Chapter 15 – Rent a restaurant
The next day, early morning 3am, Zhang Han woke up from the sound of knockings on a door.
“What is going on?”
Zhang Han muddle-headedly opened his eyes and slightly frowned. Getting up and opened the door, the person standing outside the door was one of the people from the first batch of people who came to view the house yesterday, Manager Ma.
With dark circles under his eyes, Manager Ma said with an apologetic tone, “Mr Zhang, I am truly sorry for disturbing your rest. Can…can I invite you to go sauna, and also have a chat together?”
“Not going.” Zhang Han still did not have enough sleep and was intending to close the door and go back to continue to sleep.
A trace of anxiousness flashed across Manager Ma’s face, “Mr Zhang, please give me a chance, I have stayed outside your house for a whole night already. If you go back to sleep now, there will definitely still be other people coming here and bother you. So, why not you go to the sauna with me? I will guarantee that you will be able to have the best rest.”
Hearing that, Zhang Han’s brows raised.
It was said that the early bird gets the worm. This Manager Ma was not only early, but super early.
“You wait awhile for me.”
Zhang Han stroke his face with his hand and said. Without even closing the door, Zhang Han immediately went back to his room to change his clothing. Upon seeing that, Manager Ma let out a sigh of relief.
Five minutes later, together with Manager Ma, Zhang Han headed towards a high grade sauna in the vicinity.
Right after they left and not even had 20 minutes passed, another manager knocked onto Zhang Han’s house door. However, the manager after Manager Ma was destined to not be able to meet Zhang Han.
At the sauna, Zhang Han slept all the way until morning 8am. After waking up, he was invited by Manager Ma to eat breakfast, followed by being brought to the head office. Arriving at the head office, Zhang Han then followed with a region manager to go to the transaction area to sign the contract.
At noon 12pm, all of the procedures were handled, and within Zhang Han’s bank card, there was also 18million rmb more in it.
After getting the money, Zhang Han straightforwardly called Liu Meng’s phone and asked for Liu Meng’s bank account number, then transferred 2million rmb over to Liu Meng’s bank account.
After finishing with all those, it was already afternoon.
(I checked online and it seems that, 中午 – noon, is either 11am-1pm or 12pm-2pm. 上午 – afternoon, is 1/2pm-5pm.)
Right now, there was 17.6million rmb in Zhang Han’s bank account. Subtracting out 10million rmb for the cost of renting the mountain, he was still left with 7.6million rmb.
Although 7.6million rmb seems to be a lot, the amount things that could be done with it was not a lot.
At 1 o’clock, Zhang Han drove the jeep and drove a few rounds around the area at Crescent Mountain.
Since there was already progress with renting the mountain, the next thing Zhang Han needed to do was to find a place to stay at temporarily.
Although there was a pond of spiritual water at Crescent Mountain, the use of the spiritual water was only to enable the soil in Crescent Mountain to transform into spiritual soil. Also, not all of the spiritual water was able to transform into pure yang water.
Therefore, the transforming of Crescent Mountain still had to go according to Zhang Han’s original plan. First, finish with the areas in the back of the mountain, then slowly finish with the residential area and areas at the front of the mountain.
“I still have to rent a house.”
Zhang Han muttered to himself, then immediately took out his phone and dialed Manager Ma’s phone number.
Hearing that Zhang Han wants to rent a house, Manager Ma was very enthusiastic. It makes sense that Manager Ma was enthusiastic. After all, Manager Ma got a reward of 1million rmb from Zhang Han’s house deal.
Manager Ma requested Zhang Han to come to his company to take a look at the photos of the different houses and furthermore promised that he would not take any commission fee when Zhang Han rented a house through him, indirectly conveying his gratitude towards Zhang Han.
Zhang Han did not say anything and straightforwardly drove towards Manager Ma’s company. The company was situated at a small retail store at a back street. Within the small retail store, there was a total of 13 employees.
Manager Ma stood right at the doorway. Upon seeing Zhang Han arrive, he enthusiastically welcomed him,
“Welcome Mr Zhang. Come, have a sit inside.”
