Thinking that Xie Qian already had the funds to develop the Hongqiao land, Xie Jinghu lost all interest in touring the He family’s factory.
How much had he invested in the He family?
That plot of land was worth nearly 200 million, and Xie Qian simply didn’t have the money to develop it, unless he had secured powerful backing.
Assistant Qi, who had been standing by Xie Jinghu’s side, sensed his boss’s anxiety and fell back a few steps. Seizing a moment when no one was watching, Qi quietly slipped out of the group.
What exactly had Young Master Xie done in Shanghai? If Assistant Qi couldn’t figure it out, he’d be in deep trouble.
Assistant Qi hurriedly sneaked away, but Xie Qian, watching him go, wasn’t worried. With Gong Sheng and Ma Wufeng back at the company, two seasoned players, handling Assistant Qi would be no issue.
Xie Qian wasn’t afraid that Xie Jinghu would target his newly established logistics company either. His father looked down on such small-scale ventures.
Even if he did try something… Xie Qian secretly hoped for it, hoping Xie Jinghu would lose his cool and make a move against the logistics company. That way, the “share transfer agreement” in Xie Yuping’s study could come into play again.
With Assistant Qi gone, Xie Qian, Xie Jinghu, and Dai Chenglan, each with their own thoughts, toured the He family’s factory in Zhangjiang High-Tech Park.
The He family’s factory produced medical equipment.
By 2005, China’s medical equipment industry, after over 30 years of development, had reached considerable scale and maintained rapid growth. Industry experts even predicted that by 2010, the total output value of the domestic medical equipment industry could reach 100 billion!
Overall, it was a sunrise industry.
Xie Jinghu might have a deplorable character, but he had a keen eye for investments.
The He family’s factory was in this promising industry and, in theory, shouldn’t lack funds. The He family had long-standing connections in the medical system. Dai Chenglan and her husband started their business in the medical equipment industry, initially acting as agents for imported medical equipment, building a fortune through their medical system contacts.
Unlike Dai Chenglan’s pragmatism, her husband, He Zhinian, was a scholarly businessman. After making money, He wasn’t content to remain an agent for imported medical equipment forever. The heavier China’s reliance on imported medical equipment, the more urgent it was for the country to develop its own products. He Zhinian saw the growing domestic market for medical equipment and, in the early 2000s, ambitiously shifted from agency to manufacturing. But reality dealt him a harsh blow. High investments didn’t yield high returns, and the wealth the couple had painstakingly accumulated over years was almost entirely tied up in this factory, which had been operating for just a few years. The He family’s cash flow was in trouble!
If not for this, why would Dai Chenglan bother cozying up to Xie Jinghu’s mistress?
Dai Chenglan was desperate for money.
She had no other way to secure funds at the time.
He Zhinian’s persistence wasn’t entirely fruitless. The He family’s cash flow issues didn’t mean the factory had no prospects. However, other potential investors were opportunistic vultures. Dai Chenglan and He Zhinian sought investment, and several major domestic companies in the same industry extended olive branches. But investment was just the first step; the harsh terms of their betting agreements aimed to swallow the He family’s factory whole.
An investor like Xie Jinghu, whose main business had no overlap with the medical equipment industry, who had no interest in taking over the He family’s factory and only wanted to profit from the investment, was a true angel in the eyes of Dai Chenglan and He Zhinian.
Moreover, with Sara acting as a go-between, Jinhu Group’s investment terms for the He family’s factory were very lenient, ensuring Dai Chenglan and He Zhinian’s control over the factory wouldn’t be threatened.
For Dai Chenglan, this was the perfect, most suitable lifeline investment. Apart from the somewhat unsavoury process of securing it, the investment itself was flawless.
So what if it was unsavoury?
In a life-or-death moment, how many could stick to moral principles?
The business world was a battlefield. Dai Chenglan felt she hadn’t killed or committed arson, merely leveraging an old friend to secure an investment. If anything was unsavoury, it was Xie Jinghu’s infidelity, not her doing.
With this thought, Dai Chenglan’s earlier unease gradually subsided, and she grew increasingly composed in front of Xie Qian.
This was a legitimate investment, and she shouldn’t fear a teenage boy.
She had nearly faltered in front of a minor, which annoyed Dai Chenglan. She was regressing with age! What was there to fear about a minor? Sara had been defeated by Xie Qian because her position was unsavoury, but Dai Chenglan hadn’t seduced Xie Jinghu or wrecked his family. She had no reason to fear Xie Qian’s retaliation!
With a shift in mindset, Dai Chenglan’s demeanour became poised.
She was, after all, a strong woman who had built a business from scratch with her husband. With her mindset adjusted, she explained the factory’s operations to Xie Jinghu with clarity and eloquence, earning frequent nods from him.
The three donned cleanroom suits to tour the workshop. Contrary to Dai Chenglan’s suspicions, Xie Qian didn’t cause any trouble. From start to finish, he was cooperative, genuinely there to tour the He family’s factory and learn.
The factory reminded Xie Qian of Zhao Dong’s bid for the amusement park project.
And Xie Jinghu’s strange behaviour after his trip to Chengdu, all thunder and no rain.
As Xie Qian pondered, a question suddenly surfaced: It was said that Xie Jinghu and that foreign woman were true love, lovers torn apart by fate at the height of their passion, only to reunite later in a blaze of rekindled romance. When Xie Jinghu’s affair was exposed, the family demanded he cut ties with the woman, but he refused. They asked him to divorce, but he wouldn’t. The more they forbade contact with the foreign woman, the more he sneaked around… But was that true love?
No, if that was true love, it sullied the very term.
True love was a force that could break through all shackles.
If Xie Jinghu truly loved the foreign woman, he would have followed her abroad back then.
Having missed that chance, when they reunited, he could have divorced his wife first and been with her openly.
Even now, Xie Jinghu could choose to divorce and give the woman a proper status.
But Xie Jinghu hadn’t done any of that.
Let alone the Xie family stopping him, how could an old mother or elder brother prevent an adult from divorcing if he truly wanted to?
So this “true love” was diluted at best.
Just because of this watered-down “true love” acting as a go-between, Xie Jinghu was willing to invest so much in the He family’s factory?
Xie Qian didn’t believe it for a second.
Xie Jinghu agreed to invest in the He family’s factory because it could make him money. From start to finish, it was all about profit. Dai Chenglan took Xie Jinghu’s money and was endlessly grateful. The foreign “true love” was probably smug about Xie Jinghu’s regard for her. Xie Jinghu pleased his mistress while not missing out on profits, truly having his cake and eating it!
Xie Qian silently raised his guard against Xie Jinghu even higher in his heart.
Though he was trying hard to learn, when it came to shamelessness, he still paled in comparison to Xie Jinghu!
