Chapter 195 Touching the head
Chapter 195: A Little Bit
On Jangchung-dong 2-ga, Jung-gu, An Ru-song's Mercedes-Benz merged into the traffic and moved forward slowly.
Amid the Korean houses on both sides of the road, the square dark brown building is particularly eye-catching. On the wall on one side of the roof, the neon words "The shilla" are extremely clear under the cover of night.
It was exactly six o'clock in the evening and the traffic in the area was extremely congested. An Rushong drove forward, stopping and starting, and it took him nearly forty minutes to finally drive the car to the main entrance of the hotel.
After parking the car in a temporary parking space, An Rushong pushed the door and got out of the car. He threw the car keys directly to the parking attendant and gave him a tip before quickly walking into the hotel lobby.
After walking through the magnificent lobby and rushing to the elevator, An Rushong looked at his watch again while waiting for the elevator to come down. It was already half past six.
"Ding!"
With a slight sound, the elevator marked "4" slowly opened, and two young people, a man and a woman, walked out of the elevator and walked past An Rushong, talking and laughing.
Just as he was about to step into the elevator, someone patted his shoulder from behind and greeted him, "An!"
Just by hearing the other person's voice, An Rusong knew who it was. He turned around with a smile and asked, "Mike, why are you behind me?"
The person behind him was Mike. This American was wearing a dark blue suit, and there was a patch of dust on his left shoulder from somewhere.
After An Rusong asked, he didn't wait for the other party to answer, but reached out to help him brush off the dust, and then asked: "How did this happen? Where did so much dust get on it?"
"I came from Jongno District and encountered a car accident on the way." Mike turned his head to look at the shoulder. After making sure there was no dust, he raised his hands to An Rusong and said, "A car was knocked over on the road, and I went to help, so I was delayed for a while."
"Oh?" An Rushong then noticed that the other person's hands were also covered with dust and oil.
"Are you okay?" He reached into his pocket and tried to take out the handkerchief. But when he reached into his pocket, he found nothing. Then he remembered that he had given his handkerchief to Jin Chengxun.
"It's okay, I'm fine," Mike said as he gestured for him to walk away, "The people in the car are fine too, they're lucky."
After spending such a long time with Mike, An Rushong had to admit that there were indeed good people among Americans. At least Mike was a good person. He was sincere to others and was quite kind.
To be honest, it was fortunate that he was an American, and an American with a prominent background. Otherwise, with his personality, he would not have been able to survive in Seoul's upper class society and would have been cheated by others early on.
However, although An Rushong himself is not a good person, he still feels quite happy when getting along with people like Mike, even though he also has the idea of taking advantage of others in his heart.
"By the way, Mr. Luo Quanyi, do you and Macaulay know him?" After entering the elevator, An Rushong first pressed the button for the 23rd floor, and then asked.
"Yes, I have known Luo for a long time," Mike said with a smile, "Luo is a genius, and his talent in the business field is enviable. Back then, there was a real estate company called PropertyPulse in Boston that was on the verge of bankruptcy. Luo took a sum of money to acquire the company, and in just four months, he turned it around."
"Four months, nearly four million dollars," he said, holding up four fingers. "This was his first acquisition. Four months was the time it took to operate, and four million was his profit from the acquisition. In the past ten years or so, he has done similar operations countless times. Even on Wall Street, he is very famous."
"However, a few years ago, he moved all his business to Canada," Mike said, spreading his hands. "I once heard Macaulay mention that he seemed to have invested in shipping-related industries in Canada. I'm not sure about the details."
An Rushong nodded. He understood. This Luo Quanyi should be a Korean-American, maybe even of Korean descent. As for his background, he had never heard of any large chaebol with the surname Luo in South Korea.
As the two were talking, the elevator arrived at the 23rd floor, which is also the top floor of the Shilla Hotel.
Nowadays, the president of Shilla Hotel is not the eldest princess of Samsung, she is only the general manager, but in fact, the decision-making power of the entire hotel has completely fallen into her hands, and the president is just a decoration.
It was under the leadership of this eldest princess that the hotel's performance expanded rapidly in the past two years. Several well-known restaurants on the 23rd floor were also introduced at this time, including the later Michelin three-star restaurant "Luo Yan".
