sjar Chapter 447 Qian Dingxiang's Troubles
Chapter 447 Qian Dingxiang's Troubles
Li Changqing sighed, stood up, and left Li Ju'an with his last words: "Please take good care of Mom and Dad for me."
After leaving the old man's house, Li Ju'an's anger did not dissipate. His two lifetimes did not diminish his hatred; on the contrary, they made it grow stronger.
Zhang Yingnian, you betrayed and harmed me in your past life, and you betrayed my brothers in this life. You will not be as carefree and unpunished as you were in your past life.
After sending his family back, he began contacting Chen Xiangqian's lawyer in Shanghai.
Chen Xiangqian found it strange, "Li Ju'an, it's almost Chinese New Year, and I'm visiting relatives. What lawyer would contact you at this time? People are probably busy with family reunions."
Li Ju'an told him not to worry about it; lawyers need to generate revenue and attract clients to run their businesses. The law firm was overjoyed when he delivered the cases.
Chen Xiangqian could only nod and say, "Okay then. But wait a minute, Li Ju'an, how do you know all this? You don't even know the law."
Although he hunted and ran a quarry with Li Ju'an, he never thought that Li Ju'an was also good at this.
Li Ju'an laughed and scolded him: "When I was studying the law, you were still an embryo."
"Pah! You can't insult me like that. If I get angry later, I'll go to Shanghai and get you two bottles of liquor and get you drunk."
"With your alcohol tolerance? Two bottles of beer, maybe?"
"Pah! That's a personal attack, isn't it?"
After joking around for a while, Li Ju'an contacted the Shanghai legal team. However, he wasn't handling Li Changqing's case, but rather Zhang Yingnian's.
He knew Zhang Yingnian all too well. He knew every single one of Zhang Yingnian's deals, every single business partner he contacted, down to the smallest detail. And it was precisely because he knew so much that he was also aware of the underhanded dealings Zhang Yingnian had been up to.
Zhang Yingnian was always a shrewd businessman. They say a merchant won't get up early for nothing, and take his cotton business as an example. The truck was loaded with cotton, but the bottom was crammed with scrap iron wire. The truckload of cotton was heavy enough, but only the top layer was actually usable. Not only was the inside substandard, but the bottom was also full of discarded, rotten iron wire.
The client who made that deal silently suffered a loss, so angry that his eyes were bloodshot, and he couldn't recover for several years, losing everything.
Li Ju'an carefully recalled his clients from back then, most of whom he had met at gatherings in Shanghai. There would be a trade fair in Shanghai after the New Year, and he was confident he could recognize his former major clients there. These people harbored genuine resentment towards Zhang Yingnian, and he would use that opportunity to deliver a heavy blow to Zhang Yingnian.
He called Pang Duo again: "Boss Pang, aren't you in Shanghai preparing for the trade fair after the New Year? Can I join you?"
On the other end of the phone, Pang Duolai was still puzzled and said, "Mr. Li, are you going to put your wild honey on the trade fair too? The production can't keep up. It's a struggle to supply my family. Why don't you increase production and come over?"
He suddenly realized something was wrong. Li Ju'an wasn't just in the honey business. He chuckled and said, "Boss Li is just opening up sales channels for the goat breeding base. Goat bones are selling really well lately, and the price has skyrocketed, much higher than the hides. If you ask me, I should have partnered with Boss Li to run the breeding farm back then."
With him grinning and joking so close to his face, Li Ju'an laughed and scolded, "Boss Pang, are you kidding me? We'll need to raise these sheep for a few more years. Now we can just make up for the feed and site costs we've put in over the past two years. Only then can we start making a real profit. Production won't catch up until next year."
Pang Duo found this strange. If it wasn't a honey business, nor a business involving sheep bones and sheepskin, then what was it?
