“Is Mr. Tang nominating himself?”

Tang Yuanyue nodded, but Xia Xiaolan shook her head: “Mr. Tang, what qualifications do I have to partner with Meihua? No one knows better than you where my capital for developing Jinsha Pool came from… Besides, a partner who keeps sending flowers would be quite troublesome. Business is about making money together – mixing in other elements isn’t good.”

Was Tang Yuanyue trying to get land approvals through her?

Xia Xiaolan didn’t think she had that much influence.

Tang Yuanyue was a Hong Kong merchant, and foreign capital – if Liu Tianquan could get land before, surely Tang Yuanyue could too.

Perhaps he wanted to save costs and get land cheaply through Tang Hong’en’s connections.

That would explain Tang Yuanyue’s recent strange behavior. Using pursuit as a tactic to cloud her judgment and get her help. Hah! Too bad she was perfectly satisfied with her Chengzi. Though Tang Yuanyue looked better than Du Zhaohui, he was far inferior to her Chengzi – this kind of honey trap wouldn’t work on Director Xia!

If Tang Yuanyue knew what Xia Xiaolan was thinking, he’d cough up blood.

He thought Xia Xiaolan didn’t care about looks, not realizing that Director Xia was strong-minded and viewed things similarly to men. Just as Tang Yuanyue could be attracted by beauty, Xia Xiaolan’s initial agreement to date Zhou Cheng was also partly due to ‘attraction at first sight.’

She could earn money herself – why not find a boyfriend pleasing to the eye? Someone whose face could make her eat two extra bowls of rice – that was Xia Xiaolan’s dating standard.

Superficial?

Xia Xiaolan never claimed to be sophisticated.

Poor Tang Yuanyue – his talk of partnership was fake, merely an excuse to get close to Xia Xiaolan, with pursuit still his true goal.

Yet Xia Xiaolan thought the opposite – that his pursuit was a means to gain business advantages. Tang Yuanyue’s flirtatious glances were wasted on someone who couldn’t appreciate them – truly tragic.

Before Tang Yuanyue could understand this disconnect, he noticed Xia Xiaolan’s unreceptive tone.

“If Miss Xia doesn’t like my flowers, could you tell me what you do like?”

Xia Xiaolan shook her head, “I buy what I like myself. I appreciate your kindness, though.”

This was Tang Yuanyue’s first encounter with such an impenetrable woman.

Hearing how Tang Yuanyue had eagerly driven to the Jinsha Pool construction site to deliver flowers, only to eat dust and return empty-handed, Du Zhaohui nearly laughed his remaining teeth out.

Xia Xiaolan paid no attention to how these two competed over her privately. Even Zhou Cheng, whom she’d chosen herself, got called a “pig’s trotter” during arguments. Other young men in Xia Xiaolan’s eyes were either true friends like Kang Wei or useful workers like Ge Jian… The rest were just occasionally useful background characters.

After staying up late, Xia Xiaolan, Mao Kangshan, and Wang Houlin finally finalized the building plans.

With money in the company account, as Xia Xiaolan put it, they could now flex their muscles.

“The school has notified me – the Education Department will send me abroad as an exchange student early next year. I’ll be gone for at least a year, likely leaving in February. Counting carefully, I only have about 4 months left in China. If I don’t see Jinsha Pool’s houses built and sold, I’ll worry even while abroad.”

Xia Xiaolan brought in Gong Yang to help – his renderings were excellent.

If the complex turned out as shown, selling wouldn’t be a problem – the question was profit or loss.

Xia Xiaolan never considered the possibility of losing money.

Mao Kangshan and Wang Houlin thought like architects, worried about building too few units to cover costs. How could that happen? What was the total cost? Besides construction costs, the land price wasn’t even 3 million!

That land price under 3 million was covered by Nanhai Hotel’s project payment.

With the loan approved, both the land auction money and the company’s 1 million registration capital had been repaid.

Xia Xiaolan hadn’t invested much capital – whether Jinsha Pool earned more or less, it was all profit for her. Though that wasn’t entirely accurate – her intellectual labor was quite valuable.

Liu Yong also frequently visited the site.

Xia Xiaolan had kept nothing from Liu Yong about how she acquired and operated the land.

Liu Yong didn’t want to share in Qihang, but he could learn.

The renovation business was profitable, and Liu Yong ran it successfully, though he was also interested in real estate. But he wasn’t in a hurry – after finishing Nanhai Hotel, Yuanhui had plenty of business. Liu Yong wanted to wait a few years before making his move.

Xia Xiaolan admired her uncle. Despite limited education, Liu Yong was willing to learn and work, with a very agile mind.

Though Xia Xiaolan helped Yuanhui, Liu Yong had invested much effort himself. Not everyone could profit from following others’ ideas – even the most profitable industries had people losing money!

She didn’t pressure her uncle to enter real estate – renovation was very profitable too. Uncle and niece didn’t need to both stay in Pengcheng – with so many cities nationwide, Liu Yong might build houses elsewhere, depending on what he learned in these two years.

White Zhenzhu’s older brother Bai Zhiyong was having his wedding banquet, and Liu Yong would attend:

“Our family is close with Zhenzhu. Your gift represents you and Zhou Cheng’s wishes, while my red envelope is for our business partnership. The Bai family wedding will surely be lively.”

Indeed, not only would Xia Xiaolan and Liu Yong attend, but Kang Wei would too.

Though Shao Guangrong had withdrawn from most building material store shares, he remained a minor shareholder and couldn’t ignore it.

Everyone had different ideas about whether to give gifts or red envelopes.

Having stayed long in Pengcheng, Kang Wei had become close friends with White Zhenzhu and came to ask Xia Xiaolan’s advice:

“Sister-in-law, how should I show my regards? Give a red envelope?”

Compared to ordinary people, this group was truly wealthy. As a business partners with White Zhenzhu, Kang Wei wasn’t sure how much to put in the envelope.

For normal weddings now, 5 or 10 yuan was considered generous, but Kang Wei felt that amount wouldn’t be presentable.

500 yuan? 1000 yuan?

Due to Jinsha Pool’s soaring land value, Xia Xiaolan had become the wealthiest among them. Despite owing the bank heavily, she was doing million-yuan-level business, pulling ahead of Kang Wei and others.

Kang Wei wasn’t immune to envy.

Some narrow-minded people might resent Xia Xiaolan: “Such a profitable business and you didn’t include me – all that previous friendship must have been fake!”

Kang Wei had no such thoughts.

Even Liu Yong, her uncle, hadn’t joined – as Zhou Cheng’s friend, what right did he have to expect benefits?

How could a grown man always rely on a woman’s ideas to make money?

He couldn’t handle that level of capital anyway – millions made business, but if he scraped together his life savings of a few hundred thousand and shamelessly asked for profit shares, where was his dignity? Having no such thoughts, Kang Wei rarely visited the site. Now here for Bai Zhiyong’s wedding, he curiously circled the pool where gold sand was supposedly found but couldn’t see anything special.

“I plan to give a joint gift with Zhou Cheng. The Bai family business was built entirely by Zhenzhu – a young woman working as hard as any man to create their current fortune… To put it bluntly, while we shouldn’t harbor ill intentions, we must stay cautious. No one knows much about Bai Zhiyong’s new wife – we shouldn’t set expectations too high and create future troubles for Zhenzhu.”