It was An Rusong's first time to dine at this place, but it was obviously not Mike's first time. The two of them got out of the elevator and were led by the latter. They soon found Macaulay who had already taken a seat. Opposite Macaulay sat a tall and thin middle-aged man. After a brief greeting, An Rusong confirmed the other party's identity. The middle-aged man was the owner of the villa courtyard he had taken a fancy to, Luo Quanyi.
It is actually very inaccurate to say that he is a middle-aged man, because Luo Quanyi is not even 40 years old this year. He was born in 72. According to the age group, he can only be considered a young man.
However, Mr. Luo's face is obviously old. More than half of his hair is white, and there are many wrinkles on his face, especially at the corners of his eyes, which look like scars.
To be honest, if this guy didn't have a courtyard villa like that in Seoul, An Rushong would even suspect that he came from a poor family and had relied entirely on his own hard work to become the entrepreneur he is today.
After Macaulay's introduction, the four of them exchanged a few simple pleasantries before taking their seats. Macaulay was the host today, and while he was asking the students to order food, Mike chatted with Luo Quanyi. He learned from him that he had just arrived in Seoul by plane today, and he hadn't even unpacked his luggage yet, let alone jet lag.
Hearing him say that, Mike laughed and joked, asking if there was something wrong with the courtyard that made him so anxious to sell it - it could be seen that Mike had a very good relationship with him, and the two of them didn't have so many taboos when talking to each other.
"I didn't come back just to sell the house this time," Luo Quanyi said with a smile after hearing Mike's joke, "mainly because I have two business matters to deal with."
Then he looked at An Rusong and said, "Even if Rusong didn't contact me, I would have come back in the next few days. But this is just right. For so many years, the garden has been abandoned in my hands. If I can get rid of it now, I will have nothing to worry about in Seoul."
Facing the other person's gaze, An Rushong smiled and nodded.
"I didn't know the relationship between you two before." Although he looked old, Luo Quanyi had a very special temperament. He sat there, talking with a smile on his face. People around him seemed to feel that he was very kind and trustworthy. "So some things were not made clear."
"What's wrong? Is there something wrong with the courtyard?" Macaulay had just finished ordering his food and couldn't help but interrupt him when he heard him say that.
"There is definitely no problem with the courtyard," Luo Quanyi said with a smile, "but I must remind Rusong that in the coming period, Seoul, no, it should be said that the entire real estate industry in South Korea will go downhill. The value of real estate is expected to fall a lot. Therefore, if you buy such a large courtyard at this time for investment, you will definitely lose money."
"No, it's not an investment," An Rusong said with a smile, "I really like that courtyard, so I want to buy it. Well, maybe I won't live there myself for a while, but as long as my business doesn't go bankrupt, I don't plan to sell this courtyard again."
"That's fine," Luo Quanyi nodded. "Seoul is a place with such a large area. As long as there is no problem with population growth, the real estate market should not collapse in the short term."
After a pause, he asked, "So, how is Rusong going to pay for the house? Is it in cash?"
"Yes, pay in cash," An Rushong nodded. The loan he applied for through Shen Wuguo should be available within two days, and he could naturally pay the other party in cash at that time.
"If it's in cash, I can give you a discount," Luo Quanyi said without hesitation, "We can change it to a new price of 90 billion won or 900 million US dollars in the later agreement."
With a smile, he added, "I suggest you pay in Korean won."
After he said this, Macaulay and Mike both laughed. An Rushong really didn't want to laugh, but he was too embarrassed not to laugh along.
Originally, if Luo Quanyi had not said the last sentence, he could have paid the other party 90 billion won. In this way, he could have saved some money. After all, the Korean won is depreciating now.
But now that Luo Quanyi has said this, it would be too unkind for him to do so again. After all, people have already wiped out a full 6 million won for him - people may like to take advantage, but they cannot take advantage endlessly.
A courtyard worth millions of dollars might be something that ordinary people could never dream of, but for the four people present, it was nothing. Therefore, Luo Quanyi only mentioned it a few times and then put it aside. He turned to Macaulay and said, "Macauley, have you heard about the departure of the six core partners of Carlyle Group recently?"
"Are you talking about Michael and those people?" Macaulay's smile froze on his face, and then he asked.
(End of this chapter)