Rebirth 1990: The beginning is sweet and cool Bai Yueguang

Lin Xindie was holding the strawberry milkshake she had just bought, and her fingertips suddenly trembled due to the cold wall of the cup.

In the shadow of the newsstand diagonally behind, a figure wearing a baseball cap was lighting a cigarette.

"Three o'clock direction..."

Lin Xindie lowered her voice while handing Zhou Qi a tissue: "That gray hat followed me from Wanfu Shopping Center to the food court."

Zhou Qi took the tissue and patted the back of her hand. His eyes swept across the reflective glass wall on the roadside. "I changed the tracking distance three times forty minutes ago. Now I should sit in the car and eat a hamburger."

He accurately reported the last digit of the license plate of the black Santana, shocking Lin Xindie so much that she bit the straw.

While Du Qianqian was trying on earrings in the jewelry store, Zhou Qi was leaning against the display cabinet and observing the parking lot with the reflection of his mobile phone.

The wipers of the old Santana moved, and half of a face squinted by cigarette smoke flashed behind the windshield.

"Should we notify Mr. Bai?" Lin Xindie pretended to choose a necklace, the pearls rustling between her fingers.

"Bai Qinghong is more concerned about the temperature of the conference room at nine o'clock tomorrow morning."

Zhou Qi suddenly reached out to help Du Qianqian straighten her crooked diamond earrings: "The real danger is never the enemy that is in the open."

His little finger brushed across her hot earlobe, and in his peripheral vision, he saw the door of Santana quietly open a crack.

Dinner was chosen to be in a revolving restaurant overlooking the river. Lin Xindie discovered that Zhou Qi specifically requested a table for six by the window.

When the waiter came to refill the lemonade for the third time, Zhou Qi suddenly held down the goblet that Du Qianqian was about to raise: "Would you like to go to the underground wine cellar to pick out a special red wine?"

These words stunned the two girls at the same time - they remembered clearly hearing that the wine cellar was being renovated when they sat down.

When the black Santana put out the seventh cigarette in the parking lot, Zhou Qi's Mercedes-Benz had quietly driven out of the employee passage.

In the rearview mirror, Du Qianqian's scattered hair brushed against the back of Lin Xindie's hand, and the two girls looked through the photos of today's spoils of war head to head.

"Three things need to be confirmed before tomorrow's negotiations."

Zhou Qi tapped the steering wheel twice with his fingertips, and the car navigation suddenly switched to an encrypted communication interface: "First, check the rental record of that Santana..."

Night just fell

When Du Qianqian turned the steering wheel, the leather seat made a slight friction sound.

She glanced at Zhou Qi who was resting with his eyes closed in the rearview mirror, and suddenly chuckled: "You actually took the initiative to ask me out for a drink today?"

"Sometimes I need alcohol to relieve stress." Zhou Qi tapped the car window sill with his index finger, and his metal watch flashed in the dim light of the dashboard.

The white Bentley Continental passed through the neon tunnel and finally stopped in front of the starry sky curtain wall of Pullman.

When Lin Xindie got out of the car, she was adjusting the hem of her champagne-colored skirt and didn't notice that fifty meters behind her, a modified Santana was turning off the engine and parking in the shadows.

In an industrial-style space with jazz music flowing, three people sat on dark brown leather sofas.

Zhou Qi took the Negroni handed to him by the waiter, and the ice cubes drew tiny tracks on the wall of the glass.

His eyes passed over Du Qianqian's wavy hair and locked onto the man in a gray suit who had just entered the entrance.

"Twelve o'clock."

Zhou Qi suddenly lowered his voice and looked at the waiter who was coming over with a wooden box: "Romanee-Conti 2015, it looks like someone wants to make friends."

Du Qianqian raised her eyebrows and looked at the strange man drinking alone in the distance. The other party raised his tulip glass to greet her in an elegant and almost deliberate manner.

When Zhou Qi unbuttoned his suit and stood up, the moon phase dial of the Patek Philippe on his wrist flashed a faint blue luster.

"Do you need someone to accompany you?" Lin Xindie asked while pinching the cherry stem.

