When Du Zhaohui fell into the pool, he immediately sobered up.
Facing everyone’s astonished looks, the drenched Young Master Du stubbornly refused help, trying to maintain his composure:
“Rather than talking so much, it’s better to try it yourself.”
He swam playfully towards the boundary, and without using any force, the water current indeed pushed him inward.
Tang Yuanyue looked at Du Zhaohui’s branded clothing—his leather shoes that absolutely couldn’t touch the water and his supposedly waterproof watch that no one would swim with. “…Zhaohui is just spontaneous like that, making such a great sacrifice for my business.”
Xia Xiaolan only glanced twice before looking away, letting Du Zhaohui splash around in the water. This man was truly insane, and it was best not to try to understand a madman’s thoughts.
Du Zhaohui swam several laps before getting out, water streaming from his leather shoes, his carefully styled hair now completely flat from the water. Being naturally thin, his clothes clung to his body in a somewhat comical way.
He had no intention of staying longer, and as it was already afternoon, the wind made him sneeze twice.
“Brother Tang, I’ll take my leave first.”
Du Zhaohui’s foolish behavior made Tang Yuanyue quite embarrassed: “Everyone, let me see Zhaohui out.”
After these two left, Liu Yong finally asked Huo Chenzhou, “Manager Huo, has Yuanhui’s contracted portion passed the inspection this time?”
Huo Chenzhou couldn’t find any faults, and with the inspection specialist’s approval, he responded straightforwardly: “Boss Liu, our cooperation has been very pleasant. The inspection is passed, and the final payment will soon be transferred to Yuanhui’s account.”
During the renovation, Liu Yong had redone work when necessary.
Whenever they found substandard areas, he didn’t mind the trouble and immediately had everything redone. Now hearing Huo Chenzhou’s willingness to settle the final payment, he could finally relax.
Xia Xiaolan’s face was full of joy.
The Nanhai Hotel project had likely brought her several hundred thousand in profits. This was different from real estate speculation, where prices were artificially inflated since she couldn’t transfer the land.
The money earned from the Nanhai Hotel renovation would be real cash in her hands. This was indeed the biggest sum Xia Xiaolan had earned so far—how could she not be happy?
Huo Chenzhou turned to address Huajian’s representative: “While Yuanhui’s portion can pass inspection, Huajian’s part still needs rectification.”
Huajian’s representative wasn’t pleased.
But there was nothing to be done—the facts were clear. Yuanhui had maintained high standards throughout, while Huajian had started relaxed and only tightened up later. According to the original schedule, it would have been fine, but with Huo Chenzhou moving up the inspection, some areas were indeed rushed and not done meticulously by Huajian.
“Manager Huo…”
As Huo Chenzhou was stopped by Huajian’s representative, Xia Xiaolan and Liu Yong went downstairs first.
Without outsiders present, the uncle and niece could speak freely.
Liu Yong first mentioned Du Zhaohui, “What was that guy doing here? I saw him stopping you to talk.”
Xia Xiaolan thought for a moment before being honest, “He told me he fired Xia Dajun. He probably heard some news and thought keeping Xia Dajun around would offend Uncle Tang, so he came to curry favor with me instead!”
Using one deed to sell favors twice—Du Zhaohui was just that shameless.
Wasn’t Xia Dajun supposed to be his lifesaver? Even a lifesaver wasn’t worth much in Du Zhaohui’s eyes. Xia Xiaolan became increasingly wary of such a person. Du Zhaohui operated without principles, only considering potential utility.
Liu Yong gloated:
“Serves him right getting fired. I heard everything from your aunt—that the whole Xia family is trying to make a living in Pengcheng. Without Du Zhaohui’s favor, let’s see how Xia Dajun manages!”
Liu Yong’s hatred for the Xia family ran bone-deep.
While Xia Xiaolan’s dislike for the Xia family came later, Liu Yong had been connected to them through marriage for many years. He could never forget how Liu Fen had suffered, how the Xia family had bullied his sister and niece.
He only regretted that he had been useless before, being an idle good-for-nothing. The Xia family had bullied Liu Fen and her daughter without restraint.
Having made such a mistake once, Liu Yong wouldn’t allow himself to make it again.
Tang Hongen was different from Xia Dajun—he treated Fen well now, but what if he changed in the future? How could Liu Yong stand up for Fen then? He could only focus on making his business successful. If he couldn’t have power, at least he could have money!
“That bunch of parasites from the Xia family, I don’t even want to waste energy paying attention to them. Never mind karma—just their nature of scheming against and dragging down each other means they’ll never prosper. Uncle, we don’t even need to act—they’ll become more and more destitute on their own. What Du Zhaohui told me isn’t important, but Huo Chenzhou just discussed wanting to build a commercial building in Pengcheng—houses renovated to be rented as offices for work units and companies. Are you interested, Uncle?”
Liu Yong rubbed his hands, “Can we make money from this?”
Xia Xiaolan nodded, “This is for long-term holding, earning from rent. The building will only increase in value over time. It’s different from residential properties, which need to be sold quickly after renovation to recover costs. The commercial building Huo Chenzhou wants to build should be for rent only, not for sale.”
Office buildings were different from shopping malls, though she wasn’t sure which type Huo Chenzhou planned to build.
Xia Xiaolan quite envied Dongfeng Holdings’ strong capital position. She also desperately wanted to hold long-term assets like office buildings that were certain to appreciate, but current conditions wouldn’t allow it.
When Xia Xiaolan said it could make money, Liu Yong was very tempted.
But Liu Yong also lacked capital.
Uncle and niece whispered and discussed for a long while. Xia Xiaolan wanted practical experience, while Liu Yong wanted the building’s renovation project.
“That’s hard to say. Some companies prefer to rent and do their renovations. You can only think about basic internal renovations. Didn’t Tang Yuanyue ask Yuanhui to renovate his office? You can go see those office interiors. Meihua is a Hong Kong company, they’re quite particular about office renovations.”
So they took Tang Yuanyue’s contract?
The real intention wasn’t the contract itself—at least they couldn’t easily get close to Xiaolan. Liu Yong held back his smile.
“Hong Kong people have money. I’d feel guilty not making money from them.”
…
“Achoo!”
Soaking wet, Du Zhaohui got into the car. Ah Hua quickly asked the driver to turn up the air conditioning.
With the alternating hot and cold, Du Zhaohui’s sneezes grew louder.
With only men in the car, he took off his wet clothes. Fortunately, there were spare clothes in the car. Du Zhaohui roughly dried himself and changed into dry clothes. How strange to fall into a swimming pool out of nowhere!
Indeed, whenever he encountered Xia Xiaolan, things got weird and nothing went smoothly.
Just thinking about Tang Yuanyue’s look while seeing him off made Du Zhaohui angry.
Ah Hua didn’t know why the young master had fallen into the water—he hadn’t followed up at the time. After all, it was best to ask fewer questions about the boss’s affairs!
After returning home with these temperature changes, Du Zhaohui developed a fever that evening. He began talking deliriously in his confused state, prompting Ah Hua to quickly call a doctor. After struggling through half the night, the fever broke, and Du Zhaohui got up weakly to drink water.
Ah Hua kept dodging and avoiding eye contact with Du Zhaohui, who called out to him: “Why are you running? Am I going to eat you or something?”
Ah Hua silently moved several meters away, “Young Master, when you had a fever and were talking nonsense, you called Miss Xia Xiaolan’s name 17 times.”