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Chapter 1034: Chapter 907: No Showing off Wealth (Subscribe Please!)
July 16th.
Sanya.
Tang Qing and his group left the airport.
Just like during the last May Day holiday, the number of people was the same. Tang Qing and Lin Jiaxue’s parents were both in Qingyan City managing their stores. If it hadn’t been for Qin Shiqi and Qin Shiyu coming, there wouldn’t have been anyone at home, and their aunt wouldn’t have come either.
Outside the airport.
Chai Ren and his group of freeloaders were already waiting in a group. Their families didn’t come, however, and were staying at the villa keeping Zhan Xi, who was pregnant, company. After getting off the airplane, one fighter quietly left, taking a teleportation node with him.
Seeing so many mouths to feed.
Tang Qing was worried that his own villa’s table might not be big enough.
They introduced themselves to each other.
Except for Chai Ren.
Tang Kai hardly recognized anyone else.
They couldn’t get into much conversation at the moment, but there was no rush; they had more than half a month ahead to get acquainted.
"Little Tang, you finally made it, where are the ingredients?" Chai Ren looked around, thinking the ingredients had been air-shipped.
Tang Qing explained, "Stop looking around. The ingredients have already been delivered ahead of time and are being loaded onto trucks. They’ll be sent to the villa shortly, probably arriving just before or after us. Don’t rush."
"How can I not rush? It’s been two days, and I’ve been eating nothing but Zhai Zhihua’s nanny’s bland food." While staying here, Chai Ren hadn’t planned on hiring a cook, and only Zhai Zhihua’s house had two housekeepers.
The others were all freeloading at his house.
This skill was already well developed.
"Bland food? Then eat hot pot," Tang Qing teased.
Chai Ren shook his head, his face full of distaste, "No way. That stuff is too greasy. Besides, my wife is pregnant and can’t stand that smell. She likes to eat something sour and sweet."
"I’ll have the chef make some special dishes that a pregnant woman can eat," Tang Qing said.
Chai Ren suddenly came over with a playful and smiling face, "Thanks a lot. Can I ask your chef to cater a banquet for my child’s full-month celebration?"
"Your child’s full-month celebration? You’re really clinging to me," Tang Qing said, speechless.
"Hehe, the capable take on more work, Little Tang, help me out," Chai Ren said, no longer caring about his pride. Everyone present was from the same social class; there wasn’t much to worry about.
The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
Since he was a child, Chai Ren had already learned this and only showed this side of himself to people he was very close to. Tang Qing was clearly such a person; he had saved Chai Ren’s life several times, and the debt of gratitude was enormous.
"...You’ve dirtied it a bit. Try to keep it with the appearance of a big boss, will you? In this summer heat, you want to freeze me to death... Fine... But you’ll have to pay for the ingredients yourself," Tang Qing quickly stepped back two paces.
"No problem, I can still afford a meal," Chai Ren said cheerfully.
"Are you sure?" Tang Qing looked at Chai Ren with a half-smile.
Chai Ren’s heart tightened, and he said with a bitter smile, "Not sure, but I feel like you’re about to swindle me."
"Who has the pricing power, after all!" Tang Qing said proudly.
"Alright, just name your price," Chai Ren said generously.
After thinking for a moment, Tang Qing said, "Per person, let’s just make it a hundred thousand. Compared to the effects of the ingredients, this price really isn’t expensive. It mainly serves as a deterrent so people don’t take it for granted. It’s human nature."
It has nothing to do with how distant or close our relationships are.
"Why don’t you just rob me?" Chai Ren was startled by the price.
Per person?
Not per table?
"Listen to you, isn’t this exactly a robbery? Now you know how much advantage you took of me in the past," Tang Qing pretended to be a big loser, leaving everyone around him stunned.
Hundred thousand per person?
Definitely a robbery.
"You’re harsh. Fine, a hundred thousand it is," Chai Ren pretended to wince in pain. A hundred thousand RMB was just a small amount; for ten people, it only cost a million, and he could probably get that back in gift money.
It wasn’t a big deal.
Seeing Chai Ren’s expression, Tang Qing suddenly muttered to himself, "Maybe I asked for too little."
"No backing out now," Chai Ren immediately gave the impression he was ready to settle the bill right there.
"Don’t worry, I won’t go back on my word. A hundred thousand RMB, even though it doesn’t make a profit and is a bit of a loss, but since we’re friends, it’s only right to take care of one another," Tang Qing shook his head.
Chai Ren: "..."
How much more do you want?
Listening to their conversation.
Everyone behind them was highly amused.
This was a quick way to make a million, and with others eagerly feeding into it, there weren’t many in China who would dare to ’extort’ Chai Ren like this. Tang Qing was spot on every time.
Pricing power.
What a valuable asset.
"What kind of special items do you plan to serve us with fifty thousand’s worth of ingredients?" Chai Ren was interested in some ’valuable’ items.
Tang Qing spread his hands and said, "Nothing much, just some common home-cooked dishes. What else did you expect, dragon meat?"
Chai Ren: "..."
...
An hour and a half later.
The convoy arrived at the villa complex.
The entire villa area had already been completed.
After all, with just three to four floors, including the basement, the entire main body could be completed in a month and a half according to the construction schedule. Within two months, things like landscaping, bricklaying, plumbing, electricity, and plastering could all be completed.
The rest was just decoration.
The local tyrants, of course, used environmentally friendly materials and furniture.
As a result, most of the wealthy residents in the villa area had already moved in, with a small portion still finishing their decorations, because the last villa, worth tens of millions, only sold at the end of the previous month, was not so easy to sell.
