Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Zhang Heng discussed with Li Jianguo for a little while longer before hanging up.
He was somehow reminded of his parents for some reason when he looked at the number of missed calls on his phone.
“Am I getting homesick?” he thought to himself.
He shook his head, feeling rather speechless when he realized that he hadn’t gone home once in over half a year.
He had been very busy since he began his internship during his fourth year in college. He first found a job as an intern in a pharmaceutical company, but the thing with the Dimensional Star happened before he was working for three months. He realized by the time he had gradually settled down in his new role in life that he hadn’t gone home for quite a while.
The wizened faces of both his parents came into his mind. Both of his parents were honest people. His father had been an employee of a company once and was fired later. His father had no choice but to start a small business and managed to barely make ends meet for the family.
His mother never worked because she always took care of both him and his little sister. Both of them had lived a difficult life and yet still insisted to send him to college so that he could become somebody that made his ancestors proud in the future.
Zhang Heng took a deep breath and felt a sudden urge to share his joy with his family. He bought a plane ticket to Chongzhou without a moment’s hesitation before he spent some time to post help-wanted advertisements online for his company. He figured that after he returned from spending a week back in his hometown, he would be able to hire some people.
There was no shortage of plane tickets due to the New Year’s festival had just finished. Zhang Heng boarded the plane heading to Chongzhou on the very next day. He finally got to breathe that familiar, yet at the same time weirdly unfamiliar, air of his hometown after being up in the plane for several hours.
Zhang Heng was unable to contain the smile on his face. Ever since he went to college, he found himself filled with a faint sense of eagerness and anxiety after buying bus tickets to go back to his hometown for several days every time school holidays came around, as he wanted to go back to that warmth of home that had long been a part of his being.
At that moment, having gone through life and death situations just a while ago, he suddenly realized that his yearning to go home had gotten even stronger.
“But umm… am I just going to go home empty-handed?” Zhang Heng remembered how things had been all those years ago. His family was nowhere near well-off, but the financial situation had always been decent. However, ever since his father was fired, life suddenly became very difficult. His father even had to sell his beloved car just to turn things around.
However, things had not gotten much better since, as his family had been struggling to stay above the poverty line.
Seeing how his father had to resort to riding a motorcycle to go travel and ended up getting very tanned and rough as a result, he felt somewhat sentimental and decided right there and then that he would buy his father a new car.
Zhang Heng didn’t head straight home after that thought came up instead, he hailed for a cab and headed for the biggest car dealership in the city.
In truth, Zhang Heng was not some kind of car maniac. He knew so little about cars that he was hardly able to do more than to tell a Mercedes-Benz apart from a BMW from their brand logos. As such, he had no intentions to make his purchase based on brand, performance, price, and so on. He wanted to buy a car that would allow his parents to look glorious before his relatives and neighbors, but not to appear overly showy.
Zhang Heng cleared his throat at the thought and slowly walked into the rather packed car dealership.
A saleswoman, who had just sent off a customer seconds ago, came up to Zhang Heng as soon as he walked into the dealership, flashed a friendly smile, and asked, “Good day, sir. Are you looking to buy a car?”
“Indeed I am. I’m currently looking around for something that suits me. Do you have any recommendations?” Zhang Heng nodded as he scanned the cars that looked shiny under the showroom lights.
The saleswoman frowned a little bit. The man before him told her that he was ‘looking around’. In her experience, customers who said that had a very small chance of making a purchase, so much so that the chance was practically non-existent.
However, the saleswoman nonetheless continued with a friendly tone, due to being a professional, “May I know what would be your price range, sir? We have anything from budget, mid-range, and high-end models.”
Zhang Heng was immediately stunned, as he had never given any thought about price range before. His current level of wealth would have easily allowed him to buy 10 Bugatti Veyrons without batting an eye, but there was simply no need for him to do so.
Huaxians don’t usually prefer to be the very extravagant, showy sorts, so something as flamboyant as the Bugatti Veyron was something that he wouldn’t think about actually driving if he were to buy it for himself, and his parents would be even less willing to buy something like that.
Since he had severely limited knowledge about cars, he hesitated for a bit before he said, “Umm, nothing too expensive, something around mid-range.”
“Alright then, please follow me.” The saleswoman smiled and brought him to the center of the showroom and pointed at an area where tens of models were shown, “What type of car would you be looking for? Business class, regular sedans or SUVs? Would you need something with two or three rows of seats?”
Zhang Heng raised his eyebrows for a bit. Every car before him looked shiny, possibly due to the lighting and he was unable to tell the better cars apart from the rest. As such, he simply answered, “Just regular sedans. It’s better if the car is a well-known brand.”
The saleswoman immediately flashed a bitter grin, pointed at one of the cars, and said, “Please have a look at this model, sir. The BMW 3 Series 320, has a four-cylinder engine and is a classic both in terms of performance and design. It’s boosting a very streamlined look while being a very good choice among cars of mid-range prices in terms of performance.”
