Mayor Tang had no connection with the farmer from Yunan Province.

It was all because Xia Xiaolan had brazenly called Tang Hongen “Uncle Tang,” and through repeated interactions, finally managed to establish a connection with him. Tang Hongen’s secretary viewed Xia Xiaolan as a menace, keeping a close watch on the government guesthouse project, fearing his leader’s reputation would be ruined by Liu Yong.

Liu Yong was grateful for Secretary Peng’s concern!

During their conversation, Xia Xiaolan learned that Liu Tianquan of Tianzhen was the Hong Kong businessman who had developed Shenzhen’s first commercial housing project two years ago. This piqued her interest. In CEO Xia’s eyes, anyone who could cooperate for profit, even if they were a pig, was worth her effort!

“How would Mr. Liu like to cooperate?”

Xia Xiaolan spoke for the first time, and Liu Tianquan could barely handle her sweet voice.

“Brother Liu, this is…?”

Liu Tianquan couldn’t believe that the short Liu Yong could have such a beautiful daughter, though their features were somewhat similar.

“Oh, this is my niece Xia Xiaolan. The guesthouse design plan was her work.”

Gong Yang?

Gong Yang wasn’t even present.

Liu Yong wouldn’t miss a chance to promote his niece. Since Xia Xiaolan had applied to Huaqing’s architecture department, house building and renovation weren’t that different. Liu Yong believed she would enter this field. Clothing and building materials were small ventures – he was paving the way for his niece.

Liu Yong believed Xia Xiaolan had “design talent” and enthusiastically promoted her, but Xia Xiaolan knew clearly that her so-called “design talent” came from her previous life’s broad experience. With her purely scientific mindset, she could honestly take advantage of her foreknowledge, but asking her to create truly soulful designs was nonsense.

However, Xia Xiaolan genuinely wanted to get involved in the Special Zone’s development process, and Hong Kong businessman Liu Tianquan was undoubtedly among the first to profit here.

Liu Tianquan had convinced the Special Zone government to release land for commercial housing!

All that talk about “compensation trade” was just an excuse for Liu Tianquan and the government to bend the rules.

The Construction Bank was even offering mortgages – if that wasn’t commercial housing, what was?

Liu Tianquan’s face lit up with delight as he repeatedly praised the guesthouse design: “Miss Xia, you’re so young yet so talented. The mainland truly has vast resources and abundant talent! Would you be interested in working part-time at my Tianzhen Decoration…”

Xia Xiaolan accepted all his praise shamelessly.

As long as she could make money, she was willing to work part-time. For such a large renovation project as the guesthouse, Gong Yang received 500 yuan for one design. If Liu Tianquan wanted to hire her part-time and added a zero after that 500, she would happily agree… But the Nanhai Hotel was different. As the Special Zone’s first five-star international hotel, it ranked among the top in all of China in 1984. It wasn’t that Xia Xiaolan didn’t dare take the job, but 5,000 yuan was too little – even adding another zero would still be shortchanging her.

No five-star hotel design team in the world would work for a mere 50,000 Chinese yuan.

Liu Tianquan had ulterior motives. While Xia Xiaolan’s beauty made conversation with her enjoyable, it wasn’t just about her looks. His target was the “Nanhai Hotel” – to make it five-star standard required high-end renovation. One or two million in renovation costs? The decoration company would make more than that!

Liu Tianquan certainly had money. He’d had some assets in Hong Kong originally, and being among the first to venture into Shenzhen Special Zone had multiplied his wealth – he was now worth several million. But no one ever complained about having too much money. If a wealthy person’s fortune wasn’t continuously growing, lack of progress meant regression. Any profit over a million was worth Liu Tianquan’s effort to network with Liu Yong.

Similarly, for Xia Xiaolan, in 1984 mainland China, the existence of millionaires was questionable, and even if they existed, they dared not show themselves. In this context, Liu Tianquan with his several million in assets was undoubtedly the wealthiest boss Xia Xiaolan could access. Large state-owned enterprises certainly had more assets than Liu Tianquan, but those assets weren’t privately owned, and representatives from companies like Huajian Group or Nantong First Construction, though surprised by ‘Yuan Hui’s’ successful renovation of the guesthouse, showed no intention of getting close to Liu Yong.

No one wanted to get close to Liu Yong – they viewed ‘Yuan Hui’ as competition for the Nanhai Hotel renovation project!

Only Liu Tianquan wouldn’t let money slip away. Rather than fighting with ‘Yuan Hui,’ who enjoyed Mayor Tang’s favor, and both sides getting hurt, why not join forces and share the Nanhai Hotel cake?

Liu Tianquan’s plan seemed perfect, except he miscalculated how poor Yuan Hui’s boss Liu Yong was.

When he came to Shenzhen for projects, he only had 40,000 yuan capital of his own.

After sharing half the profits, his capital and earnings totaled less than 100,000 yuan. Of this, 30,000 went into ‘Anxin Building Materials,’ leaving Liu Yong with just tens of thousands.

Every project required advance funding, and no client would pay all renovation costs upfront. While Liu Yong didn’t need to advance funds for ‘Anxin Building Materials’ renovations, that job wasn’t profitable anyway. Xia Xiaolan would rather borrow from Zhou Cheng than touch her uncle’s few tens of thousands – that money was the startup capital for his next business.

With just this amount, how could they partner with Liu Tianquan for the Nanhai Hotel renovation?

Xia Xiaolan felt this Hong Kong businessman must have misunderstood something.

‘Yuan Hui’s relationship with Tang Hongen wasn’t as strong as rumored. The guesthouse project happened through coincidence and Tang Hongen’s help. If they tried the same with “Nanhai Hotel,” Tang Hongen would have to actively explain to relevant departments that he hadn’t taken bribes.

Even if they wanted to participate in the Nanhai Hotel project, they couldn’t use Tang Hongen’s name – this matter must have absolutely nothing to do with him!

Having figured this out, Xia Xiaolan spoke frankly to Liu Tianquan:

“Mr. Liu, you might have misunderstood something. The Nanhai Hotel project is too large for Yuan Hui right now. We don’t have sufficient funds or qualifications. About your proposed cooperation…”

Xia Xiaolan was trying to clarify the situation, but fate had other plans. Someone suddenly shouted “Mayor Tang is here,” and she thought it was a joke, but Tang Hongen, accompanied by Secretary Peng, walked directly toward them.

“Good day, Mayor Tang.”

“Leader, you…”

Tang Hongen stopped in front of Xia Xiaolan. “Your mother’s in Shenzhen too?”

He had seen a familiar figure at the entrance earlier. The last time when his glasses broke, the person’s silhouette was blurry, but now seeing clearly, he found Liu Fen matched his previous impression.

Uncertain if he had seen it correctly, Tang Hongen casually asked Xia Xiaolan.

Xia Xiaolan felt extremely conflicted – hadn’t all her previous explanations just gone to waste?

Sure enough, Liu Tianquan wore a knowing smile. So this was what “not being close to Mayor Tang” looked like… There was no misunderstanding at all!