Yi Anguo couldn't help but become interested in the two unfortunate brothers and wanted to meet them. Of course, what truly piqued his interest was their stockpile of rosewood; he was curious about the specific types they possessed.

These two semi-detached villas are quite nice, too. They're sumptuously decorated. The asking price is a bit high, but that's negotiable, right? In fact, it wouldn't be a loss to buy them at this price! If I were to buy an unfurnished house and then renovate it, 50,000,000 yuan definitely wouldn't be enough. Judging by the decor in the photos, the rosewood furniture and flooring must be worth a fortune.

However, the photos weren't very clear, so it was hard to discern the material—what kind of rosewood it was—making it difficult to estimate the price.

Tao Hong arranged a viewing, indicating that the buyer wished to discuss the details face-to-face with the owner. In this market, the buyer was king. After all, cash was king, and it wasn't easy to find a buyer for such an expensive luxury home. Now that someone was finally interested enough to request a face-to-face meeting, how could the owner possibly refuse? Unless he wasn't in a hurry to sell at all, he would never turn down such a request.

Yi Anguo brought Hu Jing, Li Sisi, Ding Jing, his assistant Zhou Mengdie, and Yang Hai along for the viewing. Since it was a potential future home for all of them, it was only natural to consider their opinions.

Stepping into the villa's grand hall felt like entering the lobby of a high-end, five-star hotel.

Only one of the two brothers who owned the property was present. He led Yi Anguo's group into the hall and began introducing the house's features.

"The villa faces southwest, with gardens in both the front and back, a frontage of over nine meters, and sunlight from three sides. It features a private swimming pool, a gifted semi-basement, a gifted terrace, a skylight, a double-height ceiling, and even a private elevator.

"During the renovation, we installed central air conditioning and a solar water heater that provides hot water twenty-four hours a day.

"We chose the best materials for all the renovations. Since we planned to live here ourselves, we certainly wanted the best.

"The furniture is all custom-made from Siamese Rosewood, and the floors in the rooms are also done in Siamese Rosewood. For the exterior areas, we chose top-grade marble flooring.

"The educational facilities are convenient. The community has a foreign language primary school and an affiliated kindergarten on the East Campus, both designed for high-net-worth families.

"It's a 500-meter walk to one of the top three provincial foreign language primary schools in Shenzhen. It's also a 500-meter walk to Futian Foreign Language Junior High School, which ranks in Shenzhen's top ten. One of the city's four most prestigious schools, Shenzhen Senior High School, is only 2.6 kilometers from the property.

"The transportation around Fragrant Leaf Lake No. 1 is also very convenient. It has a network of four east-west avenues, four north-south roads, and four subway lines. The four avenues are North Ring Boulevard, Qiaoxiang Road, Hongli West Road, and Shennan Avenue. The four north-south roads are Xiangyehu Road, Xiangmei Road, Nonglin Road, and Nongyuan Road. The four subway lines are Lines 2, 7, 9, and 11. You could say the transport links are excellent, reaching in all directions.

"The community environment is very quiet, set back about fifty meters from the road and separated by green belts. The density is very low, giving a prestigious and private feel, and the lobby is a nine-meter, double-height space."

Yi Anguo waved his hand. "Stop, stop, stop! If I didn't know you were the owner, I'd have thought you were a sales manager from the sales office. You've really put in the effort to sell this villa. How long did it take you to memorize all that?"

The owner rubbed his head in embarrassment and chuckled. "Alright, I'll drop the act. Please, take your time and look around on your own. We haven't had a chance to move in yet, so feel free to explore. You can go into every room; the keys are still in the doors!"

Yi Anguo did a quick tour of the upstairs and downstairs. A mansion really is a mansion! No wonder they dared to ask for over 50,000 yuan per square meter when it went on sale on June 6, 2006. Back in 2006, the price for his Blue Coast Phase Three project had just broken 10,000 yuan per square meter, which was considered relatively expensive. More ordinary properties were only going for 6,000 to 8,000 yuan per square meter.

The renovations were also impeccable: central air conditioning, a private elevator, a garden, a swimming pool, rosewood furniture, white marble, crystal chandeliers—every luxury feature you could imagine was there. In the spacious kitchen, there was an array of imported cookware and appliances, everything one could wish for.

Yi Anguo let the women continue the tour while he sat down on the living room sofa to talk with the owner, whose surname was Guo. Yi Anguo asked him directly, "Mr. Guo, how much did you actually spend renovating this villa? Give me a solid figure."

"I can't give you an exact number off the top of my head, but it was definitely over 30,000,000," the owner replied after a moment of thought.

"Over 30,000,000 for renovations and over 30,000,000 for the villa itself? So you spent more than 60,000,000 in total? If you're selling it for 50,000,000 now, doesn't that mean you're losing over 10,000,000?" Yi Anguo inquired.

"That's the truth, isn't it? But I have no choice. If I weren't in urgent need of money, why would I be willing to sell?" the owner said, nodding with a bitter smile.

"I hear you're in the rosewood furniture and timber business," Yi Anguo probed. "What kinds of rosewood do you have, and how much?"

"You know about rosewood? Are you in the business as well?" the owner asked, slightly surprised.

"You could say that," Yi Anguo nodded.

"The rosewood market has been terrible this year. I really took a hit," the owner sighed.

"That's because your investment was misplaced. If you had bought Indian Red Sandalwood, you'd be making a profit now, wouldn't you?" Yi Anguo pointed out.

"I did buy some Indian Red Sandalwood, but not much. And while its price hasn't dropped, it hasn't risen much either," the owner acknowledged.

"Over the past two years, the price of Hainan Huanghuali has gone insane, and Vietnamese Huanghuali naturally rose with the tide. After all, Hainan Huanghuali is so rare that you can't get much of it no matter how hard you try.

"So, my brother and I set our sights on Vietnamese Huanghuali. At first, it didn't disappoint; the price just kept climbing, going crazy just like everything else.

"We did make some money initially. Then we borrowed from everyone we could, mortgaged our factory, and went straight to Vietnam to buy more. But by the time we got there, the local prices had already shot up, so we had to buy at a higher cost, banking on the even higher selling price back home.

"But right after we returned to China with a large shipment bought at a high price, the financial crisis hit, and the prices plummeted.

"When the prices first started to fall, we didn't want to sell. We kept thinking it was just a temporary dip and that prices would soon rebound. If we had sold then, we could have still made a small profit. But the longer we waited, the more the prices fell, making it even less worthwhile to sell. We've dragged it out until now, and it looks like the price won't even hold at 400,000 yuan a ton for much longer."

Yi Anguo nodded. "This financial crisis won't be over so easily. The longer you wait, the lower the prices will fall. Cash is king for everyone right now, and people aren't investing so readily."

"Since you know the price will only drop further with time, why didn't you sell earlier? It's still not too late. It's better than selling when the price falls to 300,000 or even 200,000 yuan a ton, isn't it?"

"If we sell now, we'll lose too much. I still feel that once this crisis passes, the prices will definitely rise again, maybe even higher than before.

"While Vietnamese Huanghuali is much cheaper than the Hainan variety, its resources are also scarce and will be depleted in a few years. Without Hainan Huanghuali, the Vietnamese kind will become the substitute. As it becomes rarer, its price will naturally climb. I predict that in a few years, the price of Vietnamese Huanghuali will rise to one or two million yuan per ton."

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