180: The Maid's Retreat

"When is Minh Thu leaving for Saigon?"

"Her flight is tomorrow morning."

"Alright, then I'll see you off tomorrow morning."

Li Qinghe's promise filled Hoang Dang Minh Thu with joy. This trip to Saigon was primarily because these two stores were crucial to Vu Linh Huong's business strategy.

Previously, her beauty salons were mainly in Hanoi. Opening new ones in Saigon was an attempt to capture a share of the high-end beauty salon market there.

In terms of the proportion of wealthy individuals, most of Vietnam's rich are actually concentrated in the city of Saigon.

As Vietnam's most economically developed city, its market economic vitality far surpasses that of Hanoi.

Vu Linh Huong also hoped to prove her business capabilities in Saigon. Without the pressure of failure, she only needed to fully utilize her talent and ideas.

However, business endeavors are never achieved solely through business ideas; good ideas must be accompanied by good execution to continue operating.

A first-class idea without execution makes it very difficult for a company to survive.

A first-class idea with third-rate execution means the company still has good development momentum.

A first-class idea with second-rate execution means the company is absolutely well-known in the industry, even a benchmark.

A first-class idea with first-class execution is something only a few companies currently dare to claim publicly. However, only those within these companies know how difficult it is to achieve this, and how much exaggeration is in their claims of first-class execution.

Moreover, there's a particularly interesting phenomenon in the business world: as a company grows larger, its execution power tends to decline. As the saying goes, the bigger the operation, the harder it is to control.

Therefore, to maintain sufficient control over the stores in Saigon, Vu Linh Huong sent her Head Maid to oversee operations.

She wanted to ensure that all operations in Saigon were implemented precisely according to her ideas and requirements.

Successful execution was crucial for Vu Linh Huong's business plan to succeed, making a trustworthy person the key to the entire plan.

Of course, Hoang Dang Minh Thu didn't go alone; she brought a small team of seven people, from store managers to team leaders, ensuring every critical point was covered.

This 'point-to-area' approach would allow Vu Linh Huong's two beauty salons to develop well.

"If only we in Vietnam also had high-speed rail," Vu Linh Huong sighed.

During her time studying in China, she often traveled across China's vast land with her classmates on the high-speed rail network. This convenient and fast mode of transport left a very deep impression on Vu Linh Huong.

This time, Hoang Dang Minh Thu's trip to Saigon, over a thousand kilometers from Hanoi, would only take 2 hours by plane, but air transport capacity is limited.

In fact, if there were a high-speed rail line connecting the north-south economic hubs, the entire Vietnamese economy would be boosted.

Now, Laos, Thailand, and even Malaysia have high-speed rail from China, and the Pan-Asia high-speed rail network is expanding.

Vietnam, which has always considered itself the next world factory and ranks among the top in Southeast Asia for economic growth, still lacks its own high-speed rail line, which undoubtedly makes Vietnam very uncomfortable.

Vietnam had actually approached a country for help in building high-speed rail, namely Japan, famous for its Shinkansen and one of the earliest countries to build high-speed rail.

But when Vietnam, with a smile, presented its request, the Japanese turned around with a sneer, then amicably placed a quote on the table: "Vietnam-san, to demonstrate the friendship between our two countries, my knife will be swift, and you will not suffer."

Vietnam looked at the quote and nearly had a heart attack, a quote of 120 billion US dollars, not including technology transfer and long-term maintenance.

At that time, Vietnam's GDP was only 400 billion US dollars. Watching the Japanese sharpen their knives and lick their lips, Vietnam hesitated.

The proposal was shelved for several years.

Now, seeing itself about to become a high-speed rail island in Southeast Asia, Vietnam had no choice but to submit the proposal to its big brother, China.

A quote of 67 billion US dollars looked very tempting.

However, the conditions they proposed were very harsh: first, technology transfer for high-speed rail; second, China to provide 50 billion US dollars in financial loans; and third, to also resolve the electricity supply for the entire high-speed rail line.

