Chapter 15 - Rent a restaurant

The next day, at 3 am, Zhang Han woke up to the sound of knocking on his door.

“What is going on?”

Zhang Han opened his eyes and frowned. He got up and opened the door. The person standing outside the door was one of the people from the first batch of people who came to view the house yesterday, Manager Ma.

With dark circles under his eyes, Manager Ma said with an apologetic tone, “Mr Zhang, I am truly sorry for disturbing your rest. Can…can I invite you to go sauna, and also have a chat together?”

“Not going.” Zhang Han still did not have enough sleep and was intending to close the door and go back to continue to sleep.

A trace of anxiousness flashed across Manager Ma’s face, “Mr Zhang, please give me a chance, I have stood outside your house the whole night already. If you go back to sleep now, there will still be other people coming here to bother you. So, why don’t you come to the sauna with me? I will guarantee that you will be able to have the best rest.”

Hearing that, Zhang Han’s brows raised.

It was said that the early bird gets the worm. This Manager Ma was not only early, but super early.

Zhang Han stroke his face with his hand and said, “You wait for me.”

Without even closing the door, Zhang Han immediately went back to his room to change his clothing. Upon seeing that, Manager Ma let out a sigh of relief.

Five minutes later, together with Manager Ma, Zhang Han headed towards a sauna nearby.

Not even 20 minutes after they left, another manager knocked on Zhang Han’s house door. However, he was destined not to meet Zhang Han.

At the sauna, Zhang Han slept until 8 am. After waking up, he was invited by Manager Ma to eat breakfast, followed by being taken to the head office. Arriving at the head office, Zhang Han followed a region manager to go to the transaction area to sign the contract.

At noon, all of the procedures were handled, and in Zhang Han’s bank account, there was 18 million yuan more in it.

After getting the money, Zhang Han called Liu Meng’s phone and asked for Liu Meng’s bank account number, then transferred 2 million yuan over to Liu Meng’s bank account.

It was already afternoon.

Right now, there was 17.6million yuan in Zhang Han’s bank account. Subtracting out 10million yuan for the cost of renting the mountain, he was still left with 7.6million yuan.

Although 7.6million yuan might seem like a lot, the amount things that could be done with it was not that much.

At 1 o’clock, Zhang Han took the jeep and drove a few rounds around the area in Crescent Mountain.

Since there was already progress with renting the mountain, Zhang Han needed to find a place to stay at temporarily.

Although there was a pond of spiritual water at Crescent Mountain, the use of the spiritual water was only to enable the soil in Crescent Mountain to transform into spiritual soil. Not all of the spiritual water was able to transform into pure yang water.

Therefore, the transforming of Crescent Mountain still had to go according to Zhang Han's original plan. First, finish with the areas in the back of the mountain, then slowly finish with the residential area and areas at the front of the mountain.

“I still have to rent a house.”

Zhang Han muttered to himself, then immediately took out his phone and dialed Manager Ma’s phone number.

Hearing that Zhang Han wants to rent a house, Manager Ma was very enthusiastic. It makes sense that Manager Ma was enthusiastic. After all, Manager Ma got a reward of 1million yuan from Zhang Han’s house deal.

Manager Ma asked Zhang Han to come to his company to take a look at the photos of the different houses and furthermore promised that he would not take any commission fee when Zhang Han rented a house through him.

Zhang Han did not say anything and drove towards Manager Ma’s company. The company was situated at a small retail store in a back street. Within the small retail store, there was a total of 13 employees.

Manager Ma stood at the doorway. Upon seeing Zhang Han arrive, he enthusiastically welcomed him,

“Welcome Mr Zhang. Come, have a sit inside.”

Entering the store and sitting on a sofa, Manager Ma took out a carton of peppermint flavored cigarette which cost 20 yuan. After passing over a cigarette to Zhang Han and also helping him light up the cigarette, Manager Ma lit up a cigarette for himself, then asked with a smile:

“Not sure what kind of house Mr Zhang want to rent?”

“A house in Crescent Gulf. One that is slightly better than average.”

“Slightly better than average?” Manager Ma muttered to himself, then said, “For better ones, there are villas, where the rents are about 4 million yuan every year. There are also houses with vistas, where 1.5 million yuan would be needed every year for those that are 100 squares meter and above. As for the other small size houses and apartment houses, I feel that Mr Zhang would not be interested.”

“Hmmm, are there any photos?” Zhang Han asked.

“Yes, there are photos. Follow me Mr Zhang.”

Hearing that, Manager Ma stood up and brought Zhang Han to the front of his computer table. At the computer table, Manager Ma began searching for houses that were around the Crescent Gulf.

Manager Ma showed Zhang Han all the villas and family houses in Crescent Gulf.

There were all sorts of interior decoration. Some were western style, some were modern style, but there were only a few which caught Zhang Han’s attention.

“Where is this villa located at?” Zhang Han pointed to a villa.

It was the only villa which caught Zhang Han’s eye. It wasn’t overly luxurious, and the house had a mixed color of white, blue and grass green, giving the house a kind of fresh feeling that one was close to nature.

However, the rent of the villa was somewhat expensive, where the cost of the rent was 4.5million yuan each year.

“This villa is located at Yongxing Road. Yongxing Road is located at the middle of the zone between Crescent Gulf and Bamboo District.” Manager Ma said.

“That’s far……” Zhang Han’s brows raised.

The ideal location of the house in Zhang Han’s mind was one that was near to Crescent Mountain. That way, he could go to the mountain whenever he wanted.

“Far?” Manager Ma went into a daze for a while, then asked, “Where does Mr Zhang want to rent a house at?”

