Is this Xu Zhongyi’s “thank you gift” to Xiaolan?
Goodness, adding it all up comes to 2 million US dollars.
Right now, even if you gathered all of Liu Yong’s assets together, they wouldn’t be worth 2 million US dollars!
At the official exchange rate, one million US dollars would be possible, and that’s counting Yuanhui’s value, not the cash in Liu Yong’s hands. Even with nearly 4 million in Chinese currency cash, he still couldn’t exchange it for a million US dollars… The bank simply wouldn’t exchange it for him. Conversely, if someone wanted to exchange a million US dollars for Chinese currency, the bank would welcome them with open arms.
When Xu Zhongyi makes a move, he goes big with 2 million US dollars. Whether Building No. 45 is worth 500,000 US dollars is debatable, but Xu Zhongyi’s intention to pay 1.5 million US dollars in cold, hard cash can’t be fake—
“No, no, how could Xiaolan accept this money?”
Liu Yong understood his niece well, and considering Xiaolan as family, he refused on her behalf.
Xiaolan didn’t help Grandmother Yu for any reward. She often said there were many ways to make money, some acceptable and others not… What’s 2 million US dollars anyway? With the Golden Sand Pool’s success as precedent, if Xiaolan didn’t go abroad as an exchange student for a year and focused on Qihang’s real estate business instead, she could earn more than 2 million US dollars on her merit.
But Xu Zhongyi’s tone brooked no refusal:
“I’m not giving money to Young Miss Xia. I’m just using Building No. 45 under her name as shares. I see that Zhu Suizhou has some capability, but why should Chaoyang Real Estate eat all the profits? He caused Young Miss Xia to lose a prime waterfront property, so of course there should be some compensation.”
Not money, but shares in the shopping mall Zhu Suizhou was going to build.
1.5 million US dollars plus not causing trouble over the property rights of Building No. 45—that Zhu Suizhou seemed quite clever, he should know what he needs to offer, right?
Even if Zhu Suizhou had backing, he should still weigh the stakes carefully.
Right now, it’s just negotiations between Xu Zhongyi and Zhu Suizhou.
Some people in Shangdu could ignore Xu Zhongyi, as long as they resisted letting him invest, Xu Zhongyi couldn’t do anything to them.
If the talks between Xu Zhongyi and Zhu Suizhou failed, Building No. 45, which was taken by Chaoyang Real Estate, was a gift from the Xu family to Xia Xiaolan—then they could wait to be summoned by Mayor Tang and the Zhou family. Did they think they could bully a young girl like Xia Xiaolan just because she had no backing?
This was now a business matter.
Whether compensation or shareholding, it would be best if they could negotiate successfully.
Ning Haodong misunderstood Xu Zhongyi. He was no longer the gentle scholar from over 20 years ago. Without the ability to use both carrot and stick, how could he have been chosen as leader, become “Master Qiu,” and earn the reverence of someone like Chai Hai?
1.5 million US dollars and reasonable shareholding would give Zhu Suizhou a way to save face.
As Xu Zhongyi said, what good would come from both sides fighting to mutual destruction?
Liu Yong had nothing to say.
Brother Yong still lacked experience. Though his perspective had broadened, he still retained a local businessman’s style and thinking. Favors were favors and grudges were grudges. He couldn’t understand why after Zhu Suizhou snatched away the building under Xiaolan’s name, Xiaolan would turn around and cooperate with him. Brother Yong was still Brother Yong, quite different in rank from “Master Qiu.”
He only knew that someone had been secretly meddling, transferring Building No. 45’s ownership back and forth, and in the end, it benefited his niece… Was this fortune falling from the sky for Xiaolan?
“Then you’ll have to tell Xiaolan yourself.”
Liu Yong mumbled.
Xu Zhongyi smiled, pulling at the corners of his mouth, “I’m only responsible for the money—1.5 million US dollars plus Building No. 45 as shares. How much the shopping mall represents, Young Miss Xia will have to negotiate with Zhu Suizhou herself. I trust in Young Miss Xia’s ability; she won’t let me lose out, nor will she let herself lose out.”
