Chapter 349: Chapter 345: 345 Winds Arise from All Sides

After all the talking, it’s still because Feng Jun’s reputation in Zhengyang is too insignificant to gain the recognition of others.

Those who know him are mostly the top notch players in the jewelry and jade industry; ordinary jewelers might not have even heard of him—for the big players, information monopoly is indeed very necessary.

Of course, for design companies, no one could ignore such a big order; it would be foolish not to earn money when there’s an opportunity.

So they proposed that it’s fine for us to do the design, but we must first pay the design fee—not the full amount, but fifty or sixty percent will do.

When dealing with private individuals, financial risk must be considered, not to mention dealing with an unknown person; even when dealing with famous rich people, risk must be mitigated.

Not to mention others, Sheng Tang Construction is well-known, right? The design fees they owe around the place are no small amount, and they are in real estate, no less.

Feng Jun didn’t have much aversion to paying most of the design fee upfront; he had no intention of owing money. Besides, the design company also mentioned that designing such a wall required detailed surveys of the surrounding land and even considerations of geological factors.

Such work would consume a substantial amount of labor and material resources, on top of which the relevant design proposal would not be cheap.

Therefore, Feng Jun felt that it was perfectly reasonable to pay about half of the design fee in advance.

But Wang Haifeng disagreed, “Master Feng is easy to talk to, but that doesn’t mean I am easy to fool. Paying half in advance? Don’t even think about it! That’s simply not the market rate!”

In Zhengyang’s construction industry, the standard practice for design fees works like this: there’s a deposit of ten to twenty percent, and during the design process, there may be partial payments at various stages. After the final draft is approved, up to eighty percent can be paid.

The remaining twenty percent counts for after-sales service and as a security deposit.

Long story short, for such a large project with design fees of millions or even tens of millions, it’s impossible to take away half before even starting.

Wang Haifeng told Feng Jun: Once the money is transferred, we would be the ones at a disadvantage.

Master Feng mainly wanted to avoid trouble, and as soon as he heard this, he agreed, “Fine, we shouldn’t be too eager to pay.”

But while they wanted to follow industry norms, the design company wouldn’t agree, “This project isn’t considered a major one in Zhengyang City; we take on projects like this quite often… You should think it over.”

True, Zhengyang City has many big orders, but on the other hand, how many people are eyeing them?

Wang Haifeng became even angrier, “I’ve already been generous by not holding a bidding process for this kind of project, and you’re still giving me this spiel?”

When Wu Limin heard about this situation, he was intrigued and approached Wang Haifeng on his own initiative: “Our Sheng Tang Construction also has a design branch; why not just give both the construction and design to us?”

Wang Haifeng replied, “The design quality of Sheng Tang Construction really isn’t up to par. It may look like just a wall that anybody could design, but Elder Feng is looking for something natural, requiring many imaginative proposals.”

Wu Limin felt somewhat unconvinced. Even the greatest design agencies started small. So he went back home and asked his father: “Could we not recruit a couple of top talents into our design agency?”

Wu Jianguo was puzzled and listened carefully before slowly shaking his head, “It’s unnecessary. To take on both design and construction would make the project uncontrollable, and it would inevitably require a substantial fronting of costs. What if he doesn’t pay us?”

Sheng Tang Construction is not to be trifled with, but if the debtor were Feng Jun, President Wu lacked the confidence to recover the money.

If it were a project costing one or two million, fronting the money, or even working for free, wouldn’t be a big deal. But with a project costing tens or even hundreds of millions… the risk is simply too high.

It was Wang Haifeng’s brother who finally found a design company that only asked for a thirty percent deposit. However, they required payment for progress made, and upon design completion, the client would have essentially paid fifty percent of the design fee.

But that was the cost before the final review of the blueprints.

And this company’s quote was slightly higher than the others.

The head of the design company was eloquent, “Manager Wang, if this were an old man’s deal, you could pay as much design fee as you like, but the thing is… this is just a deal introduced by Haifeng.”

Upon hearing this, Wang Haifeng was even more choked up. Damn, so you think you can take advantage and still act cheeky?

He wasn’t used to being let down; the more these people didn’t believe in him, the more he insisted on his own views, unwilling to give ground. “I really don’t get it. Is spending money supposed to be this frustrating these days?”

This stalemate continued for three days. On the fourth day at noon, after a small gathering with some high school classmates in Zhengyang, and having drunk a little, he found a nearby hotel and rented a room for a few hours, intending to take a nap before returning to Baixing Town.

When he woke up and picked up his phone, which was set to silent, he was dumbfounded, “One hundred and eight missed calls… damn, who’s inviting me to watch ‘Water Margin’?”

He was still puzzled when the one hundred and ninth call came in, from a number he did not recognize.

