209: Chapter 209 What do you think of my daughter?

Everyone knew exactly what kind of "accident" Hao Aiguo was referring to. After all, over the past few years, one former top-tier real estate company after another had run into trouble. It seemed that it wouldn't be surprising if any real estate enterprise were to collapse now.

Once such an accident occurred, the biggest issue was the unfinished pre-sold properties. If those properties were left abandoned, it could affect the happiness of countless families for the rest of their lives.

Cleaning up such a mess had an incredibly long return cycle, far too many uncertain factors, and endless subsequent troubles. Most wealthy moguls essentially viewed it as a disaster and steered clear of it.

Hao Aiguo had originally intended for today to be just a preliminary probe. After all, they had no real personal connection. It was only after seeing a news report and hearing his son praise Zhao Xiaoshuai so highly that he had decided to pay attention.

The act of throwing away millions in cash that might never be recovered just to bait a telecom scammer was something that made him applaud in admiration after hearing about it, prompting his desire to meet the person responsible.

He hadn't expected that just by tentatively probing the other party's stance, he would immediately receive a guarantee to underwrite 10 billion!

The entire Hengtian Group had only just exceeded a market value of 20 billion at its peak. In recent years, it had been steadily declining, and now it was nearly halved, with a market value of only 10 billion.

Not only did the other party grasp the intention behind his words and know which enterprise he was referring to, but they had also provided the most reassuring guarantee by naming a specific amount.

That was 10 billion!

He quickly took a sip of tea to calm his nerves, maintaining his composed and unflappable image.

"Alright, alright, stop chatting, dinner is served."

A kind and ordinary-looking middle-aged woman walked out, and the two men, who had been chatting enthusiastically, stopped their conversation.

"No talking about business at the dinner table. Try Auntie's cooking first."

"Thank you, Auntie."

At the dinner table, Hao Aiguo, a big shot with an extraordinary background, truly listened to his wife and didn't mention business again.

It seemed that this woman, Mother Hao, held quite a bit of sway at home, at least.

At the dinner table, Hao Zhigang became lively again. "Brother Zhao, when you first went to learn martial arts, didn't my sister beat you up?"

"Of course I got beaten up. It was absolutely miserable back then."

"Then why didn't you run away?"

"Jinghan knows her limits. Actually, it was all just superficial injuries; she wouldn't really hurt me."

"I know my sister; she has limits? She…"

"Zhigang, eat more and talk less."

It was clear that Hao Zhigang had been bullied by his sister quite a bit when he was young; he really took every opportunity to badmouth her. After a gentle reprimand from his mother, he regretfully shut his mouth.

'I have to save as many as I can. Someone as outstanding as Brother Zhao shouldn't be ruined by my sister!'

Mother Hao was a very gentle speaker, possessing the temperament of someone from a scholarly family.

"Xiao Shuai, you and Zhigang and Jinghan are all good friends, so I'll consider you one of our own. Don't blame Auntie for being gossipy, but I heard you're thirty this year?"

"Yes, that's right, thirty years old."

"Are you married?"

"No."

Having finally found out what she wanted to know, Mother Hao's eyes grew even more eager. "Is it because you haven't met a girl you like?"

"I dated someone in college, but we broke up recently. I definitely won't be considering marriage in the short term."

Young, promising, and single—this was practically a son-in-law delivered to her doorstep!

"Xiao Shuai, what do you think of our Jinghan?"

One couldn't blame Mother Hao for being eager.

Her precious daughter had been a tomboy since she was little, hanging out in groups of boys. Not only did she fail to attract any admirers, but she ended up becoming the ringleader, spending her days acting like one of the boys.

Finally, when she grew up and blossomed into a great beauty, she angered her father, who threw her into the military camp, saying he needed to discipline her.

As it turned out, not only was this fine daughter not disciplined, but she was like a fish in water, thriving. Her rank kept rising, and she only came home to visit once a year during the New Year; they barely even saw her.

Watching her grow from a naive eighteen-year-old girl into a twenty-five-year-old young woman with no signs of settling down, her mother was worried sick.

This time, she had accidentally heard about Zhao Xiaoshuai's deeds. After looking into it, although he was five years older than her daughter, he looked very young in the newspaper photos.

Seeing him in person, she was even more satisfied; saying he was twenty-six or twenty-seven wouldn't be an exaggeration. With good character, he was a rare and excellent son-in-law.

Plus, there was that unexpected connection; it was simply a match made in heaven.

Although the father and daughter didn't talk much and couldn't get along, as a mother, she was still very concerned about her daughter.

Seeing her daughter's mood significantly improve over the past few days, she had managed to pry out the truth: she had recently taken a liking to a student learning martial arts from her. She heard he was handsome and had good character—in short, he was just her type.

Matching it up today, it was exactly the right person!

That was why she had probed, to see if it was just her daughter's secret crush or if there was something real between them. If there really was something, she might have to nag her husband to pull some strings and get their daughter transferred back for a while to get married and have children.

Zhao Xiaoshuai had nothing to hide; he had always treated people with sincerity.

"In my eyes, Jinghan is a very outstanding person. Not only is she beautiful, but she also has a certain heroic spirit; she is exactly my type."

Upon hearing this, Mother Hao's eyes curved into smiles; she was practically already viewing Zhao Xiaoshuai as her son-in-law.

"However, Auntie, there is one thing I must confess to you."

Seeing that there was a twist, all three pairs of ears in the Hao Family pricked up. Even though the father and son just kept their heads down and ate in silence, they were actually paying close attention.

"What I said earlier about not getting married in the short term wasn't quite accurate. In fact, I have decided not to get married at all in this lifetime."

"Child, we understand that you've had some setbacks in your relationships and that you have hurdles in your heart, but you have to move forward. You can't lose faith in relationships from now on."

"Auntie, you've misunderstood. I just don't want to get married; it doesn't mean I won't date. I moved on from that relationship a long time ago."

"Then why not get married?"

"Auntie, the country now supports children born out of wedlock in enjoying all the rights of children born within marriage, which proves that the times have changed. Getting married is no longer an essential thing."

"There are countless young people who live together without getting a marriage certificate, and there are no shortage of people who marry and divorce in a flash. Rather than using a useless piece of paper to bind each other, I think it's better to maintain the relationship based solely on affection."

"If we love each other, we are together; if we don't, we separate. This is actually the best kind of relationship."

People of Mother Hao's generation were clearly unable to accept such forward-thinking ideas. She looked at her son. "Zhigang, is this how you young people are now?"

Seeing how the fire had somehow shifted to him, Hao Zhigang was a bit speechless, but he still answered his mother's question truthfully:

"It is true that more and more people are not getting married now, and what Brother Zhao said is basically a fact. But don't worry, Mom, I am a firm believer in marriage!"

"The times really are changing too fast; they're changing so fast that I can't quite accept it." Mother Hao was clearly still unable to understand or accept it, and she no longer eagerly tried to propose marriage for her daughter.