It was simply…
What exactly it was, Xia Xiaolan couldn’t quite put into words even after much contemplation.
As long as Harold didn’t interfere with her land purchase, that was enough.
Xia Xiaolan had never feared fair competition. Once she secured the land, she naturally could build houses and was confident in selling them! There were many real estate marketing techniques, and through drawing parallels, Xia Xiaolan was quite familiar with them.
Ultimately, buying the land was most important.
After leaving Harold’s hotel, Xia Xiaolan went to find Secretary Peng.
Secretary Peng was somewhat displeased:
“Why do you keep coming to see me at times like this?”
“Secretary Peng, I’ve visited you many times before, so those who should know about our acquaintance already do – isn’t hiding it now like plugging our ears while stealing a bell? I’m here today to urge you because Harold already knows about my land purchase, and I’m worried more people will find out…”
The information could have leaked from anywhere – the Futian Street Office, Shangbu District, or even someone in the city government.
If Harold could know, couldn’t others find out too?
Xia Xiaolan feared that delays would ruin everything and that her carefully prepared project plans would end up benefiting others!
While Harold said he wouldn’t block her land acquisition, Xia Xiaolan wanted to finalize things quickly. She had to start school in a few days, and she wouldn’t feel at ease not being in Pengcheng to oversee things. It would be best to enter the formal procedures before school starts.
At least a letter of intent needed to be signed, right?
Once signed, Xia Xiaolan could rest assured!
Hearing this, Secretary Peng also realized the gravity of the situation:
“I understand. I’ll try to move up the voting meeting and speed up their discussion process. By the 29th of this month at the latest, you’ll have a definite answer about whether it passes the vote.”
The 29th – just three days away!
These three days were extremely torturous for Xia Xiaolan. She forced herself not to pressure Secretary Peng, and to stay focused, she devoted herself to studying with Mao Kangshan.
Under Mao Kangshan’s intensive teaching, her mind couldn’t hold anything else.
In between, Xia Xiaolan only made time to meet the financial officer recommended by Secretary Peng.
A thin man nearly fifty years old, he didn’t talk much. Xia Xiaolan didn’t know what he did before, but she trusted Secretary Peng, or rather Tang Hongen behind him.
Tang Hongen had no reason to harm her – if she had to suspect even him, life would be too exhausting!
“From now on, Mr. Ying will handle Qihang’s finances.”
Mr. Ying’s full name was Ying Jinchuan. He asked Xia Xiaolan how much money the company had, and she replied helplessly: “To be honest, we don’t have a single penny right now.”
Ying Jinchuan wasn’t worried, “There’s none now, but there will be soon.”
Once the land approval went through, Xia Xiaolan would have to produce money to buy the land – Ying Jinchuan understood this.
Whether through borrowing or mortgage loans, he would be Qihang’s only financial officer. Clearly, Xia Xiaolan hadn’t hired him just to pay other employees’ salaries – all these matters would need Ying Jinchuan’s handling.
Ying Jinchuan was so thin a breeze could knock him over, looking listless. Xia Xiaolan wondered if he could handle the work intensity.
“Mr. Ying, regarding the salary-“
“The salary doesn’t matter, I don’t care much about it.”
Xia Xiaolan was taken aback, wondering what kind of extraordinary person Tang Hongen had found.
Only two types of people don’t care about salary: one type is the bigshot who works just to pass the time, doesn’t need money, and naturally doesn’t care about salary.
The other type has higher spiritual pursuits, values what they can learn from work, and accumulates strength during the work process waiting to soar, so they don’t care about immediate gains and losses.
Which type was Ying Jinchuan?
Xia Xiaolan felt he was neither.
Ying Jinchuan’s clothes didn’t look like those of a wealthy person, and he’d come to Pengcheng from elsewhere without even a place to stay.
This “bigshot” seemed more like someone whose heart had turned to ashes, living like a walking corpse, just taking any job… Someone who didn’t care about food, clothing, shelter, or transportation, probably alone in life, naturally wouldn’t care about salary.
Ying Jinchuan’s presence was so depressing that Xia Xiaolan only regained her full energy when more than ten meters away from him.
She didn’t care much about Ying Jinchuan anyway – with not a penny in the company account, why worry about finances?
Whenever she had free time, her thoughts would drift to that piece of land in Stinking Bamboo Valley. The city government must be having intense discussions now, right?
She wondered if they would approve it.
If approved, Xia Xiaolan had no idea how much they would price each mu of the Stinking Bamboo Valley land.
“Please don’t be too expensive…”
Expensive land meant significantly higher residential costs.
What made future housing prices so high wasn’t construction costs, but land prices!
Cement, bricks, steel bars – these materials cost about the same nationwide, with better quality ones costing a bit more, but not by much. However, the difference in residential unit prices across the country was huge, and this gap was created by land prices. How could land prices in the capital be the same as those in remote county towns?
When developers buy land at high prices, they naturally pass the cost on to housing prices.
For her first property development, Xia Xiaolan didn’t want to build the most expensive one.
She needed to recover funds quickly – money in her pocket was real profit, while overpriced houses sitting unsold meant losses!
On the 29th, Xia Xiaolan kept getting distracted during Mao Kangshan’s class.
Seeing her anxious enough to get mouth sores over the past few days, Mao Kangshan didn’t push her too hard:
“Let’s rest for today. You can focus on waiting for news from the city government!”
“Thank you, teacher… I know I’ve lost my composure, but I’ve been preparing for this for so long, I don’t want to fail.”
Real estate development had been Xia Xiaolan’s career plan from early on – why else would she study architecture at Huaqing? Studying architecture and then going into real estate development – you could call it a scholarly approach to business. Xia Xiaolan had tied her education and career together, and with such a large investment, she naturally became anxious about gains and losses.
Though Mao Kangshan told her to rest, she didn’t go anywhere, just stayed by the telephone.
A phone was necessary, and the office was rented and temporarily tidied up. Xia Xiaolan had hired a local Pengcheng person as a clerk to handle miscellaneous duties. This didn’t require high education – high school graduation was sufficient – and naturally didn’t need a high salary. At 200 yuan per month, there were many applicants.
With President Xia personally guarding the phone, no one dared make a sound.
In the office, only Xia Xiaolan and Liu Yong remained.
Who could be more reliable than her uncle?
Neither spoke and just as Xia Xiaolan thought there would be no results before noon, the phone suddenly rang.
“Xiaolan, you answer it!”
Xia Xiaolan nodded, rubbed her hands, and picked up the phone. Secretary Peng’s voice came through the receiver, somewhat distant and distorted:
“…your plan has been approved by the city government. To create a better investment environment for Futian, they approve your idea of cleaning up the waste pit. The land totals 23.2 mu, equivalent to 15,452 square meters. Once you pay the land transfer fee, the land will be yours!”
Success!
Xia Xiaolan wanted to slam the table in celebration. The office was dead silent, and Liu Yong heard too.
His face showed wild joy, “Quick, ask Secretary Peng how much per mu!”