The sound of incoming payments echoed throughout the villa, leaving Xia Zhi stunned for a long time. In her twenty five years of life, she had never experienced such a constant stream of income.
She had a faint idea of what kind of payments these were, but the impact of what she was seeing was too overwhelming. She asked Wen Yu in disbelief, “What is this?”
Wen Yu knew that Xia Zhi had lost her memory and was unfamiliar with everything. He explained, “Mom, these are all rent payments.”
In just the blink of an eye during their conversation, more rent payments poured into Xia Zhi’s phone like falling snow, accompanied by messages from tenants,
“Landlady, this is my rent for this month, please check it.”
“Landlady, do I qualify for the early payment reward this month? If I do, remember to send me the bonus.”
…
Wen Yu also saw the second message. He pointed at it and said, “Mom, you set up an early payment reward. The first three tenants in each building to pay rent every month receive bonuses of five hundred yuan, three hundred yuan, and two hundred yuan respectively.”
Xia Zhi suddenly understood.
No wonder the tenants were so proactive in paying rent.
“So I currently own three hundred buildings, right?” Xia Zhi asked.
Wen Yu nodded. “Yes.”
“And I manage all of them directly?”
Does that mean checking the water and electricity meters for three hundred buildings every month?
Although she liked being a landlady, she wanted to be a relaxed and carefree one, not someone so busy she got dizzy from it.
And some of the properties were in other cities in the country and even overseas. Did that mean she would have to fly all over the country and the world every day just to check meters and collect rent?
How was that any different from working a hard job?
Wen Yu said, “Yes and no.”
“What do you mean?”
“At first, you managed everything yourself. But as you bought more properties, it became impossible to handle them all. Still, you did not want to hand them over to sub landlords, because you were worried they might maliciously raise rents, tamper with utility meters, or keep tenants’ deposits. So you set up a company and hired people to manage part of the properties. However, all leasing and rent collection rights are still in your hands.”
Hearing what Wen Yu said next, Xia Zhi was reminded of her own miserable experiences being cheated by unscrupulous sub-landlords when she rented before. The rent would be raised by three hundred every six months, the water and electricity meters were deliberately tampered with to run faster, if she was even one day late paying rent, the water and power would be cut off immediately and she would be thrown out, and when the lease ended, not a single cent of the deposit was returned.
The worst time was when she paid six months of rent in one lump sum to a sub-landlord, only for that person to run off with the money. The original landlord never received the payment and drove her out of the apartment, leaving her dragging her luggage and wandering the streets in a miserable state. Sadness, fear, and despair consumed her entirely. Even now, she did not dare to recall how she got through that night.
Back then, she had silently sworn that if she ever became a landlord, she would never rent her properties to sub-landlords.
Wen Yu continued, “But you did not hand over all the buildings to employees. The ten buildings near our home are still directly managed by you. You said your lifelong goal was to become a landlady, and if everything were managed by employees, the joy in your life would be gone, so you kept some buildings to manage yourself.”
Xia Zhi nodded.
That sounded more like her.
“But… I have not gone to check the water and electricity meters this month yet. Why are the tenants already paying rent so quickly?”
“Oh, that.” Wen Yu smiled. “Assistant Song said that since you just recovered from a car accident, it would not be good for you to overwork. So the day before yesterday, he helped you check the meters and calculate the rent for seven buildings. The remaining three buildings were left for you to handle yourself.”
Xia Zhi, “!!”
Was not Assistant Song Wen Shihan’s subordinate? He could even help check water and electricity meters?
That was too versatile.
No wonder he earned such a high salary.
Wait, that was his salary twenty years ago. Now… it was probably in the tens of millions per year.
At that very moment, Assistant Song, who was knocking on a door to deliver a rent bill, suddenly sneezed hard. He frowned slightly. Could it be that President Wen was scolding him again?
Thinking about how he was now the second-in-command of the Wen Yue Group, commanding countless subordinates, if they found out that he was helping the boss’s wife check meters and deliver rent bills, they would probably laugh themselves silly.
But there was no choice. Given how much the boss doted on his wife, if he recovered his memory and found out that his wife had just been discharged from the hospital and had to run around ten buildings collecting rent and checking meters, he would definitely skin him alive.
Assistant Song let out a deep sigh and shook his head helplessly.
In the end, he was the one bearing it all.
Xia Zhi had no idea what was going through Assistant Song’s mind. She silently gave him several mental thumbs up.
Doo doo doo…
Her phone kept receiving rent transfers one after another.
Xia Zhi’s attention was pulled back. She lowered her head again and browsed the messages on her phone. In just a short while, she had already grasped most of the situation. Her fingers flew across the keyboard as she replied to her tenants,
“Rent received, thank you.”
“I checked, you are the third tenant to pay rent this month, you qualify for the reward. I will transfer the two hundred yuan bonus to you now.”
“It is okay to pay the rent a little later. Everyone has difficult times, it is fine. Take care of your life and work first.”
…
There were too many messages. Xia Zhi’s hands were getting sore from replying.
