Chapter 165: Groundbreaking Ceremony

Clients and property listings are the lifeblood of the real estate brokerage industry. As long as an agent is willing to put in the effort to thoroughly research owner information, the resources available to different agencies do not differ drastically. However, sources of clients vary greatly; only by continuously expanding client acquisition channels can one go further in the real estate agency business.

Zhang Wei and Master Yao could be said to be in a mutually beneficial relationship. Even though there had been some minor friction between them previously, driven by shared interests, they could not exactly be said to have let bygones be bygones entirely, but at the very least, they were cooperating closely.

After learning the truth about how Zhang Wei had flirted with her last time, Yao Qian's attitude toward him became even more aloof. Her large eyes fixed on Zhang Wei in a way that gave him a slight chill, so it was not long before Zhang Wei stood up to take his leave, and Master Yao and his daughter also departed from Elegance Garden.

"Ring, ring..." Shortly after parting ways with Yao Qian, just as Zhang Wei reached the entrance of the Elegance Garden branch, his phone suddenly rang.

Zhang Wei pulled his phone out of his pants pocket and glanced at the caller ID on the screen. It was Fat Zhou. After pressing the answer button, Zhang Wei said, "Hello, Brother Zhou."

"Yeah, it's me," Fat Zhou acknowledged, then said, "Tomorrow is the groundbreaking ceremony for the plot of land purchased by Yueda Company. Let's go together, brother."

"What time are we setting off tomorrow? I'll wait for you at the entrance of Hong Kong Villa," Zhang Wei said.

"No need to go to Hong Kong Villa. Come to Tianyu Hotel to pick me up at ten o'clock tomorrow morning," Fat Zhou sighed as he spoke.

"Brother Zhou, you live in a fine villa, what on earth made you run off to a hotel?" Zhang Wei asked in surprise.

"Don't ask. It's hard to explain in a few words. We can chat when we have time to drink another day," Fat Zhou said.

"Alright, I understand. See you tomorrow," Zhang Wei said, hanging up the phone. Yet, he had a lingering feeling that something was off with Fat Zhou, as if his mood was far too low.

The next day, Zhang Wei took a day off to rest. Since he was only meeting Fat Zhou at ten o'clock, Zhang Wei woke up a bit later than usual, finishing his wash and grooming a little past nine in the morning. Just as he stepped out of the bathroom, he saw Sophie sitting on the sofa.

Sophie was dressed very prettily today. A cascade of fiery red hair rested on her delicate shoulders. She wore a black hollow-out T-shirt on top, a white miniskirt on the bottom, with a small gray leather bag placed beside her, and red high heels on her feet.

"Why haven't you left yet? Don't you usually go to work a little after eight?" Sophie looked up at Zhang Wei and asked.

"I have the day off today," Zhang Wei sat on the sofa beside Sophie and asked, "Judging by how you're dressed today, it doesn't look like you're going to work!"

"Well? Is it pretty?" Hearing Zhang Wei's words, Sophie stood up, puffed out her chest, shifted her legs, and asked with a sexy pose.

"Not bad, quite pretty," Zhang Wei looked her up and down. Sophie's outfit was indeed very sexy. He nodded and said.

"I'm going to a large-scale real estate event today, so of course I have to dress prettily. Who knows, I might even end up on camera," Sophie said, full of confidence.

"What event is that?" Zhang Wei asked out of curiosity.

"I can't possibly tell you that. You're still just a little agent. Even if I told you, you wouldn't get in. That's a place only true real estate tycoons can go," Sophie said, lifting her chin proudly.

"To secure the chance to attend this event, I spent half a month's salary treating people to dinner. Who knows how many people are envious?"

"Forget it, pretend I asked nothing," Zhang Wei shook his head, then, as if remembering something, asked, "Right, the other day when I went to drop off Wenfang, how come I heard her say you were a bit strange?"

"Strange? What's strange about me?" Sophie said a bit unnaturally.

"Is that so? Then why were you all over her with your hands and feet? Could it be you have some special preference?" Zhang Wei said.

"You're talking nonsense! What kind of preference could I have?" Sophie glared at Zhang Wei and said with some dissatisfaction, "Don't you stare at my chest and thighs all day long? I didn't say anything to you about it, did I?"

"Isn't it normal for a man to look at a woman? Besides, you dare to wear it, why shouldn't I dare to look? You surely don't expect me to deliberately avoid you, do you?" Zhang Wei smiled.

Sophie's attire was extremely sexy. Sometimes when she bent down to pour water, half the curve of her buttocks would be exposed. At first, Zhang Wei would deliberately look away, but later he realized that Sophie herself didn't mind, so as a grown man, what was there for him to be afraid of? Dodging and evading would only make things seem overly pretentious.

"Wenfang and I are both women; what's so strange about two women fooling around?" Sophie retorted, refusing to show weakness.

"Even so, you shouldn't force her to take a bath with you, right?" Zhang Wei said.

"Isn't it normal for friends to bathe together?" Sophie blinked her large eyes at Zhang Wei, cast a flirtatious glance, and giggled, "Who knows, maybe one day I can accompany you in the bath too!"

"Heh..." Hearing Sophie's words, Zhang Wei shook his head with a wry smile.

"I'm not wasting any more breath on you; I have to go out to work," Sophie dropped those words, grabbed her handbag, and hurriedly ran out of the apartment.

Not long after Sophie left, Zhang Wei also tidied himself up, got into his BMW, and headed toward Tianyu Hotel. Zhang Wei called Fat Zhou while on the road, and when he drove outside the hotel, Fat Zhou was waiting right at the entrance.