As soon as he answered, the caller quickly identified themselves, “Hello, is this Manager Wang of Luohua Manor? I am the market manager of Si Jifeng Design Company…”

Si Jifeng Design Company, Wang Haifeng had heard of it; in Zhengyang, it’s considered one of the top companies within the second tier, especially good at various micro-innovations. They can’t establish a strong company style, but they are very skilled at referencing and perfecting other concepts.

Wang Haifeng had never contacted this company, but other companies had mentioned that for a project like theirs, companies similar to Si Jifeng would be most suitable. However, the people at Si Jifeng are very realistic.

After hearing what the other party said, Wang Haifeng asked bluntly, “Let’s not talk about the cost first, do you know our payment terms?”

“It seems like your manor doesn’t have its own terms,” the market manager said with a smile, “Our general requirements are one-one-one-four-two-one… we can still negotiate the specifics. Are you interested, Manager Wang?”

One-one-one-four-two-one meant a ten percent down payment, two installments of ten percent each, then four percent after approval, which made seventy percent at that point. After the completion of the construction, another twenty percent was paid, and the final ten percent served as a retention fund.

This was a very sincere way of payment; they only collected seventy percent upon delivery of the drawings, with another twenty percent due after any final adjustments. This meant that if there were no significant changes to the drawings, there wouldn’t be any additional costs for modifications later on, and the ten percent retention was rather high, too.

Of course, not discussing construction costs when talking about such construction drawings was rather unscrupulous, but lowering the payment terms so much before negotiation was a mark of sincerity.

Wang Haifeng was stunned after listening, and it took him quite a while to collect his thoughts. Finally, with a mix of laughter and tears, he said, “Your company really trusts us a lot, doesn’t it?”

Such a dispirited remark was a big taboo in negotiations; he shouldn’t have said it, but with all the frustrations of the past few days, he couldn’t be bothered to care that much anymore.

“Our company has always had high regard for the strength of Luohua Manor,” Manager Wang, hearing how easy he was to communicate with, replied with a smile, “It’s just a pity that you’ve never been interested in our company, so we had to take the initiative to sell ourselves.”

Huh? Wang Haifeng pondered for a moment, remembering the “Water Margin” he just saw, “Please wait a moment…”

He then checked his missed calls; a hundred and eight in total, six from Si Jifeng, and three or four each from another four or five design companies, as well as calls from his elder brother, his father-in-law, his wife, and so on.

He began to realize something, “Sorry, I was sleeping just now, my phone was on silent, and I received a lot of calls. Did something happen that I don’t know about?”

The market manager was silent for a moment before asking, “So… was mine the first call you answered?”

“Yes,” Wang Haifeng answered gravely, “Fundamentally speaking, we do have a bit of destiny… what happened?”

“Let’s put it this way,” the market manager hesitated, obviously choosing his words carefully, “If Luohua Manor is one of Mr. Feng’s properties… apparently, he is a premium client of the bank.”

Wang Haifeng responded with a couple of perfunctory remarks and hung up, seeing another call coming in. He simply turned off his phone, picked up another phone with a “triple six” number, and dialed Feng Jun’s mobile, wanting to find out what was going on.

The real situation was that Feng Jun had received, over the last two days, several payments from Sister Hong, totaling eighty million that very morning, leading the bank manager to offer a home visit service directly.

Feng Jun stated he wasn’t available, saying he had plans for that money and that they shouldn’t set their sights on it.

The bank manager was persistent, wanting to understand what he planned to do with the money—if you’re planning on investing, we can provide relevant advice.

I’m not investing; I’m spending it myself! After answering this way, Feng Jun felt he might have seemed dismissive—as much money as that was not easy to spend in one go. To prevent further pestering, he specifically mentioned, “I’m planning to improve my living environment.”

Thinking of buying a property? We can recommend some, the bank’s services are really good—as long as you have the money.

I just want to build a wall for my yard! Feng Jun felt his reply was a bit showy, but… it was truly the situation.

The customer manager hesitated before saying: “Don’t be hasty, may I visit you to discuss it?”

For some reason, Feng Jun immediately thought of Xu Leigang’s second admission to Anding Hospital.

So he patiently explained, “I’ve leased a barren hill and plan to build a large manor.”

The customer manager was baffled for a good while, finally saying, “In that case… we can also introduce you to contractors. Would that be convenient for you?”

These minor matters are not my concern! Feng Jun felt he had already done more than enough, so he put on airs one more time, then hung up the phone.

After hearing all this, Wang Haifeng understood: the bank had leaked the information, and everyone knew that Master Feng had money now.

Typically, Feng Jun’s accounts had always had quite a sum, tens of millions at least, but these were private accounts and generally wouldn’t be checked unless there was some incident.

However, by revealing his plans to “improve his living environment,” those customer managers would certainly spread the news around—customer managers were not only serving him but other major clients as well.

Most importantly, the bank’s customer managers generally knew the source of Feng Jun’s wealth.

This person wasn’t just posturing; he was genuinely doing business!