Reaching the age of thirty, my income randomly doubled

Chen Pingsheng took Tang Jing to visit the apartment complex.

Although he had been in Golden Mountain for quite some time, he had never gone to see the apartments before.

Aside from most senior employees qualifying to purchase housing, new employees and interns with less than three years of service were still required to live in the apartments first.

This naturally led to a strain on apartment resources.

Most units were shared by two people, while the slightly larger ones accommodated four people.

Altogether, there were about 15,000 apartments, and with some squeezing, quite a few vacancies could still be created.

When Tang Jing took him to visit, it happened to be work hours, so there were very few people around the apartments.

At most, there were some employees on their days off.

Even though the male and female apartments were separate, some employees who got into relationships would apply to transfer and be arranged to live closer to each other.

The company headquarters didn't regulate this, as most employees were at an age where they could legally get married after graduating from college.

The apartments were managed by the logistics department, and each building had at least 5 to 8 cleaning ladies assigned.

Besides being responsible for daily hygiene, they also took care of some aspects of the employees' daily lives.

For example, washing and hanging clothes.

The only strict rule within the apartments was no cooking, to avoid fire hazards.

After a quick glance, the living conditions and cleanliness were found to be quite good.

Tang Jing introduced, "Boss, the situation here is pretty satisfactory. Most employees are happy with it. As for the overly picky ones, well, there's no need to spoil them. Being able to work in Magic City and live in a free apartment is already a great benefit."

"You're not wrong about that, but try to be a bit more humane. Listen more to the feedback employees provide."

Most of the employees they recruited were resilient and willing to endure hardships after entering the real world.

Only a small portion of them had a so-called princess complex, though they clearly didn't have the life of a princess either.

There were indeed quite a few such people.

While Chen Pingsheng did gain a lot of insight from Tang Jing about the dissatisfaction among interns and new employees,

some issues could be rectified, while others were beyond his ability to change.

For instance, being assigned to roles or departments they didn't like—this was something employees had to adapt to themselves.

It was impossible for everyone to work in their dream department or position.

When they toured Building 15, a rather awkward moment occurred.

An intern girl ran around wearing just a pair of underwear and a white T-shirt with a rabbit print, leaving her door wide open.

Frankly, this wasn't unusual. In girls' dorms, it wasn't uncommon to see people running around half-dressed.

Chen Pingsheng decided not to bother checking further.

Tang Jing introduced him to some general situations in other departments. In her opinion, regardless of which department or branch it was, the overall state of the group was solid.

That said, minor issues did exist, such as single managers frequently asking attractive female subordinates out for meals.

If they were married, you could label it as abuse of power for personal gain; if single, they had a perfectly reasonable excuse to socialize.

Such individuals almost never faced rejection when asking someone out.

Furthermore, quite a few people formed cliques in private.

This used to happen often, but it had started to decline significantly after the new president was appointed.

Back in the president's office, Chen Pingsheng received a phone call from Song Shuiqing, saying she wanted to come over to see him.

After thinking it over, he agreed.

Song Shuiqing arrived in a red Ferrari. She parked downstairs and willingly came up by herself.

Her visit was still related to the Tang family's affairs.

Her husband, Tang Li, along with his parents, were in quite a frenzy lately.

The Tang family had approached Chen Pingsheng several times, all of which he had rejected outright.

This time, Song Shuiqing felt anxious as well. Her brother-in-law had already helped her enough, yet she still had to brace herself to ask him to help the Tang family.

She was deeply embarrassed.

Outside his door, she didn't walk in immediately. Instead, she adjusted her outfit and patted her cheeks lightly.

Then she forced a smile that didn't seem awkward.

"Brother-in-law."

"Shuiqing, you wouldn't come all the way here for nothing. Let me guess, is it another request for money from the Tang family?"

"You always see right through me."

Song Shuiqing sighed helplessly. "Tang Li's parents have asked me numerous times to borrow seventeen or eighteen billion from you. They don't even consider that I'm just an in-law, not their actual family. Why would I even have the nerve to ask you for such a sum?"

Chen Pingsheng made himself a cup of tea and handed her one as well. "The predicament the Tang family is facing is something most real estate companies will experience. In fact, it'll only get worse in the coming years. If I give them seventeen or eighteen billion now, they might start thinking about bottom-fishing next year. But the reality is that the real estate sector is truly entering a cold winter. This isn't a problem that can be solved with a dozen or so billion."

If the Tang family were willing, they could consider selling all their properties and land assets at a 30% or 40% discount.

This might be their best shot at resolving the crisis.

Unfortunately, they were still clinging to unrealistic hopes. If they sold at a 40% discount, the Tang family would have to give back all the money they'd earned over the past decade.

Ever since the auction system was formalized in 2004, land prices had only gone up year by year.

The profit margins for real estate developers had been shrinking year by year as well.

After deducting land costs, construction costs, and financing costs, the net profits for developers were already very thin.

The only way to boost those profits was through time appreciation.

In other words, waiting for housing prices to rise over time.

But once time stopped favoring them by raising prices, most real estate developers would find themselves staring into the abyss.

If the Tang family sold at a 60% or 70% discount now, there was still hope of finding a major buyer to take over.

In another year or two—perhaps not even a year—they might not even find buyers at a 40% discount. At that point, they'd truly be doomed.

Song Shuiqing had relayed his advice to the Tang family, but they had refused to listen.

They were still hoping for a government bailout or policies to rescue the market, but that was just wishful thinking.

For Chen Pingsheng, seventeen or eighteen billion wasn't a significant sum.

But there was no way he'd fork over that money.

After returning to the Tang family, Mrs. Tang glared coldly at Song Shuiqing, scolding her for being so useless and failing to get even a small amount of money.

If she had known this, she wouldn't have allowed her son to marry her in the first place.

A wild bird wanting to turn into a Phoenix had to at least bring some value.

Failing to secure funding from the Tengying Group rendered Song Shuiqing worthless in their eyes.

She completely failed to meet the standards of being a suitable match.

In fact, it could be argued that she had married above her station.

Tang Li was decent enough, but ultimately he was a complete mama's boy.

He obeyed his mother in everything, making life extremely difficult for Song Shuiqing in the Tang family.

She even called her own parents, but they told her to endure it and not to be so sensitive.

After all, she was lucky to have married into a family like the Tang family. She shouldn't cause trouble over nothing.

Marrying into a wealthy family wasn't easy—without matching resources and status, they would always look down on her deep down.

No matter what she did, the outcome wouldn't change.

...

Chen Pingsheng also discussed this situation with Song Yanxi. He could clearly sense that Song Shuiqing's life was far from satisfactory now.

If the Tang family couldn't borrow money from him, they would only increase the pressure on Song Shuiqing.

When Song Yanxi heard about it, she couldn't help but laugh—but it was the kind of laugh that carried a dark expression.

"What kind of people are these?"

"So, if you don't lend them money, they'll give you attitude, is that it?"

"Hmph! My sister isn't someone they can push around!"

After hanging up the call, Song Yanxi started scheming to give the Tang family some trouble.