Chapter 141 — Old Buffon's Origins

Yang Shuoxuan knew Li Dagang was telling the truth. People in real estate sales generally had inside knowledge about the quality of a development. If there really was a problem with a project, the developer would surely notify them beforehand, so that the sales staff could be careful and avoid selling those units to anyone with connections, thereby heading off unnecessary trouble.

"Just joking," Yang Yanzhou said. "How come these villas all look different from one another?"

"That's right. Villas are expensive. To highlight their prestige, and to make the owners feel they're getting their money's worth, the developer made every villa's design unique," Li Dagang said. "What's more, each villa is priced differently. Take that one over there, for instance—it's the most expensive of them all. It's called Sun-Moon Pavilion. As the name suggests, it's a place touched by both the sun and the moon. That villa gets the best light, and there's a pond not far away, so the setting is the most elegant of all."

"Sun-Moon Pavilion—that's a nice name." Chen Shutang spoke up at once. "Sun and moon together make up the 'Ming' in your name."

Yang Xutang agreed with what Chen Shutang said and nodded with a smile. Indeed, just as Li Dagang had said, looking over the positions of all these villas, Sun-Moon Pavilion was the best.

Yang Ce wasn't short of money now, and when buying a house, one naturally wanted the most comfortable one. So he said directly to Li Dagang, "Let's go take a look at Sun-Moon Pavilion."

"Boss, Sun-Moon Pavilion is nearly twice as expensive as an ordinary villa—eighteen million yuan!" Li Dagang reminded him. Of course, there was no trace of condescension in his words; his tone was purely the casual chatter of friends.

"Ha, when you buy a house, you naturally want to get the most satisfactory one in one go," Yang Shuoxuan said, unbothered. "Come on, let's go have a look."

Seeing that Yang Xutang showed no particular reaction to the price, Li Dagang relaxed.

The interior layout of Sun-Moon Pavilion satisfied Yang Ce immensely. It was a three-story design, bright and generous inside, and came with a separate underground garage and storage room.

"Mengyan, what do you think of this place?" Yang Juehuan had already decided in his heart to buy it, but he still wanted to hear Chen Shutang's opinion.

Chen Shutang had been somewhat enchanted ever since she walked in. She had never imagined that one day she would live in a grand villa like the ones on television—and the most luxurious kind, at that.

What she liked even more was that the villa came already decorated, designed by a specialized interior design firm. Every villa's decor was different, which delighted Chen Shutang to no end.

Only when she heard Yang Ce call her did she snap out of her daze. "What?"

"I said, what do you think of this place?" Actually, Yang Ce didn't need to ask—one look at Chen Shutang's expression and he knew the answer.

"It's very nice. It's just... a bit too expensive, isn't it?" Chen Shutang said hesitantly.

"As long as you like it," Yang Ce said. "Besides, the environment here is good for Jiajia's recovery."

At the mention of Zhou Yanning, Chen Shutang fell silent. She thought it over, and Yang Yanzhou's words made sense—a serene setting might well help Zhou Yanning wake up sooner. So she nodded and said, "Then let's buy this one."

"No way—you've already made up your mind?" Li Dagang stared at Yang Ce and his wife, dumbfounded. "You're buying this house way too fast. You've settled on it just like that, without looking at any others?"

"No need. You already said this is the best one, so there's no point looking at the rest," Yang Yanzhou said.

"In that case, come with me. I'll take you to the manager and get you an insider's price," Li Dagang said.

Yang Ce drove back to the sales center, then followed Li Dagang up to the manager's office on the second floor. He knocked on the door, and a voice from inside told them to come in.

Li Dagang led Yang Ce and Chen Shutang into the manager's office, where they found, besides the manager, a young woman dressed in a very fashionable style, with fairly good poise. But she was wearing sunglasses indoors—clearly the sort who liked to put on airs, or else she was blind. The second possibility, of course, was rather unlikely.

"Manager Liu," Li Dagang greeted.

"Ah, Xiao Li. I was just about to look for you." Manager Liu looked up, saw it was Li Dagang, and said, "This is Miss Song. You showed her some houses last time."

"Hello, Miss Song." Li Dagang nodded to the girl in sunglasses. He clearly remembered this pretentious little thing.

The girl in sunglasses didn't so much as acknowledge Li Dagang, but he wasn't offended. He'd clearly dealt with plenty of her kind—whoever has the money is the boss, and there was nothing unfair about that.

"Miss Song went to the developer and got a discount—twenty percent off. Go take her through the paperwork," Manager Liu said.

"Oh? Which unit does Miss Song want to buy?" Li Dagang was delighted to see the manager hand him the paperwork. No matter how much of a discount the developer gave, the normal sales commission still had to be paid to the sales company, so Li Dagang would still get his cut.

"Sun-Moon Pavilion," Manager Liu said.

"What?" Li Dagang froze, his mouth hanging open.

"Xiao Li, what kind of expression is that? What, are you that surprised?" Manager Liu laughed. "Miss Song has the means, plain and simple. The discount may be low, but it's still a good start—our first villa sold."

"No, Manager Liu, you've misunderstood." Li Dagang gave a bitter smile and glanced at Yang Puqi beside him, then said to Manager Liu, "These two guests also want to buy Sun-Moon Pavilion. I brought them here to get them a discount."

"What?" Manager Liu was taken aback, then smiled wryly. "I'm sorry, you two. Sun-Moon Pavilion has already been reserved by Miss Song. You can look at other villas—don't worry, I'll be sure to apply for the best possible price for you."

"Mengyan, how about we pick another one?" Yang Shuoxuan had no choice—someone else had simply gotten there first.

"Pick another one?" Chen Shutang couldn't hide her disappointment. She really did like that villa. She'd thought it was expensive, but once the decision was made and she'd set her heart on buying it, the price no longer mattered. Now that it was suddenly unavailable, she was naturally quite disappointed.

"Nothing to be done. Someone else beat us to it," Yang Ce said with a shrug.

Yang Ce could have stepped in with full force and simply bought the villa outright, but he was not an unreasonable man, so he didn't do that. Yet just because Yang Yongjin wouldn't do such a thing, someone else was forcing Yang Cenbin's hand in the matter.

The Miss Song who had said nothing all this time now spoke up. She raised her head and said, coolly and indifferently, "Beat you to it? Hmph. Even if you'd already signed the contract, I could still buy that house."

Yang Wenru frowned, and Chen Shutang also felt the atmosphere turning sour. She quickly said, "Yang Ce, let's just look at the others."

Yang Ce had wanted to get a few digs in at Miss Song, but one look at Chen Shutang and he held back. He nodded and said, "All right."

"Hmph. Blame your man for being useless. My husband made one phone call and got the lowest price." Yang Yongjin—Miss Song—still wouldn't let it go.

To be continued.

689. Mengyan Loses Her Temper

"You—" Chen Shutang was instantly choked with rage. She was nothing like Lin Yanhe, no one could walk all over her. She had been a class officer back in school, and anyone who could hold a class office was hardly the meek and mild type.