Chapter 2884

In Room 8026 of Coconut City Guesthouse, besides Li Guojiang, Feng Xin, Chen Nianrong, and Yao Mingchen, there was also the guesthouse general manager Meng Lin, a woman in her thirties with great charm.

Short hair, oval face, wearing glasses. Not tall in stature, but very well-endowed, especially the granary, which was magnificent, straining her white ladies' shirt as if it might burst open. And with her every movement, it would sway rhythmically.

Such a beauty is extremely tempting to any normal man. Zhou Andong noticed that after entering the room, Li Guojiang stole glances seventeen times, Feng Xin twenty-three times, and Yao Mingchen forty-six times.

As for Zhou Andong, he only glanced twice. Because besides being a normal man, he is also a gentleman, and his life principle is to avoid impropriety—certainly not comparable to the lecherous lot like Li Guojiang, Feng Xin, Chen Nianrong, and Yao Mingchen.

"Zhou Dong, Miss Jingyi!" Meng Lin smiled warmly: "Lunch is ready. Shall we go to the restaurant now?"

Zhou Andong felt that if he didn't look at Meng Lin while she spoke to him, it would be impolite, so he shifted half a step aside, making way for Qiu Qian who was blocking his view, and then his gaze naturally fell upon Meng Lin's granary.

His eyes were pure, without a hint of the lecherousness of men like Li Guojiang—so pristine, untainted by any impurity, just as he himself said: he is a gentleman.

"As the saying goes, follow the host's lead." Zhou Andong spoke, and with the eyes of a gentleman, he scanned the granary more than ten times: "Whatever Director Li arranges, I'll follow."

Li Guojiang said with a smile: "We're heading to the restaurant now. The secretary and Provincial Z will arrive, and they should be here shortly."

"Alright, let's go to the restaurant." Zhou Andong's gentlemanly eyes lingered on the granary before reluctantly moving away.

As they left the room, the corridor outside was like having a post every three steps and a sentinel every five—all police, so much so that guests on the same floor dared not come out. This made Zhou Andong shake his head all the way from the airport.

Four police cars led the way, four brought up the rear, with flashing lights all along. At every intersection, traffic police blocked the road, and traffic only resumed after their convoy passed.

In his previous life, Zhou Andong despised privilege. But in this life, he has become exactly what he once hated. Still, privilege, though hated, is truly captivating.

Zhou Andong knew that Qiong Province would certainly tighten security, so he left Wang Wentian and the others in Ye Zhen's care, just in case. But he hadn't expected Qiong Province's security to be so extravagant. Still, this proves how much either Guo Dong Zhou or the Provincial W official values him.

Zhou Andong's group arrived at the second floor, where Chen Shubin, the office director of Provincial W, had been waiting at the restaurant entrance. Seeing Zhou Andong approach, he quickly stepped forward a few paces and extended his hand from afar.

"Zhou Dong, welcome to Coconut City as our guest."

Zhou Andong shook hands with Chen Shubin, feeling deeply moved as he said: "This is my second visit to Coconut City, but after just a year, the city's changes have left me sighing."

Chen Shubin pondered briefly, then understood what Zhou Andong meant, and sighed in agreement: "Yes, last year construction sites were everywhere, the roar of machines nonstop day and night.

But in just one year, the machine noise vanished, leaving behind a landscape of ruins, with abandoned buildings everywhere. The secretary and Provincial Z are so worried their hair is falling out in clumps, holding meeting after meeting each month to discuss how to revive these stalled projects and what to do with the undeveloped land."

As for how to handle it, Zhou Andong actually knows. In his previous life, when housing prices were at their peak, he drank with a few rowdy friends and dashed about Dashan, saying: if he'd known houses would be this expensive, he'd have taken out loans in the 1990s to buy several units.

One of his friends was a construction foreman, and taking advantage of the topic, they chatted about the 1993 Qiong Province real estate crash—if they'd had money back then, they'd definitely have gone to Qiong Province to buy low.

Although Qiong Province's housing price growth lags far behind Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and other hot cities, since 1994, housing there has been genuinely cheap—so cheap it's practically cabbage prices.

Zhou Andong and Qiu Qian were escorted by a large crowd into the restaurant, where thick carpets covered the floor—so plush that even wearing shoes, one could clearly feel the comfort.

Zhou Andong stood at the entrance and surveyed the restaurant: the space could be about 150 to 160 square meters, overall Chinese-style decoration, with the wall directly opposite the entrance featuring a relief of the Great Wall, looking grand and magnificent.

Against the left wall was a lounge area with a row of redwood sofas and chairs, two tea sets placed on them. On both sides stood several tall potted plants with large leaves, looking quite nice.

What made Zhou Andong sigh even more was that in this 150–160 square meter space, only one oversized round table stood in the center, with a crystal chandelier hanging directly above it.

"Zhou Dong, Qian Dong!" Li Guojiang made a gesture of invitation: "Let's go over there to rest first and have a cup of tea."

"Alright!" Zhou Andong replied.

The group arrived at the lounge area. Zhou Andong thought it didn't matter where he sat, but Li Guojiang pulled him to sit in the seat of honor.

"Zhou Dong, Qian Dong, you must sit here."

After Zhou Andong and Qiu Qian sat down, the others followed suit.

Meng Lin walked to the tea table, sat cross-legged on the carpet, and began arranging the tea set.

Chen Shubin said with a smile: "Manager Meng is a tea ceremony master—her tea earns thumbs-up from foreign guests."

Zhou Andong's gentlemanly eyes unconsciously flicked toward Meng Lin's granary, and he muttered to himself: Foreigners praise not the tea, but that magnificent granary.

A server brought a small iron box and placed it on the tea table, though the box bore no markings.

Meng Lin opened the small iron box, smiling: "This Tieguanyin, I personally picked it in Anxi, then had a renowned master roast it..."

Meng Lin's movements in brewing gongfu tea were elegant and pleasing to the eye—even Qi Qian, who had been vigilantly watching Zhou Andong, couldn't help but admit that in certain aspects, this woman was truly excellent.

"Zhou Dong, Qian Dong!" Meng Lin poured the brewed tea into cups and pushed them toward Zhou Andong and Qiu Qian: "Try it—how is it?"

Zhou Andong drinks tea like a cow chewing peonies, but the moment this tea entered his mouth, he truly felt a difference: sweet on the palate, rich in aftertaste, mainly because there was no bitterness from the tea leaves at all.

"Delicious!" Zhou Andong sincerely exclaimed.

Qiu Qian still knows a bit about tea; after taking a sip, her eyes lit up, and she nodded: "This tea is indeed good."

Meng Lin laughed: "There's not much of this tea. After lunch, I'll have someone send two cans to Zhou Dong and Qian Dong's rooms."

Just as Meng Lin finished speaking, a receptionist stationed at the restaurant entrance rushed in quickly: "The secretary and Provincial Z have arrived."