Summer #51

Don't Turn from Summer (莫负寒夏) by Ding Mo (丁墨)

Chapter 51

Neon lights, tasty wines, hearty laughs and pleasant chats.

This is the most expensive clubhouse in the city, and this is the coldest but also most heated night in the winter time.

Lin Mochen and Mu Hanxia sit in the rosewood chairs, his arm behind her. She pours him a hot cup of tea, helping weaken the strength of alcohol a little. From outsiders, there are the same weak smiles on their faces. They seem to have merged into the dazzling lights and enchanting wines, but they also seem to be keeping their distance.

Across the table, Sun Zhi is taking the role of getting Cao Dasheng drunk with the help of a few subordinates. Apparently this is where Cao Dasheng likes the most. His face burning red because of too much drinking, his eyes shining, he keeps gripping Sun Zhi’s hands and tells him, “Chief, Chief Sun, since your money is ready, let’s sign the contract right away. What to wait for? Since we’re having such a delightful conversation, I’m not going to consider other buyers! I’ll do Chief Lin the favor! Chief Lin, right?”

Showing a smile as pleasant as the spring breeze, Lin Mochen picks up the glass and toast to him. Sun Zhi gives Cao DaSheng a heavy slap on the shoulder and says, “Chief Cao, rest assured, the bank has got our money ready and we’ll sign the contract in a day or two. No problem! The day after tomorrow, right on the day after tomorrow, you just wait to count your money. Hahaha!”

Cao Dasheng keeps nodding his head and seems very happy, so happy that he starts to get his hands fumbling restlessly on the female secretary he has brought along.

Mu Hanxia can hardly bear the scene and lowers her head. Lin Mochen whispers to her in a voice only the two of them can hear, “Sorry for contaminating your eyes. The Lady Boss is the same as the Boss, having to fake smiles. Try to bear it just a little longer.” Mu Hanxia can’t help but smiles.

The scheme-filled dinner is finally over. But Cao Dasheng, with his nature exposed, calls loudly for Sun Zhi to arrange “the following activities.”

Mu Hanxia acts as if she hasn’t heard a word, while Lin Mochen already speaks with a smile, “Chief Cao, please excuse me from joining you. My own lady is here and I must take her home.”

Cao Dasheng glances over to Mu Hanxia with a dubious eye but doesn’t insist. He even calls out to Mu Hanxia, “Sister-in-law, you take care. Chief Lin and me are brothers from now on. Anything happens to you in Lin City, just come look for me.”

Mu Hanxia smiles and says “thank you”.

Sun Zhi, followed by a group of people, leave in cars, while Mu Hanxia and Lin Mochen just take a taxi.

In the flowing night light, Lin Mochen is a little tired. Holding her hand in his, he leans back against the seat and closes his eyes. Mu Hanxia gazes at his profile.

Actually she understands why Lin Mochen brought her to the dinner with Cao dasheng. A few days ago, he also took her to see that lot when Cao Dasheng was present. All this is to make Cao Dasheng believe that Feng Chen doesn’t know the truth yet and is eager to get that defective lot from him, and to make him believe that Feng Chen will soon bring money to sign the contract with him. See? The boss has even taken his woman to see the lot and has promised a big house on the lot as their dear new home. How can this not be true?

“Will he fall for it?” she asks in a low voice.

Lin Mochen opens his eyes. There isn’t any laziness in the eyes. Instead they are quiet and deep.

“He will.” He replies, “Simply because of one word: greediness. This kind of people this like a hungry dog, if the interest thrown his way is big enough and attractive enough, he will follow my way.”

Mu Hanxia leans against his shoulder.

“I’m going to Beijing again tomorrow. You be careful with everything.”

Lin Mochen isn’t someone who would act intimately with a woman in public, but now, he takes in the fragrance of her hair, presses against her soft cheek, lowers his head and finds her lips which he starts to kiss.

