102. Only the Vision

Yu Jiali actually recommended that Bai Haonan give it a try: "He is very famous. Many celebrities and wealthy people in Hong Kong hold the Master in high regard and are his followers. When my father was young, he specifically went to visit him and received a lot of insightful guidance. They still keep in touch frequently. Look, I’m even wearing a Buddha amulet!" As she spoke, holding a puppy, she pulled a small necklace from the neckline of her sportswear. Hanging on it was a golden plaque about the size of a fingernail, crafted quite crudely, with the plexiglass Buddha statue in the center turned cloudy and yellow.

When Yu Jiali wore a sports vest before, Bai Haonan had noticed this necklace tucked into the crevice of her chest, but he hadn't expected it to be something like this. If he hadn't seen the scale of the Yu family's assets with his own eyes, he would have truly doubted the girl's financial situation. "You believe in this kind of stuff? Even with my lack of social experience, I know this is all just meant to fool three-year-olds!"

Yu Jiali carefully tucked the amulet back into her clothes. "From now on, I'll call you 'Old Bai' in private. Old Bai, billions of people around the world follow major religions—are they all three-year-olds? People need a bit of faith and reverence. Even if some religious aspects can't be logically explained, they are a great help for one's mindset and values. Especially since you're already an adult, you're resistant to relearning and understanding these things, but religion knows no age; you can start believing at any time."

Bai Haonan couldn't be bothered to argue with her. "Forget it, forget it. No wonder I saw Old Yu wearing prayer beads too; if you keep talking, I'll start thinking you're trying to recruit me into a cult. I'm heading back now, see you tomorrow!"

Yu Jiali looked at the little white car with Jiangzhou license plates and said nothing more. She offered a slight smile and waved to see Bai Haonan off. Even until the Polo merged into traffic and turned, Bai Haonan still caught a glimpse of the girl standing at the hotel-like entrance, looking in his direction—a look of infatuated obsession.

He felt a secret sense of pride, smug about his own handsome charm.

However, the point Yu Jiali made was quite simple. Even without talking about marriage, men want to work with beautiful women, and it’s much the same for women.

Tomorrow, Bai Haonan would head to her company to formally participate in the preparations for the fitness center.

For the first time in his life, having secured a proper job title as "Manager Wang," Bai Haonan felt a bit excited. It was a shame his pockets were empty, or he would definitely have gone out to celebrate.

He truly felt like a clever housewife struggling to cook without rice; he pondered this phrase for the entire journey back.

Unexpectedly, just as he drove into the gate of the unfinished construction site, he found Ada crawling laboriously along the roadside. Upon seeing the little white car, the dog rushed directly onto the road. Bai Haonan quickly stopped and got out. The brown, scruffy dog pounced on him, and as Bai Haonan squatted down to catch the dirty creature, he was shocked to find Ada’s eyes filled with tears, as if the dog were sobbing in emotional distress. "You can even cry?"

The dog, of course, couldn't reply, but it kept rubbing against him, its long ears and damp nose nudging him everywhere. Bai Haonan, caught between laughter and tears, carried it into the car and drove back to the training base. As expected, Qian Niu and the young players all said that ever since Ada realized Bai Haonan had driven away, it had been howling incessantly; anyone could hear the mournful cries.

Perhaps the trauma of being abandoned in the past made this dog particularly terrified of being left behind. Bai Haonan had no choice but to take the dog everywhere with him. Since he suddenly became quite busy in the afternoon—receiving several calls asking if he was still providing top-tier players for pickup games—Bai Haonan quickly set his business into motion. His mind was indeed sharp; much like the "Bio-Enzymes" (his nickname for the elite players), these football enthusiasts were generally well-off and likely had the budget or need for fitness. If he could take this opportunity to promote the fitness center, wouldn't he be directly tapping into a new market?

Yu Jiali had also said that even if the plan was settled, there would be a process for renovation, equipment procurement, and staff training. During this time, couldn't he use the opportunity to lay the groundwork and attract clients?

If he connected with his network now, by the time the fitness center was established, talking to these people about training and improving their game through squats and other basics—which were things he was already familiar with from the First Affiliated Hospital's fitness center—would be a natural progression.

Men for football training, women for weight loss and fitness; wouldn't that be a sure win?

Bai Haonan spent the whole afternoon taking Ada along as he dropped players off at various pitches, and he made sure to expand his client base as much as possible. This was also the first time Bai Haonan felt he should print some business cards.

To his surprise, when he arrived at Yu Jiali’s office the next day, he discovered that she had already had people take care of that.

Bai Haonan once again marveled at Yu Jiali’s efficiency and meticulousness.

Yu Jiali’s office was actually across the street from her home, in a thirty-plus-story modern office building: the Jiazheng Building!

Bai Haonan certainly remembered Yu Deshui mentioning his "Jiazheng Group" to those three officials yesterday. Look at the style of these wealthy people.

