“What does he mean?” Du Zhaohui quietly asked Xia Xiaolan, not caring whether Du Chengrong heard.

“Second Young Master bought Chaoyang Real Estate, which was just a shell company. It only had one project under development – the Shangdu Asia Mall. You remember, right? I also invested in the Asia Mall.”

Buying Chaoyang Real Estate was just a front.

The real target was the Asia Mall.

After reviewing the documents, Du Chengrong said, “This Chaoyang Real Estate is developing the Shangdu Asia Mall and holds 82% of its shares. The other shareholder is Miss Xia, who holds 18%. You’ve taken over Chaoyang Real Estate, holding 80% of the real estate company’s shares, while founder Zhu Suizhou has 20%. This means you indirectly hold 65.6% of Asia Mall’s shares, making you its largest shareholder.”

“That’s correct.”

“You want to compete against your brother’s Chengrong Plaza using your Thai factory and these 65.6% shares in Asia Mall?”

Du Zhaoqi nodded with a smile: “Is that acceptable? The money to buy Chaoyang Real Estate came from mortgaging the Thai factory. I don’t think this violates the competition rules.”

How much could buying a shell company like Chaoyang Real Estate cost?

What Du Zhaoqi had to take on was Chaoyang Real Estate’s debt – a 20 million bank loan.

Zhou Cheng hadn’t been able to trace where Zhu Suizhou got the 5 million to register the company.

Before Xia Xiaolan’s investment, out of the total 35 million investment budget, 10 million came from private capital. The specific sources of this ‘private capital’ didn’t matter anymore – it all came from Du Zhaoqi’s pocket now.

Currently, the Asia Mall’s shares were divided: Du Zhaoqi with 65.6%, Xia Xiaolan with 18%, and Zhu Suizhou with 16.4%.

The negotiations had started long ago.

But the deal was just finalized.

Because just two days ago, Zhu Suizhou still had considerable autonomy and wanted to give Xia Xiaolan an additional 2% shares for free.

At the time, Xia Xiaolan couldn’t figure out Zhu Suizhou’s scheme and didn’t dare accept those 2% shares. Now she understood a bit better. Zhu Suizhou felt guilty about something and feared making an enemy of her, so he offered some benefits in advance to placate her.

Xia Xiaolan smiled at Du Zhaoqi, “Second Young Master, Asia Mall is a good project, but compared to Chengrong Plaza’s investment, they’re not even in the same league, right?”

With Xu Zhongyi’s 1.5 million USD, Asia Mall’s total investment was just over 40 million yuan.

Chengrong Plaza was a major project with over 500 million in investment – how could they compare?

“Miss Xia’s capability and vision are well-known. Since Miss Xia was willing to invest in Asia Mall, after meeting with Mr. Zhu Suizhou, I discovered he intends to turn Asia Mall into a chain brand, building more Asia Malls in other locations. In terms of prospects, it might not be inferior to Chengrong Plaza. At least, Miss Xia didn’t invest in Chengrong Plaza but chose Asia Mall – that gave me great confidence.”

Using one’s spear against their shield.

Du Zhaoqi played this move well.

If Xia Xiaolan didn’t clearly know that Asia Mall would fail after its rapid expansion, she might have actually believed it.

But what could she say now?

Say that she invested in Asia Mall just to make a quick profit and run, while Chengrong Plaza was the real long-term cash cow. Who would believe such words?

At least none of the three Du family members would believe it.

Only Xia Xiaolan had this foresight.

Like a mute eating bitter herbs, unable to express the suffering, Du Zhaoqi’s backup plan was truly irritating.

When Du Zhaohui wanted to get angry, Xia Xiaolan gently shook her head at him: “Which project has potential and who wins this competition will naturally be decided by Chairman Du. We don’t need to be anxious.”

Du Chengrong nodded, “You can leave now. I need to ask some people about this Asia Mall project. I’ll announce the competition results at the Spring Banquet.”

“Brother, Miss Xia, I’ll see you at the banquet later. I need to change clothes first.”

Du Zhaoqi was very polite.

Du Zhaohui sneered.

“Stop being so fake, just get out.”

After he left, Du Zhaohui’s expression remained dark.

“I never expected Du Zhaoqi would play us like this… This bastard, I underestimated him.”

Xia Xiaolan wasn’t as angry. She never thought too highly of herself. There were many clever people in the world, and she had to admit Du Zhaoqi’s skill in misleading her with his diversionary tactics.

“Don’t be angry. We expected he wouldn’t give up easily. This trump card was unexpected, but not enough to completely overturn our position. Chairman Du will naturally judge whose project has created more value this year.”

Asia Mall was truly a good project.

When Asia Mall opens, everyone will only see its prosperity, not its crisis. Who could say Du Zhaoqi made the wrong investment?

Xia Xiaolan remained calm because only she knew just how successful Asia Mall would become after opening!

Du Zhaoqi’s grandiose claims were just projected prospects, without actual data to support his predictions.

Unlike Chengrong Plaza, which opened its first-floor electronics market before February 5th and boosted daily revenue through shopping raffles. Xia Xiaolan had urged Du Zhaohui to do this specifically to present impressive results to Du Chengrong.

Any future projections couldn’t rely on imagination alone – they needed some data to support them.

Xia Xiaolan’s calmness greatly stabilized Du Zhaohui’s emotions.

He let out a heavy breath: “You’re right. No matter how good it sounds, Asia Mall isn’t even built yet. How can a 40 million investment beat a 500 million investment? I don’t believe it!”

Indeed, one Asia Mall couldn’t compete with Chengrong Plaza.

Du Zhaoqi’s move was also to complement the Thai factory. The factory in Thailand was doing quite well. When Xia Xiaolan let Du Zhaohui choose his path, he didn’t choose manufacturing, but Du Zhaoqi did.

Thinking of this, Xia Xiaolan’s expression turned peculiar:

“Regardless of who Chairman Du judges as the winner, there’s only one true winner – Chairman Du himself. He’s over sixty years old, and his shares will eventually be passed to his children. Whether you or your brother wins this 5%, he doesn’t lose.”

One son could establish factories in Thailand, while the other created projects like Chengrong Plaza in Pengcheng. Motivated by the 5% group shares, both Du Zhaoqi and Du Zhaohui had given their all to win. Du Chengrong was testing their abilities while exploring their potential, and the invested money expanded the Du family’s business empire.

Discovering both sons were excellent and ensuring his succession, wasn’t Du Chengrong the real winner?

The old ginger is the spiciest – Du Chengrong perfectly demonstrated what it meant to be “old and crafty.”

While testing his two sons, Du Chengrong also taught Xia Xiaolan a lesson.

Though the methods were intense, the two sons previously maintained a fake peace, but now they couldn’t even pretend anymore.

Raising sons like raising Tibetan Mastiffs or cultivating venomous insects… it was truly something else!