Mixed in 1980

Chapter 412 Reputation Stained
"What's all the fuss about? Our daughter has already been kidnapped. It's all your fault, you old bastard, saying you'd support her. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to run off to the capital."

Speaking of this, Cao Xiufeng couldn't help but grit her teeth. What kind of young woman would chase after someone, even all the way from Hangzhou to the capital?

Gao Yalou touched his nose and smiled bitterly: "I sent my daughter to the capital to bring that boy back, but alas, I lost both my wife and my army. My daughter is not coming back."

"What's going on? Xiao Lu wants to stay in the capital, but I don't agree. We only have two children in our family, and they both need to stay in Hangzhou." Cao Xiufeng's eyes widened.

As he spoke, he gritted his teeth and said, "If all else fails, you can tell that kid that we should give him more money to start his business. The entrepreneurial environment in Hangzhou is quite good."

"It's not about money now."

Gao Yalou smiled wryly, took out a cigarette from the drawer and lit it: "That little Sis is cunning. He pretends to be poor at school, but his family owns several courtyard houses in Beijing."

"No way?" Cao Xiufeng asked in surprise.

Who doesn't know about courtyard houses in Beijing? Especially in recent years, they've been selling for tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of yuan, with some even selling for hundreds of millions.

My family is considered wealthy. We've invested in quite a few projects, totaling a few hundred million yuan, which is barely enough to buy a large courtyard house.

“That’s what my daughter just said.”

Gao Yalou sighed and took out his phone again: "Xiao Lu said that Feixing Mobile is also their company. Good heavens, the heir of the telecommunications giant."

"How could this be?" Cao Xiufeng was stunned.

After a while, she realized what was happening and slapped her husband twice: "You old bastard, go to the capital right now and bring our daughter back."

Gao Yalou took a drag of his cigarette: "Our daughter chased that guy for four years, and they finally got together. Do you think we'd let you break up with him? Don't overthink it."

"Damn, that little Sith is such a show-off."

"He's clearly a prince, but he pretends to be a poor student and he does it quite well. I invited him for tea, and he pretended not to know anything about tea. Bah, what a little fox."

"Alright, stop muttering. I have a question for you. Feixing mobile phones belong to their company. Do you know the market value of this company?" Cao Xiufeng frowned.

Gao Yalou shook his head slightly: "If Feixing doesn't go public, who knows how much its market value will be? But there are rumors in the industry that if it goes public, its valuation will not be less than 3000 billion US dollars."

"Another point is that Feixing places great emphasis on technological research and development, investing in almost the entire industry chain. The exact amount of assets it owns is also a mystery."

Upon hearing this, Cao Xiufeng's eyes widened: "3000 billion US dollars, converted to yuan, isn't that more than 2 trillion? This is a real tycoon."

"Will their family look down on Xiaolu?"

"There's always trouble in wealthy families. What if Xiaolu gets bullied after she marries into that family? No way, call her back right now. We don't want her."

The couple immediately called their daughter and chatted for a while before hanging up. They learned from their daughter that her family was easy to get along with.

Seeing is believing, so the couple figured they should find time to go and see for themselves to put their minds at ease.

Ya'er Hutong in Beijing!
After her lunch break, Gao Lu went to find Chen Yancheng. She still had to go sightseeing in the afternoon, as she needed to collect all the debts from the previous four years.

"Xiao Lu, are you up?"

As soon as the door opened, the door next to it also opened, and Chen Yanxi walked over: "Go to the living room first, your future mothers-in-law have prepared gifts for you."

"Sister, is that necessary?" Gao Lu paused slightly.

Chen Yanxi fiddled with the phoenix eye bracelet: "All the daughters-in-law in the Chen family have them. You two hadn't confirmed your relationship before, so I didn't give them to you."

Once you put it that way, it's hard to refuse.

Following Chen Yanxi into the living room, all three of her future mothers-in-law were there. The gifts they had prepared for her were similar to those for Ye Wan, all imperial green jadeite jewelry.