“But Xiaolan is going back to America, she doesn’t have the time—”
“Xiaolan doesn’t need to go back and forth. That Zhu Suizhou will seek her out himself.”
This time it wasn’t Xu Zhongyi who interrupted Liu Yong, but Grandmother Yu.
Grandmother Yu was wise with age, living very perspicaciously. After all, she was the eldest daughter of the “Yu Half-City” family. It would be nonsense to say she didn’t understand any business knowledge.
Even if she didn’t understand business, she understood people.
Zhu Suizhou was clearly the ambitious type. “Ambition” wasn’t always derogatory—Xia Xiaolan was also ambitious. The ambition was a driving force; ambitious people desperately yearned for success. Once such people set their goals, they will find ways to achieve them no matter what.
Zhu Suizhou’s ambition was to build a shopping mall at Erqi Square.
For this goal, he had even quit his government position.
With all his “friends” in Shangdu, could any employee secretly transfer Building No. 45’s ownership back and forth without his knowledge?
If Zhu Suizhou hadn’t done this himself, he had at least tacitly approved it.
First, make it a fait accompli, then deal with each obstacle to success as it comes!
Grandmother Yu snorted, “Such people easily succeed early on, charging forward like a broken bamboo, but fall hard later. Even if you want to give shopping mall shares to young Xiaolan, you should warn her not to get too close to Zhu Suizhou. Let them just cooperate briefly without too many entanglements, lest in the future…”
Lest in the future she gets implicated by Zhu Suizhou.
Xu Zhongyi didn’t share his mother’s view of Zhu Suizhou’s character; he just felt Zhu Suizhou was too close to government officials.
No matter how smooth-talking he was, wasn’t he still relying on others’ power?
Only when Chaoyang Real Estate was no longer just a shell company would Zhu Suizhou truly have power—before then, he might end up doing all the work for Xia Xiaolan’s benefit.
…
Fortune falls from the sky while sitting at home!
Xia Xiaolan hadn’t expected things to develop that way in Shangdu. From accountability to cooperation?
“Let’s not even discuss how much the building is worth, but Uncle Xu plans to put up 1.5 million US dollars for me? What’s this about, thanking me for finding him?”
Nonsense.
She hadn’t spent that much money finding people!
She hadn’t even spent a tenth of that—150,000 US dollars—Jim’s fees weren’t that high.
Moreover, this American search for relatives had been watched by Xu Zhongyi from start to finish. This man had been observing the situation, deciding when to appear. It wasn’t Xia Xiaolan who found Xu Zhongyi at all.
It was Xu Zhongyi who found Xia Xiaolan!
“1.5 million US dollars? If Grandmother Yu hadn’t beaten him up first, even if he offered 15 million US dollars, I wouldn’t forget what this person did to you. Xu Zhongyi is different from Grandmother Yu; he has no emotional connection from spending time with you. Using you as bait to hook Zhang Jiangdong—I’ve never forgotten about that.”
1.5 million US dollars given directly to Xiaolan wasn’t much.
Knowing Xiaolan couldn’t let go of that building at Erqi Square, using this to have Xiaolan invest and participate in Chaoyang Real Estate’s mall project—Xu Zhongyi surely wasn’t just giving money to Zhu Suizhou to spend. Xu Zhongyi probably saw that this project could be profitable and wanted Xiaolan to make some money.
Xu Zhongyi trafficked antiques between the mainland and Hong Kong, using Hong Kong as a transit point to transport Chinese antiques to the world. Overseas Chinese and collectors who appreciated Chinese culture were all Xu Zhongyi’s clients.
When Zhou Cheng previously went to threaten Boss Ding in Beijing, it was to force “Master Qiu” to appear.
But if Zhou Cheng were willing, those threats could turn from jokes into reality.
If it weren’t for Grandmother Yu’s sake, Zhou Cheng could paralyze half of Xu Zhongyi’s mainland business. It would just take some time, but it wasn’t impossible!
Xia Xiaolan caught Zhou Cheng’s meaning, “Are you telling me to accept Uncle Xu’s goodwill? Never mind what kind of person Zhu Suizhou is, he’s Sheng Xuan’s boyfriend. In dealing with him, I have to be on guard at all times.”