I Treat You as My Sister, But You Want to be My Wife?!
Chapter 445 Return with a Heavy Heart_1

Chapter 445: Chapter 445 Return with a Heavy Heart_1

Shen Dong’s eyebrows twitched, and he said, somewhat speechlessly, "Didn’t we agree not to trick each other? Yet you’re still asking for money."

"This isn’t about asking for money, you have to believe me, this will definitely become an important part of Hai City’s culture," Kang Yue declared with unwavering conviction, her bright eyes stubbornly fixed on Shen Dong.

In Kang Yue’s heart, having money alone would never bring a happiness index; work was for the sake of a happy life, not to replace living.

Building towers, even if it’s for employees, is all about sales.

Shen Dong didn’t delve too deep into whether Kang Yue’s talk of ’hardship’ was a ploy, instead he promised, "If Huaxu can stabilize the number of entrepreneurs enough to fill a building, this piece of land is yours to decide on."

"Perfect!" Kang Yue snapped her fingers in triumph.

Shen Dong considered there was nothing more to do, and was about to leave, but Kang Yue grabbed him again.

Biting the corner of her lip, her gaze was incredibly seductive as she said, "What’s the hurry? Come have a look at my treasures."

"Sister, can we not mess around?" Shen Dong genuinely chickened out. What kind of situation was this?

"Come on," Kang Yue cooed, shaking Shen Dong’s arm, insisting on entering the warehouse to the north.

Shen Dong kept his eyes on his nose, and his nose on his mind, silently chanting Amitabha twelve times before saying, firmly, "Stop messing around. We need to maintain a pure business relationship, otherwise, it will be harmonized."

"What are you talking about?" Kang Yue’s tone suddenly changed.

She put on a stern face, but mockery filled her eyes. "There’s something quite valuable in the northern warehouse. I want you to take a look."

Fog and chaos, she’s playing me.

Shen Dong cursed inwardly at the shamelessness and shot Kang Yue a glare before walking into the warehouse.

The workshop was a familiar place.

At a glance, Shen Dong saw what Kang Yue deemed valuable—the pearl oyster dashboard, a carpentry workshop, with a stack of mahogany materials to the west.

Picking up a few pieces of hollowed-out window lattice wooden boards from the scrap pile, Kang Yue said, "We have already raised the banner of Tian Dynasty style with embroidery, traditional Chinese medicine, and Tian Dynasty cuisine. In my opinion, traditional Chinese furniture is also worth diving into."

"This woodworking craftsmanship is absolutely top-notch. Look around."

Shen Dong was not very supportive and hesitated, "Aren’t you busy enough as it is?"

"What I’m concerned about is not having enough selling points," Kang Yue boasted of her foresight, her arms crossed as she walked around Shen Dong and spoke, "Huaxu doing well in attracting traffic doesn’t mean the follow-up products can be of shoddy quality. After attracting a large number of consumers, we can’t disappoint them and let them leave feeling let down, right?"

"Currently, our only product is housing—commercial residential buildings."

"What’s the selling point of housing?"

Kang Yue was already considering problems three years in the future.

And what she said made a lot of sense.

Shen Dong wanted to mention sea-view apartments and proximity to Volcanic Stone Hot Spring, but those were regional features, not selling points of the real estate.

Kang Yue was quite pleased with Shen Dong’s loss for words and smiled, "So, the concept of traditional Chinese-style decoration and a healthy living community can definitely be put to use."

"What about the furniture?" Shen Dong was very earnest. When it came to business acumen, he was not as good as Kang Yue, not as good as Tang Yuchan, and even less so compared to Xu Zheng.

"Create the most expensive brand, so that when people come to Hai City to buy a house, they see the furniture and feel, it’s worth it."

In chess, they say to think three moves ahead—business is no different.

Shen Dong couldn’t help but raise his thumb in admiration and said, "That’s a bold idea, but setting the highest price makes it very difficult to sell, doesn’t it?"

All of a sudden, Kang Yue’s playful side emerged again, her delicate fingers lifting Shen Dong’s chin, "Boss, have you forgotten my profession? Hmm?"

