Chapter 50: Fluttering Colorful Flags

At 6:30 PM, Zheng Qian left the company on time.

In the evening, Jin Lu had arranged a meeting with Uncle Hou for him, and he prepared to attend this dinner to discuss the gym with Uncle Hou.

Zheng Qian did not drive the Rolls-Royce; he felt it was difficult to drive and completely lacked the comfortable handling of a BMW. After parking the car at Jiangshan International, he rode in Jin Lu's car to the restaurant.

"Your complexion isn't very good." Jin Lu glanced at Zheng Qian and noticed his expression was different from usual.

"Yeah, ran into some annoying business, quite frustrating, no need to mention it."

Zheng Qian really felt that Liu Shiqi was disgusting; she was just the founder and manager of a foundation, how much capital could she possibly have in her hands?

Zheng Qian even had an impulse to find out exactly what projects Liu Shiqi's foundation had invested in, and to crash them to teach her a lesson, so she wouldn't come and mess with him again.

Jin Lu didn't ask further. Since Zheng Qian hadn't taken the initiative to tell her, it meant he didn't want to mention it. As Zheng Qian's supportive partner, she shouldn't press him.

Around seven o'clock, the two arrived at a restaurant called Lotus Pond Moonlight.

This restaurant was quite high-end, with an average per-person cost of at least three thousand. Uncle Hou had been waiting at the restaurant entrance for a long time.

"President Zheng, Lulu." Uncle Hou stepped forward enthusiastically to greet them.

Zheng Qian shook hands with him and then followed Uncle Hou into a private room.

Inside the private room sat another person.

Boss Han.

He came too?

"President Zheng, you should know Boss Han, so I don't need to introduce him, haha." Uncle Hou said with a smile.

Boss Han stood up with a smile and came over to shake hands with Zheng Qian: "President Zheng, you're here so early. I was just on the phone and didn't go to the entrance to welcome you. My apologies."

"Boss Han, what are you saying? It should be me who arrived late, keeping you both waiting." Seeing Boss Han being so polite, Zheng Qian followed suit; being polite never hurts.

Furthermore, Boss Han's status was no lower than what he showed, so not coming out to welcome him was normal.

Zheng Qian's current public identity was only the deputy general manager of a shipyard transport company, not the general manager, while Boss Han was the owner of Wangyue Island; they were in completely different leagues.

However, Boss Han was likely aware that Zheng Qian had massive capital support behind him, could casually pull out 30 million, and drove a Rolls-Royce, which was why the two could sit at the same table to eat.

Uncle Hou inviting Boss Han meant it was clear that Boss Han was also interested in Uncle Hou's gym business, so the purpose of tonight's gathering was clear.

After the four of them were seated and exchanged simple pleasantries, Uncle Hou brought up Jin Lu's father.

"Lulu, Brother Zhiyuan is coming out soon, right?"

"Yes, my dad recently managed to get another sentence reduction, there's about a month left." Jin Lu replied.

"Sigh, Brother Zhiyuan has been inside for over a dozen years, finally about to come out."

Except for the first time he met Jin Lu, Zheng Qian hadn't had many opportunities to hear Jin Lu mention her father.

Through their conversation, Zheng Qian learned that Jin Lu's father was named Jin Zhiyuan, and nothing else was mentioned.

"When Brother Zhiyuan comes out, he'll definitely say you're capable. Having a son-in-law like President Zheng, he'll surely enjoy his life in his later years, hahaha?"

Everyone laughed.

Jin Lu was currently, publicly, indeed Zheng Qian's girlfriend, and the main partner at that.

But Zheng Qian's willpower wasn't very strong, and sometimes he would commit mistakes that all men make. But what surprised Zheng Qian was that the intelligent and clever Jin Lu actually pretended not to know, tacitly allowing him to fool around outside.

In Jin Lu's words, with the wealth and status he possessed, there would definitely be many women clinging to him and throwing themselves at him; how could he possibly remain untouched?

As long as the red flag at home didn't fall, she wouldn't care how many fluttering colorful flags Zheng Qian had outside.

"By the way, Uncle Hou, what's going on with that gym of yours? I told Shuangshuang I wanted to go work out, but was told you had already closed down."

Zheng Qian felt the small talk was enough, so he steered the conversation toward the main business.

Before coming, Jin Lu had told him about Uncle Hou's background in the car.

He had bought some commercial properties and made some investments years ago, relying on rent and dividends to live, and the gym was just something he opened for fun.

"Recently, various industries on the market haven't been doing well. Since we're all our own people, I might as well tell you that one of my investments lost 80%, my capital chain broke, and the gym had to be forced to close."

The gym claimed to the public that it was closing for rectification, but in reality, the capital chain had broken.

Uncle Hou's gym had a prime location, was neither too big nor too small, and had accumulated a lot of connections over long-term operation. He didn't want to watch this gym just die like this.

But if no new capital came in, he would have to close the gym and sell the commercial property it occupied to recoup funds.

What they were going to discuss today was the sale and purchase of the gym. Uncle Hou was very clear about his plans and had two options.

First, buy the entire gym, but the venue is not for sale; a certain amount of venue rent must be paid annually.

Second, buy the gym and the venue outright, with a 5% discount, but the funds must be provided all at once.

"However, the membership cards that were issued should be refunded; I can't do that kind of thing where I take the money and run," Uncle Hou added at the end, "Also, some of the employees' positions must be retained."

Uncle Hou's venue in the city center could be described as an inch of land being worth an inch of gold; such a large area could even be split into several small shops, but it was quite hard to buy.

This term meant that the original customers would still be gym members; he couldn't force customers to sign up for a new card just because the owner had changed.

To be honest, Uncle Hou was a rather conscientious boss; whether it was the customers or the employees under him, he treated them well.

Uncle Hou had many connections, including wealthy people, businessmen, and high-level civil servants, so he could certainly find a buyer if he wanted to.

Others had only chatted casually; Zheng Qian and Boss Han were the first people he had discussed this matter with at a dinner.

"As for the price, my current plan is 4.5 million, but since we are so close, President Zheng and Boss Han, 4 million is negotiable."

Buying a gym in Yebai city center and buying out the venue for 4 million, after careful analysis, was very cost-effective; Uncle Hou wasn't asking for too much.

"Uncle Hou, after you sell the gym, what are you going to do?" Zheng Qian asked with some curiosity.

"Haven't thought about it yet, taking it one step at a time." Uncle Hou replied.

Zheng Qian nodded and turned to ask Boss Han: "Boss Han, are you interested?"

"Certainly interested. You also know that in Yebai, other than Wangyue Island, I don't have any other businesses, and I'm quite fond of the gym industry."

"However, if President Zheng is also interested, I will defer to you first."