Chapter 355: I surrendered directly.

After Zheng Qian left, the atmosphere at the booth was extremely awkward.

The most awkward among them had to be Li Zijian, especially since Zheng Qian hadn't called for him when he left. He was stuck in a dilemma—leaving felt wrong, but staying felt even worse. He had just been bragging about how he would help Tang Xingyu resolve this issue.

Yet, unexpectedly, a single phone call from Su Yuanshuang had wiped his efforts away completely.

"You guys, the restroom..."

Li Zijian was trying to find an excuse to slip away by saying he needed to use the restroom.

Just then, he saw Cui Jinghui come running over in a flash.

"Young Master Li, my brother-in-law just instructed me to come get you. He said Teacher Xiao has finished her meeting, and he's arranged for you all to go to Wangyue Island for a bite to eat."

"Oh, right, right. I was just wondering how long Teacher Xiao would be in her meeting."

Li Zijian quickly stood up and followed Cui Jinghui away.

Leaving only Tang Xingyu behind with a dazed look in his eyes.

Lu Shanshan sighed and placed a bank card in front of him. "Don't worry about my mother's factory for the time being. I only came today to do my part, out of consideration for how you helped me in the past."

"From now on... let's not stay in contact anymore..."

With that, she also left the place.

Watching the car speeding away in the distance, Lu Shanshan felt a complex mix of emotions.

A single moment of poor judgment had cost her any chance with Zheng Qian. If she could take a regret pill, would she have...

Xiao Duan was driving, Zheng Qian was holding Jin Lu in the backseat, and Li Zijian was in the front passenger seat.

The phone rang; it was Su Yuanshuang.

Zheng Qian breathed a sigh of relief; as long as it wasn't Cui Ziqing or the others, it was fine.

But after a moment of hesitation, he decided not to answer.

At the very least, while with Jin Lu, he needed to deliberately avoid interactions with other women.

After ringing a few times, the other party stopped calling.

But he received a WeChat message.

Su Yuanshuang: [Don't forget the WeChat message you just sent me! Don't forget your promise!]

Startled, Zheng Qian took a glance and quickly locked the screen. Just kidding, what promise? If Jin Lu saw that, who knows what kind of misunderstanding it would cause.

Fortunately, Jin Lu was just resting with her eyes closed and had no intention of asking.

Meanwhile, Li Zijian was busy working away.

He kept searching on his phone for information about Wangyue Island, its legal representative, the owner, and so on. But after searching for ages, he only found out it was Boss Han, who had absolutely no connection to anyone he knew.

He had already lost face in front of his junior, Jin Lu, and had been thinking about how to win it back.

Now it seemed that would be difficult.

After arriving at the destination and entering the lobby, they saw Teacher Xiao walking out with Boss Han.

It was quite a coincidence; it turned out Teacher Xiao had traveled all the way to Yebai specifically to meet Boss Han. The two had some overlap in tourism real estate business, and this time they were preparing for a new project.

Teacher Xiao's face was filled with exhaustion; clearly, the negotiation hadn't achieved the desired outcome.

Boss Han was also shaking his head with a bitter smile, looking very troubled.

"Teacher Xiao, please wait a moment. A very important friend of mine has arrived; let me host them first."

Boss Han exchanged a few words with her before greeting Zheng Qian, his gaze naturally falling on Li Zijian. "The private room is ready. Where is the distinguished guest you wanted to host? Could it be this young master?"

Li Zijian was busy thinking about how to respond.

Zheng Qian smiled and waved his hand, pointing in the distance. "It's Teacher Xiao! My fault for not explaining clearly earlier. She was Jin Lu's former teacher and took great care of her. We wanted to play the host this time."

"Teacher... Teacher Xiao...?"

Boss Han was stunned upon hearing this, unable to process it for a long moment.

He knew Zheng Qian had attended university locally, so he had never imagined the two would have any connection.

"Oh my... my brain, I almost failed to recognize a member of my own family. Let's go eat first." Boss Han was regretting it so much now; he hurriedly ushered everyone toward the private room.

If he had known Teacher Xiao had this relationship with Zheng Qian, why would he have hesitated just now!

Even if it meant selling everything he owned, he would have definitely committed!

Teacher Xiao's expression was also quite strange; how could she not notice Boss Han's change in attitude? Immediately, she became even more curious about Zheng Qian's background.

Only Li Zijian, sitting in the private room now, felt as if he were sitting on pins and needles.

"Teacher Xiao, you really know how to keep a low profile! Since you know a big shot like Zheng Qian, coming to me instead is really overestimating me!" Boss Han poured everyone a glass of wine with a bitter smile. "I was hesitating because of the funding issue, but... if Zheng Qian gets involved, I think there won't be any problems at all."

Teacher Xiao's eyes lit up immediately, and she said with pleasant surprise, "Is that true?"

"Ahem, ahem..."

Li Zijian coughed a few times and put on a confident smile. "Teacher Xiao, actually, on the way here, I mentioned it on the plane. Some Bosses from Shanghu I know are very interested in this project and could provide additional investment."

Hearing this, Zheng Qian also laughed.

He gave Boss Han a wink.

The latter immediately understood and quickly followed up, "And I wonder how much they could invest?"

Teacher Xiao was also taken aback. Although she knew Li Zijian often associated with wealthy people, he had only recently become her graduate student, and she didn't know much about his true background.

She hadn't expected him to be able to bring in investment, which was a pleasant surprise.

"Uh..."

Li Zijian really wanted to slap himself.

As mentioned earlier, he was actually just a broker. He occasionally relied on information asymmetry to make connections, but his main trade was deception. If he were actually asked to produce a huge sum of money, it would be impossible.

He had just spoken out of pure habit; in these situations, he would always say a few harmless, platitudinous things.

Usually, no one would follow up, but Boss Han had specifically asked.

"Um... as for the specific amount... we still need to discuss it further... after all..."

Li Zijian hurriedly picked up his water glass to hide his awkwardness.

"Teacher Xiao, you've helped me so much in the past, and I want to do what I can to help as well." Jin Lu held Teacher Xiao's hand and said earnestly, "How much of a funding gap does this tourism real estate project of yours have?"

"Sigh, it's about five billion."

"Actually, I came to find Boss Han mainly because his Wangyue Island is indeed doing well, and he has experience operating tourism real estate. Such a large funding gap is definitely not easy to fill."

"My idea is to jointly operate with Wangyue Island and establish a joint venture company; that way, we can borrow more money from the bank. At the very least, we can complete the first phase of the project so it meets the standards for sale, and then we can proceed to the second phase..."

Teacher Xiao explained with a bitter smile.

Zheng Qian pondered for a long while before speaking, "Is the cultural tourism real estate project located around Shanghu?"

"Yes."

"Whatever the shortfall is, I'll fund it directly."