How Hard can Losing Money even Be?

The more Benny thought about it, the more convinced he became.

This was it.

This was the direction Autumn Investment needed to take.

Without wasting another second, he stepped out of his office.

The employees immediately looked up.

"Boss?"

Benny clapped his hands once to get everyone’s attention.

"I have a new project."

The room instantly became quiet.

After the success of Titan Manufacturing, everyone was waiting for Benny to announce a new investment idea.

Benny looked around the room.

"I want you all to start looking for a large plot of land on the outskirts of the city."

Several employees immediately began taking notes.

Li Na was the first to ask,

"What will the land be used for?"

Benny answered without hesitation.

"Farming."

The office became silent.

Several employees exchanged glances.

For a moment, nobody knew what to say.

Farming?

After investing in a company that had nearly tripled in value through technological innovation, the next target was agriculture?

Across the room, eyes met.

Is farming the next trend?

The thought appeared in more than one mind.

After all, nobody had understood the Titan Manufacturing investment either.

Perhaps this was another opportunity hidden in plain sight.

Eventually, Lucy nodded.

"Understood, Boss."

The others quickly followed.

"We’ll start looking immediately."

Benny then glanced toward the office floor.

"Lucy."

"Yes, Boss?"

"Come to my office for a moment."

"Understood."

A short while later, a knock sounded on the door.

"Come in."

Lucy stepped inside and closed the door behind her.

She took a seat opposite Benny’s desk before asking, "Did you need something, Boss?"

Benny leaned back in his chair.

"Yes, give everyone three months of salary in advance."

Lucy’s eyebrows rose slightly.

Three months in advance was certainly unusual, but considering the profits they had just made, it wasn’t completely unreasonable.

She nodded and prepared to take notes.

Meanwhile, Benny was already consulting the system.

How much bonus can I give them?

A response immediately appeared.

[ Depends on what they have achieved. ]

They turned a five million yuan investment into approximately 8.5 million yuan within three weeks.

[ Maximum allowable bonus: 30%. ]

Benny’s eyes brightened.

What about raises?

Another notification appeared.

[ Maximum allowable salary increase: 20% of current compensation. ]

Benny immediately looked pleased.

The system was actually far more flexible than he had originally thought.

Looking at Lucy, he said,

"Like I said, everyone gets three months of salary in advance."

Lucy nodded.

"Understood."

"But there will be a few additional benefits."

Her pen paused.

"What kind of benefits?" 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Benny answered casually.

"Increase everyone’s salary by twenty percent."

Lucy wasn’t particularly surprised.

A raise for the investment department after generating several million yuan in profit was perfectly understandable.

Before she could respond, Benny continued.

"And when you process the payment, add a thirty percent bonus to the three-month salary."

This time, even Lucy was impressed.

A raise and a bonus.

The investment team would probably be ecstatic.

"Alright, Boss."

She quickly wrote everything down.

Then the system suddenly interrupted.

[ Employees who did not contribute to the profit are not eligible for raises or bonuses. ]

Benny paused.

Who?

[ The company lawyer and cybersecurity specialist. ]

After thinking about it for a moment, Benny found the reasoning acceptable.

Neither had participated in the Titan Manufacturing investment.

Looking back at Lucy, he added,

"Actually, make one adjustment. The lawyer and the cybersecurity specialist won’t receive the raise or bonus."

Lucy stopped writing and looked up.

"You’re only excluding those two?"

"Yeah."

Benny nodded.

"Everyone else worked together to make this profit."

Lucy hesitated for a moment before asking,

"What about the receptionist?"

Before Benny could reply, she continued,

"And what about me?"

She looked genuinely puzzled.

"I’m getting the raise and bonus as well?"

Benny looked genuinely confused.

"Of course."

"Why?"

Benny was momentarily taken aback.

What do you mean why?

He stared at Lucy.

Still, he maintained a calm expression.

Perhaps even the system had doubts about this expense.

In that case, he would simply make his reasoning convincing enough.

"When the company lacked funds, you went out and met with a loan shark and secured us a loan that was heavily favored toward the company."

Lucy remained silent.

Internally, however, she could not help responding.

You cannot call twelve percent compound interest per month heavily favored.

Benny, of course, was not a mind reader.

Completely oblivious to her thoughts, he continued.

"Because of that extra funding, we made it through the month and even this month, you went and secured a loan from the bank. That loan helped us make even more profit."

Benny shook his head slightly.

"Honestly, if I had invested the entire million yuan into the company instead of spending part of it on salaries and expenses, we would have made even more.

Therefore, you definitely deserve it."

Lucy opened her mouth and then closed it again.

She genuinely did not know how to respond.

Meanwhile, Benny’s thoughts were completely different.

I am truly grateful for the first month.

You helped me turn more than half a million yuan into losses.

Ahhh...

I really want to turn all of the company’s earnings into losses.

The thought alone made him emotional.

After all, Autumn Investment now had 8.5 million yuan.

Not five million.

Eight and a half million.

That was a terrifying amount of money.

And the worst part was that the entire 8.5 million yuan counted as company assets.

If he invested all of it right now and only lost 3.4 million yuan, the company would still be ahead overall.

Which meant the system would treat the cycle as profitable.

And profitable meant the 1,000-to-1 conversion ratio.

The beautiful 1-to-10 loss conversion ratio would never appear.

The more Benny thought about it, the more painful it felt.

His current mission was clear.

He needed to find a way to burn through all 8.5 million yuan.

Benny watched Lucy walk out of the office with a dazed yet excited expression.

Who wouldn’t be?

She had just received both a raise and a bonus.

If he had to evaluate his own decision, Benny thought it was absolutely genius.

After all, he had specifically instructed Lucy to apply the raise first and the bonus afterward.

If an employee was earning ¥10,000 a month, the twenty percent raise would bring it to ¥12,000.

Then the thirty percent bonus would be calculated on top of that, increasing it to ¥15,600.

If he had distributed the bonus first and applied the raise afterward, the final amount would only have been ¥15,000.

That extra ¥600 still counted.

Company fund spend was always money well spent.

A satisfied smile appeared on Benny’s face.

Now all I need is a way to lose all this money...

His fingers lightly tapped against the desk.

Then another thought surfaced.

Should I go back and visit that real estate agent?