Tang Yuanyue was still pondering what excuse to use to find Xia Xiaolan.
But Xia Xiaolan had already reached out to him first.
When Tang Yuanyue went to the hotel, it wasn’t Xia Xiaolan waiting for him, but Yuan Hui’s designer Gong Yang:
“President Tang, this is the design proposal for your villa. If you have any dissatisfaction or need modifications, our President Xia said I would be responsible for all changes.”
If he were more thick-skinned, he would have pointed out areas of dissatisfaction and insisted that Xia Xiaolan make the modifications herself.
This way, they would have a legitimate reason to interact.
However, Tang Yuanyue wasn’t that immature. It was clear that Xia Xiaolan didn’t want to see him… Forcing the issue would only further damage his image.
Tang Yuanyue promptly approved the proposal and took out his checkbook to write a figure:
“This is the design fee. Please pass it to Miss Xia.”
Gong Yang was dazzled by the number on the check.
If it were for him, he would have accepted without hesitation, but this was for Xia Xiaolan. Remembering President Xia’s instructions, Gong Yang averted his gaze:
“President Xia said this design proposal is to repay the favor we owe you, and since you covered our accommodation and meals in Hong Kong, we cannot accept payment.”
Repaying favors, offsetting compensation.
With Xia Xiaolan providing the design for free, Tang Yuanyue couldn’t express any dissatisfaction even if he had any.
Tang Yuanyue’s heart grew cold.
Wasn’t this drawing a clear line between them?
“I would like to meet Miss Xia in person…”
Gong Yang maintained his smile, “President Xia left Hong Kong this morning.”
“She left this morning?”
How could she leave so quietly without Tang Yuanyue receiving any news?
“Did she leave by herself?”
Gong Yang shook his head, “Mr. Du happened to be returning to Pengcheng, so President Xia went with him.”
Tang Yuanyue instantly felt like he’d been stabbed for the fourth time.
A heart is only so big, and with a fourth stab, there was no room left for new wounds. He lost some of his composure: “The Du family holds their Spring Banquet every year, but instead of attending company affairs, Zhaohui runs off to Pengcheng before Spring Festival!”
What big business could be waiting for Du Zhaohui in Pengcheng?
The man was taking advantage of the situation to get close to Xia Xiaolan.
Tang Yuanyue felt indescribably depressed. He had worked hard to invite Xia Xiaolan to Hong Kong, but ended up paving the way for Du Zhaohui—if it weren’t for the facts right before his eyes, Tang Yuanyue would find it hard to believe Du Zhaohui could be so clever.
Gong Yang handed over a box of design drawings, “I don’t understand the matters between Mr. Du and President Xia, but if you have no other instructions, President Tang, I should also return to Pengcheng. I need to go home for the New Year…”
It was the end of the year, and people working away from home were eager to return.
Especially those like Gong Yang who had earned good money.
His salary plus commission this year added up to more than he had expected. Should he buy a house in Pengcheng, or tear down and rebuild the house in his hometown?
Such worries were happy ones, and Gong Yang himself hadn’t expected to earn so much.
He didn’t want to stay in Hong Kong for social obligations, and Tang Yuanyue wouldn’t make things difficult for an ordinary employee, even arranging for someone to escort Gong Yang to immigration.
After Gong Yang left, someone else came looking for Xia Xiaolan—this time it was Ye Xiaoqiong.
After much consideration, Ye Xiaoqiong had to make this trip regarding the Tianhuang seal that Tang Yuanyue had won at auction.
At least Xia Xiaolan seemed familiar with Tang Yuanyue, and with all those messy newspaper reports, Ye Xiaoqiong wanted to ask Xia Xiaolan for a favor, hoping Tang Yuanyue wouldn’t sell the Tianhuang seal for now.
But she came too late; Xia Xiaolan had already left Hong Kong.
Ye Xiaoqiong could only worry about herself.
“Don’t panic, at least we know where the items are…”
The painting was with Du Jiaji, and the seal was with Tang Yuanyue.
