Chapter 814: Chapter 340: Mother-in-law: Die, All of You!

Business confrontation allows no room for recklessness or impatience.

Luo Zhen was not an impatient person by nature, but after four or five rounds of back-and-forth, he inevitably became agitated and restless.

He inexplicably felt that all his reactions seemed to have been anticipated by Han Lie, and no matter how he struggled, he couldn’t truly escape the other’s control.

This feeling was tormenting, making him even start to dread facing off against Han Lie.

Luo Zhen’s resistance grew weaker and weaker, so he had to resort to complaining and lamenting about his hardships in advance.

"President Han, I really envy people like you, financial elites with mastery of high-tech. Making money may not be easy, but at least it’s not troublesome.

For people like us in real estate, we’re squeezed by oversight from all sorts of supervisors from above, and need to manage and supervise construction teams below, while dealing with internal tricks and shenanigans in between. We can’t slack off anywhere.

When we were developing other projects before, it was okay; there was always a line holding things in place.

But ever since the East Suburb villa block was initiated, everyone wants to rush in to grab a piece of the pie, which has completely opened the floodgate.

Once we finished with Juntin, we looked back at the financial report and were shocked.

Huh? Where did all the money go?

Honestly, in recent years, the company has had heaps of unaccounted expenses every year. We’ve had to forcefully fill gaps by logging more office supplies, doubling travel expenses, and asking the marketing department to get more invoices...

What’s left is really hard to account for, so the major shareholders have to bear it!

That’s why my father ends up with a new luxury car one day, a new company the next, and the following day he’s charging personal expenses to the company without following financial protocols...

From the outside, it seems like my father is always figuring out how to line his own pockets, but I’ve never even seen those things as his son...

Sigh!

Running a real estate company is costly!

And it’s not the kind of fixed cost you’d imagine, like cost per square meter. If it were that simple, it would be great!"

Luo Zhen hinted, and Han Lie understood.

Projects like Hua Zhou Juntin definitely have hidden costs, and they’re not low.

A total of about a dozen villa developments have been approved for the East Suburb block. If someone with intentions were to analyze, they would definitely find something interesting.

The simplest thing—there are basically no national large real estate companies involved; it’s all local developers from the Magic Capital.

Is it that big companies don’t like developing luxury villas?

Hehe.

The reason isn’t explained, and the result doesn’t need to be explored; it doesn’t matter.

After all, Han Lie just intends to cut Luo Zhen a bit, regardless of what you had to give up to get the project.

"President Luo."

Han Lie raised his head, looking at Luo Zhen with an ambiguous smile, suddenly launching an attack.

"In October 2008, your company offered a really sincere price to win over a certain internet tycoon. I’ve heard someone mention it before, if that price were cut by 20%, would it reach your company’s costs?"

Luo Zhen: Σ(っ°Д°;)っ

To not exaggerate, young Luo’s scalp almost exploded.

Damn!

You’re a finance guy fresh out of an out-of-province university; how do you know such confidential information?!

Oh, of course, thanks to good brother Gao Diaomao.

To curry favor with Han Lie, he really put in a lot of effort to dig up all sorts of information—not just about Hua Zhou Juntin. He even unearthed the dark history of the major shareholder of East Suburb No.1...

In this area, Gao Diaomao is a born genius.

At first, Luo Zhen was too shocked, stammering as he tried to dodge: "Uh... really? In ’08, I wasn’t involved in much of the company’s business, maybe..."

Halfway through, he couldn’t withstand Han Lie’s gaze, realizing there must be evidence provided by Gu Yong or some local counterpart, prompting him to quickly change his tune.

"Oh, I remember now, there was indeed an exception then... Of course, that was a special concession for publicity and sensationalism, and shouldn’t be used to gauge the actual value of our villas..."

"I understand."

Han Lie nodded with a smile: "I certainly don’t have that kind of reputation, nor do I dare to expect such a concession."

Brother Lie seemed particularly understanding and magnanimous.

But Luo Zhen instinctively tensed his muscles.

Then, he heard the young man opposite him casually say: "But my aesthetic is quite similar to that predecessor, so at the same price, I would much rather have him as a neighbor.

And your costs are obviously not a particularly severe problem, at least nowhere near as exaggerated as you just described.

So, what’s going on? Am I not worth a slightly more sincere price?!"

Wow, a heavy blow, a critical strike!

Luo Zhen felt like if he didn’t offer a real price, he’d really offend Han Lie...

Isn’t it a pity?!

But, well, that’s how business confrontations are. If you’re careless and someone finds your bottom line, you can’t blame external factors; good or bad, you have to bear it yourself.

"No, no..."

Luo Zhen shook his head with a bitter smile, then remained silent for a while as his back became drenched in a dense layer of sweat.

He was thinking, did Han Lie actually know the private offer made to that tycoon?

Logically speaking, he shouldn’t know, as that reception was highly confidential, involving only his father and uncles. Even he wasn’t qualified to stand at the forefront.

But... what if Han Lie really knows?

Even if he doesn’t know precisely, there’s always a rough estimate. Those peers can surely guess, so trying to invoke costs or other excuses won’t work anymore.