57. The Meeting (Part One)

Drinking leads to trouble, drinking leads to trouble indeed! Chen Ling was a bit annoyed with himself and hurried to start returning calls...

With the grand opening imminent, the pressure was immense. At last night’s dinner, a few of them had agreed to hold a meeting this morning. Yet after one too many drinks, Chen Ling had completely forgotten about it.

However, after returning the calls, the attitude of his colleagues unexpectedly set Chen Ling’s mind at ease. In particular, Lin Yi and Yan Ji had neither blamed nor reproached him over the phone; instead, they expressed understanding and told him not to worry. This resigned acceptance of the current situation completely revealed their predicament within their own companies...

They were barely afloat!

And Chen Ling, it seemed, had become their last lifeline.

The pressure was not solely from sales performance, but also internal competition. Both Lin Yi and Yan Ji held highly coveted positions, with who knew how many lurking in the shadows, waiting for a chance to stab them in the back and take their place.

Chen Ling hung up the phone, pondering these matters.

The Chengjia Company’s Binhu Huacheng branch was located on Pingshui Road, among the street-facing shops of the first phase of Binhu Huacheng. The shop had already been renovated, with two floors. The front reception area on the first floor was equipped with several computers, while the other side featured display windows. By the corridor stood two small meeting rooms, and the back housed the office area. Upstairs was another office and a large conference room.

Both shops were already in use. However, since formal business had yet to begin, they were temporarily managed by Feng Lifang, who used the large conference room upstairs as a new training classroom, no longer borrowing space from Pengcheng Group’s office.

This had been insisted upon by Chen Ling—after all, appropriate separation and independence were absolutely necessary.

Around two o’clock in the afternoon, Chen Ling and his group arrived at the shop. Lin Yi and Yan Ji had been waiting at the entrance for some time. After Chen Ling introduced his own people, they all entered together.

The moment they stepped inside, Lin and Yan were both stunned by Feng Lifang’s appearance!

Since resigning, Feng Lifang seemed to have broken free from past restraints. Now she wore a well-tailored suit that highlighted her near-perfect figure. Her shapely legs, clad in sheer black stockings and half-hidden beneath the just-right length of her pencil skirt, sparked the imagination.

“That wardrobe budget was money well spent,” Chen Ling thought to himself, then stretched out his hand to the two men. “The documents.”

“Oh, oh—” The two, their eyes still dazed, hurriedly took out a set of documents from their briefcases and handed them to Chen Ling.

Chen Ling waved his hand and gestured to Feng Lifang. “Give them to her.”

“What are these?” Feng Lifang asked, puzzled.

“The list of all the owners in Qingfeng Community and the first phase of Binhu Huacheng,” Chen Ling replied with a smile. “Let’s start by combing through the lists. It might not be our main task for now, but we can’t just let so many people sit idle and watch.”

He gazed around the store...

At the front desk, in the meeting rooms, and in the office at the back, everywhere was bustling with people—mostly fresh university graduates. Although real estate brokerage was hardly a glamorous profession, in the face of the dire employment situation, Chengjia Company had managed to attract a lot of talent with its higher-than-average base salary plus commission, as well as comprehensive benefits.

Unlike the rough-and-ready “miracles through brute force” approach favored by many in the field, Chen Ling understood that “professionalization” would be the future core competitiveness of the industry. He had decided to move in this direction from the very start.

“Gentlemen, allow me to introduce our company’s other vice president, Feng Lifang,” Chen Ling said.

Lin Yi and Yan Ji awkwardly drew their gazes back, politely greeted her, exchanged business cards, and made a mental note to keep in closer contact in the future. Not that they expected anything romantic—just having such a pleasing presence in business was reward enough.

The group then went upstairs into the conference room.

After a short while, Zeng Fucai arrived as well, nervously led into the room by Feng Lifang, eyeing the impressive crowd with a cautious smile.

“Brother Zeng, come in and sit, don’t be shy,” Chen Ling beckoned. “Now that everyone’s here, let’s skip the small talk and get straight to business.”

Lin Yi and Yan Ji exchanged glances before Lin Yi spoke up: “Mr. Chen, about what you mentioned yesterday... There are still a few things we don’t quite understand.”

“For example, after you take on those property units, how will you sell them?”

“How will the different sides coordinate?”

“And after this project is done, what then?”

“...”

Lin Yi fired off a series of questions. Chen Ling didn’t interrupt, listening patiently. With issues of such detail, there was no way to satisfy them without giving real answers—they weren’t fools, and mere talk wouldn’t suffice.

Once Lin Yi finished, Chen Ling took a sip of water and pointed to Zhang Peng. “Let me introduce again: our vice president Zhang Peng, whose father is Zhang Linhan, chairman of Pengcheng Group.”

“Pengcheng Group—you’ve both heard of it, I’m sure?”

At these words, Lin Yi and Yan Ji visibly relaxed.

Chen Ling noted this with a touch of resignation. Using a major corporation as a backer was far more effective than saying a thousand empty words himself.

Yan Ji couldn’t help but ask, “So, Pengcheng Group is entering Linjiang City?”

“That’s not entirely accurate,” Zhang Peng spoke up this time. “Our group has always had some business in Linjiang City, just not a lot. But given the sharp downturn in the broader environment these past two years, after careful study, we believe future opportunities will be in larger provincial capitals or directly governed cities, so we’ve adopted a new strategic plan.”

“I see...” Lin Yi hesitated. “From what I know, Pengcheng Group in recent years has focused mainly on the real estate supply chain—the proportion of other sectors has decreased. So is this move into Linjiang...?”

“Don’t worry!” Chen Ling laughed. “We’re not here to compete with you! You’re developers, we’re in sales. Not only do we not conflict, we can actually cooperate.”

“Let me explain our plans for Chengjia Company in detail,” he continued.

“First, of course, is working with President Lin and President Yan to help you sell your projects. Note, we’ll act as distributors—we won’t interfere with your own sales teams. It’s a parallel sales strategy.”

“In addition, our partnership with Zhongrui Group is basically finalized—we’ll be their direct agent for sales. The same goes for President Wang’s Zhicheng Company.”

“Once we’ve established a foundation in new property sales, we’ll start expanding aggressively into the second-hand market.”

“That’s Chengjia Company’s general direction for the next few years.”

“As for this cooperation—” Chen Ling turned to Zeng Fucai. “Brother Zeng, you’re the main player here!”

“Huh?” Zeng Fucai was baffled.

Who am I? Where am I? What am I doing?

He was completely lost!

None of this was what he was used to handling.

He thought to himself: I’m just a hardworking errand boy...

Let me scalp tickets, book specialist appointments, wait in line for someone—no problem! But what’s all this about tough market conditions, group corporations, real estate business? What on earth are you talking about? I don’t understand a word—could you please speak plainly?

In fact, Lin Yi and Yan Ji were also puzzled when they first met Zeng Fucai. This guy was clearly a small-time operator, but for Chen Ling’s sake, they held back from asking.

“My fault,” Chen Ling slapped his forehead. “I was so busy having you round up people that I forgot to explain.”

“Brother Zeng, don’t worry—your job is actually very simple.”

“When these two presidents’ projects go on sale, you just need to send as many people as possible to line up at their sites, buy registration numbers, and then hand all the numbers over to me. That’s it.”

At last, Zeng Fucai understood. “So... just my usual business, right?”

“Exactly, no difference at all!” Chen Ling grinned.

It was 2008, and this little trick of hiring people to queue up and create the appearance of a hot project hadn’t yet become widespread. After this, Zeng Fucai would surely soon carve out a new business line...

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