Led by the real estate agent, Pei Qian took a brief look at the apartment.

It was indeed as described earlier—an unfurnished property that hadn’t been decorated yet. The apartment was about 170 square meters, with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. One bedroom faced north, while the other two bedrooms and the living room faced south—a very nice layout.

Pei Qian was buying it for his own residence, so he prioritized living comfort.

Compared to other nearby communities, this one’s disadvantage was its distance from both the food market and Jumpscare Inn—requiring a bit of a walk. It also wasn’t in a school district, and the surrounding amenities were only average, hence the lower price.

But these weren’t major concerns for Pei Qian.

“Alright, then contact the seller and let’s meet as soon as possible. If there are no issues, we’ll sign the contract.”

Pei Qian was very straightforward. As a single-threaded person, completing a task early meant freeing up mental space to focus on other matters.

With July approaching and settlement coming soon, Pei Qian needed to devote 120% of his energy to find ways to extract more benefits from the system.

The young agent was naturally delighted—finding a buyer like this was a blessing from three lifetimes of good karma!

He immediately called the seller.

A moment later, the agent said, “The seller says he can bring the paperwork now and will arrive in about an hour. Would you like to wait at our office?”

Pei Qian nodded: “Alright.”

It seemed the seller was also eager to close the deal. According to the agent earlier, he apparently needed the money urgently.

…

After returning to the agency office, Pei Qian played on his phone for a while and drank two cups of tea before the seller arrived.

“Hello, hello. My surname is Che, Che Rong. What should I call you?” The seller had a smiling face.

His apartment had been listed for some time. Today, hearing there was a buyer who wanted to pay in full and met all his requirements, and who was also very decisive, he was naturally overjoyed.

The buyer before him wore casual clothes and looked quite young, probably like a college student. Such young people buying properties with full payment were indeed rare—perhaps his parents were sponsoring him.

Though it was odd that he wore a mask in this hot weather and didn’t remove it even when meeting face-to-face.

However, Che Rong didn’t ask too many questions. As a businessman, he had enough sense not to inquire about things that weren’t his business.

Pei Qian briefly sized up Che Rong—around forty years old, with a remarkably well-maintained physique for his age. His chest and biceps stretched the polo shirt he was wearing, making him appear very energetic.

After triple-checking, Pei Qian confirmed he hadn’t seen him before.

Pei Qian had been quite worried earlier. Jingzhou was neither small nor large as cities go.

All of Jingzhou’s investors had formed a small circle around Mr. Li, and these investors put money into everything. Buying a few properties was quite normal for them.

Pei Qian had been afraid that the seller might happen to be one of those investors, in which case recognizing him would have been a disaster.

Upon seeing Che Rong, Pei Qian finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Thankfully, thankfully, he didn’t know him.

How could there be such coincidences in the world? In a city as large as Jingzhou, it wasn’t possible to run into an acquaintance just by randomly buying a house.

That wouldn’t be scientific.

“Hello, my surname is Pei.” Pei Qian politely shook his hand.

“Pei?” Che Rong instinctively paused for a moment.

The surname Pei wasn’t very common, and the mention of it immediately made him think of Mr. Pei from Tenda.

But he quickly dismissed this ridiculous thought.

How could it possibly be Mr. Pei!

Would Mr. Pei be interested in a property in this area?

Besides, even if Mr. Pei was interested and wanted to buy, how could he possibly come personally to handle these procedures? Wouldn’t he just send a subordinate to take care of it? And he wouldn’t just buy one unit either—if he were buying, he’d buy an entire building like Sloth Apartments.

So Che Rong immediately stopped this unrealistic fantasy and simply treated Pei Qian as an ordinary home buyer, most likely having no connection to Mr. Pei of Tenda Group.

The two sat down and briefly discussed matters concerning the property.

Pei Qian asked, “Is there a specific reason why you’re in a hurry to sell the property?”

Che Rong hastily replied, “Don’t worry, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the property. The reason I’m selling is mainly due to some business matters of my own.”

“It’s like this—I run a gym.”

“A few years ago, business was good, and I had some spare cash. So, like others, I thought about investing in real estate. Just as Jixiang Garden was opening for sales, the developer made it sound great, implying in various ways that the area had school districts and would definitely appreciate in value in the future.”

“I don’t know much about this field, so I impulsively bought three units.”

“But unexpectedly, it was all a scheme! After the property was delivered, I found out there was no school district at all. Many people confronted the developer, but nothing came of it. So the property prices began to slowly drop, decreasing by 700-800 or nearly 1,000 yuan per square meter.”

“In recent years, the fitness industry in Jingzhou has been declining, and my business situation has been getting worse day by day. Fortunately, I recently received help from a benefactor, found strong backing, and my new gym branch has been well-received. So after discussing with several investors and partners, we decided to increase our investment and open more branches.”

