"Mr. Xu, are you trying to subtly probe whether he has the potential to be a partner of Hengda Group?"

Xiao Qiang spoke up.

This time, Xu Jia nodded but did not respond verbally.

Sensing the concern Xu Jia was showing, Xiao Qiang continued, "Mr. Xu, even if he cannot become a partner of Hengda, surely Hengda Group is not worried about finding partners, right?"

Xu Jia smiled bitterly and shook his head.

"Are you talking about the Jinzhong Village project? If so, as soon as the news leaks, various capitals will flock to my table! But in my plan, the partnership for the Jinzhong Village project is secondary! What I want is a partner for Hengda Motors, someone who can bring in powerful capital to help reinvigorate Hengda's car manufacturing business! However, those investors, they are more cautious than anything. Given the setbacks Hengda Motors has faced and the bleak outlook, they are not willing to gamble on Hengda, even with the temptation of the Jinzhong Village project. They won't take that risk. They simply won't."

Xiao Qiang understood.

The "powerful capital" Xu Jia referred to must be an astronomical amount.

At least in the tens of billions.

At least starting from two hundred billion.

However, in today's economic downturn, with major enterprises' debt ratios rising, which investor would dare to gamble on Hengda Motors?

Those who had invested before had all withdrawn their funds.

In such a situation, it seemed unrealistic to expect investors to take a big gamble on Hengda Group.

Xiao Qiang really wanted to say, "Why not cut the loss, abandon the car manufacturing business, and focus on the Jinzhong Village project—bet on that instead!"

But he knew that, with Xu Jia's personality, he would never accept such a failure. He would never give up on the car manufacturing venture.

In fact, if he had to choose between the two, Xu Jia would likely choose the car manufacturing business and take a big gamble on it.

It was simple: although the Jinzhong Village project had potential, it had its limitations and wouldn't compete in the capital market.

For Xu Jia, the Jinzhong Village project was just an embellishment in his vision for his commercial empire.

On the other hand, if the car manufacturing project succeeded, it would stir the capital markets and the stock market... which would be far beyond what the Jinzhong Village project could compare to.

Especially in recent years, the new energy vehicle industry has been booming in the stock market, with market values starting at hundreds of billions. How could Xu Jia's ambition possibly be suppressed?

If he could suppress it, he probably wouldn't be Xu Jia, and Hengda Group wouldn't have reached this point!

After a moment of contemplation, Xiao Qiang asked, "Then, Mr. Xu, do you think Ye Chen would gamble on it?"

"It's not yet time to talk about this. What I want to know is whether he has the strength to back Hengda Motors. That's why I asked you to make that call, using the land as a pretext to test him," Xu Jia replied.

"Mr. Xu, I don't know if you've been following the online rumors about him—about his source of funds and how, in just a few months, he went from having nothing to becoming a real estate tycoon spending billions. This has become a hot topic nationwide. Under such public scrutiny, the central bank and other relevant departments will surely get involved! Mr. Xu, aren't you curious about the source of his funds? After all, given his current status, it's far from enough to explain his lavish spending," Xiao Qiang said.

To his surprise, Xu Jia smiled and shook his head.

"Someone whom Chairman Zhang calls a 'prodigy,' do you think he lacks the awareness to prepare for an investigation into his source of funds? He must have already prepared himself for such scrutiny and wouldn't care about it! The saying goes, 'If you're not capable, you wouldn't dare to challenge the system,' and that's exactly what he's doing! But when you mention his source of funds, it only confirms my suspicion that he's not acting alone! And with that call just now, I believe if we can bring him onto Hengda's ship, Hengda will be able to overcome the difficulties it's facing," Xu Jia sighed.

Little did he know, Ye Chen didn't have any wealthy backers and was truly operating on his own.

Moreover, Ye Chen wasn't as powerful as Xu Jia imagined.

Right now, his entire net worth was only about two hundred billion.

The investment in Tenglong Real Estate hadn't even been completed... even the 6.8 billion he paid for Half-Mountain was covered by Zhang Jingshan, Li Changfeng, and Zhao Jiwei.

And Tenglong Technology still needed him to spend recklessly without counting the cost.

Not to mention other expenses.

Truth be told, that two hundred billion wouldn't last long.

So, Xu Jia had greatly overestimated him.

As for the so-called "prime land" mentioned in the phone call, those were just words Ye Chen threw out.

After all, Ye Chen knew that Hengda wasn't yet at the point of selling land. Even if, hypothetically, Hengda did decide to sell, he would consider buying—because a small portion of the land could be valuable to him. However, he would definitely ask for installments, not a lump sum.

What Xu Jia didn't realize was even more significant.

Regarding the cooperation that Xu Jia was pondering about,

In Ye Chen's plan, it was all about waiting for the bottom to drop out.

When Hengda Group truly faced the brink of collapse,

That's when he would swoop in to take over the sinking ship!

Xu Jia didn't know this, otherwise, he would be livid.

He was thinking about how to cooperate, how to save Hengda, while Ye Chen was already planning to take advantage of Hengda's collapse.

But this couldn't be blamed on Ye Chen. After all, he had given Xu Jia advice—twice—that he needed to be more careful in his actions.

If Xu Jia could abandon the car manufacturing burden, offload some of the group's non-core businesses, and sell off some mediocre industries to pay down debt, the country's heavy hand wouldn't come down on Hengda Group.

Unfortunately, there is no "what if."

Xu Jia's ambition prevented him from making such a decision. Under his dream of a commercial empire, making the kind of tough choice to cut ties with the car project was difficult.

Forget about abandoning the car project; even the group's non-core businesses and industries, he hadn't considered selling off them, even though he knew that Hengda Group was teetering on the edge of disaster. Even though he also knew that taking too big a step had seriously backfired.

But he still wanted to gamble, gamble that the government wouldn't intervene, gamble on the success of the car manufacturing project, and gamble that Hengda could rise from the mire.

Thus, the trajectory of Hengda Group's past life would repeat in this one.

After a deep sigh,

Xu Jia turned back around.

With a slight smile at Xiao Qiang, he said, "How would you feel about becoming the vice president of Tenglong Real Estate?"

"Mr. Xu, what are you implying? Do you think I, Xiao Qiang, am that kind of person?" Xiao Qiang frowned instinctively.

"Don't misunderstand, I know exactly what kind of person you are, which is why I'm sharing all this with you! But I'm serious—if you want to go to Tenglong Real Estate, I'll let you. Honestly, though I don't fully understand what Tenglong Real Estate is planning, one thing I'm sure of is that with Ye Chen's confidence, joining Tenglong Real Estate will be far better than staying at Hengda Real Estate. Hengda has already come down from its peak, and you've already proven your excellence. There won't be much room for you to grow. But Tenglong, or rather, Ye Chen—if you join him, your future will be far more brilliant than staying at Hengda."

Suddenly, Xu Jia became serious.

Without waiting for Xiao Qiang to respond, he continued, "Besides, if you go to Tenglong Real Estate, it will also help me. At least it will build a bridge between me and Ye Chen. I believe... he will repay this favor. Even if he refuses to cooperate with me on Hengda Motors, this connection might come in handy one day."