And the best plots of land. 𝒏𝒐𝙫𝙥𝙪𝙗.𝒄𝙤𝙢
Undoubtedly belonged to Tang Qing and the few developers who had reserved those spots for themselves.
After going through two layers of security.
They entered the villa.
The first layer of security was coming off the National Road.
The second was entering the villa area for examination, especially since the distance between the two security posts was over a kilometer, and with no railings outside, to avoid the intrusion of unauthorized people, two layers of security were essential.
As for the third security measure,
it was the bodyguards of the villa’s owner.
Looking at the huge villa in front of him, Tang Qing was very satisfied.
The massive four-story design, plus two basement levels, made a total of six stories styled like a European palace, all coated in snow-white paint.
Because this was Lin Jiaxue’s favorite color.
At first, Tang Qing had planned to go with a Chinese style.
But then he thought about his uncle nearby and having a pavilion standing by the seaside seemed odd. Style-wise, this type of European villa matched the ocean better.
Bridges and flowing water suit inland villas more.
In front of the manor,
was a front yard several times larger than the one in Shanghai.
A U-shaped massive swimming pool passed under the glass bridge in front of the villa, very beautiful, without using low fences or anything of that sort, as Chinese tycoons and Western ones differ.
This side values private space.
High walls and large courtyards.
Only then do they feel some sense of security.
To the left of Tang Qing’s villa was Chai Ren’s home, significantly smaller than Tang Qing’s; to the right was a sandy beach, also on the edge of the villa district, with reefs in the distance.
Chai Ren mentioned that they had gone diving these past two days, and the result was... Bao Kaiyu got his butt bitten by a fish.
"Little Tang, you really went all out."
Looking at the huge building in front of him, Chai Ren felt like Tang Qing’s money was picked up off the street, spent without any heartache.
"You’re not one who can’t afford it either."
"Had I known, I would have copied your design." Looking at his own villa in the distance and then at Tang Qing’s, really... Without comparison, there’s no harm; the rendering can’t be taken seriously.
"..."
Just then,
a huge van drove up.
It was slightly longer than a standard container.
The fighters quickly got off the truck, and seven or eight fighters also came out from the villa to start moving sealed cold storage boxes down, all opaque boxes, unclear what was inside?
"Little Tang, are these the ingredients?" Chai Ren somewhat knowingly asked, mainly out of curiosity.
Tang Qing nodded: "Yes, all are preserved at low temperatures for transportation. This truckload of ingredients should be enough for us to last two weeks."
"Two weeks? Will the vegetables still be fresh then?" asked Chai Ren, puzzled.
Tang Qing explained with a smile, "Of course, they’re fresh. If you define fresh as being picked within three days, then of course they aren’t fresh. But if it means maintaining the appearance of just being harvested and no loss of nutritional value, then everything here is fresh."
"Then I’m relieved."
Chai Ren no longer dwelled on whether the vegetables were fresh.
The first time he entered Tang Qing’s villa,
Tang Qing assigned rooms to his family. Like at the manor, once assigned, these rooms would only be for them, no one else would stay here, considering there were plenty of guest rooms available.
This was the main reason why Tang Qing had the villa built so large, as it didn’t cost much anyway.
Just after assigning,
Chai Ren and the others, who were with the fighters inspecting the cold storage, looked as if they had seen a ghost.
What did they see?
A two hundred square meter cold storage,
dozens of huge smart freezers, each freezer covered with numerous compartments, each compartment capable of adjusting to different temperatures, preserving different ingredients with minimal nutritional loss.
They had never seen such refrigerators before.
They somewhat regretted,
when Tang Qing last said he would give each of them a set of central air conditioning, they had known they should have gotten a refrigerator set as well.
"Little Tang, these refrigerators are different from the ones in Shanghai," noted Chai Ren who had seen the ones in Shanghai, plentiful, but not so smart.
Tang Qing explained, "These are the new generation of customized smart refrigerators, designed to long-preserve different ingredients. They come with a built-in battery that ensures they can keep running for a month even if the power goes out.
Of course, there are other protection measures, but I’m not too clear on those..." The upgrade in equipment wasn’t surprising.
Chai Ren: "..."
A fridge, is it really necessary to make it so complicated?
This lifestyle.
In comparison,
they felt increasingly barbaric, rough, backward, embarrassing. Their home fridge, bought for tens of thousands of RMB, compared to this, felt absolutely crude, a collectively shared thought among them including Zheng Lin.
Another ten minutes passed.
"Little Tang, can you stop showing off your wealth?" Chai Ren said with a wry smile, pressing Tang Qing.
"Um... have I? I’m just watching TV," replied Tang Qing innocently,
Chai Ren and Zheng Lin exchanged glances,
feeling more and more crude.
TV?
You mean projection, right? Your whole wall is a TV screen, the quality is still high-definition, only slightly smaller than a cinema screen, it’s actually quite frightening up close.
Luckily, the ’TV’ was over twenty meters from the sofa, so it wouldn’t hurt the eyes; haha, damn, twenty meters... That’s twenty meters indeed. Indeed, their villas were too cramped.
What limited their imagination?
And all the genuine antique products from both East and West filling the room.
What baffled them the most was that every gold-colored thing in the house was real gold, not just gold paint or plated copper. Isn’t this showing off wealth? They could bash their heads in.
"I was just trying it out to see how it feels; perhaps I’ll scrape it off someday." Tang Qing truly felt it was no big deal, it was just a bit over a ton of gold, he wouldn’t even bother picking it up if it fell.
He’d have the fighters pick it up.
Chai Ren: "..."
Zheng Lin: "..."
Bao Kaiyu: "..."
Zhai Zhihua: "..."
That’s it.
The little boat of friendship capsized at the mention.
Then it was replaced by... a yacht, come on, let’s continue sailing.