These conditions essentially meant using your money to build my things, and in the end, what's mine is mine, but what's yours may not necessarily be yours.

The scenario felt strangely familiar, making every Dragon Country People person familiar with history's palms itch.

So China merely smiled and placed the proposal on the table, amicably stating: "Let me take a look first."

They neither said yes nor no; they just left it there.

Of course, the high-speed rail matter was irrelevant to Li Qinghe; he was concerned about whether Hoang Dang Minh Thu would adapt to Saigon.

This concern moved the Head Maid to tears. She would be in Saigon for at least a few months. Although she had just eaten her fill that morning, she felt life had suddenly lost some color, knowing she wouldn't have meat for several months.

"Don't be sad. Maybe I'll be in Saigon in a few days."

Holding Vu Linh Huong, Li Qinghe reached out and stroked the face of Hoang Dang Minh Thu, who was squatting nearby.

"Qinghe is probably going to experience Saigon's nightlife, right?"

Vu Linh Huong had seen Li Qinghe's Kuaidou account in China, which was also how she accurately found Nguyen Thi Linh and the others.

Originally, Chen Yuyingqiong and Le Xuan Mai, who were in Da Nang, were also to be discussed, but Li Qinghe was unhappy, so Vu Linh Huong dropped the idea.

She knew that the most important people to Li Qinghe were the women in Hanoi, including her.

As long as the women in Hanoi were united, Li Qinghe wouldn't be snatched away by others.

While Li Qinghe was in the restroom, Hoang Dang Minh Thu squatted beside Vu Linh Huong and complained: "Miss Lingxiang, Brother Qinghe is too strong. I can barely handle him alone."

"Then should I tell Qinghe to visit you less?"

Vu Linh Huong deliberately misinterpreted Hoang Dang Minh Thu's meaning.

"No!"

"Then I'll tell Qinghe to visit you less frequently."

"No!" Hoang Dang Minh Thu panicked. Aren't these two the same meaning? If Li Qinghe doesn't come to see her, what fun is there in life?

"Neither this nor that, so what exactly do you want?"

"Miss Lingxiang, why don't you consider trying to communicate more intimately with Brother Qinghe? We can do it together, I promise it will be very enjoyable."

Hoang Dang Minh Thu squatted beside her, smiling ingratiatingly.

This question made Vu Linh Huong's face flush.

"Minh Thu, go to the private beauty room and wait for Qinghe. Serve him well this afternoon, so you can work with peace of mind in Saigon."

Vu Linh Huong directly sent Hoang Dang Minh Thu to prepare.

According to her family's requirements, she wasn't allowed to have an intimate relationship without a wedding.

But in the current situation, Vu Linh Huong knew that marriage was impossible; at most, they would have a wedding.

So, when to become intimate was Vu Linh Huong's own decision. Now that both of them had opened their hearts, she felt that when the time was right, everything would naturally fall into place.

When Li Qinghe came out of the restroom, he found Hoang Dang Minh Thu wasn't in the office; only Vu Linh Huong was there, blushing.

He was somewhat inexplicably sent by Vu Linh Huong for a deep hydrotherapy SPA.

He thought it was some new treatment, but upon reaching the room, he realized it was a hot spring hydrotherapy. Since everything was arranged, he went along with it.

By the evening, when Li Qinghe drove to Hanoi University, Hoang Dang Minh Thu was trembling all over while being massaged by two beauticians.

If they didn't soothe her, she would have muscle soreness for the next few days.

There was no other way; one was fully committed but repeatedly defeated, while the other was exceptionally gifted and surged forward. The outcome could only be one side's crushing defeat... A refreshed Li Qinghe arrived at Hanoi University for an evening appointment with Wei Shichao and the others.

Having only recently graduated from university, Li Qinghe's memories of college hadn't faded.

He also wanted to understand the atmosphere of typical student gatherings in Vietnam.