“A house that is near Crescent Mountain.” Zhang Han replied.

“Near Crescent Mountain……” Manager Ma began pondering and searched for houses near Crescent Mountain. However, there was no suitable house that was located near Crescent Mountain.

Unable to find any house that Zhang Han was truly satisfied with, Manager Ma was somewhat discouraged. While thinking about a solution, he began chatting with Zhang Han. “Is Mr Zhang living alone?”

“I am living with my daughter. The main reason for getting a house is to cook delicious food for her.” Meng Meng’s adorable little figure floated by Zhang Han’s mind and a trace of smile crept up on the corner of his mouth.

“Cook food?” Manager Ma’s eyes lighted up as he said, “I think that there is a solution which is possible. With Mr Zhang’s unique taste (picky) towards decoration, I think that you can rent a small retail house. For small retail houses, you can renovate it however you want, while residence houses are quite troublesome if you want to renovate it.”

“Retail house?” Zhang Han’s eyes squinted as he thought:

“Open a restaurant?

“That is possible. Meng Meng is only 3 years old and the amount of food she can eat is quite little. The extra food can be used to sell and most importantly, the house can be casually renovated to my taste.”

Zhang Han nodded his head and said:

“That works. Are there any photos to look at?”

“There are.” Manager Ma laughed, then searched for the retail houses that were near Crescent Mountain.

At the start, the retail houses that were searched up were all small retail houses that were 60-70 square meters big. In Manager Ma’s view, those retail houses were more than enough for Zhang Han to live in with his daughter.

But Zhang Han kept on shaking his head, “Too small, let’s take a look at the bigger ones.”

Thus, Manager Ma began searching for bigger retail houses. Finally, after looking at more than 20 retail houses, Manager Ma saw Zhang Han nodding his head at one of the retail house.

“This house is a two-floor retail house. The first floor is the restaurant and the second floor is the household. This retail house is managed by an elderly husband and wife. This retail house is the nearest to Crescent Mountain. I went to the retail house two times during the past few days and the business there is quite good. If it were not for the elderly husband and wife having to take care of their grandson, they would not rent it out.”

While introducing the retail house, Manager Ma opened the photos of the retail house,

“The first floor is quite simple. It is 130 square meters big and there is a breakfast counter and some tables and chairs. The second floor is a family orientated household. The renovation is quite decent and the structure is two rooms and a living room. The house faces against the south and the light is good. To sum it all up, the house is very big and I feel that it is very suitable for you.”

Zhang Han looked at the few photos and finally nodded his head in satisfaction:

“This house is okay.”

"The total cost is 4 million yuan, which covers for 1year and 3month rent. Is Mr Zhang satisfied with the price of this house? If not, I feel that it is still possible to negotiate with them and lower the price.” Manager Ma said with a smile.

“There is no need to negotiate.”

“Alright. Then, let me bring you over to take a look at the house.”

Manager Ma smiled, as he stood up and brought Zhang Han to his car. The car that he drove was a black color Honda Accord.

In Xiangjiang, those who have a car have a pretty decent life. The cars in Xiangjiang were not expensive and were many times cheaper compared to cars in mainland China. After all, there was less tax in Xiangjiang.

With Manager Ma taking the lead, the two of them came to Dawn Road to take a look at the restaurant.

On the road, Manager Ma contacted the elderly wife and husband. When they entered the house, they saw a married couple, who were in their fifties, sitting at the living room chatting.

Upon seeing them, the married couple greeted them, then brought Zhang Han to take a look around the house. The second floor was quite decent. There wasn’t much furniture, but the second floor was very clean. On the first floor, most of the furniture and goods were still there.

At 130 square meters big, the living room had once been very big. But after using two walls to create a kitchen, the living room no longer appeared that big.

Zhang Han immediately rented the retail house. Manager Ma gave both sides a contract to sign. After both sides signed the contract, the restaurant now belonged to Zhang Han for a year and three months.

After the elderly married couple left, Manager Ma and Zhang Han sat on the chairs at the living room.

Zhang Han opened his mouth and said, “Let me transfer you the commission fee.”

Manager Ma shook his head and rejected:

“Mr Zhang, I am very grateful that you chose me to buy your house. Therefore, there is no need to bring up the commission fee.”

Hearing that, Zhang Han smiled and shook his head, then asked, “Do you know any renovation companies?”

“Yeah. Do you need me to contact them for you now?” Manager Ma replied.

“Yeah.”

Manager Ma made a phone call to a renovation company right in front of Zhang Han, and in less than 30 minutes, two men, who wore western suits, knocked and walked into the house.

One of the men was a square-faced middle-aged man, and the other was a 25 year old youth who wore glasses.

“Hello Mr Zhang, I am from Blue Road Renovation Company’s manager, Zhao Kai.” The middle age man said with a smile.

Taking a look at the house, Zhao Kai saw that its decoration was a few years old and had been maintained pretty well. He figured that Zhang Han probably wanted to either revamp or make a small change to the house.

“Mr Zhang, how do you want to renovate the house? Do you want to revamp the house or remodel a part of the house that you are not fond of?”

Zhang Han’s answer shocked him.

“Tear down the house and renovate it from scratch.”

“Huh?”

“For the first floor, tear down everything and renovate it from scratch. For the second floor, renovate it with its original structure.” Zhang Han added.

Zhao Kai’s eyes lit up and he asked hurriedly:

“Does Mr Zhang want the full package or half package?”

Full package means that the renovation company covers the full work and all the materials. The price of a full package was much higher than a half package. The half package meant that the company covered light engineering and supplementary materials. The main materials like floor tiles, wall bricks, and boards and so on would have to be provided by Zhang Han himself.