Pure: New project!! This is my first time translating BL, so please go easy on me haha. I got the permission of the previous translator, Eques, to pick this up. They are a lovely person and has agreed to opening the chapters that they had previously password locked, so it’ll be all back on NU soon.

Translated by Pure

TLCed by Eques

Edited by Qing

Chapter 43 (Part 2) What Were His Intentions?

After their partnership was confirmed, Lin Jingzhe pushed this ‘small’ investment of just over one million yuan to the back of his mind. 

The next few days, he was busy inspecting the triangular plot. From his hazy memory, Lin Jingzhe recalled how to plan and best utilize the land. The triangular plot was only about 90,000 square meters. Although it was enough for an office building, it wouldn’t be enough to build a Mixed-Use Building. Fortunately, Flux Realty owned the ring-shaped land across the road from the triangular plot. If they could integrate a small section of that area with the 90,000 square meters, it would completely upgrade this awkward-size land into a treasure estate perfect for the construction of shopping malls [1].

Contemporary real estate businessmen had no conceptualization of Mixed-Use Buildings. However, the commercial Mixed-Use Building of later generations have developed into the most popular existence in commercial real estate. This ‘two-in-one’ design, combining office buildings and shopping malls, made full use of every inch of land. When it was first introduced, this model was heavily ridiculed. People scoffed at its design because it was not as impressive nor as complete as a pure shopping mall design, but its advantages manifested in the long run. The market always changes at a rapid pace. Though commercial real estate remained lucrative, it came with high risks. It was easier to make a large profit in the past decade, but the rise of the Internet and e-commerce would gradually impact physical shopping malls.

The major shopping malls started to see less consumers frequenting their stores. The ones with strong financial resources could barely support themselves, while smaller businesses directly went into bankruptcy. It wasn't until then that the advantages of the Mixed-Use Buildings were fully revealed: remaining funds could be used to either maintain the commercial businesses, or to convert the shopping mall half into offices. And so, the existence of offices in the Mixed-Use Buildings became a safe haven for these real estate developers.

With the exorbitant prices of land in Yan City in the future, how much would an office building in a prime location in the central business district be worth?

Truthfully speaking, these estimates were beyond what Lin Jingzhe could predict, including the monetary value.

On the day when the project was approved, Lin Jingzhe was in the middle of selecting a suitable office location for New Beginnings Real Estate. After hearing the news, he went directly to Flux Realty without a moment's hesitation.

Almost all of Flux Realty's high-level executives were present. In response to Lin Jingzhe's contract clauses, they selected the leading development team to work on this land. Everyone was eager to take on these new challenges, including the usually playful Hu Shaofeng.

Xiao Chi was sitting on one end of the conference table. Lin Jingzhe felt his heated gaze from the moment he walked in. The temperature peaked when he greeted Hu Shaofeng with a smile.

"Jingzhe! My lil’ bro!" Hu Shaofeng, who rarely followed social norms and etiquette, gave Lin Jingzhe a bear hug, "I’ve been trying to contact you constantly, but you never seem to have any free time! I couldn't find you in school either. What have you been busy with recently?"

"My apologies. I wanted to keep a low profile in case of any news leaks that could cause unnecessary trouble." Lin Jingzhe answered with a smile. His reasoning was open and seemingly truthful, "Moreover, I was busy taking in some other projects in the past few days. In addition to looking for an office and recruiting, there was no time to take a break at all.”

"Other projects?" Hu Shaofeng's face immediately changed and his smile became more enthusiastic, "Is Yan City real estate not big enough? Little Jingzhe, have you found another treasure?"

Lin Jingzhe waved his hand. "Of course not. It’s just a small investment in a network technology company. What’ll happen to these fields in the future is unpredictable."

He mentioned this casually as small talk, because most people in the industry viewed the new network technology as a joke. Unexpectedly, Hu Shaofeng showed a startled expression and turned his head to give Xiao Chi a glance.

"You both..." After a while, he smiled strangely, "you both really are..."

Lin Jingzhe couldn't understand, and confusion was clearly shown in his eyes.

