booktalesy Chapter 245 Royal Gardens
Chapter 245 Royal Gardens
Chapter 245 Royal Gardens
In the conference room, Craig slowly sipped his cola, while his secretary, Xiao Wang, stood beside him, keeping a close eye on his every move, afraid that the foreign client might feel even slightly uncomfortable. She was even more attentive to him than she was to her own wife.
On the other hand, Li Changjun's actions left him speechless with astonishment.
Half an hour ago, he was full of dissatisfaction with the residential project, but now he was like a magnet, sticking close to Director Chen. His dissatisfaction had vanished, replaced by a warm and ingratiating smile, and the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes were almost piled up like chrysanthemums.
"Brother Chen," Li Changjun leaned slightly forward, his voice low but unable to hide his curiosity, "Tell me the inside story, who exactly is this Mr. Craig? It's just building a house, yet he's asking for hundreds of millions of dollars. That's outrageous!"
As they spoke, Li Changjun didn't forget to be attentive. Seeing that Director Chen's teacup was empty, he immediately reached for the kettle on the table and carefully refilled it for Director Chen. His movements were so gentle, as if he were handling a rare treasure, and his affection for Director Chen was palpable.
Seeing Li Changjun's complete 180-degree change in attitude, Director Chen thought to himself: Is this Manager Li perhaps originally from Sichuan? This change of face is even faster than the face-changing skills in Sichuan opera.
He picked up the teacup that had just been refilled, gently blew away the foam on the surface, and then slowly said, "Mr. Craig's identity is not important. This house was never his idea to build."
"Oh?" Upon hearing this, Li Changjun's eyes widened instantly. He subconsciously turned his head to look at Craig. So this guy wasn't the main character after all?
"So who's actually going to build the houses? Brother Chen, stop keeping us in suspense."
Director Chen took a sip of warm tea to moisten his slightly dry throat. "Ernst Garfield, you've heard of Google, right? It's that globally famous internet company. He's the founder of Google."
Li Changjun was stunned for a long time. What Google Valley? I know who he is.
Seeing Li Changjun's bewildered expression, Director Chen knew he was completely ignorant about these foreign internet companies, and couldn't help but lecture him, "Old Li, I'm not trying to criticize you, but your company has international business, how can you be so clueless about the international situation?"
He patiently explained, "You've surely heard of the internet, right? And Google is one of the top internet companies in the United States, with tremendous financial strength. This Mr. Ernst Garfield is said to be worth over several billion US dollars."
"Hiss!" Li Changjun gasped, his eyes widening even further.
He had heard of Bill Gates and knew he was an extremely wealthy man, but he didn't usually have much contact with the internet.
But having a net worth of several billion US dollars is enough; there's no need to know anything else.
Billions of US dollars! How much would that be in RMB? Even if you piled that money up in front of you, you probably wouldn't know how to spend it.
Thinking of this big business opportunity, Li Changjun could no longer sit still. He stood up, walked quickly to Craig's side, and firmly grasped the other's hand.
The force of his grip was so strong that it almost deformed Craig's hand, and the smile on his face was so warm it could melt ice, even more attentive than when he first met his mother-in-law.
"Mr. Craig, is there enough Coke? If not, I'll have someone buy a few more cases right away. Please don't be shy."
After saying that, he didn't forget to glare at his secretary, Xiao Wang, his tone full of dissatisfaction, "Xiao Wang, tell me, how can you be so inconsiderate? Couldn't you have bought a few more bottles of Coke and put them here? These cheap things aren't worth much, are you going to let the client go thirsty?"
Xiao Wang stood aside, his face full of grievance. "Didn't you repeatedly emphasize that we should be frugal?"
Three bottles of Coke aren't enough for one person? Wouldn't that get too much?
Craig was completely taken aback by Li Changjun's sudden enthusiasm. He couldn't understand a word of Li Changjun's Chinese and could only stare blankly at the other man's animated gestures, his eyes full of confusion.
