Chapter 1 The Villa

Over at Pengcheng's Sihai International Cultural Tourism City.

Not far from the Shahe Golf Club, a lakeside villa covering more than ten acres was under urgent construction.

As early as when he acquired the land in 1997, Su Yehao had already reserved a plot with his old man.

The design was completed at the end of '99, and construction began at the beginning of last year. Because money and manpower were no object, the construction progressed extremely quickly. The main structure was basically finished, and the bamboo, phoenix trees, kapok trees, and so on in the garden had all been planted in advance.

Unlike the European-style villas of today, the one being built in Pengcheng had a somewhat Sino-Western style.

The designer was the Chinese-American architectural master, I.M. Pei. He used brass combined with a large amount of black walnut wood to create a unique, luxurious, new Chinese aesthetic, successfully winning the design bid, which made Su Yehao happily fork over the money.

During the construction period, people from the assistant's office were sent to keep an eye on things. Su Yehao didn't ask too much about it, trusting Mr. Pei implicitly.

On January 11th.

Mr. Wu Bin, a disciple of the designer I.M. Pei, brought some design drafts, saying that some Chinese-style murals matching the architectural style could be painted on the walls of the living room and study in advance, or modern oil paintings could also be used.

This would allow enough time for ventilation to dissipate any odors, improving the living experience.

Wu Bin had selected several artists, and included photos of their works in the file.

For example, Zhao Wuji, a Chinese painter still alive today, as well as landscape paintings by the American oil painter, Colo Balkanowski. As long as the right composition and colors were chosen, they could have a finishing touch effect, and would also be works of art worth collecting.

Looking at them, Su Yehao was simply dazzled.

His new house under construction had a floor area of over 1,800 square meters. Counting the bedroom headboards, entrance halls, dining rooms, and other places, there were a total of seven places where paintings could be done, or where huge oil paintings could be hung.

If he chose murals, it would be troublesome to change them once they were painted on the walls, which gave him a bit of choice paralysis and made him very conflicted.

Wu Bin, who was in charge of supervising the work, was not in a hurry, and only told Su Yehao to contact him after he had made up his mind...

Not long after Wu Bin left.

Su Yehao suddenly thought that he knew an oil painter, who was also very good at painting small, fresh-style oil paintings.

Wasn't that Miss Vera Andrade?

In the penthouse apartment on the Mid-Levels, the oil painting she had given him was still hanging on the wall, the pink peach blossoms never getting old.

When they met by chance in New York, Vera also mentioned painting in a church with her teacher, which undoubtedly meant that she already had experience in creating murals. As long as she came up with a suitable design, it shouldn't be difficult for her, given her talent and experience in painting.

No sooner said than done.

Su Yehao called Vera Andrade, and it rang for a long time before she answered.

Hearing the girl's voice, Su Yehao asked in confusion, "Could it be... are you still sleeping? It's already past ten in the morning, I'm here to bring you business."

"You have the wrong number, I'm not Mòfēi, I'm Vera."

"...Such a cold joke, you know who I am, right? It's Su Yehao."

Even though it was very cold, Su Yehao couldn't help but laugh.

Since the accident, he had met countless kinds of people, but among so many, Miss Vera was still the most Zen. She was simply a breath of fresh air in the cesspool of society, making people feel good.

The sound of dozing off could be clearly heard on the phone. Vera told him in a mumbling tone, "I'm sorry, I just came back from holding an art exhibition in Hamburg, Germany, and didn't sleep very well last night. Did you just mention bringing me business? Does someone want to buy my paintings?"

Hamburg was the second largest city in Germany, with a developed economy and cultural industry, so it was normal to hold an art exhibition there.

For a painter, painting skills were certainly important, but even more important was knowing how to promote and operate. Several members of Vera's Andrade family were in the art business, and controlled many ready-made channels, so they would of course pave the way for the girl.

()Now, if you search her name on the Internet, you will find a lot of titles such as "Genius Young Female Painter" and "Youngest Female Oil Painting Master". Vera only needed to seriously paint her paintings, and didn't have to worry about anything else.

After all, this girl's family had the strength to buy an entire floor in Central Centre. Her conditions in all aspects were far higher than ordinary people, and her achievements were already quite good among her peers of similar age.

Su Yehao tilted his head and held the phone, saying, "I should be the one saying sorry. Otherwise, why don't you continue to sleep, and give me a call back when you're free? Actually, it's not a big deal, I just want to ask you to paint a few murals for me."

Vera calmly replied:

"It's okay, I've already slept for six and a half hours, and getting up now is just right for adjusting to the time difference. What kind of style of murals do you need? I'll be resting for a while, and can go over to help you."

"Then let's meet this afternoon, at your family's gallery in Central Centre. The designer has arranged for a few murals in my new house, and I'll bring you the concept drawings of the interior decoration to take a look at."

"Okay, how about one thirty?"

"No problem, I'm free..."

...

After eating lunch, he went back to his room and dozed off for a while.

When Linda Yun woke him up, Su Yehao tidied up and went out, personally driving his Pagani Zonda to Central.

He arrived just in time at one thirty, and took the elevator to the gallery run by Miss Vera's family. One entire wall was filled with all kinds of drinks, which looked very exquisite under the soft yellow light.

If they were only running a gallery, there was of course no need to buy a building directly in Central Centre. It would be difficult to even cover the rent with the annual income from holding exhibitions and selling paintings.

The business that really made money for Vera's family was actually the liquor trading company next to the gallery, with an office area of only about 300 square meters.

Whether it was mainland baijiu or European red wine, they were both undeniably high-profit industries.

Recently, Maotai was trying to open up the Hong Kong market. Su Yehao had just seen relevant data on the research report these days. In this Hong Kong with a population of only a few million, about 35 million bottles of red wine were consumed every year, so it was no wonder that Vera's family's liquor business was so good.

As the famous Tai Zihao, the gallery manager recognized him at a glance.

After Su Yehao said that he was looking for Vera, the manager's expression suddenly became strange. He didn't need to guess to know that the manager must have been thinking something else.

Vera Andrade's beauty was obvious to all.

She was so beautiful that even Xiao Nizi had once wanted to persuade Jiang Yu to help scout her for a debut, even if she couldn't sing or dance, her appearance was productivity.

Faced with the gallery manager's strange gaze, even Su Yehao, with his thick skin, felt a little overwhelmed at the moment. He coughed and explained righteously:

"Don't look at me like that, your miss and I are just friends. I want to ask her for help with something."

"...I understand! Helping each other as friends, that's too normal, I'll take you to see her right away, this way please!"

Su Yehao could hear the perfunctory tone in his words.

There was no way, his reputation outside was what it was, and he would probably never be able to clear it up in this lifetime...