Tomorrow as Bright as Day – Chapter 96
Chapter 96
Many years later, when Ming Xi looked back on the spring of 2005, she would remember the steady drizzle, the fine rain tapping against the glass windows, tracing winding streams of water. From the old window of the auction hall on the third floor of the Ning City Development Zone Administrative Committee, she could see two lush camphor trees standing in the parking courtyard. Layer upon layer of leaves were freely washed by the rain. A few fearless birds darted out from the vibrant green branches, flapping their wings hard and shaking off strings of crystal-clear droplets.
Indeed, in April 2005, it rained almost the entire month in the south. Both Ning City and Haigang were like tattered cotton wadding completely soaked.
What Ming Xi remembered most vividly was that the newly developed coastal road in Ning City had not yet completed its drainage system. Driving along this road, rainwater mixed with yellow mud from the construction site, forming a thick layer. Whenever a massive container truck rolled through, mud would splash several meters into the air.
On her second day in Ning City, she went to inspect the site in person.
On the way back, not only were her shoes caked in mud, but her coat was splattered with dirty water. Her white Mercedes looked even more disastrous.
In less than half a day, thick mud had wrapped around the underside of the car. Worst of all, one of her tires was punctured by a nail on the road. She kept her eyes fixed nervously on the flashing tire-pressure warning light as she cautiously drove the car back to the hotel.
Then, Xinyu drove to find a repair shop… She and Jiang Bin returned to their hotel room to continue negotiating the bidding plan.
Many years later, chatting with Xinyu, they would talk about the day she received that transfer from Mr. Liang—a sum equivalent to half a small fortune.
Her true feeling was… extreme panic.
Using later internet slang, she had nearly experienced a complete mental crash. At one point, she even considered returning the money to Liang Jiancheng untouched.
Fifty million! If she couldn’t repay it, she would truly be destined to marry Boss Liang! Fortunately, she not only returned the principal but also paid a large sum of interest.
Yet in the end, they still ended up together.
So why had Liang Jiancheng transferred such a huge sum in the first place? That question kept Ming Xi tossing and turning that night.
Based on her understanding of Liang Jiancheng, he never deliberately tried to show off in important decisions. His powerful suggestion that she acquire three plots of land in one fell swoop must have had its personal reasons.
The GY-018 parcel Ming Xi had originally planned to bid on covered only 12 . Based on last year’s fourth-quarter auction prices for similar industrial land, it was about 150,000 yuan per mu—the smallest parcel in this auction. Even without investment-attraction subsidies, the total cost could be controlled within 2 million yuan. However, precisely because the threshold was low, it would likely attract the most bidders, driving the final transaction price far above 150,000.
But parcels GY-019, GY-023, and GY-029 were entirely different. One was 24 mu, one 27 mu, and one nearly 50 mu. If she secured all three, the total area would exceed 100 mu. Not only would she qualify for bulk purchase subsidies, but she could also receive regional land price discounts, reducing the overall land transfer fee by another eight percent.
Although the total amount far exceeded her original plan, those subsidies would be enough for Mingzhou to complete factory construction.
Doing business is about “spending big money to accomplish big things,” and investment is inevitable. If she secured those three parcels, not only would her net worth double, but her capital leverage and overall strength would increase dramatically.
What she found even harder to resist was that she faced no immediate repayment pressure.
Liang Jiancheng understood her situation better than anyone. If he dared to transfer that money, he would not be in a hurry to take it back.
Indeed, the reason the funds arrived late was precisely so that she could use them with peace of mind.
Xinghai Technology was in the financing stage, so he could not move its operating capital. He had to negotiate with Kevin and find ways to rotate funds from Xinghai Foreign Trade’s accounts, piecing together additional sums from his personal savings. In short, the money was steady and secure.
He had even taken out the savings he had accumulated over many years as his “future wife fund.”
The decision-maker for this large transfer was Liang Jiancheng, while the actual operation was handled by Kevin, the current manager of Xinghai Foreign Trade. Kevin had originally thought Liang Jiancheng was a shrewd businessman even in matters of love. Yet he hadn’t expected that beneath Liang Jiancheng’s shrewd and intelligent exterior lay a passionate and incredibly sincere heart, so pure it even moved him, this middle-aged man.
“Mr. Liang, have you considered that if Miss Ming can’t repay this money, won’t it further affect your relationship?”
Kevin, after all, was a middle-aged man who had experienced both romance and hardship. Even though he knew this question was somewhat inappropriate, he couldn’t help but ask. In this world, relationships between men and women sometimes feared the absence of shared interests, and were equally wary of entanglements of interests.