“Although there are investors providing funds, this is still my business, and I also want to contribute more money; otherwise, I won’t have much say in the future.”

“Besides, investing more money and opening more branches means faster development.”

“Just as the food market has caused property prices in this community to warm up slightly, now exceeding the price I initially paid, I wanted to sell quickly, recover my funds, and invest that money in my gym.”

“In short, after this lesson, I’ve realized that property speculation is definitely not the right path! It’s better for me to take my money and stick to my original profession.”

Che Rong briefly introduced his situation to prevent the other party from suspecting there might be serious problems with the property or thinking he was trying to deceive them.

As for the specific situation with the gym, he didn’t elaborate, only mentioning it in passing.

After all, the other party wouldn’t care about these details, so there was no need to go into specifics.

Pei Qian listened silently, his brow occasionally furrowing and then relaxing.

So the person opposite him wasn’t a professional property speculator but someone who had followed the trend and, lacking a professional speculator’s insight, had gotten himself into trouble by following blindly.

Speaking of which… the fitness industry in Jingzhou had been declining in recent years?

How had he not noticed this?

Tuoguan Fitness was doing extremely well, continuously opening new branches.

Oh, if Tuoguan Fitness was doing so well, then for other gyms, wouldn’t that mean decline? After all, the market was only so big, and if Tuoguan Fitness was taking a large share…

It seemed there was some responsibility on his part for this situation.

Hearing all this, it was clear this brother had it tough—even selling his property to raise operating funds for his gym, which suggested the situation wasn’t very optimistic.

For a gym that was struggling to stay afloat, shouldn’t he extend a helping hand?

Dream Realization Venture Capital had been continuously investing, but did it matter where the money went?

In Jingzhou, with the formidable presence of Tuoguan Fitness, other gyms’ business had been severely squeezed. In other words, investing in other gyms would likely result in losses to some extent.

At least they wouldn’t be hugely profitable!

Pei Qian asked, “What’s the name of your gym?”

Che Rong answered, “Star Bird Fitness.”

“Star Bird Fitness?” Pei Qian was taken aback. This name seemed familiar; he had definitely heard of it before.

But where exactly had he heard it…

He couldn’t remember, couldn’t recall at all.

“I seem to have heard this name before, but I can’t remember where,” Pei Qian said.

Che Rong smiled, “Oh, although my gym isn’t large in scale, it’s a small chain in Jingzhou with several branches. You might have passed by and seen our sign before, so it left an impression.”

Pei Qian nodded slightly. That explanation seemed reasonable.

He would later give He Desheng from Dream Realization Venture Capital a heads-up to quietly invest some money in Star Bird Fitness. Of course, he still couldn’t reveal his identity, much less reveal that he had bought an apartment in this community.

After chatting casually for a few more minutes, both parties were satisfied.

“Alright, let’s sign the contract then.”

The two quickly reached an agreement and happily completed the transaction.

Although it was a full cash purchase, there were still some procedures to go through. However, with the agent’s help, many things were simplified and not too troublesome.

Network signing of the contract, tax verification, document submission…

The efficiency here was very high. The entire process was completed in just two days. Pei Qian successfully obtained the property deed, and the funds were transferred to Che Rong.

The unfurnished apartment of over 170 square meters had an average price of around 8,500 yuan per square meter, with a total price of 1.44 million yuan, plus taxes and fees.

This price wasn’t very high for Pei Qian and was completely acceptable. When he had time, he would find a somewhat reliable custom interior design service to decorate it. After letting it air out for a few months and passing all inspections, it would basically be ready for occupancy.

During these two weekend days, besides handling the property procedures, Pei Qian also contacted Hu Xiao, asking him to have his internet commenters promote “Animal Island,” beginning the first step of the “raise expectations then disappoint” plan.

By Monday, once “Animal Island” had gained a bit of attention, he would immediately have Tenda officially issue a statement distancing itself from Zhixing Studio, thereby beginning the first step of reverse marketing.

Of course, Pei Qian didn’t forget to mention to He Desheng to pay attention to Star Bird Fitness when he had time and invest some money.

But he couldn’t invest immediately—it would be better to wait a few days, preferably until Che Rong had forgotten about selling the property, to avoid drawing his attention.

Everything was going smoothly, and Pei Qian was pleased. He went home, comfortably lay on his bed, and waited for Monday to arrive.

…

Sunday afternoon.

After completing all the procedures related to the property, Che Rong rushed back to Star Bird Fitness without delay.

In the VIP reception room of Star Bird Fitness, Li Shi was drinking tea and waiting.

“Sorry to have kept you waiting, Mr. Li! I was handling property sale procedures today, and then got caught in traffic on the way back. I sincerely apologize! I’ll treat you to a meal another day to make amends!”