As soon as Ge Jian met Wu Daonan, he sent the advertisement copy from Xia Xiaolan to the newspaper.
Hong Kong’s newspaper industry was well-developed, with finely divided functional sections that could publish almost anything. Let alone property advertisements – as long as you could afford the advertising fee, you could even post full-page love declarations, which some Hong Kong tycoons had done before!
“Golden Sand Pool” had a rather unique advertisement: “Exclusive Golden Sand Fortune, Auspicious Feng Shui Location – A Property Development Favored by Wu Daonan: Peng City Golden Sand Pool.”
“Neighboring a high-end thousand-acre golf course on the left, Xiangmi Lake Holiday Village on the right, European garden-style panoramic community, starting price 1,999 yuan/㎡ in Hua currency…”
Wu Daonan, approaching sixty, had the distinguished appearance of a Taoist master.
He hadn’t even arrived in Peng City yet, but the advertisement claiming his endorsement of “Golden Sand Pool” was already published.
Such shameless behavior from a developer would have resulted in Wu Daonan throwing Ge Jian out if it weren’t for Tang Yuanyue’s significant influence.
Normally, Wu Daonan wouldn’t endorse any property development unless he had personally arranged its feng shui.
The Qihang Real Estate Company’s way of doing business was too unrefined, and Master Wu was quite displeased. With Ge Jian’s rigid personality and inability to flatter, Wu Daonan remained unhappy even after arriving in Peng City.
Fortunately, Tang Yuanyue was indeed loyal to his word, helping until the end by personally receiving Wu Daonan in Peng City.
The ethereal Master Wu couldn’t show his displeasure in front of the wealthy young man. Tang Yuanyue led Wu Daonan to view the Golden Sand Pool, accompanied by Liu Yong.
Wu Daonan let out a curious sound as soon as he got out of the car.
Liu Yong, concerned about Golden Sand Pool’s sales, worried that Master Wu wouldn’t even cooperate with the show and would just go through the motions. If Wu Daonan pointed out flaws in Golden Sand Pool, how would they sell these houses?
“Mr. Wu, do you have any suggestions?”
Tang Yuanyue was also half-skeptical about feng shui, believing half due to family influence and partly for peace of mind. He knew Xia Xiaolan didn’t believe in it and understood why Wu Daonan was invited.
He hoped Wu Daonan would be tactful enough to speak positively in public and point out any flaws privately.
The compass in Wu Daonan’s hand spun wildly. “This is truly a feng shui treasure location. If you could open your celestial eyes, you would see golden light filling the sky. Living here long enough will bring wealth and nobility.”
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief at his words.
Wu Daonan praised the community’s design, with its central pool attracting fortune from all directions.
Liu Yong thought to himself, how could the design be poor when Master Mao Kangshan had supervised it? What makes a feng shui treasure spot is simply a comfortable living space – when people live comfortably, their mood improves, their spirit lifts, and everything they do becomes more efficient.
If someone bought into a poor-quality community with sinking foundations or cracking walls, they’d spend all their time fighting for their rights and arguing with developers for compensation, wasting energy and making mistakes at work… superstitiously speaking, moving into such a community would bring bad luck.
Despite experiencing something as miraculous as ‘rebirth’, Xia Xiaolan still preferred to believe in science, explaining ‘feng shui’ through modern home design concepts, and finding many commonalities.
While Liu Yong and Ge Jian assumed Wu Daonan was just doing his paid job by supporting Golden Sand Pool’s advertising, Tang Yuanyue had a sudden realization. He and Du Zhaohui had suspected that the “Golden Sand Pool” was Xia Xiaolan’s self-orchestrated promotion from the beginning, but now that Wu Daonan said this place was genuinely good, Tang Yuanyue felt quite regretful.
If only Xia Xiaolan had sold him the land.
Tang Yuanyue felt somewhat pained that such a good location would be shared by so many people.
