Chapter 632
Marriage
Chapter 632 Marriage
The day before Li Yufei flew to Yanjing, the two went to Yuexin Lake Villa for dinner.
After many days apart, the mother and daughter met again, and it was inevitable that they would have a lot of emotional moments. Xie Jing, with red eyes, said a lot of self-blaming words.
As expected, Xie Yun and his wife Liu Huihui came over. This woman was quite talkative, chattering away at the dinner table, which made the atmosphere less awkward. During the meal, she inevitably asked about Zhang Yunqi's acquisition of Xiangtai Pharmaceutical.
Unlike Lu Yuanzhou, Zhang Yunqi didn't engage in any illegal activities in this matter. He spoke his mind. Currently, the acquisition of Xiangtai by Lianzhong is stuck in the technical negotiation stage, requiring the Xiangtai board of directors to meet Lianzhong's core demands. Lianzhong's demands are that all the original directors withdraw, and that the United Times Group take control of the Xiangtai Pharmaceutical board of directors, with Yu Lin serving as chairman.
Once this condition is met, everything else is negotiable.
After financial auditing, Zhang Yunqi can guarantee that the state-owned shareholders who invested in Xiangtai Pharmaceutical in previous rounds of financing will exit at a 30% premium over their original investment, ensuring the safety of the principal of the provincial state-owned assets and a certain return.
Finally, in order not to spoil his meal, Zhang Yunqi added, "Xiangtai stock is currently at a low point, so you don't need to sell it."
The atmosphere at the Li family banquet immediately became lively.
Liu Huihui was cheerful all night. Xie Jing, on the other hand, was reserved, but sometimes when she talked to Zhang Yunqi, she seemed to have the air of a future mother-in-law.
After a few rounds of drinks, Zhang Yunqi got up to get some food. Unexpectedly, Liu Huihui seized the opportunity to follow him. She said from the side, "Yunqi, your aunt wants to ask you something."
Zhang Yunqi was taken aback: "What?"
Liu Huihui glanced in Li Yufei's direction and whispered, "So, how are things going between you and Yufei? When are you planning to get married? Your aunt knows you had a boyfriend in high school, and you're still a bit hung up on him, right? But you were young and immature back then. Everyone has a past, right? Your aunt can understand, she can totally understand. But things are different now. You're all grown up now, and you and my Yufei are a perfect match."
Zhang Yunqi smiled, looking at Liu Huihui's "I understand, I understand" face, and vowed that he would never see this cheap aunt again in his life.
The day after the Li family banquet, Zhang Yunqi drove Li Yufei to the airport. Before boarding, the girl hugged him tenderly for a long time.
Zhang Yunqi plans to return to Jiangchuan.
But he had to deal with the matters on Qingwu Street before that.
The city government will not make any concessions to Zhang Yunqi regarding the 1.28 million yuan in taxes evaded by Lu Yuanzhou. This is a matter of bottom line and political principle! However, the public pressure surrounding the opening of the street is indeed increasing day by day, and the initiative in this matter is in Zhang Yunqi's hands. They cannot force him, for fear that Zhang Yunqi will give up and cause trouble. If Jinzhao Industrial goes bankrupt and is liquidated, it means that the city government will have no chance of recovering this huge amount of taxes.
During those days, the two sides engaged in multiple rounds of communication, but ultimately had to compromise and reach an agreement that balanced legal principles with reality.
The main content of the agreement is that both parties agree that the payment of this RMB 1.28 million in historical taxes is contingent upon a court ruling that the commercial property transfer contract by Lu Yuanzhou through a related-party transaction at a low price is invalid, and the corresponding equivalent value is successfully recovered. Each time a recovered commercial property is transferred to Jinzhao Industrial's account, a tax payment obligation will be triggered.
The term is 18 months.
Regarding the fine, given that the perpetrator is clearly Lu Yuanzhou, and the new shareholder Zhang Yunqi has reported the violation and initiated legal proceedings to recover assets, the municipal tax and regulatory authorities have agreed to reduce Jinzhao Industry's administrative fine by 70%. This reduction is conditional upon Zhang Yunqi's side actively and effectively pursuing asset recovery against Lu Yuanzhou within the legal framework. If less than 90% of the taxes are paid within 18 months, the reduction clause will automatically expire, and the full fine will be immediately recovered.
While this agreement leans towards a betting nature, it undeniably binds both parties together, their interests aligned to the extreme: both must exert every effort to recover Lu Yuanzhou and the assets he's acquired. The city prioritizes tax revenue and stability, while Zhang Yunqi desires high-quality assets and avoidance of bankruptcy. Yang Jiarong and Lu Feng certainly understand that if these assets cannot be recovered, Zhang Yunqi can simply kick the bucket, leading to bankruptcy liquidation and everyone losing everything.
After the two parties reached an agreement, Zhang Yunqi had no reason to delay on the issue of opening the street and agreed to open it immediately.
This was a big deal, but before Lu Yuanzhou's accident, he had already been preparing for the opening of the street for a long time. The basic hardware facilities, merchant coordination, and promotional materials had all been prepared. Wang Guibing took over the remaining processes, clearing the site, conducting safety inspections, final equipment debugging, and notifying the signed merchants to prepare to enter the site. All the steps were completed in three days.