Though younger than Kevin, Liang Jiancheng had weathered enough of the business world. Even if he had not “eaten much salt,” he had seen enough. A qualified businessman must calculate gains and losses while also understanding human nature. When he instructed Kevin to transfer the funds, it would be false to say he had no selfish motives. But there was no impulsive recklessness driven by infatuation.
More precisely, he believed Ming Xi would certainly repay the money. And if she somehow could not, he would consider himself the one who benefited.
Do you understand what he meant?
…On the last Friday of March, Liang Jiancheng stood in a tailored suit before the floor-to-ceiling windows of Xinghai Foreign Trade, gazing at Haigang’s development. Turning back to Kevin, he spoke with utter sincerity: “If she can repay it, I earn the interest. If she can’t, I earn the time spent with her.”
Time is priceless.
He would profit either way.
Like an angel investor, he had watched Miss Ming grow step by step to where she was now. It was not that he failed to see human nature clearly; rather, he could already foresee that if she had grown this much in five years, then in another five, she would shine even brighter.
This money wasn’t an investment in Miss Ming, but an investment in the love he gave her.
His selfish wish was that when Miss Ming’s horizons grew even broader, she might still look kindly upon this slightly older man—because of the fifty million he had once put forward.
Because Miss Ming had always been someone who valued loyalty and sentiment.
If love could not last forever, he hoped that this bond of devotion would be engraved just as deeply.
Because he might truly be unable to lose her.
If his life lacked Miss Ming’s companionship, he would surely live more blandly than Old Liang—
More obsessed with calculating interests than Director Gu.
Such a life would be unbearably dull. How could it possibly match this passionate, surging era rushing ever forward?
…
Late at night, in a hotel room by the North River in Ning City, the heater was turned up to the maximum, greatly diluting the musty smell in the air.
After showering and finishing her skincare routine in the bathroom, Ming Yue walked out wearing a silk slip nightgown. On the sofa, He Yuan was still studying the planning blueprints over and over, a cigarette between his fingers.
“Ming Xi is probably here to bid for the GY-018 plot,” He Yuan suddenly looked up and told her his calculations.
“Really?” Hearing this, Ming Yue wasn’t surprised, but still smiled with feigned astonishment.
Even though they had been staying in the same hotel for the past two days and the official bidding would begin tomorrow, Ming Yue had no chance to see Ming Xi during the day—unless she knocked on her door in the middle of the night. Naturally, she had no way of finding out which plot Ming Xi was targeting this time, or how much money she had brought for the auction.
Unlike Ming Xi, who liked getting things done, Ming Yue only liked money. And she was far more sensitive to it. Compared with He Yuan, she wasn’t curious at all about which land Ming Xi intended to bid on—she was only curious about Ming Xi’s current net worth.
Since that couldn’t be found out directly, she could only make guesses.
Ever since He Yuan bumped into Ming Xi at this hotel yesterday, he’d been concerned about whether his former employee and sister-in-law would become his competitor in tomorrow’s bidding.
After some calculations, based on his understanding of industry profits and business volume, and factoring in Ming Xi’s cautious personality, He Yuan had basically concluded that the only plot she could afford was GY-018. If so, they would become direct competitors.
Because of Haiou’s current financial situation only allowed him to participate in the bidding for GY-018 as well.
He Yuan put down the blueprints and slid them into a manila envelope, irritably loosening his tie. His knuckles tapped against the paper folder with a dull thud.
A sudden, natural surge of competitive desire welled up within him. Driven by an absolute determination not to lose, no matter how intense tomorrow’s bidding became, he was determined to secure GY-018. He wanted Ming Xi to see that ambition and ideas were all well and good—but ambition that was too young and immature, once defeated in competition, would only lead to greater embarrassment.
Fueled by that burning competitiveness, He Yuan was unexpectedly vigorous that night. The hotel bed’s headboard kept knocking against the wall of the adjacent room. Ming Yue was wild and passionate at first, but then it ended without much strength…
Because Mr. He finished so quickly, Ming Xi in the next room had just gone to the bathroom to take a shower and didn’t hear anything when she came out. Otherwise, given the hotel’s terrible soundproofing, it would have been like the first inn she stayed at when she arrived in Haigang—where certain not-so-harmonious creaking sounds were all too easy to hear.
The next day, Ming Xi left her room in high spirits. To her surprise, Ming Yue and He Yuan—whom she hadn’t seen for the past two days—ran into her in the elevator.
It was an unavoidable encounter. Ming Xi pressed her lips together slightly, nodded casually to the two of them, then turned around and faced away.
