Chapter 275 - 274: The Feeling of Taking the Money but Failing the Job

Chapter 275: Chapter 274: The Feeling of Taking the Money but Failing the Job

Soon, Zhang Kun’s company finalized their project.

Lin Feng had previously sent Zhang Kun a planning map of Cyan Mountain Town.

The central area was designated as Area C.

Lin Feng planned to assign Area C to Su Ruoxi’s Dingsheng Real Estate.

As the core of the entire plot, Area C wasn’t particularly large.

It just occupied a prime location.

The development philosophy for this area was to strive for perfection.

Zhang Kun had told Lin Feng during a video conference.

His company’s project team had chosen the project in Area A.

Compared to the small plot of Area C,

Area A was the largest planned section of the entire development,

occupying nearly one-fifth of the land.

It was designated primarily for food stalls and commercial streets.

Lin Feng wasn’t surprised at all that Zhang Kun had chosen such a massive undertaking.

Besides, in Lin Feng’s mind, only Zhang Kun’s company was capable of tackling a project as massive as Area A.

"Since the area is decided, I’ll have my people contact you to share the relevant planning concepts and architectural designs,"

Lin Feng said to Zhang Kun with a smile.

Zhang Kun was slightly stunned and asked in surprise, "You’ve already finished the designs? I thought our side would be handling the design!"

Zhang Kun’s surprise was understandable.

After all, when a real estate company took on a project, they were usually responsible for everything related to the blueprints, including the design work.

This was the first time they were only required to build according to the client’s blueprints.

Although this significantly reduced the difficulty,

it also cut down on the back-and-forth between the client and the contractor, allowing them to move directly to the construction phase.

However, Zhang Kun could also see that Lin Feng must have been planning this for a long time.

Otherwise, how could even these details have been settled already!

"We have specialists on our side who have already completed the relevant designs. I hope President Zhang’s team can start the work as soon as possible,"

Lin Feng said nonchalantly.

After ending the call with Zhang Kun,

Huizi happened to enter Lin Feng’s office.

She was holding a very thick folder.

Walking up to Lin Feng, she placed the folder on his desk.

Her tone was a bit troubled as she said:

"President Lin, I originally planned to filter these and select only the best..."

Lin Feng looked at the folder on his desk, which was a full five centimeters thick.

He picked it up casually and flipped it open to the middle.

This thick folder was full of information and proposals from real estate companies that wanted to bid on the project.

Huizi had indeed intended to do the first round of screening herself.

At the very least, she wanted to filter out the unreliable ones.

But she never expected that, with the real estate market currently in a slump,

and upon hearing that such a large project was up for bidding,

many companies would rush in one after another.

As a result, even though Huizi had already gone through one round of screening,

there were still many companies whose qualifications met the standard.

Now they were facing a situation where there were far more applicants than available positions.

There were quite a few companies participating in the bidding,

but Lin Feng didn’t need so many.

So, bringing such a thick stack of company files, Huizi was a little embarrassed,

as if it made her look like she hadn’t been working diligently.

But if she hadn’t done any screening, the folder in her hands would have been at least five centimeters thicker.

"These are indeed the ones left after my screening. It didn’t seem right to reject them all..."

Seeing the troubled look on Huizi’s face, Lin Feng frowned imperceptibly.

Although the number of companies bidding did exceed Lin Feng’s expectations,

Lin Feng wasn’t worried.

The initiative was in his hands. These people were fighting tooth and nail, but it was just for a chance to make money.

Since that was the case, he would let their capabilities and prices do the talking.

That was the principle of any bidding process.

"Go ahead and prepare for the bidding meeting. Rent a large venue."

"Since we have proposals from so many companies, it’s a good thing. It means we have more options to choose from."

Hearing Lin Feng say this, Huizi was no longer conflicted. She nodded and said:

"In that case, I’ll go and prepare. The time is tentatively set for 3 PM tomorrow."

"I was wondering if President Lin had any scheduling conflicts that need to be addressed?"

Actually, Huizi was aware of all of Lin Feng’s important appointments.

After all, she was Lin Feng’s secretarial assistant.

However, any unexpected decisions Lin Feng might make were outside the scope of what Huizi would know.

Lin Feng shook his head. "For the time being, I’ll be prioritizing real estate matters. Everything else can be postponed."

Huizi nodded. "Then it’s set for 3 PM tomorrow."

