Age of Legends

Chapter 276 Confidence
Zhang Chen's bad mood today wasn't entirely due to his grades. While hitting a plateau in his scores was certainly frustrating, the main reason was the escalating conflict between Huang Huifen and Liu Qi.

After acquiring the commercial properties in Lanyuan, Liu Qi finally understood that Xuhui had almost suffered a cash flow crisis due to bank loan problems, and was barely hanging on. It was Liu Qi who saved them. Liu Qi gave them 30 million, thinking he had made a great deal, but little did he know that if he waited a little while, that 30 million could buy more than two of the entire bankrupt Xuhui Real Estate operation.

Who is Liu Qi? He took over Lanyuan's business in preparation for suppressing Xu Hui. After learning that he was being used to cash out, he made this move public in advance.

He used his operating rights to build a "cultural performance square" in the best part of the park, facing the Lanyuan residential project. He used exaggerated neon billboards to advertise various things and held vulgar commercial performances. It was like blocking Xu Hui's project and doing a large-scale "square dance", which disturbed the residents and caused great pollution at night.

This is definitely quite detrimental to the project. It's simple: on the one hand, Liu Qi deliberately orchestrated this to disrupt Xu Hui's business; on the other hand, he wanted Xu Hui Real Estate to repurchase the operating rights at a high price. To put it bluntly, if you don't repurchase, I'll keep bothering you like this.

Liu Qi's mother, Huang Huifen, was no pushover either. She produced some clauses in the contract that covered disturbances to residential areas and environmental regulations to file a complaint against him.

But in short, a person like Liu Qi is still very difficult to deal with. He just hides there, attacking your brand and pre-sale cash flow.

This whole situation is annoying. Ultimately, it was Zhang Chen's idea, but it's a bit like letting a wolf into the house. Now Liu Qi is skirting the edge of the contract, creating a huge ripple effect at your project's entrance. Because it's competing with his project, if Lanyuan isn't doing well, it naturally highlights the advantages of his Yipin Jiayuan.

He essentially copied Lanyuan's concept and marketing tactics, promising to build high-quality housing that ordinary people could afford. Huang Huifen was willing to make that promise and invest heavily, even pushing costs to the limit. Liu Qi, on the other hand, wouldn't compete on that. Once the quality is compared, it'll be clear who's just boasting. So Liu Qi's approach is also a form of insurance; by using tactics like blocking your doorway to dance in the square, he lowers your perceived quality, making it impossible for you to compete.

If Huang Huifen wants a complete solution, she can use the pre-sale funds to buy back his operating rights at a high price. This way, Liu Qi can suppress competitors when both projects go on sale, and also extract money from Huang Huifen after his own properties are sold out.

Huang Huifen had no choice. Liu Qi's move of having people dance in the square would definitely affect sales. If Huang Huifen didn't buy it back, the project might become a dead end. Therefore, if she wanted to obtain enough cash flow through pre-sales, she might have no choice but to let Liu Qi take a bite out of her.

Zhang Chen was also troubled by this, but he didn't regret letting Liu Qi take over the management rights. At that time, Xuhui Real Estate was facing a life-or-death situation. The bank loan had encountered problems, and Xuhui had no money or channels for capital injection, meaning it was on the verge of survival. Bringing in Liu Qi was a last resort.

Besides Liu Qi, who else could possibly invest? It's not exactly a backlash, it's just a price to pay.

Zhang Chen didn't go home; he went straight to the headquarters of Xuhui Real Estate. Huang Huifen, Chen Xuran, and his godfather Wang Bowen were having an internal meeting. Since Zhang Chen was there today, he joined in.

The three of them were still discussing this matter when they saw Zhang Chen, so they asked directly, "The results are out, how did they go?"

"608."

Wang Bowen laughed heartily: "How so? I told you this kid was definitely stuck at this position. After all, he's taken several monthly exams around this time, so it's about right. This score is enough to get him into a top 50 university. Your godmother didn't believe me? Give me the money!"

Chen Xuran reluctantly opened her wallet, pulled out ten large bills, and handed them to Wang Bowen. She then looked at Zhang Chen resentfully, saying, "Your godfather has already made several bucks off me during your monthly exams. I thought I could recoup my losses today, so I've been keeping an eye on your grades..."

Zhang Chen was both amused and exasperated. He thought to himself, "No wonder you two always ask about my grades during the monthly exams. I thought you were genuinely concerned. Turns out you two were just using me for gambling!"
Zhang Chen then said, "Don't you guys care about Xiao Wang at all?"

"By the way, what was his score? I heard he was playing soccer today and didn't answer his phone," Wang Bowen asked. "520."

"You did well on the exam! Looks like you're going to make a lot of money off me this holiday!" Wang Bowen exclaimed in surprise, then said to Chen Xuran, "Look, what's that saying again? The power of role models is boundless."

Chen Xuran nodded, "If you can get into Tongji or Fudan, that would be great. I'm just bragging, you'd better work hard!"

The two looked at Huang Huifen again, and Huang Huifen snorted: "Don't be arrogant, you still have to keep working hard. Although you are much taller than before, you still need to have new goals! Keep working hard!"

Huang Huifen would never praise you excessively, because in her view, giving you absolute affirmation meant you would never work harder, would become complacent, and would ruin everything. So she always held back, even when she was actually quite satisfied with Zhang Chen's score of 600, she would always say things like, "That's not enough!" "Don't be so smug!" "There are others who can get even higher scores!" "Why don't you study hard instead of just competing with those who are bad at things!"

With Zhang Chen's results in, one worry was temporarily relieved, and the focus shifted back to the current meeting.

Huang Huifen was quite adamant: "I will definitely not surrender to him. He's now running random advertisements, organizing commercial performances, disturbing the peace, and even having street performances in the park at night, which fills the air with barbecue fumes. People are getting drunk and fighting in the middle of the night, and there are police cars everywhere. Who would want to buy our houses like this? I'm going to fight him to the end. People in the neighborhood are also signing a petition to complain about him. Someone will eventually take care of him! I'm not going to go out to eat with him!"

Zhang Chen looked at Wang Bowen with a puzzled expression.

Old Wang said, "That's how it is. Liu Qi set up a trap, saying that we should all discuss things together. My opinion is that we should talk if we can, and see what kind of trouble he's up to."

Zhang Chen asked, "When?"

"The day after tomorrow. We'll eat red sorghum."

"Then let's go take a look and see what he has to say. It would be great if we could reach an agreement," Zhang Chen said.

Chen Xuran then looked at Huang Huifen, "Zhang Chen has already said so... so let's go."

Huang Huifen rolled her eyes again, "Then let's go, let's see what he's up to!"

Zhang Chen added, "But Mom, if you go, just listen to me. Don't argue with him at the dinner table over a few words; that won't solve anything!"

"No way! I'll report him later, I won't argue with someone like him to his face!"

Huang Huifen spoke with certainty, but it seemed that Zhang Chen's presence also gave her more confidence.

(End of this chapter)