"It's tea between the hunter and the fox, it's safer for the ladies to enjoy the wine."

When he sat down, Zhou Qi noticed that the other person's cufflinks were black swans made of enamel. This metaphorical ornament made him squint his eyes.

The man in the gray suit swirled the amber liquid in the glass, and the top note of cedar scent spread between the two of them.

"I am really terrified that the shadow consultant of Zhou Group can show up on his own initiative."

Zhou Qi was the first to break the silence, tapping out a specific rhythm with his fingertips on the solid wood table.

The tattoo on the man's neck was faintly visible as he swallowed. It was the mark of a high-ranking member of an underground money house.

"Mr. Zhou is indeed as perceptive as the rumors say, but tonight we will only talk about romance."

He pushed over a gold-stamped business card, but the edge was stained with suspicious dark red marks.

Zhou Qi looked at the uninvited guest in front of him and asked, "Who is this gentleman?"

"The name doesn't matter."

The man tapped the rim of the crystal glass with his fingertips: "The important thing is that I can help Mr. Zhou with his urgent needs."

Hearing this, Zhou Qi's eyebrows twitched slightly, and he picked up the wine glass and took a sip.

The amber liquid swayed gently in the cup, reflecting his half-smile. "Asking about helping me on our first meeting, sir, you seem to care more about my situation than the weather forecast."

At this time, the waiter came over with a silver tray and placed two new cups on the sandalwood table.

Amid the jingling sound, the man glanced at Zhou Qi's slightly curled fingers, and waited until the waiter was three meters away before speaking: "The bid for the North Shore project will be opened tomorrow, but your partner is now..."

He deliberately dragged out the ending: "Are you still basking in the sun on the other side of the ocean?"

The bottom of the cup made a crisp sound when it hit the table. Zhou Qi leaned back against the leather chair and said, "The city government documents are all sealed with a confidentiality seal. You are very well-informed."

"Bai Qinghong doesn't care whether the documents are stamped or not."

The man suddenly leaned forward, and his sleeves brushed across the table, bringing with them a faint scent of cedar. "I heard that Dinghua Real Estate's collection notices have piled up like a mountain?"

The neon lights outside the glass curtain wall suddenly lit up, casting colorful light and shadows on Zhou Qi's lenses.

He took off his glasses slowly and wiped them: "Boss Bai sent you to be a lobbyist?"

"Mr. Zhou is joking."

The man put the rim of the cup to his lower lip: "Bai's company has more than just Dinghua."

He suddenly lowered his voice and said, "I heard that Wansheng Construction is looking for a strategic investor recently?"

The crisp sound of ice cubes falling into whiskey glasses could be heard from the bar, and Zhou Qi's fingertips tapped out a regular beat on the side of his phone.

When the seventh knock sounded, he suddenly chuckled: "Sir, do you want me to be a puppet?"

“It’s a win-win situation for both parties.”

The man pulled out a gold-stamped business card from his suit pocket and pushed it over: "I heard the bidding will be moved to nine o'clock tomorrow morning?"

He glanced at his watch and stood up: "If we rush to the airport now, we can catch a special plane from the city that never sleeps."

The business card was pressing down on the yellowed boarding pass at the corner of the table. Zhou Qi lowered his eyes and looked at the hot stamping of "Executive Director of Wansheng Construction" on it. Suddenly, he found that the ice in the cup had turned into a pool of spring water without him noticing.

It is no secret that there are undercurrents in the Bai family.

Gao Qingliang once privately revealed that the business empire secretly controlled by Bai Qinghong's missing fourth uncle was far more than just Dinghua Real Estate.

It is said that many of the companies under the Bai Group have traces of the operations of this behind-the-scenes operator, but even insiders like Gao Qingliang find it difficult to tell which industries are involved.

At this moment, the North Shore development project has become the focus of the family, and Bai Qinghong and his son regard it as a key springboard for strategic transformation.

The success or failure of the project is not only related to the legalization process of family assets, but also directly affects the status of young heirs in the family.

If they can achieve real results through this, Bai Qinghong's collateral bloodline will have the hope of redrawing the family's power map.