Xia Bin was so anxious he wanted to start cursing.
"President Peng, I have no relationship with him! It won’t do any good if I go looking for him now!"
It was worse than having no relationship. Relying on his good terms with Peng Yu, he had never given these store managers the time of day. Now, Jiangzhou Wansheng Square had suddenly been spun off from the Wansheng System and renamed Junxiao Square.
At a time like this, Xu Jun’s authority would surely be greater than before. After all, he no longer had as many layers of management above him as he did at Wansheng Group.
The general manager of Junxiao Square would report directly to the group, giving him a high degree of autonomy within the mall’s ecosystem.
"President Xia, in the professional world, people forget you the moment you’re out of power. Can’t you see that? Once he’s no longer my subordinate, my words won’t carry any weight!"
"I’m sure that with President Xia’s influence, Xu Jun will be at your beck and call! After all, you still have five brands cooperating with him on the first floor. Your company is his largest partner in the mall, making you a key account, without a doubt!"
’Damn it all,’ he thought. ’Even if they maintain a relationship with a key account, it’s all just superficial. Without a personal connection, it’s not that easy to get things done.’
Peng Yu had, however, reminded him of something else: he still had five brands operating on the first floor of Jiangzhou Wansheng, and their leases were up for renewal in two months.
Before, he had thought his good relationship with Peng Yu meant it didn’t matter. Nothing could go wrong, anyway!
But now that the mall had a new owner, he couldn’t afford for anything to go wrong.
Fuck! After hanging up on Peng Yu, Xia Bin anxiously raked his hands through his hair. ’It’s been one damned thing after another lately. If this keeps up, I’m going to get depressed!’
KNOCK! KNOCK! Hearing two knocks on the door, Xia Bin straightened his appearance, cleared his throat, and said, "Come in!"
The head of the development department came in and said, "President Xia, there’s a situation I need to report to you immediately!"
Xia Bin had a bad feeling. "Speak!"
"Ganglong International just informed us that they will not be renewing the contract for the Ledi brand when it expires!"
Xia Bin froze, asking in disbelief, "What did you say?"
"The contract for the Ledi store at Ganglong International can’t be renewed!"
"Son of a bitch!" Xia Bin grabbed the cup of water from his desk and hurled it directly at the development head’s face.
"If you can’t get the Ledi contract renewed, you can get the fuck out! You’re a goddamn waste!"
The department head dodged to the side, avoiding the cup, but still got splashed with water.
Terrified, he didn’t dare say a word, standing to the side with his head lowered.
"Get out, damn it!"
Xia Bin roared in frustration. One wave hadn’t subsided before another rose. Ledi, Sa Mo, and Erte were the most profitable brands he represented.
The "adjustments" to the Sa Mo store at Ganglong International had already left him exhausted, and now the brand owner was demanding they add more regional agents.
’I still haven’t figured out how to smooth that over, and now Ledi is in trouble too!’
The Ledi brand wasn’t a pushover either. If he couldn’t handle this properly, what happened to Sa Mo today would happen to Ledi tomorrow.
No matter how strong Four Seasons Clothing was, it couldn’t withstand this kind of turmoil. It was a crippling blow.
He was at his wit’s end. He definitely had to go negotiate with Ganglong International, but Huang Guangyuan wasn’t giving him any face at all.
He also needed to contact Xu Jun at Junxiao Square as soon as possible. He had to talk to him about whether Sa Mo could move in, and besides that, he had five other brands on the first floor of Junxiao Square paying high rent just to keep up appearances. He couldn’t afford another major rent hike when their leases were up for renewal this year!
So far, both Peng Yu and Xia Bin had been tormented to their wits’ end.
But neither of them suspected that someone was setting them up step by step, because it never occurred to them to connect any of this to Yino.
Neither of them thought Yino had that kind of power. Take the acquisition of Jiangzhou Wansheng Square, for example. Yino Group probably didn’t have the resources to pull that off, and even if they did, they wouldn’t go to such lengths over a petty grudge!
Xia Bin especially refused to believe that his current predicament was because Yino was squeezing him out. What kind of power did Yino have? It was a brand he wouldn’t even deign to look at. If he was being taken down by a company like that, what was the point of even staying in business?
Because they both thought this way, they chalked up all their recent misfortunes to bad luck. It never crossed their minds that someone was targeting them from behind the scenes.
The instigator, meanwhile, had just finished a call with Liu Haoran and gone right back to the grind—he was busy laning in his game.
When the match ended, he suddenly noticed another system notification. He perked up, thinking a new system quest had been issued!
He opened it and was instantly dumbfounded.
"DING! Detected that Zhao Xiangjun has spent 19 million on behalf of the Host. Awarding 9.31 billion to the Zhao Xiangjun-specific Diligence Fund. Total balance: 10.3 billion!"
’Holy crap, what’s going on?’ he wondered. ’Zhao Xiangjun took my ID card this morning. Don’t tell me she bought a house for herself too? A 19-million-yuan house in Jiangzhou would have to be ridiculously luxurious.’
Looking at the balance of Zhao Xiangjun’s specific Diligence Fund, with that long string of zeros... ’She’s a real moneymaker, huh? Is this what they call a supportive wife?’
He sent a message to Xu Wu: "President Xu, you need to step it up. You’re spending the money too slowly!"
Xu Wu read the message and was baffled for a long moment. She figured he was having one of his crazy fits again; he occasionally said bizarre things that made no sense.
How long had they even been in business? Just the 1.5 billion for the Jiangzhou Wansheng Square acquisition, the 300 million for Ding Yong’s investment, plus another nearly 200 million for seven or eight smaller projects... they had already spent 2 billion.
’And he calls this pace slow? Is he even speaking human?’
At any other company, forget 2 billion—a 2 million investment would still be under discussion. After the discussion comes due diligence. You wouldn’t see that 2 million for at least three months.
She didn’t even know how to reply to Chen Xiao’s message. But a moment later, the chief financial officer came to report.
"President Xu, another 9.8 billion just appeared in the company account. We checked the source—it’s from the Chairman’s account!"
All large transfers for Zhao Xiangjun’s special fund were handled by the system; otherwise, 9.8 billion isn’t an amount you can transfer just because you say so.
’A capital scale of 15 billion?’
Xu Wu felt like she was dreaming. In Han River, besides a few state-owned funds, who else could compare?
She felt the company could soon be renamed "Junxiao Investment Group Holding Co., Ltd."
With so much money, no wonder Chen Xiao said she was spending it too slowly. So this was the reason for his humble-bragging.
’It seems I really need to start looking for some high-quality, large-scale projects,’ she thought. ’Otherwise, we can’t just let this 15 billion sit here and collect interest.’
Chen Xiao had discussed this with her before. Currently, Junxiao Capital’s investment priorities were focused on AI, new energy industries, the low-altitude economy, and traditional retail and commercial real estate.
For traditional retail, the entry point was primarily Yino Group, which was currently being controlled under President Zhao’s personal name.
As for commercial real estate, starting with Junxiao Square, all future projects would be controlled or held as a stake by Junxiao Capital.
In the new energy sector, the investment in Ding Yong’s Hongmeng Intelligent Selection Car business was an initial venture.
In the low-altitude economy and AI sectors, she had already sporadically invested in six or seven companies. Chen Xiao’s recent orders had all come from these very enterprises.