In fact, this complex consisted of a five-story podium building, with three identical towers rising above it to form a rather large business district. Jiazheng Group occupied one of the towers. A middle-aged female secretary waited for Bai Haonan in the lobby and led him upstairs with great respect and courtesy, briefly explaining the history: "Because Chairman Yu is the largest holder of this land plot, he acquired this entire building within the real estate project. This was a project he handled eight years ago; it was very bold."

Standing in the elevator, Bai Haonan could only think: *Well, obviously. Anyone who owned such a massive building would feel it was bold.*

Most of the office building was leased out, with the Group and its affiliates occupying only six floors. Among them, General Manager Yu’s Jiazheng Investment Management Company was on the 23rd floor. The reason for this choice was that Yu Jiali had officially taken over the practical management of the company from her father at the age of twenty-three. This story had even made it into many media news reports—Yu Deshui truly trusted his daughter.

It was Bai Haonan’s first time in such a standard office building. Previously, the club had been located within the stadium facilities, which had never given him the chance to experience this scale. He curiously scanned the office floor, from the reception to the workstations, checking the attractiveness of the female staff, only to be disappointed to find that most were middle-aged women!

It seemed Yu Jiali was quite resistant to having pretty girls around.

Of course, this relaxed mood passed in a flash. The secretary, who had picked up a box of business cards for Bai Haonan at the reception, led him into the conference room. Bai Haonan was admiring his new cards with great affection when a dozen people stood up from their busy work to wait for him. He quickly composed himself, though he didn't know what to say.

Fortunately, Yu Jiali, who had been notified, arrived, and the meeting regarding the fitness center preparations began immediately. At the head of a long conference table that could seat twenty, Yu Jiali sat opposite Bai Haonan. Dressed in a small white round-neck dress, with neat mid-length hair, she briefly introduced Mr. Wang Jianguo as the future sports director and one of the shareholders of the fitness center, then requested that each department begin reporting on their assessment and preparation status.

Even though it felt like only two or three days had passed since this matter was raised, Bai Haonan was amazed to watch these professional managers solemnly present a wealth of data: how many high-end fitness centers were currently in the provincial capital, their respective floor areas, scales, and approximate turnovers. They explained why some were successful and why others failed, concisely concluding that the fitness industry suffered from severe homogeneity. Unless a professional chain institution could effectively control costs and staffing, the risks for an outsider entering the market were high—especially since the investment for a gym was not small. If they started from scratch without experience and had to purchase all new equipment, millions would vanish in an instant. A male manager wearing glasses even spoke bluntly, stating he was not optimistic about the project.

For the most part, Yu Jiali was observing Bai Haonan. Back during the introduction, she had asked him to take off his sunglasses. She noticed that this guy, unlike everyone else at the conference table—including her—wasn't holding a notepad to record things; he was just distractingly fiddling with the legs of his sunglasses while listening.

A standard playboy demeanor—the key being that he didn't even have any money.

If there were any subjective emotional factors involved, Yu Jiali felt at this moment that he was truly like mud that couldn't be plastered onto a wall.

Perhaps she really didn't expect him to say anything. By then, Yu Jiali understood Bai Haonan's background; he was surely proficient in fitness techniques, but he was an absolute blank slate when it came to business management. At best, he was a head coach; everything else would have to be handled by the people she arranged. She didn't directly refute their market research, nor did she force the process forward, but she asked offhandedly: "Director Wang, do you have any opinions?"

As she said this, she was looking down, organizing her notes. Despite not being twenty-five yet, she already had extensive management experience and knew how to guide employees to balance enthusiasm and independent thinking while staying aligned with her own goals.

But then, she heard Bai Haonan speak from the other end: "First of all, I recall that among the property certificates I saw yesterday, the one ending in 0879 seems to include the rooftop of a certain building, with an interior area of over 1,200 square meters. I hope we can build the fitness center in that location, and I will explain the reasons for this shortly..."

Yu Jiali’s head snapped up. She was even more surprised than when she first heard Bai Haonan say his name wasn't Wang Jianguo, and more incredulous than when she heard him openly insult her to her face!

The professional managers at the table were all shrewd individuals. Seeing the tall, handsome Director Wang, the obviously slimming Yu, and the way she looked at him, it would be impossible not to guess the "dog-blood" drama behind it. They were all social veterans, so they tried their best not to look at Director Wang, instead secretly observing General Manager Yu's reaction.

They were all likely a bit surprised; wasn't this a scene staged by the GM and her boyfriend?

Perhaps only Yu Jiali knew that Bai Haonan had only quickly flipped through those thirty-plus property certificates yesterday. His expression at the time had been one of mere curiosity.

Yet now, he was putting on an air of being logical and evidence-based, as if he had spent a great deal of time studying them!

And he could even remember the details of the property certificates so clearly!

Beyond immediately turning to tell her secretary to go get a copy of the property certificates to verify, Yu Jiali’s heart might have already started whispering: *If this is true... then I’ve really struck gold!*

*Even without going to bed, he's a treasure!*