9:30 A.M., Lu Liang drove to Tangchen Golf.
Similarly developed by the Tangchen Group, it was a luxurious villa area integrating business, entertainment, and residential facilities.
There were standalone villas with courtyards, but few were permanently occupied, generally rented out for company team-building events or friend gatherings.
Passing through the villa area, they arrived at the sports center next to the golf course, where individual cages were set up for basketball, tennis, or beginner's golf practice areas.
Lu Liang saw Old Meng sweating it out on the tennis court, his belly jiggling, a spry middle-aged fat man.
Opposite was Zhou Xiaoqi, dressed in professional women's tennis attire, with a pair of long, straight legs visible beneath her miniskirt.
"Let's go over."
After parking the car, Lu Liang brought Li Manli into the cage.
The two of them, one in blue and the other in pink sportswear, wore matching white flat-top hats.
Li Manli's eyes kept drifting to Zhou Xiaoqi, enviously saying, "That sister's legs are so long, so straight."
Not only men like to look at legs, women do too.
She was 1.64 meters tall, which wasn't considered short, but compared to Zhou Xiaoqi, who was over 1.7 meters, she felt somewhat ashamed of herself.
"You have better proportions than her, and you're prettier than she is," Lu Liang said comfortingly, as he walked over to greet Meng Changkun.
"Brother, you're here, come play a round."
Meng Changkun glanced at Li Manli, and even though he had seen plenty of beautiful women, he was astounded by the young girl's appearance.
Her delicate face was nearly flawless, with a bewildered gaze that sparked a protective instinct.
But it was just an extra glance, after all, stunning beauties were rare but not unique.
Especially when it came to a friend's woman, as 'a friend's wife must not be coveted,' which is a basic moral of friendship.
At his level, he wasn't lacking women in his life, nor did he harbor any covetous thoughts towards his friend's woman.
"Sure, but I'm not very good at it, Mr. Kun, you'll have to take it easy on me."
Lu Liang took the racket from Zhou Xiaoqi's hands; he had never played tennis but felt it would be similar to badminton.
However, he was being presumptuous; the strength required for tennis was on a completely different level from badminton.
Luckily, Old Meng could see Lu Liang truly didn't know how, so he intentionally slowed down the ball speed and fed him easy shots.
The two of them went back and forth, and Lu Liang gradually got the hang of it, starting to enjoy the sport.
That thudding hit felt fantastic.
But before long, Old Meng ran out of steam, repeatedly waving his hands and calling out, "I can't go on."
He turned to Li Manli, who was playing with her phone, "Little sister, come on up and play a few rounds with Lu."
Li Manli blinked her innocent eyes and shook her head hastily, "I'm sorry, I don't know how to play tennis."
"Just play around, I didn't know how at first either, you'll learn it soon enough," Lu Liang waved her over.
Meng Changkun, drinking tea, watched the two bumbling around and couldn't help but laugh.
Zhou Xiaoqi made tea and commented, "She doesn't know anything, but it's strange, Mr. Lu lived in an affordable talent apartment just a few months ago."
Although young, she had been modeling for years and struggled a lot before ending up by Meng Changkun's side.
Compared to her, Li Manli was a pure and innocent flower; after half an hour of conversation, anything Zhou knew was entirely extracted from her.
Meng Changkun's eyes widened in surprise, but he quickly whispered, "Stop talking, he's coming over."
"I'm done playing, the sun's getting too strong."
Lu Liang, drenched in sweat, grabbed an ice towel from the cooler to wipe his face, and handed another one to Li Manli.
"Have some tea, take a rest," Meng Changkun instructed Zhou Xiaoqi to make room and went to get some snacks.
Lu Liang also said, "Manli, you go with Miss Zhou too, see if there's anything you can help with."
He wasn't worried about Li Manli being pumped for information because what she knew was limited and inconsequential.
What the past was like didn't matter; what was important was the present and what the future would be like.
After the two left, Lu Liang consulted Meng Changkun on the steps to establish a company and mentioned that he had invested in a movie.
"What movie?"
