“Are the procedures completed? Before the renovation, I’ll have someone show you the design drawings. If you want to make any changes, just tell me directly. The renovation budget is three and a half million Hong Kong dollars per house, so the quality will definitely be top-notch.”

The speaker was He Shaofan's father.

This Uncle He, named He Hengzuo, married the niece of the old shipping tycoon back in the day, a match of equal social status.

After many years of marriage, their feelings faded, and he kept several women outside. His illegitimate children even caused trouble at the He family, costing tens of millions to settle.

He Shaofan had always been a blabbermouth, even daring to talk about his family's scandals. Whether in Southeast Asia or the local atmosphere, things were relatively relaxed. Women had become an unavoidable hurdle for many wealthy businessmen.

If someone were wholeheartedly devoted to their original spouse, with a loving and harmonious relationship, they would become the object of much discussion, mainly because it was so rare. The infighting among the mistresses was the norm, providing plenty of gossip, year-round, season after season.

“Your company is developing the project, and my dad’s company is the contractor, so of course I’m at ease. Otherwise, why would I have made a special trip to buy a house?”

Having purchased a villa with great potential for appreciation at close to cost, Su Yehao was in a good mood, sitting on the sofa, picking up his cup and drinking tea.

The Dong Ding Oolong tea, known as the "Saint of Tea" on Treasure Island, had a refreshing and pleasant tea soup, with a green-yellow hue. It was produced on high mountains several hundred meters above sea level, and the taste was quite good.

Uncle He smiled after hearing what he said, replying, "In Casino, 1997, one in every three projects is your dad's business. If something goes wrong, it really won't be my fault. I'll give them a heads-up later. Once they know they're building a house for you, the quality will definitely be even better."

"That's not necessarily true. What if someone dislikes my dad and deliberately leaves out the rebar in the load-bearing beams? Then I'd be in trouble."

Su Yehao joked.

With He Shaofan’s relationship, the two families were already relatively close.

Uncle He laughed heartily, bantered a few words following the topic, and then got down to business, saying,

"Outsiders are saying that you made a fortune investing in America. My son is your friend, but with his kind of brains, he's probably beyond saving. He'll have to rely on you to help him in the future. Sigh, with so much going on at home, I neglected Shaofan's upbringing since he was young. Now everyone envies your dad for raising such a good son like you."

What "so much going on at home," it should be "too many women and children to manage."

If there were fewer, the family trust wouldn't only give He Shaofan a dividend of forty thousand US dollars per month. Compared to someone else's salary, that number seems like a lot, but given the He family's wealth, giving so little is a bit unreasonable.

For example, the charity trust that Tang Laoma set up for Su Yehao stipulated that he would receive 30 million Hong Kong dollars per year for the first five years, and that would later increase to 50 million Hong Kong dollars. In addition, it could also help him pay rates, living expenses, and so on, with an annual budget of 20 million Hong Kong dollars.

The so-called rates refer to the Hong Kong land tax, which is a considerable expense calculated based on the value of the real estate held by Su Yehao.

With the trust in hand, Su Yehao could completely say that he didn't need to spend money himself. Including buying private jets, buying houses, etc., the expenses were all paid in the company's name. His personal account held tens of millions, which he hadn't touched in a long time.

"Uncle He, when I first started doing business, I asked them if they wanted to join in, but they didn't think I could make money and looked down on me. What can I do about that?"

Su Yehao sighed, continuing in the tone of someone who's been there:

"They're too young and too playful. They've become more and more free after entering university. It's not like I taught them to be bad. I haven't seen He Shaofan much lately. Last year, I partnered with your son and others to establish a travel company, which is being managed by Master Jiang from my dad's side, and it's developing very quickly."

Originally, Uncle He wanted to take advantage of Su Yehao's presence to ask him to give his son a hand.

After hearing these words, he also understood that his own boy was hopeless. He said with a headache, "I know about the travel company. Hong Kong is full of mainlanders, so this industry definitely has potential. I have to thank you for that. Forget it, when I have time next time, I'll go to Hong Kong to personally teach him a lesson. He's busy playing in university, so he might as well not go and just follow me to learn how to do business."

"Well... they're all good people, otherwise, how could we play together? Maybe I'm just too precocious. What's so great about going to bars compared to making money? I haven't been messing around with them."

Speaking in front of his friend's father, Su Yehao felt it was better for a dead friend than a dead self. Regardless of whether it would screw over He Shaofan, he just didn't want to take the blame.

Playing around was fine when they were in high school, but now Toothgap Jun and the others were still thinking about playing all day long. If they didn't talk about women, they couldn't find anything to talk about. Giving them a little rectification wouldn't be bad.

Seeing how well-behaved and sensible Su Yehao was, and how especially good he was at making money,

Uncle He now only felt that his son was useless. The more he looked at the washed-up Su Yehao, the more pleasing he found him. This led him to be even more eager to beat up He Shaofan.

After silently making up his mind, Uncle He changed the subject and asked:

"Your dad is acquiring land with the Donghuang Zhao family. Is there any progress on that? Back in the nineties, I spent money to buy 1.1% of Donghuang's shares and have been holding onto them, not willing to sell. Donghuang has been changing hands recently, and the stock price has soared. Even I couldn't resist the temptation and cashed out 60 million Hong Kong dollars a few days ago when the price was right. I'm hesitating whether to sell it all."

"The barbarians at Donghuang's gate are really persistent. How did they come back after failing last time? I haven't been involved in the Guangzhou Cultural Tourism City, so I'm not too clear. It should be fine, right?"

Su Yehao wasn't sure if this counted as inside information and was worried about getting into trouble, so he simply avoided the important points and gave a vague answer.

The so-called barbarians came from the movie *Barbarians at the Gate*, which mainly tells the story of hostile takeovers.

Uncle He hadn't seen this movie and didn't understand its meaning, so he was preoccupied with puzzling over the phrase "It should be fine, right?" He only said:

"Isn't it the second largest shareholder leading a group of people to seize power? Several Southeast Asian companies are also involved, relying on Goldman Sachs from America to help and investing a lot of money. I think the Zhao family will have a hard time this time. They can't draw out much money to increase their shareholdings. It seems that there was a problem with their business in Australia."

Accidentally hearing about the matter in Australia, Su Yehao knew nothing about it and curiously asked, "Does Donghuang Group also have investments in Australia?"

"It's not Donghuang, it's a business that Boss Zhao invested in himself. He acquired a piece of land in Sydney, it seems like it's been three years, but he hasn't been able to start construction. There's a protected animal living within the land area, so it can't be developed and can't be sold. He spent over a hundred million US dollars on the land, and it's just been abandoned there. He was probably scammed by the white guys."

Uncle He gloated, shook his head with a smile, and added, "That's why you should never do business that you're not familiar with. The bank is urging his family to repay the loan, and it seems like they're about to default."

Su Yehao chuckled. To be scammed by a protected animal was truly pitiful.

The reason why Zhao Yimeng's family had been having problems one after another was rooted in the collapse of the Hong Kong real estate bubble.

Doing business often relies on confidence. If everyone thinks it's doable, even if it's not, it can still be done. If everyone thinks it's not doable, like in the case of Donghuang and the Zhao family, then even things that could have been done will eventually become impossible.

Even Uncle He knew that the Zhao family couldn't come up with more money. No wonder people would be tempted to kick them when they're down...