Hu Shaofeng only explained when he saw Xiao Chi nod while still looking at Lin Jingzhe, "Actually Mr. Xiao also invested in a network technology firm half a year ago, and it’s miraculous how both he and you coincide.”

Before that, he always felt that Xiao Chi had probably been duped. With just a concept and 40% of the shares, the other firm was able to secure nearly 3 million of Flux Realty's funding. Because he had no position to comment on Xiao Chi’s decision, Hu Shaofeng begrudgingly held back his criticisms. Hu Shaofeng never brought it up again after he decided to make believe the money had been squandered on lavish food and drinks.

However, in just a few months, this little-known industry was brought up again. And this time, the speaker was Lin Jingzhe, so the surprise in his heart was beyond words. Hu Shaofeng had no doubt about Lin Jingzhe's ability. This was a master who walked one step after figuring out the next twenty steps. Not even mentioning the 'land king' in the north of the city, which was still hot news, just based on the cooperation of the triangular plot by 2nd Middle Road, Hu Shaofeng could see the clear gap in IQ between himself and Lin Jingzhe. First Xiao Chi, now Lin Jingzhe, was this really just a coincidence? Could it be possible that it was a trend for smart people to be deceived into investing nowadays?

Hu Shaofeng couldn't help but be curious. "Mr. Lin, which company did you invest in? It couldn’t be the same one that we signed?"

In the end, he had some doubts in his heart. After all this was Lin Jingzhe and Xiao Chi, how were they able to trick them into funding? Could it be that all the companies engaged in network technology were part of the same group of investment scammers?

Lin Jingzhe was also a little surprised by Flux Realty’s foresight. After all, he had not cooperated with them much before his rebirth. Apart from a general perception as an outsider, it was the first time Lin Jingzhe heard that the other party had been exposed to other industries besides real estate so early. 

Lin Jingzhe replied, "You might not have heard of them, Mr. Hu. It's just a small company that was only officially established after funding them. It's called Best Partner IT."

The name did not ring any bells so Hu Shaofeng wasn't sure how likely his ‘investment scam’ guess was. He could only smile and say, "Then it’s not the same company. The company that Flux Realty invested in is called Immortal Science & Technology. It’s not a new startup, they have been in operation for several years now."

In its several years of operation, Immortal Science & Technology had often ended up in desperate situations that required it to seek extra funding. Compared to Flux Realty, which also started up around the same time, Hu Shaofeng couldn't help but feel even more pessimistic about the other party's prospects.

Immortal Science & Technology!?

The moment Lin Jingzhe heard the name, he was left stunned. Even his view of Xiao Chi changed.

Unlike Best Partner IT, which was only able to continue its legacy due to a twist of fate, Immortal Science & Technology's achievements as a network company in its previous life definitely lived up to its name. 

The company's influence had gone beyond the scope of its industry and penetrated into all aspects of ordinary people's lives, most notably in the communication and gaming industries. Immortal’s ‘instant messaging service’ occupied a considerable share of the Internet since its inception. It rivaled the two other famous communication software in later generations, each sharing a piece of the pie. 

Even Lin Jingzhe applied for an Immortal account. These accounts made it easier to sign up for all of Immortal's large-scale games. Although Lin Jingzhe didn't play games, most of the friends around him were their loyal fans.

In many subsequent economics conferences, several major subsidiaries of Immortal became the main focus of enterprise owners. Lin Jingzhe vaguely recalled an industrial evaluation report. Immortal Corporation had once declared an annual profit of 42.2 billion – this impressive piece of data flashed through his mind.

This was one of the few Internet tycoons recognized by the business community. Its influence was so great that Immortal’s CEO regularly caused chaos. Any action of his could lead to countless speculations and controversies, the impact was that widespread.

It turned out that this company was invested in by Flux Realty?

After investing in Best Partner, Lin Jingzhe could guess Xiao Chi's strategy. Now that the little-known Immortal Science & Technology accepted his funds, not to mention controlling interest[2], the dividends he will receive must be absolutely astonishing. In the later generations, the shares of Immortal Science & Technology had grown to the point where even the smallest of shareholders could rely on dividends to get rich. It was no wonder that Flux Realty was so firmly seated at the peak of the real estate industry.

