Summer #54

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

Chapter 54

Rao Wei, Manager of the Real Estate Division, sits opposite him, carefully brewing the kungfu tea. After it’s done, he fills two cups. Then the two of them hold their cups up and have a clink.

“Chief Zhang, you’re really the most tactical and sophisticated one. This time it would be really hard for Lin Mochen to stand back up.” Rao Wei says with a smile.

Zhang Yifang also smiles slightly. Putting down the tea after a light sip, he says, “Each step is his own choice. I haven’t done much at all. A young man like him, way too aggressive and bold, is doomed for a tumble in the business world. Some people can stand back up after the fall. But he’s unlucky to fall in my hand.”

These words are said calmly yet coldly. Rao Wei feels his heart quiver a little and nods, “Honestly, Chief Zhang, I didn’t expect Lin Mochen would follow each and every step of your plan. It’s truly...unbelievable!”

Zhang Yifang drinks the tea slowly, the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes sprawling, “Wei, there’s an old Chinese saying, ‘the highest form of generalship is to balk the enemy's plans; the next best is to prevent the junction of the enemy's forces; and the worst is to besiege walled cities.’ But I think to apply it to the business world, it needs a little modification. The best of all is to ‘control the heart’.”

“Control the heart?”

“Yes, control Lin Mochen’s heart.”

Rao Wei pauses.

Zhang Yifang speaks slowly, “Well, at the first glance, isn’t Lin Mochen someone who does everything perfectly and has no weakness? He is smart, knowledgeable, fierce but at the same time steady and attentive to details. When he first came to the apparel market of Lin City, you tried to trick him with the fabric quality problem. But playing cunning, you couldn’t get an upper hand with him. Later with the estate bidding, playing candid, you still couldn’t get an upper hand. Then how can we beat someone like him?”

Rao Wei is embarrassed at his words and can only listen on very respectfully.

“However, to someone who has been in the business world for so many years like me, he has two weaknesses, which are actually quite obvious: he’s too proud and he values feelings too much.”

Rao Wei agrees with the “too proud” part, but about “valuing feelings too much,” he is doubtful, “Chief Zhang, you say he ‘values feelings too much’? ” How can that be possible...

Zhang Yifang smiles a little, “Yes, Lin Mochen is ruthless and heartless. He appears to be financial interest first. But there are somethings one can’t hide. Why would he choose real estate and apparel out of all those business fields after he came back from abroad? With a little research, you will know that his mother went bankrupt from these two fields. This young man, has a knot in his heart.

And his girlfriend, what’s her background? A store associate with high school diploma. She even has no college degree. And very poor. But he keeps her by his side as a treasure. Sometime ago, didn’t we hear that the daughter from the Xue Family got quite close with him? If he really became the son-in-law of the Xue Family, I won’t dear to get my hands on him. With any other man, like you, like me, who would choose a store assistant against the daughter from the extremely wealthy Xue Family? So Lin Mochen is really someone who values feelings a lot. Valuing feelings, in another word is being silly, which someone in a business world should have. Ultimately, he’s still too young.”

Rao Wei is lost in his words and feels that this words suddenly make his thoughts clear. He nods admiringly, “So, that’s why he gets himself into the dead end step by step.”

Looking up at the distant mountains and the green forests, Zhang Yifang also feels enormously happy and contented. He picks up the empty porcelain cups, puts them one by one on the tea table as if they were chess pieces.

“First step, we collaborate nicely with him on Lot A so he looses up his guard. Guard as much as he wants to, he will feel reasonable when we show an attitude of Profit-first. However, what we want is not only the short-term profit, but also the long-term profit.” Zhang Yifang pushes down the first cup, “This fellow is too strong. If we leave it to grow, he will definitely eat up our profit in the grand southwestern area or even nation-wide. So, we must get rid of him.”

Rao Wei nods solemnly.

“Second, Lin Mochen’s mother. Even a fierce tiger doesn’t eat its own cub. Even though HE Qingling is not an amiable person, she won’t hurt her son. I can’t control her. But I can control her friend. Lin Mochen underestimated my roots in Lin City after all.

I said we should control his heart. Even though he and his mother are estranged to each other, I believe that he intends to mend their relationship and the same is with his mother. Therefore, appearance of a loaner is subconsciously welcomed by both of them. Besides, Lin Mochen keeps guard against everything and everybody possible, but he won’t guard against his own mother. I believe that in the heart of a son who follows his mother into the same business fields, there is still admiration of the mother. He trusts his mother’s judgement. So, from the step of taking the loan, he was drawn into the trap.”

Rao Wei continues, “Then you told me to arrange for Cao Dashen to accidentally leak the information about Lot One having problems by his people. Lin Mochen is so proud he will definitely revenge the trick they tried to play on him. So he countered with a trip to get the other lot from Cao Dasheng and got tripped as we wanted him to. But his people were really quick and ubiquitous. If Cao Dasheng wasn’t clever enough, his mistress would really reveal the land problem.”

Zhang Yifang frowns a little, “Better stay away with a slug like Cao Dasheng.”

“Yes, sir.”

Rao Wei refills Zhang Yifang’s cup and says, “But there’s still something I don’t understand. Why did we need to find Bob and Chen Sijin to get into contact with Lin Mochen and Mu Hanxia? What’s the meaning of this incident?”

Zhang Yifang smiles a little, “Wei, the stronger people we are dealing with, the simpler the trap should be. Because if the trap is too complicated and the time drags long, Lin Mochen, with his shrewdness, will easily detect the problem and fight to get out. But then I also said, the best approach is to control the heart. The trap is simple whereas the control of heart is complicated.”

Lin Mochen is extremely suspecting and cautious. With only Cao Dasheng’s trick, I don’t think it’s enough to lure him into the trap. So that evening, I let Bob and Chen Sijin show up in front of them. Seeing with his own eyes that the woman he cherishes so much is looked down upon and knowing about her miserable past, it’s impossible that his feelings won’t be affected.

You have to know that even the most sensible person is still possible to get a little bit emotional and thus become biased when making final decisions. If Lin Mochen only thinks about doing the business for ten years or twenty years, he might not make that move to be our rival. But exactly because of his girlfriend, he must have got a little hasty. So he went into the trap.

Rao Wei is quite shaken by the words and grows a heartfelt admiration. Zhang Yifang does not need to mention the next plots. They both know ― secretly changed the reports when Antony got them so they were convinced Lot II had no problem; in two days, Mr. Zhou in the bank will stop the loan to Lin Mochen, causing him unable to make ends meet; the Lot A they cooperate on will speed up the main building construction and require Lin Mochen to add investment based on the contract, making his situation even worse...

Feng Chen’s cash chain is bound to break.

The breeze gently brushes by. They sit quietly for a while, then raise their cups and clink to each other’s. After drinking up the tea in his cup, Zhang Yifang reaches out and pushes down the lined-up tea cups on the table, with a little smile at the corner of his mouth, “When a wall is about to collapse, everybody gives it a push. What difficulty will there remain for us to get rid of Lin Mochen the thorn in our flesh? An arrogant kid, dare to trap my Rong Yue for Lot A. Trying to snatch from me? Really ignorant of how big the world is out there. Now let him have a taste of his own medicine. I return him a trap and trap him deadly tight. Next, you go communicate with all our relations, make use of any important relation we need. Clever as he is, he’s still bare in Lin City with no strong background. You tell everybody, no one should give him a hand. This time I want him to completely fall, and fall dead. Make him bankrupt, send him to jail, and make sure he will never be able to get back on his feet again.”