Second Young Master had also said that the auction was held by someone called “Master Qiu,” who must know where all the items were.
She couldn’t rush; she had to take it slowly, and she would eventually find all the items.
From January 23rd when she went to Hong Kong until February 2nd when she returned to Pengcheng, it had been exactly eleven days.
Besides repaying Tang Yuanyue’s favor and getting caught up in the affairs between the Tang and He families, Xia Xiaolan had accomplished some other things.
Inexplicably, she had developed a tendency to ally with Du Zhaohui, whom she had previously strongly disliked… Even if it was just temporary, Xia Xiaolan herself felt somewhat uncomfortable about it.
Upon returning to Pengcheng, Xia Xiaolan was busy distributing salaries.
February 2nd was the twenty-fourth day of the twelfth lunar month, and with the Spring Festival approaching, work at the Jinsha Chi construction site naturally had to stop.
The construction team from Guangdong Province Construction Company needed to go home for the New Year.
With all the houses sold, there would be no delay in wages. The payroll wasn’t handled by Ying Jinchuan anymore, but by the company’s newly hired accountant, whose heart pounded looking at the pay slips.
A monthly salary of 600 yuan was quite high, wasn’t it?
Plus several thousand in year-end bonuses.
This was Wang Houlin’s.
Ying Jinchuan’s salary was the same as Wang Houlin’s, but his year-end bonus was three times larger.
Ge Jian’s year-end bonus was less than Ying Jinchuan’s.
But Xia Xiaolan personally gave him an extra ten thousand.
“In the company, we must still respect Manager Ying.”
Ge Jian was her confidant, while Ying Jinchuan was introduced by Tang Hongen.
Ge Jian could handle many things for Xia Xiaolan, but limited by his experience, there were things Ying Jinchuan knew that Ge Jian didn’t. But Ge Jian was still young, and Xia Xiaolan meant for him to avoid conflicts with Ying Jinchuan and try to learn from him as much as possible.
As the company grew larger, no matter how much Xia Xiaolan trusted Ge Jian, he needed to have sufficient capabilities himself!
“President Xia, I understand.”
Ge Jian knew what was what and didn’t feel any imbalance.
Xia Xiaolan’s business would only expand, and he alone couldn’t handle everything. There would be more capable people joining Qihang.
From President Xia’s meaning, she wanted to leave Qihang under Ying Jinchuan’s management during her year of study in America, and Ge Jian wouldn’t hold things back.
He would only help Ying Jinchuan, and together they would make Qihang successful—the company couldn’t lose money by the time President Xia returned!
Qihang’s accounts were easy to calculate, as the company was wholly owned by Xia Xiaolan, and whether it made or lost money was entirely her responsibility.
The building materials store needed to distribute dividends at the end of this year.
The old store in the small commodities market had sales of 5.9 million yuan from July 1, 1985, to February 1, 1986.
The new store did slightly worse, but Pan Weiliang, as manager, was quite resourceful and managed to achieve sales of 3.2 million yuan… This sales performance was already very impressive, considering the new store only opened in July this year, and by February 1st, it had only been operating for half a year.
Consider that the old store sold 5.9 million in half a year, with an established customer base and the remaining 2 million in building materials from the Nanhai Hotel renovation—excluding the Nanhai Hotel boost, the old store only sold 3.9 million in half a year.
Total sales exceeded 9 million yuan, and the building materials stores had always calculated gross profit at 30%. After deducting various expenses and preferential shipping to Yuanhui, the net profit was still 2.2 million.
These two stores relied entirely on high volume and low margins, secretly eroding Pengcheng’s building materials market share. While there were individual stalls smaller than “Anjia Building Materials,” stores as large as “Anjia Building Materials” with such a comprehensive variety of building materials would soon appear:
“Others have noticed this business opportunity, and we will face great challenges ahead!”
With all shareholders gathered, Xia Xiaolan, as the commander-in-chief, certainly needed to address this.