assurance from these two places, Yang Jian found Huang Hua as soon as he got off work.
"General Manager Huang, I estimate that I can collect about 150,000 yuan worth of meal tickets each month. Any more than that and I won't be able to digest it. Do you think that's enough?"
Yang Jian included the consumption of his own team when giving the figure of 150,000 yuan.
Huang Hua laughed heartily. "Manager Yang's efficiency is quite high. To be honest, I don't know how many meal tickets we can collect each month. This is our first time trying to collect meal tickets for a casino. As long as you can guarantee over a hundred thousand, our casino can open. If we can't digest them, we'll talk to other project departments."
"Then when will the casino start? I plan to partner with you."
"I'm also willing to cooperate with Manager Yang. The casino can start tomorrow. If you're busy, you can arrange one or two brothers to help out."
"That's no problem. I also want to ask, will the casino be run by ourselves, or will we hire someone to run it?"
Yang Jian was very happy. Not only could he participate in cash dividends, but he could also exchange meal tickets for some cash back at the construction site, which would greatly reduce the future cash pressure.
"Manager Yang is indeed an old hand and is very familiar with casino operations. In principle, anyone can be the banker in Pai Gow. However, our casino will have many players, playing not only with meal tickets but also with cash. Those without the means wouldn't dare to be the banker, so we will hire professional bankers. If there are no bankers, then we will be the bankers ourselves."
"Professional bankers probably wouldn't accept meal tickets, right?"
"That's right. Regardless of who is the banker, we collect the meal tickets. It's equivalent to us being half the bankers."
Yang Jian thought for a moment and said, "Then can I also be the banker?"
"Of course, you can. But you'll need to prepare at least 100,000 yuan in cash and tens of thousands in meal tickets. If you want to be the sole banker, we will definitely prioritize arranging it for you."
"Let's observe for a few days first. We've never played Pai Gow before."
"Alright, then tomorrow afternoon, you arrange for your brothers to come over. We'll officially start at one o'clock."
After parting ways with Huang Hua, Yang Jian found San Pang and asked him to go to town to buy a set of dominoes to practice with. If he felt confident, he would try to be the banker.
This was the quickest way to get cash. The 80,000 yuan his cousin had probably wouldn't last a month. There were still over two months until the Chinese New Year, and he needed at least 200,000 yuan to last until the end of the year.
Even by the end of the year, if the client's funding did not arrive in full, the funding gap would be even larger. Moreover, some funds would need to be prepared for the start of construction next year, and he couldn't start with empty hands.
If a person does not plan for the distant future, they will have sorrow close at hand. Funding was originally Liu Yong's main concern, but now it had all fallen on Yang Jian.
Liu Yong had confidently said that he could owe some payment for formwork and lumber, but after seeing Yang Jian produce 380,000 yuan all at once, he had purchased everything with cash, saying that buying with cash was much cheaper.
This had led to the current tight cash situation. Liu Yong, however, acted as if nothing was wrong, spending his days socializing with Manager Chen. He believed that Yang Jian's reputation in Chengguan was so great that borrowing money would be easy, so he never worried about insufficient funds.
On the first day of the casino's opening, Yang Jian made arrangements for the construction site work in advance.
After lunch, he took Lu Feng and Liang Liang to Huang Jiaping. San Pang stayed at the construction site to be on duty and practice the techniques for cheating at dominoes.
Dominoes were the tools for playing Pai Gow. They were thinner than mahjong tiles, about the same width, but much longer. San Pang was very skilled at mahjong, but this was his first time playing dominoes. To cheat without being discovered, he needed to put in hard work. Fortunately, he had his own training methods, so the adaptation process wouldn't be too difficult.
The casino was set up in Huang Hua's mahjong room. It was a large venue built with color steel tiles, covering an area of five to six hundred square meters. More than half of it was partitioned off as a video arcade, and the remaining area, over two hundred square meters, was more than enough for a mahjong room and a casino.
The mahjong room was open-plan. Only the video arcade section had walls. The other three sides were supported by C-channel steel columns, making it very airy. If the police came, it would also be easy to evacuate.
The Pai Gow tables were also different from dice tables. They were rectangular and very narrow, only about a meter long, but had only eight seats, one of which was for the banker in the center.
There were three seats on either side of the banker, and four seats opposite the banker. Each seat was spaced seventy to eighty centimeters apart, making it convenient for people not seated to place their bets.
The tabletop at each seat was divided into two areas with red tape. One side was marked for meal tickets, and the other for cash. Those who bet with cash would be paid in cash, and those who bet with meal tickets would be paid in meal tickets. They were not exchanged with each other.