Chapter 79: Ling Yi and his family, donating a building like crazy
Ling Qingzhou sat on the sofa, crossed his long legs, and couldn't suppress the look of boredom between his brows.
It was obvious that the person who was talking on the other end made him unhappy.
"Don't tell me about first come first served. We were the first to contact the Linbei No. 7 Middle School and agreed to build the 'Mingyue Building', but what happened? Yi Hansheng played dirty and let the 'Moonlight Building' go up. This time, you must take over No. 1 Middle School for me. If you can't do it, you can pack up and get out now—"
The fund manager was almost crying.
In fact, for all these years, he never understood why a good charity was turned into a business war by the Ling and Yi families.
Originally, donating a building to the middle school was a great thing, but somehow, the Ling family and the Yi family got stuck in at the same time and couldn't get out.
You said setting up a charitable foundation is not easy, and the manpower and financial resources invested in it are immeasurable. Besides donating a building to a middle school, there are many other good projects you could be doing! But the two parties are arguing over this.
Today, the Ling family built a science and technology building at Linnan No. 3 Middle School, and tomorrow the Yi family will donate an experimental building to Linbei No. 7 Middle School.
Even the names are similar. The Ling family's is called "Ming Yue Tower" and the Yi family's is called "Yueming Tower".
Moreover, the two buildings are so different that the king cannot see the king. A middle school with a "Ming Yue Building" cannot see the "Yue Ming Building", and a middle school with a "Yue Ming Building" will definitely not have a "Ming Yue Building".
Not only was he, the fund manager, confused, but even the major middle schools in Linhuai were also bewildered.
In recent years, the two families have almost taken over all the middle schools, big and small, in Linhuai in order to "win schools and donate buildings". Conflicts have always existed and frictions have continued to escalate.
Right now, there is a huge dispute over the "building rights" of Linnan No. 1 Middle School.
Initially, it was the Yi family who contacted the school first. Everything had already been discussed except for the written procedures, so it was not made public for the time being.
But Ling Qingzhou still found out about it, and asked his acquaintances to repeatedly block the procedures. He then sent his assistant to negotiate with the school, intending to squeeze out the Yi family, and even went so far as to double the budget as a bargaining chip.
Sure enough, the school was moved.
The contract was not signed in the first place, and now there is a better option, why not accept it?
What's more, Ling Qingzhou also promised to build another cafeteria, because his son was also in No. 1 Middle School and he wanted him to eat better?
Of course, Yi Hansheng is not someone to be trifled with. Ling Qingzhou's behavior is tantamount to snatching food from a tiger's mouth. Whether for the sake of his wealth or his face, he cannot be a coward.
A tug of war ensued.
As the saying goes, when gods fight, the little devils suffer.
The two big bosses don't have to show up, but it's hard for those who run errands.
Thinking of this, the fund manager's hair turned gray with worry, but he didn't dare show any anxiety. He had to firmly assure: "Don't worry! I will definitely take care of it!"
After ending the call, he breathed a sigh of relief, his legs went limp, and he fell into a chair, wiping the sweat off his face tremblingly.
"Manager Cai, here's the information you requested."
"Um."
The secretary put down the documents and turned to leave.
The man sat up straight and turned to the first page. The contact information of the new head of the Yi family fund was in the most conspicuous position in the first row.
He picked up the phone and dialed...
After chatting for a while, we found out that we were alumni. The distance between us was shortened a lot, but the invisible smoke of war still lingered.
Manager Cai: "Brother, Mr. Ling's offer is quite generous. It's obvious that he is determined to win No. 1 Middle School. Why are you holding on so tightly? As the saying goes, a step back opens up a new world. If there is no Linnan No. 1 Middle School, there are still No. 2 Middle School and No. 3 Middle School, right?"
"What a coincidence! Mr. Yi is also confident. After all, we have the letter of intent in our hands now. Even though the formalities haven't been completed yet, it's bound to happen sooner or later. We can afford to wait."
Manager Cai's voice turned cold: "Is there really no room for negotiation?"
The other end sighed softly, "Since you call me Senior Brother, I might as well tell you the truth. I can't give in. It's not that I want to target anyone, but Boss Yi has made his stance clear, and I can't go against it."
"Junior brother, even though we manage funds with hundreds of millions in turnover, dress elegantly, and are addressed as 'Manager' or 'Director' by everyone, to put it bluntly, we're just high-level employees. We do whatever the boss says, and we have no decision-making power on major matters. So, please don't embarrass me..."
These words immediately brought back sadness for both of them.
Manager Cai gritted his teeth, his long-held pent-up frustrations erupting at this moment. "I just don't understand. Are these two families just too bored to do anything? They're crazy enough to donate a building to a middle school. Not only are they not making any money, they're even paying for it. Do you think these wealthy people are crazy? What's their intention?"
Isn’t money sweet? Isn’t buying a car or a house fun?
“Maybe this is what charity is all about?”
Manager Cai was silent for a moment, then asked, "...Do you think these two companies are doing charity?"
There was no talk on the other end.
After a long pause, he asked, "...Is it possible to cooperate?"
Manager Cai laughed and said that if it was the original person in charge, he would never ask such a stupid question.
"Unless it rains red."
"How do you know if you haven't tried? No. 1 Middle School won't complain about having too many buildings. As long as Ling and Yi both agree..."
"The key is that these two bosses don't get along. They want to strangle each other to death the moment they meet. How can they nod?"
The senior brother was surprised: "Why?!"
In the business world, there are no eternal enemies, only eternal interests. Even a child knows this, and it's impossible for bigwigs like Ling Qingzhou and Yi Hansheng not to understand it.
Manager Cai shrugged. "I heard it's an old grudge, a feud that started over 20 years ago."
How much hatred must there be that you still can't let it go even today?
The other end pondered for a moment, then suddenly spoke: "Have you noticed a very strange phenomenon?"
Manager Cai: “What?”
"After I took over the foundation, I reviewed the project records of the past ten years and studied the Ling family's execution decisions. I discovered that the competition between the two families regarding the building donation was 100%!"
In other words, whatever the Ling family sets their eyes on, the Yi family will snatch away; and whatever the Yi family sets their eyes on, the Ling family will take away.
Overall, it was a mixed bag of wins and losses.
"That's not the strangest thing. The strangest thing is the names the two families gave their buildings. Mingyue Building, Yueming Building, just swapping the order of the words 'Ming' and 'Yue'. Is there some inevitable connection between them?"
If the two families really had a deep blood feud, they would definitely spare no effort to draw a clear line between themselves and the other side, let alone something as important as naming?
Someone once conducted a small-scale questionnaire survey, in which 95% of the middle school students interviewed said that they could not distinguish between "Mingyue Tower" and "Yueming Tower".
They are more accustomed to distinguishing them by function. The former is mainly for science and technology exhibitions and has a grand and magnificent architectural style, so it is called the "Science and Technology Building"; the latter has laboratories of various subjects and provides various types of experimental equipment, so it is called the "Experimental Building".
"Do you feel like naming it this way is commemorating something?"
Bright moon, bright moon...
Ling Qingzhou and Yi Hansheng are two of the "Big Brothers 1 to n" mentioned in the introduction.
Well, that’s it!
(End of this chapter)
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