Hong Wushan, the Hong family's villa.
Hong Dali's father crossed his arms and stood in the middle of the study room, studying the map of Tianjing city intently. After a while, he said to his wife, "My wife, now that you've mentioned it, our Dali has quite the eye for such things."
Dali's mother sat leisurely, drinking her tea. "Oh? Why do you say that?"
"Look at this." Hong Dali's father pointed at the map and softly said, "The location of the Ye Lai Xiang nightclub is exactly east of our Hongwu villa. It's a must to go through this road to get to the city, which is five minutes away. To the north is the Tianjing Zoo and the Tianhe Garden. To the northwest is the national park, across the Tianjing River to the west is a scenic mountain view, and to the southwest is Tianjing South Station."
"Now that you mention it, this is indeed a good place. But why hasn't it been developed?" Hong Dali's mother was now interested. It seems our prodigal son is smarter than we thought. At least he has inherited our ruthlessness. To pick such a good place on his first try was indeed hard to come by.
"There are many factors affecting the development of the place—for example, political issues." Hong Dali's father took a long drag on his cigarette, mouthing an "O" and huffing out circles of smoke. Squinting his eyes, he said, "Perhaps I should speak to Mayor Jiang. I intend to invest 300 million, exploring the possibilities. What do you think, my wife?"
"Dali is fooling around, and you're fooling around with him, spending 300 million yuan in one go." Hong Dali's mother grinned as she sipped her tea. "But I'll support you. I agree with what you said about this place. But what about the tenants? Will they agree to move?"
"Um, that will be tricky. How about this, we'll invest 100 million yuan first. Let's buy the cheap lands and leave the expensive lands for later. In any case, the property prices won't drop easily; we can treat them as fixed assets." Hong Dali's father drew a circle on the map using his finger. "Let's take care of the area around the nightclub first and observe the situation. We'll decide what to do next after I meet up with Mayor Jiang."
"Um, that sounds good. Let Dali continue to fool around there. This rascal is only buying the property to rear dogs, what a joke." Hong Dali's mother chided gently. Although she had referred to Hong Dali as a rascal, even the blind could see how much she spoiled him.
…
Hong Dali was oblivious to his parents' analysis. All he cared about was squandering like crazy.
"Xinxin, do you like dogs?" Hong Dali asked while leaning on the sofa. His legs were on the coffee table as he gulped down his drink. "If you like dogs, I'll buy you a few. What do you think? If I'm going to squander, I might as well go all out. Find a professional animal doctor to give the dogs a weekly checkup, bathe them every three days, brush them every two days, and hire dedicated trainers to train the dogs. This is professional squandering."
Who didn't like furry dogs? Even Hong Dali, the superprodigal, found a way to relate dogs to squandering. Tang Muxin responded restlessly, "Of course I like dogs, but to hear you link them with squandering, I have no intention of rearing them all of a sudden."
"As long as you like them. What breed do you like best?" Hong Dali turned his head the other way, and a servant fed him a peeled grape. He ate it contently, laughing. "What do you think? I like dogs too. We can take care of them together."
"Um." Tang Muxin raised a pale, delicate finger and placed it on her lips. "Chow Chows, maybe. They look so furry and mild. I like them best."
Those should be the same as the Chow Chows on Earth. Hong Dali nodded. "Let's rear Chow Chows, then. A few of every color. My favorite are huskies. They are the silliest. It matches my status the best."
Tang Muxin was speechless. She replied angrily, "It's up to you. Since we're rearing dogs, get me a Chow Chow. At least I'll feel better looking at it than looking at you."
"No problem." Hong Dali snapped his fingers. "Driver, arrange two people to get some dogs. Yes, one hundred Chow Chows, one hundred huskies, and one hundred Samoyeds too. Oh, are there Tibetan mastiffs? Get a hundred of them too."
The driver acted on his instructions immediately.
Tang Muxin listened as she trembled with fear. "Hong Dali! There has to be a limit to squandering. Why do you need so many dogs?!"
"I can bring the lackeys out to walk dogs, how awesome is that!" Hong Dali said matter-of-factly. "I could walk a husky today, a Tibetan mastiff tomorrow, a Chow Chow the day after…"
Tang Muxin was completely defeated. She shut her mouth and ignored Hong Dali.
It was almost midnight, but there were materialistic girls everywhere staying close to the silly rich prodigals.
Some looked innocent on the outside but were wild inside, some were reckless and did not worry about trivial matters, some were ice queens. All different types of women, ranging from A to G cup sizes. What more could a man ask for?
As the crowd in the nightclub multiplied, the hall on level one was filled to the brim. It was almost at twice its capacity. Where there were customers, there would be business. Everyone was gossiping about the superprodigal Hong Dali. It was the most popular topic all around. As the crowd continued to fill up the hall, others started to head upstairs to the restaurants and hotel.
Although Hong Dali had promised to cover the charges for the nightclub, that did not include the restaurants and hotel.
The squandered amount had shot through the roof in Hong Dali's mind. Not long after, one of the lackeys brought the overall spendings to him for the night. Hong Dali took a glance and got the shock of his life. "Heck, I invited people to the nightclub for free, yet you're telling me that I made more than 20,000 yuan tonight?!"
"Yes… Yes, that's right…" The lackey who had delivered the news had beads of sweat on his forehead. This young master was certainly hard to predict. Anyone else would have been overjoyed to learn about the earnings, but this one instead said it was bad.
Hong Dali rubbed his chin. "Seems like I'm not squandering right. Um, something must have gone wrong somewhere, it doesn't feel right. What should I do?"
As he was thinking, the driver returned holding a phone. "Dali Master, Old Master and Old Madam are urging you to return home. You still have school tomorrow."
S… school? Hong Dali frowned. He nodded his head but was nervously sweating. Heck, school! I can learn information about other stuff somewhere, but who am I going to ask about which grade and school I'm in?
This was bad. He could find an excuse for other stuff, but even a fool would sense something was wrong if he forgot which class he was in overnight. No, no, he had to think of an idea!