Chapter 164: A Sudden Turn of Events

When it came to finding people to help, Zhao Fan pondered over it for a long time before finally deciding on Xu An and Liu Chengbo.

One currently had nothing on his hands, while the other was the manager of the finance department, making him more suitable for certain tasks than anyone else.

The next day, notified in advance, Xu An and Liu Chengbo waited at the entrance of their original company, looking at the burned-down building and letting out long sighs of dejection.

"Who do you think our company offended this time?" Liu Chengbo muttered. "It seems like someone is utterly determined to drive us into the ground. What number is this already?"

Xu An sighed. "I've lost count. The fifth, sixth, seventh, or eighth time, I suppose."

The two exchanged glances without a word and sighed once more. What kind of madness was this?

When Zhao Fan arrived and overheard this exchange, he found it both amusing and helpless. Even the company employees knew there was foul play behind the incident, yet he could not pinpoint the perpetrator at the moment and had no choice but to wait for the police investigation results.

"Ahem!"

Giving a deliberate cough, Zhao Fan watched Xu An and Liu Chengbo turn their heads simultaneously before walking over.

"I shouldn't need to spell out what needs to be done today, right?" Zhao Fan asked with a smile, his demeanor showing not a trace of anxiety over the company's situation.

Xu An and Liu Chengbo exchanged a look and spoke in unison, "We know."

Zhao Fan nodded with satisfaction, but still repeated it anyway.

"The most crucial task for today is deciding on the location for the new company. Aside from that, we need to handle the computers and..."

Xu An and Liu Chengbo listened and nodded, quickly aligning the list of tasks to be done on both sides.

At last, Zhao Fan asked once more, "Was I clear?"

Xu An and Liu Chengbo nodded together. "Understood."

As the words fell, Liu Chengbo said, "President Zhao, I think the three of us should split up to handle these matters."

"How so?" Zhao Fan shifted his gaze over and fixed it on him.

"Splitting up is faster and avoids wasting time," Liu Chengbo said earnestly, cutting straight to the point. "Some tasks simply don't require all of us to go."

While Liu Chengbo dared to speak, Xu An remained silent, looking left and right before casting his gaze elsewhere, pretending he hadn't heard a thing.

Noticing Xu An's behavior out of the corner of his eye, Zhao Fan rested a single hand on Xu An's shoulder. "Manager Xu, what do you say?"

Xu An's expression stiffened slightly. "M-me? You're asking me?"

Zhao Fan and Liu Chengbo stared at him simultaneously. Though neither spoke, the message was abundantly clear: we are asking you.

Xu An's eyes drifted for a fraction of a second. "Manager Liu makes a lot of sense."

Zhao Fan understood. Xu An and Liu Chengbo shared the same thought, but Xu An was holding back out of some apprehension and didn't dare say it outright.

Glancing at Xu An, Zhao Fan said, "Let's split up then. I'll go scout the location for the new company, and I'll leave the rest to you two. Contact me if you run into any issues. Sound good?"

Xu An and Liu Chengbo answered in unison, "No problem."

"Alright, off you go."

"Understood."

Xu An and Liu Chengbo turned and left. Zhao Fan lingered in place for a few minutes, just as his phone rang.

Pulling it out, he saw it was a call from Shi Wenxuan.

He had to admit, seeing the name Shi Wenxuan gave Zhao Fan a slight sense of unreality, as if they hadn't been in touch for ages.

"Hello?" As soon as the call connected, Shi Wenxuan's slightly amused voice came through. "I heard President Zhao has run into some trouble lately."

Zhao Fan smiled. "Indeed, the company burned down. You're calling me now, President Shi, surely not to mock me. Tell me, what do you have that might cheer me up?"

"The shopping mall is built. Would that make President Zhao happy?"

The mall was built?

The oppressive mood that had weighed on him for the past two days lifted in an instant. Zhao Fan asked in surprise, "Are you serious?"

Because of his trust in Shi Wenxuan, Zhao Fan hadn't paid much attention to the mall's progress, so being told it was completed now left him not only pleasantly surprised but also slightly doubtful.
Could it really be true?

Shi Wenxuan replied, "True or not, President Zhao will know once you come and see for yourself."

Fakes cannot become genuine, and the genuine cannot be faked.

"Alright, I'm heading to Sangtian now." Making a decisive choice, Zhao Fan hung up the phone and set off for Sangtian.

Half an hour later, Zhao Fan rendezvoused with Shi Wenxuan, and after a brief conversation, the two headed to the mall's site.

Located west of the center of Yangcheng, the mall was surrounded by a stretch of construction sites. Zhao Fan drove in, gazing at the surrounding landscape with a dazed expression.

In a few years, this place would transform into something entirely different. A place he could only watch from afar in his past life was a place where he could now influence the development of in this one.

Whether it was the shopping mall or the commercial buildings, his own handiwork was woven into the development here.

Shi Wenxuan crossed his arms. "How does President Zhao view the future prospects of real estate?"

Recalling the soaring property prices from his past life that never seemed to drop, Zhao Fan said, "Boundless prospects."

Shi Wenxuan raised an eyebrow. "Boundless prospects? How so, President Zhao?"

With a tilt of his chin, Zhao Fan motioned for him to look ahead. "That plot of land where the mall was built cost the Bai family sixty million to secure. As for the surrounding land, the Du family from the capital pulled every trick in the book to get their hands on it. Though they took a long and winding detour without succeeding, you should understand the implication behind it all."

People only burrow into something when there is profit to be made. The fact that even the Du family from the capital was tempted to acquire the land spoke volumes about what lay beneath the surface.

Land would hold immense development potential in the future.

As they spoke, Zhao Fan parked the car in front of the mall entrance and looked up, completely stunned.

Discarding the original blueprint, Shi Wenxuan had made modifications in the later stages, incorporating ancient Chinese cultural elements into the exterior and cleverly pulling off a minimalist color palette.

He had seamlessly blended unique Chinese aesthetics with modern architectural styles without the slightest hint of awkwardness.

Zhao Fan had known about the revisions to the design and had even reviewed the updated blueprints. Given Shi Wenxuan's reputation in his past life, he had expected the mall to be striking, but he hadn't anticipated that the finished building would be even more breathtaking.

Shi Wenxuan murmured, "Though this mall may lack the uniqueness of the original design, it still stands out as one of a kind. Is President Zhao satisfied?"

Pulling back his gaze, Zhao Fan raised an eyebrow at the question and retorted with a smile, "Even if I weren't satisfied, could President Shi tear it down and rebuild it?"

Shi Wenxuan answered without blinking, "If President Zhao is willing to cover the reconstruction costs, tearing it down isn't entirely out of the question."

Zhao Fan was left speechless. After a moment, he shook his head. "The losses would be far too great; I couldn't possibly afford that. Let's go inside and take a look."

"After you, President Zhao."

Stepping inside the mall, Zhao Fan was pleasantly surprised to find that the interior decoration was already complete. The style matched the exterior perfectly without appearing overly archaic.

Shi Wenxuan explained, "After calculating the costs, I took the remaining budget and used it for this interior work. It's not exceptionally detailed, but it establishes the definitive style. President Zhao doesn't think I..."

"It's wonderful."

A smile bloomed on Zhao Fan's face. Before entering, he had been fretting over the interior design, never expecting Shi Wenxuan to have resolved the issue in advance.

"When is the earliest we can open to the public?"

"About a month."