Chapter 213: Fisherman?
“What a coinicdence to see you here!”
Chu Xian stood in front of a middle-aged man, looking at him with a somewhat teasing gaze. This was the same man who had purchased the black horned, snow dragon king from him so many days ago.
“Keke, you’re right. What a coincidence!”
At that moment, Lu Cheng’s color turned red with embarrassment. Chu Xian chuckled. “Since it’s come to this, you can sign the contract. You won’t have regrets, will you?”
“No, no. How could I?” Lu Cheng forced a smile.
“Good!” Chu Xian nodded, and placed the contract in front of the man.
These past days, Chu Xian had been in Jing Hai City looking for locations for his story and company. Since he was looking to creat a chain store, he had held this potential store to a very high standard. First, the location had to be big, and secondly, it needed to be in a wealthy location.
After looking around these four to five days, the locations that Chu Xian had found were either too small, or poorly located, and every one of them had left him dissatisfied. But the day before, Gu Li had called him saying that he had found a nice place.
The place was downtown, and the individual store was not too big, but they could directly lease two stores side by side. Gu Li had already spoken with the developer, and if they purchased this location, they could take down the separating wall and merge the two locations.
And the top floor of the store was an office area that hadn’t been leased or sold as well.
After Chu Xian heard the news, he had agreed without hesitation.
Since this would be part of his chain, Chu Xian was prepared to buy the place outright, and although it was expensive, it was still something he could afford.
The two stores plus the office area totaled out to 23 million rmb, and the price was still within his range.
One had to know that Chu Xian’s red corals had fetched a hefty price at the auction, and had been won by a jewelry company for 41 million rmb.
The 41 million plus the nearly 20 million from the sea cucumbers had given Chu Xian an influx of almost 60 million rmb.
The two stores Chu Xian was looking at were already leased out, but now the current store managers wanted to sublet the storefronts. The developer was acting as their middleman, and they had spent money to get back control of the store fronts and was now selling them to Chu Xian.
Since they had to go through this lengthy procedure, the developer, the current leaser, and Chu Xian had arranged to meet.
When Chu Xian saw the stores, he immediately agreed to the deal. The location was very excellent, and he was quite familiar with the area.
“Hehe, good, good. This is great!” The developer was a middle-aged man, and the smooth conclusion of this major piece of business clearly excited him. “These two esteemed gentleman, I can host us tonight. Shall we go out to dinner?”
“No, no. There’s no need!” Lu Cheng hurriedly waved his hand, and as soon as he could sign the contract, he left, his face black.
The middle-aged man smiled and looked to Chu Xian before shrugging. “Maybe he lost too much money and is unhappy!”
“Haha!” Chu Xian chuckled at the middle-aged man’s words. “It is good working with you, but I also have some things I need to deal with. I will go first as well!”
“As you say, Mr. Chu. We work in the same building anyway, we will be able to get together anytime for a meal!” The middle-aged man warmly replied. The man saw how Chu Xian could take out over 20 million rmb for in a single purchase, and definitely felt that this relationship was one that was worthy of being cultivated.
Chu Xian laughed and nodded before calling Zhang Xiaohua. “You can come over. We finished the talks!”
“Okay boss. I’ll be right over!” Very quickly, Zhang Xiaohua arrived driving Chu Xian’s Land Rover.
“This is it. This will be our store in the future!”
Chu Xian pointed out the two storefronts for Zhang Xiaohua.
“Ah?” Zhang Xiaohua said with some surprise when she saw the signs still up at the stores.
“Boss, these were the stores that Saintly Dragon and Primordial Farms used?”
Zhang Xiaohua was somewhat surprised, and paused a moment before continuing. “Boss, you are quite evil hearted? Strong.”
“I didn’t plan this!” Chu Xian shrugged, and then pointed to the stores. “Now that this place belongs to us, I’ll have someone merge the two stores, and you can handle the decoration and design. After we’re done, we’ll open up the place for business. We also have a new headquarters here!”
“In the future, our Paradise Aquarium’s headquarters will be located on the top floor of this building. Let me show you.”
As Chu Xian spoke, he took her to see the top floor.
On the tenth floor of the building was the business office area, and there were many businesses here working. The top floor had still been available at an expensive price tag, but Chu Xian had been so satisfied when he had looked at the place he had directly bought it as well.
The work area was about 300 square meters in total, and was split up between a large office hall, a receptionist area, and two private offices.
“Pick a room. We’ll get an accountant, and then get you an assistant, en? This should be al the things we need to manage, right?” Chu Xian finished somewhat hesitantly.
“This should be it!” Zhang Xiaohua laughed with some conflicting emotions. She continued somewhat uncertainly: “Our resources are all in Hai Qing City, but we set up our headquarters here. Is it too far away?”
“Forget Hai Qing City. In the end, Hai Qing can’t compare to Jing Hai, and Jing Hai is an international city. It is a suitable location for our flagship store, and we can locate our future business transactions here.”
“As for the materials, Old Huang and the others will be responsible for going out to sea. We’ll get another designer in the future, and we can have Master Li come over for a full time position here. When we have more stores in the future, we can increase the number of our designers and stone sculptors, and we will use this place to meet with other companies and customers.” Chu Xian said.
