“Did you… bargain?” Pei Qian asked.
Assistant Xin smiled. “I had wanted to, Boss Pei. In the end, I didn’t even manage to say anything; and Manager Zhang proactively raised the topic.”
Pei Qian felt that he was growing a little dizzy. That made sense though. No matter how eloquent Assistant Xin might be, how could she have unilaterally cut the rent by so much?
There was more than meets the eye!
Manager Zhang was only the manager for Shenhua View; where would he get so much authority to decide on reducing rent and waiving a deposit?
If 4 yuan had been the standard, cutting it to 3.5 yuan would already be not bad while reducing it to 3 yuan would be a very generous discount. However, it was immediately cut all the way to 1.5 yuan per square feet?
Who was he trying to kid?
In an instant, that was several hundreds of thousands less a month. If Manager Zhang had this authority, he would have long moved on to something better instead of just being a manager of this building, right?
There must be something going on behind the scenes!
If it was someone else, they would have happily accepted this offer.
Pei Qian couldn’t.
Reducing a small sum might be alright; Pei Qian could still try to do something else before this cycle ended. The crux was this was a substantial amount and a huge problem for him!
This time was reducing rent; what about the next time?
Something worse might even happen!
Hence, Pei Qian was determined to find out the chief culprit; once he knew his enemy, then he would know how to fight and overcome. He would be able to take into account all these uncertain variables when he calculated his losses next time. If not, he might bring himself everlasting grief with just one misstep.
Pei Qian thought for a moment. “Bring me to go find Manager Zhang.”
Assistant Xin nodded. “En, my thoughts exactly. Boss Pei should make a trip yourself.”
Assistant Xin also felt that something was fishy, and this matter needed investigating? Indeed, great minds think alike!
Pei Qian couldn’t help but think that.
A knock rang out as an administrative assistant handed Assistant Xin a bag of fruits.
Pei Qian, “?”
Assistant Xin said, “Manager Zhang had been so generous in reducing our rent by so much; I also felt that Boss Pei should personally pay a visit to thank him. I had arranged for someone to buy some fruits to bring along.”
Pei Qian, “???”
Was this what I meant when I said I wanted to go and find Manager Zhang? Who said I wanted to thank him?!
However, seeing Assistant Xin carrying the fruits and waiting for him, Pei Qian was speechless as he stood up. “Let’s go, then.”
The two went straight to Manager Zhang’s office.
The door was ajar, and Manager Zhang was busy with some work.
Pei Qian wanted to knock on the door to catch Manager Zhang’s attention when Manager Zhang already saw Pei Qian as he stood up and said, “Boss Pei! What brings you here today? Please come in and have a seat!”
Pei Qian was a little flabbergasted.
Something was indeed up!
Manager Zhang had not been like this the last time.
Although Manager Zhang had been polite the previous time, it had been more of professional courtesy as part of the service he provided. Whenever Manager Zhang spoke to the bosses of companies in the building, he always had the same manner and posture.
This time, Manager Zhang’s attitude was more respectful, a little like when someone was addressing his superior.
Pei Qian sat down suspiciously.
“Manager Zhang had given Tengda such a big discount for our rental; Boss Pei has especially come to express his thanks,” Xin Hailu left the fruits on the table as she smiled and said.
Pei Qian begrudgingly forced a smile. “Yes… that’s right.”
Manager Zhang hurriedly said politely, “Sigh, Boss Pei, you shouldn’t stand on formalities! It is our honor that Tengda has decided to set up shop in Shenhua View. It is part of my job to look out for our tenants; how could I accept your gifts? It should be me going to pay you a visit, actually.”
Pei Qian was speechless, “…”
Something was not right; something was really amiss! Pei Qian was more and more certain that some things that he didn’t know about were happening behind his back; these were important facts at that.
Pei Qian decided to cut to the chase.
“Manager Zhang, let’s be frank with each other. Reducing the rent to 1.5 per square feet… it wasn’t you who made this decision, right? Regarding this matter, I am very grateful and I wish to know which saint had rendered aid to Tengda. I hope that one day, I would be able to return the favor.”
Pei Qian was very sincere.
“Errr, regarding this…” Manager Zhang was a little hesitant.
Indeed, to reduce the rent by so much; it was not something a small manager like him could have decided. He definitely needed approval from above.
