"A Rolls-Royce Phantom for 150 million, and a golden edition at that. As far as I know, Rolls-Royce no longer produces this model. This will be a completely discontinued car. Are you really willing to give it away, brother-in-law?" Leng Zhimeng asked with a smile in the chairman's office of the branch company.
"That car isn't actually very comfortable to sit in. Apart from the badge, it's useless. I have no interest in it!" Boss Huang said expressionlessly.
"But I must say, brother-in-law, you can't always drive your Hongqi, can you? You should have a car to showcase your status as the world's richest man!" Leng Zhimeng said with a smile. "I often hear some colleagues in the company say that a car represents a person's social status. The better the car, the higher the social status."
"When you drive a Rolls-Royce out, everyone who passes by will respect you immensely. But if you drive a BYD, no one will even bat an eye!"
"Oh, and by the way, there's a classic Hong Kong film in our film and television industry with a very interesting line. It says we're all driving Mercedes and Rolls-Royces. You're riding a Mazda, no wonder you're stuck in traffic halfway. Since you're riding a Mazda, you have no right to attend our meeting!"
"So, brother-in-law, shouldn't you change to a better car too?" Leng Zhimeng asked with a smile, grabbing Huang He's tie.
"Then I'll take my Pangu Jiayuan to the meeting!" Huang He grinned. "Am I not the world's richest man just because I drive a Hongqi? If I wanted to, Hongqi could acquire Rolls-Royce tomorrow, and then all Rolls-Royces would have the Hongqi logo on them. Would I have face then when I attend meetings?"
Leng Zhimeng stuck out her tongue. Her relationship with Huang He seemed quite normal now, but this was actually the result of several years of making amends.
After the incident, Leng Zhimeng and Huang He were in a purely business-like state for over a year. They rarely showed any intimate behavior when they met, maintaining the relationship of ordinary world's richest and second richest.
The relationships Leng Zhimeng had with her other two sisters were also similar, extremely distant.
However, after Boss Huang forcibly made the three children live together, their relationship began to ease. Simultaneously, the sisterly bond could not be severed. In the end, with time acting as the greatest weapon, their relationship was barely restored to its original state. Yet, Boss Huang and Leng Zhimeng never resumed their intimate relationship, and Leng Zhimeng had no intention of finding a boyfriend either.
"But brother-in-law, if you give the car away like this, won't it be disrespectful to that prince? Have you completely offended him?" Leng Zhimeng asked curiously.
"I wish I could offend him. What I fear now is that he'll send me another gift!" Boss Huang sighed, looking troubled.
"Send another gift? That's impossible!" Leng Zhimeng blinked in surprise. "He gave you a luxury car worth 150 million, all shiny gold that blinded me. And you're giving it away to someone else, and he'll still send you a gift? Do you think he's an idiot!"
"Yes, I hope he doesn't do anything so foolish, but I think there will be new gifts tomorrow!" Huang He said.
"Impossible. If he sends you another gift, I'll perform a pole dance for you!" Leng Zhimeng said dismissively. However, less than an hour later, the secretary came to report that the bearded man's gift had arrived again.
"Return the gift and say I don't deserve it!" Huang He said, then he secretly glanced at Leng Zhimeng and saw that her face had turned green.
"Wait!" Leng Zhimeng called out to the secretary. "What did that bearded man send this time?"
"It's people!" the secretary whispered. "And not just one, but eleven of them, and all of them are women!"
"What?" Leng Zhimeng exclaimed, her face turning completely green, and then she angrily reprimanded, "How dare that bearded man! Are they still living in the era of slavery? And why is he sending 11 women? The World Cup is over, does he want to form a team for our house?"
"It's like this!" the secretary quickly explained. "Their staff said this is their Royal Song and Dance Troupe. These eleven women are all dancers from the Royal Song and Dance Troupe, carefully selected by him. They are skilled in many of their country's characteristic dances. He hopes that when the chairman has leisure time, he can watch their country's splendid exotic dances."
"So, what they're sending us is this Royal Song and Dance Troupe, and their salaries are paid by them. We just need to arrange accommodation for them!"
"Oh, and the representative also said that if we refuse, they will arrange the accommodation. But this song and dance troupe will stay in China forever, receiving their regular salaries, but will not accept any public performances and will only obey your commands."
"At the same time, they will do their best to ensure the dancers' skills and beauty. So, once a dancer reaches the age of 35, they will return to their country immediately, but new young dancers will be sent to replace them until you pass away!" the secretary said.
"This..." Boss Huang was speechless. It seemed that no matter whether he accepted or refused this gift, it would all fall on him.
