Xia Xiaolan’s premonition proved true.
By February 12th, the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, she still couldn’t contact Zhou Cheng. She even made a personal visit to the academy in Jibei Province.
The result was quite disappointing—Zhou Cheng wasn’t at the academy.
When she tried to inquire further, she was dismissed with a simple “No comment.”
A thought crossed Xia Xiaolan’s mind:
“What about Jiang Yan? Can I find Jiang Yan from the Communications Class? I’m her friend!”
It was rather embarrassing—she never thought she’d have to claim to be Jiang Yan’s friend.
But after all the pork trotters Jiang Yan had eaten on her treat, surely she could bear this small reputation cost?
However, Xia Xiaolan was still coldly rejected: Jiang Yan wasn’t there either.
“Is the Communications Class on holiday for the New Year?”
The guard was quite helpless.
The academy didn’t have holidays as such—these training students each had their leave schedules. Xia Xiaolan didn’t know if Jiang Yan had gone back to Jinling for the festival or was handling something with Zhou Cheng. If it was the latter, Xia Xiaolan admitted to feeling subtly annoyed.
Guan Huie didn’t need to be angry about her rumors about Tang Yuanyue. Such situations couldn’t be completely prevented with her, and the same could happen with Zhou Cheng.
Many girls liked Zhou Cheng, and he couldn’t avoid every single one of them.
Just like Jiang Yan.
She had betrayed even her cousin and wronged her family—half for Pan Bohua, and half for Zhou Cheng. Everyone knew this.
Jiang Yan had gone to such lengths, and now they were both training at the academy, seeing each other daily. How could Zhou Cheng not even speak a word to Jiang Yan?
Xia Xiaolan could only leave with disappointment.
On the 13th, she arrived in Pengcheng.
It took a whole day just to arrange various domestic matters.
Du Zhaohui had been waiting in Pengcheng since before the Spring Festival. Only after confirming the money had been transferred to his account did Xia Xiaolan have a thorough discussion with him.
“Do you want to do real estate or manufacturing?”
“What do you mean by doing real estate? Manufacturing encompasses countless possibilities—be more specific.”
Having spent over a million US dollars to get Xia Xiaolan to consider his situation, Du Zhaohui listened intently to every word. If calculated in monetary terms, even an interjection from Xia Xiaolan’s mouth was valuable!
“Do I need to explain real estate? Think about the notable tycoons in Hong Kong—more than half of them have developed real estate as their main business. However, if you want to do real estate in Pengcheng, simply buying land and building residential properties might earn you less in a year than your brother, who doesn’t even use the Du family’s resources but has so many people helping him.”
Du Zhaohui’s expression darkened.
Honest words are harsh to hear—Xia Xiaolan’s truth wasn’t pleasant.
“But you included real estate as an option, so it’s not just about building residential properties, right?”
Du Zhaohui wasn’t stupid; he knew to read between the lines and that Xia Xiaolan had more to say.
Xia Xiaolan nodded: “Of course, it’s not just about residential buildings. Have you thought about why Chairman Du gave both you and Du Zhaoqi 20 million Hong Kong dollars each, letting you compete to see who could earn more within a year? Why this specific amount? If he wanted to test your business acumen, wouldn’t giving you 1 million Hong Kong dollars be better? Create wealth miracles from small beginnings. To beat Du Zhaoqi, we need to first analyze your father’s psychological expectations.”
One million Hong Kong dollars?
“What kind of business can you do with one million Hong Kong dollars!”
Whether for him or Du Zhaoqi, one million Hong Kong dollars was too little—not even enough to buy a good car, perhaps only enough to rent a warehouse at the dock… Du Zhaohui’s face showed nothing but disdain.
Xia Xiaolan glared at him fiercely, “When I first started doing business, my capital wasn’t even 100 yuan, and you’re not satisfied with one million Hong Kong dollars!”
Du Zhaohui was quite shocked.