Seeing this, Director Chen sighed helplessly and had no choice but to step forward and act as the translator.
He smiled at Craig and explained, "Mr. Craig, I'm really sorry, our Manager Li is just being very enthusiastic."
He meant, "Can we start discussing the details of this project now?"
"Of course, let's talk now." Craig perked up immediately when he heard that it was about discussing project details, and he couldn't wait to finalize things.
You see, he has children and a wife on Taiwan waiting for him to go back and take care of them, so he doesn't want to waste too much time here.
Everyone returned to their seats. Craig noticed that Director Chen, Li Changjun, and Xiao Wang were all looking at him, and for a moment he didn't know where to begin.
He frowned, pondered for a long time, and finally asked, "Um, regarding the demand for trees, that is, timber, you should be able to solve that, right?"
Upon hearing this, Director Chen immediately patted his chest and assured him, "Mr. Craig, please rest assured! As long as it's related to Chinese architecture, whether it's wood or other materials, we can handle it for you. You definitely won't be disappointed."
"Then... can we get pear trees too?"
After Director Chen translated Craig's words to Li Changjun, Li Changjun was instantly dumbfounded. He stared wide-eyed at Director Chen, completely bewildered, and asked stupidly, "Brother Chen, what's going on with this foreigner? It's just building a house, why is he bringing up pear trees? Does he want to plant an orchard next to his house? And even airlift pear trees from here?"
"I don't think these Americans are living a very good life. Don't they even have pear trees?"
Director Chen was also taken aback by Craig's strange request. He was quite surprised and turned to Craig, asking in confusion, "Mr. Craig, what kind of pear tree do you want?"
"It's from the sea, a pear tree from the sea," Craig explained anxiously, emphasizing "from the sea" in the hopes that the other person would understand.
But Director Chen and Li Changjun were even more confused after hearing this. They looked at each other, both seeing deep bewilderment in each other's eyes.
They had lived all their lives and had never heard of pear trees growing at sea.
Li Changjun was the first to realize something, and he slapped his thigh, exclaiming, "Could he be talking about Hainan rosewood?"
"Shipwrecked!" Craig muttered. "That sounds like it."
When Ernst called him to explain the requirements, he mentioned a whole bunch of Chinese names for traditional building materials, which Ernst couldn't remember at all, so he had to ask the young woman to help him write them down.
Later, he tried to learn a few phrases, but he would forget them as soon as he learned them.
Thinking of this, Craig suddenly remembered the piece of paper the young woman had written down for him. He quickly reached for his briefcase, unzipped it, and rummaged through it for a while before finally finding the folded piece of paper.
He unfolded the paper, slammed it on the table, pointed to the contents, and said confidently, "This is it. All the materials and requirements I need are written here."
Li Changjun couldn't wait to reach out and pick up the paper, then looked down and examined it carefully.
At first, he only frowned slightly, but the further he looked, the wider his eyes widened and the wider his mouth opened.
He looked up at Director Chen with a complicated expression. "Brother Chen, are you sure his boss wants to build a residence? The requirements on this list look like a royal garden."
"Didn't I tell you before? This is a huge business worth hundreds of millions of dollars. If the project wasn't large, would it cost this much money? Don't make a fuss."
Li Changjun took a deep breath, pointed to the contents of the paper, and shook it out as he said, "The entire building must be constructed entirely of wood using mortise and tenon joints, and the main structure must be made of Phoebe zhennan wood. The furniture must be made of Hainan rosewood and small-leaf sandalwood, the ornaments must be carved from Qinan agarwood, and even the flooring must be made of rosewood. Just this one main building—how much will the material costs alone be?"
Director Chen rolled his eyes at Li Changjun, thinking he was really too ignorant. How could it cost hundreds of millions of dollars to use ordinary materials?
"That's nothing," Li Changjun continued. "The courtyard covers a full two hundred acres. I took a close look, and all the landscape stones and plants are expensive varieties. They even require a large amount of white marble."