Mu Hanxia stays very close to him in the dim light, the corner of her eyes catching glimpse of the taxi running forward smoothly and noiselessly in the dark night. There is a sense of distance and solitude, but it still makes her feel boundlessly beautiful.

After a while, his lips leave hers. His eyes are very close to hers, both smiling. Mu Hanxia reaches out to give his chin a light pinch, “Hey, be honest, the night life Sun Zhi took them to, have you ever been there?”

“Ahh...do I look like a guy who has unsatisfied desires and needs to find comfort at those dirty places?”

Mu Hanxia: “Oh, so you don’t have unsatisfied desires. That’s good.”

With a calm face, Lin Mochen reaches out and gives her a hard pinch on her waist. Mu Hanxia cries with a loud oach.

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Antony, Lin Mochen’s classmate, has always been a merry young man. Since he came to help Lin Mochen in China, he has a feeling that he has found the new value of his life. Starting an enterprise in the great time of Chinese economic development, is there anything more exciting than this?

And Lin Mochen has made secret plans to find some geological survey agency to conduct a more accurate survey on Cao Dasheng’s two lots. Antony volunteers to take the job. In fact, the sinister Cao Dasheng also lowers Antony’s bottom line, who agrees with Lin Mochen on defeating this evil guy with schemes and plots.

It’s a beautiful sunny morning. The streets are filled with flowing vehicles.

Followed by his assistant, Antony comes out from the survey office. In his hand, are the two sealed reports. They will be able to tell whether there are serious geological problems with the Lot A Cao Dasheng is trying to sell them. And the reports will also tell them the value of the other lot he has.

Antony has to sigh with admiration that Lin Mochen is really a careful and detail-oriented guy. With such a strong witness as that street girl, he still needs this solid evidence.

There are many people at the peak hour, and the two are walking very fast. Some young fellow on a bicycle rides past and accidentally bumps into them. Antony lets out a painful cry, and that young man also falls down hard. But he hurries up and helps them pick up the documents, full of apologies. He leaves in a hurry only after making sure they are both unharmed.

Even with such a small unpleasant incident, Antony’s excitement is not affected. He knocks the dust off the envelopes, calls a taxi with his assistant, and rushes back to the company at the earliest time possible.

The newly arrived reports are now lying on Lin Mochen’s desk. Black ink on white paper, they clearly tell everybody that beneath the surface of Lot A there’s all soft soil which is difficult for foundations to stand on. Although it can still be developed, the difficulty will be very big and the investment has to be greater. Whereas, there’s no problem with Lot B.

After reading the two reports, Lin Mochen nods slightly and says, “proceed according to our original plan.”

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The company that Cao Dasheng claims to own is actually about a dozen people he hires working in two residence suites he rents, half of whom are his relatives. His is a typical briefcase company.

But in the eye of his several sidekicks, Cao Dasheng is in a very high spirit lately. On the one hand, Feng Chen, the most famous company in Lin City nowadays, is going to buy a lot from him. But they all know that lot is a useless one with soft soil. A great fortune is about to fall into his pocket in exchange of that rotten land.

On the other hand, the other lot he has is about to have a cooperative party. Cao Dasheng isn’t as rich as Lin Mochen, so he can’t buy a whole real estate company. If he wants to develop Lot B and make money, he has to cooperate with a real estate company with valid credentials. Originally, they have been in contact with several companies and got pretty good terms. But there comes a new company the last few days, which is said to have venture capital and likes the lot and offers very good terms. But they just require them to sign the contract immediately and get the money in place so that the project can start as soon as possible, because they think right now is the best time since the real estate market is just about to revive in China. They even provides Cao Dasheng with a stack of investment analysis reports.

Cao Dasheng doesn’t understand the big trend of real estate market, but he is so temped by such positive opinions of the company. However, the money he needs to develop Lot B has to rely on Lin Mochen. But it so happens that, after having made the appointment to sign the contract and exchange money and the lot one of these days, Lin Mochen told him the last minute that Rong Yue has some things coming up and he has no spare time, being trapped in endless meetings several days in a row. So he’s unable to sign the contract. In short, Feng Chen keeps postponing.

