“TV advertisements, full-page newspaper countdown announcements, afraid that electronic product wholesalers wouldn’t know immediately, they even added radio broadcast promotions.”

Was it effective?

Very effective!

On January 1, 1987, the full-page newspaper advertisement read “30 Days Countdown,” and on the 2nd, it naturally became “29 Days Countdown.”

Yesterday’s rental data had just been tallied, and Du Zhaowei couldn’t resist calling Xia Xiaolan early in the morning.

The first batch of released shops was just testing the waters. Although they were all snapped up, at 250 yuan per square meter, they only recovered just over 2 million.

It wasn’t even as much as Du Zhaowei had spent on advertising!

But this was just the rent from the first batch of shops.

There were still second and third batches.

When all these shops were released, the annual rent would be around 7 million!

If the downstairs marketplace could bring Du Zhaowei such great returns, what about the upstairs offices?

And the commercial street is still under construction.

His land still had supporting facilities waiting to be developed.

On the surface, Du Chengrong only gave him 20 million Hong Kong dollars. Adding what Du Zhaowei raised from selling his mansion and luxury cars, plus bank loans, and what he “borrowed” from Du Chengrong through thick skin, the electronics plaza’s total investment had exceeded 500 million yuan.

500 million was an astronomical figure for ordinary people.

Adding the later in-depth development, this electronics plaza would need at least another 300 million in investment.

800 million it was – the first year’s rent was just a drop in the bucket. Once the place gathered momentum, rental income would multiply several times over.

Moreover, with such a large piece of land, he had decades to operate… Du Zhaowei might have been an uneducated playboy with a formal education, but he wasn’t stupid. With “Cheng Rong Plaza” in hand, he had secured an invincible position in the Du family.

5% of Cheng Rong Group’s shares weren’t worth as much as Cheng Rong Plaza.

Of course, Cheng Rong Plaza had also left Du Zhaowei deeply in debt. He could default on what he owed the old man, but not what he owed the banks.

Du Zhaowei still couldn’t bear to give up that 5% stake, nor the Du family inheritance. The hot sales of the first batch of shops made Du Zhaowei feel he had victory firmly in hand.

His voice sounded somewhat distorted over the phone, but his smugness remained unchanged:

“That loser Du Zhaoqi, what can he compare with me?”

Xia Xiaolan wanted to throw cold water on him to make him calm down, but everything was currently going according to their plan. With such good momentum, even if she did pour cold water now, Du Zhaowei probably wouldn’t listen.

So Xia Xiaolan went along with him:

“If everything goes smoothly, given the current situation, Second Young Master Du is bound to lose.”

Du Zhaowei laughed heartily, “There’s only one month left, how could he turn things around?”

Xia Xiaolan frowned.

She had a feeling that she and Du Zhaowei were like villains in movies… What do villains die from? They die from talking too much! From bragging too early!

Never mind one month – even with just one day left, as long as Du Chengrong hadn’t announced the outcome, Du Zhaoqi still had a chance to turn things around.

Xia Xiaolan couldn’t help but say:

“Don’t forget about Xia Ziyu!”

“Haven’t forgotten, I’ll hand him over to you as agreed.”

“…”

Damn this fool – she was telling Du Zhaowei not to forget that Xia Ziyu would be a hidden danger. Since they had already broken up the alliance of Du family concubines, Du Zhaowei should eliminate this hidden danger early.

Xia Xiaolan didn’t want to repeat the same words over and over.

After hanging up, she was quite happy.

Perhaps she was worrying unnecessarily – Cheng Rong Plaza was showing truly promising signs.

Xia Xiaolan had already returned home from work yesterday. She had promised Leader Li’s wife to reconcile with Gao Fei, but Zhou Cheng had other ideas.

Xia Xiaolan simply temporarily left work to avoid meeting Gao Fei.

She went home first to check if Liang Huan had come looking, but Liu Fen was completely puzzled:

“Did Liang Huan go to Beijing for repeat studies? She hasn’t come looking for me even once.”

This was too unreasonable.

Liu Fen understood her sister well enough.

If Liu Fang had learned to think of others, would she still be Liu Fang?

How could such lifelong habits change just like that?

Grandmother Yu chuckled, “Are you two mother and daughter stupid? Not coming now doesn’t mean they’ll never come. The barefoot isn’t afraid of those wearing shoes – before, you two were barefoot, now the situation’s reversed and you’re wearing shoes. Maybe the Liang family is looking for the right opportunity. Ah Fen, your status is different now, the Liang family wants to please you, afraid of offending you!”

If they wanted to stick around without offending Liu Fen, they needed to be methodical about it.

Liu Fen had a headache, “Am I that easy to fool?”

Xia Xiaolan pondered.

Her mother was different from before, certainly not easy to fool.

But setting aside the rest of the Liang family, if Liang Huan and Liu Fang kept showing up shamelessly again and again, wouldn’t the relationship between the two families ease somewhat? This was due to China’s environment – “broken bones are still connected by tendons” perfectly described Chinese family relationships.

Xia Xiaolan could abandon the Xia family without a second thought, not caring about their fate, because her core had changed – the Xia family had no connection to Xia Xiaolan at all!

What was there to be soft-hearted about? A group of strangers without feelings who had ganged up to bully her – how could Xia Xiaolan be soft-hearted?

But if she were really “Xia Xiaolan,” could she manage to care nothing at all?

Xia Xiaolan herself had no answer.

Just like in her previous life, when her aunt had adopted her, those years living in her aunt’s home were essentially dependent on others.

She hadn’t been treated like a little princess, but it wasn’t exactly abuse either.

It was just later they wanted her to quit school early, and start working early to contribute to household expenses… When Xia Xiaolan was in her teens, she was very angry, persisted in completing her studies while working part-time, and initially cut off contact with her aunt’s family. Later, after she became successful and her resentment wasn’t so strong, she still ended up buying two houses for her aunt in their hometown.

There was an element of showing off and getting revenge.

But perhaps it was also because her aunt’s family were her only relatives.

If she rejected even this relationship with her aunt, she would truly be alone in the world.

The current situation was similar – no matter how Liu Fen changed, she wouldn’t become a different person, not as decisive as Xia Xiaolan in her previous life. If the previous life’s Xia Xiaolan couldn’t cut ties completely, when Liu Fang, her sister, came to apologize again and again, Liu Fen would find it hard not to soften.

Xia Xiaolan was Liu Fen’s daughter.

Liu Fang was also Liu Fen’s sister.

This was something Xia Xiaolan really couldn’t decide for her mother.

She might as well not interfere – if her mother became confused, Grandmother Yu was there to give advice.

Xia Xiaolan couldn’t be bothered to investigate which Beijing school Liang Huan had transferred to for repeat studies. Nobody had asked for her help – the Liang family had found their connections to arrange it. Should Xia Xiaolan demand Liang Huan roll back to Yunan?

Xia Xiaolan just occasionally had the feeling that she and Du Zhaowei seemed like villains working together, but she didn’t want to be a villain.

What if Liang Huan had genuinely learned to be ambitious and just wanted to come to Beijing to study properly?

When others hadn’t done anything wrong yet, Xia Xiaolan could only stay vigilant, not strike first to eliminate them.

She put this matter aside and decided to report to Huaqing first.