She noticed that across from her, Wen Shihan was holding his phone from twenty years in the future, scrolling through it, likely trying to adjust to his life in this future world.
Xia Zhi felt a little curious about Wen Shihan’s life twenty years later. He had once been the CEO of a company with tens of thousands of employees. Now, he was probably even more outstanding.
Unable to suppress her curiosity, she softly asked Wen Yu, “Then how is your dad now?”
Although her voice was soft, Wen Lun beside her still heard it. In a casual tone, he cut in, “Dad is living off Mom now, a kept man. No, wait, Dad is already fifty, so not a kept young man, a kept old man.”
Xia Zhi, “…”
Wen Shihan, “…”
Wen Yu immediately grabbed Wen Lun’s ear and tugged hard. Wen Lun yelped, “Big brother, why are you pulling my ear?”
“For talking nonsense.”
“But I am not wrong. Dad hardly goes out to work these years, he stays at home every day taking care of Mom and trying to please her. Isn’t that living off Mom?”
Xia Zhi cautiously glanced at Wen Shihan and noticed that his expression had not darkened, so he did not seem too affected by Wen Lun’s words.
Wen Yu let go of Wen Lun’s ear and said helplessly, “Mom, Dad, do not listen to second brother’s nonsense. Dad is still very impressive. He personally founded more than fifty companies. Seven years ago, he stepped back from the front lines of those companies and handed them over to professional managers. He only kept Wen Yue Group, and he is still its actual controller. After that, he stopped founding new companies and focused on investing in others. His investment sense is extremely sharp, he has basically never lost money and has successfully taken dozens of companies public.”
Xia Zhi nodded.
Wen Shihan’s ability was obvious to all.
Back then, Wen Yue Group had nearly gone bankrupt, and it was Wen Shihan who saved it. At the time, he was still overseas when his grandfather, Wen Chaoyue, suddenly died of a cerebral hemorrhage. The massive group was left without a leader and fell into chaos. Taking advantage of the situation, his mother, He Jia, pushed his older brother Wen Shifeng into the CEO position. Unexpectedly, the company fell into even greater disorder.
That was because Wen Shifeng was a useless spendthrift who only knew how to indulge himself and had no idea how to run a company. In just a few months, under his management, the group’s capital chain broke, debts piled up, and the massive corporate empire was like a structure that had lost its supporting walls, swaying in the storm and on the verge of collapse at any moment.
Seeing the company in such a state, Wen Shifeng quickly abandoned the mess and fled abroad to enjoy himself.
As Wen Yue Group teetered on the brink of collapse, employees throughout the company were reduced to tears. They began going to temples to burn incense and pray that the company would not go bankrupt. Many of them had worked there for ten or even twenty years and were deeply attached to it. More importantly, if the company collapsed, they would not be able to pay their mortgages or support their families. Most of them were already in their forties, and if they left the company, who else would hire them?
It was as if their prayers had worked. The second young master, Wen Shihan, who was overseas, was entrusted in a critical moment to take over the massive mess that was Wen Yue Group.
At the beginning, the employees within the group did not fully trust him. Firstly, they had the example of his older brother Wen Shifeng before them, and feared he might also be a useless playboy who only knew how to indulge himself. Secondly, he was simply too young, and might act on impulse and drive the group into complete ruin. However, Wen Shihan dispelled their doubts through his actions. As soon as he returned, he carried out bold reforms, established practical and beneficial strategic directions, and pulled Wen Yue Group back onto the right track. He also explored new avenues, and the group officially entered a phase of rapid development.
Xia Zhi looked at Wen Shihan.
No wonder he had been so calm just now. He must have already learned about his situation through his phone, which was why Wen Lun’s words did not affect him.
Wen Lun rubbed his ear, which had been pinched red by Wen Yu, and said, “Dad handed all his money over to Mom. Every time he needs money for daily expenses or investments, he has to ask Mom for it. Isn’t that living off Mom?”
Xia Zhi, “…”
If not for a trace of rationality, she would have almost been led astray by Wen Lun’s words. She carefully sorted through the logic and gradually understood the situation.
Her boss had basically given his own money to her and then had her support him with it.
But wait.
Earlier, when her boss found out that Manager Zheng had embezzled one million in company funds, he had wanted to send him straight to prison.
Now that he had handed all his money to her, would he not want to strangle her on the spot?
Xia Zhi’s heart trembled in fear.
Wen Shihan held his phone, glanced down at the seven or eight bank accounts on it, all showing zero balances, and said in disbelief, “So… I gave all my money to your mother?”
As expected, money also follows the law of conservation of energy. It does not disappear, it only transfers from his pocket to Xia Zhi’s.
“Yeah,” Wen Lun said. “At the time, Mom did not even want to take it, but you insisted on transferring it to her.”
Wen Shihan frowned slightly. “…”
“You said that after marriage, a man’s money should be managed by his wife.”
Wen Shihan’s frown deepened. “…”
“You said if Mom did not accept it, it meant she did not love you.”
Wen Shihan’s brows furrowed so tightly they could probably crush a few mosquitoes. “…”