"A total of fifty-four companies are participating in the bid this time. I’m afraid it will go late into the night."

Lin Feng glanced at the company files, thought for a moment, and then instructed Huizi:

"In that case, I should be free tomorrow. Why don’t we move it up to 10 AM?"

Huizi nodded immediately. "I’ll go and notify everyone of the time change right away."

For Cyan Mountain Town right now, the most important thing was to ride the current wave of popularity and firmly establish its reputation as a tourist destination.

And once tourism took off, the relevant infrastructure had to keep pace.

The key was Lin Feng’s plot of land.

Therefore, for both Cyan Mountain Town and Lin Feng, it was imperative to develop and utilize the land as quickly as possible.

That’s why Lin Feng didn’t want to spend too much time selecting construction companies.

The sooner they started, the sooner they finished, and the sooner they could start making money.

Right now, both Cyan Mountain Town and Lin Feng were in a race against time.

...

「Meanwhile.」

After settling matters with Lin Feng, Zheng Yan didn’t get any time to relax.

A host of other matters awaited Zheng Yan and Wei Shaojie.

For example, there was Liu Bowen’s online presence to manage.

This was also Liu Bowen’s first time dealing with people like Zheng Yan and his team,

so it was inevitable that he was a bit reserved.

Because he was now shooting with a mission, the resulting work wasn’t just unfit to show Zheng Yan’s team—

he didn’t even think it was good enough for his own standards.

"Don’t be nervous. The scenery here is beautiful. Why don’t you try finding some different angles?"

The speaker was none other than Wang Hong. It was impossible for Zheng Yan and his group to personally oversee the photography,

so the person they sent was Wang Hong, whom Liu Bowen had met before.

Wang Hong didn’t actually interfere much with Liu Bowen’s creative process.

He just reviewed the final photos after they were taken.

During this period, Wang Hong had been instructed by Zheng Yan to primarily focus on Liu Bowen’s situation,

so he had paused some of his usual work to concentrate on the photography.

Liu Bowen’s platform was now a great channel for external publicity.

For the photos that were to be posted, they naturally hoped to highlight the beauty of Cyan Mountain Town to the greatest extent possible.

Unfortunately, whether it was due to anxiety or some other reason,

Liu Bowen hadn’t produced a single good piece of work all day.

He watched the sun sink in the west, failing to even capture the last rays of twilight.

The entire day’s effort had been wasted.

Liu Bowen was dejected. He looked at Wang Hong and said, "I’m truly sorry. I guess I haven’t adjusted my mindset yet."

"If it’s really not working out, you should just find another photographer."

Wang Hong immediately shook his head in disagreement. "Don’t worry, we have faith in your abilities."

"How about this: tomorrow, just go and find a place you want to be. Don’t go with such a strong sense of purpose."

"Just like when you first arrived here."

Although Wang Hong’s position wasn’t high, he saw things very clearly.

If they were to drop Liu Bowen now and hire another, perhaps more technically skilled, photographer,

the results would actually be worse.

This was because part of the reason Liu Bowen had gone viral online was that he had come here to relax and clear his head.

He had captured the soul of Cyan Mountain Town unintentionally, which was what made it blow up online.

Everyone online knew that Liu Bowen was still exploring this quiet little town.

If, at this moment, exquisite works from another photographer were to appear,

it would seem too deliberate to the netizens.

If it was labeled as "deliberate,"

it would be seen as advertising. Tainted by the scent of online promotion, Cyan Mountain Town would no longer be the peaceful, detached little town everyone loved.

Cyan Mountain Town could be promoted and marketed,

but not now.

At the very least, they had to wait until after the first wave of tourists arrived.

Zheng Yan had emphasized in a previous meeting that they must avoid having an overly strong sense of purpose in their promotions.

People online were becoming increasingly savvy; they could see through many things at a glance.

This was also why Wang Hong was willing to give Liu Bowen time to adjust.

But while Wang Hong was easygoing, Liu Bowen still felt guilty.

’I feel like I’ve taken the money but failed to do the job.’

Liu Bowen thought it over carefully. ’The reason I’m so tense right now is entirely because I’m trying too hard to do a perfect job.’

’My ambition is getting in the way, and I’ve lost my original touch.’

’The whole reason I came to Cyan Mountain Town in the first place was to relax, to escape the noise and pressure.’

’I can’t let this new contract push me right back into my old state of mind.’