The only difference is the style.

Although Gao Lu is a second-generation rich kid, she couldn't help but gasp when she saw these pieces of jewelry. Her entire family's cash flow couldn't afford such a set, so she quickly refused, citing its high value.

"The jade in my house was all stockpiled in the 80s and 90s. It didn't cost much and it's not anything rare. I'll just keep it."

Zhao Yuanyuan sat down with her future daughter-in-law, saying, "The fourth son keeps all the jade and gemstones in the house. If you want to make any jewelry in the future, just ask her for the materials."

"Third sister-in-law, I'll take you to see it later."

Chen Yanyin held a string of icy violet beads in her hand: "I bought this at a jade exhibition in Kunming when I was five years old. It cost me three thousand yuan."

Gao Lu was stunned. Three thousand yuan?

At the current market price, you can take one bead from the top and make two large cabochons of 20 caliber each, which can cost hundreds of thousands.

"Stop showing off." Xu Jinqiu slapped him with her backhand.

This is the most heartbreaking thing for her. When her daughter was little, she used to take her everywhere to buy jade and Hetian jade.

I was particularly disgusted by my daughter's taste at the time.

When buying jadeite, people usually focus on the quality and clarity of the material, prioritizing green pieces. But this girl likes all sorts of colorful jadeite and ends up buying a bunch of worthless pieces.

Aesthetic standards have changed.

Purple, yellow, and blue fabrics have all become valuable commodities. Even white fabrics full of cotton-like inclusions have become "snowflake cotton" and are highly sought after, with claims of aesthetic beauty.

My little girl often shows off.

Xu Jinqiu was also puzzled. Aesthetic tastes change too quickly. Things like snowflake cotton used to be considered garbage, something that was given away as a free gift.

Chen Yanyin wasn't annoyed by the slap: "Second Aunt, let's make a bet. Believe me, in a few years, even black chicken material will become valuable."

"If you're not going to gamble, get out of here!" Xu Jinqiu said disdainfully.

Back in Kunming, the young girl bought a plate of glass-type black-boned chickens and three pairs of bracelets, all for a total of only 1000 yuan. Even so, she still thought it was too expensive.

Now even snowflake cotton is in demand. Who knows how things will change in the future? Maybe one day black chicken jade will suddenly become popular, and it's not impossible for one piece to sell for millions.

Seeing her second aunt's embarrassed and annoyed expression, Chen Yanyin playfully reached out and pinched her chin: "Second aunt, you have to admit that my aesthetic sense is ahead of its time."

"You brat, you need to be taught a lesson!"

Enraged, Xu Jinqiu grabbed her little girl's ear and said, "You have good taste, that's perfect. You can take over the fashion business that your aunt is in charge of."

Chen Yanyin screamed, and when her second aunt let go, she immediately admitted defeat and hugged her second aunt, pleading, "Second aunt, I was wrong. I'm just a good-for-nothing. You can't let me down."

Before Xu Jinqiu could speak, Zeng Ali coughed lightly: "So this place is a trap?"

Chen Yanyin immediately snuggled into the old lady's arms and acted coquettishly.

Taking over the business would be worse than killing myself. With my older siblings around, it's so much better to be a useless little brat.

"Okay, stop making trouble."

Zeng Ali disdainfully pushed her little girl away: "Take Xiao Lu, Wan Wan, and A Ling out for a while and pick out a few dresses to wear to a cocktail party in Hong Kong."

"Alright, Third Sister-in-law, put the things away."

Chen Yanyin pulled Gao Lu back to the west courtyard and called Ye Wan and Ye Ling sisters to come along.

The following day, everyone set off for Hong Kong in batches!

Chen Fan had set rules for his family: his siblings and he could not take the same flight, or even all of them could squeeze into the same car.

Chen Yancheng and Gao Lu were the first to set off.

Gao Lu was visiting Hong Kong for the first time. She was a little curious when she first landed, but after looking around for a while, she thought it was just so-so, similar to first-tier cities in mainland China.

