Chapter 113 Steven Gives a Suggestion
Only then did Steven come over and sit beside her. Nora handed him the sausage, and he took it.
Nora thought she'd finally calmed him down, so she got up to open the red wine.
At first glance, all the wine labels looked expensive, the bottles were fancy, and they even came with a corkscrew.
Nora picked up a bottle of wine and studied it.
Steven glanced at her, and his heart sank. Oh no!
He forgot to ask Clarence to bring cheaper wine tonight. This wine cost $10,000 a bottle - she wouldn't figure it out, would she?
His eating slowed down.
He felt guilty.
Finally, Nora voiced her doubt, "This red wine looks really high-end."
So she just thought it looked high-end.
Steven's heart settled down, but then he heard Nora say, "I used to order red wine for my sister to give to suppliers. I saw plenty of wines at the winery. Those wines that cost a few dozen or a hundred-something dollars had pretty simple packaging, nothing as nice as yours."
As she spoke, her pretty eyes looked at Steven.
Steven couldn't swallow the sausage in his mouth - it felt stuck in his throat.
Until Nora asked, "How much does your wine cost per bottle?"
Steven breathed a sigh of relief.
Good thing she didn't guess. He said quietly, "Five hundred dollars."
Sure enough, the penny-pinching Nora's eyes went wide, "Five hundred dollars a bottle, and you bought 6 bottles at once?"
And he called this living frugally?
Steven glanced at her and said coolly, "Wine doesn't expire. If we don't finish it, we can keep it at home to serve guests."
Nora thought about it - that made sense. Steven's friends were all so fancy, and the last time they came, there was no wine to serve them.
Thinking about recent events, Nora felt that once Olivia got out of the hospital, they should invite Steven's friends over for dinner. They'd all helped out this time, and she was so grateful to them.
Nora kept one bottle of red wine.
She took the other five bottles and arranged them in the wine cabinet.
She even made a special display - now the wine cabinet wouldn't look so empty.
"I've never had a five-hundred-dollar bottle of wine before." Nora came back and opened the bottle. "Today, thanks to you, I get to try it!"
She smiled brightly, pretending to be like those wine tasters on TV, swirling the wine glass in her hand, taking a gentle sniff, and sipping a small amount.
Steven wanted to laugh.
Was all this really necessary for a glass of wine?
Nora actually couldn't really taste the difference. She'd had very few red wines before, just thought it was pretty smooth with a rich fruity aroma.
"Not bad," she said, putting down the glass.
Steven looked up and asked her, "Any thoughts after drinking it?"
"Can't really say." She grinned and took a bite of a chicken wing. "Just feels weird pairing it with barbecue."
"Still a novel experience though."
The two ate quietly.
Suddenly, Olivia called Nora.
Nora's heart tightened, and she said to Steven, "It's Olivia!"
A call this late at night - she was afraid something had happened.
Nora felt inexplicably nervous as she answered, "Olivia."
"Nora, I want to ask you about something."
"Okay, Olivia, go ahead." Nora put the phone on the dining table and turned on the speaker.
Steven sat beside her and could hear Olivia's words.
"It's about your store." Although Olivia was tired, she'd been thinking about this and felt she needed to talk to Nora about it.
"After you left, I asked Willie. From what I could tell, he's not willing to give you that store, but he said if you give up the store, he's willing to give you a hundred thousand dollars. I want to ask you, what do you think?"
Olivia had been thinking about it alone just now.
She'd never really talked to Nora about this and didn't know what Nora was thinking. She wanted to discuss it - if Nora wanted the money, they'd take the money. If Nora wanted the store, they'd hire a lawyer and fight Willie in court.
Now that Olivia's mental state had basically recovered, she could start thinking about these things.
Nora thought for a moment and told Olivia what was on her mind, "I don't know. I'm not sure how much power that legal representative status carries."
She was worried the judge would just go by the law and rule in favor of the legal representative.
"Nora, I want to know - do you want the money, or do you want that store?" Olivia said. "If you really want the store, I'll go consult with a lawyer. You built that store from scratch; we should have a good chance of winning."
Nora wanted the store mainly because of that big order, because the Reed family was actually just jealous of that big client.
Nora was about to speak when Steven pressed her hand. "How's business at your store?"
Steven suddenly asked.
Olivia heard that Steven was there too and asked, "Steven's there too?"
"Yes, we're eating barbecue together." Nora replied, then answered Steven, "Business at my store is just okay, but I recently got a big order."
Steven looked at her. "Can you take the big order offline?"
Taking it offline meant doing business privately, which actually made more money.
Because the platform took a commission on orders, for big clients, taking it offline was usually more convenient and better for both the customer and the merchant.
"I don't know, I haven't asked the client yet." Nora looked at Steven. "Why do you ask?"
"If the client is willing to work offline, then sell your store back to them, but make sure to sign an agreement," Steven suggested.
Nora was slightly stunned. "Why?"
She didn't understand.
"Actually, websites have their own algorithms. If a store can't take off after a year or two, then that store's traffic basically becomes fixed. Even if you push hard later, it won't be as good as a new store. If you really want to do this, I suggest selling the old store to them, then registering a new store and using that hundred thousand dollars for promotion."
"By the time you've spent that hundred thousand, the new store will most likely be doing better than the old one." Steven's point was to sell the old store to Willie for a hundred thousand dollars, then invest that hundred thousand in promoting a new store, building it up in one go.
Nora was stunned. She had no idea until he explained - what a surprise!
Could it work like this?
She'd never thought of it before!
Right - if she kept running the old store, there was no way she could come up with a hundred thousand dollars for promotion. She didn't have the money.
But if she sold it to Willie and used the money for promotion, it was basically free money. The old store was barely surviving anyway; no need to hold onto it.
Olivia understood, too, her eyes full of admiration for Steven. "Brilliant! Steven, that's genius!"
Take the big client offline, then use Willie's money to promote a new store. When it really takes off, the Reed family will probably be furious!
Using their money to do business - just thinking about it felt satisfying!
"Amazing!" Nora gave Steven a thumbs-up. If this plan worked, she'd actually come out ahead!
Steven's mind really was extraordinary!
Nora said with a smile, "Honey, how does your brain work?"
Steven felt something was off about that comment.
It didn't sound like a compliment.
More like she was mocking him.