"Misunderstanding what? I didn't say your relationship was abnormal!" Li Sisi said with a smile.

The assistant, Zhou Mengdie, smiled and chose not to say anything more.

"Alright, I'm Zhou Mengdie's boss, and she's my personal assistant," Yi Anguo stated. "She knows me well, which is a requirement for the job. Is there anything wrong with that? As for how well I understand Zhou Mengdie, do you think I would have made her my personal assistant if I didn't know her capabilities?"

"However, my understanding is limited to her professional abilities. I don't know about anything unrelated to work, because there's simply no need!" he continued. "Zhou Mengdie is right. Our relationship is strictly that of a boss and a subordinate, an employer and an employee. There's nothing else going on, so don't get the wrong idea. It's no big deal for me, but it's different for Zhou Mengdie. She's a young woman, and it wouldn't be good for her if rumors started spreading!"

Feeling a bit embarrassed, Li Sisi said, "I was just joking with Meng Die, teasing her a bit. I didn't mean anything else, and I certainly didn't suspect your relationship was inappropriate!"

At that moment, the owner, Mr. Guo, returned from his phone call. "I've discussed it with my brother," he said. "If Mr. Yi is serious about buying, the absolute lowest we can go for these two semi-detached villas is 80,000,000 yuan. Any lower than that, and we'd rather let them go to a foreclosure auction."

Yi Anguo nodded. "Does that price include everything in the villas, like the furniture and appliances?"

"Of course, everything is included. We promise not to take a single thing." Since they had never moved in, there were naturally no personal belongings to take.

"Alright. Since you've made a sincere offer, you can't expect me not to bargain at all," Yi Anguo said after a moment's thought. "You're sincere about selling, and I'm sincere about buying. How about this: 36,000,000 yuan for each villa, for a total of 72,000,000 yuan. I'll pay in one lump sum, no bank mortgage. What do you say? My offer is quite sincere, and I haven't lowballed you too much, have I?"

Mr. Guo only hesitated for a second before nodding decisively. "Alright! It's a deal."

In reality, there was no such thing as a "lowest price," only the lowest they were willing to accept. The Guo brothers had privately agreed on a minimum of 70,000,000 yuan, and their asking price of 80,000,000 was set with the expectation of being haggled down. He was quite surprised that Yi Anguo only negotiated down to 72,000,000; he had braced himself for an offer as low as 60,000,000! After all, Yi Anguo had pointed out that the houses were originally only a little over 30,000,000 each, and even that was high in the current market. Furthermore, Yi Anguo wasn't factoring in the renovation costs, even mentioning he would redecorate after buying. With an offer of 72,000,000 on the table, there was nothing to hesitate about.

Once the deal was settled, Mr. Guo's brother naturally had to come over to sign the contract, as Mr. Guo couldn't sign on his behalf. After the papers were signed and the deposit was paid, the Guo brothers were reminded of their unsold stockpile of Vietnamese rosewood. Even with the houses sold, they wouldn't get much money back from the proceeds, and their debt crisis remained unresolved.

"Mr. Yi, are you really interested in our Vietnamese rosewood?" Mr. Guo's brother asked.

"Of course," Yi Anguo replied. "I'm interested in any business, as long as the price is right."

"The Vietnamese rosewood we have is all top-quality," the brother added. "It's mostly large pieces and planks, with very few small cuts."

"That's exactly what I'm looking for—top-quality large pieces and planks. I have no interest in inferior small cuts," Yi Anguo said.

"That's great, of course," the brother said with an awkward smile. "But as you know in this business, the price for large pieces and planks is completely different."

"I know that. But you and I both know the current market price," Yi Anguo nodded. "Besides, if I want to buy, you aren't the only ones with stock. Others must have some on hand as well, right?"

"You say your wood is better than the rest, and I have no problem with that. I can pay a slightly higher price, since better goods naturally cost more. That's perfectly normal."

"But first, I need to see the goods. Second, the price can't be outrageous. You can't come in expecting to make a profit or even just break even."

"If that's your stance, there's nothing to discuss. Business always involves risk. You can't operate under the assumption that you can only make profits and never take a loss."

"Ultimately, I can only offer slightly above the market price. Anything significantly higher is impossible."

"If you want to sell, we can go look at the wood and then talk price. If you don't, then there's nothing more I can do."

After arriving in Shenzhen and enjoying themselves for a few days, Yi Anguo's older sister and brother-in-law wanted to find work. Yi Anguo suggested they just stay home to help manage the villa and look after the children. They wouldn't have to do much, as he had already hired maids; their job would be to simply manage the household staff.

His sister was fine with her brother's arrangement, but her husband had other ideas. He wanted to do something substantial. The brother-in-law was educated, a high school graduate from the late '70s or early '80s. He had even served as the village accountant and was quite skilled with numbers. However, working as an accountant in a modern company wasn't feasible. He didn't know how to use a computer, nor did he understand contemporary corporate accounting practices.