His eyes flickered as he walked around the car to take a good look and nodded. BMW was one of the car brands that he heard of the most. He still remembered some girl in some show who boldly said something about how she’d rather ‘cry sitting in a BMW instead of laughing on a bicycle’, and that line cemented the meaning of the brand in his mind.
He thought that it would be a good idea to buy his father a BMW, and so he asked, “How much would this car be?”
“This one is considered rather affordable among cars of mid-range prices, with a price tag of 280 thousand yuan for the car alone with the package deal being below 300 thousand.” The saleswoman felt glad seeing the look in Zhang Heng’s eyes, wondering if he was going to buy the car.
While she felt like there was hardly any hope to seal a deal before as the chances did look thin, anyone who would make it that far into the showroom would be more or less inclined to buy the car. Every single individual would be a potential purchasing client and she had to be attentive to every single one of them.
“300 thousand? No, that’s too cheap.” Zhang Heng was stunned and shook his head.
What he deemed ‘mid-range’ would at least come with a price tag in the millions.
“Well, what would be the price range you’re looking at?” A startled could be seen on the saleswoman’s face, as she was confused if the man before her was there to make fun of her or was truly there to buy a car.
In recent years, many rich people liked to keep a low profile and it was difficult to tell from appearances alone. However, the cheap clothes Zhang Heng wore made her speculate that the man before her should only be in his twenties and hardly looked rich at all.
“Do you have something that cost over a million?” Zhang Heng looked at the saleswoman when he asked. People would get confident when they have something to show, and that saying held throughout the ages. If he had been who he was before, he probably wouldn’t think of going into that car dealership. However, with his account loaded with billions and having fought through life and death situations twice, a mysterious and noble aura was gradually seen around him and allowed him to convince others with just a single line.
“W-Well, that would be in the range of luxurious cars. Are you sure you are going to buy one of those, sir?” The saleswoman looked rather panicky by then. Zhang Heng’s eyes looked dark and deep like the dark of night, sucking all who looked at his eyes in. She felt as if she was facing a boss of some sort when she looked at his eyes. Despite having read a great number of people throughout her career, she was unable to get a clear reading on Zhang Heng.
“Take me to those cars and I’ll decide that for myself.” Zhang Heng knew right away from the saleswoman’s reaction that she had underestimated him, but he didn’t mind at all. People who were backed by something real probably wouldn’t care about how others look at them after all.
The saleswoman frowned somewhat and hesitated before she immediately followed right behind Zhang Heng. Regardless of if he would able to make a purchase, she could not afford to come into conflict with the man before her, as decent jobs were hard to come by in present times.
The deeper into the dealership they went, the more expensive the cars being shown became. Supercars of all colors could be seen as they went further inside. Zhang Heng couldn’t help but feel impressed at those world-renowned fancy cars that glittered under the lights, even though he had little interest in cars to begin with.
He finally stopped before a black car that looked to be the most modest car among all those shown in the area of luxurious cars, yet the silver accents gave the car an elegant look nonetheless that made it look regal but not flashy, which was barely able to fit Zhang Heng’s requirements.
“What’s this one called?” Zhang Heng asked with a curious tone as he walked around the car and took a good look.
“Umm…” The saleswoman raised her eyebrows as she found it puzzling that the man before her was unable to recognize the brand. She flashed a bitter grin and continued familiarly, “This would be the Audi A8L and it comes with the highest specs, with a 368kW/6.3L engine and an eight gear automatic transmission. The price of this car would be 2.75 million yuan, with the package coming in at around three million. If you figure that the specs sounded too expensive, we also have the regular…”
“No need for that. I’ll take this one.” Zhang Heng snapped his finger and said, “If I were to pay upfront right now, could I drive the car immediately?”
“Huh?” The saleswoman was immediately left stunned and came to her senses after being dazed for quite a bit. She shook her head and said, “No, that’s not possible. The procedures alone would take several hours. There is also the issue with insurance and licensing…”
Zhang Heng frowned right away. He knew nothing about those issues and did not need to know. He added casually. “Half an hour. 100 thousand.”
“Wait, what?” The saleswoman looked at Zhang Heng with a puzzled face.
“I don’t care how you do it. Look for your manager or what have you. If you can take care of all these issues for me in half an hour, you’ll earn yourself 100 thousand yuan.” Zhang Heng narrowed his gaze.
“But…” The saleswoman mumbled as she felt as if her jaw just dropped to the floor.
“200 thousand.”
“I…”
“300 thousand.” Zhang Heng cut off the saleswoman casually. He took a look at his watch and continued in a deterministic fashion. “300 thousand would be the highest I could offer. I want it done in half an hour, and I don’t want to repeat myself.”
The saleswoman immediately took a deep breath and pushed down all of the glee that was about to show on her face, before she nodded affirmatively. “You have a deal!”