Zhang Xiahua nodded, and then chuckled. “I think that in the future, we won’t need to go find customers. They’ll come in large numbers on their own.
Chu Xian nodded and smiled. “These days, you’ll be in charge here. I need to go back to Hai Qing for some matters.”
“Fine. I’m already used to your behavor.” Zhang Xiaohua shot him a speechless look.
“I’ll give you a raise!” Chu Xian chuckled and waved her good bye. As he walked away, he shouted back. “I’ll leave the office renovations to you as well!”
Zhang Xiaohua watched him leave with a speechless expression before finally laughing. She turned to look over their future office, and her face grew excited at the possibilities.
Chu Xian walked downstairs and called Duan Ke. “Brother Duan, I’m sorry to keep you waiting. I’ll be there right away!”
“Not a problem, not a problem. We just arrived as well!” Back in Hai Qing City, inside a five star hotel room surrounded by good looking men and woman, Duan Ke smiled and replied.
“Three hours. I’ll be in Hai Qing in three hours. Please send me the address, and I’ll come to you!” Chu Xian said apologetically.
The day before, Duan Ke had brought his entire crew over, but Chu Xian had been busy dealing with the stores and hadn’t been able to make it over.
“Okay, okay. It’s not a problem. You don’t need to hurry. We’ll be here!” Duan Ke laughed and hung up the phone.
“Director Duan? When will he get here. We’ve already been waiting the whole day. Does he deserve such respect?”
Beside Duan Ke stood a handsome young man with a dissatisfied expression on his face.
“Hehe. He is a very important investor person to our movie, and many of the scenes are focused on him, and we will have to use his fishing ship as well.” Duan Ke said in an ingratiating tone.
The young man beside him was one of the most popular young male celebrities, and many directors and producers were lining up to get him to act in their movie or tv show, and even then they weren’t guaranteed to secure his involvement. If it weren’t for his father-in-law, a director like him was not qualified to use this caliber of actor.
For this movie, Duan Ke had given up a lot of his dignity.
“It’s just a fisherman, and you can find a fishing ship anywhere. I’m not looking to wait here all day for this person!” The young man was unhappy. “I’m going back to my room. Have someone call me when he gets here.”
Duan Ke frowned.
“Director Duan, don’t be upset. You also know this is how he is, hehe!” Another young man quickly spoke up to assuage the director.
“It’s fine!” Duan Ke chuckled.
“Alright, Director Duan. Tell us for real, why do we have to wait for this fisherman to come over?” A beauty asked curiously.
“He’s not just an ordinary fisherman. You guys will understand when we start filming!” Duan Ke smiled at the beautiful woman, but refused to give up the secret.
This beauty was also a popular celebrity that Duan Ke had worked very hard to invite. It was obvious just from the famous faces around him that Duan Ke had lined up a bunch of stars.
“Oh?” The beauty could see that Duan Ke was not wiling to say anymore and did not push. She nodded and smiled.
Duan Ke nodded apologetically at her, and after some hestiation finally said: “If this movie is successful, he deserves most of the credit!”
Duan Ke had not shown the actors and actresses the scenes that he had from the cruise. Those shots were basically the highlight of the entire movie, and he refused to let those scenes leak. When the appropriate time came, they would explode in the box office.
The beauty was somewhat astonished, and the important costars around them were also curious.
Three hours later, Chu Xian got off his taxi and approached the hotel Duan Ke was staying at. He walked inside and headed for the room.
“Pong pong!”
“Brother Chu Xian, you’re here. Come come, sit. Come inside and we can talk.” Duan Ke saw Chu Xian come inside and gave him a warm welcome.
“I’m sorry about the wait, Brother Duan!” Chu Xian entered the room. The two had met a couple times already and were quite familiar with each other, and Chu Xian also quite liked Duan Ke as a person.
“Come in. There’s no need to apologize. You’v already helped me a lot, brother. You don’t have too much going on in this period do you? Let me know, Chu Xian, heihei.” Duan Ke looked Chu Xian over and rubbed his hands.
Chu Xian understood what Duan Ke was getting at. He was here just to give some advice, and every time they had met up Duan Ke had been so warm and friendly, and every time Chu Xian had been late to their appointments. Chu Xian replied: “This time is good. I am free.”
“That that’s great, that’s great. Haha. We can go out to drink tonight. Come, I’ll introduce you to some people!” Duan Ke replied happily and called out cheerfully.
“Come. Everyone, this is the person I’ve told you about, Chu Xian. He’s a very important person to our movie.” Duan Ke gestured to Chu Xian and introduced him to the group.
The waiting people saw a young man about Duan Ke’s age and were surprised. They had thought the fisherman Duan Ke had talked about was going to be a middle-aged man, and hadn’t imagined that he would be so young and handsome.
Chu Xian smiled, and recognized some of the faces. “You must be Ren Penghui, and you are Yan Zekun, and this beauty must be Yan Wenwen.”
The celebrities in front of him were all people he’d seen on television before, and seeing them in person was a happy surprise.