However, Lin Mochen especially gives him a call and tells him very earnestly, “Chief Cao, we will definitely purchase this lot. It’s just that I’m fully occupied by the business with Rong Yue and can’t find time now. I really can’t offend Rong Yue, I truly hope you’d understand. If I don’t want the lot, why would I keep contacting you? To be honest, it’s really hard to find such a good lot as yours in Lin City. Therefore, Chief Cao, please rest assured. There will be no change of the price and terms that we’ve agreed upon. Just give me a few days. As a compensation, I will give you 0.5% more on the price.”

Thus, Cao Dasheng can’t urge him any more. Half a percent, that isn’t a small amount. Besides, Lin Mochen’s business with Rong Yue is really bigger than with his.

But, the company who’s going to work on Lot B with them can’t wait any longer. The two parties have signed the agreement of intent, and are just waiting for the formal signing of the contract. One of the bosses of that company is a foreigner, who is flying abroad very soon. After urging them several times, that company gets impatient and tells Cao Dasheng, “Chief Cao, our CEO Max is flying to England. If we can’t sign before he leaves, then after he comes back, we’re not sure if he will change his mind. After all, there are quite many projects that we can invest in. If you really can’t get money around, maybe we cooperate next time?”

Cao Dasheng says, “Don’t, please don’t. Our luck draws us to each other and that must mean something. After all, we’ve been talking for so long about this lot and the cooperation plan is almost finalized.”

That other one asks, “So can we sign the contract?”

Cao Dasheng clenches his teeth and says, “Yes, I can! But can we postpone the money transfer deadline for two weeks? Because I have a big amount of money that won’t be transferred to me until some time later.”

The other one says it’s fine after reporting to his boss for approval.

So they pick the date and sign the contract, agreeing that in two weeks the money from both parties will be in place for the cooperative development, and no violation is allowed.

However, starting from the day after the signing, Cao Dasheng can no longer get through when he dials Lin Mochen’s phone. It’s the same when he tries to call Sun Zhi.

He doesn’t think much of it for the first few days. But then when more days pass by, he can wait no more. He brings some people to look for Lin Mochen in his company but are driven away by some muscular guards who look more like moving workers.

“Our Chief Lin is super busy. How can you just force in when you haven’t even an appointment?” Even the front desk lady who he tried to talk to during previous visits appears not to recognize him.

Cao Dashen is furious. So he falls back on his old hooligan ways, gathering a bunch of gangsters, trying to stir up somethings. But Lin Mochen is long prepared for it, protected by bodyguards every time he goes out. And so, Cao Dasheng can’t find him or do anything at all.

Soon, it’s almost time for the money transfer deadline of Lot B.

Cao Dasheng calls Sun Zhi again and suddenly gets through. Sun Zhi smiles warmly on the other end, “Chief Cao, what’s the matter?”

Cao Dasheng almost hollers, “Sun Zhi, what do you mean? You said you would sign the contract soon. But now what the hell do you mean? I’ve already, I’ve already...”

Sun Zhi smiles slowly and says, “Cao Dasheng, isn’t it just that you’ve already signed Lot B to another company and now you don’t have money to pay your part? We’re not going to buy such a rotten land as Lot A. You’ve treated us like idiots for so long. Let’s keep the peace and leave it behind, OK?”

He is about to hang up when Cao Dasheng yells really anxiously, “Wait! You don’t want Lot A, what do I do now? Chief Sun, Chief Sun, please talk to Chief Lin again, it’s my fault hiding the situation of Lot A from you, but it’s not totally unable to develop. I’ll give you discount, sell it cheap, really cheap. What do you think? Without the money, Lot B, Lot B...I’ll have to break the contract and my rights will have to be transferred!”

But Sun Zhi just smiles on the other end, “Well, then, why don’t you go ahead and transfer Lot B?”