The night before the street opened, Zhang Yunqi was also preparing to return to Jiangchuan, so he made a special trip to Wang Xiaokai's place.
Wang Xiaokai rented another apartment in Xinjian West, a much better place than his previous tenement building. It was fully furnished with appliances, had a separate kitchen and bathroom, and he even found a girlfriend. He worked at Aihua Electronics while spending time with her. Wang Xiaokai is now a senior business manager at Aihua Electronics. He climbed to this position in just one year from the assembly line, a very fast promotion. Of course, Zhang Yunqi's influence played a part in this. Among his peers, Wang Xiaokai also had the highest salary. Starting in April, sales of Aihua Electronics' VCD players exploded, earning him a lot of commissions, and he was living a comfortable life.
Zhang Yunqi had originally planned to promote Wang Xiaokai to the level of provincial business manager, which was already the ceiling for middle management at Aihua Electronics. He genuinely hoped that this guy could grow steadily and become someone he could take charge of independently. However, Hu Zhibiao's opinion was that Wang Xiaokai's work performance had been poor recently. Several regions under his responsibility had encountered numerous problems, he was not paying attention to the maintenance of the distribution network, and there were many after-sales complaints.
Wang Xiaokai's girlfriend is named Luo Xiaoying. She is from Shaoyang. She is petite and of average appearance, but she is very quick and capable. She prepared a table of late-night snacks for Zhang Yunqi and Wang Xiaokai to drink at home, and then said with a smile, "There is no fruit at home, I will go and buy some."
Wang Xiaokai asked Zhang Yunqi, "When are you going back to Jiangchuan?"
Zhang Yunqi took a sip of his old Yanjing beer: "The day after tomorrow, what's going on between you and Luo Xiaoying?"
Wang Xiaokai refilled Zhang Yunqi's beer: "Just bored, let's have some fun."
Zhang Yunqi took another sip of wine: "You don't seem to be focused on work lately?"
Wang Xiaokai paused for a moment, then smiled and said, "I haven't been feeling well lately, I'm not in good shape. I'll be fine after I finish this busy period and take a rest."
Zhang Yunqi didn't say anything, but his understanding of Kai Zi was like an old farmer's understanding of manure.
Wang Xiaokai picked up a peanut and put it in his mouth: "Boss Zhang, your affair caused quite a stir in Lijin City a while ago. I saw the news reports, and Yufei was also involved. After all these years, that girl really liked you. It's a pity that Chujian has already returned to Jiangchuan, right?"
Zhang Yunqi nodded.
Wang Xiaokai was unaware that Li Yufei and Zhang Yunqi were already together. Based on his experience in the past year, given Zhang Yunqi's status and position, this was perfectly natural. What man in this world isn't lustful? People simply choose within the limits of their abilities. Once their abilities exceed those limits, women become mere accessories to money and power. The idea of a stable home life while having affairs is what he sees most often in wealthy men.
Of course, this was just Wang Xiaokai's opinion; he and Zhang Yunqi didn't really have anything to talk about on this topic.
The two brothers drank until 3 a.m. Zhang Yunqi got drunk and slept at Wang Xiaokai's house.
The bed was hard and uncomfortable. Zhang Yunqi tossed and turned until dawn before finally falling asleep. Even then, his sleep was restless. He had a dream in which there were a pair of eyes, glistening with summer dew, and a white cotton dress, fluttering on the green grass. The dream lingered, like the most beautiful fantasy in the season of lush grass and flying birds.
When Zhang Yunqi woke up, it was already broad daylight. He was a little dazed. He looked at the time and it was already past ten o'clock. Wang Xiaokai and his girlfriend Luo Xiaoying had already gone to work. Zhang Yunqi ran to the bathroom to wash up quickly and left Wang Xiaokai's house.
As usual, after returning home that evening, Wang Xiaokai brought back several large cardboard boxes filled with pirated DVDs, including all the latest blockbusters from both domestic and international sources.
While sorting the pirated CDs, he made phone calls on his mobile phone. Throughout the night, people came to his door from time to time, each carrying a woven bag and bringing at least a hundred pirated CDs. They were clearly street vendors. After receiving the money, Kai Zi had Luo Xiaoying deliver the goods.
The two of them worked until late at night before stopping. After locking the door, Wang Xiaokai sat on the messy floor counting money, while his girlfriend Luo Xiaoying watched TV. When she switched to Lijin TV, they were rebroadcasting the evening news.
The news was about the opening of Qingwu Commercial Pedestrian Street on Huangxing South Road this evening. The scene was very lively, with red flags waving and crowds of people. A female host was inviting relevant leaders to the stage for the ribbon-cutting ceremony. In addition to Yang Jiarong, the top leader of Lijin, she also heard the name Zhang Yunqi, the chairman of Jinzhao Industrial.
Luo Xiaoying couldn't believe it until she saw Zhang Yunqi, dressed in a suit and tie, go on stage to cut the ribbon. Then she screamed, "Hey Kai, your brother is actually this amazing?"
Wang Xiaokai turned to look at the TV, saw Zhang Yunqi, chuckled, flicked his cigarette ash, and said, "Do you know what a billionaire is like? He looks like this."
He paused, stubbed out his cigarette, and stuffed a wad of hundred-yuan bills into his wallet: "Of course, if I ever become a billionaire, I'll definitely not be like him."
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(End of this chapter)