Chapter 779: Meeting Hu Bayi at Panjiayuan

Chen Xueru frowned, her tone carrying a hint of unease: "He Yuzhu, you really need to manage He Zheng. Now that the company has earned some money, he's gotten carried away; he's hired a whole bunch of people and even split the company into things like the Europe Department, the America Department, the Asia Department... I think he's bound to crash sooner or later!"

He Yuzhu laughed, leaning back against the sofa nonchalantly: "I'm actually hoping he crashes."

Chen Xueru glared: "What kind of nonsense are you talking? If he loses every cent, won't you be the one who has to cover the bottom line in the end?"

He Yuzhu chuckled: "You've run a clothing factory for so many years; how many setbacks have you experienced? Letting him take a tumble now is better than him falling after the company gets bigger later. Besides, I didn't invest that much money in his company; let him struggle with it himself. If he fails, he can just start over. It's no big deal."

Chen Xueru thought for a moment and complained: "I've felt that business in the Soviet Union has become increasingly difficult to do lately. Scammers are popping up one after another; they ask for a deposit and then urge you to ship the goods. There have been two shipments sent over, and then the people just vanish. They basically treat the deposit as the full payment."

He Yuzhu laughed, which reminded him of the "San Ge" from later generations: "Then just establish yourself domestically for now and build up the chain stores properly."

Chen Xueru glanced into the room and lowered her voice: "Do you know? He Jia is seeing someone, and he works in film."

He Yuzhu was stunned: "An actor or a director?"

"An actor. A singer signed to He Yushui's company; I heard the tapes he released are quite popular."

"Isn't that a pretty good thing?"

Chen Xueru curled her lip: "I just feel like people in that line of work aren't reliable."

He Yuzhu shook his head: "You can't paint everyone with the same brush. Which profession doesn't have good people and bad people? Let's not worry about it blindly. Besides, if anyone dares to bully my daughter, I won't let them off."

Early the next morning, just as He Yuzhu got up, the two brothers Xu Zhiwei and Xu Zhisheng rushed over in a flurry.

As soon as they met, the two started shouting: "Siqiang, this isn't our fault. You were gone for so long that we two brothers felt it was boring staying in Si Jiu Cheng, so we went to inspect things over at Lou Ayi's place. You aren't angry, are you? As soon as we heard you were home, we came to report to you immediately."

He Yuzhu thought to himself, as if I wanted to teach you two! But for the sake of Xu Tian, he took out two Patek Philippe watches: "I took a trip around Europe, and there wasn't much worth buying, so I brought you two some small gifts."

The two took them and looked, their eyes going wide—this was a big brand! They hurriedly said: "Thank you, Siqiang! We haven't even bought anything for you yet, and you bought things for us first; how could we be so embarrassed?"

He Yuzhu waved his hand: "Hey, why be so formal between master and apprentice?"

Only then did Xu Zhiwei accept them embarrassedly.

He Yuzhu asked: "What were your impressions after going to Shencheng?"

Xu Zhiwei said with a bit of disdain: "Siqiang, I think that place Shencheng is too small; does it really have a future for development? Lots of mountains, little land—how can you do anything?"

He Yuzhu laughed: "You are in real estate; tell me, is it better to have a lot of land or a little land?"

Xu Zhisheng's eyes lit up, and he immediately chimed in: "Siqiang is right! Brother, your brain really isn't sharp enough."

He Yuzhu continued with a smile: "Making judgments in the Mainland is different from Hong Kong. If you want to do business in the Mainland, you have to watch the News Simulcast every day. Wherever the government points, that's where you go; you can't go wrong."

Xu Zhiwei was convinced: "Siqiang's perspective is indeed higher than ours; I will definitely change the inherent ideas in my head."

He Yuzhu said: "You really do need to change your way of thinking. Where you come from, business is done by doing whatever the law forbids, and you can make money, but that won't work here. I am going to build an automobile factory over at Dabeiyao; you two brothers help me with the infrastructure first, and learn the way of working here while you're at it."

