Chapter 935

Xu Haimin didn't stand on ceremony. He accepted the twenty thousand yuan and wrote a receipt: "You keep the receipt first. After I calculate the cost and we sign the contract, I'll have the accountant issue you a formal receipt."

Su Xinghui said: "Then let's go measure the dimensions of that private house."

Xu Haimin drove the car and took Su Xinghui to that private house. He always carried a tape measure in his car. Su Xinghui used the tape measure to measure all the dimensions of the house and courtyard and wrote them down.

Su Xinghui said: "Uncle Xu, thank you! Then please trouble yourself to take me to Zhuangyuan Lane once."

Xu Haimin drove Su Xinghui to the entrance of Zhuangyuan Lane. After Su Xinghui got out of the car, he laughed: "Uncle Xu, you are a big boss, and I've troubled you for the whole morning."

Xu Haimin shook his head and said: "What does this count as? You go in first; I'll wait for you outside."

Su Xinghui said: "No need for you to wait. You go back first. I reckon I'll have to stay inside for a while, and I shouldn't trouble you too much. It's not very far from my house here; I'll just walk back later."

Xu Haimin nodded in agreement, drove the car, and left.

Su Xinghui entered Zhuangyuan Lane and arrived at Hou Guangbi's old residence. Hou Guangbi was waiting for him there.

Seeing him arrive, Hou Guangbi said happily: "Xinghui is here. I've already called my friend at the World Bank. He gave me the contact information for the person in charge of the World Bank's office in China, introduced the situation of this person to me, and said he would help me call him. When the time comes, you can go directly to find him."

Don't think that only China is a relationship-based society. In fact, no matter which country you are in, relationships and connections are very useful. With Hou Guangbi's connections, Su Xinghui's request for a loan from the World Bank would go much more smoothly.

Hou Guangbi handed Su Xinghui a piece of paper. On the paper, written in elegant and beautiful small regular script, were the address and phone number of the World Bank's office in China, as well as the name, age, nationality, and other information of the person in charge.

Su Xinghui said: "Grandpa Hou, thank you!"

Hou Guangbi laughed: "A small matter."

Su Xinghui said: "Your calligraphy is truly excellent."

Hou Guangbi laughed out loud: "It can't compare to yours, but my calligraphy is also the result of decades of hard work. When I was young and practicing regular script, if one character wasn't written correctly, the tutor would hit my palm."

Hou Guangbi wasn't exaggerating at all. The original scholarly families and wealthy households were very strict in the cultivation of their descendants, which was the reason why the Hou family could produce so many elites.

Su Xinghui said: "You are too modest; your calligraphy is better than mine."

Hou Guangbi shook his head and said: "I'm not modest at all. I have limited talent in calligraphy, and I haven't put all my energy into it. My affairs are too busy, so my calligraphy is upright enough but lacks spirit. And your calligraphy not only has a deep foundation and a sense of weight, but within that weight, there is also spirit. This is the most rare point; it is the difference between a calligraphy craftsman and a calligraphy master. I can probably only be a craftsman, but you can become a master!"

Su Xinghui couldn't say anything more; he just laughed.

Hou Guangbi stood up and said: "Let's go, let's go eat at Dali's house."

These days, Hou Guangbi had been eating at Hou Dali's house. Now that Su Xinghui had arrived and it was lunchtime, he naturally wanted Su Xinghui to go eat together.

The two arrived at Hou Dali's house, where the fragrance of food was already wafting out. Hou Wenyong and Hou Wenhui were carrying dishes from the kitchen to the main room. Seeing Hou Guangbi arrive, Hou Wenyong said: "Third Great-Uncle is here. I was just about to go call you for lunch."

Hou Guangbi laughed: "I called Xinghui over to eat. Is your food enough?"

Hou Dali said: "Enough, enough!"

Hou Guangbi sat at the dining table and said to Su Xinghui: "Come, sit next to me."

