Although Xia Xiaolan wasn’t from Yunan in her previous life, she knew about the Asia Mall.

Shangdu’s Asia Mall was extremely popular in the early 90s. The mall operators expanded blindly, opening branches nationwide. Eventually, poor management combined with broken capital chains led to the end of Asia Mall, which had advertised on Central TV in the early 90s… How impressive was Asia Mall at its peak? Just look at Shangdu’s Asia Mall – it achieved 90 million in sales within just six months of opening!

Opening in ’89, until ’93, annual revenue grew by 30% each year.

By ’94, the mall’s general manager was honored as one of the nation’s top ten outstanding youths and was elected as a National People’s Congress representative.

The general manager became overconfident in late ’93, leading the group in frenzied nationwide expansion, pursuing chain operations – similar to Ji Ya’s clothing brand model, adding a new mall every four months, all self-built, tying up massive amounts of capital.

Even bank loans couldn’t help.

The rapid expansion and chaotic management eventually led to self-destruction.

By ’95, management was paralyzed.

After struggling for 5 years, the Asia Group completely burned out by the millennium.

The rise and fall of Asia Mall was quite typical. In her previous life, it was a failed case study that professors emphasized during Xia Xiaolan’s professional development courses.

Xia Xiaolan snapped back to reality, glancing at the surveyors, thinking that if they were talking about building a mall, it could indeed be the Asia Mall.

It made sense – in her previous life, Asia Mall opened in 1989.

Now it was late ’86, so having such plans wasn’t surprising.

Xia Xiaolan had no intention of replicating another Asia Mall – why copy a failed case?

But she was usually the one taking from others’ bowls; now that someone was trying to take from hers, Xia Xiaolan found it amusing!

“Xiaolan, Xiaolan?”

Zhou Cheng was concerned, watching his wife’s expression change repeatedly, wondering if she was upset.

Zhou Cheng didn’t think it was a big deal, “Let’s go back first, you don’t seem to be in the mood to stay here. We can talk at home, standing here won’t help.”

“Ah, alright.”

Xia Xiaolan kept looking back as they left. Zhou Cheng noticed her reluctance and held back a smile:

“Do you like this piece of land that much?”

Of course! It was probably Shangdu’s most valuable plot, a golden goose – who wouldn’t like it!

Her eyes said it all.

Good, his wife was finally back to normal.

Earlier in Pengcheng, when she talked about building “essential housing” and lowering profit margins, Zhou Cheng thought his wife wasn’t quite herself.

This version, with eyes sparkling at the mention of business and profit, was the wife he knew.

“If you don’t want to be taken over by others, we should strike first. As long as the Shangdu government hasn’t given away this land, why not secure it first? Not just Grandmother Yu’s gift, but the surrounding area too.”

Strike first?

That could work!

With no outsiders around, Xia Xiaolan stood on tiptoes and kissed Zhou Cheng: “As expected of my man, thinking the same as me! Zhou Cheng, if you ever can’t continue at your workplace, join me – I’ll make you a vice president!”

“Just a vice president?”

Zhou Cheng touched his face, “Only a vice president? I thought you might let me be general manager.”

Xia Xiaolan pretended to be angry, “You’re trying to usurp power!”

“If I’m general manager and you’re chairwoman, you’ll always be one level above me, my boss. Let’s go, Chairman Xia, we need to solve this problem. I’ll ask around about whether Erqi Square is planned for mall construction.”

Though they hadn’t gone with the Xu father and son to city hall today, they’d made their discovery.

The survey team had come twice, and they only knew about the mall plans by chance – if the plans were finalized, Xiaolan would have to watch helplessly as her building and land were taken.

Xiaolan couldn’t fight the Shangdu municipal government.

Even with Shao Limin’s support, things had to follow proper procedures and order; they couldn’t forcibly take land others had purchased.

But if the government hadn’t allocated the land yet, Zhou Cheng thought they could work something out.

Why give it up?

This plot was dear to his wife’s heart and was Grandmother Yu’s “thank you gift.”

Xia Xiaolan muttered, “Auntie Li is so carefree. If we hadn’t run into this today, she’d probably still be confused the day they came to demolish the building.”

…

Meanwhile, the Xu father and son’s meeting with city leaders was going fairly well.

The city government had figured out that this Xu father and son, who’d returned after 20 years abroad, genuinely had capital – the kind that could provide cash investment. As for what they wanted to invest in, the Xus were still discussing, but they proposed getting approval for a plot of land to build a museum.

The deputy mayor in charge of culture and education was pleased:

“Building a museum is a good thing. Shangdu, in the heart of the Central Plains, has a rich historical heritage. We should have a museum.”

The deputy mayor misunderstood, thinking the Xu father and son had too much money and wanted to donate to a museum. Xu Changle glanced at his father. As the younger one, he could recover from misspeaking, so he spoke over Xu Zhongyi:

“We’re not donating a museum. We want the city government to approve a plot of land, we’ll purchase land use rights at market price, and then build a museum on it. While the land remains state-owned, the museum would be privately owned. We’ll display artworks and might charge admission to maintain daily operations.”

Neither Xu Zhongyi nor Xu Changle planned to profit from the museum.

Ticket sales were just an effective way to control visitor flow – if people had to pay, only those truly interested in the field would enter.

Not just professionals, but ordinary people interested in antiques and history could visit too.

The deputy mayor hadn’t expected this – not a donation, but the Xus wanting to build their museum.

Could private citizens build museums?

The deputy mayor now dared not agree immediately: “Gentlemen, we need to research relevant policies. We can discuss this matter gradually.”

“Let’s set aside the museum for now. A few years ago, the government returned some of our ancestral property, including my mother’s current residence and the small building at 45 Erqi Square. Could we trouble the leaders to check if the ownership of 45 Erqi Square is clear… If it currently belongs to Xia Xiaolan, that would be correct.”

With investment still uncertain, now there was talk of museum land approval and ancestral property ownership.

The deputy mayor found the Xu father and son difficult to deal with.

But all foreign investment projects were challenging to implement, and these two didn’t like building relationships over dinner tables. The deputy mayor could only grudgingly ask someone to check the archives.

A moment later, the secretary returned, hesitating:

“Leader, there’s a small issue with this property’s ownership…”