"Brother Zhou, are you feeling unwell lately? You look like you've lost a lot of weight," Zhang Wei asked with a trace of surprise on his face as he looked at Fat Zhou sitting in the passenger seat.

"Losing weight is good; saves me the trouble of dieting," Fat Zhou said with a hint of dejection. "Let's go, brother."

Zhang Wei acknowledged, released the handbrake, stepped on the accelerator, and the car sped forward.

"Brother Zhou, is something on your mind? Did you have a fight with your sister-in-law?" Zhang Wei asked.

"Sigh... I am indeed troubled by family matters," Fat Zhou sighed as he spoke.

Hearing that it really did concern Wu Qian, Zhang Wei did not pursue the matter further. It was not his place to interfere in a married couple's problems, and furthermore, Fat Zhou was a man of vast experience; there were some things he understood more clearly than Zhang Wei did. Asking too much would only cause Fat Zhou more annoyance.

Along the way, Zhang Wei asked some questions about Yueda Company. According to Fat Zhou's description, Yueda Company was a branch of a large conglomerate whose headquarters were established in Hong Kong.

The plot of land purchased by Yueda Company was located in the suburbs of the capital. This was Zhang Wei's first time going to the site of that plot, whereas Fat Zhou had already been there several times. Guided by the GPS navigation and Fat Zhou's directions, it took Zhang Wei over an hour to rush there.

"Brother Zhou, isn't this groundbreaking ceremony a bit too late? Don't they usually start at nine o'clock in the morning?" Zhang Wei smiled.

"This isn't a state-owned enterprise; where do you get all those rigid rules? Besides, this plot is far from the city, and not many people could make it here by nine o'clock," Fat Zhou shook his head and said.

"That's true," Zhang Wei nodded and, under Fat Zhou's guidance, parked the car at a restaurant not far from the plot of land, which was also the designated venue for receiving guests this time.

After getting out of the car and looking toward the east of the restaurant, there was an open plot of land. There were no buildings or vegetation on the empty space, only a few construction vehicles moving about, and the faint roar of engines could be heard.

"Brother, let's go over and take a look first. I haven't been here in a long time," Fat Zhou gazed at the open lot and said with a somewhat absent-minded expression.

Fat Zhou had originally wanted to transition into the real estate industry, and this open plot was the starting point he had set his sights on. He hadn't expected that due to Zhang Wei's intervention, the acquisition had failed. Now, seeing that this piece of land had been acquired by Xiang Xiaomeng, he still felt a degree of regret in his heart.

Zhang Wei acknowledged with a hum and said.

The groundbreaking ceremony was scheduled to begin at exactly twelve noon, and it was already past eleven o'clock. Most of the guests had already arrived; some had entered the private rooms of the restaurant to rest, while others, like Fat Zhou and him, were wandering around the open lot.

"Let's go take a look over there," Fat Zhou said, pointing to a spot where foundation digging was underway.

"Alright."

Zhang Wei nodded in agreement. In the distance, he saw a single-armed excavator digging up soil under the operation of workers. Seeing this scene instantly evoked a sense of familiarity in Zhang Wei, because his father had worked on construction sites, and he had spent plenty of time in places like this since childhood.

The two men walked over to a large pit beside the excavator. Fat Zhou squatted down with his bulky frame, grabbed a handful of the freshly excavated soil, rubbed it lightly between his fingers, and then brought it up to his nose to sniff. He really did look like he had the bearing of a professional expert.

Fat Zhou's original trade was coal mining, which inevitably involved dealing with soil and gravel. When he first started his business, he would personally go down into the mine shafts to check things out, making sure the miners didn't accidentally dig into an underground water table, which could easily flood the entire shaft and leave no chance of escape for anyone.

"That's not right. How can this soil texture be so soft?" Fat Zhou scooped up another handful of soil from the ground and said with a puzzled expression.

Hearing Fat Zhou's words, Zhang Wei also scooped up a handful of soil and rubbed it between his hands. "Yeah, the moisture content in this soil seems a bit too high."

Zhang Wei had often run around construction sites with his father in the past and had seen plenty of foundation-laying work. He still had a basic understanding of matters concerning construction and soil.

"Maybe it's because they haven't dug deep enough yet. I reckon digging down another few meters will do it," Fat Zhou patted his hands together and guessed.

Zhang Wei did not respond to Fat Zhou. His brows furrowed slightly as he recalled the information he had peeked from Dong Biao: "There is a problem with the land; high-rise buildings cannot be constructed." Although the information did not specify what the exact problem was, it was very likely related to the underground soil strata.

Just as Zhang Wei was examining the soil, a luxury sedan pulled up to the entrance of the restaurant near the plot of land. Two women and a man stepped out of the car. The male was around seventeen or eighteen years of age, handsome in appearance and upright in stature—it was none other than Li Mengfei, an agent under Zhang Wei's supervision.

As for the two women, their features bore a striking resemblance. The older one was in her early forties, still possessing her charm, full-figured, and dressed in a black professional suit—she was Xiang Xiulan, the president of Zhongtong Company.

The younger woman was around twenty years old, charming in appearance, noble and elegant, with a graceful figure and skin as translucent as snow. She wore a green floral hollow-out dress that made her complexion appear even fairer and more alluring. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to come to Qidian to cast recommendation votes and monthly tickets.)

(PS: Many readers feel that the release schedule is inconsistent, so Pao Pan will try to schedule updates around nine o'clock in the evening from now on, so everyone won't have to keep waiting! The monthly ticket ranking is still in jeopardy! Thank you!)