Standing beside He Yuan with her chin lifted, Ming Yue had intended to give her younger sister a warm smile. Her lips had barely curved before Ming Xi ignored them and turned her back. In the end, she let out a faint sound, something like a scoff. No matter what, over the past year they had run into each other several times, and every time it was Ming Xi who had been more impolite. It didn’t matter—she, as the elder sister, would be more accommodating.
Today, when Ming Yue came out of the hotel room, she was dressed head-to-toe in designer brands. Labels did enhance one’s presence. Tall to begin with and wearing high heels, she stood beside He Yuan almost at the same height. He Yuan, too, was dressed in a sharp suit. The two stood arms in arms in the elevator, looking every bit the power couple.
Ming Xi had to admit that much.
“Ming Xi, I don’t want our own people to become competitors today,” He Yuan suddenly said in a courteous and gentlemanly tone.
What… what did she just hear? Our own people? Who’s our own people? Standing closest to the elevator door, Ming Xi turned slightly at his falsely polite words and looked at him in astonishment.
Meeting her gaze directly, He Yuan continued in a tone that was both proper and oddly intimate, “Given your relationship with Ming Yue, shouldn’t you call me brother-in-law?”
Brother-in-law?
Ming Xi couldn’t help but find it ridiculous. She tugged at the corner of her mouth in a polite smile, not bothering to look at him again. Instead, she blinked at Ming Yue. “Why don’t you show me your marriage certificate first, hmm?”
Even Ming Yue found Ming Xi’s response somewhat amusing. She used to think Ming Xi was too sharp-edged; now she felt she was simply too young.
“When we hold the wedding, we’ll invite you,” Ming Yue said, pursing her red lips.
“Don’t waste the invitation. I won’t go,” Ming Xi replied flatly, giving no face at all.
Yet even after such a blunt refusal, He Yuan maintained his composure and pressed on, eager to assert himself. “Lamia, Haiou is determined to win the GY-018 plot this time. If you’re planning to bid on it as well, us competing could drive up the price, which wouldn’t be good for either of us. If you’re willing to withdraw, I can personally offer you some compensation. Think it over?”
After all these years, He Yuan hadn’t changed at all—self-assured to the extreme. Still, the fact that he said this meant he must have estimated her bidding target for today.
He was right—she would originally have been competing with him. But not anymore. Suddenly, a mischievous impulse rose in her. Tilting her head as if shocked, she put on an anxious expression, as though her bidding target had been exposed.
Sure enough, seeing her reaction, He Yuan’s smile grew even more confident.
Even if Haiou was under financial pressure, how could Mingzhou compete with them?
And today, Boss Liang from Xinghai wasn’t there. Xinghai and Haiou had been neighbors for years, and he knew that Xinghai had never been lenient with Haiou, nor with Mingzhou. Feelings were feelings; interests were interests. That was how men operated.
So what could Mingzhou use to compete? Their entire fortune? Ming Xi wasn’t that type of person.
Of course, based on his understanding of her, she would never accept his compensation. That was why he made the offer in the first place—not because he truly expected her to withdraw, but to tease her a little.
Ming Xi didn’t treat it as a joke. Pretending to be serious, she asked, “How much compensation?”
For a moment, both He Yuan and Ming Yue were speechless. Couldn’t she tell it was a joke? But if he clarified that it was just a joke, all his earlier gentlemanly poise would immediately collapse.
“…One hundred thousand,” Boss He named the price.
At the figure, Ming Xi smiled faintly and shook her head. Her gaze didn’t linger long on He Yuan before shifting to the radiant Ming Yue. When her eyes fell on the black pearl earrings Ming Yue was wearing today, she blinked several times.
Her emotions were complicated—and faintly amused.
She wasn’t so kind as to feel sorry for Ming Yue because of those earrings. It was more a quiet sense of reflection.
Since childhood, Ming Yue had loved cured pork. Back then, when Yang Yumei and Ming Decheng had turned back to take the cured meat hanging by the window, Ming Xi had found it unbelievable—yet understood clearly. She had once envied Ming Yue—not the person herself, but her ability to openly receive a mother’s love.
If possible, she still hoped that the person she had once envied would live a little better.
Finally, the elevator doors opened.
“Mr. He is very generous; I’ll consider it,” Ming Xi said. The moment she stepped out of the elevator, she turned back and, in front of He Yuan, acknowledged Ming Yue as her sister for the first time. “The earrings are beautiful; the Tahitian black pearl suits you very well, Sis.”
With that, Ming Xi stepped out of the elevator.
In the hotel lobby, Jiang Bin, Xinyu, and Sister Tian were already waiting for her, each carrying a laptop and a briefcase filled with documents.