Du Zhaohui’s mouth curled up smugly.

He looked provocatively at Du Zhaoqi.

Du Zhaoqi didn’t refute any of Du Chengrong’s words… His silence made Xia Xiaolan feel somewhat uneasy.

Was this all Du Zhaoqi had up his sleeve?

Surely not.

Just reporting to Du Chengrong that Du Zhaohui hadn’t built ‘Cheng Rong Plaza’ solely through his abilities? Du Zhaoqi couldn’t be that foolish. Modern business wasn’t like subsistence farming, where you harvest only what you plant yourself.

It was about maximizing the use of all resources – why not hire people if you could?

So the fact that she was Du Zhaohui’s consultant couldn’t be used as a weapon against him.

She had received 10 million Hong Kong dollars but provided Du Zhaohui with such a promising project that Du Chengrong even praised his sharp eye, saying the money was well spent!

So…

Why exactly was Du Zhaoqi doing this?

Xia Xiaolan wasn’t as optimistic as Du Zhaohui; it seemed too early to be celebrating.

After his speech, Du Chengrong was getting impatient:

“Zhaoqi, did you understand what I just said?”

Du Zhaoqi responded obediently: “Father, I understand. You mean that brother hiring Miss Xia isn’t cheating, but rather shows his good judgment, right? You seem to highly value Miss Xia’s abilities?”

Having an eye for talent sometimes involved luck too.

Knowing how to use people sounded easy but faced various challenges in practice. Most realistically, capable people might not give their all even after being paid – why else would top global companies be “foolish” enough to offer both high salaries and stock options to executives? Wasn’t it to align the executives’ interests with the company’s? The better the company performed, the more the managers earned, naturally making them more dedicated!

Like Xia Xiaolan, who was already in real estate – accepting just 10 million Hong Kong dollars as payment instead of shares in ‘Cheng Rong Plaza’ truly surprised Du Chengrong.

Du Chengrong attributed this to Du Zhaohui’s luck and good judgment in recognizing Xia Xiaolan’s worth!

“Miss Xia is indeed very capable. If she ever decides not to run her own business, Cheng Rong Group’s doors will always be open to her. I would very much welcome Miss Xia to take a position in our company, with compensation matching her abilities!”

Du Chengrong spoke sincerely.

He typically didn’t care about which women Du Zhaohui associated with, but someone like Xia Xiaolan was worth maintaining connections with.

In Du Chengrong’s eyes, women were supposed to depend on men for their livelihood; rather than expecting them to build careers, it was better for them to stay home and have more children.

However, there were always exceptions, and occasionally there would be very capable women.

In China’s thousands of years of history, there have even been female emperors. Du Chengrong could accept powerful women like Xia Xiaolan.

As Du Chengrong spoke earnestly, Du Zhaohui looked like he’d seen a ghost, realizing he might have misunderstood the old man. The old man truly admired Xia Xiaolan, not in a lecherous way… He valued her abilities over her beauty?!

The old man thought Xia Xiaolan’s capabilities were more valuable than her looks.

At that moment, Du Zhaohui felt like he was seeing his father in a new light.

If Little You had been in the office, she too would have felt warmly toward Du Chengrong. Despite his various flaws, he was truly capable. Even at over sixty, his mind was still sharp – no wonder he had built such a large enterprise from nothing!

Xia Xiaolan felt somewhat embarrassed by the praise.

The atmosphere had shifted from tense to harmonious. Even Xia Xiaolan mused that indeed, everyone loved compliments – she was no exception.

But Du Zhaoqi broke this harmonious atmosphere:

“Knowing that you recognize Miss Xia’s abilities puts my mind at ease.”

What was he at ease about?

These words set off alarm bells in Xia Xiaolan’s mind.

Du Zhaohui looked at him like he was looking at an idiot. As the winner, Du Zhaohui wanted to be gracious: “It’s just 5% of the shares. If you can afford to bet, you should be able to accept losing.”

Du Zhaoqi smiled, “Brother, who said I’ve lost? I think who wins or loses shouldn’t be determined by you but by Father!”

“Your factory in Thailand is doing well – with low labor costs and cheap land prices, running a factory there will always be profitable. But that factory’s prospects are far inferior to Cheng Rong Plaza… Zhaoqi, at this point, don’t be stubborn. You’re young enough to afford to lose. Next time we compete, as your elder brother, I’ll be sure to go easy on you.”

Honestly, even while cooperating with Du Zhaohui, Xia Xiaolan had to admit he acted like a villain!

In contrast, Du Zhaoqi seemed more like the poor victim being bullied by the villain.

Would this constantly bullied victim stage a comeback?

If he didn’t play his trump card now, he wouldn’t get another chance.

Xia Xiaolan watched Du Zhaoqi, as did Du Chengrong.

Du Chengrong checked his watch, “If you have something to say, say it quickly. The Spring Banquet will begin soon, and if we three don’t appear together, the newspapers will start writing nonsense again.”

Knock, knock, knock.

There was a knock at the door.

“Come in!”

Du Zhaoqi’s assistant handed him a document envelope.

“Second Young Master, it’s done.”

“OK! You may leave.”

Du Zhaoqi’s gloom instantly transformed into cheerfulness.

“Brother, Father let us compete in business for a year, and never specified that we couldn’t hire people or that we could only invest in one project, right?”

Du Zhaohui squinted, “Right!”

But hadn’t Du Zhaoqi’s plans to invest in Pengcheng died halfway through?

Here it comes, Xia Xiaolan was curious too: “I wonder what other project Second Young Master Du has invested in. I’m very interested.”

What other project could compare to Cheng Rong Plaza?

Du Zhaoqi handed the documents to Du Chengrong and turned to smile, “Miss Xia won’t be disappointed.”

“…You bought a mainland real estate company yesterday, Chaoyang Real Estate?”

“Yes, Father.”

Chaoyang Real Estate!

Du Zhaoqi had bought Chaoyang Real Estate!

Chaoyang Real Estate owned the Shangdu Asia Mall.

Xia Xiaolan admitted to being momentarily shocked, but in an extremely short time, her surprise turned to sudden understanding.

So that was it…

Du Zhaoqi’s fixation on her helping Du Zhaohui wasn’t to attack Du Zhaohui but to get Du Chengrong to personally acknowledge her abilities.

“Second Young Master, you think outside the box, unconstrained by convention!”

“Not at all. I should thank Miss Xia – after all, it was a project Miss Xia approved of. The more I investigated, the more promising it seemed. Zhu Suizhou of Chaoyang Real Estate is as capable as Miss Xia. I trust his abilities, so I simply bought Chaoyang Real Estate and left it under Zhu Suizhou’s management.”

Buying a company wasn’t child’s play – it couldn’t be done in just one day.

Someone as strong-minded as Zhu Suizhou, with everything going well, wouldn’t sell Chaoyang Real Estate on a whim.

These two must have been in contact for some time.

Interesting.

Very interesting.

So this was Du Zhaoqi’s trump card!