Du Zhaohui brought her two pieces of news.

First, Tang Yuanyue was wavering, seemingly reluctant to invest in Du Zhaoqi’s expansion plans.

This was normal – Du Zhaoqi didn’t have many bargaining chips to convince Tang Yuanyue. Without performance results from Shangdu Asia, Du Zhaoqi was just trying to get something for nothing. Tang Yuanyue was about ten years older than Du Zhaoqi – no matter how flowery Du Zhaoqi’s promises were, Tang Yuanyue wouldn’t easily jump aboard.

There had been signs of this.

If Tang Yuanyue had determined, he wouldn’t have met with Du Zhaohui first and leaked all the “confidential” information – how could they make money after that?

Second, there were new developments in Xia Ziyu’s path in high society.

Xia Ziyu had always relied on men, from Wang Jianhua to Du Chengrong. Her efforts hadn’t been wasted – she was skilled in her craft. Though the two men were worlds apart, she could charm them both. Even Xia Xiaolan had to admit that Xia Ziyu had extraordinary talent in this area.

Charming Wang Jianhua wasn’t surprising – he wasn’t particularly clever to begin with.

But Du Chengrong was a self-made business titan.

Over the years, Du Chengrong had many women outside, but Xia Ziyu was the only one in recent years who managed to become a concubine in the household.

Even with Du Zhaohui’s help, one couldn’t deny that Xia Ziyu had seized her opportunity.

Xia Xiaolan could never bring herself to charm old men like that.

Of course, Xia Xiaolan was thick-skinned too, but she had developed different “skill trees” from Xia Ziyu.

“As long as there’s life, there’s a struggle – this is Xia Ziyu’s third attempt at business,” Xia Xiaolan sighed.

Du Zhaohui scoffed, “What kind of business could someone like her do? I think the old man is just placating her, using a few million to keep her quiet during pregnancy.”

“If that’s the case, why bother telling me specifically? It’s because you find it strange too, you’re not sure… Even if Master Du doesn’t expect her business to succeed, this sign doesn’t bode well for you. Would someone like Master Du normally use houses and jewelry to placate women, or allow his concubines to do business publicly? It’s unusual in itself.”

A few million wasn’t a small sum.

Dealing with these Hong Kong tycoons who threw around tens of millions, a few million might seem insignificant at first glance.

But this was 1987 – several million Hong Kong dollars could buy a very nice property in Hong Kong.

When Du Zhaohui gathered money for startup capital last year, his villa only sold for 14 million Hong Kong dollars!

Though Xia Xiaolan hadn’t seen it personally, she imagined Du Zhaohui’s villa must have been quite nice.

While Du Chengrong might not mind spending a few million Hong Kong dollars to please his new favorite, giving away properties and jewelry – did he really lose anything?

Not at all.

He only lavishly gave such valuable assets to concubines within his household – the concubines were his, and the wealth stayed within the Du family pot without flowing out. These valuable gifts to the concubines would eventually be spent by Du Chengrong’s children anyway!

But if the concubines wanted to do business – today the second household loses a few million, tomorrow the third household loses over ten million… Wouldn’t these losses pain the self-made Du Chengrong?

Xia Xiaolan felt he fundamentally didn’t believe women could do business.

If a woman was truly business-savvy, Du Chengrong would make her an employee or partner, not a concubine.

Du Chengrong was deeply chauvinistic, promiscuous, and deeply sexist. For someone like him to agree to let Xia Ziyu do business was truly unusual.

What if the other three concubines followed suit?

After hearing Xia Xiaolan’s analysis, Du Zhaohui nearly fell to his knees:

“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you’ve known the old man for years!”

“I’ve met Master Du several times, haven’t you?”

He knew that’s why he was shocked.

It had taken Du Zhaohui many years to gradually understand what kind of person his father was.

“If, and I mean if, Xia Ziyu’s business plan impressed the old man, do you think her business will succeed?”

Du Zhaohui was feeling a sense of crisis.

The old man was only in his sixties now. What if he lived another decade, saw Xia Ziyu as someone worth nurturing, became increasingly muddle-headed, was swayed by pillow talk, and bypassed all his children to let Xia Ziyu inherit the family fortune? The chances were slim, but what if?

That woman Xia Ziyu was indeed somewhat mysterious.

Xia Xiaolan thought about Xia Ziyu’s two previous businesses.

One was a snack shop outside Anqing No. 1 Middle School.

The other was organizing college students for tutoring classes.

“Her ideas weren’t bad, the choices were decent. She just lacked execution ability and crisis management experience. These shortcomings are fatal when working alone, but if she only provides ideas while Master Du supplies the management team… there’s a chance of success.”

Xia Xiaolan’s assessment was quite objective.

In a place like Anqing, where the economy was stagnant in earlier years, even thinking of running a snack business wasn’t bad.

The tutoring business wasn’t wrong either – on a larger scale, it could have aimed for “New Oriental” proportions.

Du Zhaohui suddenly felt sick, as if he’d swallowed a fly:

“Then I need to find out what kind of business Xia Ziyu plans to do.”

Strange, how could Liu Keying endure Xia Ziyu receiving such special treatment?

Not just Liu Keying, but the other two Du family concubines as well.

People resent inequality more than scarcity – why should they be confined at home while Xia Ziyu gets preferential treatment… Du Zhaohui needed to fan these flames higher.

Du Zhaohui’s expression was off, but Xia Xiaolan pretended not to notice.

At the company, she “invited” Du Zhaohui to get out of the car:

“I have official business to handle.”

“I know, Luohu Tiancheng is about to launch… I’ve been thinking of rewarding some trusted people around me lately. Like Ah Hua, who’s worked all this time without owning a house. As his employer, I feel guilty. Today’s perfect to look at the Luohu Tiancheng properties.”

Du Zhaohui bobbed his head.

“…!”

Ah, Hua was completely stunned.

Young Master wanted to give him a house?!

According to the advertisements, Luohu Tiancheng properties cost 1,400 yuan per square meter, with each unit costing over a hundred thousand.

Had Young Master gone mad?

Or was he about to assign some extremely dangerous task, so he’s paying blood money first?

Ah Hua felt uneasy.

He wanted to decline, but he did want it.

He had left his hometown after getting into trouble and didn’t dare contact his family. If he could get a house in Pengcheng, he could bring his family over and let them become city dwellers.

Ah Hua had been Du Zhaohui’s bodyguard for quite some time.

Du Zhaohui’s salary was already high, and he had raised Ah Hua’s wages several times. With nowhere to spend his money, Ah Hua had accumulated some savings.

Thinking of his savings, Ah Hua’s excited heart gradually calmed.

Even if Du Zhaohui didn’t give him a house, his savings were enough to buy one.

“Young Master, you don’t need to give me a house, I can-“

The Young Master was hard to serve – why was he unhappy when Ah Hua said he’d buy his own house?

Ah Hua’s voice trailed off as Du Zhaohui’s glare could kill.

– Fool, usually so clever, why so stupid now?