Truthfully, he didn’t know how Xia Xiaolan had made her fortune. However, her current wealth still couldn’t compare to his as the Du family’s eldest son who didn’t hold group shares, let alone compare to the Du family’s wealth.
But from what he knew, Xia Xiaolan’s wealth had indeed grown very quickly.
In private calculations with Tang Yuanyue, they estimated Xia Xiaolan’s worth at tens of millions of yuan. Du Zhaohui had watched how she operated Jinsha Pool from start to finish and admired her methods. Though the business scale wasn’t large, Du Zhaohui saw in it the same operating patterns as those old wealthy foxes in Hong Kong.
Du Zhaohui humbly asked for guidance: “How do you do business with less than 100 yuan? Is money that easy to make in the mainland?”
It wasn’t easy to earn.
“What’s with that look? I used completely legal methods—buying low and selling high, isn’t that what merchants have done for thousands of years? Starting with 100 yuan or 1 million isn’t the point. The point is that Chairman Du gave you 20 million Hong Kong dollars! This amount isn’t too much or too little—it’s not meant for you to earn money through hard labor, nor for you to take risks. It’s testing how you operate capital to obtain maximum profit… I think this ‘profit’ isn’t just about the numbers on paper. To put it simply, if you took the 20 million Hong Kong dollars and made a killing in the stock market, luckily earning tens of millions, would that make you the new stock market genius? Is that what Chairman Du wants in a successor?”
Du Zhaohui had considered this.
There were plenty of tycoons who made their fortune through the stock market.
But he came to Xia Xiaolan precisely because he didn’t understand the stock market and didn’t trust others. Who knew if the hired professionals might be plants from others? Following their “advice” might leave him without even underwear to wear.
Or if he bought stocks randomly based on luck, as Xia Xiaolan said, and fortunately made tens of millions—a new generation stock market genius?
No, that wasn’t right.
What use would it be for the old man to test if they could play the stock market?
The Cheng Rong Group didn’t need an heir who could trade stocks.
When you have enough money, you become one of those secretly manipulating the stock market. The Du family heir shouldn’t be a retail investor but someone who tricks money from retail investors!
Du Zhaohui seemed to grasp something:
“You mean, 20 million Hong Kong dollars is neither too much nor too little—the old man wants to see how big an operation we can stir up?”
Xia Xiaolan snapped her fingers: “Congratulations, you got it right! With this understanding, I won’t say you’ll surpass the second young master Du, but you should be on par with him. I think he, having studied business in England, must have figured this out.”
This praise was worse than no praise at all.
Du Zhaohui’s tolerance for Xia Xiaolan was surprising—he chose to only hear the first sentence, taking it as pure praise!
“Continue speaking. Ah Hua, go get her some water.”
Ah Hua left the room.
The following conversation was worth over a million US dollars—not something a bodyguard should hear.
Ah Hua went to get water and naturally took his time returning.
With only the two of them left in the room, logically, Xia Xiaolan should have been nervous being alone with Du Zhaohui, who didn’t look like a good person. Strangely, it was Du Zhaohui who felt nervous.
He didn’t even know where to put his hands.
Xia Xiaolan glanced at him—why was he in such a daze when they were discussing important matters?
“Pay close attention to what I’m about to say! I believe when Chairman Du gave you a year to earn enough ‘profit,’ he wasn’t simply looking at profit as monetary figures. Twenty million isn’t too much or too little—whether you or Du Zhaoqi choose any industry, it can leverage that amount. The so-called ‘profit’ is more about overall influence. Your chosen project—how much money it can make in a year, whether it can continue making money in the future, whether it needs continued investment, whether the success can be replicated… Building and selling residential properties, quickly constructing residential communities in Pengcheng—how much does this help Cheng Rong Group’s development? You need to think from the perspective of Cheng Rong Group’s leader and decision-maker—think on a larger scale!”