Meng Changkun feigned surprise. If he hadn't known that Lu Liang had invested in a movie, he wouldn't have invited him out to play tennis today.
From now on, Lu Liang was his friend and had temporarily shed any suspicion of being a con artist. They could continue their association.
"It's a movie adapted from a stage play."
Lu Liang outlined the story without delving deeper into the topic because he knew Meng Changkun wouldn't be interested.
"Commercial investment is indeed better than personal investment," Meng Changkun mused. He genuinely had no interest in the film industry.
Over the years, the film and television projects he invested in had never made money; his main aim had been just for fun.
Meng Changkun called over his assistant, a young man named Liu Jun, who was standing in the distance: "Assistant Liu, these next few days will be tough. Help Mr. Lu with the procedures."
He had been in Modu for nearly twenty years, especially in Xinpu District, and had connections in various departments.
With his assistant handling it, the paperwork would be processed quickly, and no one would go out of their way to make things difficult.
"Mr. Kun, have Assistant Liu explain it to me, and I'll take care of it myself."
Hearing Lu Liang's words, Meng Changkun chuckled, "Without this kind of experience, you'll find the process particularly troublesome. It's normal for friends to help each other, and who knows, we might have opportunities to cooperate in the future."
Lu Liang pondered for a moment, then thanked him with a cupped-hand salute and didn't insist any further.
Human relations worked like this: you help me, I help you, and out of this mutual assistance relationships gradually deepen.
Meng Changkun then asked, "Have you decided on the company's location?"
"Not yet, I plan to look for it this afternoon."
"No need to search anymore. I happen to have a few offices available for rent. I'll take you to see them later."
"Mr. Kun, your company is quite diverse in its operations." Lu Liang was astonished.
He just wanted to ask for advice and hadn't expected Meng Changkun to arrange everything as a one-stop service.
Meng Changkun smiled and said, "These days, no matter what industry you're in, as long as you have money, you want to get a foot in the real estate door. How does that saying go, 'Only land can coexist with the sun and the moon.'"
"And look at Bill Gates, with his high-end tech company, he's still out there rounding up land to become a landlord."
"Indeed, real estate is the only irreplaceable pillar." Having been in the real estate industry for nine years, Lu Liang deeply agreed.
Especially in the last few years, the craze had been manic, reminding him of Tokyo in the late '80s as recorded in books.
Countless Neon People boasted about selling off Tokyo to buy the United States, and Modu was no different now.
If Lu Liang had had enough capital, he would have liked to buy a few properties as a last resort.
After lunch, Meng Changkun took Lu Liang to Yongfeng Building in Xinpu District.
The entire 33-story building covered an area of 4,800 square meters, with floors 15-17 belonging to Kunqian Trade.
Meng Changkun's company occupied the entire 17th floor, and he had divided floors 15-16 into office spaces ranging from 220 to 480 square meters.
He rented these spaces to young entrepreneurs, some businesses he supported, mainly engaged in e-commerce, live broadcasting, and new media industries.
"In fact, I don't understand much about it, but these new industries that have emerged in recent years are quite interesting. Lu, don't underestimate these companies; they may be small, with only about a dozen employees, but their target markets are nationwide."
Throughout the tour, Meng Changkun chatted and laughed with Lu Liang like a king surveying his realm.
"With the rise of mobile internet, indeed, many new industries have been born, and among them, a unicorn may emerge in the future."
Lu Liang strongly agreed while also realizing just how vast the gap between him and Meng Changkun was.
The rumors about 'Billion Meng' were clearly an understatement.
Meng Changkun laughed heartily, "I'll take that as a good omen, Lu."
A unicorn company, with a minimum threshold of a ten billion US Dollar valuation before going public—should he hit the mark with one, it might ensure his descendants would never worry about livelihood.
The group of people visited several currently available offices on the 15th and 16th floors one after another.
"Lu, do you have any preference? Or any particular requirements for the direction?" Meng Changkun asked.
Businesspeople are often superstitious about feng shui; he, for instance, favored offices that faced the sun and had shadows at the back.
An astrologer had told him he was born with the water element and needed to absorb yang energy to balance it in order to attract wealth from all directions.