Boss Pei wasn’t stupid. Manager Zhang knew that if he said that there was nothing of the sorts; that would not fly with Boss Pei.
Furthermore, Boss Pei wasn’t here to look for trouble or exact revenge; he just wanted to know who had helped so that he could return the favor. It seemed as if there was no reason to hide anything.
The problem was… Manager Zhang actually wasn’t very sure himself where this order had come from.
Manager Zhang was in a bind. He smiled along and said, “Boss Pei, I was only following orders; please don’t make things difficult for me. Actually, I am not sure what is going on as well. This was an order that came personally from a high-level superior within Shenhua Real Estate. As for which boss made this decision… I really don’t know.”
An order personally from a Shenhua Real Estate’s high-level superior?
There was something wrong. There was something terribly wrong!
Why would someone high-up from Shenhua Real Estate know about Tengda Games? Could it be that they also played Tengda’s games?
What am I thinking? No way!
Seeing Manager Zhang’s face, he evidently didn’t know who had given the order. Pei Qian could only give up as he exchanged some pleasantries and left.
Manager Zhang repeatedly emphasized and asked that if Tengda encountered any problems in Shenhua View in the future, Pei Qian should let him know immediately to not put him in a tough spot.
Returning to his office, Pei Qian sat quietly in front of his computer as he turned to the Qiandu search engine for help.
Shenhua Real Estate was one of the companies under Shenhua Corporation. As the real estate industry had been booming in recent years, Shenhua Corporation had also ventured into some real estate projects. Although it wasn’t number-one or number-two in the country—capitalizing on Shenhua Corporation’s financial strength, Shenhua Real Estate had become one of the forerunners in the country.
Shenhua View was one of the many properties that Shenhua Real Estate owned in Jingzhou City.
Shenhua Real Estate’s President was Shenhua Corporation’s President Lin Zhengnan’s second son, Lin Zhou. In recent years, he had just fully taken over Shenhua Real Estate to manage and had moved the company into more modern developments that suited the lifestyles of youngsters more.
“Lin Zhou?”
Pei Qian felt that this name was a little familiar. He looked at a picture of Lin Zhou and saw that his features were rather familiar.
“Our company seems to have a rich second-generation heiress… also by the family name of Lin?”
Pei Qian’s heart sank.
Could it be?
Lin Wan searched ‘Lin Wan’ in Qiandu; however, he did not manage to find anything. However, the more he thought about it, the more he thought something was wrong!
Pei Qian’s impression on Lin Wan had been formed when she had first come for an interview wearing a dress that Assistant Xin said was worth tens of thousands. Lin Wan had looked like an innocent and sweet person without any work experience and someone who hadn’t seen much of the world. As Pei Qian didn’t mind having one more or one less employee at the time, he had taken her in.
After that, Lin Wan had used her connections gained from working at Sun Strike Studios to liaise with some FPS elite gamers, who had objectively helped Ocean Stronghold with its first wave of publicity.
However, this matter had not sounded any alarm bells for Pei Qian. After all, anyone would have been able to get in contact with these gamers if they had been in charge of this. Pei Qian also didn’t feel that Lin Wan had any special identity and just thought of her as a normal rich second-generation heiress.
Subsequently, Lin Wan had been made responsible for some simple tasks in the company. She was conscientious and earnest and had kept a low-profile. She had not done anything outstanding, and Pei Qian had not made any attention to her.
However, Pei Qian now realized he seemed to have made a grave mistake.
There was a difference between rich second-generation heirs. Some were just more well-off while some could actually reduce Boss Pei’s rental expenses by hundreds of thousands with one phone call.
Pei Qian fell into a trance.
There was a mole!
The mole had been hiding within the company for so many months; he had not realized at all!
What should I do? How should I handle this?
Pei Qian thought about this repeatedly as he had no ideas at all.
This was too difficult!
“Calm down; I have no leads to work on now primarily because I know nothing about her. I need to know my enemy before I can win my battles; Lin Wan wouldn’t have come work for me without a reason.
“If I can figure this out, perhaps I can make her rethink her decision and leave to inherit her millions and billions in wealth?
“Even if I can’t make her leave, at least I can gather some valuable information…”
Thinking about this, Pei Qian decided to give a call to Zhou Muyan from Sun Strike Studios.
Zhou Muyan would definitely know something!
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