"How big is the Yuanmingyuan? It's only about 2,000 mu. A single residential courtyard takes up 200 mu and requires so many precious materials. You're telling me this is a residence? This is clearly a small royal garden!"
Director Chen was stunned for a moment, then snapped, "What nonsense are you talking about? Do you think I understand?"
"Just tell me directly whether we can take on this project and what the approximate price would be. Don't give me this nonsense."
"Of course I can take it," Li Changjun said firmly, patting his chest. "If any company in China dares to compete with me for this business, I'll stand at their company gate and curse them for three days and three nights, letting them know that they're not even qualified to compete for this level of Chinese garden project."
"As for the price?" Li Changjun's expression softened slightly. He looked at the various data on the paper and pondered for a moment before saying, "Although this shows the approximate material and scale requirements, the exact price can only be calculated after the actual design drawings are completed. However—"
He glanced up at Craig, who was looking at him with expectant eyes. After a moment's thought, he slowly said, "Based on the specifications here, conservatively speaking, it would probably cost at least $1.5 million."
"So expensive?" Director Chen couldn't help but exclaim in surprise upon hearing the price.
Although he already knew it was a huge order worth hundreds of millions of dollars, he believed that the initial asking price for such projects was usually inflated, and the actual price would definitely be much lower.
He had previously thought that if he could finally close the deal for seventy or eighty million US dollars, that would be an ideal result.
Unexpectedly, Li Changjun's offer doubled as soon as he opened his mouth, and that was only a conservative estimate.
That's a difference of nearly $100 million! He couldn't help but feel a little uneasy. Would this deal fall through because the price was too high?
Li Changjun smiled helplessly and explained, "What do you think? Given the scale of this building and the material requirements, golden nanmu trees that are less than fifty years old simply do not meet the standards for use. You can't even imagine how expensive golden nanmu trees of this age are now."
"And the furniture and decorations can't be neglected either. You can't put a tiny one-meter-long coffee table in a living room that's over ten meters long, can you? That's ridiculous!"
"These timbers all have to be old, at least a hundred years old, so the price naturally goes up."
After hearing Li Changjun's explanation, Director Chen's expression turned even more unpleasant.
He turned to look at Craig and saw that Craig was looking at them blankly, obviously not understanding their conversation. He felt a little embarrassed.
He hesitated for a long time, but finally mustered up the courage to speak to Craig, "Um—Mr. Craig, it's like this, regarding the materials used in the project, would you consider lowering the standards a little?"
"NO." Craig shook his head without hesitation and said firmly, "We must follow the requirements on the list. The material standards absolutely cannot be lowered."
As he spoke, he shook his large head, looking just like a rattle drum.
Then, he frowned and looked at Director Chen, "Can't you do it?"
Director Chen looked troubled, but he quickly explained, "It's possible. Of course we can do what you need."
However—by following this standard, the project's price might be a bit over budget.
Upon hearing that the price was the reason, Craig's anxiety instantly subsided.
He waved his hand dismissively and said in a relaxed tone, "Price is not a problem. Just tell me directly how much the whole project will cost according to this standard."
"Uh—" Director Chen hesitated for a moment, but still quoted a price: "Based on the current requirements, a conservative estimate is that the entire project will require $1.5 million."
After quoting the price, he was extremely nervous, staring intently at Craig's expression, afraid that the other party would lose his temper on the spot because the price was too high.
To his surprise, Craig remained expressionless after hearing the price. "No problem. When can you provide the design drawings?"
Director Chen was completely dumbfounded. He stood there blankly, his eyes wide open and his mouth agape, unable to react for a long time.
Li Changjun was also stunned in his seat. Although he couldn't understand English, he could still understand what Craig meant by "OK".
The two looked at each other, both seeing deep shock and disbelief in each other's eyes.
What kind of family is this? They didn't even blink an eye when building a house for $1.5 million. They're incredibly rich.