Kang Lianming had encountered all sorts of people in his work and life.
People of Xia Xiaolan’s age could barely speak coherently in front of him, and even his children didn’t dare contradict him, yet Xia Xiaolan spoke quite articulately.
This girl was ambitious – ambitious in her career. Being friends with someone like her, Kang Wei would naturally change from his former aimless ways. When Kang Wei woke up for the second time, having just returned from death’s door, he was still thinking about opening the new store. This made Kang Lianming want to learn more about Kang Wei’s “career.”
But this triggered Xia Xiaolan’s wariness.
“You misunderstand, I just want to know what kind of business you’re doing… Let me put it this way, does your business conflict with the Cheng Rong Group?”
Kang Lianming’s question horrified Xia Xiaolan – this was a perspective she had never considered.
Was Kang Lianming worried this wasn’t an accident, but something Du Zhaohui did deliberately?
“There’s no business conflict. We mainly deal in construction materials. The Cheng Rong Group’s investment plans are huge – stores of our size would struggle even to get orders from their investment projects, so we won’t have any conflicts of interest. If you’re talking about personal grudges, I do have some friction with Du Zhaohui, but it’s nothing life-threatening, not serious enough for Du Zhaohui to kill for revenge.”
Du Zhaohui would have to be insane to kill someone in Shenzhen.
The Du family was chaotic enough, and Du Zhaohui had to compete with others. He had finally managed to push out Liu Tianquan, making him the sole decision-maker in Shenzhen. Why would he give up doing good business in Shenzhen just because Xia Xiaolan refused to live in Hong Kong?
Xia Xiaolan thought Young Master Du was arrogant but not that stupid. Looking at how he dealt with Wang Guangping, Du Zhaohui was truly a cunning and clever person.
Business competition was even less likely. The Cheng Rong Group’s investment projects were measured in hundreds of millions, while ‘Anjia Building Materials had revenue of just over 600,000 yuan as of February ’85. Selling the entire store wouldn’t be enough to buy Du Zhaohui’s Bentley.
Kang Lianming didn’t pursue that line of questioning further but took the opportunity to learn more about the building materials store’s operations.
With revenue of over 600,000 yuan in four months of operation, Kang Wei’s 20% share had earned him 20,000 yuan in dividends. In terms of economic benefits, this equaled four years of Kang Lianming’s salary. No wonder Kang Wei was working so hard, still thinking about opening branch stores even after the accident.
Kang Lianming hoped Kang Wei could live more easily, but forgot that young people always compete with each other.
Among those who grew up with Kang Wei, Shao Guangrong worked hard at his unit, and Zhou Cheng, though the same age as Kang Wei, already held such a position in his unit – everyone seemed more capable than Kang Wei… Now that he had found something to prove his abilities, no wonder Kang Wei couldn’t let go.
Earlier, hearing that Kang Wei had renovated his home, Kang Lianming thought the family elders had subsidized it, but now it seemed Kang Wei had earned it himself. Hanging around with Zhou Cheng, Kang Wei had made quite a bit of money.
If he tried to forbid Kang Wei from coming to Shenzhen, it would surely become another crime: preventing his nephew from making money.
Xia Xiaolan wondered what Kang Lianming would say, but after thinking for a while, he asked:
“Have you considered expanding?”
Seeing Du Zhaohui act like money gave him free rein made Kang Lianming angry. For a building materials store started from scratch by a few young people to achieve an annual revenue of over a million was quite impressive. Kang Lianming felt the development was a bit slow – the Cheng Rong Group had accumulated wealth over decades to reach its current state. Kang Wei couldn’t catch up quickly, but his current scale seemed too small.
Xia Xiaolan was dumbfounded. “You mean…?”
“I mean I can provide some reasonable help, but of course, you’ll need to keep it from Kang Wei.”
Xia Xiaolan was confused by Kang Lianming – instead of wanting Kang Wei to quit the business, he wanted to help expand it. If so, why couldn’t he say it openly? Why specifically hide it from Kang Wei? Whether or not Xia Xiaolan accepted Kang Lianming’s help, his intentions were good, so shouldn’t Kang Wei know about it?
Xia Xiaolan felt there were real communication issues between uncle and nephew.
“Uncle Kang, I’m sorry, but I’m just one of the shareholders. Whatever help you want to provide, I need to discuss it with the other shareholders first, and Kang Wei is one of those shareholders. Do you understand my meaning?”
Xia Xiaolan was wary.
There’s no such thing as a free lunch. She worried Kang Lianming’s “help” came with conditions, like pushing Kang Wei out of the building materials store.
People like Kang Lianming didn’t have strange ideas so much as “far-reaching plans.” Xia Xiaolan was always careful dealing with them because to achieve their goals, they often planned several moves when making their first move.
Kang Lianming said nothing, making his characteristic lip-pursing expression.
“Miss Xia, you may have misunderstood the leader’s meaning…”
Just as Kang Lianming’s secretary began speaking, he noticed Xia Xiaolan staring intently past him.
No, no, no – she was looking behind him!
The secretary turned his head to see a young man striding over, exceptionally handsome – even other men would feel inferior looking at him. Who says men don’t care about looks? Handsome men could also transcend social classes; throughout history, they never lacked romantic pursuit.
“Second Uncle Kang.”
Zhou Cheng approached in civilian clothes. Kang Lianming nodded, “You came quite quickly.”
With Zhou Cheng’s arrival, some things were better left unsaid by Kang Lianming. As he left with his secretary, Xia Xiaolan tried to hide her hands. The bandaged hands could be hidden behind her back, but what about her face?
Heavens, she had just seen in the mirror how red and purple her face was, and now Zhou Cheng saw it directly!
“Don’t hide, let me have a good look!”
The face was quite frightening.
Hand on his heart, Zhou Cheng could say that if he had first met Xia Xiaolan with such a face, he truly would have struggled to fall in love at first sight. But having known Xia Xiaolan for so long, he saw far more than just her face. He loved Xia Xiaolan, loved everything about her, starting with her beauty but not limited to it!
Xia Xiaolan’s personality, her positive attitude, her frustrating stubbornness – her merits and flaws were all things Zhou Cheng loved. No, his wife had no flaws at all.
Zhou Cheng held her head, not letting her move.
As long as he hadn’t lost Xiaolan, Zhou Cheng truly didn’t care much about appearances!
Thinking of yesterday afternoon’s heart palpitations, Zhou Cheng was still frightened. After carefully examining her face, he gently kissed Xia Xiaolan’s forehead: “You don’t need to hide. You’re the most beautiful to me – what’s important is that you’re safe.”
The instructor hadn’t lied to him; she could still stand and talk, so it was just scratches.
Zhou Cheng wasn’t reassured even after getting the news; he had to see for himself to feel at ease. He didn’t mind the facial injuries; what he cared about was whether Xia Xiaolan was in pain.
“Zhou Cheng?!”
Hearing Zhou Cheng had come, Guan Huie ran out to look – he was being intimate with Xia Xiaolan.
How could Zhou Cheng get leave? Had he snuck out on his own? Guan Huie herself felt Xia Xiaolan had suffered quite a bit, but if Zhou Cheng violated discipline for Xia Xiaolan’s sake, she would still be unhappy.