Upon arriving at Deep Water Bay, Gao Lu was even more interested in the Suzhou-style gardens, which exuded the charm of the Jiangnan water towns and revealed the exquisite style of Suzhou and Yangzhou.

"The third brother is here. Is this Xiao Lu?"

Zhang Xiaoxi came out to greet her and carefully looked Gao Lu over. She was a very gentle-looking girl, generous and poised, with a touch of intellectual beauty. She was a good girl.

"Hello, sister, I'm Gao Lu."

"This is our own home, please don't be shy. I watched the third child grow up." Zhang Xiaoxi took Gao Lu's arm and walked inside.

Upon arriving in the living room, he gestured for Gao Lu to sit down and had a servant serve tea: "You must be tired after such a long flight. Have some tea first, try this Da Hong Pao."

Then, he looked at the third brother and said, "Take Xiaolu around these two days, but remember, bring bodyguards when you go out. Our family is different in Hong Kong after all."

Chen Yancheng pouted: "Sis, is it really necessary? Hong Kong is quite safe now, it's not that chaotic."

Zhang Xiaoxi glared at her: "It's much better than before, but who can guarantee that it's not? There are plenty of people in Hong Kong eyeing our family."

"Work starts here!"

"You can only stay here a few days a year. If you come, you have to be careful. If you want freedom, go back to the mainland. If you dare to go out without bodyguards, you'd better wait to be dealt with."

"Remember this, our family has a bad reputation!"

Upon hearing this, Chen Yancheng sighed, while Gao Lu looked on with curiosity. The Chen family wasn't in the mobile phone business, so how could they have a bad reputation in Hong Kong?

Seeing her curious expression, Zhang Xiaoxi explained helplessly, "It's all because of the real estate industry. Otherwise, our family would still have a very good reputation in Hong Kong."

"You know about the 1997-1998 economic crisis, right?"

"My aunts took out all their savings and mortgaged their company to fight against international speculators led by Soros, and ultimately won."

"At that time, the Hong Kong media combined their names and called them the Heroines of Lai Yuen, and they won the Grand Bauhinia Medal in 98."

Upon hearing this, Gao Lu opened her mouth wide.

Did the Chen family also participate in the financial defense war back then? Zeng Ali and Aunt Zhao are actually recipients of the Grand Bauhinia Medal?
That's the highest honor in Hong Kong: "Why would its reputation be bad?"

"I just said, it's real estate!"

Zhang Xiaoxi sighed and shook her head slightly: "Before the economic crisis, our family acquired HSBC and Standard Chartered on behalf of the government."

"After the economic crisis, HSBC and Standard Chartered had a lot of bad debts, all of which were real estate loans. These bad debts need to be completely cleared up before they are handed over to the authorities."

"With Hang Seng shareholders at the core and government investment, a large number of foreign-owned real estate properties were liquidated and a joint real estate company was formed."

"In the past five years, housing prices have surged again, and have now reached the level of 96, with one square meter costing more than 10 yuan. Everyone is pointing fingers at the real estate developers and cursing them."

"Those who haven't bought a house but want to buy one, should we criticize them? Those who own a small house but want to upgrade to a bigger one, should we criticize them too? Those who own one house but want more houses, should we also criticize them?"

"Anyway, as long as house prices rise, real estate developers will be criticized; if prices fall and prices collapse, they will also be criticized. Our family is the largest real estate developer in Hong Kong, so our reputation will be ruined in an instant."

Amidst the complaints, Gao Lu gleaned some useful information: the Chen family had acquired HSBC and Standard Chartered banks and were also shareholders of Hang Seng Bank.

These are the three largest banks in Hong Kong.

In addition, the Chen family is also involved in real estate: "Sister, didn't you just say that it's United Real Estate with many shareholders, and that everyone is criticizing our family?"

P.S.: First update! Happy Birthday!

(End of this chapter)