Chapter 659: Chapter 662

While glancing at Sunset’s collar, Michael responded, “This is a famous luxury brand for pets abroad. It’s rather expensive. Stan’s quite generous with his cats since this collar costs at least tens of thousands. Its price could set its owner back by even hundreds of thousands.” I’m guessing that Stanley must have spent all of his earnings from the past year on his pets. No matter he keeps saying that he’s broke every day. F*ck me! If I give him another penny, I’m an idiot.

Upon looking at Judge and the Persian cat, he added, “Judge and Garfield’s collars are also from the same brand. It costs at least 5 to 6 digits. Garfield’s collar is specially designed, so it’s even more expensive.”

Garfield was the Persian cat that Linus gave as a present and the collar came together with the cat.

When he brought it over, he had already gifted two collars—one of which was already around Chrysanthemum’s neck.

Sophia thought, This must be the reason why Chrysanthemum recently has a hint of elegance, even though he’s a fat cat. He is fat, but it’s a different kind of chubbiness from other cats. It’s because of the luxury collar that Linus gave. She said with excitement, “I’ll buy a few for the other cats tomorrow to ensure equal treatment. We can’t be biased.”

While petting the cat, Michael concurred. “Sure, I’ll ask a couple of designers abroad to order a few for us.”

However, Sophia was unhappy to hear that. “Can’t you buy that locally? You are so unpatriotic, always buying items from abroad!”

He shook his head. “Selling luxury items for animals is a new industry. There aren’t any stores catering for that market locally. None of the local brands are good enough to even be listed in that category.

Everything is old-fashioned that even a Ragdoll will resemble a stray cat after wearing them!”

There aren’t any stores locally… Sophia suddenly sank into deep thoughts as she caressed the cat before a grandiose idea popped up in her mind. Since there’s no market to cater for that industry locally, why don’t I… give it a go?

As Taylor Murray’s wife, she was acquainted with the socialities of Bayside City. Nowadays, whenever the rich wives went out, they cared a lot about how they looked. Luxury items had always been a must and pets were also considered essential. In the earlier years, even the royalties reared a few royal cats.

Pets were now considered as a luxury brand too. This has a huge market potential!

Previously, she also wanted to invest in a jewelry brand, but since that market was saturated, she kept delaying it. Why don’t I start a luxury brand for pets? Cooper has loads of money. Even if it’s in the bank, it’s not going to do anything. Why don’t I withdraw it and invest?

Once Sophia made up her mind, she started to write her business proposal.

Meanwhile, Michael returned to the filming crew to settle the issues that Celine caused and to finish filming her scenes. It was almost time to attend the annual dinner when he returned home.

At the same time, she was also engrossed with her own matters—in no time, she wrote the proposal and emailed it to Michael, who was still at the filming crew, to peruse. After all, he was older and more experienced than her.

He read through it with all of his concentration. Upon seeing his beloved wife coming out of her depressive episode and strove hard to earn money, he was relieved and happy as it was a good sign.

He had to give her the credit for having bold ideas and being observant. He had merely been talking about it, but she started to survey the market after that.

In the few days after their conversation, she never returned to work and instead traveled to various places including heading abroad to conduct research on the local market.

Her plans had included something else—apart from developing a luxury brand for pets, she wanted to take over the tourism in Dragon Mountain.

As Michael read the proposal, she explained with excitement, “Meditation retreats will be the trend for the next few years. Many wealthy people will fancy it as they have been inhaling too much hazy air in the city and doing many things that make them feel guilty. So, they like to visit temples in the mountains to make donations in exchange for that peaceful feeling. Meanwhile, they take a few days’ worth of rest. In fact, there are many people who like to head up to the mountains to do so. My classmates have villas in the mountains specially for them to rejuvenate themselves and breathe in fresh air. They would head there for one to two months to rest on an annual basis. I’m planning to make it a one-stop service for them.

Once we have renovated and fixed the Dragon Temple, we can develop the surrounding areas to encourage more people to visit. Then, we can build a series of rest villas, holiday villas, and old folks homes in the mountains. We can also build many restaurants and farms there to help the local economy.

The air is fresh there with snow in the winter. Maybe we can build a skiing resort too. I’ve been there and I know people there who want to develop the area as well. However, they are unable to secure enough investors—and there isn’t another place to bring such plans to life. The old monk told me that his temple only has two monks. Even though there are no roads leading to their temple, both of them are able to make seven figures annually! Right now, meditation retreats are very profitable with a few successful cases in Cethos. Take Reverie Mountain as an example.”

Sophia’s proposal was very detailed—it was obvious that she had done a lot of research. While Michael was in a video call with her, he thought that her voice was melodious and she looked pretty. My wife has matured a lot.

After he finished reading the proposal, he ate two hamburgers for supper to gain weight as he portrayed someone fat in the movie, so the entire filming crew were waiting for him to become fatter.

Then, Michael added, “With regards to the luxury brand for pets, you can ask Stan’s godson, Kenny, to teach you about it. For meditation retreats and developing Dragon Temple, you can ask Mr. Eighty Thousand about it as he’s most experienced.”

It was difficult to change Daniel’s rare nickname after he was used to calling him like that.

…

Both of them often discussed the topic in their video calls. Michael fully supported Sophia’s career while she was also eager to start something great on her own.

She was unable to finish many things at once as she did not have any experience, so she had to search for business partners.

Firstly, she reached out to Daniel. Even though she didn’t want to do so, she couldn’t deny that he was undeniably experienced in that field.

After he learned about Dragon Mountain, a rich piece of land, he was rather interested in the investment.

He even personally went there a few times to have a look for himself. After he was sure that he wanted to be Sophia’s business partner, both of them were engaged in discussions and decided to kickstart their plan after the New Year.

She was also looking for an investor for the pets’ luxury brand—and the first person whom she thought of was Sarah as the latter loved cats with all her heart.

Sarah also owned a few animal-related stores. Her cat cafe was a famous cafe and right next to it was her pet store.

Whenever customers like any of her cats in the restaurant, they could immediately purchase it. The pet store, which was next door, would send cats to ‘work’ in the cafe on shifts, making the entire process a cycle.

After Sophia described her plan, Sarah wanted to be part of it in that instant. This is a great idea! I’ve been wanting to do this for ages!

In Sarah’s cat cafe, Sophia showed her the proposal. Even though Sarah was petite and quiet, she was blessed with a business acumen—her stores were doing well, especially the cat cafe. Based on her fame as ‘Little Kitten’, it became a popular store online that all cat lovers would frequent whenever they visited the area. After perusing the proposal, she was interested. “The pet industry has been gaining traction recently. The need for pet photography, gadgets and luxury items is also growing. I mean, look at my cafe and pet store—the vaccination, food, toys, hair care for the dozens of cats that I own have caused me to spend a lot of money. If we don’t do so, the cats won’t look beautiful and energetic.”

The cats in Sarah’s cat cafe were cute, healthy, and playful. While petting one of them, Sophia ordered a cup of coffee and commented, “It should be fine, shouldn’t it? At least I think it’s working out well since the customers are gentle and kind.” Since the customers like cats, I don’t think they will be that fierce.

When Sophia brought the topic, Sarah had numerous complaints. “When you have many customers, you’ll encounter all kinds of weird people.”

She pointed at a corner with many mattresses for cats and a clean rug. However, an unhygienic man lay on top of the futon with his long hair covering his face while a few cats slept next to him.

His body radiated a stinking odor, causing the cats to stink as well!