Chapter 1452: Buying a Building?

After dealing with this matter, Zhao Fusheng finally had some time to rest.

You see, although he hadn't gone to the United States in person these past few days, due to the time difference, during the day Zhao Fusheng spent most of his time reviewing materials, except when accompanying Fan Baobao for prenatal care or sending Fan Beibei to school. At night, he had to stay in constant contact with Tan Kaixuan, keeping his nerves on edge.

Now that everything had settled, he could finally take a breather.

Looking at the date on the calendar, Zhao Fusheng couldn't help but smile. The era of smartphones was drawing nearer, and he eagerly anticipated what kind of development Future Group would achieve.

Time passed quickly, and before he knew it, it was July 1st.

In the capital's summer, there were naturally many beautiful women. Even sitting in the car, one could see them clearly, and even more so upon arriving at the company headquarters.

Beautiful women fluttered past him like butterflies, dazzling Wu Sijie's eyes.

Zhao Fusheng was slightly better off, but he too was somewhat surprised. Usually, when he came to the company, he didn't see so many beauties.

"What's going on? Why are there so many people in the company today?"

Arriving at Zheng Yao's office, Zhao Fusheng asked curiously.

Zheng Yao smiled, then her expression turned serious: "The advertising company is recruiting exclusive models; they're probably all here for the interview. What, did any of them try to seduce you?"

Obviously, whether as Fan Baobao's close friend or as the CEO of Future Group, if anyone dared to seduce Zhao Fusheng, she would deal with it seriously.

Zhao Fusheng shook his head: "Don't overthink it; I was just asking."

Then he said to Zheng Yao, "By the way, I've heard a lot of discussion about private enterprises lately. Have we been affected?"

Zheng Yao gave him a strange look: "What does that have to do with us? They're talking about the original sin of private enterprises. Although we are also a private enterprise, we started our business after the millennium."

Zhao Fusheng was taken aback, then realized he had been overthinking.

In fact, around 1999, people began discussing the issue of "original sin" in private enterprises.

The reason was simple: with China's rapid economic growth and wealth expansion, some who felt left behind or lost in the social changes, as well as vulnerable groups, often questioned the legitimacy of wealth.

There were many viewpoints on this, but the most prominent came from an economist who later famously sued his flight attendant mistress. He argued that the rise of private enterprises was only possible through the embezzlement of state assets.

It must be said that Professor Lang was quite a character. Using the internet platform in the digital age, he earned a reputation as the economist who dared to speak the truth. After amicably divorcing his sixth wife in 2011, he dated a flight attendant for over two years, buying her two apartments in Pearl City and Songjiang. One was under the flight attendant's name, the other under her father's name—though for one of them, the father contributed five million.

After they broke up, Professor Lang engaged in a court battle with his mistress, not only reclaiming the properties but also leaving her with a debt of nine million yuan.

The most classic part of this story was that initially, Professor Lang, as the plaintiff, demanded the return of the purchase money from the flight attendant and her father. The flight attendant's side argued it was a voluntary gift, and Professor Lang lost.

Then came Professor Lang's slick move: in his second lawsuit, he brought along his sixth wife.

Well, the professor sure had stamina!

And the most impressive part was that this time, he sued under his ex-wife's name.

The lawsuit was simple: the ex-wife accused Professor Lang of illegally disposing of marital property during their marriage, demanding the flight attendant and her father return the purchase money. As it turned out, this tactic worked, and Professor Lang won.

The flight attendant's side appealed, but the court rejected it.

Then came the most astonishing twist: Professor Lang followed up with another lawsuit against the flight attendant, requesting the termination of the sales contract and ordering Xinyuan Company to return the nine million yuan in货款, plus interest, with the flight attendant bearing joint liability. The reason was that Xinyuan Company was a one-person limited liability company, established in May 2011, with the flight attendant as its legal representative.

The flight attendant stated that she had indeed received the funds but had transferred them on the same day to a third party, Pearl City Gaohan Xinhao Investment Management Company, as instructed by Professor Lang.

Of course, that company was owned by Professor Lang's son.

In other words, Professor Lang had actually used the money himself.

The flight attendant claimed that the sales contract had nothing to do with her!

In the end, the court of first instance ruled that Xinyuan Company should repay the funds. Professor Lang was dissatisfied and insisted that the flight attendant must repay; finally, the court of second instance upheld his claim.

In other words, Professor Lang had slept with the flight attendant for nearly three years for free and even made her owe him nine million.

This whole operation was truly breathtaking and worthy of applause.

A rogue is not scary; what's scary is a rogue with education.

Just this one incident was enough to show that Professor Lang was no pushover.

What he excelled at was leveraging the situation.

Although it was 2006, Professor Lang attributed all irregularities—including problems that might arise in mature market economies abroad and those caused by policy mistakes—to private enterprises.

In other words, Professor Lang's view was that all power-for-money deals, profiteering, illegal fundraising, etc., were caused by private enterprises.

For a time, this discussion intensified, as if some force was constantly suppressing private enterprises.

That was precisely what Zhao Fusheng was worried about.

But now it seemed he had been worrying unnecessarily.

"We started with advertising. Even if they talk about original sin theory, it won't fall on us," Zheng Yao said irritably. "Besides, I think that so-called Professor Lang is not a good person. I've heard he's especially shameless, constantly changing wives..."

Due to her own emotional experiences, Zheng Yao had a strong aversion to all scumbags.

Zhao Fusheng shrugged, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with her.

In his view, Zheng Yao wasn't entirely right on this matter. Being a scumbag in relationships didn't necessarily mean one was the same in other aspects.

If being a scumbag meant one couldn't succeed, then how could our bro Dong have built JD.com into what it is?

It's like with movie stars; that's why we must separate actors from the roles they play.

The reason is simple: these actors are often completely different from the characters they portray on screen.

For example, take that big shot who went to prison for dating; no one can deny his high achievements in acting and the deeply rooted characters he created.

But acting and life are ultimately two different things.

"Alright, since it has nothing to do with us, that's for the best." Zhao Fusheng thought for a moment and said to Zheng Yao, "I've been considering lately that if we have sufficient funds, maybe we could have each company independently purchase its own office building."

"Buy a building?"

Zheng Yao clearly hadn't expected Zhao Fusheng to have such an idea.

She had already been quite surprised when Zhao Fusheng asked her to buy the current office building, but now it seemed the guy had even bigger ambitions—he wanted to buy more buildings.

"Isn't that too wasteful?"

Zheng Yao hesitated and asked Zhao Fusheng.

After all, large-scale investment in real estate would be a significant expense.

"You yourself said that the capital's real estate market is bound to experience explosive growth. Instead of wasting so much money on rent every year, we might as well buy a few office buildings—some for our own use, some for leasing." Zhao Fusheng said to Zheng Yao. "Of course, this is just a suggestion. You can have the Strategic Planning Department study it."

Zheng Yao nodded: "I understand. If it's feasible, I'll start implementing it immediately."

She also thought Zhao Fusheng was right. Since they judged that the capital's real estate market had room for growth, they should do something about it.

By now, Zheng Yao had a general idea of Future Group's development direction. In her view, while the internet industry would flourish, the physical sector should not be neglected either.