Reborn in America, I'm serious about making money.

When doing business in mainland China, Zhang San believes that it is essential to raise a strong banner to scare away any troublemakers. Otherwise, others will assume you have no connections and cause trouble recklessly. Raising a strong banner can reduce a lot of trouble, but when trouble does arise, it will be significant.

Even so, Zhang San tried his best to let those North American foreigners handle things. They were better at doing things than him, and they could simplify many complicated matters. Or, letting the Hong Kong people handle things was simpler than him doing it himself.

Take the Global Cinema in Shanghai, for example. It's run by Hollywood media mogul Global Entertainment Group. All the people they communicate with are blond-haired, blue-eyed foreigners. The construction team is also from Hong Kong. They seem to know a lot about construction in mainland China and have hired a large number of migrant workers.

These facts alone took the local companies by surprise, and they discussed them in private gatherings.

"How did these Hollywood devils know to use migrant workers? Did you even do any research?"

"I feel it was those people in Hong Kong; they're so bad, they revealed our secrets."

"These foreign devils are too cunning. Hiring migrant workers is a slap in the face to us. I..."

A construction company manager sitting in the back was a little angry, but he noticed that everyone else was looking at him with amusement, as if they were waiting for him to cause trouble.

He calmed down and immediately realized that he couldn't go looking for trouble. If he did, he would only be waiting for trouble to happen. The other party was a foreigner, a foreigner from Hollywood. If he went there, he would not only get away with it, but he would also implicate some people. Just thinking about it made him break out in a cold sweat. These people were too wicked. They didn't even remind him.

"How about we start with the real estate companies in the surrounding area?" someone suggested.

"No, no, that's not right. They were able to buy those lands in advance and even paid for them; but that's not important. What's important is how they got the information in advance? I heard that Global Entertainment Group made the decision on short notice and agreed to the project in just a few days. When they arrived in mainland China, they also decided on that piece of land in just a few days. I don't believe there wasn't something fishy going on."

Once the middleman analyzed it, the others understood. Putting aside everything else, this kind of thing couldn't stand scrutiny. The two sides must be connected. As long as they were connected, if one was offended, the other would immediately jump up and down.

They're not that stupid; they want to see who jumps out first.

After this gathering, they immediately went there to buy a house. Everyone could see that the real estate market there was bound to rise sharply; that was the basic policy.

Investment options in mainland China are very narrow, mainly limited to bonds (primarily government bonds), funds, and stocks, and real estate. The first three are financial, and the last one is real estate. Of course, private lending is allowed, but that's beyond regulation.

Financial instability often leads to losses, and most people are essentially "leeks" (victims of financial exploitation). Furthermore, at this time, ordinary people still have some aversion to stocks and are unlikely to invest in them.

It wasn't until the index rose to 6,000 points in 2008 that ordinary people invested, only to get trapped. Some went into debt, and many families were ruined, wives and children were torn apart.

However, stock trading can be addictive, and many people become addicted. Zhang San was such a person in his past life, but unfortunately, looking back now, Zhang San feels it was too late.

That leaves buying a house. Real estate was still very valuable until 2019. In Zhang San's experience, financial products have one major advantage over real estate: they are relatively easy to liquidate. Real estate is too difficult to liquidate. Of course, it also depends on the time period. When prices are rising, real estate is very easy to liquidate, but when prices are falling, it is very difficult to liquidate. It can take anywhere from two or three months to a year and a half.

But in Shanghai, real estate development can proceed slowly. Half of it can be sold by 2007, and the remaining half can be sold starting in 2011.

Regarding the housing price issue, Fang Xiaobing even made a special call to Zhang San, which puzzled him. Why would this woman take the initiative to call him? Gao Yuanyuan, Wang Shengyi, He Meitian, Chai Xiaofen... they would never contact him on their own initiative, which gave him the feeling that his relationship with them was only financial.

Fang Xiaobing called him and asked, "Boss, when are you coming back? I miss you."

Zhang Sancai didn't believe the other party really missed him, so he smiled and said, "Get to the point, don't beat around the bush."

Fang Xiaobing felt that Zhang San was not American at all, even speaking such fluent Northern dialect. But thinking about it, it made sense. She said weakly, "Boss, should I sell that apartment in Paradise New City? Someone offered 8,500 yuan per square meter."

"Have you never seen money before? You're selling it for 8,500? Are you still sure you want to sell it? Sell it to me, cash only." Zhang San said irritably, feeling that this woman had a narrow mind.

Upon hearing this, Fang Xiaobing immediately exclaimed, "I don't want to sell! I just wanted to get your opinion." Realizing that this wasn't quite right, she said, "Boss, come back soon! I really miss you. I'm off filming now, bye-bye!" and hurriedly hung up. Zhang San shook his head with a wry smile, fearing that this life would be like his previous one—unable to find true love. But then he thought, what is true love anyway? Heh…

On the other end of the phone, Fang Xiaobing smiled at the two women beside her and said, "I told you, even the boss isn't in a hurry to sell the building, so why are you two in such a rush?"

Actually, she said this with a guilty conscience. Seeing that the house, which was 4,000, had risen to 8,500 in less than a year, how could she not be excited? It had already doubled! She was afraid that the house price would drop.

Wang Shengyi, who originally disdained houses and had no concept of housing prices, suddenly found that the wasteland had become a hot real estate project after Zhang San's actions. Moreover, people who wanted to buy houses couldn't find a way to do so, and the real estate developers were hoarding properties. Therefore, the first phase of housing that they bought became very precious.

This is different from housing prices in some other places, such as the areas around Beijing and the area between Beijing and Tianjin. The houses here have very high commercial value.

This naturally attracted a lot of attention. They racked their brains, but in the end, some people still managed to buy the houses. These were the children of wealthy families; ordinary rich people couldn't even buy them.

Considering that the city center will see housing prices of tens or hundreds of thousands in the future, this area is still a value hotspot.

Fang Xiaobing and her two companions are now paying double the price, and there are still so many people eager to buy. They know that Zhang San has given them so much, they truly have no way to repay him…