Wu Daonan walked around the community, offering high praise. Initially, Liu Yong and Ge Jian thought he was just speaking well for money, but then Wu Daonan asked Ge Jian if he could choose the second payment option – instead of 200,000 Hong Kong dollars, he wanted to select an apartment in Golden Sand Pool!
Liu Yong felt sorry for his niece’s loss.
Choosing a 135㎡ unit would be worth more than 200,000 Hong Kong dollars.
This feng shui master was quite shrewd!
Tang Yuanyue became even more regretful.
Wu Daonan was very protective of his reputation – if Golden Sand Pool’s feng shui wasn’t good, he wouldn’t want an apartment here. Xia Xiaolan had stumbled upon a truly good location by accident.
Contrary to Liu Yong’s expectations, Wu Daonan didn’t choose a 135㎡ large unit, but instead selected a 70㎡ small unit in Building 3 from the sand table model.
This behavior puzzled both Liu Yong and Ge Jian.
Could he be a master?
After acquiring a Golden Sand Pool apartment, the master walked around the construction site again, stopping beneath the topped-out Building 2:
“While this is a feng shui treasure location and the owner’s luck is strong, with both factors reinforcing each other naturally bringing prosperity upon prosperity, everything has its limits. The steel materials here should be moved quickly and replaced with fine sand piles to prevent a bloody disaster…”
Move the steel materials?
That seemed like too much trouble.
After Wu Daonan left, Tang Yuanyue advised Liu Yong: “Better to believe it exists than not. Since Master Wu has pointed out the way, what’s the trouble in moving some steel materials?”
Liu Yong thought he had a point. According to Ge Jian, Wu Daonan was indeed famous in Hong Kong. Moving steel materials to a different location wouldn’t require his effort anyway.
“Thank you for the reminder, Mr. Tang. You’ve helped us tremendously.”
Tang Yuanyue just smiled without speaking. He wasn’t particularly interested in helping Liu Yong, but Xia Xiaolan had personally said she owed him a favor, and Tang Yuanyue valued this!
Ge Jian also took Wu Daonan’s words to heart. If it was for Golden Sand Pool’s benefit, getting workers to move the steel reinforcement wasn’t a big deal.
Mao Kangshan didn’t even bother getting involved.
He didn’t believe in feng shui matters at all.
Moreover, inviting Wu Daonan for a visit cost 200,000 Hong Kong dollars, and Mao Kangshan felt sorry for Xia Xiaolan spending so much money!
When he heard that Wu Daonan didn’t want Hong Kong dollars but instead took a 70㎡ apartment, Mao Kangshan criticized Xia Xiaolan for being wasteful:
“Giving away an apartment so easily, how does she expect to make money?”
Song Daniang glared at him, “Why don’t you say this in front of Xiao Xia? You’re afraid she’ll get upset. It’s you who’s worried whether Golden Sand Pool’s apartments can be sold… I think Xiao Xia has her plans. You only know how to draw plans and build houses, not how to sell them. Don’t try to make decisions for Xiao Xia!”
While Mao Kangshan criticized Xia Xiaolan for being wasteful, he couldn’t publicly undermine her confidence.
Whether those Hong Kong people were so foolish and wealthy to buy such expensive houses – apart from Xia Xiaolan, no one at Qihang had absolute confidence.
Well, it was too late for regrets now. They could only hope Xia Xiaolan’s methods would work.
Mao Kangshan wasn’t stupid. He had heard that Xia Xiaolan and others had created a clothing brand, spent one million to advertise on Central Television, and earned back over two million in just half a month. He couldn’t understand how money could be made this way – it greatly conflicted with his lifelong principle of honest work.
Was this the wave of the times?
Even Ning Yanfan had started his studio after retirement, earning considerable fees per project.
Only he still stuck to the old rules. Mao Kangshan felt somewhat desolate – he seemed to have become an old conservative destined to be left behind by the times!
“Never mind, let her be. Whether it’s inviting Hong Kong celebrities or Hong Kong spiritual masters, it all costs money. She knows how to spend and how to earn – others can’t make decisions for her!”