Upon hearing this, Xu Zhiwei and Xu Zhisheng were so excited they almost jumped up.

Being able to personally participate in building an automobile factory was a massive deal for them!

While He Yuzhu was busy building the factory, in the blink of an eye, it was a day in March 1986, and he suddenly received a call from Xu Damao.

On the other end of the line, Xu Damao said mysteriously: "Zhuzi, I've gotten my hands on a super awesome Ancient Divine Jade. It's the size of a palm, and the quality is absolutely incredible!"

He Yuzhu asked: "Where did it come from?"

Xu Damao stammered for a long time: "Uh... a friend, got it from over by the Kunlun Mountains."

He Yuzhu became interested: "Alright, where should we meet?"

"Come to my shop at ten tomorrow morning. But I have to warn you, those people aren't asking for a low price, so be mentally prepared."

He Yuzhu said: "Let's look at the goods first; I don't just buy anything."

"Then ten tomorrow morning, Panjiayuan, my little shop called 'Jubaozhai'."

"Fine." He Yuzhu hung up the phone, not taking it too seriously.

Collecting jade was mainly for upgrading his space.

Although the current space was sufficient—aside from not being able to fit an aircraft carrier, it could even hold airplanes—he had a large amount of cash in his hands, and if he didn't spend it, it would eventually become worthless paper, so collecting a few pieces of ancient jade was quite good.

The next morning, He Yuzhu drove to Xu Damao's shop.

Upon entering, he saw several people already sitting inside.

Xu Damao was busy introducing: "This is Jin Ya, my apprentice's nephew. This is Hu Bayi, and this is Wang Kaixuan, nicknamed Wang Pangzi."

He Yuzhu felt a stir—wow, he actually ran into a bunch of characters from a novel.

He nodded at them.

Hu Bayi, however, took a few extra looks at He Yuzhu, feeling slightly startled inside: he felt this person had some kind of indescribable spirituality about him.

Xu Damao started blathering again: "Everyone, this is the childhood friend I always talk about, He Yuzhu. We fought from childhood until now, and only now that we're older can we barely coexist peacefully. This guy is no simple character; his eldest wife runs a clothing factory, his son runs a Trade Company, his younger wife runs a real estate company..."

He Yuzhu retorted directly: "Are you here specifically to expose my background? If you have something to say, say it!"

The group burst into laughter upon hearing this.

He Yuzhu turned to Hu Bayi: "Mr. Hu, did you bring the jade you mentioned?"

Hu Bayi gently nudged Wang Pangzi.

Wang Pangzi understood, took an exquisite box out of his backpack, and pressed a small protrusion; the box popped open automatically.

He placed the jade, wrapped in red cloth, in front of He Yuzhu.

Before He Yuzhu even opened it, a strange, indescribable throb surged in his heart. He could feel it—this was the system stirring.

"Take a look!" Jin Ya said with a fawning smile.

He Yuzhu opened the red cloth, revealing a palm-sized piece of jade.

It was pure white throughout, shaped like a child's palm.

The moment he held it in his hand, a bone-chilling coldness spread throughout his entire body, and even more strangely—this piece of jade actually had a faint pulse, as if a tiny heart were hidden inside.

He Yuzhu held it up to the light and saw it was covered in fine, bright red veins like a spiderweb.

He asked secretly in his mind: "System, how is this jade? Can it be used for an upgrade?"

The system replied immediately: "Host, upon detection, this is an Ancient Divine Jade. Contributing it to the system will allow for a major system upgrade. Do you wish to store it in the space?"

"Wait, listen to my command!" He Yuzhu said in his heart.

On the surface, he pretended not to care, rubbing the jade back and forth in his hands, and asked slowly, "Brother Hu, this thing has a very heavy yin energy; where did you all get it from?"

Hu Bayi was not a person who could lie, so he stammered, "It is... we collected it on the way to the Kunlun Mountains."

Dajinya hurriedly smoothed things over, "Mr. He truly has a sharp eye! This item comes from the Western Regions, and we also happened to acquire it from an old farmer."