Chapter 1633

"You little brat!" Qiao Hui laughed and scolded, "Let's go, let's go inside."

The inner room was the bedroom. It wasn't very large, and by the south-facing window, there was a large bed with a big round table placed in front of it.

On the north wall stood a stove, the fire burning brightly, making the entire room feel very warm.

"Sit, sit, sit!" Huang Jing warmly invited everyone to sit down, then poured tea for everyone.

Qiao Hui asked, "Where are Yu Mei and Sister-in-law Xingjuan?"

"I bought a rack of lamb and a few catties of beef. Since we don't have that many pots at home, they took them to the canteen to stew."

As Huang Jing spoke, she turned to walk outside.

"I'll go to the canteen to check; it should be almost done stewing."

"I'll go," Qiao Hui said. "I happen to need to go to the regiment headquarters to call the Regiment Commander and the Political Commissar."

"I'll go with you for a stroll." Zhou Andong got up and followed him out.

Zhang Shenghui said to Wu Hongkang, "Want to go outside and smoke a cigarette?"

Wu Hongkang knew at a glance that Zhang Shenghui had something on his mind, and the two of them subsequently left the room as well.

Gu Bing took a sip from his teacup and looked around the room.

Huang Jing said to Gu Bing and Zhou Anbei, "General Manager Gu, Xiao Bei, please sit. The dumplings are ready; I'll go get them."

Gu Bing said with a smile, "We're all family here, go ahead and get busy, don't worry about us."

Huang Jing left the room, and Zhou Anbei also got up and stood at the doorway: "Sister-in-law, where did the child go?"

Zhou Andong had told him that Qiao Hui's child was three years old, so he had prepared red envelopes in the morning, but he hadn't seen the child since arriving here.

Huang Jing found a basin: "He's at his grandfather's place."

"Oh!" Zhou Anbei didn't ask further.

In the courtyard, Zhang Shenghui lit a cigarette for Wu Hongkang.

"Are you really going to participate in investing in the chain hotels and chain gas stations?"

"Why not?" Wu Hongkang was very puzzled. "I think Zhou Andong's analysis is correct. In the future, the Tibetan region will be a key tourist area. Investing in chain hotels and gas stations won't go wrong."

"I don't doubt whether his analysis is correct," Zhang Shenghui said helplessly. "It's mainly because that guy is too cunning; he never gets up early unless there's profit to be made."

"Now he's asking us to invest, and when we don't have money, he's acting as our guarantor and extending the time for interest payments. Don't you think there's a problem with that?"

"Old Zhang!" Wu Hongkang sighed. "You're good in every way, but your suspicious nature is too heavy."

Zhang Shenghui was so choked up he almost couldn't catch his breath, his face turning dark.

"What kind of soul-stirring soup did Zhou Andong feed you?"

"It's not that he fed me soul-stirring soup," Wu Hongkang said helplessly. "Zhou Andong is indeed cunning, but has he ever scammed us?"

"How could he not have?" Zhang Shenghui snorted. "He scammed you out of 20,000 yuan, have you forgotten?"

(Those who have forgotten, please look back at Chapter 746)

As soon as this matter was brought up, Wu Hongkang immediately felt guilty. Zhou Andong had scammed him out of 5,000, but he had scammed Zhang Shenghui out of 10,000, and ended up making a 5,000 profit.

"That's all in the past, why bring him up?" Wu Hongkang immediately changed the subject. "On this matter, I only see the benefits; I really can't see how he could scam us."

"If you must say there is, it would be the Zhao Hongxing behind me and the Qin Chi behind you. But even if Zhou Andong wanted Zhao Hongxing and Qin Chi, the city leaders wouldn't sell, so even if he killed us, it would be useless."

Zhang Shenghui frowned, smoking cigarette after cigarette. The logic was sound, and the facts were the facts, but he just felt there was a trap in it.

"Where in this world is there a free lunch? Zhou Andong doing this is taking on a huge risk. Once the investment fails and we don't have the ability to repay the loans, he, as the guarantor, will have to bear it. What is he after?"

Wu Hongkang patted Zhang Shenghui on the shoulder and said earnestly, "Friends connect through the heart. Back when we went to Xiangjiang to speculate on white sugar, Zhou Andong had money and strength, so why did he bring us along, and we even made tens of millions of dollars? You tell me, what was he after?"

"..."

Zhang Shenghui looked at Wu Hongkang speechlessly. He felt mentally exhausted and it took him a long time to speak.

"Ever since we came back from Xiangjiang, I've discovered that you've been poisoned by Zhou Andong. This won't do, Old Zhang. Even if I invest this time, the two of us must stick together and reach a strategic alliance."

"You must not listen to Zhou Andong's sweet talk; you must firmly stand with me. Once he divides us, both of us will definitely suffer."

"Rest assured." Wu Hongkang laughed. "We've been old partners for a long time; I will definitely stand with you."

"That's right." Zhang Shenghui threw the cigarette butt on the ground and stepped on it. "It's too cold, let's go inside."

…………………………

At this time, Zhou Andong had already entered the canteen, and he didn't expect it to be so large inside.

"Your regiment headquarters canteen is not small."

"It's not just our regiment headquarters that eats here; the Command Post, Political Department, Logistics Department, and Equipment Department all eat here, so it's relatively large."

As soon as Qiao Hui entered, he saw Yu Mei sitting in the front peeling garlic.

"Sister-in-law, have you been staying here the whole time?"

Yu Mei looked up, and seeing it was Qiao Hui, she said with a smile, "There's nothing to do back there, so Sister-in-law Xingjuan and I are just here helping them with some work."

Dai Xingjuan came out of the kitchen: "Regiment Commander Qiao is here. The beef and lamb chops will be ready in a few minutes."

"Sister-in-law, this is my classmate Zhou Andong." Qiao Hui introduced him to Zhou Andong again: "This is our Regiment Commander's wife, Yu Mei, and this is our Political Commissar's wife, Dai Xingjuan."

"Hello!" Zhou Andong shook hands with both of them.

"Hello!"

"Hello!"

Yu Mei and Dai Xingjuan were very polite.

"Chairman Zhou, please sit!"

"No need to be polite," Zhou Andong said. "Qiao Hui and I came over just to stroll around and look at everything."

"Let's go!" Qiao Hui said. "Let's go to the kitchen and see if the meat is done stewing."

The two entered the kitchen, where two cooks were peeling potatoes. Seeing Qiao Hui, they immediately threw down what they were holding, then stood at attention and saluted.

"Hello, Chief!"

Zhou Andong blinked. He wasn't familiar with the military, but he didn't need to look at the rank insignia to know these two were new recruits.

Because veteran soldiers, when seeing familiar leaders, mostly wouldn't call them "Chief," but rather by their job titles.

Just like the two they met earlier in the regiment headquarters family compound, they were veteran soldiers, and when they saw Qiao Hui, they just called him Regiment Commander.

Qiao Hui came to the stove that was puffing out hot steam, lifted the lid, picked up the spoon on the side, fished out a piece of meat, and then picked it up with his hand and put it in his mouth.

"Hmm, hmm, hmm, it's almost there." Then, Qiao Hui put the lid back on: "Who stewed this meat?"

"The lamb chops were stewed by the Quartermaster," one cook said. "The beef was stewed by the squad leader."

Qiao Hui asked, "Where are the two of them?"

The other cook said, "The Quartermaster went back to the dormitory, and the squad leader was just here, he went out the back door."

"I'm here!"

The canteen back door was pulled open, and a veteran soldier came in.

"Regiment Commander, I was in the back smoking a cigarette."