After reviewing these, Zhang Liunian and his group finished lunch and rushed to the Pengcheng Hotel to finalize the contract for the train station with Zhang Ya.
However, at the entrance of the Pengcheng Hotel, Zhang Liunian encountered Wen Qinmin, the president of the National Chamber of Commerce, and others.
They had apparently just finished their meal inside and were about to leave, not expecting to run into Zhang Liunian here.
Both parties stopped at the entrance, looking at each other, neither speaking for a moment.
But Zhang Liunian saw the pleasure in President Wen's eyes.
Pleasure?
Why was he happy to see him?
Zhang Liunian was puzzled, but Wen Qinmin was indeed happy.
This was because they had just been discussing the enormous funds required for project development and then discovered, to their dismay, that they were severely lacking.
Following this, they debated how to solve the funding issue, and finally, their attention turned to Zhang Liunian, as he possessed ninety million yuan, more than enough for any development they envisioned.
After their discussion, they planned to find Zhang Liunian later to renegotiate the investment project.
Coincidentally, they met Zhang Liunian right after this decision, as if fate itself was helping them.
Therefore, how could Wen Qinmin not be happy to see Zhang Liunian here?
"Comrade Zhang Liunian, long time no see. Have you found any good investment projects yet?"
President Wen seemed to have forgotten the previous unpleasantness with Zhang Liunian, looking at him with a smile and concern.
Zhang Liunian frowned as he looked at their group of eight, including Grandpa Sun waving at him.
Zhang Liunian smiled at Grandpa Sun and replied, "I have. You don't need to worry about it, President."
"What? You found a good project? What project?" President Wen's mood instantly soured. If Zhang Liunian had found a project and invested, his plan to get ninety million yuan from Zhang Liunian would be in vain.
This wouldn't do; they couldn't be without Zhang Liunian's ninety million yuan.
If they missed out on this substantial sum, they truly didn't know where else to raise funds.
Don't mention asking them to chip in themselves, because they had been swindled several times by those from the Chen Jiayuan family, and their savings were depleted. They couldn't possibly invest significant capital in new projects.
Otherwise, they wouldn't have set their sights on Zhang Liunian; they could have handled it themselves.
"That's confidential," Zhang Liunian replied. Seeing their shock and surprise, his heart sank slightly, but he did not disclose the train station project to them.
"President, he must be lying. He just doesn't want to give us money... No, he just doesn't want to work on projects with us."
One of the members felt that Zhang Liunian was deliberately refusing to cooperate with them and was using various excuses to fob them off. After all, Zhang Liunian had acted this way last time, so they could no longer tolerate it and directly accused Zhang Liunian of wrongdoing.
President Wen looked at Zhang Liunian with a pained expression and said, "Is that really the case, Comrade Zhang Liunian?"
"..." Zhang Liunian couldn't be bothered to talk to them and simply rolled his eyes.
President Wen acted as if he hadn't seen it and began to doubt, "Of all the major and good projects in Pengcheng, none can be undertaken except by our National Chamber of Commerce.
You couldn't possibly be working with others on projects. You must be lying to us!"
After a pause, President Wen seemed to suddenly recall something and said,
"Oh, right, Comrade Zhang Liunian, you probably don't know that the Hong Kong merchants have collapsed and all their chamber of commerce members are in jail, do you!"
As soon as President Wen finished speaking, the member who had spoken earlier chimed in again, "It was our President who sent them in. You should consider who it is best to cooperate with now. Don't refuse a toast only to be forced to drink a forfeit. I don't need to tell you who will suffer in the end."
Hearing this, Zhang Liunian found it both amusing and ridiculous. Did President Wen send the Hong Kong merchants to jail? This was the funniest joke he had ever heard.
Although it was funny, he did not show it, suppressing the smile that was about to escape his lips.
He held back, but Zhang Qian couldn't help himself and burst into laughter, "Hahaha..."
Seeing Zhang Qian unable to straighten up from laughing, the faces of the National Chamber of Commerce members turned ugly.
"What are you laughing at? Everything I said is true. If you don't believe me, go and inquire." The member who had just spoken so boldly saw Zhang Qian laughing heartily and stepped forward to continue speaking.
President Wen did not refute his member's words. In his opinion, as long as Zhang Liunian agreed to invest ninety million yuan, telling a lie was not a big deal.
However, he didn't know that Zhang Liunian himself was the main force behind the collapse of the Hong Kong merchants.
If he had known, he wouldn't have shown off in front of him.
"Is that true? The entire collapse of the Hong Kong merchants, was it done by your National Chamber?" Zhang Liunian, suppressing his laughter, said seriously.
"Of course, it's true." The member continued to speak, without President Wen needing to say a word.
President Wen enjoyed the feeling of someone speaking on his behalf, as he could always claim that it was the members who were talking nonsense if anything went wrong, and it had nothing to do with him.
Zhang Liunian, not realizing how shameless President Wen was, was about to speak, but Zhang Qian beat him to it, saying, "What bullshit! The Hong Kong merchants going to jail has nothing to do with you. This matter clearly..."
Before Zhang Qian could finish, he saw Comrade Sun and Zhang Ya arriving and had to swallow his words.
"Clearly what? Are you trying to say that the collapse of the Hong Kong merchants was your doing!
You're hilarious. What are you anyway? If you had the ability to make them collapse, stop bragging.
If you had that ability, I'd kneel down and call you father." The member, seeing Zhang Qian stop mid-sentence, immediately sneered.
He said these words casually and didn't actually intend to call him father, besides, Zhang Qian and the others were not worthy of him calling them father.
Hearing this, Zhang Qian became both angry and furious, "It was us who did it. You can call me father now."
"Bah! Just because you say you did it, does it mean you did it? Who do you think you are? I'll say I did it too!" The member didn't believe Zhang Qian's words at all. What did he mean, the collapse of the Hong Kong merchants was their doing? This was absolutely impossible.
These people knew best how formidable an enemy the Hong Kong merchants were.
They had clashed with them several times before, but they had never been able to shake the Hong Kong merchants at all. How could Zhang Liunian and his group possibly accomplish it?
This was absolutely impossible, and he wouldn't believe such nonsense.
"Comrade Zhang Liunian, you should have some shame. This is not something you can accomplish. You may not know the influence of the Hong Kong merchants, but we do, because we have dealt with them. We know exactly how powerful they are. It's really not something you can brag about." President Wen, seeing Zhang Liunian letting his subordinates boast, spoke up to remind him how powerful the Hong Kong merchants were.