Lin Jingzhe inwardly lamented at the large gap between people’s talents. He thought that his investment in Best Partner IT was already a pioneer beyond the times. Unexpectedly, Xiao Chi was one step ahead of him. And it was even the company that secured unlimited achievements in the future.

Although at awe in his heart, Lin Jingzhe didn’t show any emotions on his face. He just smiled and said to Xiao Chi, "Mr. Xiao has vision."

Xiao Chi remained indifferent. "Mr. Lin as well."

In this brief exchange of eye contact and verbal communication, Xiao Chi did not express any peculiarities. Though this disregarded his unusually brighter gaze and the slight increase in speed of beads cycling in his hand. 

Although the relationship between the two parties has changed, Lin Jingzhe still couldn't make any inferences on his previous conjectures from the other party's actions. Therefore, he was only able to conduct official business, without involving private interests, as usual. They sat down and began to discuss the development project of the triangular plot.

The process was very pleasant and smooth. Apart from listening to the report, Xiao Chi basically didn't talk much and would only occasionally make a few crucial suggestions. 

Flux Realty's current development team was a senior team invited back from overseas. They were very receptive to the Mixed-Use Building concept proposed by Lin Jingzhe. Although there was no precedent for this concept domestically, the capitals of some overseas developed countries have already utilized Mixed-Use Buildings to a considerable extent, and the benefits were obvious. The development team already had some concepts and experience. This, coupled with the modern trends proposed by Lin Jingzhe, left several professional designers in the development team bursting with inspiration. The discussions were in full swing and as soon as the meeting was over, the development team collectively left to check the concept’s viability.

Lin Jingzhe took a sip of tea to moisten his parched throat. He then went to Xiao Chi's office.

The room remained quiet for a while.

Xiao Chi didn't speak, and Lin Jingzhe was also silent. He leaned on the sofa and squinted at Xiao Chi while holding his cup of tea.

Their gazes locked, but neither could read their desired questions from the other's eyes.

From Xiao Chi’s lack of ambiguity, Lin Jingzhe felt that he probably guessed correctly. The tension between friends with benefits should be more explicit and obvious. After all, this type of knowledge could be considered common sense.

Since he had no intention of continuing this relationship, Lin Jingzhe wouldn’t force it either. It was better for their business cooperation to remain pure.

After sorting out the ordinances, Hu Shaofeng opened the door and went out. Lin Jingzhe also gestured for Deng Mai to go down to get the car ready.

Only Xiao Chi and Lin Jingzhe remained in the office. Lin Jingzhe stood up, walked to the window, and looked at the dusty construction of Yan City below. After a moment of contemplation, Lin Jingzhe decided to leave the embarrassing topic unsaid. It’s better for them both to tacitly pretend the previous matter never happened.

After making up his mind, he coughed and prepared to say goodbye.

A figure flashed in the transparent glass reflection in front of him, and then a hot chest pressed onto Lin Jingzhe’s back.

A deep woody aroma filled his nostrils, and the heat on his back immediately exerted some force. Xiao Chi hugged him from the back. He had wrapped his arms around Lin Jingzhe’s waist and then softly kissed the back of his neck.

"...??"

Lin Jingzhe turned his head around blankly, unable to make sense of the current situation.

Xiao Chi lowered his head and kissed the corner of his eyes. Without a trace of carnal desire, he only silently looked at Lin Jingzhe with his sharp eyes.

Lin Jingzhe didn't feel anything hard pushing against his lower back.

So what was his intention?

.

.

.

Footnotes:

[1] This is a visual of how LJ wanted to create his Mix-Use Building since his triangular plot is not big enough– where the same building is split by a road {C}, but the other side of the road is still the same building, just integrated. 

[2] Controlling interest - when a shareholder has controlling interest in a business when he or she owns more than 50% of the company's voting shares. This gives him or her the deciding voice in shareholder meetings and control over company direction. (taken from google)

Translated by pure, hosted on puretl.com / do not repost!

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