Hou Dali quickly poured wine for Hou Guangbi. This wine was the special rice wine Su Xinghui had helped Hou Guangbi buy in Meng Hu Ling. It wasn't high in alcohol content but was very good for the stomach, perfect for the elderly. Hou Guangbi liked drinking it very much and would drink a small bowl at every meal.

Hou Dali himself drank Pengwan Shangjun Shangjun Daqu with Su Xinghui. Although after Hou Dali went to France last time, Hou Guangbi gave Hou Dali some shares of the Hou Group and Hou Dali could now be called a big millionaire, he still lived a relatively simple and plain life. He also drank ten-year-aged Pengwan Shangjun Shangjun Daqu and didn't buy the more expensive twenty-year-aged vintage.

Of course, these shares were also what Hou Dali deserved. When the Hou family fled overseas back then, they took almost all the liquid assets of the family with them. These liquid assets also included the share belonging to Hou Guangji's branch, so Hou Guangbi had always kept a share for Hou Dali. This time when Hou Dali went to France, Hou Guangbi returned these shares to him.

The meal was eaten in a harmonious atmosphere. After the meal, Su Xinghui stood up to say goodbye. Hou Guangbi originally wanted to keep him for a while, but Su Xinghui said he had things to do at home, so Hou Guangbi didn't force him to stay.

Returning home, Su Xinghui took out the dimensions he had measured in the newly bought private house and began to draw the exterior view and floor plan of the house. The building area of this private house was about 140 square meters. He planned to build a two-story small building, with three bedrooms and two bathrooms on each floor, two living rooms on the first floor, and a kitchen. The second floor would only have one living room and wouldn't need a dining room.

When Su Xinghui bought a house in his previous life, he had seen many residential communities and had many classic floor plans in his mind, which he could use now. He didn't want to design the exterior of the house to be too high-profile; he would just make it into that kind of ordinary, square, two-story small building, which could also maximize space savings.

As long as the interior of the house was decorated well and could make people live comfortably, that was enough. Making it too high-profile wouldn't have a good effect.

Su Xinghui drew two sets of floor plans for the first and second floors according to some classic layouts in his mind. He didn't need to mark very precise dimension numbers; after all, he wasn't a professional designer. He just needed to bring out the floor plan, and the remaining work would be done by the people under Xu Haimin.

Because the floor plans were ready-made, Su Xinghui drew them very quickly, finishing in less than an hour. He called Xu Haimin, met with him, handed the exterior view and floor plans to Xu Haimin, and asked Xu Haimin to make professional design drawings according to these plans, construct according to the drawings, and decorate.

Xu Haimin looked at the exterior view and didn't feel much; it was just that kind of ordinary two-story small building. When he was still a small construction team, he didn't know how many families he had helped build. But after looking at the two floor plans, he felt his eyes light up.

Xu Haimin nodded and said: "Xinghui, these two floor plans of yours are very trendy. I've been in construction for so many years and haven't seen them before."

The overall design thinking for floor plans in this era was relatively backward, with some still stuck in the steady but dull layout of the old-style apartment buildings: as soon as you entered the door, there was a corridor; inside the corridor was a large living room; at the end of the corridor were the kitchen and bathroom; and next to the large living room were three bedrooms side by side. This layout was truly too rigid.

And the three bedrooms and other functional rooms in the floor plans drawn by Su Xinghui were arranged in an orderly manner without wasting space, which indeed looked much more beautiful than that kind of old-fashioned floor plan.

Su Xinghui laughed: "Is that so? I guess I'm showing off my meager skills before an expert?"

Xu Haimin said: "No, no, these two floor plans of yours are really excellent. If only they could be used in the residential communities we build."

Su Xinghui nodded and said: "No problem, use them as you like. If you like them, next time I have time, I'll draw a few more floor plans for you to use in newly built residential communities."

Xu Haimin was overjoyed and said: "That's great! I will pay you a design fee."