Episode 34: Please Eat

  Haitian Hotel is a five-star hotel in Longtan City that everyone knows. In terms of catering, it can be said to be the leader of the entire Longtan City, occupying more than half of the catering market. Those who can eat here are basically either rich or noble, and over time, it has become a symbol of status.

  After getting out of the taxi, Li Yan took a glance at the front door and couldn't help but feel shocked. The parking spaces were basically all luxury cars. Here, Mercedes-Benz could only be considered mediocre, and BMWs didn't even make the cut. This made Li Yan secretly smile wryly to himself, it seemed that there were still quite a few rich people in their country!

  If it were the previous one, I estimate that there would be absolutely no chance of entering such a high-end five-star hotel, not to mention the money issue, just psychologically it's an obstacle, and going in would be embarrassing! However, now that Li Yan has changed, it's completely different, not to mention his assets are not small, he is a powerful master of the Immortal level, a god-like figure, wanting to make some money, isn't it a super easy thing?

  As the saying goes, money makes the hero brave. Although this sentence is rough and unrefined, it also has some truth to it. With a faint smile at the corner of his mouth, Li Yan held his precious tea flower and directly walked into the hotel lobby.

  "Welcome." Two beautiful hostesses in red cheongsam dresses smiled and greeted him, without showing any disdain for Li Yan's outfit or the potted plant he was holding. After all, there were many rich young men who liked to pretend to be poor these days, and if they accidentally bumped into a real iron plate, it would be truly heartbreaking.

  The four welcoming ladies on both sides of the gate were very beautiful, and they also had a hint of innocence, which made Li Yan sigh in admiration. Such beautiful women were actually serving as greeters here.

  With a slight smile at the welcoming beauties, Li Yan immediately walked into the hall, and as he looked around, almost all the seats were occupied by guests, each one dressed neatly and elegantly, with an air of success on almost every face.

  Since it's a treat, it's got to be formal, so they went straight to the service desk and booked a private room on the second floor. As soon as the waitress entered, Li Yan carefully placed the eighteen scholars on the table. Before long, a loud and clear laughter came from beside his ear: "Haha... Lin Shao, today Mr. Li Yan is treating us, we must eat to our heart's content and try to earn back the hundreds of millions I spent on buying flowers."

  Upon hearing this, Li Yan couldn't help but feel a little amused. Since the guests had arrived, he couldn't just stand there foolishly waiting, so he quickly got up to greet them. The arrivals were Fang Yuan, Lin Xincheng, and Liu Wei - three people. However, it was clear that Liu Wei's status was far inferior to that of the first two, and the only reason he had been given the opportunity to come was because Duan Yue had spoken on his behalf.

  Four people entered the private room, and Fang Yuan immediately fixed his gaze on the tea flowers on the table, his eyes shining brightly: "Mr. Li, do you know what this is?"

  Li Yan couldn't help but chuckle at the sight, but didn't immediately lift the lid. Instead, he smiled and asked, "Does Boss Fang know what kind of flower this is and what its quality is?"

  "Mr. Li Yan, I say you're not being honest with me, actually teasing me." Fang Yuan thought for a moment and said: "Since Mr. previously sold me so many precious tea flowers, this must also be a pot of precious tea flowers. And looking at Mr. Li Yan's solemn appearance, could it be that it's even more precious than the thirteen Taibao he sold to me yesterday? Could it be the legendary............"

  "Haha... Boss Fang is really something, he guessed it in an instant." Li Yan stopped playing dumb and immediately lifted the blanket, plopping himself down on the chair.

  "Ah——" Lin Xincheng, an outsider, was somewhat better off, but Fang Yuan and Liu Wei couldn't help but take a deep breath in reverse, and it took them half a day to come back to their senses.

  It is said that when Li Shimin was the King of Tang, he opened a literary institute in the west of the palace city and gathered scholars from all over the world. He appointed Du Ruhui, Fang Xuanling, Lu Deming and others, eighteen people in total, to be divided into three groups, with six people on duty every day to discuss literature and deliberate on ancient and modern times, hence they were called the Eighteen Scholars.

  Among the tea flowers, the most famous and valuable is this 'Eighteen Scholars'. It is a rare treasure in the world. On one plant, eighteen flowers bloom together, each with a different color, red ones are completely red, purple ones are completely purple, without any mixture. Moreover, the shapes of the eighteen flowers are all different, each with its own unique charm, blooming at the same time and wilting at the same time.

  This was originally a legend in the tea flower world, after all, who has ever seen the real eighteen scholars in today's world? But now, the legendary 'eighteen scholars' actually appeared in front of them, which made Fang Yuan and Liu Wei both shocked and unable to react for a while.

  After a while, when the two came to their senses and talked about the preciousness of the eighteen scholars, Lin Xincheng suddenly woke up and immediately gave Li Yan a thumbs up, saying: "Mr. Li Yan, you really have it! I didn't expect that you could even cultivate this legendary tea flower, it's amazing!"