So, Yi Anguo suggested he enroll in an adult accounting and auditing training course.

"I'm almost fifty years old, with one foot in the grave, and you want me to go back to school?" his brother-in-law said with a bitter smile.

"You're never too old to learn. What's so shameful about that?" Yi Anguo chuckled. "People have to adapt to their environment; the environment won't adapt to you. If you don't want to take the training course, then what do you want to do? You don't expect me to arrange a job for you as a gatekeeper for the community, do you?"

"A gatekeeper? That actually sounds doable, and it's not tiring!" his brother-in-law laughed.

"Are you serious?" Yi Anguo shot back. "If I let you guard the gate, what would people think when they find out you're my brother-in-law? They'd say that I'm so rich I can't even take care of my own family, making you work as a doorman. You might as well just stay at home, and I'll give you money directly. But you don't want to sit around idle at the villa, either!"

"Alright, alright! I'll give the accounting and auditing course a try," his brother-in-law said, a headache already forming. "But I don't know the first thing about computers!"

"You don't, but Fu Huanhuan does! And Fu Shanshan does! Can't you just let them teach you?" Yi Anguo said. "Don't tell me you're embarrassed to have your own daughters teach you?"

That was exactly what he was thinking. He had always been the one to teach his children; when did the tables turn? His main worry was what would happen if he just couldn't grasp it. What if he tried to learn but never got the hang of computers? Wouldn't he become a laughingstock to his own daughters? What if one of them grew impatient and snapped, "How can you be so dense!" The mere thought of that scene made him cringe.

"What's so embarrassing about your own daughter teaching you?" his sister chimed in from the side. "She'll be far more patient with you than any stranger would. You're not built for manual labor. Besides accounting and finance, what other jobs are really suitable for you?"

In the end, the brother-in-law could only nod helplessly. He had no choice but to agree.

When Fu Huanhuan heard she would be teaching her father how to use a computer, she was quite interested. She had free time after school anyway, so why not?

Mahogany prices had fallen, and the most direct consequence was that mahogany furniture prices also dropped. If they didn't, the furniture simply wouldn't sell. However, the high-end furniture at the An Country Mahogany Furniture Store did not get a price reduction. They held firm even as sales slowed. Only the more common types, like African Rosewood and Burmese Rosewood, saw a slight price drop, and even that wasn't by much. Yi Anguo told the factory to just focus on production; if sales were slow, they'd just stockpile the furniture since they had plenty of storage space.

Meanwhile, Yi Xiaolin was scouring the mahogany market, buying up large quantities of old Lao Red Acidwood, Huazhi wood, and Burmese Rosewood at low prices.

If not now, while prices are low, then when? Stocking up for future use is definitely more cost-effective than letting the money sit in a bank!

Yi Anguo told Yi Xiaolin that the Guo brothers had five hundred tons of Vietnamese rosewood, instructing him to sound them out and try to buy it. The price, of course, should be as low as possible.

Yi Xiaolin was shocked. "Is that true? How could they possibly have 500 tons of Vietnamese rosewood? It was incredibly expensive last year. Why didn't they sell it then?"

"At the time, the two brothers were busy buying it up in Vietnam," Yi Anguo explained with a smile. "By the time they were ready to come back to the country and sell, the price had already started to fall. At first, they were reluctant to sell at a loss. Then the price dropped even more, and they were still reluctant. The longer they held on, the deeper the hole they dug for themselves, and it's dragged on until now."

"The market price for Vietnamese rosewood really has plummeted," Yi Xiaolin noted. "Aren't we moving in a bit early? If we wait a few more months, the price could drop a lot more."

"If we wait a few months, the price will definitely drop further, by a lot," Yi Anguo said with certainty. "It'll probably fall to around 250,000 yuan per ton, which could be another 100,000 to 200,000 yuan per ton cheaper than it is now! But delays breed trouble. Getting our hands on it sooner is a win in itself."

"Besides, after you buy their current stock, you can sign a new contract with them. Have them continue acquiring Vietnamese rosewood in Vietnam. We can guarantee them a profit by buying it from them at a high price. Make it exclusive to us; we can even pay them a deposit."

"In that case," Yi Xiaolin asked hesitantly, "doesn't that mean we can't push their price down too hard right now?"

"Just drag it out with them for a couple of months," Yi Anguo strategized. "Tell them you're only willing to trade at the current market price and have no intention of overpaying for their stock. I suspect they won't be willing to sell at market price. If they were, they would have sold it long ago."

"But what if they change their minds and agree to sell to us at market price?" Yi Xiaolin asked. "We can't just refuse to buy it then, can we?"

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