Entering into the store and sat on the sofa, Manager Ma took out a carton of peppermint flavor cigarette which cost 20 rmb. After passing over a cigarette to Zhang Han and also helped Zhang Han lighted up the cigarette, Manager Ma lighted up a cigarette for himself, then asked with a smile,
“Not sure what kind of house Mr Zhang want to rent?”
“A house in Crescent Gulf. One that is slightly better than normal too.”
“Slightly better than normal?” Manager Ma muttered to himself, then said, “For better ones, there are villas, where the rents are about 4million rmb every year. There are also scenery viewing houses, where 1.5million rmb would be needed every year for those that are 100squares meter and above. As for the other small size houses and apartment houses, I feel that Mr Zhang would not be interested.”
“Hmmm, are there any photos?” Zhang Han asked.
“Yes, there are photos. Follow me Mr Zhang.”
Hearing that, Manager Ma stood up and brought Zhang Han to the front of his computer table. At the computer table, Manager Ma began searching for houses that were around Crescent Gulf.
Manager Ma showed Zhang Han all the villas and family houses at Crescent Gulf to Zhang Han.
There were all sorts of interior decoration. Some were western style oriented, some were modern style oriented, but there were only a few which caught Zhang Han’s attention.
“Where is this villa located at?” Zhang Han pointed to a villa.
This villa was the only villa which caught Zhang Han’s attention. The renovation was not exaggeratingly luxurious, and the house had a mix color of white, blue and grass green, giving the house a kind of fresh feeling that one was close to nature.
However, the rent of the villa was somewhat expensive, where the cost of the rent was 4.5million rmb each year.
“This villa is located at Yongxing Road. Yongxing Road is located at the middle of the zone between Crescent Gulf and Bamboo District.” Manager Ma said.
“It is somewhat far……” Zhang Han’s brows raised.
The ideal location of the house in Zhang Han’s mind was one that was near to Crescent Mountain. That way, he can go to the mountain whenever he wants. If the house he was staying at was far away from Crescent Mountain, it would be quite troublesome for him.
“Far?” Manager Ma went into a daze for a while, then asked, “Where do Mr Zhang want to rent a house at?”
“A house that is near Crescent Mountain.” Zhang Han replied.
“Near Crescent Mountain……” Manager Ma began pondering and searched for houses near Crescent Mountain. However, there was no suitable house that was located near Crescent Mountain.
“Is Mr Zhang living alone?” Unable to find any house that Zhang Han was truly satisfied with, Manager Ma was somewhat discouraged. While thinking about a solution, he began chatting with Zhang Han.
“I am living with my daughter. The main thing for getting a house is to cook delicious food for her.” Meng Meng’s adorable little figure floated by Zhang Han’s mind and a trace of smile was hang on the corner of his mouth.
“Cook food?” Manager Ma’s eyes lighted up as he said, “I think that there is a solution which is possible. With Mr Zhang’s unique taste (picky) towards decoration, I think that you can rent a small retail house. For small retail houses, you can renovate it however you want, while residence houses are quite troublesome if you want to renovate it.”
“Retail house?” Zhang Han’s eyes squinted.
Open a restaurant?
That is possible. Meng Meng is currently only 3 years old and the amount of food she can eat is quite little. The extra food that are made can be used to sell and most importantly, the renovation can be casually renovated to my taste.
The renovation part was something which Zhang Han was more concerned of. Pursuing quality lifestyle, Zhang Han would never mistreat himself. Furthermore, there was now Meng Meng! That was the little princess who should even more not be mistreated!
Thus, Zhang Han nodded his head and said,
“That is okay too. Are there any photos to look at?”
“There are.” Manager Ma laughed, then searched for the retail houses that were near Crescent Mountain.
At the start, the retail houses that were searched up were all small retail houses that were 60-70 square meter big. In Manager Ma’s view, those retail houses were more than enough for Zhang Han to live in with his daughter.
But Zhang Han kept on shaking his head, “Too small, take a look at the bigger ones instead.”
Thus, Manager Ma began searching for bigger retail houses. Finally, after looking at more than 20+ retail houses, Manager Ma saw Zhang Han nodded his head at one of the retail house.