"Brother-in-law, I think you should accept it. Otherwise, if they stay here forever but have no opportunity for public performances, wouldn't that be a waste of their artistic lives?"
"Besides, our Jiangnan Group has such a large footprint in the entertainment industry. We have a great demand for talented dancers. Even if you don't want to keep this song and dance troupe by your side, you can create another 'Persian Girl Generation' or something similar, and develop it globally. That would also make us money!" Leng Zhimeng said with a smile.
"Fine, since I accepted the 150 million Rolls-Royce, I'll accept this song and dance troupe too. Everything will be arranged according to President Meng's wishes. They will be sent to Jiangnan Entertainment for packaging and training. Additionally, emphasis will be placed on their Chinese language training. They will be molded to the standards of Korean girl groups. A group of exotic beauties who can speak fluent Chinese should be quite popular." In a few words from Boss Huang, a super girl group that would become popular in China for a generation was born.
"Yes, I'll arrange it right away!" The secretary nodded and was about to leave when Leng Zhimeng suddenly called him back. "Let me ask you, can these women do pole dancing?"
"Ah!" The secretary was stunned, then looked at Huang He blankly. Boss Huang was expressionless, so the secretary could only tentatively say, "I'm not sure about that. But their representative said they know almost all the dances in the world, so they might know some!"
"Then I'll go and see them!" Leng Zhimeng stood up directly and followed the secretary to find the members of the song and dance troupe. A look of anticipation appeared on Boss Huang's face.
This Leng Zhimeng, she should be a woman of her word and accept defeat in the bet!
Initially, even Boss Huang thought that things had reached a satisfactory point and the other party would not send any more gifts.
However, on the morning of the third day, a new gift was placed in Boss Huang's office.
Boss Huang glanced at it. The gift was currently in two boxes, so he couldn't tell what it was. But he figured it wouldn't be a gift like beautiful women that were lively and hard to refuse.
So, Boss Huang decided to be firm this time and directly return the gift. But the secretary told Boss Huang, "The representative who delivered the gift said this is a gift you absolutely cannot refuse. If you take a look, you will have no intention of returning it to us!"
"Open it and take a look!" Since they said so, Boss Huang naturally became curious. He asked the secretary to open the two unopened gift boxes. What appeared inside were actually two heads.
Don't misunderstand, these were not human heads, but animal heads.
In fact, they weren't animal specimens either, but two exquisite crafts cast entirely in bronze. One head was a snake, and the other was a chicken!
"These are the Serpent Head and the Rooster Head!" Although the craftsmanship of these two red heads wasn't particularly impressive, and they were completely overshadowed by many modern crafts, Boss Huang's expression was one of extreme shock. This was because these were none other than the long-lost national treasures, the twelve bronze heads of the Old Summer Palace.
These twelve bronze heads were originally copper statues cast during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty and were placed at the entrance fountain of the Old Summer Palace. This fountain was meticulously designed, and the water would spray from the mouths of the beast heads.
Moreover, every two hours, the water flow would change, with a different head spraying water. The twelve heads completed the cycle of twenty-four hours, or one day.
It was also said that this water flow transformation was fully automatic, and the timekeeping was extremely accurate. In a year, the error would only be around two seconds, which was no less accurate than any mechanical watch of that era.
Such an exquisite and magnificent large fountain was ultimately destroyed by war. Not only was the entire Old Summer Palace burned down, but the twelve heads were also chopped off by the Anglo-French allied forces and all lost overseas. Recently, they have been returning to China through various channels.
In the 1980s, the price of such an old item was no more than 1,500 US dollars. By 2018, the price had risen to 15 million US dollars.
Boss Huang wasn't unable to afford to buy these heads back. The problem was that among the twelve zodiac beast heads, four had disappeared and never reappeared. No one knew where these four heads were now.
These included the Serpent Head and the Rooster Head.
And now, the Serpent Head and the Rooster Head appeared directly before Boss Huang. Clearly, these two heads had been collected by Middle Eastern tycoons until now, and were being presented as gifts.
As for the authenticity of these two heads, there was probably no need to worry. Firstly, a prince of a country would not send him a fake item.
Secondly, the authenticity of these items was very easy to verify. Many of the other brothers of these heads had already returned to China. All that was needed was to extract materials from his other brothers for a component analysis and comparison.
If the material composition of these heads, especially the proportion of various trace elements, was almost the same, then these two heads were real. Otherwise, they were fake. In short, they were easy to identify.
At the same time, Boss Huang had to admit that the other party was telling the truth. This gift was indeed impossible for him to refuse.