He slammed his right fist into his left palm, then exclaimed in realization, “Wow, Mr. Li, you’re really fast! Your quarry is up and running so quickly? It’s not easy to find customers in the south. If you ask me, the customers who buy wind-eroded stones are either landscaping companies, industrial parks, or individual buyers. You also have to deal with government agencies, otherwise you can’t sell landscaping stones into industrial parks.”
Don't let Pang Duo's honest and simple appearance fool you. He seems like a pushover, but he's actually quite logical and gets straight to the point. He understands things very quickly and clearly.
He had also set his sights on the quarry business back then, but he was truly unsure about the policies. After all, this kind of business, which competes with the government for a living, depends entirely on policy and the will of those above. If the higher-ups support it, the policies will be favorable, everything will be advantageous, and there will be various subsidies and funding. Once the policies change, it's truly a case of instant devastation, with all costs going down the drain.
Therefore, Pang Duo dared not take the risk.
Li Ju'an laughed and said, "That's right. You have to take big risks to make big profits. Only those who are bold can make a living."
He said this with a laugh, implying that Pang Duolai was timid and risk-averse. But in his heart, he greatly approved of Pang Duolai's approach. The biggest difference between him and Pang Duolai was that he benefited from knowing the policy direction in advance.
He was fully aware of the favorable policies for the next few years. He knew exactly which projects would receive subsidies and which would fail. Since Pang Duo hadn't partnered with him anyway, if he really convinced this guy, he'd have another competitor in the same industry, and Pang Duo would be left to cry about.
As Pang Duo listened to the phone, he had a strange feeling, as if he had been tricked. He pondered and said, puzzled, "I feel like I made a bad decision."
Li Ju'an laughed heartily on the other end of the phone and said, "It's just a misperception, a wrong feeling. When has Boss Pang ever made a wrong decision? Boss Pang is always right."
"You little rascal, you're trying to sweet-talk me again. Fine, come to Shanghai after the New Year. Whatever business you want to do, I'll take you to the trade fair."
Li Ju'an responded with an "Ah," and was finally satisfied.
The Li family had a very happy and harmonious Chinese New Year.
Li Ju'an visited his uncle, his second uncle, and his father-in-law, the Lin family, and even cleaned all the windows in his father-in-law's house thoroughly. His father-in-law wanted to renovate the house, so he brought timber from the forest using mules and other large livestock.
Seeing how capable and willing his son-in-law was, the father-in-law would praise Li Ju'an to everyone he met. Qian Dingxiang, who came to visit, also had a son, a daughter, and a young son.
Qian Dingxiang had a lot of complaints about Lin's father because he would always happen to run into her when she visited, and he would always brag in front of her about how good, hardworking, and capable his son-in-law Li Ju'an was, how good he was to his daughter Lin Mei, and how well-behaved and healthy his granddaughter Nannan was.
Qian Dingxiang was extremely frustrated. She had spent all her savings from running her sewing workshop over the past few years, just to buy her son a house in the county town. In addition, she had listened to the sweet talk of the matchmaker and broken up her daughter with her boyfriend, who was an apprentice, and married her off to the city salesman the matchmaker had described as having a good family background and being a "high-class" marriage.
She had hoped to gain face through her son-in-law, but little did she know that after he married her daughter, he would completely disregard her, his mother-in-law, and look down on their family in every way. Qian Dingxiang had originally planned to ask her daughter to help her elder brother, hoping that her younger son would contribute financially and physically when he got married in a few years. However, her daughter listened to her son-in-law and stopped visiting during the New Year, cutting off all contact.
She angrily went to Song Lanhua and cried, saying, "Isn't that the only thing I gave birth to? What can I expect from her? Her younger brother doesn't help either. My poor youngest son, what will he do when he finds a wife in a few years? My eldest son is also heartless. He forgot his mother after getting married. He won't even help my youngest son buy a house. How could I have given birth to two such ungrateful wretches?"
Qian Dingxiang sighed. She realized that when people get to a certain age, they have to rely on their children. When they were young, they devoted themselves to their children, giving them all the best food and things. But when they got older, they still had to rely on their children.