"Of course, I remember."

"Shh!" Shen Dong made a shushing gesture, his gaze fixed intently on the door outside.

I’m not sure how to describe it, maybe enemies are destined to meet on a narrow road?

Outside the door, two men were skulking, evidently plotting something.

One of them was named Shi Lin.

In this lifetime, Shen Dong had not yet met Shi Lin, but in his past life, the connection between Shen Dong and Shi Lin was anything but shallow.

There was a girl at Dongyan Media who had always liked Shen Dong, named Zheng Wenqi.

In this life, Shen Dong had met Zheng Wenqi a few times, at Dongyan Media, at the rice noodle shop, where he had gently rejected the girl’s unripe expressions of love.

However, in his past life, Shen Dong had indeed had a fling with Zheng Wenqi.

Zheng Wenqi’s family’s photo studio later became a wedding photography business and was considered a small wealthy family in Hai City. Objectively speaking, she was a decent girlfriend, suitable for marriage; for Shen Dong, it was definitely a blissful 1+1.

It was because of Shi Lin that Shen Dong and Zheng Wenqi broke up on bad terms.

"Ah?" Seeing Shi Lin make Shen Dong think of Wanfeng.

He turned to look at Kang Yue, "How is it going with Wanfeng, have they bought the factory yet?"

"Still dragging on, their cash flow is cut off. Wanfeng is also unlucky, having taken orders from four listed companies, with liquidated damages alone amounting to tens of millions, not to mention the resettlement fees for more than three thousand people."

Kang Yue was shrewd, instantly guessing the cause and effect upon seeing the situation. She leaned on Shen Dong’s back with her arm, squeezing her way to peer outside the door.

Shi Lin had no idea that the person he would offend in the future was hiding just around the corner.

He was preoccupied with grand schemes, fantasizing about a coup d’état one day.

With factory relocations, high salaries attracting local people from Hai City to make money, and the allure of becoming official staff at Hongda Group, Hai City’s skilled laborers had basically all left.

Wanfeng had ceased production for three months without money to pay wages, causing more than half of the remaining workers to leave.

At this moment, Wanfeng’s revival seemed indefinitely postponed.

Shi Lin was indeed the son of Wanfeng’s boss, Shi Jinteng, but Shi Lin’s biological mother died of cancer, and his stepmother bore a daughter two years his junior, who received all the love and affection from both parents.

Now, with Wanfeng on the brink of bankruptcy and the division of family assets imminent, Shi Lin was full of ambition.

He didn’t intend to harm his biological father; he just didn’t want his stepmother to take away what belonged to the Shi family.

Unaware of the presence behind him, Shi Lin whispered to the man in front of him, "I don’t need you to do anything else, just one thing: sleep with my stepmother, record it, and as long as you succeed, I’ll give you thirty million."

"Thirty million?" The man expressed his surprise by raising three fingers in astonishment.

This movement allowed Shen Dong to clearly see his face.

Shen Dong blurted out, "Chen Jinshui!"

How Chen Jinshui managed to survive, nobody knew, but seeing this person made Shen Dong’s heart leap with joy.

He closed the door, lowered his head, and pointed to a corner of the workshop, "Hide there for a while."

Shen Dong quietly sent messages to Zhou Chengyu and Zhou Wenbin, instructing them to lay in wait with their men and to capture Chen Jinshui as soon as he parted ways with Shi Lin.

After sending the text, Shen Dong asked Kang Yue cheerfully, "Hey, do you have any love rivals?"

Sitting on a small stool, Kang Yue flipped her long hair, "With this peerless beauty of mine, do you think I need to chase after other men?"

"True." Shen Dong was inexplicably excited.

Rubbing his hands together with his thumbs pointing outwards, he smiled and said, "That guy is the son of Wanfeng’s boss. In my past life, he swooped in and stole my girlfriend."

"For money?" Kang Yue hit the nail on the head.

That was what bothered Shen Dong. He propped his chin, puzzled, "Is money really that important? Now I can’t figure it out: a truly poor person with a sincere heart, or a rich person with divided loyalties, which would you choose?"