Chapter 60: Because of Dogs
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Qian Ge Headquarters Building, Tianjing City Central, Level 16.
The secretary stood in Hong Weiguo’s office, face full of delight as he reported: “CEO Hong, congratulations. Recently, the visitor volume of our Sangle search engine increased by 5%, causing the share price of our company to also increase by 5%.”
“Oh? That’s good.” Hong Weiguo sat in front of his desk and smilingly asked, “Did you find out why?”
The secretary’s expression was quite complicated. It seemed to be mixed with surprise, happiness, helplessness, and bewilderment. In conclusion, his expression seemed very strange. “The reason is… because Young Master Dali opened a concert to support Lady Li Nianwei. Then, she rose to fame very quickly, causing many people to search for her info. Thus, it ended up this way…”
“Hahaha, this small prodigal.” Hong Weiguo looked like he found a treasure as he happily smiled. He then shook his head and helplessly said, “This little rascal, he can really mess things around. This Li Nianwei caused the visitor volume of our search engine to increase by 5%; this is really out of the blue.” Although he spoke casually, in reality, the market value of the Sangle search engine was at least 20 billion. Thus, a 5% increase was equivalent to a billion yuan increase in its value.
What was more depressing was that Hong Dali, this prodigal, only intended to squander some money in the first place.
If others were to know of this matter, they might be depressed to the point of vomiting blood.
Other people painstakingly spend a yuan as if it were 10 yuan, and they would be overjoyed when finally managing to save some money. But this Hong Dali, all he did every day was just squander and waste money. Yet somehow, he managed to increase the market value of his family’s company by a billion yuan without knowing about it. His luck was really on a roll, and nothing seemed to be able to stop him.
“Oh right, how’s the development of the west fourth loop?” After laughing for a while, Hong Weiguo asked. The land at the west fourth loop was a surprise gain; due to the effects of government policy, it was impossible to make a loss. However, the time duration for development still needed to be discussed. It could be developed within half a year, or it could be developed within five years. Therefore, in reality, Hong Weiguo didn’t expect to make much money from it. The main reason he purchased the land there was just to make Hong Dali happy. After all, Hong Dali’s body condition changed for the better recently, and Hong Weiguo credited it to the amassed good fortune he gained while squandering.
Sometimes, even if one wasn’t superstitious, it was better to believe in such things than believe they didn’t exist.
“As for the west fourth loop…” Upon mentioning the west fourth loop, the secretary’s expression became strange again. “Recently, many people came and asked our people there when we will be developing housing estates. It looks like they plan to buy them.”
“Oh? We have only just bought the land, and there are already people asking when we will be building housing estates?” Hong Weiguo frowned and said, “Why is that so? I have never heard of people rushing to buy estates to this kind of extent before. Although we have bought over the houses from those living there, this shouldn’t happen to such an extent, should it? Roughly, how many people have the intention to swap houses?”
“En, a… a lot…” The secretary’s sweat started flowing down. “According to statistics, about… about 30% and more of the citizens living at the west fourth loop near Ye Lai Xiang plan to swap houses.”
“30%! So many!” Even though Hong Weiguo could face the collapse of a mountain before his eyes and not have a change in his expression, but hearing that within such a short time there were already so many people planning to swap houses, he still couldn’t believe his ears. “Did you find out why they are so eager to swap houses?”
With regards to this matter, Hong Weiguo couldn’t afford to be careless.
According to the number of residents at the west fourth loop, there were at least 10,000 resident houses near Ye Lai Xiang. Even if it were 30%, that would mean 3,000 houses. So many of them wanted to swap houses? If they did so, their original houses would most likely be sold off. Even if not all of them intended to sell their houses, just half of them would mean 1,500 houses. Counting one house as 10,000 yuan, 1,500 houses would need a capital of 150 million yuan.
Hong Weiguo wasn’t worried about spending money. What he feared was that with so many residents planning to sell their houses in such a short time, he would need to spend a large sum to complete the transactions. If this were a conspiracy orchestrated by his rivals and they trapped his cash flow from his other businesses, it would be very dangerous. Therefore, he needed to be careful.
Many a time, when people reached such a level in life, it would be difficult for them to collapse. But once they fell, it would be extremely difficult to rise back up again. He needed to be careful and cautious, and not make a mistake in any of the policies he implemented.
However, the secretary’s expression was as strange as it could become. “Well… CEO Hong, the reason for this is in fact… related to Young Master Dali too.”
“Related to Dali again?” Hong Weiguo didn’t know whether to cry or laugh. He took a sip of tea and asked, “How is this related to Dali again? Tell me about the situation. What has he got to do with this?”
The secretary wiped off his sweat and gradually said, “The cause of this matter is because… Young Master Dali raised dogs…”
Pu… Hong Weiguo spurted out the tea he was drinking. “You mean to say that so many people are planning to swap houses because my house’s Dali is raising dogs? Are you sure you’re not mistaken?”
“No… there’s no mistake!” The secretary felt that the words he said today sounded weird; it sounded like a story out of legend. Of course, it was also funny in a way. “Young Master Dali seems to have taken a liking for small animals, especially dogs. Every day, he will take the dogs out for a walk. The problem is, he bought too many dogs—over 400 of them. What’s more, he placed all of them together to raise. That means that every house we bought is being used to raise at least five dogs.”
“Then?” Hong Weiguo had a strange expression on his face. “What happened next?”
“Then…” The secretary spoke with difficulty. “The dogs bark all day long. As long as one dog starts to bark, the rest will follow. The residents there aren’t able to sleep in peace.”
“So they decided to sell their houses away? So severe?” Hong Weiguo’s eyes went big.
The secretary said, “Actually, it isn’t that simple. More importantly, these residents know that these dogs belong to Young Master Dali, so they don’t dare to complain. At the same time, they heard that our company bought quite a few pieces of land to develop. So they thought that, since selling their houses to Young Master Dali wouldn’t bear them a loss, they can use the money to buy the new houses we built. The only difference in between would only be the renovation fee, which isn’t much. That’s akin to swapping their old house for a new one… so they all came and asked. Especially the young people planning to get married, they’re the ones asking the most…”
Hong Weiguo now knew why the secretary’s expression was so strange. “You mean to say, the problem of those people who weren’t willing to move and caused us such a headache was resolved. Furthermore, the method that this problem was solved with was the dogs that Dali, that prodigal, purchased for the purpose of squandering!?”