After meeting with Tang Hong’en, Xia Xiaolan finally felt reassured.
A big shot like Tang wouldn’t speak directly about anything, especially government decisions – how could he explain everything in detail to Xia Xiaolan? But their conversation wasn’t entirely useless. After all, Xia Xiaolan wasn’t just 19 years old, and she could understand some of the implied meanings.
When she returned to the guesthouse, Liu Yong was still awake.
“Xiaolan, about the contract…”
Liu Yong needed to accompany his wife and child, and also entertain Liu Fen. That evening, a large group from the building materials store had gone out for seafood. Though Liu Yong appeared happy on the surface, he was still worried about the contract signed with Liu Tianquan.
When he asked Ge Jian, he learned that Xia Xiaolan had taken the contract with her. Unable to see what problems the contract might have, and getting no answers from Ge Jian and Kang Wei, Liu Yong was restless until Xia Xiaolan’s return.
His current feelings mirrored those of someone who’d been seriously injured while smuggling and wanted to withdraw their investment and change professions but feared others wouldn’t agree. Overthinking, anxious, placing all hope on others – he felt completely passive!
His niece – why would Xia Xiaolan deliberately make things difficult for him?
But having his drunk uncle run off to sign contracts was indeed quite troublesome for Xia Xiaolan.
Liu Yong was thin and small, not very tall to begin with, and despite all his hard work, he hadn’t managed to gain weight like his sister Liu Fen. Plus, with Pengcheng’s strong ultraviolet rays, Liu Yong’s already dark skin had become even darker. Though he was a boss, if he dressed slightly shabbily, he could be mistaken for a migrant worker from the countryside.
Xia Xiaolan felt her heart soften.
Her uncle had spent the first half of his life in the countryside, and his only experience outside was smuggling. In business, he was feeling his way forward. Even though she had told him some things to watch out for, many lessons could only be learned through experience.
“There are some problems with the contract. You signed a 500,000 yuan subcontracting agreement with Liu Tianquan, right? The 90,000 yuan advance payment might be lost.”
Since Xia Xiaolan had softened, she wouldn’t keep Liu Yong in suspense. She might as well tell him now rather than let her uncle worry all night unable to sleep. She took out the contract and pointed out the difference between ‘Tianchen’ and ‘Tiancheng’.
Liu Yong held the contract with its prominent company seal, unable to believe he’d made such a mistake.
Recently, his brain might have truly been pickled by alcohol.
90,000 yuan?
With the year coming to an end, this was about how much Liu Yong had earned in the entire year.
His working capital included bank loans and Li Fengmei’s share of profits from the clothing store. The most profitable project had been the municipal government guesthouse, which earned him over 100,000 yuan. However, Liu Yong hadn’t kept all that money – he’d split the profit half-and-half with Xia Xiaolan.
He didn’t keep much of his earnings on hand, investing everything back into the business. The few tens of thousands he could spare had already gone into buying a siheyuan courtyard house in Beijing.
Losing 90,000 yuan would hurt Liu Yong deeply. He still had bank loans to repay – low interest was relative, it wasn’t zero interest. Liu Yong felt quite devastated. Should he continue investing money, hoping Liu Tianquan would have a conscience? Or should he simply terminate the contract and write off the 90,000 yuan?
“There’s also the matter of breach of contract penalties…”
Liu Yong was now extremely regretful.
He had been greedy. After making over 100,000 yuan at once from the municipal government guesthouse project, earning small amounts didn’t feel as satisfying anymore. When he decorated the houses for Kang Wei and Shao Guangrong, he only earned three to four thousand yuan in total, but back then he was full of energy, not thinking about profits, just feeling excited about learning new things.
Back then, no one helped him supervise the renovations, and he couldn’t relax for a single day.
Now with Li Dongliang and Ge Jian as assistants, he simply handed over some small projects, and what did he do with his free time? He went drinking and socializing with Liu Tianquan.
No wonder he fell for the trap after hanging around Liu Tianquan for so long.
Thinking carefully, how long had it been since he’d opened any of the books he’d brought to Pengcheng?
As Liu Yong recalled his actions over the past month or two, sweat poured from his body.
“Xiaolan, your uncle has taken a real fall this time… Well, at least it’s woken me up!”
A loss of at least 90,000 yuan – how many clothes would Li Fengmei need to sell to make that much? With 90,000 yuan, they could have bought another courtyard house in Beijing with money to spare. Yet he had ruined it by signing an incorrect contract while drunk – this lesson couldn’t be more painful.
Xia Xiaolan saw that while her uncle was truly devastated, his spirit hadn’t been completely crushed by this oversight.
“90,000 isn’t much, it’s better than completing the project, investing several hundred thousand more, and then not being able to collect payment. That would set our whole family back to square one, wasting all our efforts from this past year.”
A debt of several hundred thousand could still be repaid.
They would need to take stock of both families’ assets, which could probably amount to around 400,000 yuan. Selling the ‘Blue Phoenix’ in Shangdu could bring in another hundred thousand or more. Though Blue Phoenix’s renovation had only cost a bit over 10,000 yuan and the annual rent was only 2,000 yuan, after nearly a year of operation, the clothing store had built up a reputation. If Xia Xiaolan and Li Fengmei wanted to transfer the business, people would come with cash in hand to take it over.
There weren’t any suitable storefronts like ‘Blue Phoenix’ in Erqi Square anymore, and with the business running smoothly, anyone taking it over would make money. Even with a high transfer fee, someone would be willing to pay.
But this way, they would truly have to start over from scratch.
Liu Yong barely slept that night. He didn’t dare toss and turn too much for fear of disturbing Li Fengmei’s rest, so he lay stiff as a board all night, waking up with aches all over his body the next morning. Li Fengmei and Liu Fen didn’t know about this yet – they had come to Pengcheng as tourists, and if they knew Liu Yong had been swindled out of 90,000 yuan, no one would be in the mood for sightseeing.
Xia Xiaolan had a plan – worst case scenario, her uncle had paid 90,000 yuan for a lesson.
Better than paying 900,000 or even 9 million later. The business naturally had its gains and losses, and Xia Xiaolan was quite philosophical about it.
Liu Yong pretended everything was fine and spent a day touring Pengcheng, but by dinner time he was distracted: “Xiaolan, Liu Tianquan is playing tricks with the contract, and I’ve been thinking it over – I don’t want to pay this breach of contract penalty!”
“Who said we have to pay a penalty? We can continue with the project, but we need to have Liu Tianquan sign a new contract.”
After dinner was a good time to discuss business with Liu Tianquan – it would help digest the meal.
Liu Yong didn’t understand, but he trusted Xia Xiaolan.
He was also ashamed that his niece had to clean up the mess he’d made.
…
“Liu Yong and his niece want to see me?”
There was no question about whether to meet them – they had to be invited quickly.
Fan Yu, who had been leaning on Liu Tianquan, immediately stood up: “Boss…”
Liu Tianquan waved his hand: “You should avoid them for now. It’s not appropriate for you to meet Xia Xiaolan at this time.”
If Xia Xiaolan saw Fan Yu, no matter what tricks Fan Yu had up her sleeve, Liu Yong would never trust her again. Fan Yu left as if pardoned – she truly didn’t dare face Xia Xiaolan directly.
When Xia Xiaolan entered, she didn’t bother with pleasantries and placed the contract directly in front of Liu Tianquan:
“Mr. Liu, your company’s people are quite careless. I notice there seem to be some errors in this contract!”