Xia Xiaolan was indeed planning to use the million dollars that had been lying quietly in her account for five months.

This money was a consulting fee from Du Zhaohui, who had bought a guaranteed money-making venture and certainly wouldn’t lose out.

But Xia Xiaolan had insisted on converting this money to dollars, originally planning to hunt for bargains in America.

Who would have thought her studies would be so demanding, and helping Grandmother Yu search for relatives would be more complicated than imagined? Besides occasionally meeting Xu Jing and Ma Hai, she hadn’t had a chance to spend this money.

A person’s energy is always limited. Xia Xiaolan wasn’t superhuman – even with Xu Jing and Ma Hai’s electronic dictionary project, she only wanted to invest, not manage. She didn’t have that much energy!

This million dollars could be invested, and if it couldn’t be spent, she had planned to combine it with the money earned from Qihang’s Golden Sand Pool for new projects.

Mid-June, Xia Xiaolan was also thinking about Qihang’s next steps.

Should they continue developing residential communities?

Or should they prioritize the building materials market?

And which land should they buy?

With the Golden Sand Pool project wrapping up, these were all things Xia Xiaolan needed to consider.

Investing in Xu Jing and Ma Hai was fine – whether more or less money, there were always projects to be done. When developing the Golden Sand Pool community, how much money was hers? They still managed to build the houses!

Ma Hai and Xu Jing couldn’t believe there was a million dollars.

How much would that be in Chinese currency?

They stared at her, mouths agape.

Xia Xiaolan sighed, “As long as you two establish the electronic dictionary market, this money can be earned back. This time, when you return to China, you’ll be bringing foreign investment to start your business in Pengcheng…”

Investment money had to enter the country through official channels.

One million US dollars converted to less than 4 million yuan, which didn’t sound very profitable.

But one million US dollars in foreign exchange could achieve more than 4 million yuan worth of effect. Just like how Du Zhaohui’s 50 million HKD investment could secure a 100 million loan from the bank – that was the correct use of foreign exchange.

Xu Jing and Ma Hai were both nervous.

Bragging at the gathering was one thing, but being responsible for such a large sum of money – they were afraid of losing it!

Creating an electronic dictionary and putting it into production were two different things. With their abilities, could they succeed?

After some self-doubt, Ma Hai wiped his face:

“Since Junior Sister Xia believes in us so much, Old Xu and I can only dedicate ourselves completely!”

Xia Xiaolan held back her reaction – this money would be monitored, and Ma Hai and Xu Jing couldn’t misuse it even if they wanted to. Look how pleased Ma Hai was!

Besides, whose territory was Pengcheng?

If these two could lose all the money in her home base, that would be a talent even worth Xia Xiaolan’s attention.

“Hurry and pack up to prepare for returning to China. Go back first to make preparations. By the end of this year at the latest, I want to see the electronic dictionary in production. Also, after returning, go meet someone called Du Zhaohui. He’s from Hong Kong’s Du family. Get in touch with him and see if you can pick a good spot in his unfinished Electronics Plaza.”

What did the Saige Plaza sell in her previous life?

Before mobile phones became popular, Saige Plaza sold all kinds of electronic products.

Calculators, electronic watches, audio equipment, tape recorders, and pagers – anything “electronic” could be found at Saige Plaza.

Now, Du Zhaohui had seized Saige Plaza’s opportunity and started his own Electronics Plaza.

Larger than the old Saige Plaza, the market would need merchants to fill it once built. Wouldn’t electronic dictionaries have more technological value than electronic calculators and watches? She and Du Zhaohui were simply engaging in mutual benefit.

Mentioning Du Zhaohui reminded Xia Xiaolan of Du Zhaoqi, which naturally led to thoughts of Ye Xiaoqiong.

After that phone call, there had been no news from Ye Xiaoqiong.

She was in New York, Ye Xiaoqiong in Thailand – communication was already inconvenient, and with the other party seemingly avoiding her, Xia Xiaolan was even more helpless.

Zhou Yi, that troublemaker, had caused harm.

Zhou Cheng wanted to send Zhou Yi abroad, and Xia Xiaolan agreed a hundred percent. Without leaving China, there was no chance to teach Zhou Yi how to be a better person!

Zhou Yi’s recent days had been both comfortable and uncomfortable.

The comfort came from spending her postpartum period at her parents’ home, where she felt at ease.

During her pregnancy, Yuan Han took care of her completely, moving Zhou Yi deeply. Yuan Han even personally cooked for her – how rare was it for a man to do this much for his wife? At least Zhou Wenbing never cooked at home. Zhou Yi still remembers when she was young and they didn’t have a housekeeper, Jiang Hong did all the cooking. Her father was completely hands-off, coming home from work, taking off his coat, and just washing his hands to wait for meals – he wouldn’t even help if the oil bottle tipped over.

So, a woman’s mate selection aesthetics are more or less related to her family environment. Zhou Yi hadn’t seen men doing housework much, and Zhou Wenbing was strict with his wife and daughter. The family atmosphere was different from ordinary households, so when she suddenly met someone sweet-talking and gentle, Zhou Yi fell for it.

Yuan Han’s cooking for her was touching, except his cooking skills and Zhou Yi’s preferred tastes were poles apart.

Yuan Han was from the South, and Zhou Yi was from the North.

She preferred stronger flavors and was used to the family’s long-time housekeeper’s cooking. Since she was 13, the current housekeeper had always cooked for the family. Now eating postpartum meals at her parents’ home, following the tradition of light, low-salt confinement dishes, Zhou Yi surprisingly tasted familiar flavors in the barely salted chicken soup… The stomach yearns for familiar tastes, and these dishes suited her palate.

Zhou Yi’s eyes welled up with tears, “This is exactly the taste, it’s Auntie Fang’s cooking! Mom, you and Dad were too cruel. When I was pregnant before, you wouldn’t even let me stay for a single meal when I came back. I just missed Auntie Fang’s cooking!”

Her voice sounded wrong, but Jiang Hong wouldn’t indulge her, “That’s because you chose to marry that Yuan fellow. If you’d married someone else, I would have sent Sister Fang to cook for you. You married Yuan Han – can your salary afford a housekeeper?”

Zhou Yi’s face turned liver-red, and the chicken soup didn’t taste as good anymore.

See, this was the uncomfortable part – Jiang Hong would occasionally jab at her, choke her up.

“It’s a dad who won’t let Yuan Han work. Of course, I can’t afford a housekeeper on one salary, but with two people working it would be different…”

Jiang Hong nodded perfunctorily.

“Start listening to those English tapes. You can’t use your eyes yet, so use your ears to listen first.”

Yuan Han had returned to work these past few days, probably very satisfied with the new job Zhou Wenbing arranged. He wanted to visit the Zhou house eight times a day. Jiang Hong felt sick seeing him but had to pretend to accept Yuan Han to lower Zhou Yi’s guard, which was suffocating her.

Now Jiang Hong couldn’t wait for Zhou Yi to wake up one day fluent in English, finish her postpartum period, and quickly go abroad. Without Zhou Yi holding them back with her drama, they could deal with Yuan Han more freely.

No, she needed to talk to Wenbing – if Yuan Han still had time to come here, the new job wasn’t keeping him busy enough!

Since he wanted to climb up, give him a little authority, and Yuan Han would be intoxicated with it.