  "Lin Shao has been awarded." Li Yan smiled bitterly and immediately asked Fang Yuan, "Boss Fang, if I want to sell it, how much do you think it's worth?"

  "What? You want to sell it?" Fang Yuan was shocked. In his opinion, such a divine object should naturally be kept for himself, and selling it would be a real waste.

  Li Yan nodded and said, "No way, I'm embarrassed to be short of money, so I can only bear the pain and give up."

  Fang Yuan was silent for a moment, then said: "To be honest, if this pot of flowers were to be auctioned off at an international auction, the transaction price would definitely not be less than 500 million. If it were sold to me, I could only offer up to 200 million, and anything more would be beyond my means."

  "Five hundred million? Two hundred million?" After a moment of hesitation, Li Yan's eyebrows furrowed slightly, and he immediately said: "Forget it, two hundred million is fine. If Boss Fang wants it, I'll give it to him."

  "Is Mr. Li Yan's words really true?" Fang Yuan was momentarily stunned and found it hard to believe.

  "Am I supposed to be lying?" Li Yan suppressed the excitement and greed in his heart, somewhat helplessly speaking out. It wasn't that he didn't want to put the flower up for international auction, it's just that firstly, he had no connections, and secondly, he didn't want to look for trouble, so it was better to get rid of the flower quickly. Anyway, he didn't only have one eighteen-scholar orchid in his hands.

  "Great, great, great!" Fang Yuan was excited and immediately called out three "greats", then hurriedly said: "Or else, let's not eat first, let's transfer the money first?"

  It seems that this guy has gone crazy for the sake of these eighteen scholars in the legend, and he can't even eat a meal.

  Li Yan and Lin Xincheng couldn't help but let out a bitter laugh. To be honest, they found it hard to accept the habits of people who loved flowers. It was already almost 12 o'clock at noon, time for lunch, yet instead of eating, they were going to transfer money. Wasn't this just being crazy?!

  Liu Wei saw this and hastily smiled: "No problem, I brought a computer, it's just downstairs in the car, running a trip is fine, no need to go to the bank."

  "Haha, still Xiao Liu's efficiency is effective, the year-end bonus will be doubled for you." Fang Yuan was very generous and waved his hand, apparently, getting eighteen scholars made him very pleased.

  Although, in the past few days, buying flowers with Li Yan has cost several hundred million, but the profit margin is also equally huge. Giving Liu Wei a year-end bonus of double pay is only a matter of one or two million, compared to that huge profit, it can be said to be negligible.

  Soon, Liu Wei went to the laptop and found that all the transactions were in plain code. Although the amount of money was huge, the speed was also very fast. Within twenty or thirty minutes, Li Yan discovered that his account had an additional 250 million yuan.

  Isn't it 200 million? How did it increase by 50 million? Li Yan was taken aback, and hastily spoke up: "Boss Fang, this..."

  "Hehe... " Fang Pangzi waved his hand nonchalantly and said, "It's just 50 million, isn't it? Compared to your 18th scholar, I've still made a profit. So, Mr., be generous and let Old Fang be magnanimous for once."

  "Wow, Fang Baozi, since you're so generous, then pay the house payment!" Lin Shao, who was standing aside, couldn't help but let out a loud shout.

  Fang Yuan pushed him away, saying: "Look at you, Lin Shao, you're being petty, aren't you? It's just a seaside villa, do you need to be so stingy?"

  Lin Xincheng shook his head and said to Li Yan, "Mr. Li, this fat man has already taken advantage of you by buying your eighteen scholars for 2.5 billion, so don't be polite with him."

  "That... Brother Fang, I'll just take this 50 million then." Seeing how casually Fang Yuan and Lin Xincheng spoke, Li Yan couldn't help but understand that these people were truly wealthy. Transactions of tens or hundreds of millions were probably everyday occurrences for them, so a mere one or two billion wouldn't even be a concern.

  Lin Xincheng smiled and said, "Mr. Li is doing a good job, it's better to call you Young Master Li, it's easier to say, yes, Young Master Li should be like this, this fat man has always been stingy, today he finally agreed to be generous for once, of course, he won't let it go to waste."

  As the deal was concluded, Li Yan shouted for someone to bring up the dishes. This meal was naturally on him, and no one fought over it. After all, they had just made hundreds of millions, and wouldn't be so poor that they couldn't even afford a meal.

  During the meal, the four of them were chatting and laughing, and this meal was quite harmonious. The only thing was that the price was too expensive, with a single meal costing tens of thousands, but Li Yan didn't mind.

  After dinner, just out of the hotel, Fang Baozi's newly acquired 18 scholars didn't stay long and directly took Liu Wei away. Li Yan was also about to leave, but Lin Xincheng grabbed his arm with a mysterious smile: "Come on, Mr. Li, today I'll take you to a fun place."

  As they spoke, Lin Xincheng didn't wait for Li Yan's objection and pulled him into his car, a blue Land Rover Defender, and before Li Yan could react, he started the engine and sped away...