Riding the wind of rebirth

"Isn't there a popular saying these days?" Zhou Zhi laughed, "The one who owes money is the boss. Mr. Ma, are you pointing this out because you think I'm not polite enough to you?"

"No one can win an argument with you," Master Ma laughed. "It seems that Xiao Miao's method of dealing with you is the right way."

“You’re talking nonsense again.” Zhou Zhi took Mai Xiaomiao’s hand: “Xiaomiao, be good, we won’t listen to his provocation.”

"I don't understand what you're saying," Xiao Miao said honestly.

Master Ma was just stirring up trouble, trying to sow discord between Xiao Miao and Zhou Zhi by saying that she was too subservient to him. However, Xiao Miao was completely oblivious to this and didn't understand the underlying meaning at all.

After losing another round, Master Ma could only roll his eyes and say, "Let's go. We have a few more guests today, people you haven't seen in a long time."

Including the basement, the museum actually has three floors. When Master Ma led Zhou Zhi and Mai Xiaomiao to the second-floor reception room by elevator, it was indeed full of distinguished guests.

Indeed, it was people Zhouzhi hadn't seen in a long time: Feng Cang, Pan Shiya, Yu Bin, Wang Shuo, Liu Zhengyun, Mo Yan, Haiyang, and Su Tong were all there.

"Hello, Mr. Feng, Mr. Pan, Mr. Yu, and the writers." Zhou Zhi hurriedly greeted everyone one by one.

"Haha, Zhouzi, long time no see!" Feng Cang and Zhou Zhi hugged. "You're both PhDs now?"

"It's under repair, it's under repair," Zhou Zhi quickly explained.

"A doctorate is great! I'll get it first so I don't have to pay to buy it later," Yu Bin said with a smile.

"You think everyone else is like you?" Pan Shiya retorted to Yu Bin with a laugh, then said to Zhou Zhi, "I heard you went to teach in the Liangshan Mountains? This must be Xiao Miao, right? Welcome, welcome..."

"This is my girlfriend, Mai Xiaomiao," Zhou Zhi introduced to everyone. "She works in the computer field."

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Pan Shiya said with a smile. "I know you; you were featured in Time magazine with your mentor."

"Oh? So impressive?" Liu Zhengyun also extended his hand to shake hands with Mai Xiaomiao. However, as someone who buried himself in writing novels every day, he knew nothing about this well-behaved girl who looked even younger than Zhou Zhi. He was quite taken aback.

"Teacher Liu, Teacher Mo Yan, it's been a long time. Are you both doing well?"

"Let's sit down and chat," Su Tong said. "Hello, Elbow. This is our first time meeting. I've been trying to please you for so many days, and I haven't even thanked you yet."

"Professor Su, you're too kind," Zhou Zhi said with a smile. "You're giving me face."

Upon closer examination, Su Tong wasn't wrong. The writers who came to support Master Ma today were all old friends from their time in the editorial department. Master Ma had spent a fortune back then to set up the "Seahorse Club," and later even established a film and television company. Essentially, it was just a place for these cronies to gather regularly, costing him a considerable sum. In his previous life, Master Ma had mentioned in an interview that the money he squandered during that period was enough to buy twenty courtyard houses. Fortunately, in this life, Zhou Zhi "bravely" took on this task. However, he was more cunning than Master Ma. He first bought all the courtyard houses from Jessie Cheng, then chose a good location to establish "De Mian Tang," the closest place to the Forbidden City. Firstly, it served to store the cultural relics transferred from Old Master Wang; secondly, it provided Old Master Wang with a comfortable place to recuperate; and thirdly, naturally, it benefited the literary figures of the Seahorse Club.

Later, old houses were brought in from various places and the courtyard was renovated. The cultural relics collected in Demian Hall became more and more numerous and valuable. However, it was not good for too many people to come and go. So Zhouzhi chose a house called Sizhuyuan near Anxiang Bridge for the writers to use for entrepreneurial exchanges.

It's very close to the newly relocated Federation of Literary and Art Circles building. Many of the writers from the Seahorse Club are now influential figures in the literary world, so it's convenient for them to hold meetings.

In short, through this relationship, Zhou Zhi also established good relationships with the writers. Although Zhou Zhi, apart from one online novel, mainly submits papers to academic circles and is not considered part of their circle, everyone still has a very good impression of him.

Yu Hua's explanation is: He only needs 4,000 Chinese characters to dominate the literary world, so why are there so many obscure characters in a lousy online novel now? Are the requirements for online novels higher than those for physical books?

"The Chef of Suzhou" is a historical novel, and the protagonist is a civil official. To fit the historical background, it needs many memorials, poems, songs, and interactions between historical figures of the time, which indeed includes many obscure characters. Zhou Zhi was probably just praising himself.

His friendship with Feng Cang, Pan Shiya, and Yu Bin was another story altogether. By a twist of fate, Zhou Zhi became the matchmaker between the three and Jiang Wu. They later collaborated on real estate investments in Hainan, earning their first pot of gold. Afterward, Jiang Wu adjusted the group's main business and entered the real estate industry, making their cooperation even closer.

However, Zhou Zhi did not continue to follow up on the real estate projects of the group. Apart from helping Jiang Wu set up the Hongxing Community Supermarket in Chengdu to help professional soldiers find re-employment, the rest of his renovation projects for all his courtyard houses in Beijing were entrusted to Pan Shiya.

Because Zhouzhi was already well-off when these courtyards were renovated, the investment standards were very high. In addition to dismantling and transporting materials from all over the country to rebuild them, the maintenance and renovation also required careful design.

Pan Shiya's team was far from reaching that level. In the end, it was Zhou Zhi who, through the connections of Wang Lao and Qi Lao, found the Palace Museum's ancient architecture team. Under the guidance of those national treasure-level experts, Pan Shiya was able to complete Zhou Zhi's commission.

These courtyard renovation projects have become Pan Shiya Group's flagship projects. Among them, the overall relocation, reconstruction and restoration of the Hui-style Liu Clan Ancestral Hall earned Feng Cang and Lao Pan the Luban Prize that year, which is the highest award in the national construction industry. With this award, the two of them attracted many more projects.

The reputation of the two-person group's ancient architecture team has also been established. Now, Zhou Zhi has become the matchmaker, bringing them the business of rebuilding the ancient city of Datong. Looking across the country, only the two-person group has this capability.

Even with the international sponsorships and loans secured, it's still a money-devouring behemoth. So Zhouzhi brought in Jiangwu's Jinli Group and, through the Yutang Cultural Heritage Foundation, obtained a Hong Kong investment. Preliminary work has already begun.

Overall, Zhou Zhi's help to the group far outweighed their help to Zhou Zhi, so even though they had all become trendsetters, their attitude towards Zhou Zhi had become increasingly polite and warm.

The most proud of them all was Feng Cang, because Feng Cang was also quite interested in antiques. When he first met Zhou Zhi and the others, he persuaded Liu Zhengyun to collect a dragon robe, which later became his specialized collection.

Zhou Zhi actually agrees with this approach, for one reason only: it is extremely difficult to forge dragon robes, and dragon robes are a relatively niche collectible, so their value is not high enough to warrant the painstaking efforts of forgers.

Therefore, the dragon robes, official robes of high-ranking officials, and exquisite robes of wealthy families that can be seen on the market are basically genuine.

For Feng Cang, whose expertise wasn't particularly high, this was actually a pretty good path for collecting. (End of Chapter)