Xia Xiaolan needed to visit Tang Hongen.
It had been over two weeks since his surgery in Beijing – she wondered how his recovery was going.
Tang Hongen might want to hear more about Ji Jiangyuan, but Xia Xiaolan felt awkward about meeting him. Since Ji Jiangyuan learned Tang Hongen was his biological father, he’d stopped hanging around Xia Xiaolan and had been invisible for the past two weeks.
Her most recent interaction with Ji Jiangyuan was during the English competition.
That hardly counted as interaction – everyone was focused on their test papers, which were harder than college entrance exams. The preliminary round would eliminate many candidates, and few students from each school would likely remain for the finals. For the English competition, Ji Jiangyuan, having returned from America, was naturally enrolled in his department, hoping he’d win awards and bring glory!
Ji Jiangyuan now had to be just a regular classmate to Xia Xiaolan. They weren’t even in the same department, and she couldn’t join him for soccer or basketball – what was there to talk about?
While Ji Jiangyuan actively distanced himself, Su Jing had stopped stirring up trouble. Xia Xiaolan couldn’t bring Tang Hongen more news about Ji Jiangyuan.
“Third Brother, I don’t know how to thank you enough.”
Pan San smiled, making the scar over his right eye look particularly frightening, but Xia Xiaolan wasn’t scared, knowing he was someone Zhou Cheng trusted.
Pan San’s scar twitched as he spoke, “If you don’t mind having a rough fellow like me at your wedding with Zhou Cheng, inviting me for a celebratory drink would be thanks enough!”
Though marriage was still far off, Xia Xiaolan readily agreed.
“You must come early then.”
Pan San hadn’t finished – after explaining Liu Tianquan’s Hong Kong background, he went on to describe his operations in Shenzhen.
Liu Tianquan previously developed real estate, but after Tang Hongen took office, obtaining land became difficult. Besides some renovation projects, he’d lost his land development rights. His biggest current project in Shenzhen was the “Honey Lake Holiday Entertainment Village,” a development spanning hundreds of thousands of square meters. Hearing Pan San mention “Honey Lake,” Xia Xialan had vivid memories of it.
This resort would flourish for many years, expanding from its initial size to over 2 million square meters.
Until just before Xia Xiaolan’s rebirth, rumors of demolition had just begun circulating about “Honey Lake.” Demolition was inevitable – “Honey Lake” sat in central Shenzhen, and in 30 years its land value would exceed 100 billion yuan. Using it for an amusement park and resort? It would be used for housing!
Liu Tianquan certainly wasn’t qualified to join the “Honey Lake” construction project, which was jointly developed by Shenzhen Teneng Group and Zhengtai Group, each holding 50% shares.
The former was a major state-owned enterprise established in Shenzhen just two years ago but with strong qualifications and backing.
The latter was a large multinational group founded in Thailand by the patriotic overseas Chinese Xie family.
Liu Tianquan’s wealth of tens of millions, though impressive to Xia Xiaolan, couldn’t compete with these two major companies for the “Honey Lake” project. While they ate the meat, he could only pick at the bones, contracting some subsidiary renovation projects.
Pan San said Liu Tianquan had contracted the “Honey Lake Nightclub” renovation.
Xia Xiaolan smirked. Liu wasn’t just renovating nightclubs – taking her uncle to dance halls and such places were clearly about bringing “hostesses” into Shenzhen.
True to his Hong Kong triad background, he was always looking for shady business.
Perhaps Liu Tianquan’s goal wasn’t the shady business itself, but using those hostesses to build some kind of relationship network.
“Kang Wei, where’s my uncle?”
“Uncle Liu was invited away by that Hong Kong guy early this morning. This Honey Lake Third Brother mentioned – I’ve heard Uncle Liu mention it twice. The Hong Kong guy said it’s a guaranteed profitable project, suggesting Uncle Liu join now to share profits by year-end.”
Xia Xiaolan couldn’t remember clearly.
Wasn’t Honey Lake officially opening next year?
This entertainment resort would become hugely popular in Shenzhen, with various amusements, nightclubs, and racetracks. Mainland people had never seen such things, making special trips to Shenzhen just to visit Honey Lake.
Anyone could guess this project had strong government support – Liu Tianquan wasn’t wrong about guaranteed returns. Not to be paranoid, but Xia Xiaolan had seen people recruited to share risks, never to share imminent profits… Being surnamed Liu meant nothing – even siblings could be calculating. Liu Fang was blood-related, yet hadn’t she tried to take advantage of Xia Xiaolan and her mother?
When Liu Yong struggled, Liu Fang never offered help.
Talk of being family from five hundred years ago was meaningless – what connection could there be between a Liu from Hong Kong and one from Yunan Province?
To receive, one must first give – Liu Tianquan clearly had bigger plans. A “South Sea Hotel” renovation project alone wouldn’t warrant such effort.
Hearing Liu Yong had been called away early morning and still hadn’t returned, Xia Xiaolan was surprised:
“Li Dongliang and Ge Jian – surely one of them went with my uncle?”
…
What was Liu Yong doing?
One shouldn’t be too kindhearted – he’d just spoken up once for that woman called Xiao Rou, and the shrewd Liu Tianquan immediately noticed Liu Yong’s interest in her.
A man wouldn’t care about a woman he wasn’t interested in – who has that much sympathy to care where Xiao Rou was sent?
As soon as Liu Yong mentioned it, Liu Tianquan chuckled: “Brother, I understand.”
Understand what?
Liu Yong wanted to say he understood nothing!
But needing to cooperate with Liu Tianquan, he just laughed it off.
The dance hall had many hostesses, and after Liu Tianquan’s word, Xiao Rou was considered Liu Yong’s woman, off-limits to others – fortunately, Xiao Rou was sensible, thanking “Brother Yong” for his protection, saying she could now earn a monthly salary without having to drink and dance with other men.
Xiao Rou genuinely disliked working as a hostess.
Liu Yong couldn’t say much – he was so frugal he rented local housing, how could he afford to support Xiao Rou?
When others mentioned Xiao Rou wasn’t earning tips because she wouldn’t entertain other clients, Liu Yong remained indifferent. His business in Shenzhen wasn’t to support hostesses – he had a wife and child to support, everyone in his family came before Xiao Rou! He had sympathy, but only that much.
Thick-skinned Liu Yong remained unmoved even when called the stingiest boss.
He had no real relationship with Xiao Rou – if she didn’t want to entertain other clients, how could that be blamed on him?
This was why Kang Wei thought Liu Yong was being set up. Money scams were one thing, but Xiao Rou wasn’t trying to get Liu Yong to spend money – emotional manipulation was more sophisticated than financial fraud.
So there Liu Yong was, minding his own business when trouble fell from the sky. Somehow, Xiao Rou’s boyfriend back home learned about her hostess work in Shenzhen and brought seven or eight fellow villagers to catch her – since Xiao Rou was labeled as Liu Yong’s woman, they came looking for him to take responsibility.
Liu Yong was completely unprepared when Liu Tianquan called him over in the early morning, thinking they’d discuss business – how could he have known it would be about this?