Li Fengmei quickly discovered something:

The club would provide golf clubs uniformly for all members. With membership fees at 50,000, 100,000, and 500,000 yuan levels, the difference wasn’t in the golf clubs—all members received the same brand.

Of course, most people always wanted special treatment. Although the clubs provided by the facility were already excellent, some members still didn’t want to use standard equipment. In such cases, they could choose to customize their clubs, either through their channels or through the club… When it came to spending money, there was no upper limit—if you were wealthy enough, you could even get diamond-encrusted golf clubs!

So if there was no difference in clubs and balls, where was the distinction?

Li Fengmei listened to the club staff’s introduction, feeling quite confused.

Until the staff member led Xia Xiaolan and others on a brief tour, smiling as they reminded them: “The opening ceremony will begin at 10 o’clock. Everyone can move freely or rest in the lounge area.”

Li Fengmei immediately understood the difference between VIP and regular members. She, Liu Yong, and Xia Xiaolan were led to the VIP lounge, where the décor had been done by Liu Yong’s ‘Yuan Hui’ company. Back then, Gong Yang’s design plans had been almost entirely rejected by the man called ‘Bill.’ Later, Bill brought in a foreign designer, and ‘Yuan Hui’ was only responsible for construction, completely separated from the design aspect.

Even with just construction, Liu Yong had made considerable profit.

As for Gong Yang, after the setback at the golf club, he gained a clearer understanding of himself—his skills only stood out because there weren’t any real tigers in the mainland market yet. Having been influenced by Xia Xiaolan’s ahead-of-its-time aesthetic sensibilities, he had at least escaped the era’s limited earthbound aesthetics and touched the tail of international interior decoration artistry.

But Gong Yang was still far from true high-quality interior design.

Although Liu Yong personally led the renovation project, after the hard decoration was completed, the remaining soft furnishings were entirely the foreign team’s work. This was Liu Yong’s first time seeing the finished product. Stepping into the VIP lounge, his whole being felt refreshed, and he quietly said to Li Fengmei:

“Regular members aren’t in the same area as us, and we’re not in the same area as high-level VIP members. Do you know what this means?”

“The decoration is more luxurious, the tableware is finer, the sofas are softer… and the food is more expensive?” Li Fengmei summarized several differences in succession.

Of course, what she said wasn’t wrong, but that wasn’t the main point.

Xia Xiaolan chose a seat and sat down: “Aunt, look around. Everyone in this lounge is a VIP member, and they might have brought friends or family members to experience it. While there are opportunities to network on the golf course, most socializing happens in the comfortable lounge. If the three membership levels have separate lounges, and you know the VIP lounge is better than the regular one, would you ever go to the regular members’ lounge?”

Why would she go to the regular members’ lounge?

Her family had paid 100,000 yuan in membership fees, so they should use the better facilities.

The sofa beneath her was perfectly firm yet soft, wonderfully cradling Li Fengmei’s middle-aged, slightly plump figure. Life had been too hard when she was young, and at her current age, she had some minor back problems. People with bad backs needed firm beds, but while this sofa wasn’t hard, it provided excellent lower back support… Everything about it was comfortable—it was the best sofa she’d ever sat on.

For this sofa alone, she would never go to the regular area!

Just from her expression, Xia Xiaolan could confirm her thoughts: “So you wouldn’t go to the regular members’ area. By the same logic, high-level VIP members wouldn’t come to the VIP and regular members’ lounges. You see, here, membership levels are clearly defined. I heard the minimum requirement for a high-level VIP invitation is personal assets of over 100 million yuan. High-level VIPs and VIPs can’t meet in the lounge areas—it’s more comfortable for high-level VIP members that way, with fewer disruptions, since they generally only associate and befriend other high-level VIP members.”

The club had cast out bait for everyone.

There was a chance here for upward social mobility—if you were eloquent and clever enough to be likable, the possibility of befriending wealthy individuals existed.

But most of the time, people socialize with those at their level.

Just like now in the VIP lounge, at the next table, someone was already eagerly approaching with drinks, hoping to strike up a conversation.

An annual membership fee of 100,000 yuan—swinging golf clubs wasn’t as interesting as making friends.

If you could afford 100,000 yuan, and they could afford 100,000 yuan, nobody was taking advantage of anyone. Networking at the same level was called “mutual benefit”—brother, if there’s business you can’t handle, you can pass it to me, and I have a project that I can offer you in return… See how worthwhile that 100,000 yuan membership fee was!

Xia Xiaolan’s explanation was still fresh when the member from the next table indeed couldn’t resist coming over.

While he glanced at Xia Xiaolan several times, his main attention was on Liu Yong.

Seeing such a group composition, it was easy to mistake Xia Xiaolan and Li Fengmei as family members Liu Yong had brought to experience the club atmosphere.

Li Fengmei watched in amazement as, within just a few minutes, Liu Yong and the other person exchanged business cards. Upon learning that Liu Yong’s company had handled the golf club’s renovation, the other person thought of something and became even more enthusiastic toward Liu Yong. By the tenth minute, they were already discussing business—

Li Fengmei moved to another seat, breathing heavily, and asked Xia Xiaolan in a low voice: “Is doing business this simple?”

Xia Xiaolan nodded with a smile, “Starting from scratch is certainly difficult, but once you have a certain foundation and jump onto a suitable platform, all kinds of opportunities appear.”

Wasn’t everyone’s presence in the VIP lounge mutual proof of their capabilities?

The club’s membership system truly saved some members a lot of time. The member who approached Liu Yong figured that since Liu Yong had considerable financial strength, his company couldn’t be small, and he could even handle the golf club’s renovation—the results were right here to see. If someone needed such services, why look elsewhere?

Li Fengmei was quite shocked.

She wanted to ask Xia Xiaolan what if Liu Yong had only paid the 50,000 yuan annual fee, and they could only go to the regular members’ lounge today… Never mind, she couldn’t understand these things, but she truly felt the difference between regular and VIP members.

Yet she didn’t know what kind of people were in the high-level VIP lounge.

…

A car stopped steadily at the club entrance.

This was the passage only high-level VIP members used.

The car door opened, and a young woman wearing flat shoes stepped out.

Her belly was slightly swollen, showing signs of pregnancy, and she needed assistance even to get out of the car, moving very carefully, every inch the noble lady—Harold frowned, she seemed a bit affected. Was this the high-level VIP member Bill had selected through layer upon layer of screening?

The woman casually handed over her invitation and explained: “I’m sorry, Mr. Du happens to be abroad on business. He was very pleased to receive the invitation and asked me to attend the opening ceremony on his behalf.”