After adjusting some of the sales department’s operations, Jiang Miao didn’t pay much mind to what they thought.

After all, Hailufeng Company was different from other companies. As a tech company, its core competency was its products, not its sales.

He had created divisions within the sales department while simultaneously supporting the online store department. His goal was to prevent any single department from becoming too powerful. This was also for Li Zhou’s own good, lest he start thinking the company couldn’t function without him.

Although this would surely lead to future conflicts within the sales department, as well as between the sales and online store departments, balancing the power of the various departments was a necessary skill for him as the boss.

A short while later, Ye Meijing came to report.

"Boss, here is this month’s financial report for the company. Please take a look."

Jiang Miao flipped through it. Seeing no major discrepancies, he nodded. "Looks good. The company has no need for tax evasion. It’s not worth creating a hidden liability for a little bit of money. We can use legitimate tax avoidance strategies, but let’s steer clear of any methods that pose a risk."

"Okay." After several months on the job, Ye Meijing didn’t actually have the skills for tax evasion. She had been worried her boss would force her to do something she wasn’t prepared for. Now, she could finally breathe a sigh of relief, no longer having to live in fear.

After all, finance and accounting staff are sometimes caught between their boss and the tax authorities, truly stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Do it, and the boss drives a Mercedes while the accountant takes the fall.

Don’t do it, and the boss fires you.

In reality, because Hailufeng Company was a sole proprietorship, it didn’t pay corporate income tax. Instead, it paid personal income tax.

And since Hailufeng Company’s annual net profit would definitely exceed 100,000, the applicable personal income tax rate was 35% of the net profit.

Jiang Miao didn’t feel the sting of this.

After all, while it might seem beneficial for a company to not pay taxes, or to pay less, the consequence is that it disrupts the national fiscal cycle, which in turn affects the overall and local economies.

When the nest is overturned, no egg remains unbroken.

If the country were to face an economic crisis, private enterprises would be the first to die.

As for ideas like "running off" to another country, it was best to just think about it. ’Do they really think Europe and America are charities?’ Chinese people could never truly integrate into the top circles in Europe and America; instead, they would just become fat pigs ripe for the slaughter.

For Jiang Miao, he already had enough money to last a lifetime. If he sold the company now, he could get at least several hundred million, enough for him and his family to live comfortably for the rest of their lives.

Therefore, what he wanted to do now was pursue his own ideals and ambitions while making money, to become a person who had transcended base desires.

After Ye Meijing left, the heads of the other departments came to report one by one.

This continued until five in the evening.

"Boss, do you have a moment?"

"I do. What is it? I’m in the headquarters office."

"I’d like to talk about adjusting the eel cannery’s business operations."

"Then come on over. I’ll be waiting."

About ten minutes later, Li Xinhua hurried over from the cannery to his office.

"Have a seat. We can have dinner together after we talk."

"Alright." After sitting down, Li Xinhua took a sip of tea to wet his throat and got straight to the point. "Boss, I’ve been looking at the online store’s sales figures these past few days. I’ve noticed that many Japanese restaurants are ordering our braised eel cans. I think this is an opportunity."

Jiang Miao refilled his teacup. "Tell me more."

"Here’s what I’m thinking. Right now, 90% of the Japanese restaurants on the market actually use pre-prepared eel, not live eel. These pre-prepared eels are like this..." As he spoke, Li Xinhua took out his phone to show Jiang Miao.

On the phone screen was pre-prepared eel being sold on Tao Net. This type of eel was packaged in plastic bags.

There were two types: one was eel that was frozen after being kabayaki-grilled; the other was unprocessed raw eel that was directly frozen.

He glanced at the sales volume; the wholesale price was decent.

"Go ahead and give it a try. If it fails, the worst we’ll lose is a few hundred thousand. The company can afford that loss."

"Thank you for your support, Boss. I’ll definitely lead the cannery to strive for greater success." Li Xinhua naturally knew that the company’s main business was eel fry and that the canned eel was just a byproduct, but he wasn’t content to leave it at that.

Besides, since canned eel wasn’t the company’s main business, the company could afford a failure at the cannery. It wouldn’t cause any fundamental damage, so it was unlikely his attempt at a new venture would be opposed.

Apparently, Li Xinhua had guessed right.

The two of them finished their discussion just as the sun was about to set.

They went down to the first-floor cafeteria together.

With the company growing, the cafeteria had hired two more people. Aunt Li was the head cook, with one person for washing dishes and another for chopping vegetables.

His mom and sister handled the cleaning and also helped out with other tasks in the kitchen.

Employees from the fish farm and the cannery would also come to the company headquarters to eat, since it was only a ten-minute trip.

However, the cannery didn’t operate at night, so only one security guard was on the night shift.

The fish farm still needed quite a few people at night, so after eating at the headquarters, his dad would pack meals in stainless steel lunch boxes and drive them over to the other employees at the farm in a three-wheeler. He would also drop off a meal for the cannery’s security guard along the way.

Since the company didn’t charge for meals, many of the local employees chose to eat there.

However, Jiang Miao had very strict standards for the food. Not only did he require high-quality ingredients, but he had also created a specialized menu.

Using the convenience of his Appraisal Panel, he had calculated the nutritional content of every meal box to ensure a balanced diet of carbs, protein, fat, vitamins, and trace elements.

Of course, he also took the different types of jobs into account.

The daily meal plans included three options: a "Heavy Labor Meal," a "Clerical Staff Meal," and a "Veteran Employee Meal."

The Veteran Employee Meal was actually specially prepared for Jiang Miao’s parents and the few disabled security guards. "Senior Citizen Meal" didn’t sound good, so he had changed it to "Veteran Employee Meal."

Even the Heavy Labor Meal was designed to be very healthy. It would reasonably avoid an excess of any single nutrient like carbs, protein, or fat. Instead, it included a bit of everything, along with plenty of vegetables.

A balanced diet is more important than medicine.

If you’re constantly overeating, frequently gorging on seafood, fatty meat, and beer, pairing cigarettes with betel nuts, and drinking soft drinks like water, then not even a god could save you.

He couldn’t control what others did, but when it came to his company’s employees, Jiang Miao did his very best.

For example, for the monthly group activity, he arranged an all-in-one package of a foot massage and a movie for the manual laborers. For the clerical staff, he organized beach volleyball, table tennis, badminton, and beach track and field.

The beach was right behind the company, anyway.

After having dinner with Li Xinhua and the others, he went back to his office, changed into a tracksuit, and went to the open area behind the headquarters building, which had been converted into a sports ground.

Some sunshades had been set up, and sports equipment like treadmills, pull-up bars, parallel bars, dumbbells, barbells, badminton rackets, and ping-pong tables had been purchased.

Ever since he could see the condition of his own body, Jiang Miao had been consciously increasing his exercise and adjusting his diet.

Through more than half a year of these adjustments, his body mass index, fatty liver, and high cholesterol had all improved, returning to very normal levels.

After all, no matter how much money you made, it was meaningless if your health collapsed.

"Boss, going for a run?" Ye Meijing was adjusting the speed on a treadmill.

Li Wenna was already running on another one.

"Yeah. You go ahead, I’m just going to set my speed." Jiang Miao walked over to the fourth treadmill.

A gentle evening breeze blew past.

Jiang Miao glanced at his condition for the day. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, he began his warm-up exercises.