“This house is a 2 floor retail house. The first floor is the restaurant and the second floor is the household. This retail house is managed by an elderly husband and wife. The location of this retail house is the nearest to Crescent Mountain. I went to the retail house two times during the past few days and the business there is quite good. If it were not for the elderly husband and wife having to take care of their grandson, they would also not rent out the retail house.”
While introducing the retail house, Manager Ma opened the photos of the retail house,
“The first floor is quite simple. It is 130 square meter big and there is a breakfast counter and some tables and chairs. The second floor is a family orientated household. The renovation is quite decent and the structure is 2 room and 1 living room. The house faces against the south and the daylighting is good. To sum it all up, the renovation space of the house is very big and I feel that it is very suitable for you.”
Zhang Han looked at the few photos and finally nodded his head in satisfaction,
“This house is okay.”
“The total cost is 4million rmb, which covers for 1year and 3month rent. Is Mr Zhang satisfied with the price of this house? If not, I feel that it is still possible to negotiate with them and lower the price.” Manager Ma said with a smile.
“There is no need to negotiate.”
“Alright. Then, let me bring you over to take a look at the house.”
Manager Ma smiled, as he stood up and brought Zhang Han to his car. The car that he drove was a black color Honda Accord.
In Xiangjiang, those who have a car normally have quite a pretty decent life. The cars in Xiangjiang were not expensive and were many times cheaper compared to cars in mainland China. After all, there was less tax in Xiangjiang.
With Manager Ma taking the lead, the two of them came to Dawn Road to take a look at the restaurant.
On the road, Manager Ma had already contacted the elderly wife and husband. Thus, when they entered the house, they immediately saw a married couple who were in their fifties sitting at the living room chatting.
Upon seeing people, the married couple greeted them, then brought Zhang Han to take a look around the house. The structure on the second floor was quite decent. There were not many furniture as most of them had already been moved away. On a whole, the second floor was very clean. On the first floor, most of the furniture and goods were still there.
With the size of 130 meter square, the living room was originally very big. But after using two wall to make a kitchen, the living room appeared to be not that big.
The structure was not bad and the renovation space was very big, thus Zhang Han immediately rented the retail house. Manager Ma gave both sides a contract to sign on. After both sides signed the contract, starting from now, the restaurant belonged to Zhang Han for a year and three months.
After the elderly married couple left, Manager Ma and Zhang Han sat on the chairs at the living room.
“Let me transfer you the commission fee.”
Zhang Han opened his mouth and said, but Manager Ma shook his head and rejected,
“Mr Zhang, I am very grateful that you chose me to deal your house. Therefore, there is no need to bring up about the commission fee.”
Hearing that, Zhang Han smiled and shook his head, then asked, “Do you know any renovation company?”
“Yeah. Do you need me to contact them for you now?” Manager Ma replied.
“Yeah.”
Manager Ma made a phone call to a renovation company right in front of Zhang Han, and in less than 30minutes, two male who wore western suit knocked and walked into the house.
One of the males was a square face middle age man, and the other was a 25 years old youth who wore glasses.
“Hello Mr Zhang, I am Blue Road Renovation Company’s manager, Zhao Kai.” The middle age man greeted with a smile.
Taking a look at the house, Zhao Kai felt that the decoration of the house should be a few years old and had been maintained pretty well, thus thought to himself that Zhang Han was probably wanting to either revamp or make a small change to the house. Thus, Zhao Kai opened his mouth and asked,
“Mr Zhang, how do you want to renovate the house? Do you want to revamp the house or remodel a part of the house that you are not fond of?”
However, Zhang Han’s answer made him somewhat dumbfounded.
“Tear down the house and renovate from scratch.”
“Eh?”
Apart from Manager Ma, both Zhao Kai and the youth was dazed.
“For the first floor, tear down everything and renovate it from scratch. For the second floor, renovate it with its original structure.” Zhang Han added on.
Big deal!
Zhao Kai’s eyes lighted up and asked hurriedly,
“Do Mr Zhang want the full package or half package?”
Full package means that the renovation company cover full work and full materials. The price of full package was also much higher compared to half package. As for the half package, it means that the company cover light engineering and supplementary materials. The main materials like floor tiles, wall bricks, and boards and so on other main materials would have to be provided by Zhang Han himself.