Steal?

Xia Xiaolan laughed:

“Old sir, Qihang is a legitimate real estate company. Every procedure and process follows regulations. We obtained the land permits legally. You say the land belongs to the Luo family, but I say it belongs to the state.”

The stinking bamboo ditch only became valuable in her hands, transforming into the soaring-priced “Jinsha Pool.”

In the Luo family’s hands, it would have remained the worthless stinking bamboo ditch.

Old Man Luo’s talk of gold naturally springing from the ground was completely false – the gold now found in the pool was bought by Xia Xiaolan herself.

Knowing the inside story better than anyone, Xia Xiaolan was disgusted by Old Man Luo’s unreasonable behavior.

Old Man Luo choked on his words. The land was indeed state-owned – when the People’s Republic was established, all landlords were overthrown.

This was precisely why the Luo family couldn’t truly make trouble, resorting only to such underhanded tactics to harass Xia Xiaolan. The household responsibility system distributed land to farmers for cultivation, not ownership.

What right did the Luo family have to make trouble?

If Xia Xiaolan wanted to be harsh, she could have the police arrest them every time they caused problems.

No matter how unwilling the Luo family was, she had ways to control them.

Now she was willing to talk with the Luo family, Old Man Luo should seize the opportunity to express his real demands. If Xia Xiaolan found them acceptable, she wouldn’t want to push things too far.

Business thrived on harmony – Xia Xiaolan didn’t want people constantly looking for trouble with her.

“You must compensate our Luo family!”

Though lying down, Old Man Luo’s voice was strong and vigorous, not sounding sick at all.

Luo Yaozong’s heart pounded, fearing his grandfather’s next words would demand compensation by having the fearsome woman marry him… if his grandfather said that, Luo Yaozong feared neither his grandson nor grandfather would leave this place alive.

Old Man Luo’s words made Xia Xiaolan laugh:

“Elder, I’m trying to reason with you. Don’t make unreasonable demands. When I stop being reasonable, you might regret it. If you have something to say, say it properly. I owe the Luo family nothing, so what compensation are you talking about? Do you know why I’m willing to talk with you? Because I’m building houses at Jinsha Pool, and you keep bringing villagers to cause trouble. Do you think this will make me compromise? Think about it – as a woman, I obtained this land and kept it even as prices soared. Do I look like someone easily threatened? I’m willing to reason with you only because I want to make local connections with families like yours.”

Xia Xiaolan was saying directly that she wasn’t afraid of the Luo family’s petty actions.

She had official support. Located between the golf course and Xiangmi Lake projects, even without Tang Hongen’s connections, the Futian Street Office and Shangbu District wouldn’t tolerate villagers’ provocations. Such behavior damaged the overall investment environment – what would foreign investors think if they saw this?

Being threatened required enemies to find Xia Xiaolan’s weakness, but the Luo family had found nothing. She had ways to break up this rabble. Today’s willingness to waste breath talking with Old Man Luo was exactly as she said – merely wanting to connect with locals!

Xia Xiaolan made her position clear: she was willing to maintain good relations with locals and could show sincerity by agreeing to some minor requests from the Luo family.

But if Old Man Luo didn’t know better, Xia Xiaolan wouldn’t even show this much sincerity.

Don’t want to be friends?

Fine, then those who hindered her interests were enemies, and she’d show Old Man Luo how unwise it was to be her enemy.

After Xia Xiaolan’s speech, Old Man Luo’s expression was quite a sight.

Was Xia Xiaolan threatening him?

Old Man Luo stared with clouded eyes – this young woman, an outsider doing business in Pengcheng, dared threaten him!

But carefully weighing her words’ meaning, he couldn’t help but feel alarmed.

The Luo family’s authority in Ganquan Village came from two generations serving as village chiefs. To villagers, the chief was their manager, and they were habituated to obedience.

But outside Ganquan Village, what was a village chief worth?

If the Futian Street Office was unhappy, they could even replace Ganquan Village’s chief!

Xia Xiaolan was indeed threatening him – someone who could get government land approval wasn’t rootless in Pengcheng.

A young woman firmly holding onto land that had skyrocketed in value, without being forced to quickly sell by other powers – this itself was unusual.

Old Man Luo had planned to start tough and then turn soft, but Xia Xiaolan wouldn’t humor him. She directly collapsed his stage, leaving him no choice but to skip the tough part, switching awkwardly: “If you want to build relations with the Luo family, here’s a ready opportunity to prove your sincerity. My grandson Yaozong is clever and reliable. Give him a job at your company, let the young man gain some experience… making him a manager would be about right!”

Xia Xiaolan glanced at Luo Yaozong.

This coward, clever and reliable?

After Old Man Luo’s words, Xia Xiaolan could hardly recognize the meaning of “clever and reliable”!

“Elder, you’re so thoughtful, still considering your descendants’ future under this scorching sun. Being a manager is impossible, but I am recruiting for our security team – would he be interested?”

Security guard?

Old Man Luo nearly died of anger.

What status did his grandson have, to be just a security guard?

The men carrying Old Man Luo’s stretcher showed indignation:

“Yaozong only fit to be a security guard? That’s too insulting!”

“Yeah, Yaozong is the third generation of the old master’s male line, you young woman don’t know how to handle things…”

“Great-grandfather, don’t agree to this – it must be manager or nothing!”

The villagers had their agenda – managers could hire people, so if Luo Yaozong became a manager now, he could bring in villagers later. Everyone could stop farming and fishing, and work at the company instead. That would be nice.

That’s what the old village chief had told everyone anyway.

The villagers believed it – why else would they follow Old Man Luo to make trouble?

The difference between a security guard and the manager was too great; the villagers couldn’t accept it at all.

Old Man Luo lowered his head, lost in thought. Xia Xiaolan couldn’t be bothered to argue further and turned to leave:

“Well, let me know when you’ve made up your minds!”

Back at the work shed, Wang Houlin was puzzled and whispered: “Director Xia, hiring such a scoundrel as security – won’t he empty out the construction site?”

Once construction began, many materials would arrive – bricks were heavy but there would be valuable cement and steel!

Xia Xiaolan sneered, “If Luo Yaozong wants to be an inside thief, that’s perfect – we can remove this Luo family thorn all at once! Engineer Wang, we won’t have just one security guard on site. Don’t let Luo Yaozong work alone on night shifts – let’s see what tricks the Luo family tries to pull.”

Wang Houlin suddenly understood – if Luo Yaozong came to work honestly, Director Xia would hire whoever she wanted and didn’t mind paying him a salary.

If Luo Yaozong came to make trouble, Director Xia wanted to catch him in the act, making sure the Luo family could never stick to them again like chewing gum.

Mao Kangshan snorted, “Your thoughts are too scattered. If you spent less time dealing with these trivial matters, you’d make more progress professionally!”

“Teacher, it can’t be helped. Ideas alone are castles in the air – I need to create conditions to realize some of my ideas.”

Determination shone in Xia Xiaolan’s eyes. Without capital, one could only be manipulated by capital. To become someone who controlled capital, only then could one talk about dreams and life pursuits!